I've been stripping down the beast to get her ready to send down to Mike G to do a professional assessment of the longs. I'm having a real crisis of faith though as to whether or not this is all worth while.

I spent hours last weekend just trying to get the bloody pedal cluster out. The MC and nuts in the area were covered in surface rust. When I wirebrushed them the 13mm nuts had shrunk down to 1/2inch (12.7mm). I was able to get the drivers side cracked with a very small socket, extension and breaker bar. The passenger side completely defeated me. The only thing I could get on the nut with any purchase was a six point flare wrench. It felt like it cracked but the metal failed before I could get a quarter turn on it. So now I'm looking at having to dremel the nut off, remove the stud and have someone weld a new one on. One stinking nut is gonna cost me hours and hours of work!

So I got out my crying chair and just sat for half an hour just staring at the car and wondering if it was all worth while. My son has lost interest (damn the seseme street generation!) so I can't even write off the time and money to 'bonding'. The car will never be a CW candiate - best I'm going to get is a nice summer fun car that might me worth $5-6K on the canadian market.

So here is the known work list:
Longs - both sides inner and outter. Typical heater tube rust from the inside out. Driver side is worse with the damage on 3 sides: bottom, 1-2" of the inners down 70% of the length. Outers will have to be completely replaced or clammed.

Floor - big hole drivers side just forward of the cross brace. Other failure at the passenger front jack point. Rest is pretty good. Might get away with just localized repair.

Cross brace is intact but shows a lot of surface rust - may need to be reinforced.

firewall is intact with minor damage around the handbrake holes. Heavy surface rust on the engine side from the sound pad.

Hell hole has no perfs - well at least a little good news.

left rear quarter. Previous body work around the rear light was poorly done and has rusted through.

rear trunk has some small rust perfs. Front trunk is solid.

Some rust perf around the front and rear bumper mounts.

small rust throughs above both door handles and a few of the other common areas.

The engine is still reasonably tight. Low milage on new P&Cs 'just under 2 liters with slightly higher compression and a little head work'

Vacuum advance shot.

One injector stuck or shot.

Another injector with a broken electrical tab that may need to be replaced (don't ask)

Pressure regulator is suspect. Still works but doesn't seem to have any adjustment.

Need to replace coil and maybe wires.

Need to replace strut cartridges all round - still has originals.

Need a rebuild on front calipers. We've done the rears.

Master Cylinder in unknown condition.

Interior in good (not great) shape. Drivers side recaro. Passenger side original in great shape.

Cracked dash. Cracked targa pad

and so on, and so on, and so on.

My original budget of $5K is looking like a bit of a joke. I'll be spending that and more just in rustoration and paint.

I'm really enjoying the learning involve in the project but I'm overwhelmed by the effort and money it is going to take.

So what do you think?
Parts car?
Sell it off as a project to someone with more energy?
Give it to the local AX club for their young driver program?
Free to a good home?
Junk yard

Sorry about the long post but I needed to vent.

I think I'm going to call her Moby Dick

Pictures would help, but it sounds like quite a project.

Can you do your own welding? Do you have a place (garage, whatever) that you can continue to work during the winter?

There are a few pricey tidbits in your list, but for the most part, it's labor intensive. Pieces can be cut from donor cars... they come available in the classifieds periodically.

Biggest question - do you enjoy doing this kind of stuff? If not, you'll end up HATING your car when it's over, if it's ever over.

I have agonized over this decision... regarding a car I was very emotionally tied to. I stuck with it, and it was the right decision for me. YMMV... and that's okay.

-Rusty

If the best your think you'll end up with is a $5-6k car, I say drop the project and go buy a $5-6k car. You can pick up a pretty clean car with that budget. You'll be driving sooner and probably have a lot fewer headaches. My .02

We may be at bit spoiled here in the sunbelt, but lots of cars available that need less work for less money. I understand getting them back into Canada can be a PITA, but the old advice still applies: buy the best one you can afford.

There are 30+ on ebay now.

to do it cheap and structurally sound:
fix the longs right,
use whatever scrap sheet metal to fix the floor,
treat all the floor and cross brace with POR-15,
wire brush the cross brace to amke sure the metal isn't too thin, repair it where it is...
patch the rear trunk, or get a part from a scrapper...
treat the bumper mounts with POR
patch or replace the doors
get the right engine stuff... but someone may have the parts used to save dough
struts/shocks: used or KYBs(until you can get something else)
two words for all caliper needs: Eric Shea
is the master cylinder leaking? if not, it's probably fine
almost all targa pads have cracks... they are $$$, wait for a good deal on a parts car or a camp914 replacement...
you can use a dash pad for $50, or a new dash for 8 times as much...

5k can fix the issues... as long as you're the one doing the welding... fix the important stuff first, then see where the budget is to fix the rest...

you can't really find a good, finished car for 5k often anymore...

are there better projects? if you don't want to do the work... probably.
are you assaulting a deceased equine? not if you want to do the work...
read the "digging into hell" thread... that will inspire the shit out of you...

werd

Moby Dick has already been taken, BTDT. And the guy has a HUGE tail on his car too.....lol

Thanks guys - some good food for thought.

