Yea, dreaming of going to the local meets with our son in his Miata! Seems so far off in the distance though...

My last two quarts of Raptor showed up yesterday. So, I went out early this morning to finish shooting the Frunk, and touch up a few spots that did not cover very well.
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I did not like how the VIN came out in the Ravenna green, so I redid it in satin black. Not perfect/great, but it looks better than it did.
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I want the 914 to look good, but I want to do as much as I can myself, so hopefully it looks good from five feet or so!

Making good progress Mike.

It’ll happen quicker than you think. Then you spend an equal amount of time finishing the last 10%

Rich, how goes it?

I sprayed the rockers this morning, but had some issues

I turned on the compressor, but forgot to open the valve so air flows between the two tanks...OOPS. Lost air pressure as I was spraying the rockers, so it came out much more textured than I wanted/planned. Oh well, can't do anything about it now!

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The nightly monsoon storms are a serious challenge. Friday night's storm destroyed our Pergola, and peeled the roof off the hay barn where our daughter rides...

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Then Saturday night's storm dropped a tree branch right on the 914! I dont think it dented anything, but I have not uncovered the car yet to confirm.

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Weather has been too sketchy to do much, but I managed to work on the passenger door in the garage. Trying to get the inside cleaned and scuffed up so I can spray them Ravenna green to match my color change. The insides of the doors are rather interesting...

The top of the doors inside have almost zero paint on them. I saw this on the driver's door also.
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The lower portion of the doors, below the safety bars is sprayed with some kind of sound/vibration deadening stuff, but its not very thick. You can see the texture of it if you squint just right.
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And the safety bars, of course. These make the doors pretty dang heavy. Not sure how much they might do in a side-impact.
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Found a bit of rust in the lower, front corner. Hit it with a wire wheel, and treated it with rust converter.
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Finally got back to the 914 - Weather has been crazy for Phoenix. Roof ended up leaking which is going to kill my funds for the 914

Anyway, I started stripping the paint off the outside of the 914. Worked on the doors first.
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I found a bit of filler hiding some small repair spots, but nothing major.
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A bit more filler on the passenger door, but was not hiding much at all.
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At this point I was pretty positive the 914 had been repainted at least once. I could see the evidence on the fenders - two layers of red, and the gray primer between them.
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Getting closer to doing the primer, but need the $$$ to buy the fiberglass hood and deck lid...
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I keep hearing Dory saying "Just keep swimming"...

I've keep trying to move forward, and the treadmill keeps spinning faster! The weather in PHX this summer has been wetter than it has been in years! The 914 has sat covered under the tarp more than I could have believed. Then I had to have our roof re-done due to leaks from all the rain. Than swiped a whopping $12K I could have used for the 914 - OUCH! Then the pool pump started squealing like a stuck pig - another $500. Then our son got Covid - thankfully a super mild "cold" for about 3 days. Then our daughter got thrown off a horse...You get the idea.

But, the weather has finally dried out and started to cool off a bit. So, I'm back to trying to get ready for primer. It's been slow since every time it rained again, the bare 914 tried to rust, and I got to go over the parts I had already stripped! Getting really close though...
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I just have a few little corners, niches, etc. that I can't seem to get into with any shape fiber wheel, etc. So, yesterday I went to HF and got a new dead man's valve and tips for the media blaster. I believe I can hit these little areas without messing up my Raptor liner in the trunks/cabin.
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I will say you have not really lived until you have stripped the bottom side of the Targa bar and windshield frame! That is some tedious, uncomfortable work. Lost count of how many times I just shut the drill off and sat there stretching my neck out. Still can't get into some of the spots/corners. Going back to the blaster for the rest, but may need to hold up a piece of plywood to protect the Raptor I've already sprayed!
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I'm so ready to be done with body work & paint. It has taken me an ETERNITY to get this far! I'm also beginning to think Tygaboy's method of getting the car all together, wired, plumbed, and sorted out, and then taking it all apart again for paint might be "easier" despite the fact it seems like double the work!

