What is the goal?

From what I see you have had .0004 and .0003 wear on the bearing surfaces. What are your crank journals.

General rule of thumb is your looking for crank bearing clearance of 0.0020 - 0.0025.

I know you most likely know this, and or have access to the people who do know being part of th automotive industry. But with out the magical numbers and what these are once in the saddle and cap. We are just guessing with the clues given. Unless it was detailed a while ago and I did not read it.

With all the crimes committed with undercoating, maybe it should be locked up and sold only to those with good intentions (and skills).

@914forme

Agree with Goal of 0.0025 - 0.0003". The issue I had was that Line bore is at the high end of spec and the crank is about 0.0005" above wear limit and main bearing clearance was coming in at about 0.004" +/- a few tenhs, measued with bore gage and seemed to have a lack of complete crush on 0.003" Platigauge.

I'll probably do another trial assembly with crank nose bearing in place to double check all this. But it's looking more like crank is going to have to go undersize to get to 0.0025". Of course that also means undersize main bearings. This is why I was trying to figure out if there was something to be gained with the super expensive OEM bearings from Porsche.

Will likely do a triple check with the next size up of Plastigauge too that cover 0.004" and larger.

Got it, best of luck

Well the time has come to do the part I've been dreading for a while. Time to fix the pedal box area.

Part of the dread was over stripping of the seam sealer from the area under the gas tank. My Wurth flail wheel won't fit in there. Turns out it wasn't so hard to do with a drill and really stiff wire wheel. Access sucks but it was doable.

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Next up was the need to create a tuna can flap to gain access to the area. The weld seam will go right below the area where the flap is normally spot welded down. This will give me a nice area to weld to with double metal thickness.

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And as viewed inside the cabin.

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Currently prepping the new sheet metal with POR15 Metal Prep as I add this build entry.

I've tried both Ospho and POR15 Metal Prep and I'm leaning toward the Metal Prep as my preferred product. Just seems to work better for me and leaves a thin layer of zinc that holds off the surface rust until I can get primer on it.

Well I knew this was going to be a PITA and it's turning out to be that way.

Initially I was hoping to use the donor sheet metal as-is without having to remove the suspension point that anchors the steering crossmember at the front firewall area.

There was simply too much car to car variation to make it work. I had initially marked the cross car postion of the pedal sled & master cylinder mount as reference.

There was no way to get that dimension to where it started and to simultaneously have the downward turned flange of the wheelhouse in the right place.

So off with the old pick up point. I have a new one from RD anyway just in case. I guess that was a good call.

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The positive side is that I can now sandblast the corrosion that was trapped internally.

Next problem was to make sure the floorpan character lines lined up between left side and the right side AND to have the pedal sled fit.

More mockup.

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Well, when all is said and done, with everything where it belongs, I have about a 6-7mm gap between the panels.

Not insurmountable but it goes to show how much variability there can be beween donor sheetmetal and the vehicle it's going into. I would have expected a 3mm gap simply from the kerf when I split the panel over a year ago. The other 3mm is basically car to car variation.

It will all work out after I trim a thin gap filler and I'll be sure to use a copper backer to prevent welding problems. . . . I hope.

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Weeknight project was to get three tachometers bench tested to verify functionality.

Quick overview of setup details in the video. Currently working to setup as a little Arduino program that can do this without all the test equipment. This was done manually with a frequency generator controlling the frequency of the pulses to make sure the setup with a MOSFET driver was going to work to drive the coil.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EO3XCJQ9tW4

That's awesome! If you get the Arduino setup working, I may have to copy it. Nice work on that pedal box too.

I haven't been keeping up on this thread enough, wow! It's come a long way, keep at it!

Nice work on the pedal box area. That's one I did not have to repair on mine, and glad to skip it.

PM sent.

Arduino now functional to run the tach up and down by about 1000 RPM increments to avoid sudden changes that tend to bounce the needle off the pins.

