I love a good project and now that the 914 is done and has a great new owner I can fully focus on the next build. Well its kinda been my main project since 2019 but I couldnt say that out loud around the 914. For me its the ultimate diy thing except for maybe building your own house from scratch.

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The frame and suspension is based on the Haynes book "Build your own sports car on a budget"

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The engine is a five cylinder NA from a Volvo 850 GLT mated to a manual M90 gearbox from the Volvo 960. Uprights and rear diff/axles are from a Ford Sierra/Mercur.

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The bodywork is all my own idea, 1.2 mm 1050 alu sheet. I built myself an english wheel and bought a cheap beadroller and slightly more expensive shrinker/stretcher. Doing the body myself added about a year to the project time.

What remains to be done is fenders (road legal requirement sadly) and all the gauges/lightning and interior bits.

Two weeks ago was the first time it rolled out of the garage as a new vehicle.

https://youtu.be/BYJZTnMe6KU

A few days later after doing some brake adjustments the driver got to try some braaap.

https://youtube.com/shorts/E2XruVZ5qmE

Those short drive were hugely motivating to get the rest done and hopefully get it roadlegal during next spring.


What are you building thats not a 914? Show it off in this thread wether its woodworking or something else. I love to see other people being creative.

Great work and impressive skills

me likey!

Really impressive! Love the Seven on steroids vibe, going fenderless or cycle style?


Eggcrate grille with an old-school badge or prancing moose?

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Bad to the bone!!!! Going to be a whole lot of fun

Nice - love the aluminium fab! Great job!



Started this Norton Commando Copper Cafe back around 2012. Other projects keep taking priority and preventing completion. Someday!

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Let’s start with this Yamaha XS400 Cafe Racer
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Oh wow both the NC and XS look great. I dont have a bike licence but if I did it would be a cafe racer or sports tourer type of bike for me. Always had a wierd soft spot for the early VFR800.

I have to have fenders to be roadlegal sadly otherwise fenderless would be awsome just for the looks. Going with the cycle style both front and rear is the plan.

as for the grille thats still undecided, probably no badge in the front, might get a lasercut script style SuperFive thing on the rear at a later stage.

That is way too cool Mats. Big Volvo fan myself, I have a '98 S70T5 and a '78 242.

Nice pair of cars. My dad was all Volvos untill 5 years ago when he got a Subaru figuring it would be his last car. My first car I remember us having was a yellow 142, then it was a dark green (metallic) 245. After that he got a 440 GL and then a 940 with the low pressure turbo. I guess growing up with Volvos is why I'm not that interested in them myself, other brands was always "cooler" But the five cylinder is a nice sounding engine.

Not as impressive as Mat's project. This is a 3d printed double track railroad bridge for the model railroad club I belong to. It is in HO scale and is 44 inches long.

The bridge is designed after this one outside of Pittsburgh crossing Brunots Island.

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Great look bridge!

How many spools did you use for that?

About 1.5 spools. Many parts were printed but not used as I kept adjusting sizes and lengths as well as pieces where something went wrong.

Awesome, I would hate to 3D model that thing tho. That would take a few hours.

I got introduced to airplanes at the young age of 5. I had no idea how much that would mean to me through out my life. My father worked as an electrician at LAX doing maintenance on a flight line. Apparently he had heard of an event that had to do with the Northrup YB49, the flying wing. He gathered us kids up and took us out to the end of Ontario airport runway and we got to see the big bomber take off on it's last flight. It was going to be scrapped. Now that I think about it, must it have been heartbreaking for Jack Northrup having to scrape 13 of the airplane of his dreams. I don't recall my father telling us about the plane and I don't think I would have understood but I do recall seeing a dark horizontal line approaching from way down the runway with lots of black smoke (it had 8 jet engines) and they looked like they were burning coal. The black line just kept getting bigger and bigger.
So I have always been interested in airplanes. My favorite propeller driven plane is a F-82. Essentially a twin fuselage P-51.
I have been building foam board RC models. One is an F-82. They don't make a kit for the F-82 so I used 2 P-51 kits to produce a n F-82. I also have a wing that's wing span is 71". The F-82's wing span is 63" long

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The last flight of the YB-49 happened in1953. I believe that the YB-49 was the last wing to receive jet motors until the B-2. They are about the same size and Jack Northrup was taken to see the B-2 before he passed.

Cool, I have always been an airplane nerd since I was young. I got into RC's as a teenager, first with a glider and then with methanol and then around my 30's just when electric started being a viable option. Favorite prop plane is a tricky one as its shared between the Hawker Tempest and Mosquito. The Tempest for its V2 huntin abilities and the Mosquito because of its development historym being a "wooden underdog" to becoming the plane that would perform all the tasks given to it from long distance mail haulage to precison bombing and nightfighting.

I love the last few years development in foamboard rc planes, often find myself watching flighttest on youtube and their mad builds.

Back when I was into motorcycles, I made a carbon/kevlar tank for a custom SV650 I built. It ended up being featured in Cycle World.

Lots of cool stuff from all you guys - keep it coming

This is my Cozy IV canard aircraft, the second foam and fiberglass airplane I built. Yeah, it's kind of a disease.Click to view attachment

Sooo hot! Very nice

Ever think of doing c/f reinforcement x-brace on a bolt-in targa top...like the factory 914/6 GT cars had. I always thought that would be cool if you could run either a bolt in roof or swap out (with a spare roof) to have removable.

Darn, wish I knew that when I had to sell off all my late dad's trains 4 years ago. Nice project.

Wow that is a proper level up from building cars.

Nice Jesse, I found my first sight of a canard at an air show. It was a Long E Z. It was totally amazing to me. I thought it looked like a dart. A couple of weeks ago I saw the build "Seven Day Wonder. Go Sonex.
I like their Waiex, actually looks like something I could accomplish. I think I could build it for under $40. I have been building big VW engines (2387cc's) sense the late '80's. I always thought that a souped up VW would not be a good idea. Now that I know what is asked of them I am fully interested in putting a VW into the air. I have 7 Flight Test builds.
What was your first full size build?

Thanks Joe. My first build was a WAR FW-190 I started on in 1981. AF transferred me at a point where the project could not be moved, so I donated it to the local EAA chapter. In 1993, I got the itch to build again and after looking at all the available plans and kits, most of which were out of my price range, I got a set of plans for a Long EZ from a buddy in my squadron. First flight in January 1995. Fun little airplane. In 1998, I decided I needed more room so I started on the Cozy IV, sold the EZ for money to buy an engine for the Cozy and flew it in 2002. Still have it, but my interests have shifted more to cars, my 951, 928 and 914 projects, so I'll probably be selling the Cozy this coming year. Been a fun ride and completing 2 out of 3 projects is not a bad average.