I am trying to figure out if the undercoating was all from the factory or if someone added more? Did the heat shield come from the factory or dealership with undercoating on it....I would think that might be an aweful smell when it got hot.

Click to view attachment

At least I didnt have to scrape the undercoating from half of the floor since I replaced it I will have to grind and add another bead of weld to the seam though, now that I dont have to do it laying upside down....I hate overhead welding.

Click to view attachment

After getting about 90% of the front half cleaned off, it was time for lunch. Only took about 3 hours...lol

Click to view attachment

I did find a few dents in the floor pan of the frunk that need some attention. Also was wondering if it would be better to re-seal the floor plugs or just weld them in? anyones thoughts would be appreciated.

Click to view attachment

Allot of the seam sealer is still pretty well adhered. There was a short strip that was peeling so I removed it. Question would it be better to remove it all and reseal all of the seams, Or just spots where it needs attention?

Got some of the heavy stuff off of the suspension mounts and the heat shield....Then it was Busch time

Click to view attachment Click to view attachment

Another day of stripping under coating, yee ha,

Click to view attachment

Still a long way to go to get it cleaned up:

Click to view attachment

I did get the muffler heat shield removed and of course allot more undercoating under that.

Click to view attachment Click to view attachment

Still a few questions...

1. What is the reccomendation for removing and re-applying the seam sealer? All or just where it was coming off?

2. As for the body plugs, leave them, reseal or weld them in?

3. Any recommendations on what to use to remove the glue from the rear firewall?

Thanks for any input...or recommendations.

I was pretty aggressive about removing original seam sealer. I tried prying under the edge of each section. If it came off easily, or if I saw rust, I kept going.

I welded some of the body plugs, but I am not fussy about originality.

Thanks for your input Bob. I'm not fussy about originality either. I just want a sound car that will look good and last and be the fun to drive 914 we all love.

Another day of welding up holes. The P/O had installed a makeshift oil cooler that vented up into the trunk, so I had to fill all the holes he drilled. About a dozen.

Click to view attachment Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment Click to view attachment

Then figured I would go to work on the heat shield. I really liked the idea that a couple of guys had about making the shield removable. So I fabricated 2 brackets using the design that Bob Krantz did in his build. Then bolted them where I wanted them to be located on the body and the shield. I left the cut off brackets on both so I could line everything up so the shield would be at the same height and in the exact same location as when it was welded in. Then clamped it back in place with vice grips to mark the locations for the brackets.

Click to view attachment Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Then welded the brackets in place on the body.

Click to view attachment Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

After confirming the fit I went through and cut off all of the old brackets.

Click to view attachment Click to view attachment

In the end, I am pleased with the fit. Now i can go back to cleaning all the undercoating and dirt. Hopefully soon it will be time to have the body blasted. 47 years of dirt is waring on me...lol

Click to view attachment

So, over the weekend I got frustrated about not having my work manuals in the garage where they are readily handy. So I built a bookshelf to add to the wall specifically for workshop manuals.

Click to view attachment

And I picked up a white board to help keep me on task. I've already identified several things that need doing, hopfully it will help me stay focused.

Click to view attachment

BAck to working on the car, or should I say playing, I love retirement. Decided to repair a rust issue below the drivers side het tube. This area is a PITA to get to because none of my cutting wheels would fit without cutting into the heater tube. Luckily the rust area was very small.

Click to view attachment Click to view attachment

So between metal sheers, a 2" cutoff wheel and borrowing my wife's dremmel tool, I was able to cut out the spot till I hit solid metal again. Not the straight lines I had envisioned, but will just have to adust the patch to fit.

Click to view attachment

After a considerable amount of bending and cutting, I was able to get a patch into the hole complete with flanges for welding

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Went to get my sheet metal punch and realized it is still in Colorado, so had to put the holes in the flange the old fasioned way.

Click to view attachment

Then welded it in place, a nice solid repair, just a bit of touch up to do to smooth things out a bit more.

Click to view attachment Click to view attachment

Went on to finish filling the holes in the trunk floor and finished grinding them flat.

Click to view attachment

At the end of the day, I actually got to cross three things off the white board, finally some progress.....

Click to view attachment

The white board tells all!

