i'm going to use this as a progress thread for my upcoming tub un-twisting ...

i went by Scott's (Yeaman Autobody in Palo Alto) today and we threw the 914 up on the lift and he did a thorough inspection and took a few measurements.
he seems to be confident that it's not as bad as i thought. i hope he's right ...


the next step will be to strip the tub of all the front/rear suspension parts, steering rack, motor & transmission and anything else i can take off easily.

then the tub will be put on his celette bench and we're going to have a whole weekend of "pull that 914" fun!


i already got a video camera i'm going to use to document this. that, and my usual blurry pictures should make for an interesting documentary ...

can't wait to get this done!
Andy

Cool beans!!!

I'll be awaitin!

Andrew

ahem....you didn't happen to see The Beast™ lurking in the shop anywhere did you?.....I'd better not get bumped for another 914Club project...mine's a tad overdue .........

When do you think you'll be doing the pull? If I'm around, I'd like to watch it in person....

Bill P.

Any idea if it is going to tweak the paint?

-Britain

I was concerned about SirAndy's F/G flares cracking....but maybe if Scott thinks it's not too bad, it may be worse to the eye than in the measurement. His flares are pretty nice, I'd hate to see any of them have to be reworked.

Bill P.

Do you really have to remove the engine and suspension to bend the tub back? I can't imagine that is a normal procedure for body shops...

the more pickup points for the celette bench, the better. the fixtures for the 914 include the transmission mounts and motor mounts as well as all suspension mounting points.

you *can* do this with the engine and trans in the car, but then you will *not* be able to use those mounting points.
i don't see any benefit of *not* using the tranny and engine pickups. do it once, do it right!

Andy

PS: FG and/or Paint cracking is a concern ...

It's my understanding that the way the celette bench works is to attach to as many mounting points (susp, eng, trans) as possible. Then, the tub is stretched, tweaked, and untwisted using those points.

I'm all eyes...

good to hear you're getting it fixed!

What happened to it in the first place? Did I miss something?

I have never owned a 914 that has not shown signs of PO induced body tweaking...improper floor jack placement, floor pans showing signs of contact with a hard surface....front end hitting something hard such as a steep driveway...

What'll be interesting to find out is whether or not the full cage causes any problems with the straightening out of the tub???

Is this Birgit's 'little guy' that you are looking at straightening?

Demick

where have you been?

no, birgit's old car is toast ... this is my car i'm talking about ...
Andy

Oh. I used to drive by Yeaman's every day, and always saw the wrecked 914 out front, and always assumed that was Birgit's old car. I didn't know your car was twisted. I'm sure my car is probably twisted too. It's a salvage title from a front passenger side wreck.

Demick

A 914 pull! cool! is that like a tractor pull?

Demick, I think you are correct that the twisted tub that was in front of Yeaman's for a long time was Birgit's; but I don't know what ever became of it.

I'm with Mueller, interested to see the TCDesign Cage vs Celette Bench smackdown.


PS - we need a taffy pulling smiley

correct, that was birgit's old car ...

mine is red ...
Andy

It might spoil things but I would like to take some clear pictures of tub un-twisting. Then we can have that beer I owe you at Hardy's!

Now this should be a lesson to all of us, just because they break down all the time dosen't meen that we have to beat them into submission.

Hope all goes well.

Tell Scott I say hello.

has he rebuilt his wrecked racecar yet?


KT

Do you have to remove the windshield and back window too?

He was almost done with it last week when I stopped by the shop. He had to modify the front cover to get it to fit the cowl correctly, but it was done and I think painted, or waiting for paint last Wednesday or Thursday. He said he was going to cut the front spoiler section off so he could attach it separately, which would make access to the front compartment easier (don't have to futz with the fasteners on the spoiler, just on top) and make trailer access easier (can remove just the spoiler).

He's thinking of selling it, as the shop isn't doing as well as it had been.

He still has the other tube-framer, though.

--DD

and so the journey begins .... "The Beginning, Part III"

there she is, early in the morning. unsuspecting. calm. looking forward to another joyful day on the road.
little did she know what was about to happen ...

the drive to McMark's shop in napa was pleasant and uneventful ...