If anyone wants a copy of the Arduino code, PM me, it's yours for the asking. Not elegant (I'm not a software guy) but functional.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phWebSTri-w



Equipment needed:
12v power supply or battery
Sparkfun.com MOSFET shield
Arduino Uno
12v coil (can also use a inductor of about 2-9mH and a ballast resistor)
Associated jumper/test wires with alligator clips

"Where the heck did the year go?"

The older you are it seems the faster the years go by.
So drive that 914 when you can

@brcacti

There, I updated the header for you. It has gotten out of date Purchased in April of 2018 or something close to that. I did lose the better part of spring & summer 2019 to a skin graft surgery but that's just a lame excuse for not having gotten more done.

I can't wait to drive it but I'm not even close yet. I hope to have all structural sheet metal and floorpans resolved by Jan/Feb.

Then the real fun begins. Need to put engine together, check out a transmission, and refresh a bunch of suspension stuff.

I'll be lucky to have it off the build cart by the 3 year anniversary. What was I thinking trying to save such a dog

It was the right thing to do!

@914_7T3



Appreciate the words of encouragement.

My grandfather once told me that doing the right thing was rarely simple or the easiest path. Wisdom.

Still buying a CA car as the starting point next time.

Hello, you seem very handy with working on cars. I am NOT a mechanic but just do lots of very small things to keep it up, My last 914 was also in the 80 for two years had it I think 1982 to 84, was a fun car signal orange in great shape but then it was only about 9 years old when I bought it and 11 years old when I sold it. Should gave kept it but we all make so many mistake especially ME, hehehe. I seem to have bought a survivor in mid 2019 and just go lucky I guess, seems to be in great shape but have not looked at th longs that you mention. I have looked at the hell hole, under both trunks carpet and almost no signs of rust. I am guessing it was always garage kept, I think if they are not they are doomed. I also have a medical problem just doagnosed within a couple of weeks insulin resistant. Not quite pre diabetes or diabetes. Now I have to avoid ALL carbs just eat protein (meats) and fats/protein (nuts) and vegetables in mass. I understand completely when you get any king of medical problem you slow or stop everything

Well, Labor Day weekend is here. I had big plans to get a big chunk of sheetmetal work done. Unfortunately life doesn't work that way.

My beloved Lincoln Precision TIG 225 has taken a dump.

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Worse yet, depite my previous love for Lincoln Electric, I fear I'm on the verge of a bad break up.

Lincoln Customer Service / Tech Support has proven themselves to be absolutely useless over the course of this past week.

My welder is now ramping up to about 80A-100A immediately after starting the arc. Of course this blows major holes in sheetmetal. It does the same thing regarless of what Amptrol is attached to it. It appears that it is a control board issue. The replacement board is about $900. Keep in mind that is 1/3 the cost of a new machine. Several calls to local welder repair shops seem to indicate that they belive it is a board issue but of course they can't confirm that without me schlepping a ~ 400lb machine to and from thier shop. I no longer have a utility trailer so any schelpping would involve a U-haul rental and even more wasted time.

For it's part, Lincoln Electric hides the detailed board schematics and any technical block diagrams of the board theory of operation behind their website which is only accessible if your a Lincoln Dealer or Authorized Repair Shop.

To make matters worse, the board is heavily potted on once side with the usual rubbery potting coupound. The other side has what appears to be an epoxy dip coating. This basically renders the board unserviceable according to a couple of the shops that I found that repair other boards for Miller, Hobart, ESAB, etc. I sort of get this from a reliability standpoint, these coatings shield the board from metallic dust and debris that could otherwise wreak havok. But come on. No once will touch the damn thing! One repair shop said they would try for $100/hr diagnostics & repair time and materials but no gurantee.

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So I've ordered a replacement board but ouf course it isn't here yet. In fact they haven't even charged my card yet which makes me wonder if the company I ordered it from is having trouble getting it from Lincoln Electric.

Moral of the story, my next welder will be blue instead of red.

