Randall,

I am going to replace it along the spot weld seams down the sides.

This should help with lining up the new piece accurately.

The two bulkheads and floors will get joined in the middle of the panels.

John

That is indeed the best way, I was going to say if you would weld in the new piece like it lays on top of the old one, which would mean you'd have to cut out half of the inner fender along a long straight line, My advise would be to not cut in a straight line but make it stepped, gives a hell of a lot more shear strength..

That would make a lot of sense. I am not a big fan of long butt welds in the middle
of panels when it comes to structural strength.

I am going to be adding some tubing from the front shock towers to the front
suspension points, and tie these tubes together across the front of the car similar
to how Jeff Hail did in his "Bringing out the dead" thread. I would be worried about
the strength of the front of the car after all this surgery without these tubes.

This picture was "borrowed" from Jeff's thread.

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John

Good idea!! form and fuction.......looks really good...

Spent 2 hours peeling off one side of the donor organ. This is the first time I used
the Blair Rotabroach. These things kick ass. I won't go back to anything else.
They are much more aggressive cutting and stay sharp better than any of the
other spot weld bits I have tried.

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Still a lot of work left before the transplant can happen.

John

That's a good "pick". Prep is everything.

Nice work

John,
Just found your build thread, cool project, you do good work.

I am always amazed at the innovative ways you come up with of turning a 914 upside down. Keep the picts coming.

Dave

You'll have a fuel cell and oil cooler to install as soon as you get the trunk reconstructed and the chassis flipped upright again John.
Here's what it looks like mocked up. The tubular braces will be ready shortly.
Everything appears to fit together just fine.
I have most of your fuel plumbing together now and the cooler/shroud shipped today.
We plumbed a similar oil cooler installation over the last couple days for a 3.2L conversion, so I have many details already worked out.


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Great job John...

BTW what size Blair Rotabroach bit did you use?

-- Rob

Rob,

I used a 5/16 because I found a 50% off deal on amazon on them. I always
search Amazon before buying anything because they are often the cheapest even
on stuff like tools and welding helmets. They had Mallory optical ignition modules
when all the race suppliers were out of stock for weeks.

I think 3/8 would be better because it allows you to be off center from the spot
weld a little more and still get it all.

I peeled the other half of the donor last night in 90 minutes.

John

Chris,

That is looking great. Thanks for all your help with this project.

Chris is making the front tubes for me like he did for Jeff Hail, plus the fuel and oil systems.

John

Test fitting the donor chunk.

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It fits pretty well. My goal is to have it fit without any forcing. I want the suspension
mounting points to line up without any stress on the jig or the chunk. I have trimmed
it little by little and now the fit is pretty good.

I wonder if the original unit body parts would just fall together perfectly or if they had
to be clamped against their will to take they shape Karmann wanted? Does it help
to pre-tension the body panels or would that stress just be released over time as
the car went over bumps?

I got the oil cooler and shrouds from Chris yesterday, thanks!

John

John,
I bought the fenders for my project car from QRS Fiberglass (cheap plug) and am very happy with the quality and the weight of them. I will take some pix for you

uh just was reading TC's project thread , You better get to work

John,
Car is comming along great! Can't wait to see the nose on it, and all of that fine fab work in fitting it. Hope to see whats next soon!

Thomas

I have been very busy on the car, just not posting much. Here is what has been
done. I spent several days fiddling with the donor chunk, with levels and a tram
gauge to try to get it as perfect as possible. Then I tack welded it in about 10
places on each side. These pictures are from after welding it in more when I
was re-checking it all.

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I checked measurements from the suspension points diagonally and lengthwise
against each other. They are all within 0.5 mm of each other. My tram gauge is
only accurate to 2mm so I was happy with that result.

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The tram gauge makes it easy to measure between two points on the car no
matter how uneven the body is between them.

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I bought this gauge from http://www.autobodytoolmart.com/ just for this project.
It is too hard to measure between holes accurately with a tape measure and this
way I got to buy another cool tool. It should be good for checking front and
rear toe measurements as well.

When I was satisfied all was ok I plug welded all the drilled out spot weld holes.
The existing fender wells are very thin metal with lots of rusted through pin holes
and a load of holes the owners drilled everywhere.

For added strength, I seam welded a lot of the pinch weld between the donor
chunk and the original car. I don't plan on grinding all the welds totally flat. I
think that will weaken it too much and the original owners would never have
bothered with that.

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Notice all the holes in the fenders. After welding the chunk in, I spent days and
days filling in all the rust holes and drilled holes I don't plan to use anymore.

John

Fixing some choice holes in the fender wells.

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This was a tricky shape to fix. I used 18 gauge metal which is a pain to bend.
All the bends were done using one pair of pliers to hold the piece close to where
I wanted to bend it, then using another pair to grab it and bend. Once you start
having it welded on, you can shape it by hammering on it or hammering on a
screw driver to force the metal where you want to go.

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Another similar hole.

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Welded up.

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Lots of holes welded up. This area I did grind almost flush.

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Lot of the same kind of holes on the other side.

John

Just my .02.
While you have it up side over, weld all the pinch seams. Grind the 2 pieces flush with each other then weld the knife edge......that makes the metal as clean as possible and gives a good target to weld (dirty wetal gives blow backs). Dress up with a grinder to make the welds smooth.....no kerfs. All lap seams should be at least (2 inchers) skip welded tho I prefer full welds. .023 wire works best for this.

JP, I have been thinking of doing more seam welding as you describe.

I especially want to shore up the rear shock towers where they tend to crack.

John

this thread keeps me checking back!

John, Did you end up getting an engine?

Give me a call this week.

T.C.

I did find some cracking on my car around the bottom of the rear towers......see pic. (not my car). This was before I put in the down tubes from the cage to towers.
The sheet metal in that area is really thin.

