So,

I bought an original 914-6 tub and a couple of mountains of parts in Alabama, and I got them back home. The thread relating that story is here: http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?act=...8&hl=original+6

Now, I have to restore it, and I figure that doing a build thread like others have done may be interesting to members, and may be motivating for me. So here it goes.

I got two things done since I got the car home.

1) I built a rotisserie as per AA plans, except I did not put the diagonals on. The drawings and instructions are here:
http://www.autoatlanta.com/tech/rotisserie_build.html
The steel turned out to be more expensive than I thought, but now that it's built, I realize how useful it's going to be.

2) I got my paperwork organized.
Went to the SAAQ (our dmv) on Saturday, near my house. Lady really gave me the runaround, because I don't have a title (Alalbama does'nt issue titles for cars built before '75).
Tried another office today. This lady actually pulled out the procedures manual. Went to the section on importing US cars and Titles. No luck, until she stumbled a section "exemptions". Lo and behold, the first subsection was titled "Alabama" i.e. the first state in alphabetical order ! Sure enough it said "no title required for cars pre-1975-model-year"
I was pleasantly surprised - this is a manual, in French, in Quebec !
Within minutes, I had a license plate ! although I obviously need to get a technical inspection done before I can drive the car on the road.

3) Next step will be to take care of the old paint and the light rust. Spoke to someone nearby who can sandblast it. His advice was to sandblast, except for the "thin" parts, hoods etc . . . which he said would "wave", and to use stripper on those. I've real all the threads about media blasting, sandblasting, dipping etc . . . but I'm tempted to do it his way, to a large extent because it seems to be what's available locally.

I'll update the thread as progress is made.

Michel Richard

schweet! another one saved ...

make sure you post lots-o-pics along they way ...
Andy

Congratulation Michel. If my count is ok that is your third 914, plus that Europa in the background.

I sure will follow that thread...

Will it be ready for Mark's Por/Volks Festival?

Hi Michel,

How many Canadian dollars to build the rotisserie, if I may ask?

Where will you be getting your blasting done?
I've been looking around for such a place around Montreal, but haven't found any yet.
Is it expensive?
I was actually considering building a temporary garage within my garage to do it myself.

Good luck with your project, I'll be following it closely.

I bought the steel new to build the rotisserie. Total was about C$250. Did the welding myself.

To do the sandblasting, I found a place in Saint Constant, if I remember correctly, or near there. The gentleman suggested I bring the car on the rotisserie, but I'm a little concerned about that. He said the cost would be something like C$500 for the sandblasting, and another equal amount to spray epoxy primer on.

Coordinates of that shop are at home. I'll be able to dig them up over the weekend.

Michel

QUOTE (Dave Eddy @ Jul 13 2005, 07:56 PM)

Will it be ready for Mark's Por/Volks Festival?

Maybe not . . . ;-)

I should come with the green car, though, or with the truck and a bunch of parts.

Michel

Michel

Could you tell me what the height is of that setup when the car is on it's side completely vertical? I have garage issues. Looks like you have about a foot of clearance between the center brace and the car?

Kurt,

I'll only be able to measure over the weekend, but I will do it. I made my rig a little higher than the AA drawings, because I intend to weld some flares on. FWIW, I can roll it in and out of my garage, the way it is, with an inch or two to spare . . . won't work with the flares on !

I may have made it a little high.

Michel

A very good start. I'd be careful about sandblasting and acid dipping though. Sand is a poor media except for heavy parts. Glass bead is much better for the thin parts. Walnut shell is good for fine parts and aluminum finishing. There is plastic media as well, and I have heard of ground up buttons. CO2 is also possible. You sort of have to carefully choose the media to suit the part. Acid dipping can be useful, but be very careful of assembled parts. Doors and lids with seams are poor choices. Especially the lids where there is foam hidden in cavities. You will never get all the acid out.

QUOTE (Verruckt @ Jul 14 2005, 04:46 AM)

Michel Could you tell me what the height is of that setup when the car is on it's side completely vertical? I have garage issues. Looks like you have about a foot of clearance between the center brace and the car?

Kut,

I was'nt able to directly measure the height of the setup, but I measured my garage door at 81 inches, and the car slips in, vertical, with less than an inch of clearance, at the top.

However, the clearance between the fenders and the brace is currently 9.5 or 10 inches, which is undoubtedly more than is really needed. This is with the center of the pivot 42 inches above the bar. I may actually lower it myself.

