I purchased my first 914 back in 1987 (1973 1.7L) and had that car for nearly a decade and I personally put over 100,000 miles on it before it ultimately fell victim to a negligent driver that drove into the back end of it at about 40 mph while the vehicle was stopped at a red light. That rear end crash totaled the vehicle but what is amazing is how well it crumpled (early crush zones!) due to the kink in the frame where the halfshafts are. Everyone walked away unharmed.

I replaced it with a 1991 Miata. Great car in its own right but I've always missed my 914.

Purchased this "replacement" in May 2018 as a known poster child for a complete right side longitudinal rustoration.

This vehicle had been put into storage inside a pole barn around 2004 as far as I can tell.

Vehicle initially purchased in non-running condition:
Engine couldn't be started.
Transmission shift linkage was disconnected
Half shafts and CV's were in pieces, and the wheel stubs were not installed therefore the vehicle couldn't even be rolled without risking having the rear wheel separate from within the bearing.
Fiberglass laid into the floorpan . . . that can't be a good sign.

Vehicle looks great . . . until I got under it.

I spent the better part of the summer putting the items above back together and trying to confirm that it would:
1) Run under its own power
2) Drive though the neighborhood and shift though all gears.

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Looks pretty nice eh?

Here is what is lurking underneath once the rockers came off.

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and when I started cutting back the rust. Oh my . . . .

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With a new found 914 where else would I go but to the interwebz and I promptly found 914World! Much nicer than the old school 914 newsletters I used to have to subscribe to.



Everything you could ever want to know about 914's at your fingertips all on one place. At least this internet is good for something.

Basic Plan:
1) Find someone that has done it before
2) Follow their advice

I eventually found Jeff Hail's post on Bringing Out the Dead. Wonderful stuff and top level craftsmanship. It is so rare in these days to find someone so willing to share his skill and knowledge. I spent many hours reading that thread and many others on the site and I finally settled on a course of action. . . . copy Jeff!

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=76791

Jeff's posts are so elegant and to the point. And to top it off he offered up a "blueprint" for his build cart.

So I copied it . . . ruthlessly . . . . down to the paint color. Yellow makes perfect sense to me. Leave it raw, and it rusts. Paint it black and you'll surely smack your head on it having not seen it out of the corner of your eye.

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Well you found the best place in the world for a 914 owner- The World is here to answer all of your 914 questions and to assist in locating all of those hard to find parts. Welcome and enjoy. Merry Christmas.

In the process, I also fabricated up some door braces mounting them on the inside of the cowl area to allow the doors to be kept in place to gauge door fits. The upper ties into the B=pillar seat belt attachment. The lower goes to the rear bulkhead.

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Additional rust excavation revealed that the fiberglass on the floor was a poor attempt to seal up the heavily rusted floorpan.

In the picture below you can see clear though the floor pan on the passenger side where it attaches to the longitudinal.

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At this point, it became clear that there would be more ordering of sheet metal than I had hoped for when I purchased the car. You know how this goes.

Hoping that maybe just a Engman or Restoration Design clamshell kit might be just enough to get er' back on the road for the summer and then come back at some point in the future to do it right. No such luck!



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This project started with a few goals in mind:

1) Save a 914 that otherwise might be a candidate for scrap despite how it looks from 20' away.

2) End up with a car of known pedigree. Going out and buying a $20K "rust free" 914 is no guarantee of getting a rust free car. As far as I'm concerned there really isn't such an animal. There are many nice cars out there. However, they all rust from the inside out. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to bag on anyone's car but I've been around 914's long enough to know they all have skeleton's in closet. For me, buying a known basket case is less traumatic than buying a $25K car and then finding out after the fact that someone creatively played a game of hide the rust.

3) Once I have a sound under body, then the possibilities are endless. Ultimately, I'd love to put a six in this car if I can ensure it is square and reasonably sound after fixing it.

Alright, so now is probably a good time to plug a couple of vendors. I've been away from 914's for the better part of 20 years. It is so nice to come back and find that the internet has led to a vibrant 914 supply base.

Automobile Atlanta - they have been there since the start and though all my ups and downs as an owner. Good to see that they are still around.

Restoration Design. I am honestly impressed with these guys. Not only are they putting out some quality Porsche restoration sheet metal products, but I have a real appreciation for the fact that these guys are real tool and die shop type guys. Love the fact that they are making new parts that weren't even available on my last go round. I'm impressed with everything I've ordered from them so far and the customer service is top notch!!