You know, when they show ZERO percent chance of rain for the next 7-10 days in Phoenix, AZ you'd think it is pretty safe...Unless your ME!
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This is getting really freaking old...

I thought I had everything cleaned up , scuffed, and ready for primer...and then I noticed these two spots when I was wiping it down with cleaner/degreaser.
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Managed to get 3 coats of the OptiFlow primer on. Used the "rattle-can" to get the areas I was unable to roll or access with a foam brush. At least it's sealed with primer and wont rust because of bare metal!
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The OptiFlow did not work as well as I was hoping for. The rattle-can did work well though. Probably will spray the final coat instead of trying to roll it on. Here's the link to my specific experience trying to use the OptiFlow roll-on epoxy primer:

http://914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=356321

I got the door skins primed last night. The larger, mostly flat surface and larger, non-foam roller seemed to work better. They dont look too bad this morning. Still tried to run in a few areas, but not so many joints/edges to contend with.
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I think I'm going to try and mix up a bit of the primer and try spraying the insides and jambs on the doors and see how well it works - Eastwood does not recommend spraying it, but they wont explain why. I really dont want to waste the $$$ on more of the two-part "rattle cans" unless I have to...

I'm sure some of this is due to the texture of the Raptor liner, but even with Frog tape, the primer "flowed" under the taped off edges...
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I decided to try spraying the Optiflow primer with my Spectrum (HF) HTE gun. Worked out pretty well - much better than rolling it on, IMHO. Seems like it may take a bit more product to spray it (I used 8oz for each coat per door - 24oz/each door for 3 coats), and cleaning the gun after each coat was a PITA, but that's going to be an issue spraying any kind of epoxy/2K...
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Came out good enough for me!

I started on the guide coat/sanding process to try and get the primer finish as flat/smooth as possible. Looks like I'm going to be busy with filler and sanding for a bit...
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Definitely a few dents in the Targa bar.

It's interesting what you find with the guide coat and block sanding...I would have never known that dent was there (bottom center of pic), but you can totally feel it!
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The sand paper loads up pretty quickly, but it's dry so a quick pass with the shop vac with the brush end and it's good for a while longer.
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Here's a couple really good examples of dents I never would have noticed without doing the guide coat & block sanding (the dark area is low).
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Spent some more time on the Targa bar - going to be a bit of filler work and plenty more sanding to get this smooth/flat.
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I always thought the 914 was the less curvy, swoopy Porsche. That was until I started trying to block sand the primer on my 914! She's quite the curvy girl, just way more subtle than her cousin that curvy tart the 911!
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Looking good! Those panels are going be nice looking when they’re in paint.

And yes, the longer I own my 914, the more I marvel at the subtle but complex curves of the design.

Nice work. Oddly enough I enjoy the body work phase of my project.
Did you get a reservation made for the paint booth?

Hey Rich, no, no booth reservations. Debating just building a temp booth out of PVC and plastic. The whole transport to EVIT and then back again after fresh paint just seems ripe for disaster - not sure I trust my body dolly enough to strap it down to a trailer for transport!

I am definitely not enjoying the body work/filler phase! The war between my tendency towards OCD vs. wanting to see progress vs. fearing it might rain again are making me a bit unhinged!

I moved to trying to complete one section at a time, with some sanding on other filler sections while I wait for another layer of filler to harden/dry.

70's VW manufactured body panels are "interesting", I guess you could say. I started with a longer block, but got too frustrated. Ended up using a 6" x 3" block. This is after 3 coats of 2K primer. Here's the initial sanding with the block in a horizontal orientation:
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The dark areas are lower, where the guide coat was not sanded off. Here's the second round of sanding with the block in a vertical orientation:
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This is after the 3rd round of filler and sanding, keeping the block in a horizontal orientation:
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Here's after the 4th round of filler and sanding. Again, keeping the block in the horizontal orientation:
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Just need to skim it with some glaze at this point. And, of course need to do the same on the passenger sail panel. And the top of the Targa bar...

