Floo no mo..

The lower rear firewall compartment was full of mouse crap and the floor under there was weak. I don't want to have to re-do any of these repairs, so time to cut..

I could have got away with a short rear floorpan piece. But just a few bucks more and piece of mind, I went with the full back half.

I will have to do some patching of the lower firewall, and as luck would have it I found a crack in the long on the drivers side. At least I am all practiced up from the passenger side.

Was the crack near the e-brake handle?

When I did the engman kit there was a crack by the ebrake handle I repaired that before I hot glued the kit in.

This crack is on the bottom of the long. Lemme go take a pic

Here.

The e-brake crack is common on early cars.

I didn't have any cracks on the interior of the long but since my floors were totally rotted, the rust had made leetle teeny holes at places at the junction of the long and floor. I made some inner/bottom reinforcement and fixed er up. It's better now to accept the new floor pieces.
Click to view attachment

The stress crack is not limited to early cars, I've seen it in probably 1/2 of all 914's

Oh, I love this piece you added in!

Thanks Travis - it goes all the way back to where the rear reinforcement kit takes over. With the new drivetrain, reinforced trailing arms and big fat tires, I figured a little extra strength is worth the weight I've added. Working on the other side now...

That particular spot never seems to get any extra beef when people do the inner kit and the engine bay reinforcements. In my opinion it becomes the new the weak spot.

Cut out the offending metal. The crack is a little rusty on the bottom, but flip it over and you can see the crack in the backer as well. I would guess this is from the engman kit I put in and the 250lb rear springs I have been running. But, who knows?

Go big or go home. Scored an unused 25mm SRP sway bar. I bought a maddog front swaybar reinforcing panel that I will put in too.

Those are nice.

Another goodie, vent and jet kit for my webers. The carbs I have now are setup for a 2.0t engine with 30mm vents. I went with a 32mm vent & jet kit from partsklassic.

Also, not pictured is rear swaybar mounts from Brad Mayuer.

I snatched up a MSD coil and plug wires from Forrest.

And I picked up a 914-6 rear bumper from Hill in Scottsdale. I got to see his -6 he is putting back on the road.

I'll try not to be a slacker and not post pics.

I also ordered a tunnel fuel line kit, suspension brace heim joints, -6 shift rod kit from Tangerine Racing.

Looking good. I want that rear bumper man. So shiny

It will have to be re-chromed. There is rust and the chrome is peeling away in the top left of the license panel recess. There are some bumps in it too that need straightening. That being said, it is in overall good restorable shape. That back isn't too bad either.

Well it looks good in the pics. I assumed you'd already had it done since it was in with your new parts. You suckered me

I've gotta admit, I never would have guessed that your car had 250# rear springs in it from the way it rode at Rt66.... it seemed very compliant and handled well. I'll be pushing more weight in the back end and ordered 225# springs the other day - now I'm rethinking my strategy.

Its pretty balanced with the 22mm torsion bars up front and 250lbs in the rear. Get it on some crappy roads and you'll be bouncing around pretty good. I intend to go down to 21 or maybe even 20mm torsion bars with my new big bar up front and try 175's in the rear with a rear swaybar.

Easy come, easy go. I sold the SRP bar to Hans and have the Welt bar in the classifieds. I didn't understand that the hollow 25mm bar is the same stiffness as my solid 22 bar.

I ordered a 32mm .095 bar from Tangerine Racing.

I was able to patch where I had the crack in the frame rail on the drivers side. I will add a reinforcement to this area on both the driver and passenger side.

forgot a pic.. When I weld this in it will tie right to the existing stiffening kit in the corner, along the seam of the inner side of the frame rail and wrap up to the heater duct. I will worry about the engine compartment side at a later time. Need to get this in so I can move on with the floor replacement.

I am also cutting about an inch up on the lower firewall and patching that area before the floors go in.

Not much to report on progress.

I have the floors partially done, the perimeter welds are in, still need to plug weld along the interior and do the butt weld from old floor to new.

Jamie Rust sent me a little gift, a 5 lug spare. I probably would have driven around without one until I learned my lesson the hard way, I appreciate the gift!

