So I will attempt to document my build thread here, but I’m terrible with keeping up with things and life gets in the way.

It’s a ‘75 that I originally bought in 1998 as I’ve always had a love of 914’s. I drove it for 2 years and in that time, had it painted Ford Corona Yellow and had the front markers removed. Work was so-so, but I was 18 and didn’t know better. Engine developed a rod knock and the car sat for another 2 years as I was a poor college student.

Finally got another engine which caught fire 5 minutes after getting it inspected. Insurance took the car as I needed the money more at the time. About 5 years later (2009) I bought it back as the guy who bought it from the insurance company contacted me about parts for the car, but I had sold them when my wife and I moved to St. Kitts for her Vet school.

This is how the car sits now, which is how it was when I bought it:Click to view attachment

My plan is to strip the body to a shell and repair any and all rust I find. Upon initial inspection, the worst seems to be the LF fender well and the right rocker/longitudinal. Any advice along the way would be appreciated, but it will be a slow process as I get little time to work on it with having 2 young kids and a 20 acre farm to repair.

Passenger longitudinal: Click to view attachment

LF corner:Click to view attachment

Passenger rocker:Click to view attachment

Passenger sail panel:Click to view attachment

I haven’t had a chance to dig into the extent of the rust in these areas, but I’m sure it’s worse than it looks. There are other rust areas, but they appear to be surface related. I still have more to strip off of the car to get it to bare shell status, so plenty of time for more surprises!

You are close to being torn down enough to do a rotisserie restoration. You can plan on the Hell hole, and some of the longs as well as the floor pan at the rear bulkhead.
This will be an extensive restoration. If you have or can learn some welding and metal fab skills this will be a chance to use them. You will put 1000 hrs into this.
I'm not trying to discourage you, but it will not be an easy task.

Good news you are in the right place. Many have done this, but the investment is a lot of time.

That cancer in the sail panel sometimes extends down the door jamb to the sill. Im going thru minor rust repairs on my 76 currently. Nothing as major as your up against. Pete at Restoration Design has the quality replacement pieces you will need. There are some other brands but they have some issues as others will attest to.

The hell hole was repaired a couple of years before I bought it in 1998, but the other rust is most likely cancer that was not repaired when the hell hole was. The hell hole looks great at this time.

It looks like the sail panel area was repaired with body filler to make it look like it was fine. I'll dig some more and see what it looks like.

I'm prepared to put in the time, but it might be a little here and a little there. The car has been sitting for 13 years without anything being done, so any progress at this point is better than nothing. I kept going back and forth about doing a tear down or just driving it, but since I'm not planning on selling the car again, I've decided to put in the time and make it a nice car again.

I do plan on performing the welding myself and have some experience, but it's been 20-odd years since I last welded. It'll be a learning curve for sure, but I'm willing and it'll make me know the car that much better.

I already have Restoration Design saved in my bookmarks and am already starting to build a shopping list of panels. Some areas I may just patch, but it all depends on what I find.

I made some progress today with removing the headlight assemblies and pulling the wiring harness back behind the firewall. I don't know if I'll rotisserie the car at this point. I may just try and do the work on the dollies and body cart, but this is a fluid scheme and things may/most likely will change.

I appreciate the help and encouragement and I plan on posting as I make progress.

You've certainly come to the right place. Let us know how we can help.

Very cool you being able to get your old car back. Makes it more of a resurrection than a restoration. Lots of great info and talented gearheads here. I like the deleted side marker look.

Best of luck. You’ll get it done. Lots of support here. Seems like you have a plan already. Only advice I can give is clear out all the rust till you find the sound metal.
See if it needs a patch or requires a replacement panel. I was on a similar road 6 years ago. Learn as you go. Nice you have welding experience already. A big plus there!
Look forward to seeing your progress.
Cheers, Dion

Definitely planning on keeping them deleted. I was never big on the factory side markers. I've thought about putting some early style Fiat 124 markers there, but I'll most likely just keep the deletes in place.

The car was my daily for 2 years when I first got it and I'm sure driving it in all weather conditions did nothing to help keep the rust at bay. It's a daunting task for sure, but it'll get there.

If the hell hole was repaired properly, that's a pretty big piece of work. Other rust areas look fairly common = can get replacement panels.

If you have time, fix it!

Cool story to know the 914 came back around to you. I would have loved to purchased most any of my old 914's back, but couldn't make anything work. Had to start fresh.

A couple years back I had the chance to buy my old ‘83 GTi back, but it was a shell and in worse shape than before. I happened on it just knocking around Craigslist and recognized the RR of the car. If I hadn’t already had my other projects, I would have bought it.

I feel lucky about getting the 914 back because I regretted selling it quickly after it happened. I swore I wouldn’t get rid of it again. This car (914) is also the one I had when I first met my now wife, so there’s that.

Had a little time today so I removed the front and rear bumpers and headlight assemblies.Click to view attachment

Underside of the rear trunk is in really good shape as well. A LITTLE surface rust, but no actual rust issues! I also haven’t found any obvious issues a prior accident damage….yet.