I guess I'll switch gears and do some work on engine cases, bearing fits, etc.

Oh man don't go blue.. The same issues.. Lincoln does pretty good job on their machines.. We had 12 millers at school recently come in new in the box and all 12 boards were shot before even able to use the machines once.. Let me know if you need any help with Lincoln.. I am a national trainer for them and NC3 so I have some really great contacts there

@mb911

Thanks for the offer for help Ben. I may take you up on that. I'm going to check some of the big wirewound resistors this weekend that contribute to the the Micro Start circuit and/or Stabilizer Bypass and then just wait for a board hoping that does the trick. Unfortunately at Lincoln I can't even seem to get in touch with a person that actually knows the TIG 225 with any level of detail other than what I can read for myself out of the owners manual. One customer service rep said he would have a Precision TIG 225 expert call me. No call. Of course for my own stupidity, I din't ask for a name and a direct phone # to said expert. Next week.!

I can't see the point in pitching the rest of the hardware over a bad board. In my mind the transformer based machines may be heavier than crap but the transformers rarely fail. A modern inverter sure looks appaling from a weight / transport standpoint.

I appreciate the insight on Miller before I do something rash!

So many of our Industrial Giants have simply gone to a throw away mentality, it really makes me sad. To say the least, am I really supposed to scrap the whole rest of the chassis and transformers just beause a Printed Circuit board failed.

Send me an email and I will send you Dan's info

Oh no! That truly sucks. I'm feeling better about my ancient little Hobart. I don't think there is a single PCB to be found in it - not even a little switch circuit. Of course, they are owned by Miller now but not when it was built. I sometimes drool over the thought advancing to a nice modern Miller or Lincoln but maybe I'm better off.

The power woodworking tool industry is even worse for racing to the bottom. Most of the old major brands have been bought out at least once by conglomerates and chopped up into pieces. Even Delta bit the dust. Finding parts for tools more than a few years old is nearly impossible. One reason I gravitate to Makita is because I can still easily find parts for 30 year old tools. It's weird because in some ways power tools have never been better and more affordable, but there is no commitment to the customer any more. Like you said, throw away culture.

Good luck getting the welder repaired. Sorry it happened at the beginning of a long weekend.

Funny thing is miller is owned by ITW and Lincoln is still family run which is amazing to me

OK - Time to put the Porsche OEM bearing vs Glyco aftermarket thing to bed.

The OEM Porsche bearings did reduce clearance by 0.001" vs. the aftermarket Glyco.

Recall I had a OEM bearing #1 and a pair of shells for bearing #2 -7. I put the OEM 1/2 shell bearings in postions #1 & #7 and then rechecked with Red Plastigauge for 0.002" - 0.006" this time given that I had some Green (.001" - 0.003") that didn't seem to compress fully when I did this the last time around.

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Results - Bearing #1 and #7 running at 0.003".

Number 7 Porsche OEM

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Number 1 Thrust Bearing Porsche OEM

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Number 2 thru 6

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The good news is that all the rod clearances are looking good. Tightest was 0.001" and the other five were 0.0015" - 0.002" trending the tighter end at 0.0017" - 0.0018" or something like that (would need to measure with the bore gauge to know exactly).

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I now feel really confident that both the digital bore indicator method and the Plastigauge are in agreement that the Glyco bearings were giving me right around 0.004" of clearance (too much).

Bottom line, crank is going to have to go to Ollies to have the mains ground 0.010" under and to see if they can just put a light (0.0001" - 0.0002") polish put on the rod journals.

Progress is good!

Praise the Lord! Welder is fixed.

Many thanks to Ben for his advice and also for hooking me up with a knowledgable contact within Lincoln.

I wish I could say it was something simple but that didn't happen.

After having thouroughly checked out the basics like wiring and checking a couple of the big wire wound resistors, capacitors, adjusting the high frequency start point gap, and bunch of other stuff the only thing really left was the board.

