So a couple months back I posted about getting a hold of the project candidate,
feel like I have moved on from that so thought it I would post some pics on progress and I will add to this thread as time (and progress) goes on.

I did not get around to stripping the car down till earlier in the month as I drove my 928 down to Sharktoberfest in LA and I was performing last minute tinkering before the drive.

Anyway back to 914 subject matter, the good news is I have not found too many issues which is a relief and I can start to order parts and make some investment in tools. It is a perfect time of year for indoor projects as it is below freezing all the time now and skiing does not start here till after xmas.

Surface rust and dirt in the front trunk but that is about it, will need to repiar a couple of areas around the hood seal.

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Chris

Interior needs a bit more work, car was in Seattle for some time in its life so water had found its way into the interior I guess. Rear pans will need patching, when I clean the area up will see how much good metal there is, right now just a couple of pin holes.

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Chris

Some more surface rust around the pedals but everything else seems solid.

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I decided to remove the engine today, I was hoping for help but in the end decided to just do it myself. Could have done with another jack though, the universal joint on the gear shifter linkage could not be disassembled as the grub screw had been rounded by a PO. With the engine bar removed there was just enough room to pull out the whole assembly.

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Chris

Despite prodigous prodding with a large screwdriver I could not find any weak areas in the hell hole .

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Someone has done a real nice bodge on the passenger side trunk pivot point.

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Need to do some more bagging and labelling of parts, remove the wiring harness and some small trim and then comes the messy stuff. Cleaning and metal work.

Chris

I love orange! Keep posting progress and good luck!

Paul

save the orange cars

keep up the good work...looks like you have a very solid project so far

Orange is the best. Looking good!

OK got a couple of hours in yesterday and today with my angle grinder and associated abrassive attachments, also made some progress in the engine bay but more on that tomorrow.

So after digging in deeper there are more holes than I thought, the metal in the rear pans is pretty thin although most of the metal around the edges is good except the passenger rear quarter.

Some of the front of the drivers side pan is not so good but the majority is OK, front of the passenger is all good. Nice and shiny.

All of this rot was from the inside, so a leaky cabin over the years was the culprit.

Should I order front and back pans? Replace all of the rear and just the bit of the drivers side front that needs it? Just wondering what some of you have done.

The ugly.

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The bad

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The good

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Messed up.

rear pan section is definitely needed. IMHO that small area in front of the seat mount does not warrant a new pan section. You picture doesn't show any real damage there and I would recommend at the most making a small piece of metal to replace there instead of the cost and werk of a pan section.

Thanks Scott, appreciate the input. There are two small pin holes in the front pan and the rest of the metal in the first indent is pretty thin but as you suggest it does seem a waste to get a new front pan for that small area.

Thanks for the feedback, I tend to agree a complete front pan seems a little extreme for that small patch. Just wanted to check, there are a couple of small holes and the metal is pretty thin in that area.

I would section in the rear pan, not do a complete job. Removal is a PITA and it would be better to just leave enough to butt weld the whole section.

So while making progress with the grinder and wire brush is the right thing to do it can sometimes get a bit depressing finding more areas that need work so I decided to do something that looked like forward progress.

I have been reading a lot of the archived threads on rust prevention and if I had the equipment I would use epoxy primer, but I don't (yet) so I bought a POR15 starter kit and thought I would try it out. I used the Marine Clean on the front pan area followed by the Metal Ready and that was fairly painless.

Pan after Marine Clean and Metal Ready

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I then followed with the first coat of POR-15 Silver.

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And then a 2nd coat, looked pretty good so I will finish of the interior with this followed by primer and color later.

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OK, couple of questions.

What should I do with the driver side jack post? This area looks to be lacking in rust but metal fatigue seems to be an issue, any suggestions? I searched the archives and there did not seem to be an easy way to gain access to the upper portion of the jack post to remove. Maybe I am missing something obvious.

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Drivers side sail panel, no doubt this looks a lot worse underneath, do I need to replace the whole part of just cut out the bit that needs replacing?

