First...I'm not a fan of Orange. That being said, that car IS and is GOING to be BEAUTIFUL! WOW! I wish I had the space, time and $$$$ to go that deep into rest. You should be very proud! Tired but proud! Great work. I'll be watching this until your done. I'm jealous.

Thanks, still have to wonder sometimes whether it is ever going to get done, be nice to but still got my imagination.

Finally got the brakes to a point where they are not bad, still some air in there but good enough for now. Took an AGE to get some of the air out, the long tube method is the way to go .... the wife and kids were taking a beating.

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Also rebuilt the CV joints, one is toast though, nasty wear mark. Remember regreasing the ones on the 928 and all the mess, same all over again!

Can see the wear mark below

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Got a nice package Wednesday, my 17" replica Fuchs arrived.

Rears fit great

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Going to need spacers at the front though, 1.5".

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Good news is that the tire to fender gaps are the same from side to side, was worried that those fenders may have had some variability but looks like I am good as far as that goes.

Why is this website the shit?

Example A your honor.

Chris,
Great pics and description, your car is looking better than new, excellant job.

Dave

Nice job and good attention to detail.

Thanks for all the comments, it helps keep progress going!

Found some Dynamat I had left over from when I did the 928 so decided to use it and clear some shelf space!

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Looks like we have one last week of good weather before fall hits us so decided to get some painting done while we are still above 70F.

First job was to clean out the windscreen channel, the black sealant is tough but a few application of paintstripper and then the wire wheel did the job. Sealed the rusty areas with a suitable converter

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Epoxy and 2K Primer finished the job.

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Out with the epoxy and paint for the inside of the doors, the outside also got a final coat of 2K primer.

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Also painted the seal channel in front of the windscreen.

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Finally painted the drivers side door jamb, decided to mask the VIN sticker, came out OK except for some minor bleeding which I will see if I can remove. If not no big deal.

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Looks like you got yourself a real project... good luck

Nice to see some pictures.

Love how detailed you are getting inside the doors, trunks etc.

Looks great!

Love what you're doing Chris, I'm right behind you.

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For years I've been looking at my car and thinking it was all too much but now -a little bit at a time - I've starting doing things. What I like about your thread is that I keep 'seeing' my car and 'my' bits of rust in your pictures - it's that damned orange paint -which I'm also removing bit by bit but I won't be putting it back.

I have a question - those little 'rust spiders' - what do you do with them ?

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I've been giving them a hard time with a wire brush on an angle grinder until there's not much more than a bit of discolouration but I'm now wondering whether I should keep going till even that has gone. What do you reckon ? If I don't get rid completely will they come back ?

Cheers, Andrew

PS Where did you visit in England ?

Hi Andrew

To keep the Orange was decided by my teenage daughters, they thought the color was right for the look. Who I am to argue ....

It is hard to get all of the rust without sandblasting, a wire brush and then hitting with some 80grit is what I do followed up with some kind of rust converter if there is any resilient rust residue. IMO this works for our dry climate, others may have better options for your wetland environment

I am an expat, my home area is Bucks so usually where I end up visiting family and friends. Where are you located?

Cheers indeed and good luck with your project!

Pulled the hood of the garage wall, been there for a while ... decided I might as well get the hood and trunk to the same point as the doors. Out with the paint stripper ...

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Wire brush shows some thin metal and holes. The round holes are where someone had a Porsche badge.

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Time to get out the cutting wheel, some hard rust encrusted foam.

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After much mess there is some metal in there !

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Sanded and the rust that I can't remove with the grinder gets rust inhibitor.

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Backside looks pretty good after a rub down.

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Now to get the trunk to the same level, then out with the welder.

1.5" front spacers arrived in the mail today, just about perfect fit.

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I like the spacing on the wheels, looks really good.

It's amazing were rust will hide on 914's. That hood is a really good example of the rust monster.

So started work on the trunk, stripped and sanded.

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Trunk used to have a rack on it at one time, need to weld those holes up. The supports for the rack were still attached to the trunk, if anyone wants them let me know, just pay shipping.

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There was a patch of rust on the trunk where it looked like the paint had been gone some time. After sanding sure enough there were some holes.

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Like the hood decided it might as well be cut out, got some holes on the other side also. If this is anything like the hood it is going to be a bear to weld, 3 dimensional plus warpage .... hmmmm. Ok save this one for anther day.

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Back to the hood, first coat of filler sanded, my arms were hanging off after this and had to watch sweat from dripping on the filler. to you professional bodywork guys.