Conversation with Ben's Lincoln contact convinced me that it was time to open the box with the high dollar circuit board that becomes unreturnable once opened.

Turns out that was the fix.

Laid down several good beads on .039" sheetmetal without blowing the HUGE holes that had previously occurred when the welder would surge the current uncontrollably at the start or end of a bead.

The unfortunate thing is no one can explain why the board went bad. As a former electronics tech, I've seen it happen before. Failure without explanation. Sometimes it just happens to circuits with fancy silicon in them. It sure aggravates me when I can't find a root cause though! New board is a revised Revision level so Lincoln certainly changed something on the board but no way to know what it was. Could be a transistor they can no longer get . . . or it could be that they changed a transistor that was operating too close to it's limits and had a penchant for failing. No way to know.

I'll keep my fingers crossed this board lasts at least 10 years like the 1st.

Back to on the car tomorrow.

I am glad that Dan could help.. He bleeds lincoln so he is the guy to ask.

Quick post. Been super busy and not much time to spend welding. Hoping for better this weekend.

Spent some time filling the holes that got blown when welder 1st stareted acting up. Still have a couple more that need attention.

Cut a 4mm thick strip to fill the gap between the two panels and then got it pasted in position using a 0.040" tungsten and .035" MIG wire as filler rod. All done at very low current to hold it together temporarily with temporary tack welds largely just sitting on top.

Will use a copper backer this weekend and get the whole thing sewn together without blowing out the 4mm filler.

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The whole area that sits below the brake reservoir then needs to be Ospho treated to address that surface rust before I put the flap back in place.

Closing in on the worst of the pedal box area. It is just such a pain in the butt to work on this area without a rotiserrie. The wiring harness is tie wrapped up to the steering column mount and it is constantly touching or snagging my welding helmet.

Got the area with the 4 mm filler burned in.

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Used a copper backer that was held into place to help ensure good penetraiton and complete fusion of the 4 mm filler without burn through.

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Totally happy with the penetration. Strong as the base metal.

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Then finished things off by filling the holes blown by the bad welder and making sure I had good weld penetration across the top.

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Dabbed some Ospho onto all surfaces. We had a bunch of humidity here that put a light surface rust on the panel. That will get the surface rust up under the tank area under control too.

Did a quick check of the suspension point vs. my reference point on the floor and movement of was only about 1 mm which is awesome.

Next up. Put the tuna can flap back and then attack the section of the wheel house that had to be removed.

Well rather than put the tuna can flap back, I decided to get started on the work.

There were still remnants of fiberglass and epoxy resin that needed removing. Let me say that there is a special place in hell for those that use fiberglass to "repair" sheetmetal rather than man up and do it properly.

In the process of getting the last of the resin off the driver longitudinal, I found this nice stress crack. Not unheard of to have stress cracking here, but, I'll contend that someone drove this car around for quite a while with the passenger long completely roached and not able to bear it's fair share of the structural burden.

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Since weekends have a way of disappearing too fast, I didn't get far with the wheel house but I was able to begin to trim away the donor sheetmetal.

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Rough mockup

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Maybe with a little luck this week I can get the final fitup done and get this tacked in before the weekend.

Finished up the peal box area. What a PITA.

Front firewall / bulkhead sheetmetal is only about 0.030" which would be hard enough to weld but add a little surface rust on the backside and difficult access and it's a recipie for just blowing holes.

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Copper backers cleco'd in place made it doable but I'm just glad to be done with this area. Final step is to use a shrinking wheel to suck out a little bit of the oil cannning that got created when the tuna can flap was bent up and out of the way. Bending the sheetmetal stretches it ever so slightly and shrinking it is the only way to get it back.

2 years seems more like twenty minutes any more.

Ambitious project, but you're getting right to it.

This is another thread I'm going to have to take the time to read all the way through.

November wasn't terribly productive since I was traveling for a couple weeks.

