AWESOMENESS!!

Sounds badass!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Let's see, I've read your build thread how many times and for som,ew reason thought it was already running. Mucho congratrulations.

Awesome and congratulations,,, I though you were making me look really bad until I heard ur wife say 4 years into it!!

I'm working on five so I see light at the end of the tunnel..... Sounds sweet..

Greg

Congratulations!
That is a great way to start the year.

It sounds good, thats got to be a great feeling. I'm sure it gives you new energy for a couple more years of up grades. Just think how much closer to finished you are though.

All the trick build and time spent pales in comparison to how you EVER got you wife that excited and supportive of a habit that clogs up the garage, burns your vacation time, and spends any cash, which will eventaully strand you around town, and cost as much as a foofy 911.

Congrats again though! AWESOME!

I'll have to second that on the wife's reaction..... That was great to hear!

Sounds AWESOME!!!! Good for you man, your hard work is paying off!

Finally! WCR here you come!!

Very cool! And well done!

Congrats Geoff!!!

Hope to see some low altitude fly-bys soon!

Nate

Finally got some time to work on my car. I installed a gauge cluster from a 2000 Subaru Forester, and moved the shifter to a better location (my original placement was too low and far forward). I also changed the geometry of the fore/aft movement of shifter.

I decided to go with a more modern Subaru gauge cluster instead of adapting an electronic Porsche 911 speedometer and/or aftermarket gauges. The Legacy dash is too wide to easily fit in a 914 dash structure, so I searched for a Forester or Impreza cluster instead. I found one from a guy parting a 2000 Forester; bought it for $50 with plugs and a few inches of wiring for each of the three plugs on the back of the cluster. I also grabbed the dash surround, since I'll need to build a new dash top because the Forester cluster is taller than the 914 3-gauge cluster. I also bought a factory service manual including wiring diagrams on Ebay for $8.00. After figuring out the wiring, I dove in...

I had to remove the front "hoop" of the dash structure, and weld in three new mounts. I spot-welded two mounts on the backside of the 914 dash structure for the two lower Forester cluster mounts; I welded in two 6mm studs for those two mounts. For the single upper mount, I welded in a piece of bent-up 18gauge strap steel with a hole drilled in it to match the Forester cluster's upper mount.

I wanted to keep the cluster as low as possible so that my Momo steering wheel wouldn't obstruct the gauges. Everything works, with the exception of the fuel gauge and low-fuel lamp -- I'll need to figure which resistor is needed to synch 'em up. It also turns out the Forester I pulled this from had almost 230k miles; I will do some research to see if that can be reset to zero.

In total, I spent a couple hours figuring out the wiring, and probably three hours on building & welding the mounts. I musta had it in/out a dozen times. Below are some pictures.

The first pic shows where the factory 914 hoop was mounted (see the two shiny spots), as well as the upper mount in welded in. You can also see the spotweld burn marks on the front of the dash for the lower mounts on the back of the dash structure.

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Next is the back of the dash, showing the two lower standoff mounts. They're angled, so they took a lot of massaging to get just right and avoid blocking the stock 914 switch mounting areas.

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Below shows the back of the dash with the cluster mounted; this picture gives a better perspective of the two lower mounts.

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Next is view of the cluster through the steering wheel; I'm also holding up the cluster surround that will help me design the final dash top out of fiberglass. Never mind the state of the cluster face -- I used tape to protect the clear plastic face from scratches during the trial fitting, re-fitting, re-fitting, etc.

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One more pic from an overhead angle. I like it!

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I also was able to change the mounting of my cable shifter, as well as fix the geometry. The former was a simple matter of drilling new holes in the 914 center tunnel and using standoffs to raise my shifter "console" shown in post #115. I didn't take any pictures of the shifter console as mounted, but the shifter is now aligned on a plane with the steering wheel.

I also didn't like the very short throw between 1-2 and 3-4 on my MR2 shifter. The only way to change it is to alter the fulcrum, since the push-pull action of the shifter mechanism on the back of the Suby transaxle is essentially non-adjustable. So I cut off the factory cable attachment point from the MR2 shifter lever, fabricated a new one, and welded it on about 0.5" lower. It is much better now; below are before/after pics of the cable mount.

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Great engineering Geoff. The distance from the pivot to the cable mount is probably something me and probably others would like to know. Of course the shifter stalk heigth will also change the throw length. I've never thought about what a "good throw length on a shifter is" but I guess thats up to each builder. I bet in google somewhere there is thread on shifter throw length. The speedometer deal reminds me of a co-worker in the 60's that hooked a drill up to his 63 chevy's speedo and ran it forward for a few days. He might have run it backward, I really don't remember though but with the sender you might come up with something. I wonder how fast you could spin a sender? 200 - 300- 500mph? Or of course check the conversions threads on the suby sites.

