I was searching the internet one day looking for nothing in particular, except Porsche parts, and came across a 1973 914 steel flared roller for sale. Just what I needed. Contacted the seller and asked all my questions. Tried to talk myself out of it and called the seller back the next day. We set up a time for me to make the trip to see the car, and as it turns out, the rest was history. Couldn't go see the car the first time I agreed nor the second. Made a third date and I got the big "NO" from my better half. Needless to say the seller was not too happy but what was I supposed to do? I learned from my mistakes is what I did. Forgot about the car but kept trolling the internet, as I do, between listing things on Ebay. One night I jumped over here after having a good weekend and saw this car in the classifieds. Skipped passed it and then started wondering if it was the one that I had learned my lesson on. Asked a few questions of the new seller and sure enough it was the car I so wanted months earlier. Asked a few more questions of the seller to confirm what I had been told about the car by the first guy and things jived so I made arrangements to send the payment without going to see the car. Next I tried to make arrangements to get the car transported home. This is a whole nother story but I did get the car after about 6 weeks. Then I told the wife I was getting another car, this is not un-common as I buy junkers and sell the parts on ebay, and she hemmed and hawed a bit but finally dropped it. 6 weeks later the car shows up and she says "What's that?" and I remind her that I told her I was getting another car. All's cool at LOOSMotorsports and I got THE car. DA%*, can some one re-size about 25 pics if I emil them. I need help

Another Arrival Pic

i too was looking at buying that so i could skip the flare portion of the project.

how are things coming along?

what are your plans for her?

Congrats on the new car. Finally going to put one together for yourself instead of parting them out? The Tarrett sway bar and turbo tie rods I got from you are all done. Just need to finish the adapter plates for the V8 to get her on the road. Do you still have the taildragger?
Paul

Here are a couple of pics from the day I got her. Came with everything you see in the next few pics plus a set of Fuchs 7 & 8 x 15.

Check out the Turn Signal covers and take a hard look at the doors

All the suspension parts in the trunk came with it. Some of it is 911 and some 914.

911 Green Beilsteins up front came on it also. No Calipers though. Kinda funny bit when they went to put the 911 suspension on the front they did not remove the 914 front swaybar. They just put the drop links up and out of the way.

Here is one of the rear fenders. It is rough but we will see.

This front fender looks good in the pic but there are lots of little scratches in the bondo.

Here is a pic of the doors that I refered to earlier. They have been welded over so no windows at all. I have another set of doors that I will probably get painted at the same time as the car so that I can have windows.

I have gone over the whole car and there is no rust to speek of. The only place that I have found any is on the fire wall about 4 inches above the seem and it is a hole about the size of a nickle. There is surface rust in several places including on the floors but I am going to take out all the tar and have it blasted and painted the same color as the car.

The next few pics are of the Tarett Engineering Sway Bar Nut Plates. I chose to weld them in only to find out that that may not be the best thing to do. A couple of people I spoke with raised the concern of actually creating a problem with very thin spots of sheetmetal at the edges of the welds. I am not grinding them off now.

Another

And another

Last of the nut plates. Stuck the bar in for a dry run and it is perfectly straight through the body. Came out better than I expected because we had to elongate a couple of the holes that were already existing in the body (not factory holes).

So now my body guy comes to my house and we sit there and look at this fender again. Looked pretty good to me but he says that he is concerned that there are a couple of very small spots on the but=welds where they did not get it welded. Rust??? He is also concerned with what the metal looks like under the bondo which he says is about 1/4 inch thick or more. I got my hand on my wallett and say no but he says yes. I finally agree that we need to remove the bondo from the fenders.

Close-up of bottom rear of fender.

Here is the front bottom of the same fender.

So he goes to town with the RO sander and goes and goes and goes and goes.

So then the sander runs out of paper so we move on to the grider with a solid disk. This is what we get.