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Next week I am going to pick up my welder, order the rear floor panel and Engman kit. Should keep me busy for a while.

IMO the jack post should ALWAYS be cut out as they tend to rust from the inside and you can't see what is going on until it is to late. Drill out the spot welds and if all is good, treat it and re-weld the metal back in using the original spot weld holes. Floor is looking good !!

When i did my resto and did the same thing you are doing i had mixed results with the POR15 and stopped using it sometimes it would peel right off like a sheet of paper and with more research i found it happed to others too. I found Rust Bullet and sprayed the entire underneath of my car with it and it was 100 times better it flowed better dried better and is so much more reliable without having to go through the process that you have to go through with POR15 I live on the ocean and everything rusts around here and i started using this on everything and it works great. Ive used them both and Rust bullet is simpler and better. I once had a can dry up on me and the paint was like steel . The other part about it is you can paint on top of it without the hassle

http://www.rustbullet.com/index.htm?source...KWID=4205382011

OK, I guess I can decide if I want to delete them permanently as well. So how do you get access to the spot weld at the top of the plate?

Interesting thanks, the more I read about a particular rust protection product the more I became disillusioned with it, there was always something negative and I decided no matter what I chose it was a compromise. Your experience is a bummer and I sure hope mine does not turn out that way .... time will tell.

As I said if I had the apparatus I would epoxy prime, maybe by the time I get to the underside we will have to see.

Still waiting for the rear pan (should be here next week) so worked on removing the rest of the paint from the rear bulkhead and then prepping and painting. I left where the Engman kit will go unpainted and I need to get some weld thru primer on those surfaces.

Need to get some gas for the welder too.

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I have seen many-o-914's and your's is not that bad at all. Little rust fixing and it'll be good to go. Can't wait to see this one come together!

Yep Dan I agree, progress is a little slow as this is an area I have little experience on a car I am unfamiliar with but then that is all part of the challenge. When I eventually get past the bodywork things should go a little quicker.

Chris

Cleaned up the battery area in the engine bay when I wasn't shovelling snow today. So far I don't see anything to worry about, took some time to remove the amateur trunk pivot that thing had a lot of weld on it.

After the interior this will be the next area that gets attended too.

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In the Jan 13 post you've just finished cleaning the pans before the por15 treatment. What did you use to cut out and clean up the soundproofing glued to the floor? Great job..Can't wait to see the car in paint.

Heat gun and 1" wood chisel seems to be the consensus on that one and it works pretty good, heat up the surrounding area and then right where you want to work with the chisel. That worked for me, takes a couple of hours and comes off especially easy where there is rust underneath.

Paint seems like such a long way of some times !!!

OK so still waiting for the floor panel so I decided that since I bought some gas for my new welder I should put it to good use. Naturally I practiced on scraps for a few hours but could felt that it would be good to try on an area of the car that is well hidden.

So I chose to plug the rear bumper shock holes.

Here is a pic of my welding machine, a Miller was a little rich for my blood and after reading everyone elses experience this seem like s good compromise.

OK so still waiting for the floor panel so I decided that since I bought some gas for my new welder I should put it to good use. Naturally I practiced on scraps for a few hours but could felt that it would be good to try on an area of the car that is well hidden.

So I chose to plug the rear bumper shock holes.

Here is a pic of my welding machine, a Miller was a little rich for my blood and after reading everyone elses experience this seem like s good compromise.

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I prepped the area and cut out a patch.

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Then tack welded into place.

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I was worried about running a bead and heating up the panel too much so I laid multiple tacks. Problem with this is after two or so rounds of tacks I end up with a few tiny pin holes. Is this the right way to do this or should I lay small beads moving around and allowing the panel to cool ??

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Here are the two holes after grinding.

Your heat range on the welder (amps) might be set too high if you are consistantly burning through the metal. (You may also be able to turn up your wire speed a little bit - the same amps with more wire will give you a little less penetration.)