Also pictured is the srea over the axles & inner ear. The pinch seams marked are highly susceptable to cracking. The.023 wire I used was called "Easy Grind". It is not nearly as hard to grind (go figure) a normal 6 or 7000 serise wire. It also requires less amperage to run...less heat is gud for sheet metal.....don't weld up your cage with it tho.

Wow, this is amazing

TC,

I'll call you at work tomorrow.

Blake is working on a 2.5 for me (with nickies!) that should be done soon.

John

Oops, duplicate post deleted.

It ran today. It did great. I will be emailing you a dyno graph and video tonight.

Blake, the engine sounds and looks great.

Can't wait....

John

Innovation or Abomination?

I can't decide.

The pedal support structure on the car was nothing but rust and memories.
No one seems to have one on a parts car that is not totally shot that I could
find.

Mark posted a cool video a while back showing just how much the floor flexs
when you step on the brakes. Scary!

I decided to try to stiffen up the area from the pedal box back to one of the ribs
stamped in the floor. This is not stock, obviously, and kind of ugly, but it should
be stiffer than the stock arrangement. I can always grind it off later before I
take the car to Pebble Beach.

Mounting the pedal box. The bar and bolts got welded down later on.

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Clean it all up for welding.

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Fitting some half inch tubes and eighth inch plate under a 16 gauge piece.

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Welded it all up.

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I am thinking the "corner" formed by the part of the box next to the brake
cylinder will add a lot of stiffness. There is an eigth inch plate running the
length of the box that is plug welded under the top. The box is not the lowest
point on the front of the car so it does not reduce ground clearance.

What do you all think?

John

Finally finished welding the floors. I took JPs advice and seam welded the
whole seam down the longs from the front of the car until past the transmission
dog bone intersection. Firsr ground it even and then welded it 2 inches at a
time. I welded only six or so sections a foot apart each day.

There is a lot of crap in those seams because the first weld session popped like
crazy. It was constant fireworks. Next day I welded the same sections again
and then I could get a good weld. Like I had to cook all the crap out of the seam
the first pass. Then I lightly ground the top and both sides. After that I filled in
any areas that had gaps, holes, or looked weak. Very time consuming.

Welded on the floor pan triangles and jacking points. Cleaned it all, etched
it, and epoxy primered it today, the first new paint on the car.

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Made 16 gauge reinforcing plate for the anti-roll bar mount. The sheet metal on both
sides was torn in this area.

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Everything will get seam sealed and primed again.

John

Heh.....ah yes, good times welding the long seams. I did that laying on my back underneath it. Had simlar problems with crap in the joint blowing up, out , and all over me. Even wearing leathers I did manage to light myself on fire several times.
One particular glob went between my leathers & collar, down my chest till it stopped at my belt.....sizzling, cracking, burning hair all the way down.
No use getting up & trying to get free of that sumbitch.....just kept goin'

After I got a well filled bead on there I went over it with a 2 inch sanding disk (60-100 grit on a die grinder) smoothing everything out to eliminate kerfs (notches).

Weldong upside down sucks...



Coming along John. Getting a care package together for you.

Eric - ouch! That sucks. I am going to need some Zimmerman rotors from you. I
plan to use the S calipers and V calipers (the calipers with the e-brakes will go on
my blue car). Maybe you can figure out what I need and PM me.

Getting burns trying to weld on new floor pans upside down is what lead me to
building the 914 rocker. I still have scars on my arms from the molten drips.

Notice the fireproof welding blankets on the wall. There is a reason those are
there now. Too many things set on fire by welding sparks.

John

WOW!!!! LOOKS GREAT!!! i am so happy that you recieved the donor piece from me. it came from a car that had no other usable metal as the longs and rear suspension were almost non existant.... so that piece was meant for this project...happy you could use it...ill keep watching as this goes on..doing great work...

keep on truckin brave soul! I have enjoyed watching your fine work

Terry,

That piece you sent me is so pristine and you cut it perfectly to mate up to the
floor pans. It made it way easier to replace the front end. Thanks again for
your help!

John

My buddy Sean has been helping me now and then to clean up the car. I am
helping him restore his 914 in exchange. His car needs floor pans, hell hole,
and paint.

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I'll seam weld or skip weld all the tower seams.

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Trying to clean up the whole underside so we can reflip this sucker and get
on with it.

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John

Picked up my engine from Blake and his father Al. It is a 2.5 /6 they got in an old
911 they bought a while back. It was marked as a T engine but made way more
power than it should have. Blake tore it down and saw it was built as a race
or hot rod engine. They rebuilt it with nickies because several barrels were
shot.

Here we are picking it out of Al's car.

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Stuffing it into my rusty old truck.

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My wife showing the proper respect for our new engine.

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Can't wait to have it in the car.

John

great thread! I enjoyed reading your blue resto also. nice work!

FourBlades:

BRAVO! I commend you on restoring such a great old race veteran! A car with that much history truly deserves a good restoration.

Terry

Thanks, I appreciate the encouragement.

Now if I could just stop working OT I could make some real progress.

John

Sean having fun with the plasma cutter.

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Cutting out a replacement front valence from a piece sent to me by Thomas.

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Saving both head light buckets to use on the IMSA car.

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I'll weld it on once we have the car flipped back upright.

John

WOW! great progress! looking really good those repairs!! Engine looks really nice too!

Looking good! Hope to see you next time I'm in town at my father in laws. We are so lucky to have wives that support our illness

What do you call a wife who plants a kiss on your newly arrived engine?

Keeper

You got that right!

Don't think I could ever go back to the non car appreciating kind!

I'd have to move a lot of parts out of our bedroom and living room.

John