Today marks the official beginning of my 1974 Porsche 914-4 restoration project.
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I'm hoping to have the car on the road before its 50 anniversary.

Enjoy the "ride".

Since it's already in primer, are you taking over a project that someone else started? Many of the potential rust areas appear to be in good repair from this distance, so you must be off to a good start. .

Yes. This is a project that has been sold twice since the car was on the road. I just finished taking the brake lines, fuel lines and wiring harness off. Most of the traditional problem areas have been addressed but I'm going to have it media blasted and some final metal work.
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That looks like a good starting 914 to me! You'll only make it better.

Prepping the car for the body shop. Added the hood, trunk, engine cover and doors.

Turns out it is a rainbow clown car now.

The doors were blue painted black.
The hoods are yellow.
The dash is red.
The body is primer over green.

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Looks like a real good start. I'm back to this square with a 74 tub, to repair my 72. Most pieces will end up 72 but with all the up grades that came with the later years. And while I'm here all the suspension bracing and stiffening kits that are proven. You have fun with your build.

I dropped the car off at TranslogGT (http://transloggt.com) to have the body dipped at MEC (http://www.mecchemicals.com).

I'll post some pictures once it comes out of the acid bath.

In the meantime, I'm collecting parts and polishing the ones I have.

Right now working on the wiring harness.

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George

I finished refurbishing my wiring harness. I repaired all of the cut ends, burnt spots, and frayed shielding.

I moved my fuel pump wire to the front trunk area under the gas tank.
Found and exposed the wire for the intermittent wipers.
I swapped out my wiper switch for one with an extra connector and added a wire from the steering column to the front trunk for an electric washer pump.
I wrapped the whole thing in harness tape and labeled every connector.
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I cleaned my relay board, soldered all of the connections and repotted it.
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I built a custom wire harness for the center console gauges.
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I cleaned and painted my fuse block.
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Nice work! All the hours spent on the wiring harness will pay off later.

Really nice work that is going to pay huge dividends when reassembly begins. Especially the wiring harness.

Nice work. Hopefully most of the work done is good and you won't have to rework much.

Food for thought. With my sons car we used tint able upol truck beadliner on the bottom, rockers and inside where the tar pads would go. Should last forever and deaden the sound some. Might be a thought.

Just finished refurbishing my front turn signal housings.
I sand blasted, primer and painted the entire thing enamel gloss black.
I made the bulb holders for the euro conversion from aluminum flashing.
The inside silver is SpazStix mirror finish. The backside is Rustoleum undercoating black.

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I cobbled together four good housings and figured I'd convert them all in case I messed any up.
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The plan is to attach the puck wires to the new leads, use clear lenses and bi-color led bulbs.

George

That looks great George, keep posting. Mark

Great work making progress on all the parts during bodywork..re-assembly will be way easier!
The picture from the area under the battery tray looks like a very unprofessional repair..I hope there is no surprises under it !
Cheers
Antoine

Ah, just found this. Yeah, probably not ready in time for NE Gathering... Best wishes!

@GeorgeKopf Presuming (?) you had metalwork done before priming and dipping, did you do it yourself or have a shop do it? I’m really struggling to find a shop qualified and interested in doing a small job on my driver’s side jack triangle and bit of longitudinal.

@StarBear
I dropped the chassis off at TranslogGT in York PA. They are a Porsche specific body shop and the owner (Tony) has his own 914 project. They're getting my chassis dipped for me at MEC Chemicals in Natty Glo PA. I'll post updates as I get more information. So far they have had the car since this summer.

George

Thanks, George. So few capable body shops left any more.

Bare naked 914!
The chassis just came back from the chemical dip.
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First the good news.
All four quarter panels are smooth and straight.
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Both the front and rear trunk lids look really good.
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The doors look really good.
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It is fairly obvious that this chassis has never been hit. The rest is just what you would expect to find.


The hell hole and the driver side.
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The trunk pans.
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The headlight cavities.
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Wheel wells
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Rear end
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Gas tank cavity
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Longitudinals
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There is a bit of work to untwist some pretty crappy welding by the previous owners and a bunch of areas that need some repair. It could have been much worse. The chassis is now in the hands of Tony at Translog GT in York PA.

All in all, I'm delighted!!!

@georgekopf I’m pretty sure I saw this one on YouTube, trunk floor patch looks the same. They recorded washing left over acid and grime off of the car. Looks really good after an acid dip https://youtube.com/shorts/po8bHGJln-Q?feature=share

@barnfind9141972 Yes. That's my car. It has the blue zip tie in the rear trunk. That is pretty cool. Thanks for pointing this video out.