Manged to get the area under the gas tank cleaned up, seam sealed and laid down a light coat of primer to keet it all from surface rusting.

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and did same for interior side.

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Then turned my attention toward the fun work of overhead welding in the driver side longitudinal patch to fill in the area that I cut out because it was rusted and it also allowed access to get the sand out of the driver side long.

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Brazed the parking brake cable tubes to the rear bulkhead.

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A good chunk of time has been spent playing with other miscellaneous parts. Lots of ultrasonic cleaning of fasteners and engine parts in anticipation of a rebuild this spring.

And of course a simple job like just wanting to swap the rear caliper adjusting screws over from my old calipers to the new PMB calipers was 50/50. One was super easy. the other of course was stuck and pre-stripped. Not a hard project but easily a hour detour trying to get the 4mm hex cap off. Finally resorted to the old welding tricks.

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Bugger

Here's to hoping for a more productive December.

Phil, just read this entire thread and was amazed by the passion and skill!

Can’t wait to see this one on the road!

Nice work! That peddle area is not a fun place to work so I'm sure that feels good to have it done, and done well. I can sure relate to the hours spent trying to get a stubborn nut or bolt loose Looking forward to the December progress.

Driver side long is finally all prepped.

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Rust repaired at the front edge with a patch, pinhole performations that got started under the fiber glass matt are filled. Who would think rust would start from inside the car!

Stress crack at the hand brake divot was welded up. The entire long was treated with Ospho twice - wire wheeling out any neutralized rust twice. Finally prepped for a coat of epoxy primer to keep it from flash rusting in the future.

Left an unpainted track where the new floor pan welds in.

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At this point, I'll start prepping the floor pan for welding tomorrow. Excited to be getting close to the milestone of having floor pans installed.

The other exciting project for the day was inspecting and trial fitting a freshly ground crank from Ollies to see if the bearing clearance issues is fixed.

Remember from the last installment of the crank saga that I had bearing clearances that were at 0.004"+ and the OEM bearings didn't quite get it there.

Crank went to Ollies to take the mains and rods to 0.010" under and for the rest of the complete spa treatment (Magnaflux, heat treat, balancing, micropolish, etc.).

Initially checked it for straightness as a double check post heat treat.

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Then checked all journals on a go/no-go basis using gauge blocks to set up my micrometer. Then measured mains to get an idea of where they are at. Mostly running at 2.2334" vs spec of 2.2331" - 2.2338". Sweet.

Then used plastigauge to check clearances. OEM 0.010" undersize bearings are used across all bearings.

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Bearing #7 is now at 0.002" and Bearing #1 is between 0.0015"-0.002". Huge improvment.

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With good uniformity across all the rest of the bearings with absolutely no more than 0.003" clearance anywhere. Spec is 0.0011" - 0.0028". Success

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Unfortunately Ollies was unable to directly source the OEM rod bearings to me. Still waiting on those before I can plastigauge the rods.

Nice work straightening out those crank clearances. Good to have that behind you.

Excited to see that floor pan go in. I think that was the most momentous milestone for me in my entire build. It was the moment when a rusted out heap of scrap became a solid chassis in my mind.

Rod bearings arrived just in time for the weekend.

Ollies Recommended Clevite 77 bearings which I purchased directly from thier supplier. Clevite is a subdivision of Mahle. These bearings have a Calico CT-1 dry film coating that is about 0.0003" thick. They are promoted as a race bearing which usually I wouldn't be game for but my thought was that they are still a Clevite 77 tri-metal bearing underneath. Worst thing should be that the dry film wears away, opens up clearance by 0.0003" and I'm no worse off. Asuming that I have good clearances to start with. As an added bonus they are substantially cheaper than Porsche OEM Rod bearings. Quick check of the bird forum shows quite a few successful users of Clevite bearings in 911 engines as a double check to Ollies recommendation.

