Update on the trailing arm mount madness:

Laser plumb bob only confirmed the trammel measurements and that although X/Y position is reasonable, Z is off.

My solution was to notch the wheelhouse frame rail section. The radius of the stamping doesn't match my OEM part exactly and is pushing the mount low in Z.

By notching the rail I was able to tighten up the radius to match my trailing arm mount and move it up to proper Z location while maintaining X and Y dimensions.

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Once the part was correctly positioned I used a body hammer and dolly to return the flange to mate with the part and then welded the flange back where it belongs. In the photos below, I still need to add a doubler reinforcement on the inside to replace the material I removed.

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put the panel back into the vehicle and reconfirmed my measurements. All in all I'm pretty happy. When everything is metal finished and painted, the modification won't be evident and will be as structurally sound as the unmodified panel.

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I'm still off on the diagonal by a 3mm (~ 1/8") but that can be adjusted when I instill the inner section of the frame that resides in the engine bay.

Looking forward to moving on!! I know fitting the inner frame rail is going to be time consuming based on the rough fit work I had to do already.

Once that is done, I hope to make more rapid progress. February is here and it takes forever to heat up the garage in order to accomplish any work!

Still have lots to do!

Back to work. Last couple of weekends have been limited work due to other priorities and some ridiculously cold weather.

Back to mocking up pieces to tweak fits. First order of business was to get the inner frame mated to the outer wheel house and to the fit up the connection at the rear trunk.

In my case I found that the outer house sheet metal which as a doubler welded to it was causing the inner to sit too high. I did some creative reforming with a hammer and dolly and got it down to the point where the angle of the two frame rails is within 1 degree of each other.

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I then started to mock up the inner longitudinal. This one is a bit surprising that the sheetmetal overlap between the inner frame rail in the engine compartment only overlaps the inner longitudinal by about 1/4". That just isn't going to do. That joint will be too weak and it's right at a highly stressed location.

I'm considering welding in a good 6" of overlap and then installing the whole inner longitudinal + the engine compartment inner all as 1 big piece.

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Overall, I'm pretty happy to see something roughly resembling a "frame" back under the car even if it's only a mock up. It will likely be a while before I can weld. I have quite a bit of pin hole rust up in the front wheel wheels that needs to be fixed before I weld in structure.

Question: Does anyone know why the AA inner longitudinal has two seat belt bolts? My driver side and the cutout part only had one. I can't see the point in this. I'm likely to cut the 2nd out and fill the hole so that I only have one like the original.

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WOW--AWESOME work!!
Cant wait to see end result!

Thanks for the advise!

Felix

It's been a while since I posted. Things have a way of getting side tracked.

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Although I had a rough mock up there is still more work to do on the wheelhouse inner panel.

I finally decided to commit to final welding of the outer trailing arm mount.

I plan to add the Restoration Design outer clam shell to reinforce the whole outer longitudinal.

The problem is I'm not cutting my fender so all work has to be done from the "inside". This means that I can't assemble the whole longitudinal and then go back and add on the clam shell.

Much scratching of the head resulted in the decision to deconstruct the clam shell so that it can be added in pieces rather than one whole piece. The other thing is I don't like how the added layer of metal will push my existing door jamb outboard. I'll try to post picture of this as I go along. Hopefully the pictures will make things more obvious.

Here is the picture of just the rear section of the clam shell reinforcement in place. I feel that this piece is especially important since it adds another layer of metal to the transition area. This area where a lot of stress occurs and this area of the "frame" is weak since this area is where the inner longitudinal panels meet.

Even if I decide later not to add the rest of the clamshell for some unforseen reason, I feel that having a triple layer in this high stress area is time well spent.

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You can see the overlay for the jack post with the spot welds drilled in the background. I'll eventually install that but it needs some trimming to avoid pushing out the door jamb.

Welded in place.

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In the process of final welding I did get some warping of the panel that needed hammer and dolly work to put things back in the right place so the inner longitudinal in the engine compartment will fit as it originally did.

Likewise, this will require re-measurement all the way around the chassis again before I can put this panel in place for the final fitment.

During this whole process the Galvanneal steel is giving me fits with a TIG welder.

The zinc that is in the Galvanneal is constantly contaminating the electrode or causing popping that splashes the weld puddle up onto it.

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The only good thing is the constant stop / start to regrind the Tungsten helps avoid overheating the panel.