Going to refurbish my suspension while Translog GT fixes the chassis.

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Fun with rust, hammers, torches and lubricant.

Wow, what a great candidate to begin a restoration on. Good luck with this.
Will be following.

Given that you've done a full tub acid dip, are you heading toward powder coating?

Here's a couple pics of powder coat.

Rear Semi Trailing Arms with re-plated hardware
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Front Lower Control Arms
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I screwed up and should have plated the front LCA rear bushing holders instead of powder coating them. The powder coat ends up affecting fit into the front crossmember negatively. Would also look nicer with that piece plated

Elephant racing has a nice video up of the front LCA bushing install and what angles to set the front bushing holders at to align perfectly with the body to avoid bushing preload.

@Superhawk996

Wow. That looks great. I'm jealous. I plan on powdercoating all of the big parts. I have the Harbor Freight kit and an old smoker for heating. I also have been practicing zinc plating and have the yellow chromate solution. I will post pictures as I make progress.

Interesting idea to plate the bushing inserts.

Thanks.

George

So will your parts end up smelling like Jerky or Salmon? for creative reuse of the smoker!

I believe the front LCA, rear bushing holders were plated on the 911's so I think there is precedent there.

Not sure of your budget but I've been super happy to drop off rusty parts at the powdercoat shop and simply get shiny parts back. I love DIY but that is one aspect I've been happy to job out.

Thus far, I've done my own zinc and yellow chromate plating using a Caswell system. However, it is also very labor intensive and I'm only doing it because I haven't found an acceptable plater local to me that will quote without me schlepping parts to them just to get the quote. Special thanks to Mark Epstein and Bruce Stone for the plated parts I've been able to obtain though their efforts and batch plating they do from time to time.

I hear you about having somebody else do the plating and powder coating. I contacted several in my area and they wanted an arm and a leg. They were so outrageously expensive that I decided to do it myself.

I am looking for somebody to rechrome a few parts for me. The local place in NJ is superchrome and they want both arms and legs.

George

Turns out my powder coating oven is not big enough for the larger parts so I found an automotive media blasting/powder coating shop and dropped off all of the big stuff. I'm still blasting and coating the smaller bits.

Also, I've had good success with Zinc plating but can't get the yellow chromate to stick.

Check the Caswell forums - lots of discussion on this.

I've had good success with doing a good rinse after zinc. Don't touch the part between the zinc tank and the chromate tank. Dip in chromate. Don't dip too long. Maybe 15 seconds max. Thick chromate doesn't work as well. All you want is a light coat to interact with the zinc.

Spray rinse gently with distilled water from a sprayer. Hang to dry. Don't disturb the last drop of water that tries to cling to the part. Don't touch anything for a week or two. Hardens over time. Caswell forum and others bake if they have an oven. I don't so it just takes a long time for the chromate to interact with the zinc and to harden up properly at ambient temperature in my experience. Be patient before touching parts.

George,

First off, I think you are doing great work on your car! It's coming along.

I had this same issue the first time I tried plating. I did both zinc-nickel and zinc plating and I can tell you, that while I like the durability of the zinc-nickel better, the plain zinc was much easier to do. Make sure your zinc plates are covered with the provided cheese cloth. Temps are important and you must make sure things are very clean. IMO, if you follow the instructions and prep things correctly, you should start to see better results with the chromate sticking. Here's a link to my "plating" pics with comments.

https://fredriethmiller.smugmug.com/1974-Po...Apr-Jun-2020/59

BTW, I just got finished a 4-year full restoration on my '74 914. Welcome to look into the other galleries, as well (https://fredriethmiller.smugmug.com/1974-Porsche-914).

Does that look great or what! A word of caution though, I had my Big Healey chemically stripped some time ago and was later gobsmacked to find that rust still lurked in all the pinch (spot) welded seams! I'm still researching a "cure" for that; need something oily with lots of "creep".

Ever come up with solution

I can't believe how long it has been since I last updated this thread.

I have completely refurbished the suspension. I am now waiting on the body shop to complete the repairs to the chassis. Hopefully, I'll get it back before the end of summer.

Here are some photos of the refurbished parts.

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I also refurbished the steering rack, purchased new tie rods, ball joints, torsion bars,
and springs.

George

I just visited my chassis at Translog (York, PA).

Tony and his crew did a ton of work to bring the chassis back to "like new" condition.

Looking to get the chassis back sometime this Fall.

George
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Did you attend Princeton University?

Nope. I'm a Maryland Terrapin. Why do you ask? Are you a Princeton alum?