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4 or so filler applications later time to epoxy and 2K ready for some more sanding later. Going to be gone next couple of weekends, proably good time to take a break from sanding

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Thankyou

Your thread has reinspired me to get back to restoring my 76

Many thanks from Brisbane Australia

So the front trunk lid is done with sanding, just need to paint the underside but am going to do that when the rear trunk is ready. I am out of filler so stalled on bodywork right now.

This week I finally managed to get the pins for the rear handbrake cable, trick was to use this part number 999-166-010-02-OEM which is the pin for the handbrake body. The one noted in PET for the cable is unobtanium.

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Now I have a handbrake I decided to get the car of the trolley and onto its wheels, been a LONG time since it was on the ground so I took the liberty of taking some pictures.

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Got some time in the garage today, good to tidy up some odds and ends.

I am hoping this is my last batch of plating, I went through all my boxes and bags of parts and tried to find every last part that I might want to get plated.

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Now I can finish of the seat rails, lost one roll pin trying to get the spring back on but otherwise went OK.

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Added the SS fuel lines from Tangering Racing, gave up with trying to use the tie down tabs in the tunnel though. Just tie wrapped them together and that seems to work.

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Also got the sway bar finally, been on back order since August.

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OK, now I can sit in the car and make vrooom vrooom noises .... OK maybe not but definitely makes it easier to have someone sit in and steer while moving in and out of the garage.

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Put the doors back on, everything still lines up OK! Sure glad I drilled a hole in each hinge to align it all back up.

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Your car is looking good!

That color will look great with the flares.

John

I just read this entire thread at once - great stuff!

As a newbie looking at possibly purchasing my 1st 914, your well lit photos and fully dismantled car has really helped me understand where to look for rust on any prospective purchase.

Good luck - I will be following your progress!

Thanks John, coming from you that means a lot. I envy you in that you have your 1st project back on the road already!

Thanks but lots of great 914 project pages on this site and a wealth of knowledge.

OK got the Engman pedal board fitted, need to find a rubber stop for the clutch though. Looks like a bicycle brake pad might work.

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Got the window rubber from Mikey on the group buy, will be a while before they get fitted but I did use the roller and put the window mechanism back together.

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It is damn cold outside but wanted to get the front trunk together, turned up the heat in the garage on got some primer on.

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And then paint, tried to get it back on the car alone but had to give up and ask the wife for help!.

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Closed.

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As per my question on another post, it does hit the hood but only just. Looks like I need a washer on the top of the strut to reduce the height of the threaded portion.

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Any updates?

What with the Xmas Holidays, a vacation to some warmer weather the answer is no not much! Also the 928 needs some work before the Spring so that may force another break.

I did get a nice package just after Xmas.

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This is the Renegade cooling system and I also bought the hoses, I played around with it for a while and the only issue I see is the side plates will need to be modified. Looks like they are made for the pre-75 cars.

Also going to see if I can get some nutcerts and use those rather than sheet metal screws or rivets. Also thinking powder coating in black. We shall see.

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Bought some washers to sought out the clearance issue with the top of the struts and the hood. Sorted now and the hood latches shut nicely.

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For some reason it was unseasonably warm so I took the opportunity to finish up the filler work on the rear trunk. Took me most of the day and am glad this is done.

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Dude I just re-read your whole thread and you are the man! You have come
so far on this car it is amazing.

You will not regret the work once you are driving your car. I still get a load of
satisfaction every time I turn the key.

John

Any updates? Love following this build

Not too much to update and some back tracking but that is the way it goes sometimes, I was never happy with the rubber coupling after putting in the rack spacers. Seemed to put stress on the shaft where it clamps to the body in the fuel tank area.

Also I bought the PP bushing for the front A-arms a long time ago, never liked them, squeaky and stiff which might improve with usage but that is not going to happen just yet. Decided to buy the ones Eric started selling.

Here is the old donut, looks OK from this angle.

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Once removed the holes had significant wear, talk about slop around the bushings.

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New Delrin part, sweet.

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Decided to wet sand with 400grit the passenger fender, only have a two small low areas. Once that is done the whole passenger side of the car is good to go.

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Been putting of spraying primer as I had run out of gun cleaner, got some yesterday and Epoxy and 2K'd the rear trunk lid. Sand that next weekend.

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Looks like you're close to color on the fenders, cool!

This looks super.Nice work.

Damn, that's a lot of nice work you put down there! respect..

Been a while since the last update but finally made some progress, trying to remove the old PP bushings from the front a-arms I gave in and purchased a HF press. Should have done it a long while ago, talk about making your life easier.

