Car is a parts car, I reviewed your website, and to buy the panels needed I would be way over the purchase price of the car. Simply not worth it in my book. Plus I only would have needed sections of parts you have available. You aren't talking about complicated parts here either, fabbing isn't that difficult, moreover, I find it enjoyable and a good stress reliever.

From the outside, the repairs I have made will be pretty damn close to factory original. And I know my repairs are as strong as original since they are modeled after what was there originally. Question for you, are your repair panels thickened in areas where Porsche had mulitple layers (like in the long and many other places in the "frame")? Or are they simply the mulitple layer thickness throughout? From the pics it seems like they are only single layer, so either they are too thin (compared to original) or too heavy (again, using original as the benchmark).

More valueable? Again, if it looks stock from the outside . . .

Last much longer? Ummm, you have somehow sourced a grade of steel better than mine? I don't remember posting the material specs of what I was using anywhere . . .

Nice work Dave, looks similar!

This thread is great and these pictures are very helpful. I'm, shamelessly, cheating off of all the hard work you guys are doing.

Bonus real man points to you for doing this in January in Philly. I know it was 19 degrees in my garage last night.

Ha, well I'm lucky in that my garage is the first floor of a row house, I steal a bit of warmth from the second floor of my place, the furnace in the garage, and the two houses on either side. I also wear long johns, flannel pants, jeans, 3 shirts and a fleece jacket. Feel kinda like Stay-Puft Marshmellow Man.

Also just bought a small portable propane heater off amazon, had them on sale. Its more for painting though, gotta get the area warm if I want the paint to stick!

]
I did not want to upset you at all. That was not my intent and again I am happy that you are saving a 914. (by the way that was NOT a parts car)
The aftermarket panels that several manufacturers make are actually thicker than the original steel and where Porsche reinforced them they have been reinforeced as well or make of double thickness to aid in the manufacture. Rest assured that the guys who make these panels are well familier with the 914 and would not cheat by making an inferiour panel!!!!! that alone would be real STUPID when it takes so little to get it right. We often use their panels here and cut them just using what we want, as it saves loads of time for the effort to fabricate (and believe me we know!!!!)
bottom line here Chris? If your time is free go for it of course and the time spent on one's 914 does lower the blood pressure, sort of like petting your dog, but the car is much better off in the long run being repaired as close to how the factory manufactured it, it actually takes less time and less money if your labor is not free, and when you finally die at 115 and someone is selling your 914, the buyer will not say, "Wow, I sure wish this 914 had been repaired properly as I would have paid 20,000 more for it!" and then your great great grandson laments that his legacy from you has been compromised.!!! Fix it right fix it once, but by all means fix a 914!

resale value??? I plan on being burried in mine!

me too...if one more package shows up at my front door with a 914 part in it, my wife might hurry that process....

Too f'in cold in my detached garage! I haven't touched my car in a few weeks! It's got to be 40+ for me.

Okay, my bottom line is I don't think I need to use the repair panels you sell to repair my car properly. I can see why you may think otherwise . . .

]
And Chris I completely defer to the man who has put that much time into his 914 and congratulate you.

Yep, it can also be had at welding supply houses for less money. I would advise against it, however, unless you know what you're doing... It can make buckling on this thin gauge metal even worse in the right conditions. I mainly use it when I can't avoid welding near plastic parts, wiring, etc. I use it all the time for plumbing, though. It's good at stopping heat-creep to valves and other solderable parts.

Dr.,

It's a rare talent you have. It's not easy to offend someone with a compliment. You are a master.

I'm assuming it's not your intent, but somehow it comes across that way. I guess that's one of the dangers of "talking" this way. You can't hear the other person's tone of voice or see their eyes rolling.

Dave

[quote name='dkos' date='Jan 30 2007, 01:36 PM' post='856245']
"And Chris I completely defer to the man who has put that much time into his 914 and congratulate you."
[/quote]


Dr.,

It's a rare talent you have. It's not easy to offend someone with a compliment. You are a master.

I'm assuming it's not your intent, but somehow it comes across that way. I guess that's one of the dangers of "talking" this way. You can't hear the other person's tone of voice or see their eyes rolling.

Dave
[/quote]

Good point and it really is hard to tell the intention when just typing. However i am sincere in my comments. ANY man who puts that much personal labor into restoring a 914 should always be commended and NEVER put down! I am the first to commend him. My comments were only to make a point that there IS an easier more efficient way to do it as others have made it easy for us to restore these cars!
Please keep in mind however that I have rebuilt/restored well over 500 914s over the last 32 years so there is some credence here in what I say, just from my experience, to hell with my skill. Man learns the easiest cheapest laziest way to get something accomplished, (BUT PROPERLY!!!!) and I am a good example of that man.

well said!

so Chris...any new pics?

