I’ve been meaning to post about the latest 914 to hit my stable but it did not feel right until now. Unfortunately, we lost our friend Jeff Donnelly (jeffdon) last month at age 59. He will be missed by many. Jeff was a good friend and is the one that got me into the 914 flow. We would hang at the pub and talk about them and other things automotive. After a while, I ended up purchasing his 76 project now known as Smoggy. Unfortunate circumstances has also made me the caretaker of Jeff’s 72, a car he loved. The 72 fell in disrepair a few years back after a string of engine failures. Jeff intended to get it back on the road but life’s turns prevented that from happening. Jeff’s family and friends thought I was the natural choice to bring the car back so a deal was worked out and a new project was in my hands. Working on Smoggy and other 914’s has made me appreciate how each car can have different attributes and drawbacks. The 72, which today got named Foggy, is pretty much rust minimal as far as 914’s go. Really.. I will show some pics soon. Jeff said he did not have to deal with the hellhole, etc and wouldn’t you know it, that is what I confirmed today. There are some bumps and bruises to deal with which I will elaborate on later as I take on those tasks. My plan is to freshen the car mechanically by installing a d-jet 2056 picked up a while back for Smoggy. There will be lots of parts raiding from the Smoggy stash as well as some new purchases. So far, I have gutted the interior and have done extensive cleaning of the underside to assess condition and because I can’t help myself. It had early struts with floppy pinch bolt ball joints so I decided to rip apart the front suspension and use the front struts from smoggy. Sent all that off to the powdercoater while the calipers went to PMB for some Eric magic. A 914 rubber order was placed for all kinds of freshening bits. I plan to put new carpet and maybe do up the seats if they are not passable. Keeping the tailshift for now to control scope creep. I hope to have Foggy back on the road in the next couple months and to take to WCR and maybe Red Rocks Classic. So anyway, that’s what has been going on in San Rafael. We miss you Jeff.

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So sorry about Jeff but I know he's smiling down, knowing Foggy is in proper hands. We know you'll do a great job! Looking forward to helping in any way I can.

Mark- Jeff is sitting up there and smiling as you get his baby back on the road so others can look and smile as they remember the days when 914's were plentiful on the roads. May Jeff rest in peace.

Some progress pics
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She's beautiful! Bittersweet though. RIP Jeff

thoughts.

I'm not religious so I don't do the prayers.

Post the progress and talk soon,

- Tony

Looking forward to see it back on the road! It looks like it will clean up nicely

RIP Jeff. Always enjoyed our conversations.

Sorry to hear about you losing your close friend. Sounds like a cool guy. Keep sharing the spirit of Foggy's resurrection. Todd

sorry to hear of jeff's passing, maybe Mark, or someone that knew him well could place a post in the thread dedicated to remembering those that have left us like jeff, in
honor and memory of him , maybe add a link to this thread and others ?
RIP Jeff, condolences to his family and friends, he was wayyy too young.
@markhoward
@SirAndy

On my, I didn't know Jeff but condolences to his family. Such a young guy.
His old car is in good hands with Mark.
Let me know if you need any parts.

Oscar

Thanks everyone for the kind words. Some progress today. Was only going to remove the floor tar around the perimeter so I could treat surface rust accumulation around the edges. One thing led to another and now we have bare floors. All solid metal found. Tomorrow I’m going to do an ospho treatment and prep for some rust preventative touch up. Also pulled the fuel tank to assess and to clean paint overspray. Gotta tidy things before reassembly. Things are looking good!
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It’s been a while since I updated but there has been some progress. Straightened a small area and welded up a crack in the frunk near the front a-arm mount. Looks like damage from being jacked up or possibly from it falling off the trailer when Jeff and his dad transported it from Oakdale to Oakland. I remember that story..

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Decided to redo the clutch tube repair. WIP..
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More cleaning on the floors and pedal area.
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Some PMB love..
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Mark - your chassis is looking good! Nice job on that suspension area repair. Glad to see it wasn't more serious.
Target date to have it on the road?

That is going to be one nice car Mark; love the PMB calipers.

Trying to pin me down on a date? I’m getting stressed! Hope it goes together soon as I don’t really want to drag it to the new house as a non runner. Bigger question is what to do with Smoggy long term. Looking forward to working on it this weekend with you!

Ok, @tygaboy is getting in my head! Over the weekend, he asked ‘what are those struts for and why are you not using them on the 72?’

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After a short incubation period, I find myself here:

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Seems I am failing to keep scope limited.

Mark - Oh, good heavens.
YOU don't set build scope. Build scope is an unstoppable force of nature. It goes where it NEEDS to go. Trust me on this one.

Foggy is going to be 5-lug. Resistance is futile.

Damn, it's like a Porsche factory over there!

Over the last few days, I refreshed the front suspension and steering rack. Will post pics of that tomorrow. Its funny how my mind works. Somehow, installing the steering rack led to replacing the dash. How? Well its simple.. If installing the steering rack, you may as well deal with the sloppy steering column bearing. Off comes the lower dash and that leads to dealing with a broken turn signal switch and worn ignition lock. While in the process of putting the freshened column back, you notice how accessible the dash is as well as all those cracks. So then its off to the Smoggy parts stash and after a long while cussing at fiddily nuts, you have a new 914rubber dash installed! The two nuts at the instrument cluster are a total pain to get started. Thought it would be easier if the dash pad came with studs that taper to a point or had a leading tip with no threads. @Mikey914 . Just an idea..

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Also picked up the trailing arms from powdercoat and dropped the bearings in, topping them off with replated retainers from Bruce Stone @bdstone914 .

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Nice, nice and NICE!

Man, you are kicking butt and getting it done. I look forward to seeing you on the 9th.

