DUDE! Looks like your careful planning and patience is paying off. Fit is looking really nice.

Got a little more done on the right panel this weekend. Weekend went kind of crappy, so didn't get all I wanted done. Decided to take Monday off to make up for it. Glad I did.

Welding on the panel went well. Just combined multiple spot welds at alternating positions and used compressed air to keep things from getting too hot. I'll save the grinding with a 80 grit flap disk for during the weekday evenings.

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Picked up my cut mounting brackets for the trunk hinges. Started working on the flanges already and will finish the others once I get the circular flange tool in this week.

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Also had time to start cutting the air box out of the 1/8 inch ABS sheets I found online. I was concerned about the amount of heat this may take in the back of the trunk above where the muffler sits, but I'll be retaining the stock heat shield and will also have this mounted a couple inches up off the trunk floor. We'll see how it goes. I may need to rebuild later from slightly heavier material.

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Had to move part of the work indoors because the garage is getting too cold to work with this plastic. The glue I'm using also requires warmer temps. Next time though I think I'll try a plastic welder over the glue, or find glue in a better dispenser so it can be applied cleaner.

Now I just need to add the rubber seal that goes along the top edge & mates with the underside of the trunk lid.

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Didn't work on the 914 over Thanksgiving weekend. Promised my wife I'd get the flagstone laid out for the patio and work on setting her step stones. I did get the flagstone laid out and numbered - and fortunately I won't have to do much chipping/cutting for fit. Now I'll have to pull it up to put the aggregate down to set the stones in.

Had just enough daylight left today to get six of her 18 step stones set in mortor.

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Since I'm up here posting end-of-month for challenge, figured I'd post update pics for the trunk hinge mounting brackets. Picked up a 1.5" flange die and used it to get the angled flange I was after.

Also have some work to do on my daughters car that threw a rod. That may wait till next weekend when she has some time off. Ohh, the fun never ends!

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Spent part of Friday getting my daughters car ready for a transplant. Here's the car & the new (used) motor.

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Good car!

Andy, the MR2? What's your experience with them? This is our first.

Well it looks like I won't be getting the 914 painted as soon as I had hoped. With the motor to swap on my daughters MR2 and a bearing replacement to do on my son's 996, I spent my painting money on a single-post lift. I've done enough repair work under cars on my back - figured it was time to upgrade.

This is the Eagle single-post lift rated at 6000lbs. So I'll likely be busy getting this together over the weekend.

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My wife and I already spent the most of the day unloading the beast. Here's all the packing material: a metal support frame, encased in a wooden crate. And my make-shift ramp I build from some of the crate material - so we could roll pieces off the trailer.

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Cool lift. Enjoy that.

You will never regret that investment. I've had mine for about 1 yr and wonder why I'd waited so long.

Thanks guys. As of around 2:30 this afternoon, I now have a working lift in my garage. What a relief. First car to go on will be the daughters MR2 - so we can get the motor pulled next weekend.

The fun continues . . .

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OK, first of the year is over, got caught up on all vehicle maintenance, now I can get back on the teener.

Spent this last weekend on the soda blasting. I've decided the larger outer panels will get paint removed with flapper discs. But the trunks, engine bay, etc, will get soda blasted. It's ideal for all those irregular shapes, little corners, etc.

Before I could do any blasting I had to build a ramp that I could roll the rotisserie out on. Gravel just doesn't cut it. Had lots of scrap left from the car lift crate so it's not going to waste.
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The blasting progressed a little slow until I got things dialed in properly. Had Friday afternoon to work on that. Love the look of the clean metal. Using a tarp under the car and plastic sheets surrounding the work area I was able to reuse almost 75% of the material.

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Then was able to spend most of Saturday working on the engine bay and under the trunk. Cleanup after soda blasting is a big job, but it's well worth the time saved. Sunday started to get humid and rained in the afternoon, so didn't get much done then.

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Decided to remove the muffler heat shield. I wanted to drill the welds from inside the trunk but was unable to locate them accurately. Decided to do them from the shield side. I've got nuts I'll weld to little stop plates that will go behind the drilled mounting brackets. They get flood welded then a single hole drilled for a hex bolt.

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Very nice to see clean metal.

I agree. Almost tempted to leave it that way.

Nothing worth photos today. Just paint removal on the muffler heat shield and cutting metal backing pieces to reinforce the mounting points for the heat shield. Was cloudy and humid all weekend so had to put soda blasting off till next weekend.

