This factory 6 managed to escape the forces pulling it into a black hole never to be seen again. It was not without every ounce of thrust it could muster and it was not without suffering a considerable amount of damage. The crew patched it back together the best they could with primitive tools and scrap they found floating in space. fortunately they crash landed in easy reach of the secret facility known as Area51Werks. The owner is someone you may or may not know. Juergen Lives in Washington. The car will eventually end up on the other side of the pond. But for now it is on it's way to the final stages of completion. It was not like this in the beginning....

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Digging the new shop Rick! Looking forward to many updates on all the residents of the Area!

The location pictured is 50 miles from the base in a remote rural town called Kelsey MN. Hidden among the farming fields is a dream shop owned by a life long friend. He is the guy dressed like a little green man with a jet powered blaster cleaning the chassis to the bones.

Click to view attachment

Alas this appears to be the last one Area51Werks will save. The new hobby shop is too small to take on big projects anymore. My back issue is not getting any better these days and I need to pace myself.

Now some scenes from the wreckage.


Never say Never. We can save her. We can make her better than new.

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Some work from space where the early crews patch work was hidden under a layer of roofing tar. Or was it some nasty secretion from some unknown species.

Click to view attachment

These do not belong on a 914. they were fashioned from scraps off the USS Enterprise. Her debris was found just outside the Milky Way.

Click to view attachment

The Alien offered her windshield opening to fashion a fixture as the car from the black hole suffered some serious cowl top damage.

Click to view attachment

The Alien

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

I gotta get busy...

Hard to take it apart this far without fixtures. I owe a special debt of gratitude to McMark who fashioned a set of fixtures using his set as a way of the holding a straight car in his shop while building these for me. Mark is one awesome guy with loads of talent.

Click to view attachment

Starting to go back together. This right section was damaged and brazed all along the attachment flange. No other way to get rid of the mess without sectioning in a new part.

Click to view attachment

Sectioned Tig welded and metal finished

Click to view attachment

The Crew did their best with what they had. Hard to locate the correct length bolts in space.

Click to view attachment

While on the way to Area51Werks the car encounters turbulence. the rear lid flew open while being shuttled backwards. The end result was not pretty. The rear lid did not make the eventual repair list and was relegated to the trash stream somewhere in Orion's Belt.

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

Attacked by space mice. they bored into every opening they could find.

Click to view attachment

Painstaking repairs were underway. It is hard to show every aspect of the amount of work that went into making a seamless repair. This section went all the way to the footwell.

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

I made a fixture to locate the part as it passed under the fuel cell. I split the floor and sectioned the part using the fixtures to align everything.

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

Without the generosity and passion for these cars the project would have been stalled while hunting down suitable used donor parts. Thanks to Glenn Stazak and Peter at Restoration Design this car received all new NOS fenders and quarter panels. All the panels were spot welded like the factory.

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

Stay tuned as this space wrecked factory 6 goes into the finishing stages.

fark

beam me up scotty

Absolutely stunning work. That is going to be one beautiful 6. Looking forward to watching this come together.

yeah that one was really crunched up front...looks great Rick!

Dang it all Rick, slow it down would you. You're at warp speed cpt. and she can't take it anymore....

Seriously the work looks great. I need to get back to my 6 repairs now that I see your thread. Keep up the great work and keep the pics coming.

Deep on that one. Long trip home. East or west.

Can't wait to see some updates!

West in your direction.

Rick did absolutely amazing work, can't wait to get her back!

Amazing work!

Thank you for sharing. Just wished I had 1% of the talent.

Fantastic work Rick. Looking forward to following this thread.

Is this the car that Andy had out here a number of years ago?

--DD

No McMark has his 6.

Nice work Rick. I remember Juergen's car when it was prowling the PNW. I hesitate to ask what happened to that -6 you got in SoCal after it was centered on a post.

I have it. Sourcing parts. It's on the Celette.

Click to view attachment

I need to find someone out here in So Cal, or possibly the PHX area who has a Celette bench that 'HOWARD' can schedule a session on

Any recommendations?

Click to view attachment

Well, not in SoCal but in Oakland there is a Celette bench at Moal Coach builders. They just had a 914-6 on it. Just a thought- it's 6 hours north of you and maybe an option.

Good to hear it’s still in the queue. Interesting car that deserved to be saved.

Photo for 914 day. If all goes as planned paint very soon...

Click to view attachment

Beautiful !
Great work.

Terrific work. Can't wait to see it in color.

They look like rear trailing arm alignment shims.

Fender shims for Merican Cars

Dang that's a lot of work to this point. Cool update pic on 9-14!

I received a door that was delivered from the tail of a comet. Early observations sent streaming thru to me by email showed promise. Bill Brunner was very helpful in getting this candidate to Area 51 Werks. The door was as stated and shown in the photos and the price was fair. Once it arrived it hit the operating table. Here is the process of preping for a new life.

Several layers of foriegn matter were removed to expose what was suspected had occurred at the hands of early space pioneers with skills and abliity to pilot a ship but no working knowledge of repairing astroid damage.
Click to view attachment

The California Rivets hanging through the back side of the skin were exposed and welded closed. The dent was pulled by tacking tig rod to the surface and using light pressure while tapping on the surface to lift the dents.
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

Several hours were spent with a shrinking disc and other tools to work out the damage. The horizontal marks are low spots and the vertical marks are high spots.
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

There were a couple reasons the inner frame was removed. As you can see there was a big chunk hacked out of the door for some strange addition for the reproduction of sound as well as cracks from metal fatigue. Once this section was removed access to the outer skin repair were made much easier.
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

This repair section came from the original door that came with the car.
Click to view attachment

This is the test fit and trim ready to tig back in. There is still work to be completed to clean up the inside of the door to accept epoxy but were are finally nearing the end.
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

I have 5 left doors here and this is the best one.

Outstanding workmanship and a great door for the project now.