Didn't get much done today. Worked on cleaning up some parts such as the rear window sail trim. This set had plenty of overspray on them and a few dents that needed to be fixed. They have several scratches as well. Wont ever be show pieces, but might be good for a daily driver.

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Was able to get the dents out (there are still marks where some used to be), and got all of the overspray off. Now I just need to see if I can buff the scratches out...

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On a high note, all of the parts I needed for my e-brake handle rebuild came today....the low note....Have to wait for some of the other parts to come back from being plated before I can get it rebuilt...

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Thanks to Doug (Literati914), I got another front caliper donated to replace the one with the broken bleeder in it, so now that can be addressed later.

After 3 days of soaking and trying to free the pistons in the caliper, I have success. The caliper was pretty rusty and dirty...I forgot to include the other half in the photo before blasting, but you get the idea....yuk


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All blasted clean, just need to clean and hone the piston cylinders

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And of course nothing is done until the hardware is done. Its all cleaned and ready to go to the plater next time I have a bunch of stuff to go...

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And of course the pistons soaked all day. But even after that they looked pretty bad. But a good cleaning and blasting of the faces and they are ready for VHT Paint.

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Great attention to detail, I can see your car will be top notch.

You have all my respect.
Your attention to details is outstanding.
All your photos are extremely valuable.
Thank you very much for your posts.
Thank you.

Thanks for the encouraging words guys. Right now it probably looks like I suffer from A.D.D. the way I am bouncing from one thing to another. I assure you that isn't the case. I would love to be doing body work , but after falling off the ladder, my shoulder is just not up to it. So I am just doing little projects to keep things moving along till the shoulder heals.....

Today I figured I would tackle the heater blower fan. I put the power to it and it functions absolutely wonderfully. But it looks horrible and the air coming through smells like mouse urine....yep, the little critters found their way into it. That was evident when I fired it up and all kinds of crap came out...

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So Time to strip it down. Hirs the output nozzle had to come off. It is held on by two tension spring fastenters. These just get pried out with a screwdriver. they are pretty robust, just make sure you don't shoot the across the garage when you pry them out.
So after finding the first one, I pried the second with a screwdriver till I could use a small pair of needlenose pliers to keep a grip on things...

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Then to make things a bit easier to handle I removed the moter and blower cage assembly from the housing. Its easy, requiring the removal of just 3, 7 mm, lock nuts.
Then just slide the assembly out of the housing..

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The next thing is to remove the air flap. It is held in by 2 plastic snap in studs. be careful removing these as I am not sure you can find replacements and like all the parts in these 50+ year old cars, they can be very brittle. You just have to use a small screwdriver to work two or three of the ears back into the hole then they can be gently pried out from the outside. (sorry for the blurry pic, it doesnt stay as clear when you blow it up)

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The last thing that needs to be removed is a plastic ring. it is held in by 3 tiny phillips head screws. After that you are simply left with the housing, and a bunch of parts...

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This is what happens to the inside when the mice leave their gracious deposits inside.

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If you noticed in the previous piture, the part number printing was still quite visible, so my original plan was to clean and repaint the inside and just wash off the outside.....so much for plans. when I cleaned the outside with soap and water most of the printing came off.... Damn

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To add insult to injury I blasted and repainted the blower cage with silver paint which I then baked on in the oven using the same 3 temp proceedures I have in the past. Paint came out hard as a rock, but as you can see, it somehow decided to enrich the color to gold....wow, I wish I could make that happen to everything I paint..., oh well its a squirrel cage, so gold will just have to do....

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So.. back to the housing. I decided to try to salvage what printing was left on the housing, So blasted the inside and masked off the entire outside. After painting the inside I removed the masking and yep, all of the printing came with it as well as a bunch of spots of the black paint. So plan 3 blast the whole housing and paint the entire thing with semi gloss black. Then oven bake....this time just black, no gold.

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So now to re-assemble. First the flap. Gently pushed the stud fasteners into place, praying they wouldnt break...success

Then screw the plastic ring back into place using new screws

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Then using a new 13 mm nut and toothed lock washer, I mounted the blower cage back onto the motor.