I never realized how HEAVY those rubber bumper assemblies were! I’m strongly considering backdating the bumpers, if I can find any in any sort of decent shape. I do actually like the look of the rubber bumpers, but the weight! What’s the weight difference between chrome and rubber assemblies anyway?

I got mine when it was ten years old, it was out of my hands for a few years. I got so depressed I had to get it back. My brother had it and didn't tough it, so I got lucky too.

Question: while I’m planning on taking it down to a shell, would it be worthwhile removing the windshield and rear glass? I know the windshield is compression fit with the seal, but I’ve never removed this type of windshield and don’t want to risk breaking it. Isn’t the rear glass glued in?

I ask not only for the above reason but I don’t see any rust around these areas.

They used a butyl rubber as a seal. Not much compression. Rear glass is usually ready to pop out. The front there are clips that hold the molding around the glass. You can cut these with a razor knife and remove molding. A guitar string string will saw through the butyl rubber around the windscreen. Be careful with pressure against the glass, I bet someone has made a video

Never heard in 914 discussions: "Yeah, I wish I would have kept the BUB's." I believe the BUB's are about 70 pounds and the early bumpers are about 10 pounds. Now is the time to make that improvement.

Yeah, but then comes the expense! I did a quick search and it’d be about $500-$700 min for anything approaching decent (dented, rust through in spots, peeling chrome, etc). I’ll keep an eye out in case something comes along, though.

Is it possible to put the engine back in? If so maybe you can arrange another fire to finish it off just kidding start fixing the rust one spot at a time and in about 5 years you'll have a very nice 914

Yeah, hopefully not! Hopefully I'll be taking it back home later on this year once a floor is poured. If that happens, it'll allow me quicker access to the car so I can actually work more on it. Believe me, I'll be triple checking all fuel related components to make sure that doesn't happen again!

It’s been a minute since my last post as I had to shelve the car for a little while. I look at it everyday I’m at work, which doesn’t help.

About a month ago the seal in my torque converter on my DD 325iT went one morning on my way in to work. Because of this, it’s moving up my manual conversion on it. I have everything for it already, just been waiting for the Autotragic to go out. We’ll, I also have a 3.0L engine to swap in and get rid of the 2.5L, but like everything else, I decided to rebuild the engine before installing it since “it’s out and a perfect time to do so”! These engines are known for burning oil at higher mileage due to a ring design, so decided to take care of that, time sert the block (another known issue) and, since I was down that far, let’s do a full rebuild, which is where I am now.

The engine is just getting to where I can start reassembly, just need to plasti-gauge the main and rod bearings then reassembly.

In short, until I get this car back on the road, the 914 gets pushed off, but HOPEFULLY only for another month or so! I’ll update this post once things get going again!

Thanks for the advice so far and I’m sure I’ll need more as I dive back in! This is a great community and I’m proud to be a part of it!

After throwing the car up for sale and doing a lot of thinking during that time, I have decided to keep the car. While I was taking lots of pictures of it, it got me thinking that the car really isn't in bad shape and I should give it another shot. That being said, I cut out the two main spots of rust through on the passenger long to have a look inside and see what nastiness was in store. To my surprise, it's not as bad as I thought. The rear section, where it turns up, had a LOT of mud dauber nests and sand, and definitely some rust, but the more interesting thing is that the repair that was done to it was essentially welding patch panels in place OVER the rusty metal. I found this out when I was cutting out the bad bit and went through two layers of metal, the second layer containing the original color on it. It was done well, but I think this contributed to the rust through.

I tool pictures of what I found, as best as I could using my phone. Looking down the long, there is definitely rust, but not to the extent I was fearing, but it still might necessitate a complete removal and install so I can get to the existing surface rust and mitigate that. The rust behind the triangle seems to be relegated to just that area, but again, would like some opinions. The pictures aren't great, but it's the best I could do with what I had.

The first three pictures are looking down the long, towards the front, and up the 1/4 panel towards the sail panel. The rust looks bad, but is mostly surface.

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The last 3 pictures are taken from the triangle section and the one with the spec of light in it is looking towards the back of the car.

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Given what I’m seeing, it looks like it might be best to remove the outer rocker in order to gain access to the inner portion and treat the rust. Not something I’m looking forward to, but I don’t want to have to do this again, plus I do t want any of the inner panels to develop cancer down the road.

On another note, does anyone have a panel to replace the rotted one pictured? RD doesn’t make one.

Click to view attachment


The rust repair on the rocker will most likely be put on hold until I can get a pad poured in my garage, but I will continue to strip it down and repair other areas.

Is that the panel in the front behind the bumper?

I talked to the Restoration Design guys at the Carlile swap meet. They told me they have the panel for behind the bumper in process now. I don't know the release date.

I emailed them last year about that panel and they told me they didn’t have it. I wonder if there were more inquiries other than mine that possibly prompted them to develop it? Not sure how common of a rust area it is, but wouldn’t surprise me if it is due to lack of protection from road debris/chemicals.

I’ll check with them to see if they have an ETA. I used to go to Carlisle, it haven’t been in 7-8 years as it’s usually the same weekend as my anniversary.

Thanks!