I also made a cover plate for the opening for the fuel tank. I have a drain valve that protrudes through the hole about 1” so I couldn’t use a flat plate/disk. I built a little box section to go over the opening and mounted it up.

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Your interior came pout looking great man.

Gettin’ legit! It’s licensed and insured now.

I need to finish up a few things to be ready for a test drive but it’s getting close. I need to bleed brakes and clutch, and machine my axles and get them installed, then it’s test drive time…….oh yeah, I should probably put the doors on too!

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Yeah! Awesome! That is way better than my $5 bed bath and beyond center console towel!! Maybe I should use the pile of material I bought and do something useful with it.

Made my first driveshaft today. I used a couple shafts as “practice” pieces to workout tooling and the process, and this is the first finished piece (which will go on the car). It’s been an interesting process and something I hadn’t done before, but I’m super pleased with the results.

This is a stock 914 shaft shortened and resplined to the 29 tooth Subaru CV spline. I’ll be using stock 914 outer CVs, with stock Subaru inner CVs.

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Nice work. You must have a nice mill and indexing head. I forget which engine you're running but a Turbo or 6 will eat those CV's if you have fat tires and hammer it. I just changed to 5 lug but I put 27K on it before I blew a 914 CV. I didn't do burn outs (well maybe the first year of two ) or fat tires either.

Geeze Kent I was kinda admiring those Suby ones. I was thinking they looked like you could get some articulation out of them. Well at least you can get them...

These Tri-Pod looking CV joints might be the ticket in high performance transaxles>>putting the power down; but don't know much about these mfg by Metalore inc. in El Segundo CA. Looks like their clients are major motorsports players
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I’ll be running a NA 2.5 Suby engine so hopefully these will be fine, I guess I’ll find out. I figure the 914 end will be the weak link, but I ran those with my 3.6 6 conversion and only broke one in 9 years.

Many years ago my friends dubbed my shop “Frankenstein’s lab” because of the varied things I like to build and the approach taken. Probably like most here, I enjoy a lot of different things in the mechanical domain. I’ve built boats, airplanes, motorcycles, bicycles, and, of course, cars. A while back I embraced the Frankenstein theme and started tagging my projects with some form of Franky image. Here’s a couple of past projects and their tag, and my more subtle tagging of my Safari project.

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Very cool. Must be gratifying to be able to be that precise with your work. Mine are always close but I don't win many cigars.

And driveshaft #2 done, ready for a little paint and CV assembly.

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Since I’m running the Suby fuel pump I can’t use the factory expansion tank. I really want a proper evap system so I don’t get fuel smell/fumes. I made an expansion tank to reside where the factory charcoal canister used to go and I’ll be putting a canister in the engine compartment.

The tank is less volume than the factory tank but was the most I have room for. The inlet is at the bottom of the tank, with the exit at the top. I welded a baffle plate inside just below the top fitting to keep fuel from getting to the exit (I hope). I used a piece of 3” tube and flattened it to an oval shape.

The tank will get a bath in flat black to help it blend with the fuel tank and not be too obtrusive.

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A little flat black does wonders…….expansion tank installed and plumbed, and waiting for the charcoal canister.

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Wrapped up the evap system install today. I used a charcoal canister from a VW Jetta and installed it just under the coolant reservoir. It’s all plumbed up and ready to remove stink.

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One axle built and installed, hopefully get the second one in today.

Just need to bleed brakes and clutch and maybe the first test drive this weekend….woohoo!

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Built up other axle and got it installed…….just might be able to manage a rip around the property this weekend yet.

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Congrats ! Looks great, and most importantly you finished it! Or at least this version of it. You're fabrication skills are very impressive.

Made a master cylinder brace yesterday. I wanted something bolt-in rather than welded. This is a two piece bolt together solution that mounts between the master cylinder mount point (between nut and MC body) and the suspension cross member.

I found that a front strut tube is the exact diameter to fit the cross member tube. I had an old junk strut laying around and cut a piece of tube to make the brace. The long section is just a piece of steel angle cut to size and shape. I made a threaded attach point between the long section and the tube so it installs/removes easily.

Without the brace you could see the deflection in the floor and MC would bend downward on hard braking. With the brace it doesn’t deflect at all. The design transfers the load into the cross member, and the bottom of the steel angle keeps the MC from flexing downward.