Really cool about the dash. The shape and size of that one will make it look like a modern 914 dash It's kind of amazing how close in size all of these Subaru parts are, from the drivetrain to the gauges. It's almost like they were meant to be the modern 914

I think of suby more like a awd more modern peoples car. Like the early vw you can hop them up but really only so far as the drivetrain is only so good for about 350- 375 hp.

Great progress!

Awesome gauge setup! I was looking for a 6 cyl manual cluster myself. Just trying to figure out how interchangeable they are electronically. Assume it's like everything else (legos). Great work!

Looking good Geoff.
On the two lower mounts for the cluster, after final assembly, is that set up in a way that you can remove the cluster easy? It looks like you have nuts behind the dash that will be unaccessible later. I am sure you will remove it many more time before it is all over.

Yeah, it is a bee-otch to reinstall the nuts when the whole dash cluster is finally bolted in. I did a practice run once to see if it CAN be done; lotsa swearing, but not so bad that I was forced to throw wrenches. The driver's side mount is the worst of the two.

In any case, the future/eventual dash top will need to be removed to pull the cluster or access the lamps as I've constructed it. Not the best option, but I couldn't come up with a good alternative without cutting the front of the dash structure. As I'm typing this, I am thinking that might be a better option, as long as I can remove a dash face cover without removing any switches. Any other ideas?

Rivnuts!
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Cheers,
Scott

I actually have a copycat Rivnut tool from Harbor Freight that works reasonably well. However, the cluster tabs are at an angle to the face of the dash. I ended up cutting off the original standoff stud mounts and fabricated new standoff mounts with welded-on nuts. I had to drill two holes in the face of the dash so that I could access the Allen head bolts from the front-side. See pics below.

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This setup will allow me to remove the cluster to replace bulbs without removing the to-be-built dash top. Much better solution; thanks Ruby914 for making me re-think my original design.

I don't really like the feel of the 914 seats, so I picked up a pair of fabric seats out of a 1994 Mazda Miata for $50 on Craigslist. Below are the details of the mod; it took me about 15 hours of fabricating time to install these seats.

In order to make it easier to measure and not have to lug the seats in/out of the car, I built a jig based on the hole spacing on the bottom of the Miata seat. It should be noted that the driver-side seat has east-west holes that are closer than the passenger side (hint: don't build the jig exactly for the driver side first and expect it to fit the passenger side!). I used an old bed frame I found with a "for free" sign on the street -- gotta love college towns!

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The first picture shows the Miata rails before and after. I am using two 6mm screws to bolt the rear of the modified Miata rail to the factory 914 hinge plates. I had to remove the two heavy-duty rivets to remove the stock Miata rear mount, and weld on new mounts. I also chopped off the forward portion of the Miata rails, and welded pieces of angle iron for the front mounts.

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Hear is a close-up of one front mount, and another of the rear mounts.

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Now comes the part that will make some people cringe: the Miata seat bottom is relatively deep, and the lower pan protrudes below the rail level... which means you have to chop/lower the seat crossmember 0.75". Although the picture below doesn't show it very well, the bright steel piece is what I bent up using a couple of pieces of angle iron pinched in a vise in lieu of using a sheet metal brake. Each 18 gauge piece (driver and passenger) took about an hour, so a brake would've really helped out.

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Here is the piece rosette welded in on the passenger side. I actually bought a flange/hole-punch tool from Harbor Freight a while back, and that thing is sweet for making the holes sans burrs. You can see the two holes in the front; those are nut plates that I welded in for the front mounts.

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Here is a picture of both sides welded in.

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Here is a frontal view of the seats, followed by an angled one.

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Finally, here is a close-up of the parking brake clearance. While it is a little tighter than the stock 914 setup, I have no problem access it. Cheers, and go 49ers!

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Very cool . Have you put the backpad in yet ? It would be really trick to make a new backpad that fit those seats

Nope, I will be doing the felt carpet thang...

I bought some leather seat covers for both my fiero and a 87 mercedes on ebay from china, for a really good price a coupla years ago. The leather is nice and the stitching looks good. You might check it out if you are going to recover those seats. I have thought about using some fiero seats I have that are extra but they may be too wide.

Those look like they fit good. The hot rod guys like the fiero seats because the bottoms are low.