The other thing that has derailed my effort to get the long in place is that the Tin Worms have consumed the lower 1" of just about the entire perimeter.

I suspect that someone repeatedly left the Targa off this vehicle and it got filled with water. leading to all the corrosion on the lower 1" of the entire floor pan.


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So before I can weld in the longitudinal I need to get some solid metal back in the lower cowl and wheelhouse area.

I started to fabricate the lower couple inches of the longitudinal outer.


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But the more I got to thinking about doing a from scratch fabrication I decided to see if I could find some donor sheet metal. The tight radius bends and the compound curvature of the wheelhouse weld flange was just going to be agonizingly slow to do from scratch.

@porscheaddic

Came to my rescue and provided a whole front lower cowl as a donor. I can't say enough good things about Vince!! His prices are reasonable and he was willing to help ensure I got sound metal and the right cuts to work with my need.

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The time it takes to deconstruct stuff is amazing. Lots of drilling spot welds and maybe some profanity is the order of the day.

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Piece by piece I finally started getting to the individual panels I'll eventually need to piece this all back together into my vehicle.

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I'll end up with some odds and ends that I won't be using.

If anyone is in need of the front tunnel section or the floorpan plug (previously filled empty hole) let me know and I'll pay it forward by sending to you for cost of shipping only.

With a little luck, I'll get a chance to start cutting out the bad metal on my tub and start fitting up this new donor sheet metal.

That area gave me fits for the reason you mentioned. I got plenty of practice making multiple attempts until I got it right. Donor piece is the way to go.

Looking forward to seeing more about how you tackle that rear wheel house and long without cutting the fender. I'm really enjoying watching the quality work.

@bbrock

You've set a pretty high bar. I'm just trying to keep up.

I bought the same part through Sierra Madre collection, it only had the single hole.


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I bought it about 3 1/2 years ago. It was a challenge to install, you’re doing great, do you have a picture of the long from outside of the car?

@mgphoto

Nice project photo. I love seeing the rest of you guys that are tearing into and fixing up cars that would otherwise get scrapped.

Not sure what you mean on the photo? Are you looking for a specific shot or angle. I will photo what ever I can to help you out.

Thanks for confirmation of one hole on other aftermarket longitudinal parts!!!

I would like to see a photo of your car sort of the same as mine, I want to see the position of the second hole.

@mgphoto

Here are two views. I can't get the innerwheel house / jack support out of the photo that is what currently holds it all in the car.

If these photos don't help I can take a picture of just the long with a tape measure.

My thought is the 2nd hole might have something to do with the early longitudinal on passenger side that had a fixed passenger seat and may have had the belt in slightly different spot.

The other more cynical view is that in the 1970's we were all much thinner and maybe now we are all running out "Belts" out a few more notches than we used to?

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Photo of passenger side donor sheet metal rough trimmed & sandblasted.

Still need to fix a few of the holes from drilling spot welds and then will do a quick dip in metal prep.

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Early vs. late is the only thing I can think of, but I think your "Fat Ass Hypothesis" has merit. I concur that factory only had one hole but have no idea if they changed the position when they moved to movable passenger seats and American butts got bigger.

I don’t think so, I think the original mount was welded in the wrong place. It looks like the seatbelt mount might be to close to the bulkhead for it to swivel cleanly.
Take your original carpet and see where the holes line up.

Although I might not weld it up, it does leave an access hole. When I started, I got advice from a number of people on this board, one was Brad 914ltd, he said “belt and braces” paint the inside of the long and use cavity wax after assembly.

The original longs have a rubber patch which covers the holes. The extra hole might be useful.

Time to post a little progress for March.

Here is the problem:

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Everything starts with the simple task like getting ready to fit up the inner longitudinal. But then you have to deal with the fact that the metal it's supposed to mate to has been consumed by the tin worm. Then you have to stop the original task and then focus on this new one before you can do the main task. That is the way rustoration goes.

I took 3 vacation days from work that butted up to a weekend and went to town.

So with my newly prepped donor parts it's off to the races. Let the cutting begin.

First victim - getting rid of the rear steering rack mount on the passenger side. Like the rear suspension console, it came to me "pre-stripped" by the previous owner. That didn't really matter though because the sheetmetal was shot.

Tunnel was also removed. Like all the other metal, it is shot at that transition between to the floorpan. I got tired of getting a kink in my back attempting to work around it & scratching my back on it! Good riddance.

