Oh and I also installed the heat ducting on the car. Now I just have to order some hoses and find a fan splitter so I can cruise in warmth!

wow waht a great thread thanks for all the info ..good job and happy motoring

Doug,

Nice work. It looks like you are making good progress.

What brand tires are those? I will need tires soon and I am also using 205/60-15's. The only high performance tires I can locate are BF-Goodrich G-Force Sports and Yokohama AVS ES-100's. I guess no one cares about 15" wheels anymore.

Thanks Mike. The tires are Goodyear Eagle GT's that I got off Tire Rack. The G-Force Sports were my second option however based on reviews i read, Eagle GT's had a little better wet traction and they also had a 50,000 mile warranty. Other than those two things, both tires are very compareable. Here is an interesting article that I read on the Eagle GTs. Article. I'll post my review on here once I run them a bit.

Do you have any close ups of the finished product? How did you deal with getting the hole the perfect size for the light? Thanks!

Thom

I actually don't have any more pictures of the install. The extra light is mounted the same way any stock trunk light is and the hardest part about doing this was getting the rectangular hole cut out. Using the light's gasket I traced out where the holes needed to be. To make the rectangular hole, i drilled a hole on each end and then cut out the section between the holes using a cutoff wheel. I then used a series of square files to get the hole down to a perfect size to fit the light. To wire it, I simply extended the wires over from the original light.

At night this second light really lights up the trunk and the passenger side of the engine down by the injectors and intake runners. It was definitely a worthwhile modification.

I actually don't have any more pictures of the install. The extra light is mounted the same way any stock trunk light is and the hardest part about doing this was getting the rectangular hole cut out. Using the light's gasket I traced out where the holes needed to be. To make the rectangular hole, i drilled a hole on each end and then cut out the section between the holes using a cutoff wheel. I then used a series of square files to get the hole down to a perfect size to fit the light. To wire it, I simply extended the wires over from the original light.

At night this second light really lights up the trunk and the passenger side of the engine down by the injectors and intake runners. It was definitely a worthwhile modification.

I haven't been able to do much with the car yet due to this...

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We had to use the garage for other projects so both the Bug and the 914 have had to sit outside. I did manage to get the heater system fully hooked up. Even with a few inches of snow on it, it still heats up pretty good inside! Hopefully all the salt on the road will wash away in the next day or two.

Christmas came early yesterday. I got a tow bar adapter and lights so that I will eventually be able to flat tow my 914 anywhere!

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Here it is on a bare shell
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I also got the tires mounted today

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The car looks much better now with the Fuchs added. The tires had a stiffer sidewall than the old ones so it actually raised the car a half inch or so. I drove the car around a bit and the new tires felt much better.

Not much progress but lots of a driving! I was able to make a Radio faceplate from an original one.


I cut a hole for a standard DIN size radio.
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And my high tech weight mechinism to hold it flat while it dries.
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Ta-da!
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And here it is in the car. I still need to clean the rest of the dash.
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I'm planning on taking the car out of town for New Years. Its a 300 mile round trip so I have a few things I want to get done before I leave on the 31st.

-change tranny fluid
-adjust the shift linkage
-seal up some areas underneath (wet weather expected)
-clean up the interior
-check CV joint bolts
-check for slop in the front end
-adjust the rear brake clearance

The car should be able to make the trip however anything can happen...

Just checked our your thread for the first time. You are doing a great job!! Keep the faith and you're gonna have one helluva nice ride!!

do you know anywhere i can find those LED strips that you used?

The LED strips I used were the FLB30 series from Super Bright LEDs Inc.

So I got back from my trip on the 2nd and have been too lazy to update this thing. The car made the trip just fine however two things did come up.

1. The ignition switch decided to stop working. It is a new switch so who knows. This didn't bother me much because i placed a jumper wire in the engine bay that leads to the starter. I added this the last time the switch failed just in case.

2. I replaced the cork oil filler gasket before the trip. I noticed after driving the car that it leaks some oil. I guess I just have to make sure it is mating properly.

Here are some pictures from my trip.

If you look through the trees, you can see the lake we were on.
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A friend took this of me on the highway
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So as some of you know I had a little accident in my 914 when it snowed here. I slid off into a ditch and hit a tree. You can read about it HERE

Well I started to fix the damage. I stripped the front end and I was able to get the front end pulled back out to speck. The headlight bucket was push in a little bit.

This is the channel at the top of the headlight bucket. You can see how its bent.
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I had to remove the shelf in the front trunk but I already pulled another one from my parts car. I'll replace the vertical support too.
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Looks like its coming along. Let me know if theres any metal you need, I have a parts car at work.

And that's pretty much all I got done this past weekend. I do have bigger news though. I've gotten tired of looking at my multicolored car and have decided to PAINT it. I have my spring break from school coming up the beginning of March and so I have a good 10 days to work on it. My goal is to have most of the bodywork completed by the end of break but we all know how that goes. I plan to strip the exterior of the car down to bare metal and just sand down the trunks. More details to come in a week or so.


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I also had a clean hood that I will use. The old one never fit right even before the accident.
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Thanks Jon. I'll keep that in mind.

I started to repair the rust in front of the windshield where the fenders meet up. The pass side had been patched before but it still needed a lot of work.

