1. Do any of the replacement manufacturors for rust prone parts make hell hole kits, floors, longs, or battery boxes out of stainless?

2. Would this seem problematitic? Could the same stamping dyes be used?

3. Anyone forsee issues with welding stainless to our 914 tubs?

4. How would you change your welding practice?


Wilhelm
#1 85 grey 928
# 6 914s in various states of armegedon.

Welding dissimilar metals is never a good idea. You typically get very bad welds. If you really want to do it you have to braze.

As long as the mild steel replacement pieces are properly painted you should be good for another 30 years.

electrolysis = rust

yup to what jim and sean said. Even if you get good welds you will have rust trying to form at the joint because of electrolysis. Mild steel coated with POR-15 or similar will last at least another 30 years.

But to answer your first question - no I have never seen body panels being offered in stainless. Heat exchangers - yes. Bumpers - yes (just recently) but no body parts. There is a bit of a history behind the molds for stamping these parts but from what I gather there is really only one source for each. Restoration Design is the source for most. I think George at Automobile Atlanta owns some of the molds as well.

Should add that there is also some reinforcing pieces that are made by other folks. You can find them in the vendors forum.

Stainless is much harder than mild steel, so I don't think any existing tooling would work to stamp stainless.

The other consideration is that 914's that get restored probably will not see the circumstances that have brought it to the current state of corrosion.

I see posts on a regular basis oth here and on another site I frequent of people looking for an anti rust miracle for the future. The simple fact is that it took 30+ years of use and neglect for your car to get to the state it is in now. That said most of the people restoring their car are doing a complete job and will take MUCH better care of the car than was previously. Another MAJOR factor is the advancements in the paint tech being utilized today. Modern paints are a FAR cry from what they were 30 years agop. Forget about the S.S. idea, forget about galvanized dipping your body ( yes I have seen that brought up) do it once, use QUALITY products and take care of the car !! It will outlast you if all this is done properly.

Gotta be careful welding stainless....

Our materials guy in college used to tell this tale...

Some alloys weld fine and then over years degrade. There was a fire extinguisher manufacturing company that sold stainless steel extinguishers.

One day there was a fire, a guy grabbed one, popped the CO2 cannister to vent the powder and blew the end off the fire extinguisher into his foot.

Seems our teacher had to analyze the failure and it was right around the weld. Experimentation showed the welds were fine right after welding, and over years degraded.

Weld away!

Ken