We've been working on a '74 2.0 that we picked up a year ago in VA. Solid for the most part, floors are nice. Over the past 2 months we have been doing some work on it.

The goal is just a nice driver. It will be the original Phoneix Red (which is more orange than red). It will be powered by a 2.0 FI, if I get can the D-Jet figured out. I'll update this thread weekly or more often, whenever something notable gets done.

Heres what we started with

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

The PO had cut out a section of the drivers long and drivers door sill that needed replacement.

In this pic you can see the doorsill cut out, and the following pic is the long cutout
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

Voila, fixed

Click to view attachment

The hell hole, firewall and rear trunk have all been completed as well. I'll take some pics of those tomorrow

Nice looking project! Good looking weld work Keep it up

Closed up the firewall and the hell hole. The welds still need to be cleaned up.

Click to view attachment

Also reattached the drivers fender. This is a replacement fender that the PO included with the car, came off of a green car.

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Next order of work is a questionable area in the passenger footwell

Found a hole in the passenger footwell, and after cleaning out the seam sealer it became an even bigger hole. So anything questionable was cut out, and a patch was welded in. Also closed up the end of the longitudinal which was open.

These pics are taken from the pass. wheelwell
Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Keep up the good work and keep us posted

Good looking work. I had the same holes in my firewall. I would not
worry about grinding the welds too much. You will need to seam seal it, then
cover it up with the upholstrey anyway. I was surprised how much weld bead
is hidden once you put on the seam sealer.

John

Thanks guys. The welds on the firewall along with the welds in the trunk and in a few other places, I didnt bother grinding perfectly smooth. I still need to go to a local paint supply place to pick up some seam sealer, I've been meaning to do that.

Today I started stripping the pedal cluster area. There was alot of flaky rust, but after cleaning the area up with a wire wheel it seems very solid. This is one place I didnt want to sandblast so I wouldn't have sand stuck up behind the dash. Mostly everywhere else that was rusted on the car we sandblasted.

great work! are you doing the welding? it looks good

hopefully you will keep the momentum you have, let me know if i can help at all

Thanks Aaron. Yes, all the welding is being done by us.

So I picked up some brushable seam sealer from a local paint/body supply store. I sealed up the trunk, firewall and the entire new fender. Still have to do the hell hole and some spots inside the car. Its slowly coming together

Today I fabbed a new sill support triangle for the passenger side longitudinal. I first made a paper template then cut it and bent the edges to replicate the original. After lots of testing and trimming, im happy with the final product, and with the $16.50 that I saved. All thats left to do is drill the 2 holes and then

Click to view attachment

Keep up the great work keep us all posted with nice pictures!!!!!!!

Nice work.

If you have questions about D-Jet, I just tested mine w/o the engine and found all inputs to the brain to be functional. Test each part separately then it should work when put back together.

The PO's mechanic told me he couldn't get the D-Jet working so they replaced it with single center carb.

When the mechanic moved, he gave me the FI parts from my car. I checked everything out and found the vacuum advance unit to be leaking very badly. This seemed to be the only thing I found wrong with it. Got a new one, tested all FI stuff off the engine; put it all on the engine and it fired up and ran well.

Thanks. I have a 2.0 (from a '76) that will be going. The FI system was taken off the motor, hopefully it doesn't prove too much of a challenge to put together.

Have you decided if you are going to just cap off the smog injection ports and run it, or are you going to build the engine into something better?

I did not want to rebuild the 2056 I bought, but I am really I did. It was a very good experience, and taught e a TON about how these things work.

Zach

Hey Zach, for now we are going to cap the smog ports, assemble the D-Jet and run it. Hopefully the D-Jet doesn't prove to be too much of a challenge. The motor is up on a stand right now, and all the tin is cleaned up and on it, i'll get a pic up this weekend. Haven't had much time to work on the car lately with school and work.

It looks great! What's left for rust repair?

If you go through it methodically the fuel injection isn't too big a challenge. Its pretty simple.

PS: You aren't supposed to be working your senior year.

Most of the rust repair is done, now im just finishing up the front trunk gutter where the seal sits. I had to cut out a section and weld in a new piece. After that, all the rust should be taken care of.



I wish

Last weekend I cleaned up some rust in the pedal area with a wire wheel, and primed it. During the week I cleaned up the actual pedal cluster; pedals still feel tight. Yesterday I painted the pedal cluster rustoleum black. The pedal area recieved a few coats of orange

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

I also finished seam sealing the hell hole, but this will get painted along with the rest of the car, not like the pedal area.

Click to view attachment

I need to get a heater for the garage

Today was an eventful day. Aside from going to an interview and being accepted to my 1st choice college I was able to spend a nice part of the day working on the 914. Along with a friend, we worked on finishing seam sealing underneath the rear trunk panel that was welded in. After a trip to FLAPS to pick up a few cans of undercoating (we're using Dupli-color professional rubberized undercoating @ $7/can), we cleaned up the drivers front wheelwell and started spraying. The can says to shake for 3 minutes, but that left it too watery. A few more minutes thickened it up. It goes on evenly and covers well. My plan is to undercoat all 4 wheelwells, and touch up some areas underneath where the original undercoating has worn away.

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Also installed the pedal cluster

Click to view attachment

Yesterday I seam sealed the hell hole repair from the inside of the fender and I undercoated both rear wheelwells, paying particular attention to the area behind the door catch and under the sails. I also painted the long repairs on both sides and will be undercoating the longs. Pics to come.

After painting everything, I used the duplicolor stuff. Its held up really well for the past 6K or so (this winter will be the real test).

