Done welding and paint stripping in the tank compartment. I didn't remove all the original yellow paint in the compartment but at least the nasty black paint is gone.

I'll continue sanding in the compartment and start bodywork to smooth over the welds and clean up the rain channels.

It seems that inside the tank compartment there is no primer underneath the original yellow paint.

I thought I was done with the welding in the tank compartment until I started wirewheeling the channel and had several large holes in the channel floor.

The piece of wood sets the width of the channel since the outer lip is not supported by anything now.
Click to view attachment

New floor welded in.
Click to view attachment

I decided to get rid of the antenna mast so antenna hole is welded closed.
Click to view attachment

Closed up the hole for the antenna into the tank compartment.

The e-brake cables were broken when I purchased the car. The adjustment ferrule for both cables had been snapped and the cables dangled a bit as they exited the firewall. Today's job is to weld the adjustment screw back together.

Since the adjustment point was right where the break was on each cable, I have to cut back the portion attached to the cable like the cable on the top in the photo.

Click to view attachment

To get the two pieces straight, I used an angle iron and some clamps to start the welding.

Click to view attachment

I welded each piece with just a little dot of weld then let the screw cool so I didn't overheat the steel and plastic sheath of the cable. Both cables came out good and are ready for reassembly.

Click to view attachment

All the metal work is done around the gas tank. Now smoothing everything out with bondo. It doesn't bother me to use body filler as long as it's to smooth out solid metal.

Got it where I want now. Need to do a skim coat and some contrast primering to get it just right.

Mounted air deflectors. Now the engine cooling system will breath very smoothly.

I decided instead of welding the pieces that I cut out of the tunnel to re-weld the clutch tube that I would make them removable.

I took the pieces cut out of the tunnel and traced and cut out larger pieces of 18ga steel. Then I cut off 1/4 inch off of each and welded them to the larger pieces.

Since I'm using the original cut-out pieces, they fit like a glove...

Finally getting ready to paint the tank area and cowl. Got everything masked off and now will start with primer.

Finally, it's gas tank compartment and cowl paint day. Primer is on and all loose ends (minor deep scratches) are taken care of.

The master cylinder is wired to the ceiling to keep it out of the way as much as possible. The wire bundle is also suspended by the same wire. The wire is 24 ga welding wire that is wasted when you run out of weld wire in the MIG welder.

Paint is on.

Next tasks after paint cleanup is to run the steel fuel lines, reassemble all the components inside the fuel tank compartment: Windshield wipers, air handling flappers and cowl air fan.

Install and wire the fuel pump, replace the tank and prepare to fire the engine using the tank, pump, and installed fuel lines.

I'll run long fuel hoses to the engine so I can run the engine and test all the electrics before installing the engine.

While I'm in there: I'll paint the rear swaybar...

Tunnel SS fuel lines in. Engine compartment SS fuel lines just sitting in place.

This looks like another 914 saved from the rust monster!

Nice work, things are looking really solid again.

Fixing a hole in the vent.

Click to view attachment

A little 22ga patch, a few rivets, and some silicon caulk and paint.

Click to view attachment

Cleaned up the securing bolts for the front flappers.

Click to view attachment

Fixing another hole this time in the fresh air fan where apparently in the previous life of this 914, the windshield wipers were run for a long time and the motor heated up and melted the outside of the fresh air fan.

Click to view attachment

I didn't want to put a patch like on the flapper with rivets in case the rivets would interfere with the fan, so I got a piece of plastic and "welded" it in place with my 50 year old Craftsman solder gun.

Click to view attachment

All of the air handling equipment is back in along with the windshield wiper assembly and windshield washer hoses.

I connected the battery to test the windshield wipers and fresh air fan. Good thing I did because I had connected the wipers wrong as I was viewing my wiring template 90 degrees off and all 4 wires (not ground) were one spade off.


I'm almost back where I started in the front when I wanted to "pull the tank to put in SS fuel lines and locate the fuel pump up front" before the "while I'm in there" items got in the way:

1 Fix rust on both corners of the drip sill
2 Weld in the angle iron supports for the hood shocks
3 Weld in a bolt towards the interior for radio ground (was just a drilled hole + self-tapping screw).
4 Strip all the paint from the cowl and adjacent fender area
5 Weld-up fender-to-cowl gap
6 Remove all air handling equipment, windshield washer & wiper assembly
7 Remove hood cable release
8 Strip paint from entire tank compartment
9 Paint entire tank compartment, cowl, and adjacent fender area

Things left to do up front:

1 Secure brake reservoir
2 re-install cowl braces
3 finish wiring for front fuel pump. Wires coiled right behind pedal assembly
4 mount fuel filter
5 plumb fuel lines
6 re-install tank
7 reinstall windshield washer reservoir

Turned the car around to get it in position for engine install.

