I’ve been out of the 914 game for quite some time. The last 914 I built was back in 2006 and was quite a build. I’ve had about a dozen 914s over the years and my 2006 build was to be my ultimate 914 (for me at least). It was a GT flared 3.6 six conversion and was a great car. I sold it in 2015 and moved to other things. I’ve been getting the itch to build another teener for a while, but to go in a different direction. I’ve seen a couple Safari builds and that seemed interesting.

I picked up pretty well worn ‘72 914 for the base of my project. My plan is to build a budget conscious (it’s all relative) Subaru powered Safari mod. I plan to go with a normally aspirated 2.5 Subaru from a 1998 Forrester along with the Subaru tranny.

I’ve been working on removing rust and getting the tub suitable for my plans. This will by no means be a concours resto type build, but should prove interesting.

Here’s the base car being picked up for the project start

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I stripped it down and sold the engine and tranny (it was a partially completed V8 conversion). Then started cutting out rusted areas a welding in new metal.

Some Radom rust repair pics in no special order….


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Hell hole

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Closed up the tell tale V8 mod



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And moved on to some suspension fun……aka Safari lift

Raised the attach point on the rear trailing arms by 2”

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Then moved to fron struts and lowered the spindles to the max

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Working on the radiator install. I plan to vent out the bottom, but with the air ducted rearward. So I started by cutting a big hole….

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Then filled the big hole hole with a louvered panel from a VW Bus

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More pics to come……

Machined rear hubs and rotors for 5 lug….

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Rebuilt the pedal cluster….

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Looks great. Looking forward to following your journey…good luck.

Will you finishing the welds on the floor pan? Looks like a good start but also some finding and blending in your future.

I don't get the safari trend thing but your skills are impressive. Will be interested to see the project as it progresses.

I think the Safari trend has arisen because paved roads are getting too clogged up, so the only place you can let it rip are on dirt roads and forest fire trails, at least here in California.

Trend? I have been watching Porsches race off road since the 70's.

Yes, these were just some random shots. The welds have been completed.

Do you really want a hole on the bottom of the car when off roading? I’d think you would want to seal up the bottom tight to keep out dust, dirt, water, mud, snow…… just a thought…

BTW, love what you’re doing, I look forward to seeing your updates!

Are you planning to cut and weld the trailing arm to add camber back? You could lower the inner suspension console/mounting point too. I considered making a reversible insert in the inner ear for my build. I still might do it if I find I don’t have the adjust range I need.

I guess I’ll see where I end up with camber. I saw the mod you did on your arms but didn’t know if it was to achieve extra camber or to be able to get to stock specs.

It was hood seal channel repair day. Bent some 18 gauge channel and went to work. Some before and afters……both sides were pretty much the same.

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Nice work! How high will the floor pan sit above the ground?

Good to see this one saved…it needed your skills!

Radiator time…..made a mount for the bottom of the radiator and welded it into the front of the trunk. It has 3 rubber mounts at the bottom of the radiator that will support the majority of the weight and stresses.

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Then moved on to a means of mounting the top of the radiator. These mounts won’t have much stress but I wanted them to be strong, but minimal. I decide on two reinforced posts extending from the front wall of the trunk. These are 3/8” chrome-moly tubing passed through the chassis and plug welded on the outside, then braced with some simple flanges on the inside. Rosette welded some 6mm studs into the radiator end of the tubes that mount the rubber isolating moun.

Very light and simple, but very strong…...

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A small diversion project to allow me to work in the heated portion of my shop on a cold damp day. Fab’d up the bracket for the clutch master cylinder.


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Machined a conversion part for the clutch clevis. Just turned a piece of 1/2” steel to make the clevis end the diameter of the stock clevis threaded area so the pin will still clip on, then a radius to the larger diameter to provide enough beef for the 8mm thread of the Honda master cylinder. Welded the new part to the stock clevis and all lines up and functions well.

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With radiator mount completed, it was on to the fabrication of the exit plenum. A little foam and filler to create a “buck”, then on to a little carbon/Kevlar layup. It came out well and I’m now laying up an entrance plenum to go between radiator and inlet opening. The plenums will have a thick rubber seal to isolate the plenum from the radiator and keep a tight seal.