I have to say, it makes it nice to be able to keep track of what needs to be done, and it really feels great when you get to cross something off the list.

True words! I have an excel list to follow my project and it helps with motivation to see the progress !

Antoine

Work was cut short yesterday due to a power outage....Sucks when the power goes out, can't weld, grind or cut.....

So today I did more underbody work.

Click to view attachment

Removed the two body plugs from the frunk, and then the two from the front floor of the passenger compartment floor...

Click to view attachment Click to view attachment

Then addressed the weld between the front floor and the replacement rear floor. Since when I put this in I was laying on my back doing the welding, I was concerned that some areas of the seam might have ened up without good penetration. So I figured I would just grind the entire seam flat and re-weld it. Good thing I did, as there were several cold welds in it so there were definite cracks. Here it is after re-welding and re-grinding, no crack, no holes.

Click to view attachment

I also decided that since I have to seam seal the rear half of the floor, I would go ahead and remove not only the undercoating, but the seam sealer as well. After blasting the body, I will go ahead and put new seam sealer throughout. I spent about half the day chipping off undercoating and the seam sealer.

Click to view attachment

During my initial inspection of the bottom of the body I also found that the two front jacking donuts have huge amounts of wear, not sure how this happens? Used as tie downs? So these will be replaced as will the entire rear jacking points, since they had some rust issues.

Click to view attachment Click to view attachment

So, by the end of the day, the car is about 5 pounds lighter from all of the missing seam sealer and under coating thats missing. Now I just have to figure out how to remove the other four pounds of the sealer from the body plugs...LOL

Click to view attachment Click to view attachment

Today I decided to tackle some of the issues in the engine compartment. The hell hole has some repairs done already, but still needs some finishing work. The good thing is what appears to be rust is actually some kind of adhesive, the bad thing is i cant find anything that seems to remove it.

Click to view attachment

Started grinding down the repair welds

Click to view attachment Click to view attachment

The passenger side trunk hinge pivot was cracked so I decided to go ahead and remove it. I have a set of Pivots from J West Engineering that I plan to install.

Click to view attachment Click to view attachment

On the drivers side there is a large hole where the pivot was removed and a bolt was used as the pivot by the PO. Also there is quite a bit of hammer and dolly work to be done to finish fixing damage from a previous accident. I plan on doing that when I cut that fender for the flare.

Click to view attachment Click to view attachment

On the drivers side there is a ton of that adhesive. I may just have to wait and see if it comes out during media blasting.

Click to view attachment

But hey, on the plus side, the original VW Emission sticker is still there....

Click to view attachment

Finished removing all of the seam sealer from the passenger side floor seam

Click to view attachment

To end the day I welded the inside of the seam for the rear passenger fender flare.

Click to view attachment

Today I decided to remove the front jacking donuts. The passenger side came off very cleanly,

Click to view attachment

The drivers side wouldnt go peacefully. It became a war of wills.

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

All done I will call it a victory, however when it comes to re-install them I will most likely have to weld the passenger side from the inside

Click to view attachment

Also found a box of parts that need cleaning and painting. The seat hinges I found have only surface rust so I blasted them. The left rear Jacking point is in pretty good shape as well with just a scrape on the donut, I haven't decided if I will replace it so blasted it as well.

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

A coat of primer to help prevent rust for now and then put the parts away.

Click to view attachment

While chipping away loose seam sealer on the beloved passenger side I found a pocket of rust in the door sill, right at the front where it connects to the bottom of the door frame. The channel where the outer rocker attaches was rusted through in spots.

Click to view attachment

After removing the rusted portion, this is what I found on the lower door frame... was hoping it wasnt rusted too badly, but aside from the holes I left when drilling out the spot welds there were pinholes rusted through.

Click to view attachment

I started off by cutting a piece of sheet metal to reform the section of channel that had been cut out, and marked what I hoped would be a large enough area to get back to fresh metal on the lower door frame...

Click to view attachment

I don't have a metal bender, so bending the channel was a bit of a challenge, two metal clamp vise grips and bending in small increments got me to a satisfatory bend for the mounting lip, but then I couldnt bend the edge of the channel, so decided I would do that after mounting the repair piece to the body.

Click to view attachment Click to view attachment