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Putting the new PMB bushings in was interesting, first couple of tries the bushings were not hot enough but once I had that figured out it was plain sailing. A-arms move nicely now, glad I took it all apart to change them.

Finally the rear trunk came together, this panel required the most work of any so far. Just when I thought I had it I would find another low spot ... once I got it where I wanted adding color on the inside was easy.

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Also got to fit my J West trunk hinges, fiddly getting everything lined up as the old brackets were gone so no reference point. They work great.

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Last bit was to add the shox kit.

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One rear corner is not quite where I want it but will leave that for another day, nice to get another part on the car.

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Next I need to work on that radiator and hoses.

It has been a while but sometimes the project takes second priority, started looking for some small items to complete to get back in the game. Fished out the headlight assemblies, pretty nasty. Was thinking I would strip and paint but my sandblaster had a hard time with some of the pitted rust so took it down to the powder coaters and let them deal with it.

Before :

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After, and yes those are the same sealed beam lights, those cleaned up nice.

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Also got the raidator brackets powder coated at the same time, I bolted the bottom panel in, riveted the side panels to the bottom and then put fastners so the side top panel can screw to the sides.

Next on the todo list is to route the radiator hoses.

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That thing is REALLY coming along! Wish I could say the same about mine. Who's doing your powder coating? I'm gonna need a local shop shortly.

BTW. This car is the reason I've got quarts and quarts of orange paint on the shelf that will never be used. Can't have two of them in the same town, it'd be like two girls showing up to the prom in the same dress

I don't believe you.

Thanks!

PowderTech out in the industrial estate, really nice to deal with and great value.

So if not orange for you then what !

I'm leaning to a slightly more modern, dechromed creamsicle-esque nightmare.

All the fabrication and hardware will probably be blaze orange though, gotta do something with all this!

Still chipping away at the smaller stuff, I got the exhaust heat shield powder coated after I filled in some holes from drilling out the spot welds. I left one hole per bracket and then used that to bolt the heatshield back on.

This is the heatshield and steering rack shield after cleaning, will need to wait to get the rack shield painted until I have routed the coolant lines and put in an appropriate notch.

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Heat shield fitted to car, dusty prints sure show up well ...

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Got some plated parts back and was waiting for the cam on the headlight mechanism, so with that back I put the motor assembly on the headlights.

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I was going to start wiring up the front trunk area and then realised that the 914 wiring loom is all one and not seperate sections, going to think about whether I want to rewire the whole car or not.

What an awesome goddamn build this is........

I just read the whole thing, awesome job. Any updates?

Wow, it has been a while but finally getting back to it. The 928 needed some love which culminated in a 3,000 mile round trip down to LA, started with replacing the gearbox and then I got sidetracked with WYAIT items including powder coating and refurbing the rear axle assembly. I mention this because having done the same with the rear of the 914 items such as rear wheel bearings on the 928 was much less ardous. Although I did invest in a press this time, wish I had done that with the 914 .. lesson learned I guess.

Here is a pic of the 928 assembly shortly before going back in the car.

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Alright back to the 914, so I bought some more Dynamat to finish of what I started a while back with some left overs. I could have put more in the interior but decided this is good enough, I am certainly not expecting this car to be quiet but I don't want that tin can feeling either. Will be a while before it gets put to the test but something easy to do to get back in the swing of things.

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Good work on the deadening, looks like a great job - BUT you need MLV on top of that dynamite to stop road noise and engine noise getting through. I think from memory that the Dynamat product is called Dynaliner..

Its a vinyl product - which stops sounds dead, dynamat will just stop your panels sounding dead when you tap them rather than ring out..

Finally got the parts I needed to get this done, nothing uncoventional here just following the majority in routing the lines under the car in the recesses along the tunnel.

I will say that with the car on stands this was quite the workout with drilling and rivetting, my arms are still shaking.

I drilled pilot holes from under the car into the front trunk first.

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Then used the hole saw from inside the trunk, at Renegade I saw them drill from the underside but decided I preferred it this way as I had more room. Smaller hole was done with cheap Harbor Freight item, you get what you pay for ...

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Front trunk looking good

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Started at front and then attached the brackets towards the rear, I bought the brackets from McMaster and they were good quality. Due to uneveness of the floor the cheaper brackets from HomeDepot may have been a better option as I needed a vice to modify the brackets.

Used the axle stands to help support the hose.

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All done for now, I need one more bracket for each hose at the rear but waiting on engine install for that.

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Plenty of extra hose !

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WOOT! That's a hell of a challenge to clear!