Nothing earth shattering here, as many have made similar braces, but I thought I’d share my version. It just needs a shot of flat black and it will be installed for good today.

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Got my wheels painted today (Phoenix red L21E), now I can get the car back on its feet and get a test drive as soon as I bleed brakes and clutch (I hate things I can’t do myself!)



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Continues to be such a finely crafted and handsome project... Thanks for sharing.. You're not going to get that thing dirty are youi?!

One door mounted, one to go…..

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Fun Project!

Lov'n this! Nice build!

Thanks!

It got to see the light of day before I installed the drivers door today. It hasn’t been on its wheels or out of the shop for a while now and it was good to see it out in the sun!

On the downside, looking at the pics makes me realize I need to layoff the project for a few days and clean up the yard around the shop. I thought when I retired I’d have all this free time….huh!

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Drivers door installed…..

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This is astounding work! Absolutely love it!

Finalized the engine cover install. Decided to do the letters to match the wheels since gold just didn’t seem to work with everything else. As a refresh, the cover doesn’t have hinges, it slides onto pins on the firewall and still uses the stock latch at the rear.


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Love this project so much.

I love how those wheels and tires look on this Safari build with those "restrained" black fender flares. That's how fender flares should look on a 914 to fully expose the front and rear wheels and tires, at least in my opinion.

I too have enjoyed following your project and applaud your craftsmanship & attention to detail but, IMHO I think the wheels are the part that unfortunately depart from the off road/rally aesthetic.
Perhaps some OZ's or Speedlines in Phoenix red with white lettering ...?

I look forward to hearing how well it lands. Great work.

My original plan was to stay 4 lug and go with wide Steelies, but I came across the Fuchs and figured I couldn’t go wrong with them.

Well, yesterday was to be my first test drive. I got some help to bleed the brakes and the clutch (I hate things that I can’t do myself). This was the first time since I started the project that I required another set of hands.

The brakes seemed to come up fine, as did the clutch. Rolled the car out of the shop, fired it up, but alas, it wouldn’t go into gear…..ugh!

The clutch isn’t disengaging. I can see the slave cylinder pushing the clutch fork, but it’s either not enough motion or there’s something amiss with the fork itself or the pressure plate. I can crank the starter with the clutch depressed and the starter will move the car.

I’m getting approx 1/2” of movement out of the slave cylinder and I’m not sure if that’s correct or not. I’ll be looking for info on what the normal range of motion is before I pull the engine and trans to look deeper.

Oh well, back to the drawing board!

Sorry to hear. I wish it weren't the case but it seems there are always teething problems. But as I've come to say: Once you get it all sorted, it's just another part of the story of your build!
Fear not! You're almost there!

While contemplating next steps with my clutch, I decided to wrap up my door installation. It’s always fun wrangling in the windows, regulators, weatherstripping into the doors. Windows are working nicely and fitting fairly well (do they ever fit exactly?.) Also installed new vapor barriers and the door panels…….I’m calling the doors done.

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Oh…..and a new addition to my shop

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I am so, so, SO envious of your shop! I also love the Frankenstein theme

It’s alive!!!!

YouTube

Clutch just needed to bled again. It must’ve have some stubborn air caught somewhere.

There has to be a better way to embed the video, sorry.

Very cool

Awesome! I love this project!

F-ing A, double clutch! That is awesome! Big CONGRATS!
This is my favorite build. Seriously. Great work. I hope I get to see it IRL at some point.

Thanks! I’m so happy with the way it’s running and shifting. This is going to be a really fun car. Now I just need to wrap up a few things before hitting the road…….like putting a windshield in, and giving it a home brew alignment until I can get a real alignment done.

So today I checked off a long outstanding task on the project. I’ve done everything on this project by myself since the beginning, but couldn’t figure out how to install my windshield with only one set of hands (or at least didn’t think that would be a good idea).

My nephew stopped by and I seized the opportunity to get this done.

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Bravo! I love seeing updates on this thread. Such a well crafted and interesting build.

So yesterday it earned its stripes! I had to remove the flares to do it right. Thankfully, they come off very easily since I used riv-nuts on the fenders.

Now it’s sort of a “crusty creamsicle”

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What a great project, looks great!