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The damage...

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Ah, I like new metal

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Here it is with new gaskets. And I finished welding it up on this side but I don't have a pictures.
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So I started on the driver's side. This side was not as bad it was still a pain in the butt to fix.

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Bad stuff removed...
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And the finished product
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That's all of the pictures for tonight. There is some rust in the front weatherstrip channel that I started to cut out but haven't finished with that yet.

Tomorrow I will probably start removing the gas tank and all the ventilation ducting to get it ready for paint. The last main thing that needs to be done before i start prepping for paint is to fix some damage in the rear trunk . The fun just doesn't stop!

More Progress!

So at one time there was rust in the rear trunk and the PO decided to cut out a trunk floor from another car and weld/braze it over the rusted floor. So I cut out the top layer of the floor...
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What you're about to see hasn't been seen in many years.....













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Beautiful!
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Since the car was hit in the driver's side rear corner at some point, you can still see some of the damage. I will address this with the floor out.
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Most of the trunk floor out. This is as far as I got tonight with the floor.
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I also removed the windshield... without breaking it! The windshield is not in good shape so I will replace this after paint.
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Lot of progress has been going on

I got most of the rear trunk in. I reused the the floor that was welded in before but I fabricated the corner pieces . I won't finish the driver's side of the trunk until I repair the damage on that side.

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Today I started to address the damage in the rear. After stripping the rear fender of body filler, the rear half of the fender was obviously beaten back into shape and it was pretty mangled. So I decided to cut out and replace that part of the fender. This also allowed me to beat out some of the damage in the rear trunk.

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This is as far as I got for tonight. A little more trimming and it should be ready to weld into place.

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We're sort of going back in time. Yesterday I started out gutting and stripping the doors.

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Doug, great metal work!

I stripped the door of its layers and layers of paint
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And I started working with body filler
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After a sanded first coat...
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And after a few more layers, we are good to go I started to work on the other door but it needed a little more work so I put it off to the side.
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I also stripped the passenger side front fender, welded up the side marker holes and put on some filler. Its looking good!
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Stripping the other fender.
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Stripped passenger side fender with the filled in side marker holes

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And some filler. I sanded this down too but I forgot to take a picture.
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I also took out the gas tank and all ventilation ducting in the front trunk because I will be painting all those areas. No pictures of this either.

Things left to do:

-Weld up rear driver's side fender
-Weld up rear trunk floor
-Strip rear fenders, trunk lids, and engine lid
-Apply filler to remaining pieces
-Sand trunks

Doug great job.

What brand of body filler are you using? What grade sandpaper are you using to remove it? Are you removing it use air-powered tools or by hand?

--Rob

I'm using Evercoat products. I haven't used the Metal Glaze yet but I will after I get done applying the filler. I prepare the metal with 60 grit and then sand down with 60. I will probably step up to 120 before applying the glaze. Most of the sanding so far has been with a RO sander but I have used a long board sanding block in some areas. I should also mention that this is my first time dealing with with any sort of body filler or painting for that matter so I've been learning as I go.

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I finished welding up the rear fender today. I'm so glad I decided to replace this portion. I also stripped the rest of the fender.

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Gutted front trunk
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I also stripped the front hood
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And I mounted the hoot to make sure all gaps are good.
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I somehow roped a friend into coming over and giving me a hand. I let him strip the rear trunk lid.
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Almost done!
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Stripped the other fender too
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and started the body filler
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Only thing left to strip is the engine lid. Pretty much its all body work and sanding from now on.

Doug, how humbled I am after going through your thread. I was glad to meet you last night in person, if I had know you were a welding godess I would have plugged in my welder and found something for us to do. Great job, you would be a great instructor!

Thanks Chris! If you were going to put me to work, that would have required a longer joy ride around base! It was nice meeting you too. I made it home safely with the windshield around 2 am. I can't wait to get the car painted and install it.

Update: I don't have any new pictures of the progress I made but it involves lots and lots of sanding! I have a few small spots of filler left to do and then finish sanding the finishing putty. I'll try to snap some pictures this weekend.

More progress... I finished welding up the rear trunk and seam sealed it.

Before adding seam sealer (Sorry I don't have an after pic)
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I also sealed up the floor from underneath and welded on the heat shield.
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Here is the driver's side door after some filler and finishing putty. Click to view attachment

I also welded up the portion of the rear fender that I cut out to do rust repair.
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Some more filler...
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After I sand this down, this should be the last of the filler. Then I have to cover it in metal glaze. This fender still needs the most work compared to the rest of the car.
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The rest of the car has been covered with glaze and sanded. There are a few spots that need some more attention but nothing major.
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Found some more pictures

I welded a piece to finish off the front weather-strip channel.
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I also bought a like new windshield from Chris (SUNAB914) which will be installed after paint.
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Things that need to get done... Trunks need to be sanded, Engine lid needs to be sanded, Headlight covers need to be sanded, Underside of trunk lids need sanding, driver's side rear fender needs some more love, exterior of the car needs final sanding, and door jambs needs a little sanding. So pretty much just some more sanding and I'll be good to go. They are calling for 80's the end of this week so I'm hoping I can get this thing sprayed!