I may attempt to straighten out my tweeked tub this winter, and am looking for advice, feedback, comments, support.

Here is some backround:

When I was back in college and still driving my silver 914 nearly daily, I repainted my car (12 years ago). During the repaint, I did some rust reapir on the longs as they had rust around the jack posts. At the same time, I installed the GT stiffening kit as the car was suffering some sag on the passenger side, while the driver side seemed ok.

While I was doing the rust repair and welding in the stiffening kit on the passenger side, I did not have any bracing installed to hold the door gap constant. Alas, my passenger side door gap grew. At that point, I couldn't get the gap to close up. The door opened and closed fine, but the door gap was large. At the time, I decided to leave it as it was.

(The gap at the top rear edge of the passenger side door is right at 8mm and I think it should be closer to 4 or 5 mm)

For the last 12 years, I have been kicking myself for not fixing the problem when I noticed it (but at the time I didn't think of a way to do it without cutting all my reinforcements off and starting over.

The car has been very solid feeling ever since I made my repairs and the door gaps are constant while sitting on it's wheels or up on the lift. (the passenger side gap is too large)

After reading and looking at how other people first brace the car and then perform the stiffening, has made me wonder if I can't fix mine.

My plan is to make up a brace to bolt between the door hinge bolt location and the seat belt sholder strap bolt (on the roll bar). My brace will be a turnbuckle arrangement so that I can adjust this length and hold it when I get it right. I plan to then make a cut in the passenger side long right at the point where I want the tub to move (I don't need it to move much).

After I get the car to move, I'll weld it back together and probably add some more reinforcement at that location.

I know I should post a pic or two, which I'll probably do in the future.

Thanks for your comments (good or bad).

QUOTE (JOHNMAN @ Jun 5 2005, 09:49 PM)

Thanks for your comments (good or bad).

if you got the money and time, find a body shop (preferably with 914 experience) that has a Celette Bench and has access to the factory 914 fixtures for that bench.

unbolt the complete front and rear suspension and take the engine and tranny out (the more pickup points for the bench, the better), then put the rest of the car on the bench and have them pull it back to factory specs ...

that would be the ideal way to go!

in fact, i plan on doing just that with my car at scott yeaman's shop this winter ...
Andy

Don't fell bad about your mistake, it's very common in the mid-west.I have fixed 4 914 in the last year that this has been done to. Your 914 can be fixed the way your talking about but it's not easy. First thing to do is get the body spec measurments, Dave Darling has them posted some where on the club site I think. When you build your jig build one for each door and connect each door with cross bracing that makes an X inside the car. When doing this repair the main thing to look out for is twisting the tub and watch your rear trunk lid lines also. I have a jig but it's on loan to the guys in New Orleans. I will be getting it back in Aug and you can borrow it if you can wait that long. I'm only a few hours south of you so feel free to drop me a line

Yeah, I don't feel too bad. Well, if the board would have existed 12 years ago, I would have known better than to reinforce without bracing first, but live and learn.

The real pain in the ass is that the car is and has been so solid for the last 12 years.

I have the dimensions that I am shooting for and a plan on how to re-bend the car back, so I don't think it will be as bad as I once thought. It's one of those things that others could learn from the mistake that I made and have been living with ever since.

The car aligns well (on the alignment machine) and the corner weights are good, so the suspension pick-up points are not that far off, but the pass side door gap really bothers me.

This all started when I was fitting my new rockers to the car and the one on the passenger side doesn't quite fit right. The rocker panel is straight , but the lower fenderline (at the bottom of the door and front and back fender) is tweaked right at the back lower edge of the door. The car simply spread at that point.

I'll get it back where it should be.

Perhaps I'll post a pic tonight...