A donor tunnel has been sourced - we'll deal with that later

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This car must have flexed and been as loose as the dickens given that the upper body sheetmetal is separated from the lower by rust though on the lower 1" all the way around. I often wonder how people don't notice chassis flex.

Garbage metal on the back side of the rear rack mount; absolutely no structure left here

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The donor metal I obtained was then fitted in on the passenger side floor

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Then moved on to reworking the passenger side wheel wheel

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With that metal in place moved on to fixing the "frame" extension that comes in to the passenger compartment from under the fuel tank

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View from the Frunk

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Spent some time fitting in the lower cowl and then returning my upper cowl access flap to its home.

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Although I'm making progress, I'm a well behind where I hoped to be by April. I think I'm about two months behind at this point. I would really like to keep this project contained to 1 winter season for the sheetmetal work but it's getting dicey. Not sure what I was thinking.


Gratuitous Parts Porn:

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Got my proportioning valve back from restoration by PMB. Beautiful.

@Eric_Shea

Just your mark-up is a work of art. That's quite the puzzle you are piecing back together! I think your car would have defeated me. Incredible work.

Please. . . I cheated and used donor sheet metal to do the wheel well. I can't imagine how you had the patience to do those compound curves from scratch.

I was saving my effort doing complex metal forming for motorcycle projects that are currently on hold while I do the 914.

Wife no longer willing to ride on the back of motorcycles.

Started this Norton Commando cafe in 2012. Metal fab still stuck at this state although I did get the engine and trans rebuilt and added into the mock up.

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Previous aluminum tank of similar design.

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Been a little bit slow posting lately. Spring and yard work and honeydew list is competing for time.

Today I'm at the butcher having bits of of my face carved up to remove some minor skin cancer. The good news is I can catch up on my posts between butchering sessions.

I am still working on the passenger side cowl to get that fixed up.

Here is a before & after view.

This cowl area has taken way too much time.

A few lessons that I've had to remember the hard way. I knew better but sometimes you get in a hurry and try to shortcut things. It rarely works.

1) Panel fit up is paramount. you have to have gaps that are 1mm or less to get a nice weld.
2) Use lots and lots of tack welds. Don't leave big gaps between the tacks. This helps eliminate warping and more importantly as the tacks increase in number, it yields more heat transfer paths to prevent burn through. When you think you have enough, double it!
3) Do very short welds between the sport welds with minimal filler. if more filler is needed its easier to add more later.

I disregarded all three of these points and have regretted my choice!

I initially mis-trimmed the lower cowl a little bit under size. This lead to a 2-3mm gap. I should have just closed the gap up to 1mm and then had to bend the flanges down to the floorpan to make up for it.

Instead, I fitted the flange to the floorpan and then let the gap be 2-3 mm. This was a critical mistake. Trying to fill a gap this large is just asking for trouble.

I then did a awful lot of tack welds to bridge the gap . . . but not enough. I began to rush the job and wanted to get er' welded up. When I tried to close the open spaces between the tack welds I just ended up burning holes. This cowl sheet metal is only 0.036" thickness. Not very tolerant of being overheated.

To further compound my mistakes, I ended up having to add lots of filler rod to keep from burning holes. This leads to big booger looking welds and the need to grind welds which is very time consuming.

I then went back and ground down all the excess filler only to rediscover lots of pin holes that didn't fully fuse due to the large gap between the panels and the rapid addition of filler.

Then tried to fill the pin holes and proceeded to blow more holes now that the weld was thinned excessively. This was a viscous circle.

At some point you just realize you are making a mess and need to stop the madness.

It took several welding sessions just forcing myself to slow down and to fix my mistakes as best I could. Ultimately I ended up putting a light in the gas tank area so I could see the pin holes and then carefully filled them.

The other thing that led to rushing the job was all of this welding is out of position welding and needed to be done with me sitting or kneeling in uncomfortable positions on the floor while working in this area.

Nothing leads to rushing more than being uncomfortable.

The other key thing is that is worth repeating is you can't weld what you can't see. some positions that I was forced into obscured my visibility to to the weld puddle. Not being able to see the puddle is a great way to let it get too hot and to burn through.

To top all this off, my cowl area has an abundance of holes (other than rust) that needed to be fixed.

1) A/C holes were cut for lines to pass through.
2) Sheet metal screws were randomly punched though the cowl area to support the A/C unit itself under the dash.
3) whenever a previous owner wanted a ground connection, they just shot another screw though the cowl.

