I'm finally at a better time in my life where I can start the restoration on my previous restoration project. (see my first build thread HERE). I bought this car after graduating high school, fixed it up one summer and proceeded to enjoy it.. My orignal plan was to fix it up enough to get me through college and then restore it once I got a job however after 8 years on the road I still wasn't ready to take on the project. I decided to store it away for a later time as its condition started deterioating. Several more years and I am now ready to tackle the project.

My first attempt at getting this car on the road was riddled with shortcuts and mistakes but most importantly it was a learning experience which is always invaluable. I have more experience under my belt now so I'm hoping use it to bring this car back to life. The car has lived quite a rough life. It was hit in the drivers front and rear before I acquired it. Under my ownership it was then hit again on the drivers front, as well as another incident on the passenger front corner as well as a light tap directly center front. During my previous "rust repair" my door gaps also shrunk slightly and now there's more extensive rust in areas that I did not eliminate the first time around. I also drove this thing in all sorts of weather and had it parked outside most of those years so its seen some abuse. Needless to say most people will think I'm nuts for bringing this one back however it has the sentimental value to it and plus I enjoy the restoration work so this build is for "fun".


Here's some pictures to get everyone up to speed...

Here's the car when I bought it. Circa 2008

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Here's after I got it roadworthy, painted, and drove it everywhere.

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And then here's some of the adventures...

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Here's the current state. Its been sitting in the corner of my shop collecting dust and parts from other projects.

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Had to shift some of the other stuff around to get it out.

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Here's my not so pretty door gaps. The other side looks slightly worse.

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The motor that's in the car is a 1911 w/ Ljet. While I had this car on the road it had a total of four different engines in it 2.0, 1.7, 1.8, and this 1911. I also ran Djet, CIS, and Ljet. It was quite the experiment of combinations in order to keep this car on the road with practically no budget. I also added the air conditioning to deal with the hot NC summers. I have since moved the Western NC in the mountains where AC is not really required.

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This weekend I pulled the engine and rear suspension. I had previously borrowed the transmission out of this car so it was a breeze to get the engine out. Luckily everything went smoothly.

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Welcome back! Without seeing all the nooks and crannies, it looks to be a solid car to start with. Enjoy the process, I will be looking forward to seeing your progress.

Cheers,
John

Since the work I plan on doing to this car is going to be extensive, I decided to build a jig table/dolly. I loosely used the Jeff Hail Design for the overall dimensions but then made a few changes. I wanted this table to be easily adaptable to other cars and I wanted to be able to break it down and store it without taking a ton of space. There are three supporting crossmember assembly that house the wheels and will also have leveling feet. The main beams of the table are 2"x5" structural members with 0.25" thick sidewall. On top of the main beams I welded plates with CNC located holes that run the entire length. this will make bolting fixtures/jigs relatively easily.

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I skipped a couple steps but here's the general product. I still have to add two crossmembers at each end, paint it, and install the level feet assemblies.

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You can see the two crossmembers lying on top that have yet to be added.
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Thanks. Looks are deceiving. There's plenty of rust and sub-par work (done by yours truly many years ago) that needs to be corrected

Looking forward to watching this.....

Real nice table!

Charlie

Very nice

Wow, build your own bench, hats off and it looks great. But with one 914 on the rotisserie where will you find the time. Keep up the good work and keep posting your good progress.

Well you certainly got my attention with that beautiful table you are building. You are really setting the bar high.

Very much interested here in Europe also.

Yep, watching along at home

@dlee6204 One of my favorite colors! When you painted it before, what paint manufacturer did you use to get that Ravenna Green? Easy to find?

That dolly is awesome!! Would you consider selling a supporting crossmember kit?

It was PPG Omni. Marathon Blue metallic was the original color which is probably what I'll go back to.

@JD74914 Considering the size, not sure I would want to ship the parts. I don't mind sharing the files so one could go to their local laser cutter to get them cut though.

I got the two crossmembers fabricated and installed on the ends of the table.
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I also fabricated my leveling feet assemblies. These will allow me to fine tune the table as needed.
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My 3 year old son helped.

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I got the car up on the table and made my first jig for the front crossmember points.

I'm fortunate enough to have access to a cnc laser so making this mount (and the rest of the table) was a breeze. This jig has a tolerance of 3mm so it allows for small variations in body measurements. As I make other jigs, I will also incorporate the 3mm rule.