After tacking, I suggest you make 1/2" or 3/4" long beads alternating on opposit sides until your weld is complete.

Great looking project. Keep us up to date!

p.s. are you thinking of doing any seam welding? Especially around the rear suspension box sections? How about a GT stiffening kit?

So bumper shock holes are now done, last one went sooo much better than the 1st one

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Also patched some thin metal on the inside, could not get the grinder to the weld at the bottom.

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OK now onto the BIG job of the day, the floor pan removal. Wonder how much you would have to pay to have someone do this? A lot me thinks.

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I ran out of steam so I cut out the big pieces and left the center section for another day, someone has seam welded the rear center and at that point I decided to call it quits till tomorrow.

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New floor pan arrived Friday but there is plenty of clean up before that goes in.

Got the wire wheel attachment on the grinder and decided to check out the state of the surfaces this morning, longs look great and most of the rust is superficial so that is good.

Decided I might as well clean up the underside and most of the undercoating and paint came of pretty easy, thinking another 3-4 messy hours and it will be done.

Here are the longs.

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One thing about replacing the rear floor pan is the jack posts cover the rear corners, I could have removed them and re-used but new ones would be better.

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Here is a shot looking into the rear bulkhead.

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Another weekend lying mainly under the car, I thought I would be welding in the pan but POR15ing the areas which will hopefully never see the light of day again took some time.

The new pan actually covered a lot more area than I thought so I extended the drivers side cut a bit more which of course necessitated another 30 or spot welds to drill.

Here is a pic of how a new pan will look at some point ..., this is the fit where I marked out the cut lines.

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I found this the best method to support the panfor a snug fit and check for high and low points.

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I did get sidetracked with undoing a PO clutch tube reinforcement which while effective did take away 1" of ground clearance. It was basically a threaded u tube with 4 nuts on each side. Here is a pic of the pieces I removed, I had to angle grind the loop off.

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I fabricated a piece of metal around the tube much like the original (which is still on the tube futher forward), I used the holes left by the PO mod to weld the bracket to the floor. No judging on the top welds though please.

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The tube had been welded at the rear so while the floor was out I welded a small plate to the inside of the bulkhead too.

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I ordered some seat mount hinges from restoration design which are on back order but I did manage to remove the old seat brackets and clean up the assemblies. Apart from one hinge which was broken these look salvagable so I need to give Bill a call. I need to order the two rear jack points anyway.

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As an aside I made my first visit to the local paint store, I was after some weld thru primer and brushable seam sealer, the people in their could not have been more helpful so they will be seeing me again for my future needs.

Excellent progress!

OK, spent some serious time on the car yesterday and a lot less today as a disagreement between the angle grinder and a finger (tight corner and gloves not thick enough) meant 4 hours at urgent care and two stitches.

Anyway the floor pans are in, the seat rail re-enforcement still need to go in as well as the seat mounting points but I thought I would put the Engman kit in before that.

Welding under the car is interesting, took me a while to get the right settings and technique on the welder. This week I ran out of gas AND wire although a more competant user would no doubt have consumed vastly less of both.

I was hoping to get all the welding done today and then start prepping for some paint, ha, best laid plans.

Here is a pic of the inside, and underside of the new pan.

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I then sprayed where the Engman kit goes with weld thru primer (anyone spot the access hatch a previous owner thought might be a good idea?).

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I spent quite a while getting the fit of the drivers side right, the inner long is far from square and I did the best I could to get it to metal to match the contours before I started welding. I thought the passenger side was better but I should have spent more time with it.

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I was taking a break from welding to do some grinding, anyway it is coming on and hopefully I will get some eve time in this week.

Well it has been a while, had a never ending honeydo list and some work to do on the 928 but finally got back to it.

Interior is pretty much completed for now, need some primer and paint and one seat hinge but no rush on those. I also stripped all parts from the doors except the latch and removed the windshield.

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This weekend I started filling some holes on the body, first up the rear trunk lock and reflector holes.

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Next side marker lights, my welds are getting better, still a long way to go but I spend less time grinding now.

