I look at those pictures and I remember all the work it took to get those right. Having just recently done all this work myself I can see you are doing a great job.

Thanks...in fact after seeing your car a couple of months ago I liked the way the rino went on and decided to follow your lead. I really liked the fine texture on yours.

Well finally back from a vacation with my parents and sisters. Last stop was Colorado where a substantial portion of my 914 stash is still located. Somehow two checked bags of luggage came back to Texas in the form of 914 parts....

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Its reall surprising how much of a 914 can be packed into a couple of suitcases

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Checked bags are probably cheaper than shipping, neat idea.

Car parts in checked luggage? Seems perfectly normal to me.

Started out today tinkering with the E-brake handle I just brought out from CO. It was definately a bastardized repair job done by the PO. Most of the parts are there, but some parts were definitly improvised. And now the search begins for replacement parts. Some of the retaining pins are badly worn as is the plastic sleeve that goes on the pivot point, all of which are NLA. The pivot sleeve is also cracking away from the body of the lever.

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First I blasted all the parts, then rewelded the pivot sleeve to the handle. Cleaned the handle and then painted with etch primer. All the other parts will make the next trip to the plater to be replated.

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Then I worked on some of the thousand miscelaneous body issues that need attention before paint. Starting with the front trunk seal channel and the front air intake panel...
Someone used silicon to fasten the rubber seal into the channel and when I blasted the car allot of the silicon did not come off. SoI had to manually scrape as much of it away as possible using a small screw dirver.

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After scraping the majority of the silicon off, then I went to work sanding the inside of the channel as well as the front vent. What a PITA to hand sand these small spaces.

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Today was just a bit too hot to do any body work on the car, so I decided to tinker around with some small stuff and the parts I brought back last week.

I got the E-brake handle re-painted for starters

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After that I decided to see if I could re-plastic the latch piece for the roof. Wanted to see if I could get close to the factory covering. I had a latch that had already pealed, so I media blasted it clean. Then I used black plasti-dip. I was bit disapointed when I first pulled it out of the dip because it had a big run down the middle.

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But after setting for a few hours, It was totally smooth. I am not sure how it will hold up in the long run, but I am happy with the result, so will give it a try.

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Then I decided to play with the brake calipers I brought back. The are pretty filthy so it will take some serious cleaning to get them ready.

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Started with the disassembly of the rear Calipers.

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I actually had the adjustment cover for one of the rear calipers. I think I might have another stashed somewhere.

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Got all of the pistons out and they were pretty nasty, but not all rusted.

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Here is a picture of the piston and bleeder valve. Not sure what one has to do to turn a bleeder valve into a banana, but this one was close.

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Then I decided to clean the Caliper body. So after taping off the mating surfaces and the piston hole and plugging all the passages, I media blasted one of the bodies. It is a pretty long process but it's amazing what a difference it makes.

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Even the specialty hardware that is correct for the brakes got blasted and will go to the plater for black zink plating.

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Well Damn. Didn't get any car work done yesterday. Instead I went to help a friend do some electrical work and ended up falling off a ladder. Don't think I broke anything but my left arm doesnt want to cooperate.

Oh well onto today. Decided to work on the front calipers. I have two sets here, but upon inspection one has a bleeder broken off in it, so used the other set. They are pretty nasty though as you can see from this one...

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Took it apart to get a better look at things. The pistons seem a bit rusted.

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I soaked the pistons in the bores with some Transmission fluid then added compressed air and "POP" , the outer piston shot out like a cannonball from a cannon. But the inner piston didn't budge.

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removed

So I tried a few more times with compressed air to the inner and nothing......
So I added more Transmission fluid to the piston. Then took a c clamp to see if I could move it at all. It did move in, so I will let the transmission fluid work any miracles over night and try again tomorrow. Its beer and bed time.

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grease gun. a little messy but a lot safer than compressed air

Add acetone to the transmission fluid.