After getting all my filler and panels as good as I could (without my head exploding!), I saw there was a chance for rain the next day Since my boss was AWOL and not responding to me, I figured it was time for a break and there was time enough to get a quick coat of primer covering the bare metal to avoid any flash rust from moisture (and my head from exploding). Went pretty well & quick despite being too breezy...
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And then I started to notice some "dry patches". I needed to mix up another batch of primer to finish the last fender, so I mixed a bit more and went over the "dry patches" again to make sure they were covered well. No joy...
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After closer inspection I saw that anywhere I had done filler & glaze, it looked rough/dry. It slowly dawned on me that in my rush to get the bare metal covered, I had failed to sand the filler/glaze with anything beyond 120 grit

I've decided doing bodywork is like playing a video game where you know all the required steps to win/complete the game, but doing them perfectly, and at exactly the right second while not impossible, is highly improbable.

I finally got the chassis sanded again, and sprayed with primer one last time - I hope! I moved on to the flares and then the doors. Block sanding is rather revealing when it comes to the imperfections you can discover.

The fiberglass flares were not terribly expensive, but when you really get down close with them it gets frustrating fast!
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Lucky for me, I had one of the best supervisors around overseeing my efforts!
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I know the doors are 48 years old, but whew, they are anything but flat/smooth!
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I ended up ordering some spray filler/surfacer - basically a high build primer, I guess. I figured it would really help with the minor imperfections I struggled to fix with standard filler/glaze. Also figured I would use the spray surfacer on the flares to deal with their lack of a smooth surface. The surfacer needs a 1.8-2.5mm spray tip. I could not readily find a spray gun with a larger tip, and did not want to spend $100+ for a 1.4mm gun and a 1.8mm tip to go with it. I saw a video of a guy who got the HF "purple" $15 gun and drilled the tip out to use for thicker primers - seemed like a good idea to try for $15...did not work out well! I could not get the gun to spray anything, not even water after drilling the tip out. It's spare parts now! So, what do you do when you have product mixed up, and the gun its in wont spray? Grab another gun of course, but the only thing I had for spraying thicker stuff was the Shutz gun for spraying the Raptor bed liner...Well, it came out a little "bumpy" to say the least!
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90% gets sanded off anyway...right? It just takes longer...I finally found a two gun kit HF sells for $50 that includes a 1.8mm tip. Worked ok in the end, but seems like I need to thin the surfacer a bit so it will spray easier.
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Looking good. All this effort to flat these panels will definitely pay off with the final result.

Still plodding along, slowly

Working on block sanding the flares after doing two coats of the primer-surfacer. More tedious than the doors for sure, but less surface area, I guess
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How'd that song go..."One down. One (or 3 in my case!) to go. Another town. One more show..."
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I'm hearing my hood and decklid are supposed to ship out on Tuesday. WOOHOO, more sanding!

Mike

It makes me chuckle how similar our experiences have been with the high-build primer. I too have an old HF paint gun that would not spray it. I too drilled mine out to a 2.0 tip size. Still had tons of trouble spraying it, and the whole gun plugged up inside. I managed to tear it down and clean it out, but I'm not looking forward to trying it again. I too tried to reduce it a bit (per recommendations) and I really didn't see any improvement. Luckily I'd say my bodywork is essentially done, with the exception of a final wet sand. (minus some final work on trunk, hood, doors)

Always great to see progress such as yours. Keep up the great work!

Kevin

I had my primed flares stashed in the storage, but they were in the way, and I REALLY needed to see/feel some progress, so I installed them today. It's a bit of a process, but came out really nice, IMHO!

I decided to use Rivnuts and motorcycle fairing bolts instead of body rivets. I figured I would be able to easily remove the flares for suspension work, or if one gets damaged for some crazy reason. Rivnuts are just too cool!
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I first tried test fitting everything without the fender beading.
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But then decided I should go ahead and install the beading since I will just leave the flares on to keep them out of my way.
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After the first fender, the process went pretty smooth, and things started looking more and more cool!
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Looking pretty "car like" even if it is only primer!
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I figured I was on a roll, so I test fit the valance I picked up from a local member who was not going to use it.
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Anyone have any great suggestions for a straight forward way to build out the ends of the valance to match the flares...?
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I glued urethane blocks in place, sanded them down to match the contour and glassed over.