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Spent pretty much a decent 8 hour day just trial fitting rod bearings and doing a mock assembly on the mains bearings. Last time I did the mains, I was only checking clearances and forgot to reassemble the crank and just give it a spin. At this point I'm getting sort of tired of removing, installing, and torquing the 11 case though bolts 13 acorn fasteners and the worst one that is hidden inside the cam chain area!

So the rod bearings worked out great.

All rods came up at 0.002" clearance with spec being 0.0011" - 0.0034". Perfect!

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Then I moved on to mock up the whole crank into the case to make sure there are no assembly issues that would lead to binding or tight spots.

Thankfully no issues but watching Ian's video a few weeks back of the Bumblebee motor binding after a line bore sure had me a bit apreshensive. Thankfully - no issues. Crank rotated perfectly with only light hand force.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1rovlniCLo


At this point I'm so relieved to have the bottom end fully sorted.

1 tip I will give you is to buy the RSR rocker shaft seals.. I am now doing that in my engine over the winter.. Remember zero miles on my engine.

@mb911

Only 1 tip for free? Will definately do the RSR seals as belt and supenders approach!

Rocker shafts. So much yet to be done. I haven't even cleaned & inspected my rocker shafts yet. I rember thinking that I probably was going to have to replace a few of the fasteners and/or the conical jambs. I guess we will see how they clean up and/or how pitted they are from corrosion.

Still on purchse list:
P&C's -- contemplating Nickies for weight save and way to push up C.R. a bit.
Cams -- engine was CIS so I need E spec cams.
New Oil Cooler -- Ollies was unable to clean the OEM part that came off this engine.
Contemplating a new 4 rib pump -- just in case I need to go external cooler later (remember that C.R. bump?) but I'm really not wanting to mount an external cooler.
Induction & EFI.

Let's face it, this engine won't be installed & running for a long time! Plan is to put 2.0L four in 1st while I sort out the nuances of the 2.4L six build and conversion.

I would not do nickies unless you are set on track.. I have cast iron with nikisal lining done by melenium and that sure saves a bunch of money. As far as rockers and shafts contact Craig Garrett he is in MI and has done, heads, rockers etc for me for the last 15 years. Then for oil pump just have your pump modified for improved flow. I believe that is about $250 from Supertec to have that done..

Not intended for track but I'm all about keeping the weight of the /6 conversion down for for improved handling and the weight/HP ratio low so I can at least keep up with a 2020 Toyota Camry (0-60 ~5.8 sec) .

Plus, how can you resist jewelry like this?

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These are 100mm and slated to go toward GA004310. GA000099 stays 2.0L stock.

In addition to the 2.4L engine work I was also able to get the driver side floor pan trimmed and tacked into position.

Prior to welding in the floor pan, I wanted to get another round of body measurements to make sure things hadn't moved around too much with the pedal box area repair.

Things are pretty much the same as the last two measurements. Minor improvement in the cross car diagonal that came about from relocating the rear most driver side attachement point as part of the pedal box repair.

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Here is the driver side floor, not yet fully installed. Since I chose not to go the rotisserie route, I'm having to do all welding overhead. Although not overly difficult, it does lead to a sore neck and shoulders after a while.

I think I counted something like 65-70 hole punches when I was prepping the panel. I probably only got about 15 of them puddle welded this weekend.

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Next order of business is to rebuild the tunnel tubes. I belive the tunnel will need to be installed prior to the other 1/2 of the floorpan in order to be able to manipulate the tubes through the rear bulkhead exit holes.

I'm on vacation for the holiday starting this week so I hope to make some decent progress among time spent with friends and family. Plus I need to tear down a old tail shift trans for another member to have the case. Lots to do!

would you be interested in a complete scabbed tunnel, all lines intact?

@914werke

Thanks for the offer. Long ago I purchased a scabbed tunnel (lines cut) and it is pretty much all prepped to go in except for fabrication of the new tubes. I also already purchased the metric sized tube from RD so I'd be out all that coin and effort to change plans. Plus I intend to create a better attachement for the clutch tube to prevent ever having that break free in my lifetime.