Nice work with the soda blasting. I need to do my front trunk and after stripping the engine bay on another car with aircraft paint remover/flap disk/wire wheel on a drill/will this never end/please make it stop I was thinking blasting might be the way to go. What set up do you use?

John, Harbor Freight 40 lb media blaster with Soda conversion kit. THe XL soda media I was using required that I remove the nozzle built into the soda kit fittings that replace the std fittings that come with the blaster. Look at the instructions for the soda kit and you'll see an exploded view showing the nozzle. It may work well for fine media, but didn't with what I was using.

If you want to use other non-soda media, be sure to get a fine grade, not course. I tried coarse walnut shells but couldn't get it tp work with the limited nozzles provided with the blaster.

Good luck.

Had another 3-day weekend so spent Friday & Saturday blasting. This is tedious work - especially in the engine bay. Put my sanding booth together hoping that would make it easier to move around and still collect the media so I could reuse it. Worked OK, but not great.

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I kept the opposite side covered in plastic also to help contain the media. That and the booth weren't air tight but I was still able to collect about 50% of the media. I've only been able to get one reuse out of it because it starts to break down into finer particles and just blows away when collecting it.

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The other factor is keeping dust off the hoods plastic lens. It collects soda dust after 5-10 min and makes it hard to see. I keep missing little patches that will have to be cleaned up later. Gettin a little frustrated, but still making progress. Probably have a couple more days just to finish off the engine bay and rear section of the trunk - then I can primer.

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That is looking really nice, can't wait to see it in paint.

Thanks Stephen. Yours is coming along nicely also. I have some decent struts & spindles I pulled off mine if you're interested. I'll have too much HP for stock. They might be something other than stock struts - I didn't check the mfg, but they're in decent shape.

Keep at it.

Heck yeah! That is the way to make progress and do it right.

Thanks, Michael - but your project is a 6.

Spent some time finishing up the heat shield. Decided to add some reinforcement to the back-side of the supports - so I could use bolt & nut. Also added reinforcement to the underside of the heat shield where the welds were.

Support reinforcement
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Heat shield pad reinforcement
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Heat shield bolted in. Since it was cool out I was able to get it primered.
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Been slow progress this month with other projects & traveling. Did get to speak with the shop that will be doing the primer/paint work and got some guidance on materials.

Also was able to get a form built to guide the metal work on the raised portion of the trunk lid. Of course I also found that I don't have any steel of the right gauge so I'll have to run over to Tucson for that.

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Good progress this weekend. Now that I have the materials to finish all weld seams, repaired surfaces, and reblend the rear flares. Found a local shop that is assisting with prep materials. Using Durglass for reblending the rear flares. Got a good quart of All-Metal to finish weld seams before applying seam-sealer (which I also picked up).

Found a good body cement to reglue the portion of the flare to the new panel. Had to order a couple special clamps though to hold things, so looking do get that done next weekend.

Also have some good finishing bondo to smooth surfaces. So bulk of work now is to get ready for primer. I still have a lot of body paint to remove (via media blasting) but focus for now is finish all repair work areas first.

Picked up a small piece of 18ga steel to finish off the rear trunk mods. (See previous post).

So spent the bulk of my time finishing grinding & sanding repairs. All under body & engine bay soda blasting was also completed this weekend.

Left panel:
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Right panel & door jam:
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Had Thursday to work on the car so I spent the day prepping repair areas so that I could get them all finished. In doing so I realized I had some minor issues with the forward firewall in the engine bay. I had some minor issues because when I butt-welded these I didn't leave enough gap between a couple of the pieces.

I just made a single thru-cut over top the seam, reclamped it and rewelded. This was necessary in a couple of places, but it really made the difference. Now panels have no buckling/flexing in the slightest. Real happy with the results.

Spent today doing the rest of the prep work over welds. I'm using All-Metal as a surface filler over the weld seams to fill pinholes and blend. This seems better suited than Duraglass or Bondo since neither of them is watertight where All-Metal is.

It's a challenge to work with only in that you have to use only enough that you can cover in a couple of minutes. It sets up real quick. So it ends up taking time to mix up all these small batches. But the results will be worth it.

First areas were the front & back side of the main firewall.
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The left panel
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And the right panel/door jam
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I also went ahead and covered the rear portion of the trunk. This had some surface rust that's been treated, but rather than leave the rough texture, I decided I'd cover it with the All-Metal and sand it smooth. This should provide some additional protection as well.