Like Lawrence I have a strong emotional attachment to this car. Bought it while I was still in university and had a lot of fun with it until baby #2 rolled around. I kept it in the garage all these years thinking that I would someday get it running again. That's probably the biggest thing keeping me going - I don't want to admit that it was a waste of time.

So this is all about the single car. I'm really not interested in someone else's teener. I don't really need another car (although my son would like one). I have my Smart to get my kicks in. If I bail I would have a brief period of mourning and move on to other, non-car, projects.

Do I enjoy doing this stuff? Only a masochist would answer with an unconditional yes! But I do love figuring out how things work and problem solving. I get a buzz on when I finally get something working or at least figure out exactly why it isn't working. I don't weld and really don't want to learn - too many bad memories from shop class! I also do not want to ever bear the title of DAPO. So the structural stuff will either be done by a pro (Mike G) or I'll have to bribe a local car nut with beer and burgers.

I kinda like tat2dfreaks approach. Fix it cheap but structurally sound. Get it running so I can say 'told you so' to my family of nay sayers. Then see where it goes from there. The big budget killer is going to be paint so maybe it doesn't get painted until it has proven itself worthy

That stupid border is truly a PITA. I saw that post of Erics with all the purdy rebuilt calipers and would love to just get him to do mine. Problem is that the f'n courier companies really screw you to bring something through customs. I bought a fuel pump on ebay for $70 and wound up paying $30 in brokerage fees. We have some good resources on this side of the boarder but it seems all the really cool specialty stuff has to come from the states. If I continue with the project I have to look into finding a way to ship and receive from south of the border. Watertown is only an hour or so away.

I'm going to at least haul the tub down to Mike before I make any decisions. A lot will depend on what he needs to fix the longs. I have a bunch of pics. I'll try to get them up on a blog this weekend. I do hesitate a bit though. It's kinda like showing pictures of your wife in labor - all very noble but not at all pretty.

I am in a similar situation to yours. I have a '73 914that I bought 33 years ago new, when I got out of college. After driving it for about 200,000 miles, I let it sit in and out of the garage for many years while I raised my 4 children. It has more sentimental value to me than real value. I am completely restoring it. It will probably take about $8,000 to get just new parts for everything done. This includes a $3400 engine kit I just bought from Jake. Also adding air conditioning. Things get expensive pretty quickly when you are buying new rubber, body panels, upholstery, transmission rebuild parts, etc. etc. I enjoy doing this type of work, so it is a good change of pace from my regular job as an engineering manager. It is lots of hard, dirty work to get every thing cleaned up, repainted, etc. etc. , but you can see a lot of progress as work is done. When I get done, I plan to drive it daily.

You need to make sure you either have a lot of cash to have the work done elsewhere, or have 1) a good garage to work in, 2) tools to do the job), and 2) most importantly a lot of spare time. I have built several large projects over the years, and the one thing that keeps coming up is how little actual free time is available for these.

Good luck in making your decision. Joe O.

Thanks for your thoughts Joe. Certainly our situations are similar - I'm a manager in IT and like you find working with the car a great escape from the daily grind. And certainly free time is a rare commodity.

Time and cash - both need to be spent wisely.

best of luck with your restoration. With one of Jake's kits you are certainly getting it done right!

I am in the same situation as you are, mine may be a bit worse, but I'm not replying to enter a whose is worse contest. I love the damn car and want it to be right, that starts with the body, which I have to farm out, I am just not a good enough welder. Agree totally on the border issues, will have much more dollars tied up in the car than I could sell it for, but it is also my hobby and I am enjoying myself most of the time! Does having someone else in the same boat help? I think when I am done I will have something to be proud of and that makes it all worthwhile, it sounds like you are of the same. Keep at it and maybe when funds and time allow you will have a car you will be proud to say is yours.

Ian Stott
Moncton
Canada

Its all about love. And suffering. Do what you can and gladly farm out the rest to whoever can/will do it. Don't let it become an object to loathe. We all can't do everything.

My take is to take it to Mike and see if he'll do you a deal on a better car with a trade. Even if it goes over your budget you can have a car that you can drive now. I've done enough low and high buck resto's to tell you that you'll never get back what you have into it.

I've seen some of Mikes tubs and I know one of them would be a better starting point. I also know he has (had?) Michelle's roller - now thats a tub worth the effort! This project however is about resurecting an individual car and that is really what I want to accomplish. I've seen the state of some of the cars that have been brought back to life and really mine is not at all bad compared to some of them. I'm sure it can be done.

You are right of course. None of these projects are worth what we put into them. It is a hobby and has to be justifed as just that.

I'm taking my wife on a driving tour of the maritimes for the next two weeks. When I get back I'll haul it down to Mike and see whats up.

Ian,
Good to commiserate - there are always low points in any projects and it helps to know others are working through it. Sort of like AA lol!

Scott has the right philosophy - all of us can't do everything ourselves. Ya gotta keep it fun or it aint worth it.