Wow! Dr. 914 defers to me!! Such responsibility, I haven't even been to the 914 University yet, let alone achieve a PhD in 914ing! I think I'll name myself 914 Dictator for Life. Gosh, I'm not sure how I will handle the prestige . . . Guess I'll just have to keep on keeping on, don't start forwarding all your 914 related e-mails to me yet Dr., my head is still swimming from this honour.



Took Tuesday night off, restaurant week in Philly. Good food for cheap trumps working in the garage! Got a little done last night, pics didn't turn out so hot though. Cleaned up the area around the heater tube outlet, lots of seam sealer in that area, also finished up the cutout through the long for the heater tube:



Made some brackets to replace the rusted out sections of the ones that secure the heater tubes in the long



Probably gonna be the last update until next week though, life getting in the way again . . .


Seriously though, Dr. 914, I can do without the patronizing comments. I know you have a lot of experience with 914s, but that doesn't mean that the products you sell are the only or even the best way to fix a 914, depending on the situation. So telling me, or anyone, that using the products you carry will make the car stronger, more valuable, and last longer just comes off as cheap advertisement. Just like the unsolicited e-mail I received from AA touting your repair pieces shortly after I started this thread. I'll never pretend to know as much as you do about 914s, I know I'll have questions for you in the future and I'm sure I will be ordering from AA soon as well. But I do know a little bit about structures, I design 50+ ton seafaring power conversion buoys for a living, so having you tell me your replacement pieces are the best way to go is rather irritating.



-Chris

Heater tube sheet metal tacked in:





Getting closer . . .

Wow!! Kick-ass project & thread! Magnificent, eye opening & very educational. Think I will eventually be doing a lot of similar work to my 6. Please keep up the work and the thread. I'm sure it's a burden but I feel grateful for your work & I'm sure others do as well. Be worth a trip across the Mason-Dixon to come & see for myself. Kick-ass!!!

Thanks Johny! You are welcome to stop by whenever, but, with any luck, I'll be sealing up the long in the next week or two. Tough to see the guts then!

Thank you for your gracious invitation. I'd be happy to shoot up this weekend & take a look. I've been having dreams/nightmares of sandblasting & acid baths. GOD I HATE RUST!! I was thinking after all that work you've done you must be considering an upgraded power plant? Let me know what you think.

Saturday morning up to about 1pm will work for me, or later on during Sunday. If you have a working 914 you would like to bring along, great, nothing better than a working 914 for motivation, but I can understand if you would rather not because of the cold and road salt! Let me know what you think about times.

Upgraded power plant? My guess is that I will probably throw the 1.7 back in there with dual weber icts, may split the case, throw in a better cam, etc. Down the road I want to take the 1.8 that I have in my beetle, throw the 2.0L heads I have sitting around on it, put that in the 914, and megasquirt it. Gotta build a new engine for the Beetle first, got a beast in the works. Figure if I put the beast in 914, I'll never want to drive the Beetle!

I understand, be very hard to drive a low powered bug over a high powered teener. Forgive my ignorance but what is a megasquirt? Also, have you considered drilling out the gallies for a hydro cam conversion?
I'm down in the DC area of MD so the soonest I could make it on Sat would be around 1pm. Perhaps Sun? If not, I'm still gonna try to go to Hershy no matter what's going on that "other" thread.

Megasquirt is a DIY fuel injection system. I've tossed the idea around of having hydro lifters, but usually you can't get as much performance out of a hydro cam as you can with a solid lifter cam, so I'll probably stick with solids.

Sunday later on in the day, 3 or so, definitely works for me. Let me know . . .

Is that the one I've seen that sells for around $1800.00 & looks like 2 2 barrels? I've wanted to swap out my ancient d-jetronic for that ever since I saw it. I wish I could mess around w/ my 2.0 but I can't. It's why I got my 6- love at 1st sight. Completely messed with, un-restorable 914-6 that I can play with as much as I want! (I have no idea where the original 2.0/6 is & I don't want to know!)
If you're in Jersey, just outside of Philly, I'm about 2.5 hrs away, I think. I'd like to bring the "Bitch", but as you said weather, salt, etc... If I leave around 11am I should be there by 2:30/3:00pm?

Al- aka Johny Blackstain

Another one fight the rust!!!

Very, very nice work. reminds me so much on my project.

Best wishes for you and the car and maybe soon

Megasquirt is cheap, 200-300 to build the brain, but you have to do everything yourself, solder the board together, set the fuel maps, etc. $1800 option is definitely more plug and play. I've got the brain and relay board soldered together, I can show you on Sunday.

I'm actually in Philly itself, Northern Liberties. 2-2.5 hours to MD/DC area, 95 all the way. 2-3 sounds good, pm me later on and I can send proper instructions.

Michelko, thanks for the kind words. Your thread was a definite inspiration! I know I am not up to the quality of your work, but the repairs will be strong and with any luck I will be on the road in the next few months.