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NICE! Thanks for sharing - my brain had not stumbled across a relatively easy, straightforward way of building the ends up to match.

While I'm waiting for my hood and deck lid (sitting on a Yellow Freight truck in PHX - who knows when I'll hear from them to schedule delivery), I figured I would get the hinges ready to put to use. I tried using a wire wheel, but there were too many nooks and crannies, so I got out the abrasive blaster. It makes quick work of things, but the clean up takes forever - such a mess!
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It's not much, but at least I got something done today...

I didn't really like the way the fairing bolts were digging in to the primer in certain spots. The angle of the flare does not match the fender angle very well in some locations. Once you tighten down the fairing bolt, the flare flexes to match the fender much better.
I found some black nylon washers on Amazon and for $10 figured it was worth a try to see how they would look, and how much protection they might add for the paint. Not sure I'm totally sold on them since they make the fairing bolts sick up/protrude out more, but they do match the fender beading well.
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Raining today, so doing what little I can in the garage...
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Don't mean to High Jack your thread continuously but wanted to pass this on. In place of a blast cabinet you can use a cardboard box with a piece plexiglass duct taped in for a window and drop light. I used a water heater box with one end open then tilted the box into a bucket to drain off the sand afterwards. The cardboard survives very well since it is soft. I blasted my longer pieces and ended up using for the short pieces as well. When finished I cut it up and put it in the recyclable trash bin. I built a paint booth using a roll of plastic, 1x2's, an electric staple gun for ~ $60. That was in 2009 so adjust accordingly. I used a squirrel caged fan from a junk yard forced air heating unit with a $5 AC filter. It was a pressurized booth rather than the standard negative pressure style but it worked very well. The booth looked like it needed to go on a diet since it puffed out but again it worked well and was cheaper than towing the car to a "real" paint booth. Keep posting your progress.

My hood & deck lid saga...

On November 1st, 2021 I ordered my fiberglass hood and deck lid. Paid the vendor $1,350 including shipping. On January 13th, 2022 I receive noticed my hood and lid are finished and have been picked up by the shipping company. I use the tracking number to keep an eye on things...

According to the shipping company's sight, the truck/trailer arrived in Phoenix 1/18/2022. I don't hear anything, so I follow up with the vendor. They say customers usually hear from the shipper the next business day, and maybe give them till Monday.

Monday comes and goes, so I follow up again. I finally hear back from the vendor once they got the scoop from the shipper: They have lost the freight. Usually they can find it. They are doing a sweep of the three terminals it passed through on its way, but there are 100+ docks at each terminal. Hopefully they will hear from them soon.

Ya just cant make this up...

While I'm STILL waiting for the shipper to find my hood, I'm trying to keep working on other things.

I trimmed up the front valance. Then sprayed it with surfacer, sanded smooth, and got it sprayed black. Toying with the idea of spraying it with the Raptor liner to match the rockers, but for now just black is good enough.

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Very nice work Mike. I think your flares look great! Keep up the excellent work.

Boiling bushings today! Special thanks to Ian for his video on boiling the bushings to help ease the install
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I had to go get a larger diameter threaded rod, washers, etc. Then I did not have a large enough open end wrench for the larger nuts! Borrowed one from a neighbor...
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Of course I experienced the extra special fun of installing one of the rear bushings on the wrong A-arm At least I noticed it when I went to install the other rear bushing, but getting that thing back off without destroying it was a small battle!

Clocking the angles was also more difficult than one might expect - make sure you have a long bar...
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Well, it's official; Yellow Freight lost my hood and deck lid! The vendor emailed me today to let me know they were filing a claim with Yellow Freight, and I could have them build more parts, or they could return my $$$...