Tangerine Racing. Awesome engine lift attachment for floor jacks. Why didn't I think of this after years of dropping engines as they wobbled around on a 3" diameter jack pad? I'm ashamed of myself! And to top that off, they make the bobbin's to replace the rear trailing arm fasteners. Not only have I broken one off myself in my original car (lots of work getting that out), my "new" car came with one pre-broken! Sure I could make one on the lathe but for the price, I'll gladly pay Tangerine $30 bucks or so and get onto the bodywork that this car so desperately needs.

Good job guys! Keep up the great work and thanks for keeping the faith!

You obviously know how to weld and have the tools, so dig in and good luck! We'll be watching for progress reports.

So what are the skeletons on this car that I've found so far (other than rust!)?

3 coats of paint. Original is Alaska Blue Metallic. Two repaints in red. Currently done in BMW #138 Cinnabar

Car was the victim of an A/C install (DPD parts). I'm very torn on this. My original car didn't have A/C. I had many sweaty summer drives on hot black vinyl seats! Now that I'm older and have enjoyed the A/C on the Miata I think it might be nice. On the other hand, the install is pure butchery!

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I'm trying to figure out a better way to do this. Maybe route the A/C lines though the tunnel when I have the floor pan off? Maybe do clean bulkhead pass-thru's into the cabin instead of just cutting holes with a hole saw?

Same for the York compressor and need to cut the right side engine shelf! No way.
There must be a slick way to mount a smaller Sanden compressor and/or do a top side center mount such that the butchery can be avoided.

There must be a better way. I've been poking around for ideas but haven'f found the right solution yet.

How about this one? Mileage on the ODO is 60K (ish). Must be 160K.

Here is the clutch pedal pivot. That kind of wear simply doesn't happen in 60,000 miles.


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All new vintage vehicle acquisitions come with surprises.

a 45 year old vehicle has typically had unmentionable things done to it. I've seen a lot of shady repairs but this vehicle is providing some new stories.

For anyone that might be reading this . . . Please take this as a warning and as a plea, brazing is not to be done on structural elements like the suspension console. if the metal is too thin to weld to, replace it!

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There's a thread on here with a super-duper clean install of the AC in the stock cold air box. I know someone will be able to provide the link, hopefully soon. It is really an amazing build.

I have heard that you can use a setup like the smog pump pulley to run a modern compressor. Assuming it can hold enough power, that can give you room for the compressor without having to chop the heck out of the engine bay. You will still need to run the lines, though.

--DD

This was another favorite. Some sort of home made Wheel spacers were glued to the brake rotors.

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And to top that off, there was probably no more than 10mm of engaged thread on the lugs due to the added width of the spacers.

914's are already challenged with wheel balance since they are lug centric rather than hub centric. Adding in the imbalance of these wheel spaces must have resulted in "interesting" vibrations beyond 50-70 mph.

Luckily for me, my only "drive" so far has been limited to a 25 mph drive though the neighborhood once I got the engine running and the driveline back in operational order.

Unfortunately, that neighborhood drive also revealed a couple of brakes dragging pretty hard.

Also found the driver side suspension console to have some stress cracking that lead to the start of rust. Not entirely surprising now that I suspect the chassis has about 160K miles.


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Unfortunately, there is no aftermarket sheet metal to replace the left side. I had a nice e-mail exchange with Restoration Design. It sounds like they are considering tooling up the left side suspension console but that it will take some serious time.

I've got to believe that at this point in time, many other "rust free" high mileage 914's are beginning to show their age and have similar stress cracking on the left side. I'm hoping Restoration Design will eventually produce this part.

Until then, I'll repair and reinforce it. If you're in need of a left side console, I'd recommend that you reach out to Restoration Design to reinforce the market need for left side suspension console parts!.

All right, one last fun post for the evening.

I previously mentioned the fiberglass on the floorpan right?

Well, upon getting the right side longitudinal cut out

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and sectioning the floor, it seems that someone thought they were building a boat. I understand the idea behind using fiberglass to seal up the pinholes in the floor pan. I don't think 1/4" of mat and resin was really necessary.

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I really enjoy reading these kinds of brutal rustoration threads. Although I've been extremely fortunate that none of the 914s I've purchased were anywhere near this condition (being on the west coast), they did come with some minor age-related issues and/or PO hacks that needed to be dealt with. I'm OK with mechanical things like building motors, changing parts and repairing electrical systems, but I totally lack the welding, bodywork and painting skills some of you fellers have, and am in awe seeing the talent you guys display.