Another

After almost 2 hours of sanding grinding and talking the bondo is pretty much gone. It was almost 1/2 ince thick along most of the seam.

As you can see from this pic the 2 previous owners were correct when the told me that it was originally being built by a race shop as a race car not a street car. My only question for the shop is "Isn't bondo heavy???????????".

Here is another.

Remember this pic. This is with the bondo stripped but no metal work done yet. Notice the white line up the middle of the fender. That is the top of the original fender sitting about 1/2 to 5/8 inch above the top of the flare.

OK, Metal work has started and this is where we are at after 2 hours. Huge improvement.

another angle

Remember that pic I told you to remember. Here is a pic after two hours of beating from about the same angle. Look Better?? More pis to follow as I make progress. Let me know if you see any problems.

maddeye- things are good so far. Going to do more than I hoped but not more than I expected. I am a tight-wad and just didn't want to let go of the money. I also bought the car so that I would not have to buy and install flares and I think I got a great deal with the front suspension and the wheels. As far as plans that remains to be seen. I guess I know what I want but you have to remember that this is a story and and you are not allowed to read the last page first.

Paul- Glad the parts worked out. Still have the taildragger but it my fall victim to the 914. I keep telling a good friend that has seen the 911 several times and who has expressed an interest in buying if the time is right that I might just part it out and use the motor in the 914. Don't tell him but that is not going to happen but if I can get to the motor stage of the 914 without selling it then the procesdes from the sale would go a long way toward some real horse power.

Good start, Jonathan. Are you still sending it out to be blasted?

Thanks Mark

It will be blasted when the metal work is done.

No work tonight but here is a little more background on the car. the flares were installed by Lindsey Racing some time in the mid eighties. They had a customer who wanted a race car. For some reason the project was stopped and the car sat. Ian, a member here bought the car at some point and kept it in the Bay Area. Ian then sold it to the guy I bought it from, Sean I think. I got it from Sean. Along the way the car was updated with 911 Front end complete with underbody swabar, turbo tie rods, Beilsteins and Aluminum cross bar. The rear has not been converted to 5 lug yet but a set of Fuchs 7&8X15 were tossed in with the deal. The tops of the doors were covered and welded at some point also, but I am not sure when. If you know of this car and can gicve some background on it I would appreciate it. You can post what you know here or email me. As for my plans, they are pretty loose, no pun intended, at this point. The car will see the street most of the time when it is finished but it is going to be on the track also. I already have a set of Tarett front strut upper mono-ball mounts, Elephant front A-arm poly bronze bushings, Tarett Adjustable front Sway bar and a Sheridan race hood for it. I also have a set of re-drilled hubs for the 5 lug conversion in the back. I have a set of rear Beilstein shocks with 250lb 2.5 inch springs and coil-over kit on order. I am also in the process of getting my front struts off so that I can send them out to get the spindles raised and have a new coil-over kit with 2.25 inch springs installed(equal to 23mm T-bars). Many parts of the suspension are already at the Powdercoater to get coated in black. The rest will be there as soon as they are modified. I have yet to order Elephant decambered ball joints, rear poly bronze bushings, adjustable bump-steer kit and the self alligning bearing mounts. I am also talking to a particular company about when he is going to finish his rear sway bar so I can get one of the first ones. That is as much as I have figured out at this point. I am open to sugestions if any one has any. I will try and post pics of Wednesdays work on Thursday evening.

Just a little work today. Got out the grinder and removed the rest of the bondo on the other three fenders and the bondo in the cowel where the vent was filled. Gooped on pretty thick in places, almost 1/2 inch in the cowel and a couple places on the drivers front fender. Here are some pics.

Here is the other rear fender

Here is the front drivers fender. Notice the big blob of bondo I left for the body guy.

Here is a close up of some of the rough welding.

Here is the ugly cowel. Major work needed.

nice project. looks like you are doin it up right

I'll bet your wife & neighbors just love the sound of you grinding away on it.
Lookin' good.