I did get my trailing arm bushings installed this afternoon. I tried to follow the basic instructions of using a pipe clamp since I don't have a press. It did not go very well. I spent about 1.5 hours fighting to get the first arm done.
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But, I was able to ferret out a method that was simple and effective, but only used an orange plastic dead blow hammer for installation. It literally took me about 10 minutes to install the bushings and shaft in the second trailing arm! Here's my method for those without a press handy:

1. Install one bushing in the trailing arm (I started with the outboard bushing) No soap used/needed, and the bushing pressed in rather easy (my trailing arms are NOT powder coated)
2. Lube the inside of the bushing you installed, and lube one end of the shaft about 1/3 of the length.
3. Starting from the side without the bushing installed, insert the shaft through the arm and into the bushing. Press it in as far as you can with your hands - a twisting motion helped.
4. Tap the shaft further into the bushing with the dead blow. Go past the end of the bushing you installed and keep going until the other end of the shaft is flush with the end of the arm without a bushing.
5. Lube the inside of the second bushing and install it into the trailing arm - you should be able to tap it into the trailing arm without too much difficulty.
6. On the end where the shaft is sticking out too far, drive it back into the second bushing until it's flush with both bushings - I used a large socket on the ground to allow the end of the shaft an opening to go into past the bushing.

Sorry I don't have pics - by the time I figured it all out I had the second arm complete!

I touched up the black paint on the arms where I had scuffed it up a bit wrestling to install all the bushings. One teenie-tiny step closer.
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Nice, detailed work. Those will look great going onto a freshly painted body.

I've been trying to clean up my 5-bolt hubs and the Boxster calipers. The post about Iron-X was very timely - I just ordered some from Amazon to help cleaning the hubs. The citrus degreaser only gets you so far!
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Debating what color to paint these, and still need to order the Brembo stencils.
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I'd like to paint them Ravenna green with black Brembo logos. The rattle can of Ravenna green I have says it works on calipers, but I'm not sure it would hold up to the heat!

I got the calipers all taped off and bleeders replaced with bolts so I could blast them. They came out pretty dang good!
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I consulted my Aesthetic Director (my wife), and we decided to go with the traditional red calipers with the white Brembo logo. I got two of them painted with 3 layers of red. Still waiting on the Brembo stencils though.
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I spent some time removing the old tie rods, and cleaning up the steering rack. Looks much better now.
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Some of the parts I ordered are starting to show up, but in bits and pieces from various warehouses. The only complete "set" that has made it was the rear hubs and studs, so I installed the studs. My jack pads made it which I hope will assist with getting the chassis off the body dolly and back onto jack stands.
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Just when I think things can't get any weirder...YRC shows up at my door a bit ago totally unannounced. They want to deliver my hood & decklid that were supposed to be lost. The driver hands the box down and we notice part of the hood is poking out through the side of the box. Ruh-Roh...
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Not sure exactly what they did to this while it was "lost", but it doesn't look like those scratches & break happened while it was in a box!
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I thought 2022 was supposed to be better than 2021...

Sorry to see that. Those look like really nice parts... Bummer.

Not going with the PORSCHE logo on the calipers? They've already got brembo cast into them...

I managed to get the turbo tie rod kit installed on my steering rack. Getting those boots on requires about 6 arms!

I have to say I'm a bit disappointed that a $200+ "kit" does not include any retainers to hold the boots - you have to use your existing inner retainers, and tie wraps for the outer side...
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I thought I would get the 914 off the body dolly and onto jack stands so that I can start to bolt the suspension, etc. back on. We put it on the body dolly before we had the Quick Jack. Makes me wonder how...
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Since it's a full mon, and in the old Happens. This happened when the one Quick Jack did not go down for some strange reason, and I didn't catch it soon enough!
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Luckily, it was a slow pivot and the 4x4 I had to stabilize the front kept it from hitting the concrete. I got jack stands under the back ASAP, and worked to get the front up off the 4x4. Inching it back into place took a bit, but thankfully was uneventful.
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I was going to post something from about "We can rebuild her. We have (most of) the parts...", but the chassis spill took the joy out of it.
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At least I can start to bolt the suspension back on now...And I was wise enough to pull my front valance off "just in case I needed to lift from the front"
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Did you clean your underwear out afterwards? IIRC, Mark posted that those kits would required re-use of those spring retainers. Probably forgot to list that in the ad.

Scary little incident! Glad no humans or 914s were injured.