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Purdy……

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I am still in admiration with your fiberglass duct work on your silver six (avatar), but now, even more!

A few questions:

What type of foam is this?
What type of adhesive are you using to bond the foam pieces?
What type of filler are you using?
Are you putting any protective layer on the filler prior to laying the CF over?
Are you using polyester resin with CF as you would for fiberglass?
Would all of this buck preparation process be the same for fiberglass?

I think this is such cool fabrication work!

Sorry for all the question...

What he said….

Super metal fab work.. And that plenum is wondrous. I love that solution. And your choice of footwear... the list goes on and on..

Another nod to the excellent footwear - but adding to the composite questions:

- who do use as a supplier for the carbon/kevlar?
- are you using dye in the gel coat to give it that red coloring?

Great thread BTW!

- Tony

I got the carbon Kevlar material from US Composites. The red is actually orange Kevlar woven with the black carbon. It was a left over from one of my jetski projects.

Finished up the entrance plenum. Final fitting/trimming will be held for final install, but it fits up pretty damn close now (leaving a little room for sealing). Now on to figuring out my cooling lines.

I added a piece of 1/4” chromoly tubing to the top of the radiator opening to stiffen things up a bit. It was pretty flexy at the top once the hole was cut.

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Surfing through a sea of wires………I plan to use the entire wiring harness from my donor Subaru. I’ve been paring it down to what’s needed in the 914. The large pile of wires is what’s been removed so far.

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I tore down my donor Suby engine and replaced head gaskets, oil pump, water pump, and timing belt. I also installed an aluminum oil pan for additional clearance. I’ll be working on flipping my intake manifold shortly.

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While the engine was upside down, I started fabricating the engine mount/cradle. Here’s the cross bar and motor mount plates coming together. I left the cross bar a little long until final fitting in the longitudinal cradle bars.

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Couple more pics….

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Got more done on the cradle today. Bent some 1-1/2” DOM for the longitudinal section and fabricated mount plates for the motor mount and trans mount body points. Got the longitudinals welded up and got the engine mount cross bar tacked for finish welding tomorrow. Next will be figuring out my trans mount to cradle interface.

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Fabricated the trans support and incorporated the mount into the cradle…..I’m callin’ the cradle done! (Well, except for some paint) Now on to the next challenge……

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Took advantage of some unseasonable February weather and got a jump on the body work. It’s shaping up nicely after the metal work.

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My focus on my project has been all over the map, mostly driven by our crazy Northeast weather. Today was an inside shop day and I started working my intake manifold flip. I stripped my intake and glass beaded the intake to clean it up. The flip is mechanically pretty straight forward, need just an 8mm spacer to raise the manifold enough to provide clearance for the fuel hard lines. The harder part will be re-wiring the harness a bit to account for the movement of the sensors, but even that shouldn’t be too difficult.

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Nice welds there...you've definitely got some skills in this department.
I took an intro to welding class (MIG) this fall, and it's not easy by any stretch.

Cool

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Nice welds there...you've definitely got some skills in this department.
I took an intro to welding class (MIG) this fall, and it's not easy by any stretch.
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Thank you…..I’m learning!

You're in Brigantine, I'm in Paramus
We've never met. You're friends with Jim Foster ?
Years ago I saw a picture on this site of the oil cooler installation (pretty sure anyway)
you did on your silver car.
I fashioned my duct work in fiberglass similar to yours.
Great to see you're at it again.
Beautiful work.
Maybe we meet at the North East Gathering ?
Rory

Nice job! Yeah I did a similar setup on my silver 3.6 car.

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Began fabricating my alternator bracket today. It’s pretty much done except for the tensioner, I’ll take that tomorrow.

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First test fit of the engine/trans. Everything fit up well. I was concerned about the starter and clutch slave cylinder but all cleared just fine. Looks like my cradle measuring/ guessing/cursing was spot on.

Finalized alignment of alternator bracket and finish welded it up.

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Worked out the engine harness today. I had to undress the harness and reconfigure it to account for the manifold flip. All wires reached the new locations except for the throttle position sensor. I extended the 3 wires to the TPS and redressed the harness. Everything all connected up and ready to go.

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