Still pissed you took my color

OK time to make some progress, with some free time yesterday I decided to get back into the swing of things and decided that sooner or later I need to put the wiring harness back in the car. Was reluctant at first because I was unsure about what would end up being redone, well figured that most of the chassis harness was still needed and any additions can always be added later.

Oh, I also modified the metal pan that sits below the rack for the cooling pipes, stripped and is now at the powder coaters.

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Started by cleaning and making some repairs on the harness from the bulk head forward, most of it was in surprisingly good shape. I need to get some harness fasteners in a few places, glad I took lots of photos when I dis assembled but wish I had taken more .....

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I was going to take a break here but decided to keep going, ordered a new fuse panel from Jwest, the old one is toasty. I pulled some owner added extra wiring that had been added over the years also.

OK need to get the dash back in, hmmm looks like crap so stripped the old vinyl and foam whose adhesive was a bear to remove. Guessing in 1975 they did not worry about ecological goodness in their chemicals. I did discover Hans's signature though.

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Sanded and prepped for paint.

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One rattle can later.

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Adding back in the switch's I realized the wires for the front fogs and rear demister were some of the PO wiring, will have to figure that out later. This is where I stopped, also realized this roller came without the engine bay relay panel also.

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I have the Haynes manual wiring diagram but it is missing plenty of circuits for the 75 MY. A pain when you cannot remember where a couple of wires went.

I ordered a bunch of small parts this week for the electrical but nothing arrived , hopefully next week I can finish it all off. Anyway this had all taken longer than I expected, mainly because when I think I am done I come up with something to add or modify or I re-read the wiring diagram and figure something else out.

Last time I mentioned i did not have the engine bay relay box, well I have now worked out I do not need it so that is good! More on that in a bit.

Spent quite a bit of time tidying the loom up where I could, considering it is nearly 30years old the majority was pretty good. A good example was the tail light wiring in the trunk, cleaned off all the rust stains, removed the tape and put some heat shrink on.

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I pulled the harness through to the engine bay and then thought it might be a good idea to feed through a couple more power feeds, one for the radio/amp and another for the cooling fans. Maybe overkill but better than overloading old circuits. Also added one more signal wire, going to get the Quad gauge, with Water Temp, Oil Temp, Volts, Fuel I needed to add a wire for Water. Well I need to pull the harness back through to get the extra wires through, pain but it worked out OK in the end.

Oh, battery is going to be in the rear trunk.

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Here is the pile with all the wires removed from the harness, I could have just left them but WYAIT seemed worth tidying up.

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Ditched the rear dome light and going to add this LED lighting under the dash.

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So my old door switches were toast and I threw them out when I dismantled, the handbrake switch was pretty nasty also. Can't be much to replace, bloody hell, $15 and another $5 for the gasket! That was a shock, found some Audi ones that would work then came across these from MAMotorworks, $3.99 that is more like it ...

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There were 2 mystery connectors, one in the trunk and another on the floor by the bulkhead, I trawled the wiring diagrams but they don't exist so presume maybe for rear foglamp or something? In the rear there is blue/yellow (signal), black (power) and brown (ground), inside the same wires and also the blue generator charge signal. The Blue/Yellow continues to the dash. I commandeered the blue/yellow for oil temp and removed or bypassed everything else.

Rear Trunk connector:
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Inside connector:
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Inside the engine bay where the harness connects to the relay box I removed what was not needed and will need to connectorize the others to the Suby engine harness.

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So the interior is coming along nicely, need to tidy up the fuse box area but will wait for the new one to arrive. Wires on the seat are for

1. 1 Fuel Pump, ECU will be under the passenger seat
2. 2 Rear Defog (I don't need it but what the hell), will put relay under passenger seat
3. 3 Seatbelt light, will wire this up to drivers belt

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Yay, more progress. I'm pulling the entire harness out off mine and going aftermarket for most of it. If you need to canibalize any connectors, let me know. I'm in the neighborhood. I'll pm my phone #.

The one mystery connector in the trunk was for the 02 sensor.

This is a great thread...really useful for novices like me, thanks alot! I'm in the early stages of a 6cyl resto/conversion, about to strip the underside, and will also be welding flares on shortly.

The epoxy primer you used for the underside - is that a 2pk epoxy? If so, what breathing mask did you use? I've read for 2pk paints you really need an air fed respirator..what do you think?

You said in an earlier post that you made a mistake with one of the flares by fixing the bottoms first and working up from both sides - what went wrong when you did it this way? How did you do it in the end so it worked out...?

Cheers.