Got the firewall shift bushing in. Boiled the bushing in water in the microwave to warm it up. A couple of slugs with the hammer and it popped in.

Click to view attachment

Installed new bushings into the coupler.

Click to view attachment

Before the engine goes in, there are a few things to tidy up:

1 Leaky pushrod tubes. Doing that now.
2 Install sideshift engine bar
3 Install alternator
4 Add 150 ohm resistor to HCT sender. It's resistance is a bit low.
5 Run engine before installing to check out all systems

For now, changing leaky pushrod tubes. These ones came out of the driver side. Notice the chunks taken out of outside o-rings. No surprise of why these were leaking. And to think this engine was freshly rebuilt by GEX...

Click to view attachment

The inside o-rings look good but will be changed anyway. Why are there 2 colors for the o-rings? Different manufacturers?

Click to view attachment

Not much left of this o-ring. There was plenty of gasket sealer on this tube but it still leaked. How shocking.

This nut looks like it had some sort of welding done to it or it is fractured in 2 places. No wonder I couldn't snug this one down...

Got the pushrod tube o-rings put in and adjusted valves.

Finished plumbing the wires for the front mounted fuel pump.

Went through the front firewall just above the boxed support.

Tested the fuel pump relay by grounding pin III of the FI connector.

Got 12V at the front of the car for the fuel pump.

This also means that the 12V for the FI brain is ok since it also drives the relay for the fuel pump.

Before installing the engine, I would like to clean out the oil in the heat exchangers that has dripped from the pushrod tubes. There's a gooey oil mess on the inside bottom of the exchangers.

Any ideas of how to clean this out? I'm thinking some type of degreaser and then I'll have to somehow flush the inside of the exchanger with water or other solution.

I have no answer for you, but I am anxiously awaiting an answer to this question.
If anybody has a trick, please share it.

dish soap and a bottle brush

Getting the alternator back together. I needed to make the back panel gasket. To do this I used PowerPoint to make 2 concentric circles with 3 lines coming out at 120 degree increments for the bolt holes.

Also might could try using some spray on / in oven cleaner. You could use the popular easy off , or get some other brand ( cheaper ) spray in both ends , tilt back and forth , let it run down inside , take to car wash to pressure spray out . I have used this method on the outside and works great , next is the inside . Good luck ...

Jack / Jaxdream

Fabbed the fuel pump mounting tonight. I started with a rubber coupler from Home Depot with 2 hose clamps and cut the coupler so I had 2 pieces. The hose clamps will hold the pump in place and the coupler will provide some chassis buffering from the pump vibrations.

First order of business was to make 4 slots for the 2 hose clamps. My trusty Dremel tool with doubled cut-off wheels made just the right size slots for the clamps.

Click to view attachment

Looks like everything fits together real good. The pump was placed to one side of the door so that I can pull the pump out on one side followed by the other. If I centered the pump, I might have trouble bending the hose to clear the bulkhead.

Click to view attachment

Placement in the tank compartment looks good. I couldn't use the standard pump mount since the pump would hit the brake lines.

Click to view attachment

Pulled the tunnel fuel lines and bent them a little more to get some clearance for the hoses.

Click to view attachment

Just enough clearance to get the hoses on.
Click to view attachment

All the under-tank fuel hoses, fuel pump and filter are installed. I left enough hose to easily pull out the fuel pump and filter as well as be able to lift the tank out without disconnecting any lines.

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Fired up the engine before starting the install. I used the fuel system from the car to fire the engine. Also connected the battery to the starter using the car's starter cable.

The ground for the engine uses the cable that came with the engine for the starter cable. I connected the ground to the normal pigtail ground connection that goes to the tranny. I had to make very good connections as I am testing the alternator as well.

Engine runs good, everything checks out.

Click to view attachment

Fuel tank hoses are long enough to pull the tank without disconnecting the hoses. The fuel pump is running by shorting pin III to ground on the relay board. No leaks detected. Yea!

Click to view attachment

I tested the alternator by shorting D+ and B together then pulling them up to 12V through a resistor box. Got over 16V with the engine running so the alternator looks good.

Time to install the engine.