HTH

Michel

I fixed the rust holes in the front floor. I missed one, and I may just braze a small patch over it.

The bigger patch is steel I cut out of a junk front floor Jon sold to me with the car.

oops

There was another area near the very front of the floor that neded a little work. I used some common sheet steel and fabricated a patch.

Not real pretty, but it's an area that really won't show much.

One Saturday morning, and the rust holes are pretty much fixed !

I also drilled through one of the three bolts that hold left hand side rear radius arm to the body. The one bolt snapped when Jon was removing it. I think I managed to save the thread, but I may end up using a longer bolt and a nut on top, just to be sure. But that's some ways down the road.

The main concern right now is getting the car media or sand blasted and primered.

Michel Richard

Great thread!!

I figure it might be easier to follow the resto if I put some of the things in "chapters". Plus it helps my own motivation by helping toi break down the project in discrete sub-projects.

Part "un" of headlight bucket repair:

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?act=...=ST&f=2&t=35090

Michel

Here is part "deux" of the headlight bucket repair. Thanks for looking.

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?act=...=ST&f=2&t=35100

Michel

Small update, sorry no pics.

Today was a half day at work.

So I ran home and built a little dolly that I could drop the tub onto, from the rotisserie. Once on the dolly, had a tow truck pick the car up to take it to a place that will dry-ice blast it.

Here's a link to the process.

http://www.pctriumph.com/section%20englais...ctriumph_a.html

The French language site is actually a little better.

http://www.pctriumph.com/

Apparently, the process leaves no residue because the ice sublimates as it hits the metal. Also, it does'nt heat the parts and therefore does not cause warpage. It actually sligthly cools the parts.

The proof will be in the pudding. It's supposed to be done by Friday. After that, the tub will move to a paint shop, for primer. I may also have the interior painted, so I can start assembly before the flares go on and the exterior gets smoothed and painted.

Should have pics when the car is back.

Michel

That sounds like the ideal process. It will be very interesting to see the results.

I have absolutely nothing to say. Just want to be on the thread so I don't miss anything. Keep up the good work.

QUOTE (Porsche Rescue @ Aug 1 2005, 05:52 PM)

I have absolutely nothing to say. Just want to be on the thread so I don't miss anything. Keep up the good work.

Cool

Very interesting process that Dry Ice Blasting.

Have you seen the process being used?

Good to know that it exists in this area.

Can't wait to see the results...

Have'nt seen the process in action.

I delivered my front struts, A-arms and trailing arms over lunch today. Owner still confirmed it would all be done by Friday, though the work had'nt started.

M

Any news?

We're holding our breath here...

Having trouble holding my breath!

Me too. C'mon Michel, depeche toi.

Took a week holiday, away from the house and the teener. Just my wife and I; had a great time. Just got back, an hour ago.
When we left last Saturday, the tub was not done, but the shop manager said on teh phone they had started. I always get a little nervous when suppliers start missing deadlines. In any event, I have next week off too, so I'll be able to go to the shop and see how much has been done.
And I got a new battery for the camera, so I'll be able to take pictures over there.
And I stripped the MFI off the engine in the car that's running and put some PMOs on. That'll be the next update, hopefully tomorrow.

Michel

I changed from MFI to PMO carbs in the car that's currently running, the gree one. Put pictures of the completed installation here:

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?act=...=ST&f=2&t=36529

At the same time, I started working on the exhaust. I want to get the final exhaust configuration before the PMOs get dialed-in.
Here's the thread.
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?act=...=ST&f=2&t=36543

Good work on the carbs and exhaust, can't wait to see the rest, specially the tub!

Keep it up!

My wife took this picture the day after I got back from Alabama. Sorting through the stuff. It was on film and I just scanned it .

Michel

Forgot to say: spoke to the dry ice blasting shop today. The manager said that the car would be done by Wednesday. He also said the hoods and doors had a lot of bondo on them. I knew they were not from the same car as the tub . . . Minor disapointment. Anxious to see how it all turns out.

I've bought other doors be fore, all were painted, and they had bondo too.

I'm beginning to think that if a door or hood is sold apart from the car it belongs to, it's because the car was in such bad shape that the detachable body panels (i.e. door, hood) also had a lot of "history".

Just my experience.

Michel

I have found bondo, and lots of it even under the original paint on hoods and rear decklids. Old looking dark red bondo too, I figured the parts just weren't perfect from the start. No big deal.

