First off, let me say hello to everyone here. I've been lurking for quite some time and have very much enjoyed following so many of your restoration threads.

Life and work are finally at a place where I decided to bite the bullet and go get my own 914 - and I'm afraid it's going to be quite the challenge.

Details on the car: 1973. Engine is a 2.5L subaru that's mated to the original 5 speed trans via some kind of kit/adapter plate. The engine runs - but barely. It's got quite a few OBD2 codes and it seems to me as though the spliced up wiring harness the PO created has a few issues.

Interior: Nothing installed in the car, but seems as though 70% of it is included in the boxes of parts that came with the car.

Chassis: Seems as though someone did a partial restoration on this one quite a few years ago. There are a few areas where signs of sheet metal repair can be seen. I basically can't tell what I'm getting into. Could be good - more likely it'll be a bunch of stuff that needs to be removed and then reworked.

Pics:







Hell hole area - you can see the old patching work


Interesting routing of coolant hoses. Plus, pretty sure that's exhaust pipe being used to route the coolant.

Getting into the car to see what kind of shape she's really in. Started on the front end one evening just because I figured it'd be low effort.


Pulled the trunk seals off and found the usual rust in the channels.




Pulled the headlight assemblies out - not great, but not horrible either.



Not pictured: removing the turn signals and side markers. No drama in those areas.


The next morning I started on what I expect to be the meat of the job.


Step one, remove the motor




Step two: Inspect.


Upper firewall is perforated in multiple places. It's been patched over with some kind of very hard rubber compound. I started grinding some of it off with a flapper wheel but stopped to go buy a respirator. The stuff is tough though and I'm not looking forward to getting it all cleaned up.




A closer look at the perforated upper firewall (passenger side)





Interestingly (to me at least) the lower firewall is all in good condition.


Old sheet metal patches spot welded into the hell hole as well as onto the passenger side motor mount





Suspension console. Missing the sheet metal ledge that previously ran around the edge of the engine bay, but otherwise looks okay.





Awkward angle shot of the drivers side hell hole area. Most of the discoloration you're seeing on the firewall in these pics is from an aerosol adhesive that the PO used to mount sound deadening material.





I'm going to go get these areas all cleaned up and will post a few more pics once I know just how bad it is.

Congrats on your acquisition. You'll be busy for awhile. I didn't see the ECU. Does it use a MicroSquirt or factory ECU.

Welcome!

She looks pretty solid, think you are off to a very good start there.

Factory ECU - for now at least.

There are vendors in the VE Subaru form that can sort out the wiring harness for you and make it very clean. Then some fixes on parts and you should be good!
It looks like you have a great project. Keep us posted!

I run the factory ECU too and have never regretted it. Keep the OBD port. It's nice to have when troubleshooting.

It took me a few days, but I got the car up onto the rotisserie (which I first had to build). I went the cheater route and built the entire thing out of HF engine stands. 4 stands (all purchased during their holiday sales) turned into two uprights and two bumper bars. Lots of cutting and welding, but it was easily accessible and now its done (you can see the engine hoist in the back there that I had to use very creatively to get the car up on stands by myself



With that done I set about further inspecting the rust. Starting in the hell hole I got to work on removing the old patches.

Good sized hole right at the hell hole spot



Some more creative patch work by the P.O. - some 3/16 steel spot welded into the engine mount.



Now I've seen plenty of you guys on here replace the suspension console - but I haven't seen too many engine mount replacements. More worryingly, I can't seem to find any for sale. Cross the bridge when I come to it I guess.

I pulled off that 3/16 steel and this is what was left behind it.



Definitely going to have to get that motor mount off in order to replace all the sheet metal behind it.

Next was onto the jack post area, and this is where my day got really truly crappy.

First off here's how it looked when I got the car (it actually was covered in rubberized underbody coating, but I gave it a quick hit with the sandblaster before I took pics) - looks like trouble, I know.






First I removed all of the *extra* steel



I don't have a good picture of it, but it then became obvious that the floor boards had a lot of patching as well. I got work peeling back these floor board patches so that I could get a real look at the longs. I found nothing but ugliness.

Here you can see the inner long where the heater tube comes through is completely rusted away.



You can also see that the outer long where the jackpost is attached and up into the wheel well is also pretty well disintegrated.



Here's a shot of the inner firewall. You can see another sheet metal patch that's been installed behind it. . Bottom inch or so all the way across is completely rusted away



So that's were things stand at the moment. Next up is getting started on remving the sill plate, outer rocker, etc... as well as ordering a whole bunch of new sheet metal.

Will post pics as things move along.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Its always impressive to me just how bad some people are at welding. When I did my car i was by no means a good welder but I could at least get the bead fairly center and not wonder off by a half inch. Looking at these pictures makes me feel better about myself.

car seems to be precariously lifted.

maybe you can stack some wheels with tires 4 high, at four corners under cabin for some added safety?

anyway, even though these cars are light when compared to other cars, danger still exists if it falls unexpectedly.

be a safe as you can.

Gives me the chills to look at that..

I agree with others to be safe!!!

Fun looking project, looking forward to more progress!