I've started to address the large A/C line holes. The only problem here is this is overhead welding. Even more fun!

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These holes are tucked right into the corner of the cowl & fender area.

I tried to weld this in from above but my welding helmet prevents me from getting my face in a good position to see the weld puddle. You can see this by the tack weld at about the 7:00 position of the hole -- completely missed the weld gap! Cannot weld what you cannot see! . I resorted to doing the other tack welds from inside the passenger compartment and from below.

I don't like this solution. I think my next try will be to use a gas lens and hang my Tungsten as far out as I can hoping to get better visibility to the weld. Trying to be slow and patient and find the best welding position to do this. If I start blowing holes in this area I'm screwed.

with all the "can't see = can't weld". I'm living some of that now, too.
From my experience, I will say that in some of these situations, I've found MIG is my friend (vs TIG) in that it was easier to find a workable position, I didn't have to worry about how to work the pedal or find room/see the filler rod.
If I could TIG everything, that would be my preference but...

Your build is looking great, btw. Really nice work!

These are the easy ones. Just a quick dab or two of filler to weld up the sheet metal screw holes.

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In just this photo, there are 3 holes! There are more on the driver side and one of them is about 0.5" diameter. I'm not sure what was run though that hole but is just the right size to be a a PITA.

1) it's behind / above the fuse block which will necessitate removal of the fuse block and wiring to access it.
2) 0.5" is just big enough that you can't easily trim a metal blank to fill the hole and therefore you just have to fill it by gradually adding filler around the perimeter of the hole until it can be closed up.

Can't wait to get to that one. I'll defer until I start working on the driver side of the car.

One point that I wanted to make as an engineer to those that might be thinking why worry about a few little holes. Don't forget that just in front of you is the gas tank. In a worst case crash / fire type accident, you don't want holes in the front cowl that could easily allow fuel and fire to enter the passenger compartment.

I know that the plastic vents and paper heater tubes won't last long in a fire but they do buy you seconds to minutes of time. a big 1" hole like one of these A/C hose pass through holes would allow fuel and/or fire access to the passenger compartment completely unimpeded.

Better safe than sorry!

@Tygaboy

I'm a TIG lover due to the flexibility to weld so many types of metal and for the control it offers. If I burn holes I can't blame the equipment - It's my fault.

But boy is it slow for this type of work! Every week I contemplate buying a MIG but I haven't rationalized it yet. I do think that if I do I would sell it once this is done and try to recoup some of the cost.

For you other TiG lovers, I have to plug this product. It is a pressure sensitive Amptrol. No need to move finger to control amperage - just press harder or lighter.

I really haven't done much out of position TIG welding in the past. Most of it has been on a nice comfortable bench. I couldn't live without this.

When I first started to weld up my build cart, I was using my standard footpedal and doing all sorts of Yoga to try to weld and control the pedal with my knee, leg, elbow or whatever. I was pretty much impossible and led to the purchase of the TIG button.

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http://www.6061.com/tigbutton.htm

The other work that has started in April is beginning to think about what to do with my engine.

As purchased it was setup with carbs. I've been thinking about returning to fuel injection.

As part of that I pulled the tin to see if the cylinder head temperature (CHT) sensor was still there.

As the subject of another thread, I found that the CHT is missing and even worse, the head isn't drilled and tapped for the CHT. It isn't on the cyl 1/2 side either. Apparently at some point the heads were swapped.

Turns out that they are at least the proper 2.0L cylinder head as verified by part number. In the photo you can see the start of the proper 2.0L P/N 039 101 371A

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I pulled out my old broken 1.7L head from my original car just compare when I was in a panic thinking that they might not actually be a 2.0L head.

Also notice that some goober welded up the breather hole.

I guess I'll be doing some machine work!

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That 1.7L head was broken when my original 914 was rear ended. It has served as a learning bed for how to remove valves, valve guides, and how to weld cylinder heads! Still got some use again as a comparison to remind myself of what the difference looks like between 1.7L and 2.0L heads. My wife calls me a pack rat and can't understand why I would still have a cylinder head around from a car that was wrecked before the turn or the century. Women!

I still haven't dug into the engine but fully expect that the cam has been swapped given that the heads aren't original.

My new engine yoke arrived yesterday.

@Bbrock
Thanks for the recommendation and helping me save $$ on this item!

Here is a bit of previous work. I removed the tunnel to better access the cowl for repair and because it was completely shot.