Click to view attachment

Engine is installed!!!

It was a one man job. I used a piece of 2x8 by 16 inches under the engine and tranny and kept adjusting the position of the jack until the engine was perfectly balanced.

Only had 2 snufus:

1) The fuel injectors+hoses stuck out just a little too far and had to be removed before installation.

2) I jacked the car up so high that I couldn't get the engine totally in with the jack. I got the engine bar secured but the tranny was about 8 inches low with full jack extension. So I temporarily supported the tranny and got several more 2x8s and put them on top of the jack to get the necessary height.

My 71 is now a sideshift car.

First Drive!! It runs ok, doesn't idle real nice but gets along when on the gas.

The car is registered and insured so it is technically drivable. Yeah it has a hole in the fender. I'll tack on the piece cut out just to get it inspected.

Nice progress. I remember when that car was whacked! So, are you thinkin Tail of the Dragon?

Excellent!!!

It is such a great feeling getting one running again.

John

PA State inspected!

Click to view attachment

I had to put the e-brake cables in as well as the e-brake handle for the inspection.

The last order of business for the inspection was to tie down the battery. My mount is a FLAPS special that originally held the battery secure in the trunk. I used the mount when I relocated the battery to the engine compartment. I made the hold-down straps out of 18 ga steel and drilled a hole for the bolt to secure everything. The battery is rock solid.

Click to view attachment

Update: The engine is running real nice now. I had to enrichen the engine a bit by adding resistance to the CHT sensor. I went from 150 ohms extra to about 350 ohms. I know I should make adjustments to the MPS to enrichen the mixture but the CHT mod is easy.

Haven't had many issues since getting it on the road. Put a bunch of miles on it driving around town. Starts right up, idles good. It does seem to suck oil though. It doesn't leak oil at all but I've had to put about 3/4 qt in once a week. I wonder if not having an after-run valve could cause high vacuum in the cylinders and sucking oil into the chambers.

Yesterday after driving it, I noticed the "S" in PORSCHE had fallen off the engine lid and was just lying there.

Then the "While you're in there" syndrome took over and now I'm stripping and painting the entire engine lid. So a missing "S" has led to a full strip and paint of the engine lid.

Strip paint in the morning, prime and paint all in one day.

Got the engine lid back together. It's amazing how much work it took to put the "S" back on the lid.

But it sure does look pretty.

Looking good!

I made a center console (actually this is the 2nd one) from wood using the original as a starting template.

The sides are high enough that they wedge in between the floor and the dash and thus do not need any securing straps.

I made the opening for the shifter to use the original shifter boot so I don't need one of the vinyl console ones.

An original gauge faceplate sits right in the slot of the bottom panel and just rests between the 2 side panels.

Install goes like clockwork.

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Speaking of clockwork, this is the 3rd clock I've installed in the console. The first 2 were the motor driven type that originally came in the 914. Both have had some gear degradation leading to clock failure.

This one is a later model VDO unit that I got off of evilbay. This one is a quartz driven clock with second hand. It was originally a 2inch clock that I modified an original 2-3/8 inch case to accept the clock mechanism. I used the original 2-3/8 face, protective clear face and bezel.

Click to view attachment

Got the oil temp sender installed. Had to make the gasket between the seal plate and protection plate. Yea, no leaks.

I ran the wire along the engine bar and up through the grommet for the alternator wires. I put the wire in heat shrink tubing to protect the wire under the car.

Remounted the muffler heat shield. I mounted it before with bolts instead of rewelding it back on.

This worked good when I decided to clean up and paint the bottom of the car. Only took about 5 minutes to reinstall.

Jerry,
Great build thread, enjoyed the picts of all your welding repairs.

This is your 71, are you still planning on doing your 74?

Dave

Dave,

I sold the 74 last year to buy my 911 turbo. Wife said 2 Porsches are ok but not 3.

The 74 is now for sale in Philadelphia. This is a great car if someone is looking for a nearly rust-free 914 in the northeast, this is it. Plus 2L and 911 front end and Eric Shea 5-lug rear.

1974 914

Just arrived this weekend.

They're not pretty but the price was right. 6x16 and 7x16 Fuchs for $400 shipped.

I need to clean these up but that's ok since I need to procure the necessary 5-lug suspension pieces before mounting. Will be looking for 911 struts with 3.5inch calipers.

I plan to polish the rims and petals and paint the background black.

Removed the anodizing with EZ-Off.

Oh, yeah, the wheel deal included center caps.

Go Man Go!