Careful with those ladders, falling is no joke… coincidently I just heard yesterday of a local morning news personality posting about her father falling from a ladder and passing away! Glad it’s just a bruised arm you suffered!

I may have an extra caliper if you need.


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Yes the fall wasn't bad, But that sudden stop when I hit the ground really sucked. I am very lucky, but very sore.

So the overnight soak on the piston was a success. I used compressed air one last time and it popped right out.

RRietman, I figured that if the compressed air didn't do it, the grease injection was a great suggestion and was my next step.

You can see from the pictures just how nasty the inside of the callipers were.....

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The pistons weren't horrible, but they werent exactly clean either....

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So now its time to blast the caliper bodies. So I tape off all of the machined areas, probably over-kill. Not sure it would hurt the mating surfaces, but they are machined for a reason, so I like to keep them that way to be safe. So I tape the surfaces with painters tape, and then trim the tape to fit, Surprisingly the tape holds up to the 100 psi blasting.

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I also plug all the holes that lead to any internal passages using plastic plugs.

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So the rear calipers are ready to be sent for plating. Big changes from when I started. I guess tomorrow will be spent doing all of the front calipers....yeah

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Nice. I like it when grunt jobs produce shiny results.

I agree Bob. Its what keeps us moving forward......

Today I spent my morning packing up the rear calipers and a bunch of other hardware to go to Plating services in Wisconsin.

There were brake parts that will be done in all three shades of Zinc treatment.

The 2 pictured here all of the bolts get done in Black Zinc, the parts in the 2nd pic get done in clear and averything else was for yellow coating.

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From there it was back to work on brake parts. Gathered up all of the front brake pistons I had and cleaned them all up....Here is a before and after pic....

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All total I had 7. Not sure why or really where they all came from...

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Out of the 7 I had, after cleaning I had 3 that I consider to be less than desireable. 2 with chunks missing on the face and one that has quite a bit of pitting. So at least I have enough to finish the job.

Was also looking at spending about $75 to have the broken bleeder blasted out, but another member here saw my previous posts and reached out with a donor, Thanks Doug, I really appreciate it.

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Well since today is NASCAR race day I didn't get a lot done. But I did get the 4 Caliper pistons re-blasted and painted. Its amazing how even after blasting the first time the rust comes back due to the properties of the brake fluid. It gets into the metal and continues to attract water. So reblasted them and then painted them right away.

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I used hi temp caliper paint and then baked them in three stages to cure the paint first at 200 deg. then 300 deg. and finally at 400 deg. glad the wife is understanding about the need to use her oven. Besides I had too cook my race day snacks at the same time....nothing like chicken and caliper pistons....lol

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Today I am back to work on the car however the shoulder injury is making it rather difficult, so light work.

There was two items left on the white board so I decided to knock them out.

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You can see in the pic how rough the weld seem was from the firewall repair. Also the red arrow shows where one of the two metal tabs that hold the wire harness in place have broken off

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Started smothing off the weld line, however the only cutoff wheel that I had was a 3", and I needed something larger. You can also see where I ground off the broken tabs and drilled holes to weld in the new ones.

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The grinder I had wont allow me into that tight corner either, so I went and bought a 4" Disk and that did the trick.

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I then cut 2 metal tabs out of 22 Ga. metal and welded them in place.

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Since the list was done and I have been working on the brakes I decided to go back to work on those. I have been trying to locate a piston alignment tool and the only one I could find was in England and it was $19.00 plus shipping. I contacted ATE and they said the tool does not exist.

So, I decided to make my own. I wanted to make it a rust free tool since it will be exposed to brake fluid repeatedly, So I got a piece of 3/16" aluminum bar stock.


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The tool has to be cut for a 20 degree angle to get the proper caliper alignment in the front roters. So I used a scribe to make the appropriate angles (hard to see the lines, but they are there).

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And after about an hour of cutting and final shaping I now have my own guage.
If anyone is interested I have plenty of bar stock left, so I could make more of these and I think I would sell them for about $10.00 plus shipping.

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Nice, you know Im in ..


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