I figured it would be easier and a better repair to replace it completely rather than patch up what I had.

Here is the dissection to show it's internal condition.

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For any of you having problems removing and/or installing new throttle and/or clutch cables, don't rule out this possibility.

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When I 1st was getting this car running, the throttle cable was stuck. When I pulled out the old cable, it hung up about half way out. I had to break it to get it out!

In order to get the car running, I cut a hole in the tunnel, and cut out a section of the tube and just fished the cable up to the pedal sled. It was a quick fix but wouldn't have been a good long term solution. The photo above shows why!

For all you guys that think just a little rust in the floor pan isn't a big deal, here is what the bottom of the tunnel looked like from the outside. There is always way more rust than what you can easily see.

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Random pin holes were hidden underneath the undercoating.

Not much of the previously shown damage was visible when I purchased the car but it was there none the less. Keep in mind how pretty this car looked top side. Really nice looking cars can have extensive rust hidden within and/or not easily visible without detrimming the carpets, rocker panels, etc.

Here is a reminder of how the car looked as purchased. Rust is Deceiving.

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Would a copper backer help with the blow-through issues? Or with some of the pin-hole problems?

I'm not a welder, but other folks on here have described how well a copper backer can help with some tricky welds.

--DD

Indeed it does. That was part of my slow down and do it right solution.

The problem was holding the copper in place given that I can't hold it with vise grips and I can't "reach around" the cowl to hold while I weld.

I ended up using a couple of rare earth magnets to hold the copper in place. Problem is the heat of welding then destroys the magnet. Doh!

If I got desperate I was going to use cleco's to hold the copper in place but that would have entailed drilling 1/8" holes to use the cleco. That seemed like two steps forward and one step back since I would have to then fill the 1/8" holes.

Arguably, had I just backed the large gap with the copper in the 1st place, I could done the weld, and fixed the cleco holes all in less time then I spent blowing holes, creating pin holes, and then doing fix it work. Lesson learned (again ) - taught by the school of hard knocks. Hopefully someone reads this and learns from it and/or maybe by writing it down I'll follow my own advice next time.

Well since I'm not supposed to be doing any heavy lifting per doctors orders, I decided to teardown my engine instead of doing bodywork with all the welding and grinding dust to get in the stitches in on my face.

Doc said not to lift more than 5 lbs. I didn't - the hand winch did.

Pretty uneventful weekend but I'm still sticking with the I hate previous owners rant.

When I pulled the oil breather off the top of the case I was horrified. Here's what I saw.

Worse than the rust debris / garbage there is some sort of round metal object in here. Luckily it was too big to ever fall into the case.

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I have no idea what this is or where it came from. Any ideas? Here are two views of it

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On a more positive note. Most of the other engine components are in pretty good shape upon 1st look.

Lots of oil leaking on the case from push rod tubes, some weepage at the base of the cylinders.

Crank seals are hard as rocks and leaking profusely from getting it running and the brief neighborhood drive. Oil cooler seals were hard too and leaking.

Oil pressure sensor hole is indeed stripped and leaking and will need to be re-tapped.

Overall I'm relieved to find the cylinder heads are 2.0L parts and I think the valves may be original. IIRC the exhaust valves with the little dimple in the center are the original 2.0L sodium filled valves. I'm not sure - have to do so research on that. Regardless, all valves will get replaced at rebuild.

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I also was happy to find the exhaust stud that I knew was missing appears to actually be a pulled timesert. The hole appears to have been drilled properly by a machine shop since it's located properly and not offset to the original stud bore.

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A couple of the cylinders are scored and one appear to be pretty corroded on the bottom of the bore. Probably from the long period of storage and condensation inside the cylinder forming. New pistons and cylinders planned so not a big deal. Was also happy to find the cylinders are 94mm and not some big bore conversion that machined the case or the heads.

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I haven't had a chance to split the case yet but after pulling the oil pump, I'm pretty sure the cam was changed based on the appearance of the cam gear. I can also see that someone covered the Cam plug and the oil galleys with epoxy or something like that. Hopefully this was a preventative measure rather than some crappy fix that I've become so accustomed to finding.

When I rebuilt my short block, I filled all the galley plugs with JB Weld as a preventative base on a tip I read (probably in VW Porsche Magazine) at the time. Seems like that might not be the best method but it was the best info I had available then. Maybe whoever did yours read the same article...

I've gotta admit JB weld is pretty good at resisting oil.

