When I spoke of grinding your welds smooth this is an example of what I meant.
The rear wheel/axle arch is an often cracked area. You want to avoid "kerfs"....notches on the edges which concentrate stress. Smooth/faired welds are the cat's ass.

JP,

That looks nice and neat. I have been working towards that. Seam weld, sand,
go back and fill in any notches or porous welds. Repeat.

I finally started priming stuff to keep it from rusting while I work, but I know
I have more cleaning up to do.

John

Sorry if I jumped ahead too much..... the primer kinda threw me.
I used a rattle can etch primer made by RM for spot work. It is compatible with any build primer/topcoat I threw at it.

At any rate, a picture is worth a thousand wurds. Here's an ear. I coud have done a better job of it, I guess, but geting out from underneath the SOB became a higher priority.

1980 Sebring
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John,
Here's an example of a redundant fuel system for you to look at for ideas:
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Note the duct to a fuel cooler on the right
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Scott Carlberg found a picture of your car
Link to 914World Thread

Link to Ameriacan Leman page

Whoo Hoo!

I am so stoked to see another period picture of my car!!!

That is freaking awesome.

I would love more cool pictures like that.

Made a lot of progress on the car I need to post.

John

Take a look at this video, you might see it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGCI4ny8DEA

I think I see a black 914 in that video and maybe a silver one.

I finished seam welding and cleaning up the longs.

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Reflipped the car the easy way using an engine hoist.

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No drama this way.

John

It is amazing how just a coat of primer makes the car look so much better
Great Job!

The black 914/6 in the Sebring video is the Zulkowski car now owned by Doug Wright

Hey Glenn,

I agree, once you get all the rust off and get it all one color it looks so much better.

I was wondering if the black 914 was your Hendricks car, wasn't it painted black at one time?

John

The Meaney/Hendricks car was Conda Green prior to silver.
The Zulkowski car was black all the way back to 1975 in the according to the SCCA log books

Click to view attachmentI tuned up a couple of the small photos in Photoshop for fun..

Thanks Pete, that is a definite improvement!

John

John,
The car looks great... Hope to have some serious progress on the body of my car when the weather breaks. Glad the nose piece was beneficial! Seems we have similar Wives... I think my wife wants the car done more than I do some days. It makes working on it more enjoyable though!
Keep up the great work!

Thomas

Loookin' gud.

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That must be Di Lella Racing, the builder of the car!

You are the man, TC.

Any info on the photo or event?

John

URY posted that picture on the 935 Thread on Pelican.

It has to be Daytona from the background

Dave Kutz sent it in to Racing Sports Cars
Daytona Finale 250 Miles 1977

Been working for several weeks to rebuild the front end of the car.

Click to view attachment

The front fascia only comes up about half way and both head light buckets are
rusted badly.

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I have replacements that Thomas sent to me I will use to fix this.

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Somehow I can't get the new section to fit the car. It is like it is too wide to fit
between the fenders. Took some measurements on my other 914s for comparison.

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No wonder, this car is 2.5 cm narrower than it should be, it is 125.75 cm across
at the very front.

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Love the Area 51 welding jacket.

John

Get out the porta power and start pushing it back into shape.

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Push it, check it, push it, check it. Get frustrated by the spring back and really
crank it. Needed to cut through the fascia to the proper fit and bending. Push it
and now it stays where it should. Checked the diagonals and widths. Hammer
it here and there to shape it right.

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Try fitting the pieces again.

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Now everything fits well.

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Nothing like a 4 ton hydraulic ram to ensure cooperation.

John

Tack weld the pieces on and check the fit with the hood. The hood fits well except
where they must have reshaped it to make up for the pushed in driver side. The
driver side fender was replace at some point by brazing on a piece from a green
car.

Click to view attachment

Check the fit of the headlights and covers.

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It all fits decent. The gaps are a little big but it is good enough for a race that
has been wrecked multiple times.

Fully welded it a few inches at a time by cutting through the overlapping pieces
and filling in the kerf.

Clean it up and prime it. I ran out of one color of rattle can self etch and started
in with another color part way through.

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Starting to look pretty good.

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This was a pretty major effort to reconstruct but I am happy with how it turned
out.

John

Ha ha remember what I started with:

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Gives me the willies to remember that.

John

John, did you see that someone is selling an IMSA front bumper in the Classifieds?

TC,

Yes I did notice that. I am going to check if the one that came with the car is
usable. I am now at the point where I can determine if it will work.

I'd rather use the original piece if I can.

John

This is totally fixable! reuse it!

Have you ever heard of Vice Grips? I hope you own stock

Your work is ever impressive Awesome seeing this come together

You can never have enough clamps, I actually bought a few more really wide ones
for this project.

Things made out of fiberglass can usually be repaired if you don't mind the itching.
The fenders and bumper had all been repaired multiple times by globbing
on more kitty hair and bondo. I will grind them down to the correct thickness
again and repair them the right way, with 12:1 feathering of holes and cracks and
then adding new cloth. I used to shape and glass surfboards about 20 years ago,
where does the time go?

John

Just WOW! I love the work you are doing to save this piece of Porsche history. Very nice indeed.

John,

Great work as always! I was just wondering... what was the point of welding in two large pieces instead of one large one? I am guessing it was to preserve as much of the original car as possible, but would like to hear your thoughts on that.