Hello all. Hope I'm in the right place. Thinking of buying a 73 914 with the Subaru svx conversion already done (in a garage) It's a California car so no rust. How do I know if it's been done reasonably correct. Can I assume that the worst thing that could happen is that the engine could be bad and I'll just need to replace it. It's an SVX 6 with the 914 transmission. My goal is to be able to drive anywhere without worrie. Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks

I suggest you start a new thread. You'll get faster, more compete answers. SVX is an awesome engine!

Will do. New guy mistake. Thank You!

Damn, too long since I updated... or even worked on my 914, for that matter. I've been busy with other projects, including two Bimmers (an M52 engine / ZF trans swap into a '96 318ti and street/track suspension install, and a rear suspension repair & fortification on a '99 Z3 M Roadster). Now it is time to get back on the 'teener!

I spent a lot of time seam-welding the car, and don't like the idea of cutting some of the front structure out to vent the radiator cooling air. Since I've got a spare front hood, I thought I'd try venting through the hood. As explained earlier, I'm running a Griffin 25272 aluminum radiator and fan/shroud from a Lincoln Mark VII. I bought a spare Lincoln fan/shroud so that I could use a portion of the Lincoln shroud base to build a polystyrene buck without ruining the one I plan to use.

I bought a 4'x8' sheet of 2" polystyrene from Home Despot and went to town -- I used 3M contact cement to glue each layer to the next, and then cut/filed it into shape using a cheese-grater kind of file, a handsaw and 60-grit sandpaper. Hint, don't use polystyrene; use polyurethane instead (so you can melt it with acetone when voiding the buck!). That took about 10 hours to glue, shape, mock-up, shape, mock-up, shape, etc. I then covered the buck with clear packing tape and rubbed on two layers of mold release wax. Below is a pic.

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Then I laid the fiberglass, using 2oz mat for the big stuff and 1oz woven cloth for the corners and compound bends, and two-part epoxy. Below are couple of pics of the materials. There are plenty of websites showing how and what to use, so I'll spare the details here.

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The epoxy is more expensive than traditional polyester resin, but it doesn't smell as horrid and it can be stronger if carefully applied. The roller is key to getting the air bubbles out, and el cheapo brushes ((15 for $10 at HD) work well to wet-out the cloth on a piece of cardboard. Be sure to use gloves or you'll be picking/rubbing resin out of your fingers for days (AMHIK).

My goal was 1/8" thickness, although you can see I've ended up with some thicker spots where overlapping of the cloth/mat occurs. I plan to sand it down and spread a thin layer of Bondo once I complete the proof-of-concept...

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Here is a pic of the shroud released from the buck. As mentioned above, the type of material I used for the buck didn't melt when I applied acetone -- to my surprise. So I used a serrated kitchen knife (don't tell Nancy!) to begin carving it out, then I was able to break out large pieces. Pretty slick on the inside, eh?

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I then trimmed away the edges using a saber saw, and then a sandpaper block to knock down the (VERY!) sharp edges. Here are a few pics of the trimmed fiberglass shroud placed on the Lincoln shroud housing. You can see some of the buck debris in the trash can in the background.

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Finally, here are a couple pics of the assembly placed in situ. I plan to carefully mark where the hole in the hood is required, and then incrementally cut away the outlet hole. I planned the hole to maximize the outlet size without cutting into the hood reinforcements, and I nailed it.

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Beautiful
You make it look so easy

sweet

EXACKERY!!!

Slick plan.

Nice work! Giving me ideas.

Cool work!

It sounds like you went to Home Depot looking for EPS foam (expanded polystyrene) and they gave you polyurethane? Polyurethane is the one that will not melt with acetone or polyester resin. MEK may break it down?

EPS is the stuff with the little white beads stuck together: peanuts, and coffee cups...
It's all the better, melting EPS is a sticky mess. Also when you sand EPS the beads get everywhere and you get a lot of static cling. I like EPS it because you can cut it with a hot wire.

One thing you can do when building your buck is to build it with a removable core plug. Pull the core plug and it is a lot easier removing foam from around the walls.

Anyway, it looks great! Are you going to paint it the same color as the car ?

Awesome man. Definitely stoking the fire on my plan as well. I want to vent through the floor and use louvered panels to keep water and debris to a minimum...that setup would be great to redirect the air right out the bottom.

Looks awesome, Geoff!

Seems we both have been playing with fiberglass! I am making a new gauge plate for my SpeedHut gauges.

Your skill and attention to detail is one to be emulated

Nate

Yup, that is the ultimate plan. But I wanna run this first to see if it meets my expectations for cooling; then I'll make it all purty.

