Great to see more progress.

Ya know, a car like this deserves its own one off, custom carbon body.

Did you ever want to take a stab at designing your own car body?



John

I have actually, my thesis in grad school reimagined Bucky Fuller's Dymaxion car as a modern sports car, retaining the 3 wheel configuration and rear steering, still have the first and last study models from that project on my desk at work.
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Fully designed and modeled the chassis and suspension too:
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As for the 914 body, I would love to keep it fairly stock looking, too easy to fall into bad kit car territory with these cars, but reproducing the modified flared body in full carbon is definitely on the table if I get bored enough

Will definitely be watching this build with interest B is for Build

Time to tackle doors, as far as all body components go I am just welding up any damage that requires it, ignoring the dents, and throwing some paint on them, once the dry fit is totally complete at least the exterior of these will get stripped and bodywork will commence for real, still got a few years before that though!
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I stripped the doors down and then removed the other crash bar, I pulled the other one about 10 years ago and never got around to this one.
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then I scraped the tar from the insides of the doors.
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Repaired any damage that required a welder.
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And stripped the clear that had been on there since my Vegas days.
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I got them all stripped and hung up.
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Primed and painted.
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Then threw them on the car, mirrors and latches next!
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so close, yet so far away!...

I wonder what will happen first, you finishing the car or me actually buying a 914 lol both seem to have no end in sight

You and Paul Elio out to get together.

Thank god this isn't a trike. Trikes suck donkey balls.Yes we know the only possible possibility is two front. Still sucks.
No wait... what worse balls can we find?
No matter. Murray Goldberg leaving pants right here at the door.

I get all giggity when I see update to this thread! One of the coolest parts of this build IMHO is the garage its being built in...it looks like it should be a storage shed for lawn equipment. It really shows your talent as the builder.

Unlike the Dale er I mean Elio.. The Anklebiter is Real.

Done. ROFLMAO!!!!!!!

they're never done.

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I polished up my Solstice mirrors

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and put them on, just going to leave them red for now, they match the other red accents on the car as it is. More on how I got them to fit Here

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Behold, the Pontiac goodness...

Looks grand with doors! The horn placement reminds me of the old disc shock absorbers of the early twenties. No, the nineteen twenties. Visually that is.

This package has a funny story, if you look closely the date on it is from way back in 2006, when I moved from Vegas to Wyoming, somewhere along the way my door handle broke. I ordered the replacement part from pelican, and as soon as I got the car to my new house in Laramie I pulled apart the door to fix the handle. If you look back at the 13th post on this thread you will notice that the first thing I did on this build was cut out the crash bar in the door, then the second thing was cut off the targa top. This little twist of fate created this build, if I hadn't pulled that door apart I may not have even started this journey.
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Well here we are 15 years later, time to finally fix that handle!
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Totally! getting MG flashbacks!

Geez Dana. Talk about anticipation

Keep at it. You'll get her done before they phase out gasoline

Of course, I ain't got one at all.

Looking at used TESLA'S!!

HAH, that'll bring the comments and viewers back to your thread

Dave

Believe me, this will be the last gas car I own. Maybe I can move the radiator to the back and jam a fwd KERS system in the front?

Bought a used Model S and made it my daily driver. It's such a great car that it makes it hard to justify keeping the 914 for weekend drives, but the 914 scratches a different itch and still puts a huge grin on my face.

The windshield frame has been a challenging piece to fabricate but it is coming along! I took all of the rough cut pieces I made back in April (here) and welded them into two halves of a frame.
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Then I used spacers to make sure it was positioned perfectly on the car and trimmed the halves to fit together perfectly
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Then welded it into one piece, getting there, might buy some polycarbonate this weekend!
Sneak peak, I have been working on mocking up the interior components as well, more on that in a bit!
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It's gonna be Ferg worthy in no time

It isn't ready for you, I haven't painted it brown yet

We attended the annual Snoqualmie Railroad Days car show, it is only a block from my house so it is a pretty easy drive over there!
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As usall there were a ton of questions, "where is the rest of it" "is that a miata' etc...
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My kiddo always has a blast showing the car to people, she even corrected a few people that were saying Porsche wrong which was hilarious, good kid!
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Parenting done right!

I got the windshield frame temporarily installed, I used 1/8" spacers around the perimeter to ensure a uniform gap around the perimeter.
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Initially I wanted to weld studs to the back of this frame to hide the fasteners but the complexity of having to install that system was inevitably going to lead to a lot of heartache and probably a broken polycarbonate windshield during installation. Instead I am countersinking flat head allen fasteners into the frame to sit flush, I started this process by marking out and drilling holes around the frame.
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I pulled the frame and got a big chunk of MDF for a template.
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Then using my newly drilled holes, I bolted the frame to the MDF.
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Then cut off the excess material, time to throw this in and see what happens!
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Well I only have half the bolts in and no gasket material but this sure looks promising.
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Having the frame to clamp the material in with is really helpful and should make it look a little cleaner than the usual polycarb windshield install process.
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This is good enough to move forward and buy a big ol' hunk of Poly, Woohoo!
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add the hump at the top like 70-71 ..= aero

Did my sister Ann find you? She had a booth of artwork. I asked her to look for you. Last year i missed you by a week. My wife grew up in the valley, and we visit often.
Warren

Was it the car artwork that the teenager was doing or another one? Shoot didn't connect, I will totally find them next year!