Congrats on your college admission! If I may ask, where did you pick?

Your car is looking good. I used the same undercoating.

Is this going to be your college car? That will be very cool because of how
rare these cars are now...

John

Hey man, I decided on NJIT

Good choice on not using the teener as a DD. I used mine as a college car back in the early 90s and it didn't carry enough people to make it useful in school, wait maybe it was perfect ... lol

Plus you can easily go home to drive the car on weekends which makes it more special.

BTW, When you said your pedal cluster was tight, what did you mean? Did you put the bronze pedal bushing in? I highly recommend that upgrade after going with the nylon bushings for my first rebuild.

Good thread, Keep up the good work!

Awesome; a friend of mine looked there a while ago but ended up going somewhere closer to home.



My 914 is my college DD and the limited persons capacity is one of my favorite parts (largely for the reason insinuated above).

We are using the pedal cluster from my dads old car. He rebuilt the pedal cluster, but it didn't get much use before he stopped driving the car.

Heres the latest progress: I seam sealed the area in the passenger front wheelwell that was repaired, and painted it. Next step is to undercoat this wheelwell and passenger longitudinal. The paint we're using for the small repairs is Rustoleum orange, very close to the color of the car.

Click to view attachment

The last bit of rust repair that the car needed was a section on the front panel. The metal rotted away around the passenger side bumper mount, and also rotted out the adjacent corner of the headlight bucket. The offending metal was cut away and the bumper mount and the surrounding area were wire brushed and primed. A patch was cut and welded in.

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Still need to finish up welding inside the headlight bucket.

Hey guys, haven't had much time with the holidays and such. Back to work!

Finished up the headlight bucket over the holidays and seamsealed it so thats done. Also undercoated the passenger wheelwell. All the areas under the car where the undercoating was thin, were wirewheeled, and then painted, then the entire underneath was freshly undercoated.

Today my dad made and welded in a patch for a hole in the passenger fender dogleg.

Click to view attachment

Also picked up a gallon of body filler and a gallon of Dupont 2K primer/activator from a local paint&body supply place. We are starting on bodywork soon!

Awesome! Its looking good Jonathan.

Well, my dad and I have been working hard on the 914. Its been a while since my last update, so I figured I'd catch you guys up. We've been doing bodywork and working on small details. All the rust is taken care of, the undercoating is done, everything is seam sealed. Bodywork is almost done too, we are just about ready to spray the primer, then paint! We are still trying to decide whether to fill the sidemarker light holes.

If you need parts, especially small ones, PM me. I have an orange (tangerine?) '74 that is in restoration. I am in Northern NJ and I've collected some things I won't need.

Don't worry about the D-Jet. Ours worked OK after sitting for 30 years! There seem to be parts available so far.

Thanks Timofly, I sent you a PM

Its looking good Jon.

Thanks Jim. Lately i've had more time to work on the car; school's almost over, and I graduate next week so progress should me moving quickly now. Today I spent some more time sanding and sanding and sanding, its getting smoother

Sorry for the crappy cell pics

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

Well, its been a while since my last update. Haven't had too much time to work on it with school and such, but I've found time to do bodywork. Looks like this weekend i'll be priming it

Well, got some more done today. Started to mask so I can prime it this weekend! Went with Dupont Urethane 2k, got a gallon of it and reducer. Hope its enough?

Well, I finally primed it! Spent the afternoon sanding and masking, then spent a few hours priming. Used Dupont 2K urethane primer in beige color. Gun was a HVLP Craftsman from Sears.

Cell pics for now (this is after all the wheel masking was removed), i'll get better ones tomorrow.

Click to view attachment

Ok, heres some pics outside in the sun. Can anyone recommend what brand paint to use over this? Color will be L32K Phoenix Red, primer is Dupont 2K urethane. Thanks

Ok guys, im getting ready to paint it finally! Color will be L32K Phoenix Red. Does anything need to be sprayed over the primer? The primer I used was Dupont 2K urethane primer in beige Can anyone recommend a certain paint brand, type, etc to use? I want to do a two-stage (base-clear) so I will also need a recommendation on a clear coat, thanks!

i just got my 76 vette back from the painter. put the bumper on yesterday. my painter was old school and painted 5 coats of single stage corvette red OUTSIDE! I DID NOT KNOW YOU COULD PAINT WITHOUT A BOOTH. he said hes always done it that way and hes done everything from mercedes, 356 and now my vette. the car is so deep and red it looks like it is bleeding. the reason i bought this up is the 2 stage or single stage question. also i read rick 918 posts on this and it seems he likes single stage. just my .02

You should form a relationship with a local paint shop. It takes a lot of the guess work out of a project like this.

With that said I've always used PPG products to avoid incompatibilities between brands and types.. If you start with a true "paint system" you'll have a better finished product.


HTH,
Ben

Hi Jonathon

Your car is looking great. It is amazing what a coat of paint including primer will do to give the feel of progress. Looks really good. I am not a painter so I cannot give advise. I agree that your paint dealer should have an answer. I have been reading on paint since I will be doing one within a year. I did read that primers may allow moisture through and start corrosion under the paint. Primer can be painted over with a sealer. If you are painting very soon then I suspect a sealer coat may be skipped. I hope true experienced painters will chip in if I am wrong.

Got trunks, engine compartment, and jambs painted today

Dang! That looks really nice Jonathon!

You must be itching to paint the outside now.

I was too impatient to do it in the right order like you did and I painted the
outside first....I painted mine in my yard and it is fine if there is a light wind to
keep the bugs away, just don't do it at night with bright lights, unless you want
a textured finish....

John