I am really interested to hear and see more about this dry ice process. For example, with all that fog created by the sublimation of the CO2, what kind of music do they play? And do they use strobe lights?

I love that pic with the BugEye. You must have quite a reputation in the neighberhood with all those strange cars.

I saw a 914 on a trailler last friday on the 40 near Repentigny, was it your car?
If not, we might get a new member soon.

QUOTE (serge914 @ Aug 15 2005, 05:09 PM)

I saw a 914 on a trailler last friday on the 40 near Repentigny, was it your car? If not, we might get a new member soon.

I hope not ! then somebody would be running away with it !
Not sure what portion of Quebec 914 owners are on the board .

QUOTE (serge914 @ Aug 15 2005, 05:09 PM)

I love that pic with the BugEye. You must have quite a reputation in the neighberhood with all those strange cars. I saw a 914 on a trailler last friday on the 40 near Repentigny, was it your car? If not, we might get a new member soon.

It's funny cause I had my car on a trailer (friday Aug. 5th) on the 640, not too far from Repentigny.

I finally got it home, I'll probably be starting a thread soon as well.
Can't wait to get started...

Sorry for the slight Hijack Michel.

Another chapter in the engine saga. This one is actually related to the PMO install.

Please see:

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?act=...=ST&f=2&t=36705

Went to the dry-ice blasting shop, today. They are done with the "parts" i.e the doors, the hoods etc . . . and are working on the tub. The underside is pretty much done, from what I could see. I spoke to the guy doing the actual cleaning and he says they found very little rust. I saw a few small holes, pencil size on the trunk floors, but that was it. I may find more when it's home.

The dry ice is not very agressive and they've been using stripper first, then the blasting. Here's a shot of the stripper stewing in the front trunk:

And the actual blasting. The blue-gray cloud to the right of the area being blasted is the CO2 ice turning to a gas. In the picture, the operator is blasting an area that was cleaned previously, and there is absolutely nothing being thrown off the car, i.e. no residue from the blasting itself.
One concern, though, is that the blasting "gun" is pretty big and cumbersome, and I'm not sure how it's going to work out in some of the more out-of-the-way spots on the tub.
BTW the process is noisy as hell. No way I could have gotten close if they had'nt given me a pair of ear plugs.

Michel Richard

CO2 blasting is done. Here are pics of the tub on August 29, 2005:

That was the top, from the rear, obviously. Now the rear half, from the bottom:

And the front half, from the bottom:

The good news is that the floor pans under the passenger compartment, the longitudinals, inside and outside, the center tunnel and the bulkheads are all in very good shape.

Once again, I'm North of the US Northeast (in Montreal) which means I've never ever come close to seeing a stripped 914 that looks as good as this one. Any '70 914 that was used in the winter, here, must've been rustier than this in 1973 !

The bad news is that there is a little more rust than I expected: I should really be replacing both the front and rear trunk floors . . . although I might be able to repair the rear.
If I can find a front trunk floor, new or used, I'll be well on my way.

As for the dry ice blasting, I'm a little disapointed right now. It looks like the process is'nt quite strong enough to really clean everything. It did get rid of most of the rust but the body man who came and looked at the frame this afternoon said a lot more work would be needed before the tub could be ready for primer and paint, even disregarding the need to fix the trunks.

So it looks like I'll have the tub primered, so it doe'nt rust anymore while I chase trunk floors and fix them. I'll then need to remove the primer, really prep the steel and primer again.

Sure sounds like a lot of work, but I'm not sure I have a lot of choice.

nice progress .....good find

we need to bring more 6,s across the border...

lol

The tub is back home. This is the rig that I threw together to make it possible to have the car towed. It turns out that the bodyman had not gotten around to shooting the car with primer when I showed up today, to take the car back.

So the plan is now to fix the front trunk as well as I can and then to use POR 15 to prepare the tub. That will mean super-thorough cleaning, etching, then the paint. At least it's something I've done in the past, so I should be OK.

Only one flare in the previous shot ! OH well, more to come. And here are the hoods, the doors and the dash. Under those are the trailing arms, the A-arms, teh front struts and other misc parts. I should mostly be working with clean parts, which will hopefully help things along.

Before I put the tub back up on the rotisserie, I shortened the latter, a little bit. The center of the swing axis is now 35.5 inches above the top of the longitudinal bar.

Unfortunately that's a little bit short. The corner of the windshield frame fouls the bar:

. . . Even if the flared fender clears.