Do you pre-form the polycarbonate before trimming to size?

I think I can just bend it in there, the MDF formed in there pretty well and it is pretty brittle itself. I did stretch the frame opening vertically a bit when I bolted it to the mdf to make the template so it will naturally be somewhat convex. At the very least I will try to jam it in there on a hot day in the sun with a hairdryer. I actually have access to a large thermo-forming oven but then I would have to make a mold and that seems a lot harder than just trying to jam it in there.

After the first one explodes on installation I will probably explore pre-forming

If you were to place the poly on a piece of black plastic out in the sun (when it comes back) the plastic would heat uniformally.

Yeah that is a good idea, I think the sun is about as extreme as I want to get at first, even a heat gun can create bubbles if you aren't careful. The shape is pretty mild, not going all George Barris on it, should be a good experiment!

Take the MDF template to a glass place that has the polycarbonate for the local circle track guys....they'll use the template and cut it for you right there....
Local indy shop "Danny's Glass" here was easy to find as they sponsored a circle track car at Langley Speedway. $100 for a cut out lexan windshield...

Okay, time to conquer the task that has been hanging over my head for about a decade, the windshield. I am not really tackling body work yet but my cowl was looking pretty tired, and when I filled the cowl years ago I didn't get everything as smooth as I would have liked. So as part of the windshield install I am doing a light cowl freshening.
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Skim coat of bondo to smooth out the lumps.
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ohh, fresh paint:
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I also filled, primered and painted the windshield frame in a flat black.
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After the paint dried I installed the attachment clips, I went with these because they introduce a nice amount of slop in the system which should help in installation.
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I ran some poly foam weather stripping around the frame opening. this is just generic hardware store weather stripping, not sure if this is the right stuff but I am rolling with it for now.
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Also ran a few strips around the back of the outer frame, leaving a channel down the middle for hardware.
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I also brought my windshield template to TAP plastics and they kindly cut some abrasion resistant 3/16" polycarb to shape.
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I taped the template to the poly and drilled the mounting holes around the perimeter.
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I don't know if this helped or not but it was in the 90's yesterday so I dragged an old solarpanel I haven't had the time to mount up out into the sun and baked the polycarbonate in the sun for an hour or so.
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Oh hell yes! I can't believe this worked.
It took me 3 tries to get this bolted in correctly, the order the bolts are inserted definitely matters, I finally figured that starting at the sides and then bolting around the perimeter towards the center got it to take the shape well.
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I just gradually put a turn into each screw and worked my way around until it slowly clamped down into the frame. This thing looks beautiful, can't wait to take it out for a spin.
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I am going to take it out this weekend to get some better shots for you all, this is a big milestone, one step closer to completion!
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Everyone enjoys a success story. Nice work.

Nicely done, congratulations

Dude! Big congrats. I love when folks just jump in and give things a go.
And I know what you mean about those tasks that loom over you. But man, way to knock it out of the park!
It turned out great and looks FABRICATIONULOUS!

That looks really good!

NICE…

I took the car out a few times this past weekend, as I drive the car more I suppose there should be at least some shassis identification numbers on this thing, not totally stock but I threw the windshield frame ID tag on and VolksWerks plate on the fender well. Sure, that looks official?
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Got some better pictures out in the sun, I will try to grab some video soon, I can definitely verify that windshields are an awesome invention that make this car a heck of a lot more enjoyable to drive!
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Man I really need to get that body, running out of things to do!
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Today's "The Nature Porsche"...

Hahaha, that looks like the same spot!

No wipers. no doubt WSP or other LE agency will have an opinion about that if they should decide to squeeze your shoes. Looks cool just as it sits.

Make a clip on electric wiper..

I am just going to use an ultrasonic forcefield
Mclaren Wiper Forcefield

Or ignore it, unfortunately adding a windshield made my car more illegal, no wipers needed without one!

Dummy wipers and a bottle of Rainx - FTW

I upgraded my steering wheel, reinstalling the Renegade wheel spacer as well, first step is to drill out the hub from the original wheel.
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Extracted hub and spacer, sanded and awaiting flat black paint.
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Hub all assembled, ready for install.
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Looking good! Definitely easier to get into the car with the new setup as well.
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Curious about what you are thinking for the body- GT look obviously but something like a Sheridan kit or steel panels with steel flares custom made like your original concept pics?

Sorry duplicate post darn IPhone