Thanks for your advice on the type of foam to use. I'll need to mock up a lip on the leading edge of the hood outlet to create a low-pressure spot after I cut out the hole, so I'll look for the good stuff. I've got some designs rolling around in my head but I haven't settled on one yet. Most of the websites say to use the high-density blue or green urethane for the buck -- but I could only find small bricks that cost too much at craft stores like Michael's or Joann's (which are places that always seems to reduce my testosterone levels...).

After a terrible weekend at the 24 Hours of Lemons Button Turrible race (our Opel GT only did five laps before destroying the head gasket in 106 degree weather!), I came home and worked out my frustration on the cooling system of my Suby-teener. If I woulda been smart I woulda suffered the extra heat of long-sleeve pants and shirt to keep the fiberglass dust off my sweaty exposed skin. The result is my arms and legs are uber-itchy today!!!

The first picture is of the measuring system I devised to locate the hole I needed to cut in the hood, as well as the height of the shroud under the hood. I placed painter's tape along the top of the inner fenders and along the front/rear edges of the hood area. I then used a straight edge along the sides of the shroud to make Sharpie marks on the blue tape. I then used a 12-foot length of copper ground-wire bent to surround the shroud outlet and to mimic the curvature of the hood. In the picture below, you can see the copper piece and the Sharpie marks on the blue tape.

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I used the copper wire to also make approximate height cut-marks on the shroud. I then removed the shroud from the radiator to make the first cut of the fiberglass shroud -- I actually made the cut using a saber saw about 1/2" above the Sharpie line to give me a chance to incrementally cut down to the correct height.

Below is a picture of the blue tape I lined up with the Sharpie marks along the four edges of the hood. I then drilled holes at the corner of each cut to avoid future cracks that tend to occur at right-angle or straight cuts. I'm not sure if you can see the areas marked "down" -- those ten areas will be for the tabs I'll bend down and use to mount the mesh screen. The front leading edge has two longer areas that will be further sectioned and used to provide a strong support for a forward lip to create a low-pressure zone that should aid in sucking the hot air out. You'll note that there is a curvature to the hood, so you cannot merely bend the long tabs along a straight line or you'll tweak the hood.

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Below you can see the cut-outs; one pic from a rear corner and the other from the front. I used a combination of a 3" cutting wheel (1/16" thick) in a die grinder and a saber saw to make the cuts. I went as slowly as possible to avoid warping the metal too much.

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The three pictures below show the rear two pieces cut out, and the area cleaned up a bit. I plan to bend 1/4" steel rod and tack-and-then-fiberglass on the bottom-side of the hood cutout for strength.

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Finally, the two pics below show the shroud trimmed to the correct height -- 3/8" below the bottom of the hood. Honestly, it took about 20 times of measuring, marking & cutting before I "snuck down" to the right height. The hood outlet "box" hole is 1/2" smaller on each side than the inner box size of the shroud. That was done so that the rubber gasket I'll install on the fiberglass shroud top will ensure a good seal that won't rub too much on the bottom of hood box structure. I used 5mm stainless steel hex-head bolts, ss fender washers and ss nylock nuts to mount the fiberglass shroud to the Lincoln plastic shroud.

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I still need to cut & grommet a hole in the fiberglass shroud to snake through the fan wiring, and to add a grommeted drain hose for any water that might get through the hood hole. Finally, I need to mock up and construct the leading lip and possibly declining side edges (for good looks) for the hood hole. I hope to get to these projects this next weekend.

Looks great updates

Just a thought...

Would you have been able to point that DOWN instead of having to cut the hood? It seems like you'd get almost as much airflow out of the bottom of the trunk floor as you would from up high.

I only ask because I am thinking of building something similar and want to explore all the options before I go too far.

That's a good question that I haven't seen anyone answer! It would be nice to preserve the outside look without having to cut into the wheel wells. PLUS what do you do if it rains? will that hold water, were does it drain?

Your work looks top notch! I had planned on going a very similar route for my radiator venting - your posts here have been very informative



Seems to me that if one were to vent all of the radiator air under the car it would create a high pressure area right where you don't want it - making the front end scary light at higher speeds. Venting through the hood should actually result in a bit of down force at higher speeds. I think others have been successful venting their radiator through the floor, just doesn't seem to be an ideal solution.

Maybe split it and vent thru the front of the wheelwells?

awesome work. stole a few ideas for my project. keep it going!

Looks great, need an update

Bi-Weekly for updates!

Are you going to make a lip in front of the hood cutout to create a low pressure area to draw the air out? If you dont I forsee that you'll have a bit of air turbulance at speed.