I hear you, unfortunately there is not a lot of room in that area. But I will tike a kook to see if we can rorate them slightly.

Mark

Got the 5 lug conversion done on the front. The Brembo’s are not on yet as I have to go through them first. Thought it was smooth sailing on the the rears but found considerable play in the new FAG bearings (made in Slovenia). One is loose and the other is really loose. Will try to get a video posted for some feedback. @tygaboy came by today and said they can be loose until the cv flange is installed. This of course was after I put in an order for a pair of SKF’s. I don’t remember them being loose when I did the 911. Foggy is looking good up front and is getting me feeling that we have crossed over to the putting back together stage.

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Think I figured out the bearing issue. Was looking at the old ones and noticed the inner part has a split in the middle. Totally makes sense that putting in the CV stub will close what I assuming is a gap and take up the play. Will report back later.

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Well its all tight now. Learned 3 things:

1. You have to tighten down the CV stub to take up the play.
2. This is why you should not tow a 914 with CV stubs out.
3. Always listen to @tygaboy

Foggy progress report:

Primed and painted the pedal area.

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Installed the Nardi wheel I got a while back from @buddyv .

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Replaced a bad section of the passenger side engine seal channel.

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Welded up 5 holes in the firewall.
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And the one I have not been looking forward to.. Replaced the clutch tube. Still need to braze the tube to the added brackets in the tunnel but am calling it done enough to post.

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Your welding and finishing work is looking really nice!

Inspirational, Mark

Sorry to hear about your friend. My condolences.


I wished I could move forward with 'HOWARD'. Got a stash of new/refreshed parts to go on the car, but the long pole in the tent is finding a shop to deal with getting the driver's side trailing arm mounts back to where they need to be. Can't do s#it until that's dealt with

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Thanks Mark, there has to be someone down south who knows the right shop for that repair. Hope you get back running soon! BTW, those 2 fuchs you transported way back are going on Foggy.

Thanks Chris, would not be where I am with all this without you. Looking forward to Saturday workshop at the barn!

A couple of callouts from the clutch tube job.

1. I moved where the clutch tube exits the firewall over to the left a bit from the factory location. Hope this does not give me problems later. I did do some checking first and think its fine. The riveted plate repair Jeff did had it in this position too. I mocked it up with the /6 mount and assessed clearances there, deciding that it would be better to have the tube come through the mount rather than to the right of it (assuming the /6 will go in eventually). Rationale was that the mount would give extra strength where the tube passes through. Plus I think having the tube so close to all the other pass through holes is a contributing factor to why they fail. Fingers crossed that this does not bite me in the booty.

2. When brazing, make sure you take your time and not get ahead of yourself. It was end of the day after a long session on this job. I had lots of momentum but knew I was tired. Decided to keep plugging away at it. There was a gap with preexisting brass abound around the speedo cable pass through. Some torch flame passed into the tunnel and got closer to backpad wires than I would have liked. No damage was caused but had I paused more to assess what I was about to do, I would have thought to put a wet rag in the tunnel to protect the wires. I got lucky on that one..

Brazing done. Going to use 1 1/4” body plugs to cover the holes. Figure permanent access cannot hurt.

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Scope creep is alive and well in San Rafael. Was originally going to fog the engine bay in trunk spatter paint but am now doing a full repaint in L96D single stage. Battery tray was marginal but good enough to use. There was a factory one on Pelican yesterday which led to this.

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What to do with the left trunk hinge? It was repaired before using a stud and cotter pin. Seemed to work well but am contemplating on replacing.

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Trunk hinges are gone and will be replaced with a JWest kit.

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A while back, @tygaboy suggested fitting the mount and oil tank for the /6 conversion now so that it will be easier to do the swap later. I think we know where this is going..

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YES!!!!

6! 6! 6!

Er, wait a minute...

Yes! When you talk about "mission creep" that is the definition right there. But that is good creep and you will be very happy you did that.

Its been a month since the last Foggy update. Normally, that would mean I am at a full standstill but am happy to report that progress has been made. Thought it was a good idea to run the engine on the ground to make sure things were sound. Did this with a pair of webers that need rebuilding but was able to confirm all is good. Have since installed the fuel injection while sprucing things up in the process. Of course, this made me start feeling the 4 banger so decided not to install the /6 mount and oil tank for now. Still have plans to do a 6 later but thought it would be best not to commit now just in case I really like the 4. Other progress made was fitting the front bumper and fiberglass valance as well as freshening the driving lamps. Got a bit stuck on repainting the engine bay. First it was going to be grey/white trunk spatter, then factory silver, then wurth undercoating sprayed with the proper gun, then back to the trunk spatter. Decided not to do silver because it is really hard to get a good enough finish for paint without getting deep. I did spend alot of time prepping but knew the silver would show flaws. The prep included replacing the battery tray, applying wurth seam sealer where I had stripped the old off, and welding in some broken wiring tabs. Completed the bay off with some refresh work on the wiring harness, a new engine seal, and a Jwest trunk hinge kit (compliments of @tygaboy ). Today, I installed the rear trailing arms, shocks, and wheels/tires to make it a roller! Major milestone.. After that, I moved the whole mess into the garage in preparation for the drivetrain install. Now for the photo dump..

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Very nice what type/make exhaust are you going to use ?

Thanks! The car came with SSI’s which will be mated to the last @mb911 /4 muffler Ben had.

Engine compartment looks really nice!
Heck at this rate, you'll be driving it up for a visit on Sunday afternoon!

WOW! That looks awesome! Fantastic work!

Mark you are making terrific progress- Will you be driving this car for WCR?

Thanks Michael. I do plan on driving Foggy. No 911 this year (I hope).

You’re making good progress. Looking good

Looking good! Assembly after paint, been there, done that recently.