Thanks and keep up the good work.

-Peter

John,
this shelf/support is not on the 1971 cars, get it out of there

Glad to hear this, that bumper is fairly unique.

Thanks for all the comments!

Peter: I had two pieces from two different cars. I think this made it easier to get
them in. Trying to get one piece with the headlight buckets attached and all the
lower trunk stuff probably would not have worked. The car narrows the closer
it gets to the front, so you can't slide a piece in from the front without some
major cutting of one side. I actually cut the fascia in half vertically to make
fitting it easier, so it was three major pieces put in.

Glenn: I left the reinforcement on until I fully weld all the new stuff to try to
maintain the original shape. I plan to remove it once I start fitting the front
oil cooler.

John

Very nice work indeed!

Been having some computer issues and finally upgraded to windows 7 which has
allowed me to eradicate all viruses.

Been working on finishing up the engine bay. Welded on Tangerine Racing rear
suspension ear reinforcement plates and made some removable chassis braces.
The longs were cracked on the outside around the suspension points so this
should help stabilize them.

Click to view attachment

Those are 1/8 plates welded on the firewall. I put the attachment point down low
where the floor pan helps reinforce the firewall.

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I added some 16 gauge plating to the top and bottom of the suspension mounting
point where the brace attaches. I am missing a jam nut on this brace.

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I've got some smaller heim joints and tubes to build reinforcements for the carrier
on the other end of the suspension mounting point. That should help stabilize the
other end of the rear arm and keep the toe in from changing.

John

Cut out the rusty hell hole.

Some cool rat parties went down inside this race car.

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Cleaned out the rat pad using latex gloves which were promptly tossed.

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Took some recon photos of the inside.

Does not look too bad actually.

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This will get treated and painted before sealing it back up.

John

John,

That looks fantastic, you have balls the size of church bells to take on that project.

Can't wait to see it finished. Are you painting it back to its racing colors?

Been working on the tunnel and cross brace. Basically all the metal within an inch
of the floor is completely rusted away. Cut this all back to solid metal and patched
in new pieces.

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I thought about trying to get a perfect tunnel from a donor and buy new, repro
cross braces and inner firewall pieces. I could have made the interior look close
to brand new stock but the guys who built this car originally would never have
done that. I plan to just have a bare metal, painted interior where all the welded
panels will show. I could try to grind all the welds smooth, but again, that was
never what the original builders did.

They did race the car with factory sound deadening tar in place. That all went with
the old floor pan and it got stripped off the tunnel. I wonder why they did not
bother with that obvious and easy weight reduction?

Should I replace the factory tar to be closer to how it was in the day? I have no
idea but I am leaning towards no.

Welded on a new fender to replace the trashed one. Terry (914xprs) supplied
this cherry piece for me.

Click to view attachment

John

Yes, I plan to paint it the way it was when it raced at Sebring, which is close
to how it looked when I got it, minus some jewelry store sponsorship.

I have been loving your build thread. What a great color and a great motor. Joe
is doing some really nice work on it.

That will be one of the best 914s around pretty soon now.

John

Cleaning up the a-arms I noticed something new to me, maybe you all can tell
me if this is a common thing.

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The rubber bushings on the a-arms were replaced with solid aluminum bushings.

They fit very precisely and once cleaned and oiled they spin freely on the a-arm
with no play in them. There are no grease fittings, which seems like a problem.
Those are 22 mm torsion bars.

Click to view attachment

Did someone make these and sell them back in the day or were these made
just for this car? Anyone know?

John

No one has seen solid bushings like I found on the car?

There are no part numbers on them so someone could have just made these on
a lathe.

John

Great build John. Can't comment on the solid bushings, but you can be sure they are just about as stiff as you are going to get for front bushings! Are the rears the same?

I might be tempted to keep them and add grease fittings as you noted.

Dion

looks interesting, I have never seen it before. it is not a whole lot different than the Elephant Racing PolyBronze Control Arm Bearings. I would put Zerk fittings and have them grooved for grease penetration.

Are the Elephant Bushings actually solid? I thought there was a polyurethane
lining inside the bronze?

These things are solid aluminum.

I plan to reuse them if they don't bind.

I guess I could drill some holes and add zerks. Not sure how I would groove
the inside of the bushings. Like cutting an inside thread, maybe it could be
done on a lathe.

I went on a sand blasting and painting frenzy yesterday and restored most of the
front suspension parts.

I have not looked closely at the rear control arms yet. I did notice they had the
driver's side rear spring one notch higher than the passenger side. I am
guessing this is an attempt at corner balancing?

John

Elephant Bushings are bronze bearing sleeves surrounded by a urethane layer in between the sleeve and the support housing.

Thats the key.
As long as they don't bind and you use bearing grease they should work great.

Easiest would be with a carbide burr in an end grinder. After you locate the zerk hole, create a spiral groove with a small ball shaped burr made for aluminum.

Here are the Elephants

Click to view attachment

Rear control arms appear to have the same solid bushings.

I did not extract them yet, I was busy blasting and painting the rear suspension
yesterday.

John

Love this build! Cant wait to see it moving!

It was good to see that front end come together. Looks like a lot of what I sent was used! Great job fab'n it all in.

Update please John.