I also received new SS fuel lines and a tangerine shift linkage kit,. I picked up some Monoballs for the front struts that I found in the classifieds here.

Very cool. I need to get a 5 lug spare as well..

Engine shelf is in.

Funny mine is just like that. I feel its strange that part doesn't have the channel for the rubber that goes all the way to meet the front corner.

As you can see the in the pic above, the trunk pivot looks like a booger farm.

Lots of braze and some weld, looks like this was attempted to be repaired a couple of times. Good thing I took this out, it was cracked and smashed.

The wall behind the pivot has given way and I will need to patch. I am a bit worried about access and needing that patch to not fail in the future.

Hole cut. I smoked my dremel with the flexi wand and had to finish with a cutoff wheel.

Hinge patch piece is in and the hinge is as well.

Moving onto reinforcing the frame rail in the engine compartment. I wasn't sure about recreating the -4 mount divot, but went for it. Turned out decent enough that it wont go in the scrap pile. I will go around the bottom of the frame rail and make the remainder of the divot there, I think it will be easier to do. Then weld the 2 pieces together as one - then hot glue it into the car.

I am not going to commit to welding this in unless I can get the drivers side to turn out the same.

2nd one done

Driver side is complete. I was going to recreate the divot piece entirely, but I think I will leave it like this and stitch it on in. Bending a very small peice of 14g into a cup shape and have it fit, then trim to size sounds like a half day ordeal for my skillset.

Good call! I had to recreate those $%^#ing divots on both sides and it was no fun. I need the 4-banger mounts so no other option. Then I got to cut one of them open and do it again when it was time to reinstall the mount because I didn't get it quite right. The less you have to do with those divots, the better. Fantastic work. Enjoying watching the progress.

In place

Thanks Brent, I appreciate the kind words. This turned out better than I expected.

BTW, because that divot is a double walled dome, it is already hell for stout. I wailed on one with a small sledge trying to nudge it just a little to allow installing my mount. It didn't budge. Your reinforcement is tying right into the strongest part so trying to fill that in would have been a waste of time IMHO. Looks fantastic!

Looks very similar to what I did..

Yep, you started it..

You took better pictures.. I also used 14ga from memory.

Finished making the passenger side reinforcement. Got most of the driver's side welded in. I had a few challenges with weld contamination, otherwise it's ok. I will finish this up tomorrow and then onto the other side.

Hijacking my own thread. Did a distributor rebuild for the SC and new bronze shift coupler bushings. The car has been running hot and takes its time getting back to idle from cruise once warm, at 94k miles it was time.

I got a nice kit from PartsKlassic for the rebuild. I hope i didnt jack anything up

I got both reinforcements welded in, in the engine compartment.

I needed to find something to do for my lunch hour. I have the reinforcement plates for the front swaybar from Maddog. They are 16g, I used them as a template and made a pair out of my leftover 14g. Overkill? maybe. I want to run a smaller torsion bar and a big swaybar, and why the hell not. Plus I had to hog out the swaybar hole for the 31mm bar. i hope to get that this week! Excited about that.

I made my own stiffness out 14 ga for everything. I like the way you think.

Giddyup! I don't feel so foolish now

SC distr. rotate the wrong way wont go in your 2.4

end of hyjack

That's good, I put it back into the SC. Got lucky and fired up on the first try and runs much better at low rpms. I have a 123 distributor for the 2.7

I think those plates are overkill at 16ga.

hmmm

have you drilled your door handles yet...if not no worries on weight

I was gonna take out the handles completely and use a piece of rope with a knotted end.

I shitcanned the front reinforcements. The maddog ones and the ones I made needed some extra trimming to make it fit. I had previously welded in the backing plates and fixed the crack in the tub, from the old swaybar that didn't have the backing plates. We will see how it goes as is.

I also traded out my 22mm torsion bars with Yeahmag for his 21mm bars.

When I pulled the front struts away to open up the swaybar holes I found that one of my Koni's had bit the dust. I bought them 15 years ago and don't have a receipt for a warranty rebuild. I will have to find someone who can rebuild them for me, I hear that not many places rebuild the Koni's and the wait time is pretty long.

I got a surprise from Tangerine Racing this morning.