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Last but not least, mount the blower assembly back into the housing using new lock nuts.

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Completed assembly looks good, ( a bit funny with a gold fan ). Hooked it up and it ran like a champ, and no more mouse urine smell...

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And the fan output splitter came today, so the fan is complete....

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Nice! And the gold fan cage will be hidden bling.

Thanks Bob. Cant wait to be at the point you are at with your beautiful build. I am wondering if the galvanized coating that was on the fan might have contributed to the color of the paint after baking??? oh well like you said, hidden bling....lol

Well today I decided to do some light body work, so finishing up the engine compartment seemed like a good idea. Made a list of the things that needed to be done.

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Item #1...Glue...The P/O used some type of glue to hold the sound insulation pad in place. I think it was rubber cement of some type....all I know is it has been a PITA to remove, but after scraping with a razor blade to get the heaviest part off, I sanded it and used goof off and got it all off. Then sanded some more.
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Then I needed to replace a broken hold down strap for the wiring harness. It was broken off, so I grond down the remnants and then welded in a new one.

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Item#3, Had to tune up the body repair to the engine lid support where it had been damaged in a prior accident. Its not perfect but at least it is more square than round...

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Then I worked a bit more trying to get the inner wheel housing which was damaged in the previous accident as straight as I could get it. The first photo showes the damage after the first round of hammer and dolly work, the second is after the work was completed....

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Then I worked a bit more trying to get the inner wheel housing which was damaged in the previous accident as straight as I could get it. The first photo showes the damage after the first round of hammer and dolly work, the second is after the work was completed....

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Okay, not sure what just happened but my computer repeated the same post...

So, lastly I Finished the area where the lower firewall repair was made and the two wiring harness retainers were welded back in...

That makes the engine compartment pretty much done, with the exception of fine tuning some of the body work and paint.

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Had a minor setback today when I went to remove what I thought was a grease spot in the drivers side front wwheel well. Disovered that light was coming through....yes, yet antother rust hole.

So I got out the ice pick and hammer and started probing. Luckily its not a large area, so a minor repair.

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Cut out the rusted portion...

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And welded in the new patch.

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To finish off the day I got one of the rear wheel wells painted with Epoxy paint. Hard to get everything in those cramped sapces, but another wheel well down, 2 more to go.

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Have you thought about fender liners to keep crud out of those nice clean spaces?

I absolutely am considering the fender liners. Not sure why The factory didn't think of them....

I found the fit very good, with just a few tweaks to make it work right.

Bob, I was just looking at the 914 Rubber site and it says they wont fit for flared cars....any thoughts?

So finished up the week with a few odds and ends done. The front calipers have been cleaned, blasted and are ready to go to the Plater..

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And the two drivers side wheel wells and the rocker are now painted in epoxy primer.

Front

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Drivers side rear

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Then since I was bored I decided to tinker around with the trunk lock. Figured I would tear in apart and clean it up. I don't understand why when some people repaint their cars, they dont remove, or at least properly mask things. As you can see there is red overspray on the gasket, guess I will replace that.

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So, this is the first trunk lock I have torn all the way down. It is kind of an interesting puzzle. First you have to take the mounting nut and sleeve off of the cylinder, Then you can start taking apart the cylinder itself. Unbelievable what 50 year old locks are gooed up with. NASTY

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Then I moved into the key cylinder itself. It was so gummed up, none of the wafers or springs would come out without having to use tools to pull them out.

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I didn't realize just how many parts there are in that one simple lock. The rubber collar that goes between the lock cyliner and the housing just crumbled (red arrows). I reached out to Cabinetmaker and he informed me that this collar is available from 914 rubber and its now aluminum, so I guess I will order a few of those next week.

You can see a definate difference from before cleaning to after cleaning....lol

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while I was at it I decided to re-key it so both of my 914s are keyed the same. So all new wafers and springs...and I was able to get the red overspray off of the gasket. So I have temporarily re-assembled the lock and will replace the collar when it arrives.

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