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I need to pick up some 1/2" bolts for attaching the jig to the table so I don't have the front fully bolted down yet. I also need to level the back end of the car before going any further.
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Before I started this project I invested in metric measuring tapes. I've barely gotten into this project and this has already been proven to be a great decision.
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A little progress has been made since my last update. I started stripping the front end of various components (bumpers, lights, gas tank, AC Condenser, etc.). I removed the old hood and installed a nice rust-free, damage-free hood to check some of my gaps. Keep in mind that the driver's front corner had been involved in two accidents previously so I knew things were going to be less than perfect.

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Passenger side looks pretty good.
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Driver's side not so much. During the previous repairs, things definitely didn't get lined up correctly and so this corner will need quite a bit of work.
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Given that this car has major issues all over, I will be focusing my attention on the front of the car first and get that section properly repaired. I will then use the front as a reference and work my way back to the rest of the car.

I had previously made a jig for the rear mounts on the front cross member. I then created a jig for the front set of mounting points for the crossmember. With the rear mounts tied down, I could then see if there was any twist further forward.

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With my passenger side resting on the jig, the front crossmember mount on the driver's side is about 2mm higher suggesting there is some twist on the front end. Although I haven't done the full assessment yet, the front A-arm mounts appear to be about 6-7mm higher on the driver's side. I measured to the top of the struts and luckily those were within about 1mm of each other. I'll be stripping the front corner of all the previous repairs and then try to straighten it from there.

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I also managed to buy another project. They say to buy the best one you can afford so I did. Not sure when I will get to this one but I'll save it for when I run out of things to do on the 914.

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I haven't updated this build in several months but I have been able to make some small progress on this car recently. I started to strip the front end of the previous repairs so I could get it tweaked back into position and have a good base to start rebuilding from. I also bought a front clip that should be arriving any day that I will use to rebuild this front end.


I made my first cut and it immediately relieved some tension that was present from my previous botch job.
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There's no shortage of spot welds.
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I'm still undecided if I will remove the passenger side headlight bucket. Its in decent shape however I have to repair some rust in the inner fender and it might just be easier to remove and replace.
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Great job, I can see this will certainly come out excellent this time around. I'm diggin the color it's now, making me rethink my color choice for mine. Have you thought of a color for this one yet?

I got quite a large package today. A rust free front clip that will give me almost everything needed repairing the front end.

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Its been a long time since the last update but this project is still alive. Moving slow but still alive. Life really keeps me busy.

I've spent quite a bit of time evaluating the front end of the car and deciding on the best route to go. I ultimately decided that the passenger headlight bucket needed to go as well as most of the front trunk pan. Here's some reasons why I decided to cut the whole front of the car off. The truck floor had some rust around both front a-arm mounts.

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The bumper reinforcement on the passenger side also needed a bunch of work. This car also had a small fender bender on the passenger side so I couldn't count on the headlight bucket being perfect.

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Before I cut the front off, I had to make a jig to locate the front A-arm mounts. Once that was done I was able to make the big cut.

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Once that was done, I trimmed a lot of the extra meat off the new front clip and was able to mount it to the table. The initial trim was quite rough however I can already tell things are lining up very well. Many more trims are needed before I can even think about tack welding it on. You will notice my clip has headlights partially installed... I need to finish bolting those parts on so I can verify hood alignment and check my gaps. I will also wait to fully weld it until I have front fenders ready to test fit as well.

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I've also been collecting some parts as time goes on. In the fall I picked up a project car that turned out to be a turd. I'm optimistic though that it has some good fenders that I can use for this car.

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Also picked up a NOS firewall. This is for an early car so it will need some modification for the seat belt pockets. Also purchased a tail light panel from restoration design. This will be needed when I get to the back of the car.

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Glad you updated. I missed this thread somehow. That’s quite a project. Looks
Like you have it well handled though.Good luck! Will be following.

Awesome bench!

Looking forward to seeing the work ahead. Very inspiring!

Big project, thanks for updating! Cool looking frame jig

Antoine

That frame table is beautiful! I;d slap an engine in it and drive that puppy around

One thing I didn't mention that held me up was that I didn't initially paint the jig table but went ahead and mounted the car on top anyway. Over time this bothered me and I should've known better. I ended up taking the table back apart, sending it for powder coating, and assembling it again. Hopefully to last and to be used many years to come.