I work at an auto detail place in Corpus and I had 13 hours to blow two days ago on the night shift (that's why to don't see it at the shop due to almost no light) so I sanded down the 914 and got rid of almost all of the rust spots. I was actually expecting much more rust, but surprisingly, they was almost none.

This car has been painted 17 times in it's life. Looks like a tree when you cut one down and see how old it is lol. So many colors, it was originally white, was blue 4 different times, black 5 different times, red 2 times, etc.... The body conversion on it was put on very well and is not cracked on the body itself, only the front and rear bumpers have minor cracks and the kit was put on the car in the early 80s. Who ever put it on, GOOD job man!

Also, I fixed all my door handles and the space between the door and the body so the doors open and close with ease.

Found one weird thing while sanding the car down. The rear trunk had a glob of rubber cement to fill in a rust spot. I have no idea who did that but wtf? There is almost no exposed metal, so don't freak out.

Anyway, here are some pics from yesterday and this morning:

Before I started sanding it down.



After.



BTW, to the right of my 914, is my Ghia







Yesterday, I am almost finished with the body work. The driver side is completed. The hood and trunk still needs a little work, but that "should" be completed tonight. The passenger door has quite a dint in it, not sure how that happened as it was not there the other day. Could have been some jackass at my apartment hitting the door with his door. There was a chunk of fiberglass and bondo missing on the passenger B pillar, which is completely fixed.









Today, I finished the body work! What a load of work. 32 hours alone just on the body. All the panels are complete. Only a few minor flaws I have to deal with later right before I paint it in a few days, but other than that, it looks great!

What color should I go with, red, or black? I want to do red, but with some small silver flakes, but can't decide....

More pics tomorrow.

My prefer Yellow but that's just me. If you are looking for an MKII front nose for that car, I have a brand new one up in the rafters. In fact, I have brand new front and rear bumpers for your car up in my rafters just sitting. They are like 600 each new if you can find them. I would let them go for 250 each if you are interested. Here is a picture of the MKII bumper.

wow! now correct me if im wrong but isnt that a chalon kit?
i have the chalon kit on my car but im pretty sure its all fiberglass? i didn't know they made that kit with steel

looks sick though. mines red. i would love to see what it would look like in black. or even a primer gray

I would paint it yellow, but the interior is in great condidtion and it's all red. Thanks for the opffer and I will keep you in mind if I get in an accident or something. I like my front and rear bumpers.

Yes, it's the Chalon kit and it's all fiberglass. I will be preimering the car an Saturday, but I think I am going to geo with red.

not to sound dumb, but it looks like metal in the pics.. it's fiberglass though right?

im not too far from you, here in San Antonio

i unfortunately have the cracks in mine along the stress points and one pretty big crack in the driver's rear quarter. do you have a lot of experience with "fixing" fiberglass? can it be done?

lovin the progress pics

I know it looks like metal, but the car was painted metallic silver at one time, and a lot of different metallic blues YEARS ago.

I was not the one that installed the kit, but I do know who did it. He did mine in the early 80s and it is unbelievable that is has been on all this time with all the abuse this car was put there without having any major cracks at the stress points. There was 1 minor crack, but was easily fixable. Fixing glass is possible, but it takes a lot of time. I do have experience, but I honestly do not like working on others cars as I don't like to. That last person I helped ended up being a real jerk. I hand made some fenders for his Peon and he did not listen and let them cure long enough. He got them painted and they cracked. I offered to fix them, but he did not want me touching his car, even after I molded a whole wide body kit on an Avenger that took 3 months to do and got many many car show trophies for.

Oh, btw, does anyone know where I can order a carbon fiber hood and trunk for the 914?

his loss

thanks for clearin that up though.
is there any different approach to prepping fiberglass? or do you sand it just as you would with metal? is it bad to use a DA grinder or something real abrasive, im scared of "digging" into the body...

Hey turtle, try Getty Design.com...daveyboy

For prepping fiberglass work, I make sure what I am dealing with has no paint under it. Same goes for bondo body filler. I use an 80 grit sand paper, since I had 17 layers of paint to get through. Once I could see metal, I started to use a 120 grit by hand and once it was smooth "enough" you can start fiberglass. When you have the fiberglass smoothed enough it where it is okay, you should move to a 200 grit paper, again, by hand as not to make swirls. I used a wet/dry paper and pretty much wetsanded the whole car as I am prepping it for primering tonight.

Thanks!!

what would your plan of attack be on this:

Click to view attachment

You do mean 200 grit, right?

Stateofidleness, You want to sand by hand using a long board of you will get all sorts of high and low spots.

Holy Jesus! Now that is a major crack there! Um, well, first, I would sand down that area. If you can somehow get behind that area and sand that down also. Okay, now this is going to sound a little crazy, but I have done it before with other kits.

Get some really good expando foam. Spray some inside the crack, NOT A LOT! Just enough so you have refiberglass that huge crack shut and then get some body filler and fix it. Sounds hard, and it is, but if you do it right, it should come out fine.

Yeah, sorry, 200 grit and get a really good long board. One that has very little bit of flewablility.

Okay, I have a question. Since I have the Chalon kit and it also looks like this:



Does anyone know the exact width of those slots on top of the fenders and the lenght between each one? Also, I am now planning on doing the side air intake also, fully fuctional of curse.

I will have to modify my hood hinges, but this looks hot!





The green areas are going to be covered.

And I am not covering up anything important! The top of the stuts are okay, the gas thank is also. Only thing I need to worry about it the headlight setup.

Input? Thoughts? Sugesstions?

Anyone? Still looking for some input on the hood and front fender modifications....

I am going to be painting it this week and want to see everyones ideas please.

not a lot of love for us chalons

i dont know man, i like the look of your car the way it is.

the side intake might be cool but ive never been a fan of those hood slits..

LOL, looks crosseyed.

i like your idea for the hood it could look cool, but i am not a big fan of the slits, i think u could run into some problems,

btw the car looks great!

like, rainwater in your front trunk ???
Andy

well yes, and i assume that those triangular pieces that he is going to fill in is probably going to be made out of glass, i don’t think i would be cutting slits like that into glass, they will be fragile i dont know what his plans are, thats just my $.02

I have threw out my plans actually. Car will be primered tonight and painted sometime before the weekend.

I was going to have rain guards under the slits, along with my dual oil coolers mounted underneath them. It was a good idea, but too much work that is not needed. Wish me luck tonight, car should look flawless for the first time in about 10 years!

Paint it black!
Here's a pic of my black (used to be silver) 914 with CF hood. They look pretty slick together.
Click to view attachment

Where did you get your hood?

Cars primered!

I got mine used - $800 for both. They had some holes, scratches etc but overall were a good deal. Some might argue that fiberglass is a better value, but I like the look of the CF weave. They were made by GT, not Getty, and are fine. Everyone says the Getty ones are better.