Hi All. I've been around for awhile and even made a few posts but I finally got around to starting this restoration thread. My only claim to fame I would say is I was the guy who loaned Willam Harris some beat up steel wheels to finish his paint job. Still don't know why he returned them in favor of his pristine Fuchs.... Anyway, more years back than I'd care to admit I got the idea to restore a 914 and convert it to electric. I've worked on cars on an off and even graduated from the Somerville High Adult Ed Welding Night Course so I figured I'd go for it. A fairly ignorant Ebay winning bid later and I found myself the owner of a 76 from Texas. When the owner said that the right side door had a "latch problem" and the door wouldn't open I figured simple door repair, right? This was before discovering 914World and all the great information here. Things like don't buy 914s that have doors that don't open and don’t get POR-15 on your hootus. The thread by Michelko particularly inspired me to tackle the right side long. You guys are great and I want to thank everyone for their very helpful posts. (I got a “rebate” from the seller by the way).
Anyway here’s the car stripped down. As you can see space is no problem.
Full Version: Peter's Progress
Here's the worst first. The right side long is in tough shape. I have pictures of it opened up so you can see the extent of the rust. As far as I can tell, a leaky rear window caused a lot of the damage here and in other areas. The good new is that the hell hole isn't that bad.
The left side long. The jackpost is gone but this side is actually in better shape than the right believe it or not.
The floor looked great until the tar came up and then you could see the damage from the pooling of the water from the leaky rear window. The bottom edge of the longs and rear firewall are in pretty good shape considering.
The hell hole has surface rust as you can see and there is some patching to do in the corner at the rear firewall but some decent metal here.
Sail panels need work as you can see.
Last but not least are the trunks. The usual rusty rear and a decent hole in the front to fill.
Before tearing into the longs I welded up some door braces and put two pieces bridging the windsheld and rear rollbar. Before doing this I was able to open up the right side door spacing a bit with jacks. The left was OK.
Great idea to put those door hinge-to-seat belt braces in!
Thanks. Hopefully, the bracing will hold thing in position. I cut a metal rod that fits between two marked points so I can check the door opening. So far so good. The right side long was the first thing I worked on and its just about done. Tommorrow I'll try to post up to where I currently am with it.
Hooray, another one being saved 
You know, of course, there will be lots of this![popcorn[1].gif](http://www.914world.com/bbs2/style_emoticons/default/popcorn[1].gif)
going on now.
Keep the faith and the pics coming.
Paul
You know, of course, there will be lots of this
going on now.Keep the faith and the pics coming.
Paul
Here's a shot that gives you an idea of how much I had to cut away to get to good metal on the right side long. The jackpost area is gone as well as part of the inner wheelhouse to its left. A good part of the bottom edge was shot as well. Under the oval cutout on the right you can see that the bottom edge is OK but its the inside wall under the oval cutout that has to be replaced. In the picture is a patch piece I welded in but it distorted the bottom edge and I wasn't happy with the way it came out. I ended up cutting off all off the bottom edge that wasn't attached to original inner wall metal.
Now what? When I looked at the cost of the inner long piece plus the outer wheelhouse piece I thought they're had to be another way. I didn't need as much metal as both these pieces provided and I wanted all the reinforcing layers of the original. What I really wanted was a rust-free roller from CA but then I thought why not get just the metal from a CA car that I needed? I hadn't seen this done anywhere but I thought if I could graft in the metal from a good long into my crappy one that might work. Just to be sure I'd get an outer long reinforcement overlay from RD and a long stiff kit from Engman. These pieces would essentially sleeve the transplanted piece (and supply the extra stiffness I wanted anyway). Now where to get the piece? This is where Hellsbend came in. I was getting a sail panel replacement piece from him and I asked and he was willing to cut and send me the long piece I needed from a 914 he was cutting up. I'd like to stop and thank Hellsbend here. The piece he sent me really fit in well and for my money made a good repair. THANKS! I literally couldn't have done this without you. The following is the piece he sent me with some cuts I made to get it ready.
The tricky part of this was cutting the car and Hellbend's piece to match eachother. I used the oval cutout on the inner wall as a reference point and made measurements on the car that I then transferred to the graft piece.
This worked for the right part but for the left inner wheelhouse part I reversed thiings and first traced the outline on the graft piece as you can see here.
I next transferred the pattern piece to the car and made the cuts.
The welds were then completed and the reinforcing plate for the jackpost put in. The hole in the wheehouse (as well as others) were patched later.
I was all ready to weld in the outer long piece from RD when it occurred to me that if I afterwards welded on the Engman kit, the Engman welds would burn through to the inside of the long and I would have all these bubbled paint rusty spots on the inside of my longs. I couldn't get at them because the outer long piece would be in place. This meant stopping and ordering the Engman kit, welding the right side piece in, and then putting on the outside long piece. In the first picture you can see the Engman piece welded and in the second you can see the spots I got on the other side. The second picture is taken some time after the welding took place so some rust had a chance to form. So AFTER the Engman kit piece was on I put on the RD outer long piece.
I had to repair the box at the front of the long and then it was on with the outer long piece.
Lastly for added support (in case I blew a weld or two) I put on an RD long reinforcing overlay piece. It runs from just forward of the suspension console all the way to around the front of the box at the front of the long. Its also double thick at the jackpost. This brings me up to date with my restoration. I have to next paint the overlay piece and then its on to the left side long!
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