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After grinding and 120 grit sander

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Passenger side

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Pic of me concentrating hard, I picked up the helmet last week from Northern tools, auto darkening makes life a lot easier.

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Antenna hole, this one did not come out as well ... I should have stopped for lunch, think blood sugar was low. Yeah I know excuses, excuses ...

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Next up the sail panels, found some rust holes by the passenger door, will do something with those later.

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Finally the drivers side, I posted pics of the rust earlier in the thread, I cut out the offending areas and welded in new metal being careful with the heat so as not to warp the panels.

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Next up I need to attach the seat rail enforcements under the car on the new floor panel, need to buy that compressor too .....

It has been a while, this summer I spent doing other things outside and playing with my new toy, a Kawasaki Versys. I did purchase a 60gallon 220V compressor though which will be getting plenty of use this Winter.

I bought the GT chassis kit of Ebay (Desert Hybrids) and have been making some progress, the pieces must have been made for earlier years because the fit on some pieces is terrible.

I was planning on removing all the underseal but the stuff is so well adhered that I figure it can be left alone, after trying wire wheels and chemicals the best tool is the heat gun and a scraper.

As you can see below the jacking posts were junk.

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Here you can see the damage done, it had ripped and left holes in the long

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I actually bought the replacement parts but decided I would do the delete option instead. Here you can see I welded a plate over the old jack post area and the lower part of the GT kit fitted.

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Two new rear jack points were welded in.

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Here you can see prep for the passenger side for the GT stiffener kit, after scraping some citrus paint stripped does the rest.

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Here is some welding complete on the drivers side.

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Next is the rear stablalizer mounts and front stablalizer brackets.

Nice project! You are well on your way to a great car. Keep up the good work!

You're doing some nice work there. Keep at it...

Thanks for the words of encouragement, learning a lot here.

I thought I would add these photos of the passenger side of the GT kit, I put these two pieces on tonight and one thing I learnt from the drivers side is to use a few more screws to hold the pieces tight ... this made the whole process a lot easier.

Paint stripper worked great and the environmentaly friendly citrus fumes are not bad at all honest.

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Pieces attached with screws and I trimmed these two parts while fitted.

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Would not have shown this pic when i started, my welds before use of the grinder, must have the welder dialed in about right for this job. Even the weld thru primer which sometimes gives me grief seemed to behave. There are a couple of ugly ones in there but its getting better ... honest.

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One thing I am still working on is akward and tight angles, burnt quite a few holes in my socks because I had dripping welds trying to weld the piece that supports the suspension ear.

I will finish this side tomorrow and then onto the front sway bar mounts.

After you tack the perimeter of the stiffening plate, you can use an awl to scratch the paint off in the holes. It helps.

Your work looks really good for your experience level. Hot metal in the socks is tough. A pair of wolverines boots would help. Harbor Freight has a cheap leather apron. If you can find a metal salvage yard, you might look for some pieces of copper. I have some 3/8 thick 4x4 square copper plates that I put behind single wall panels and weld holes up against the copper plates. The wire won't stick to the copper and the back side is flat when you finnish. Eastwood has some expensive copper helpers that are magnetic. Some weld through primers can be removed with laquer thinner. You can use a qtip with laquer thinner to clean out the holes in the stiffeners, it dosen't take but a second for each hole. Also you may not think you need it but Eastwood has a long air powered 4 inch cutoff wheel tool that is real handy. I use the 1/16 thick wheels on everything from metal to fiberglass. It would be a good xmas present for your wife. A carbide burr on a air tool will get in the corners on the welds. Restomotive also sells a Tiecoat primer that will stick to the por15. It's babyblue so you might want to paint over it. It's hard to get normal paint and glue to stick to por15.

I am wondering if the Engman kit made the door gaps change any.

I think it should be against the law to have that much fun by yourself.

Very nice work there and an inspiration to those of us who are about to embark on the journey. A special thanks for the progress pictures and insights. Stuff like that is gold.

Tom