914gem,

QUOTE

I will be getting it back in Aug and you can borrow it if you can wait that long. I'm only a few hours south of you so feel free to drop me a line

Aug would be plenty soon enough for me, as I won't start this until winter anyway (I've been using the car like this for 12 years, so what's a few months?) That would be great if I don't have to re-invent the jigs by using known good ones. The door gap thing is really only noticable if you look for it (914 folks seem to look for it). I just want the body straight when I mount the flares this winter, and I know it is slightly out right now.

QUOTE

unbolt the complete front and rear suspension and take the engine and tranny out (the more pickup points for the bench, the better), then put the rest of the car on the bench and have them pull it back to factory specs

Could this be done w/just a stripped tub?

After much time and much effort (and several failed ideas), my tub is now straighter and my door gaps are as even as any that I have seen.

I didn't wait. I went ahead this weekend and straightened out my tweaked tub. It was a lot more difficult than I had anticipated. I did find out some interesting things along the way...

I ended up cutting the longs much more than I had originally expected, and I found that (as many of you may already know) the door hinge pillar is very weak and should not be used to "pull" or "push" a car into alignment. I suppose that the hinge pillar could be used to PREVENT a tub from moving, or to adjust a very weak chassis, but the thin sheet metal that comprises the hinge pillar is quite easy to move.

I ended up using my lift, a couple jacks and a well placed ratchet tie down to pull my car back into alignment. I worked to get the car to "overbend" and then allow the car to "relax" by taking the pressure off of it. I wanted to get the car to be straight in the "relaxed" state. After several stretch-relax excercises, my tub finally submitted and relaxed back to where it was in alignment with no external forces acting on it. I then rewelded my cuts and waited for the welds to cool making sure my tub dimensions stayed where I wanted them to remain.

Looking back, I should have documented what I did, but during the bending process, I was in no mood to share my suffering (and failed ideas) with the world. Quite a bit of filt and foul language filled my garage way into the wee hours of the morning Friday and Saturday night.

I took a break from it last night and finished my bending process tonight. All I have left to do is to close up my access hole in my long, touch up the paint where the cutting and welding burned it off, reinstall my passenger side interior, and finally install my newly fabricated steel rocker panel (which is what started this whole non-scheduled project).

I'll have to post some pics of my new door gap and my new rocker panel(s).

Ok,

I found an old pic of my larger door gap. Tomarrow, I'll take a pic of my new smaller door gap to compare and contrast.

BEFORE:

Another option would have been to apply heat (i.e., welding) to the top side of the longitudinal. That will cause the top of the long to shrink slightly, similar to what happened to the bottom when you welded in the reinforcements.

I recall that JP did a similar thing to his car (but upside-down?) due to some warpage that happened when he welded in the roll cage.

--DD

Can you show us how you did this? I have to do this, my tub is a little twisted and door gap is tight, rather than large. Also, tell us more about the cuts that you have done.

Here is the AFTER pic.

I'm very pleased with how it finally turned out. It was a bitch as it didn't want to go back. It did submit to my use of force eventually......



I'm sorry Travis, but I didn't take pics out of frustration. I tried so many ways to bend the car that I had to take a day off just to gather my wits.

I can tell you how I did it (in the end), but I can't show you. Sorry......

I cut most of the longitudinal member in half (right in the center of the lower firewall) where the 914's are the weakest due to a heater tube that enters the long there. I used a modified jack to support the rear crossmember (transmission mount). I had the front donut supported on my lift. I used the rear arm of the lift to bend the car DOWN in the middle (this opened up the gap in the longitudional member that I had cut).

I used a ratchet tie-down anchored to the seat belt shoulder bolt (on the roll bar) and the other end tied to the rear arm of my lift (that was not supporting the car).

I would bend the car past where I wanted and allowed the car to "relax". I did this procedure 5 or 6 times before the car would "relax" back to the proper dimensions. Once the car was straight, I put some slight pressure on the ratchet tie-down and welded up the cut that I had made in the longitudional. I frequently checked the car during welding to make sure everything still lined up.

I am now a happy camper again, and the car is ready for me to install my steel flares this winter.....

Thanks, that illustrates your procedure very well!