Thanks for reading the post and reaching out to try to speed things up.

More than a few of your parts going into this build! Recently received the throttle cable bracket that bolts to the case. Awesome work on those. Same for the bronze shift bushing. I'm looking forward to that helping get some of the slop out of the usual linkage play.

So will this be running this summer?

@mb911

Late summer or early fall with GA000099 2.0L engine is the goal.

My intent is to finish the floor structure (tunnel & cross braces) and then sort of slam it together just good enough to drive it some in the fall when the temps are enjoyable.

That might require just tacking some flat sheetmetal over the A/C condensor holes in the front trunk as short term solution.

Then when winter sets in, put it back up on the cart and finish the Frunk up along with some other minor non-structural repairs (like pinholes in rear bulkhead from rusting behind engine sound deadner. Could begin to think about the /6 conversion stuff at that point.

Really need to drive this little bastard. If you leave them on jack stands too long they get used to it and never come off them in pursuit of magical perfection

It's easy to lose sight of how many details and how much time it will take to put it back together from a tub. Last time I did it in 6 weeks including a quick paint job.

USAF in the late 80's decided I had 12 weeks to either reenlist or get out due to Gramm-Rudman Act reductions in armed forces. I wasn't supposed to separate for another 9 months. I said Fuch that. It was a good lesson in how Gov't lies, and cheats folks. If you want out early, too bad! That will come with a dishonorable discharge. If they want you out early for budget reasons . . . well no issues there. . . . off you go, no matter what your life plans were. Strangely, 30+ years later the Gov't is still Fuching people! Go figure.

It was a show becuase I had just torn my 914 down for paint to a bare tub minus all glass! Got er' done. But, I was in my 20's and I didn't get much sleep for 6 weeks!

Wow, quite the build you have there. Good plan to bang it together and get some seat time this coming summer. Another confirmed crazy man. Keep up the good work and hold the line, you will be crossing the finish line before you know. Don't you just love Plastigage? so long as the clearances check out, the crank is reasonably straight and the crank spins by hand when the case is clamped, all is good.

What started out as a simple plan to build out the tunnel has come with some complications.

Started out easily enough by adding a doubler to the braket that support the clutch tube.

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Fabrication of the clutch and throttle cable tubes was easy enough.

The problem arises trying to install the tunnel with the driver side floorpan in place. Although I was able to do it, I don't see how I can do it with the heater cable tubes installed into the tunnel.

The clutch and throttle cable tubes are as long as they can be while still allowing me to get the tunnel installed.

Here are the max length tubes

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But from this other picture you get an idea of how long the tubes for the heater cables need to be. Oh so close, but, probably a smidge short.

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This left me in a bind. The driver side floor pan is tacked in about 12 places and will need to be removed. The heater cable tubes need to be installed with the Tunnel already installed. Since I'm not sure of the original VW build sequence, I can only assume that the tunnel (with tubes was installed) was installed before other parts like the rear bulkhead and/or the floorpan. Bummer.

So before I remove the floorpan to re-attack the tunnel heater cable tube problem, I figured I'd finish mocking up more of the floorpan to make install easier later on. Installed shifter to make sure tunnel is centered and that there is no binding of the shift rod as installed, etc.

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Tomorrow -- finish by mocking up the cross members and flanging them to the longs.
Then I may try one more attempt to come up with a way to install the tunnel with the heater cable tubes in place by ovaling out the exit holes for a bit more clearance. Extra clearance can be brazed up as long as it's not too large. If that fails, the driver side floorpan has to come out. Then I will need to do the heater cable tube install from underneath

Looks like you've had your own trials to handle this weekend. How fantastic would it be to have an assembly sequence manual! Can't count the number of times I've had to assembly things twice, or even thrice because I didn't really this thingy-mi-bob needed to go in first. What ever you end up doing, I know it will be done right. Looking good!