"Going down the only road I've ever known Like a drifter I was born to walk alone And I've made up my mind I ain't wasting no more time But here I go again"

i showed up at the shop around 11:30 ... Dave and Gerry arrived shortly thereafter ...

we stripped the car off of all the bigger pieces, engine, tranny, hoods, doors, seats etc. etc ...

roger showed up just in time for some heavy lifting ( ) and mueller and the twins came by to drop off the trailer and lend a few hands ...
thanks guys, your help was really appreciated! and thanks for the beers dave! and thanks for the trailer mueller! and thanks for the long haul roger! and thanks for the space and tools mark! and thanks for your helping hands and feet dave and gerry ...

and then the fun part. 1 1/2 hours of bay-area friday afternoon parking lot. sometimes also referred to as "freeway" ...


we dropped off the car at yeaman's and i sure hope it's still going to be there tomorrow morning ...

see 'ya'all there for a fun day of celette benching!
Andy

Way damn cool. Everything about this.

goooood luck

hope it survives with minimal damage to paint etc

Wow, I expected you guys to be 4 hours behind by now but it looks like things are moving along nicely. I was planning to head up to yeaman's around 11 or 12 tomorrow but you might have everything done by then.

Will there be honest-to-goodness going on? Seems like a good weekend for it.

call jenny and ask. she's the lady of the barbecue ...

Andy

Coming tomorrow 'round 11:00. . .

Nice to see you using technologically advanced equipment. As for me a coupl of leveled I beams, a bunch of pull points, plumbline/controle lines on the floor and a dozen comealongs would do the trick. Straight and stiff are relative terms for 914's aren't they?

Perfection, now thats a work of love.

Nice thread and good job for this sweet machine.

I'm real interested to see how this is done. Nice thread.

Do you always carry a spare engine in the front trunk "just in case".......get it? I know that was bad......sorry.

Kelly

Andy helped make it a lot easier for us by leaving some bolts loose for us like cone screws, CV joint bolts and various other little details.

A couple of things I noticed were a tear in the sheet metal just inboard of the front mount for the passenger torsion bar. The tub sits with the driver's side up about an inch. Enough so I asked Andy to settle it. He compressed that side and it came back to the same spot.

Dave

Ya know,

I was looking at the factory measurements and the Cellette bench pics and realized something. There are a lot of dimensions for key frame points missing from the factory pics- particularly in the vertical.

Ya see, the thought occurred to me that someone with a CAD program could build a 3 Dimensional model of key points.... Front suspension mounting points, shock mount points, engine mount points, etc. and it could become a 914 club resource.

With that model and dimensions, one could build a quick and dirty wood or metal model template of key points to check out. Dowels to go into the front suspension mount holes, rod for shock tower, etc...Slap that template on the car and... Hmmmmmm, my front left front shock tower is half an inch to the rear and a quarter of an inch up or whatever....

Wondered if there was a way you could measure and record those points so that others of us that are thousands of miles from a good bench can check things.....

That is, tape measurements of the front suspension mounting holes and measurements from there to the shock tower mounting holes. Be diffcult to get them in 3 dimensions but with enough diagonals CAD could probably capture it off the bench measurement dimensions. Might need a plumb bob and a cheep laser too

I know it's a late suggestion, but I had a coupla beer based idea lubricators last night that let it surface.

Ken

real nice start.
way to go Andy!

brant

This is what it looked like when I got to Yeamans at about 2pm yesterday

Brad was thinking or had a headache already

Then there was work

And more work...

And then the unbending
I couldn't stick around till the end though, so someone else will have to post the exciting conclusion...

Awful lotta guys standing around playing pocket pool.....looks like a Gubmint Staff meeting....

Brad was trying to get his (passenger side) door hung before the guys (Dave, Mark, Randal and Andy) doing the drivers side did. But the drivers side guys WON.

Competition is never far from a 914!

The credit for the win goes all to you Randal. You were BUSTING ASS on those door bolts.

Randal was busting ass on everything!! I think he did three or four times as much of the "grunt-work" as anyone else! Helping get the bench cleaned up properly (so the parts that were supposed to be level would be level!), helping get it all bolted together, helping take pieces off the tub, helping bolt the tub to the fixtures, helping put parts back on... Making a run for food... He was everywhere!

--DD

I agree, he even saved GTeener's butt by towing her back to the shop after her 5/50 warranty ran out (5 minutes or 50 feet from the shop).

Randall!!!! My Hero!

more updates and pictures here ...

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=52631

Andy