I punched a hole in my Miata's sump going up a goat trail to a house out in Idaho. I didn't realize it until the lifters began to clatter and then I looked at the oil pressure and it was zero. Hmm, now what to do?

Being quite a way from town, I used JB Weld to patch up the crack. Filled it with oil, and it turned out to be a pretty robust fix. I was always afraid the JB weld would eventually let loose - that never happened.

Now in the interest of honesty . . . that is not my idea of a good fix. But the car had in excess of 220K miles on it at that point and they body was rusted away by mid-west cancer. Spending $$ to buy an new oil pan and/or for welding would have exceed the value of the car. I know . . .

Here is the Miata in it's prime as a MUV. Miata Utility Vehicle.

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Love it! It remains to be seen if I'll have the nerve to strap my canoe on my 914, but it would check off two of my most favorite things to do in one trip!

I was exploring JB Weld as a potential high temperature filler to smooth out some pits and dents on my valve covers and was surprised to see it rated up to 500 degrees. Too bad had just run out or I would have given it a go. Great stuff.

My brother lives in Sulphur Springs, TX where J-B Weld is located and has met the founder/inventor. He said the guy was sitting on a plane one day waiting for take-off and looked out to see a J-B Weld patch on the wing.

@bbrock

Wait a few years, but, you definitely should do it, I'm biased given my penchant for strapping oversize items to sports cars.

Here's a video of the posted Miata turning 220,000 miles.

I had a bet with a buddy that it wouldn't make 220K the way I drove it without an engine rebuild.

Video was sweet victory.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-m2IT4Xojo

Interesting. It looks about the right diameter for the cover over the bottom of the PCV valve, but the cover is much thinner. Perhaps it was a home-made block-off for the PCV system?

The cover comes to mind because it always seems to fall off and land right in the spot you show

--DD.

That was my first thought as well but I just took mine apart to clean and repaint a week ago and the cover was plastic.

Badass! We'll just assume you weren't on a public road.

A few posts earlier, you've been talked about the repairpanel of the inner frame section and it bothers you that it's not made like the original which is two layers of steel ...
This bothered me too and I decided to build my own repaipanel. The Panel will be a combination off an own build outer layer and the Restorationdesign repiarpanel as the inner reinforcement layer. This is what I've built so far.
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The panel is made from one piece of 1.2mm sheetmetal and fits nearly perfect to the inner wheelhouse repiarpanel. It took me about half a year and 4 tries to make it right. I ended up making my own tools to get the edges properly bended.
Next step is trim the overlap, fill the gaps, fit the inner layer and finaly fit it to the car before welding it in.
If anyone is interested in the building process, I will open a new thread to discribe the process

to fill pits in rocker covers, try boiler cement. I have used for similar purposes. dries rock hard (hard to sand) but stands up well to the environment. good enough to seal boiler fireboxes good enough for some light cosmetics. way cheaper than jb weld.

@Tenner

Looks like nice work. You most definitely should open a thread. That is the biggest advantage of the site, the shared knowledge base and the ability to learn from others.

I probably would have never purchased this car and/or started this level of rehab without having seen some of the other build threads particularly Jeff Hail's and Brent's.

@Jeff Hail
@Bbrock

Both of those vehicles were just like mine - candidate for scrap. Without seeing that it could be done and more importantly, that it was worth doing, I would have never gotten started. At least here in the mid-west, good solid 914's are getting harder to find. When you do find them, they are priced such that at those price levels ($15k-25k) I'd be back to considering another Miata or a Lotus Elise with modern build quality vs. a 45 year old car that I know is going to have issues anyway.

I have no idea what this is or where it came from. Any ideas? Here are two views of it

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Not sure the size in the picture, but it looks kind of like one of the four ends of a ujoint off of a drive shaft.

@Tenner +1 on opening a thread. I also made my own double wall patch for that inner but not as nice or complete as yours. It is a PITA job so I think sharing your approach would help a lot of people!

brake piston

Good guess . . . but it would have to be off a Smart Car. Hard to see scale from the photo but it is 1" diameter and about 0.75" in height. Made of steel.

Maybe from Motorcycle caliper . . . . ?

I have a feeling this is going to be one of those mysteries that I just end up chalking up to "what were they thinking".

Even if it were a home brew PVC block off, that doesn't even seem to fit in my engine's history since they had a EMPI type breather box hooked up to one of the heads and the other off the oil fill / breather box. Both of those lines were then fed into the top of one of the carbs.