-Chris

Chris- let me know regarding Sunday. If not, no biggie but I'd still like to see her.

pm sent

After a rough, but entertaining weekend, I've gotten some more progress done. Heater tube welded in, put some tacks around the circumference to connect it to the inner long, I didn't acheive as tight as a fit as factory:



Welded in the engine compartment. Yeah, welding around the entire circumference was unecessary, but that heater tube is now a piece of the structure of the car. May not help a tremendous amount, but it will help some:



Brackets welded in to support the heater tube:





-Chris

Got a little work done here and there over the past month, but for the most part, life got in the way of my 914 progress. Stupid life. Anyway, finally time for another update:

Heater tube back in -



Painted the rust using Eastwood's Rust encapsulator (looks like I could use a bit more on the "roof" -



Drilled and cut out the inner layer of this corner of the long and fabbed up a new layer -





The bottom edge of this inner rocker panel was a little thin due to rust erosion so I fabbed up an angle to thicken it up in the necessary areas. I also had to cut out and replace two rectangular areas where there were holes from a PO yanking the triangular gussets off that support the threshold-





Hopefully I'll start sealing the long back up later on this week!

-Chris

Great progress Chris.

I can't believe you got all that done last night! You are an absolute animal.

Despite having his own large project, Chris spent most of yesterday afternoon(about 30 degrees in my garage) setting up my welding rig and showing me how to use it. This included several snafus on my part involving a trip to Home Depot as well as a defective auto darkening helmet. He is a very talented, patient and generous dude. I have no doubt that his car will be safely on the road.

Thanks again for the help Chris. I owe you one.

Oh, no, I didn't get all that done last night! That is the culmination of an hour here and an hour there over the past month. Last night I spent about an hour using the measurements I pulled off your car to backcheck against mine and I installed the heater tube brackets/heater tube. Nothing big.

Good meeting you though Jerry, glad I could help out with your welding setup and it was my pleasure passing some of the limited knowledge I have about welding on to you. Now I expect to see that yellow 914 of yours on the road before next winter!

-Chris

Wonderfull!!!

Like those pic´s.

If it wasn´t so stupid, i wish i could do this to my car...again

Michelko- I'm sure there are many 914s out there that could use the treatment you gave your car . . . go save another!!

-Chris

yeah i would like to..

but i need more space to store all those little cuties.

Inner rocker on:



Took a lot longer than I thought, then again, I shouldn't be surprised, it took a long time to drill out all those spotwelds. Crazy to think I did that 2+ years ago.

Spent some time on my Beetle too this weekend, installed an LM-1 and auxbox. Nothing too exciting to show for it except this pic of the o2 bung welded in:

Been busy with the Beetle, trying to tweak the carbs (still), I'll be getting back to the 914 in a week or two. Gunning for a fall cruise, but she will be an uggo!

-Chris

Excellent work Chris... keep it up!

Wow, haven't touched the teener in quite some time, I actually had to search for this thread to bring it back to life. Been working on the Beetle and enjoying the summer . . . got the Beetle is running reliably and cool (600 miles on her last weekend). Anyway, finally had some time to make some progress. First step . . sign the inner rocker before I seal this beast up again (hopefully for good):



Next, weld in the piece I fabbed using the old piece as one layer and a template:



My welding is a little rusty, as are the parts that I didn't treat back in feb/march. Good news is I decided to hold off on grad school for another year, potentially moving out to CO to get it done, so now I have another 10-11 months to get this thing going. Hopefully by the spring, but I think this will be the third time I said that!

So did this weekends car events rekindle the flame a little?
Just a little here and there, and it gets done eventually......

Definitely . . . it was one of the big reasons why I headed down that way. I needed some inspiration!

Nice work Chris. Glad to see your back on the project. I wish I could have made the cookout. I need the inspiration as well. I hope to get back on mine in a couple weeks. Let me know if you need any parts that I might have. I think I still have that front valence in my garage(from Hershey if you still remember that).

Chris- was good to finally meet you. Bug looked great, very 1960s SoCal looking. Now get back to work on that teener!

Nice work Chris. Makes me feel bad about my car collecting dust in the garage. Been too busy with work/kids/home lately.

Jerry-

Definitely still want that front valence, if it is in your way let me know and I will pick it up soon, otherwise the next time I am out your way I will grab it. How's the welding going? Guessing it has been on the back burner.

Al-

Good to meet you too, your black -6 was awesome and I definitely want to check out that creamsicle at some point.

Dave-

Winter is fast approaching! I seem to remember your garage isn't heated. Get something in there so you can wrench when its not fun to be outside. With me, you, Jerry, and Kevin I would say we have a Philly 914 crew (almost).

Anyone wants to stop by for inspiration or to check out progress just let me know.

-Chris

No sweat Chris. It's not in my way. In fact I couldn't even see it until yesterday as it was underneath piles of lumber,drywall, tools etc. from renovating that investment property. I'm just getting that finished up and slowly recovering my garage space. It's pathetic to see my welder sitting there looking all brand new so I hope to get back at it in October. I'll definitely want to stop by for some inspiration.