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Spent more than six hours on the trunk lid riser section. Because of the curve along the length of the trunk each piece had to be curved accordingly and fit. My back is sore from all the bending over the substitute bench (folding table), but at least the pieces are all cut and mostly fit. I'll spend some time Monday doing some more spot welding to locate everything from above, then I have to add the bracing underneath along the front.

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Been an exhausting day. Been moving a lot of earth around - even though a neighbor helped with his tractor. Trying to finish up the planters I promised the wife.

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Did get some time to work on the 914 though. Still working on the trunk lid riser section. Wanted to add reinforcement at the front edge consistent with factory. Plus it will be needed to keep things strong. Unfortunately I failed to cut the trunk side at an angle - which would make fitting much easier. But I'll add a wedge piece & get er done.

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Did get some time on the teener this weekend. More sanding and filler on welded parts.
Spent more time finishing the fit of the front support ribs on the trunk lid. Got the pieces spot-welded, now just need to close it all up. And of course I still need to media blast the trunk lid, add the horizontal mid-support ribs, cut the holes for the NACA ducts, etc, . . . I'm sure I'll be done one of these years . . .

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Made some good progress on the riser portion of the trunk lid. Managed to get most the outer and inner stitch welding done and grinding finished. I was actually surprised by the results. Working with this thin metal has turned out to be much easier when doing it on the bench - as opposed to doing it on the car. At least on the bench I can clamp things in place so they can be fitted and welded better with less movement.

Outer trunk lid
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Inner trunk lid
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Some nice metalworking Gerard. Looking forward to seeing the finished project.

Thanks, Guy. That means a lot coming from you. Doesn't look like I'm going to make the level of progress I had planned. My son's 996 has been on the lift for more weeks than I can count - trying to complete an IMS bearing update. It's turning into one of those jobs where things are not as expected - mostly because he has a newer motor than the car's year. Indications are now that we need to split the case to update it on this motor.

Well focus keeps getting shifted to other things. Daughters MR2 sprung a leak at the oil pressure sensor (another plastic part) and dumped most the oil before she could shut it down. She now has one bent rod and a hole in the case. Looks like we're going to give up on the 1ZZ motors and try a 2ZZ some time in the future. In the meantime she replaced it with an 03 350Z. It's a very nice car but showed a P0300 right out of the chute. Started digging into it and looks like one of the two cats is completely gutted - just a few pieces rattling around. The other, surprisingly is in pristine shape. Somebody must have miswired something on that bank to cause just that one cat to go bad.

Anyhow, you can guess what I'll be working on for at least the next couple of weekends.

Continuing to work on the trunk lid - to finish up the welding and seams. Then will get the reinforcements added before cutting out the NACA ducts.

Keepin at it.

OK, still working on trunk mods; NACA ducts, support frame (for new hinge), and finish work for raised section.

I was able to cut up some spare trunk lids for ribs, although they will require some slight rebending but nothing drastic. This of course needs to be coordinated with the placement of the hinge supports and hinges in the trunk and the air box.

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I've trimmed the plastic NACA ducts on a couple sides to center them up and get their longitudinal dimension from the rear edge of the lid.

Right NACA duct:
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Left NACA duct:
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Just an update since I haven't been out here in a while. The 914-SHO is currently in storage. My daughter wants to complete a 2ZZ engine swap in her MR2 to replace the failed 1ZZ motor. So for the few months this might take (also doing other upgrades) I needed the extra garage space. Be back soon.

Haven't been out here for a while, but did get the 2ZZ motor in. It's been running over a month now and doing great. Here's a couple of pics at the end stages. The swap required an ECU change and some rewiring in the cars harness. It also required the fabrication of a custom 2zz/1zz exhaust manifold so the old exhaust could be merged to the 2zz flange.

All worked out well and oil consumption is now a thing of the past.

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For June & July, I've been doing a JDM motor swap for the 350Z. Even though this is just a direct engine swap, there have been some issues since the motor came out of an automatic and a different model. Motor mounts, A/C bracket, and Alternator turned out to be completely different. The motor mounts I caught before the motor went in. The others differences were so subtle I didn't notice until after the motor was in and the components wouldn't fit.

Still finishing up wiring, reassemle the front end, add fluids, etc. Hope to have it running next weekend.

This motor (minus tranny)
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In this Z
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Almost there . . .
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Damn Gerard, that is a Reader's Digest condensed version if I've ever seen one. No mention of all the blood, sweat and tears solving that puzzle?

Just an update. I've decided to pass the 914-SHO project onto the next person interested in this custom combination - if there is such a person. I want to move on to other things and prefer not to divide my time.

Here's the For Sale link.