Subscribed to yet another success story in the making

That fiberglass added 40 lb's to the car. I always wonder why people want to dress up a basket case only to have the appearance of a nice care. Looks like she is in the road to a good recovery now. A while back we had a member who knowingly represented a "Polished Turd" as a jewel to an unsuspecting member. That went south in a hurry. Looking forward to following your build and .

Anyone crazy enough to save a rusted out basket case is my kind of guy. Jeff Hail's build has been a great guide for many of us. Looking forward to seeing more of this one.

Thank you for the kind words of encouragement! Will be trying to do some hardcore garage time between Christmas and New Years while I have some time off.

I'll put up some new posts in the coming days.

Overall pretty happy with progress so far.

Floor pan and Inner Longitudinal removed. Lots of drilling of spot welds! Used the demo saw to remove more of the passenger side floor.



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Then put passenger side door back on to gauge door fit. Overall I'm pretty happy. However, it seems the only way to get a decent fit is to shim the bottom hinge slightly (1 washer). I don't recall my old car having any door shims. However, it also seems odd that there is no way to "tilt" the door without using a shim.

Overall looks reasonable for a rough fit up but needs a little more tweaking.

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Also did some more removal of the rear frame & inner wheelhouse.

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I can see that drilling spot welds is really going to be a re-occurring theme.

I can't believe how many spot welds are on the outer suspension console for the trailing arm. This is in addition to some factory MIG welds.

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Pretty much the same story for the engine mount but with even more factory MIG along the outer perimeter.

Honestly, it took the better part of the day just to get these two pieces of sheetmetal freed up for recycling. Sure wish that new metal was available.

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Just about the time I was thinking I was doing OK for the day, I got a little surprise. Turns out that during the demo of the frame, the saw blade had banged the rear fender from the inside -- totally buggering the paint.

This was a bit of a let down. Since the paint on the car is in very nice shape I've been trying to avoid cutting out a piece of the rear fender to allow easy access to the frame / console area like so may others have done.

I thought I had been careful. Nope.

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I think I'll still try not to cut out this section of rear quarter. At this point it is still easier to do a small paint repair than to deal with cutting into the quarter and having to deal with the fiberglass flares. Welding on the sheetmetal with the fiberglass is going to be a big problem that will likely force me to remove a portion of the flare, weld, and then have to reinstall the flare. Not a fun prospect.

Worst case . . . . paint will be hard to match. I had hoped to contain the re-spray to the door jambs and the engine compartment.

At some point, assuming I'm happy with all this structural work, I had planned to strip all paint in the future (maybe next winter) and return the car to original blue.

I had long ago resolved to never again have a red sports car. Can't tell you how many thousands of dollars I've paid to the highway robbers over the last 40 years or so. I've never changed the speed I drive but I can say with a straight face that white Miata never attracted 1/2 the attention my red 914 did!

So after all that, I decided to take a look at how the rescued pieces will fit to the new sheet metal.

Gives me a good idea of what still needs to be trimmed & tweaked.

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It also gives he a bit of hope and chance to forget the paint fiasco.

Two steps forward, one step back but focus on the overall forward progress.

I also had a chance to check out some of the projects you guys have posted.

Bbrock's project is awesome! Gives me hope that this is indeed worth doing. Likewise, I've been able to find a bit more info on a center mount AC compressor that another member did. Same thing, makes me realize that it can be done.

Such a shame the 914 had a relatively short life cycle. Had the line continued, think of the improvements that could have been made.

I was very excited a few years back when Porsche hinted of a return of the 914 (OK it was more like a decade ago!). But like a lot of concept talk around the auto shows, it was just a bluff!.

Oh well, if Porsche won't do it, I guess I'll have to keep the old school metal on the road on my own!

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way to dive in...

Believe it or not, you can often fix a sagging door by just grabbing the rear bottom and reefing up on it. Alternatively, if you look carefully, you may find a slight bulge in hinge pillar at the upper hinge. Over the years, the metal seems to stretch there and cause the door to droop at the rear. So you can gently push that bulge back with a body hammer. I was surprised how a tiny adjustment fixed my drooping doors. I used a combo of the two methods to fix the droop and achieve the gaps I wanted fore and aft.

Nice work you are doing!

Tried that to a limited extent. However I pulled by back out really bad about a month ago so I wasn't in a hurry to overdo it! The "reefing method" is what used to get done in auto assembly plants to tweak door fits and window channel fits as recently as the late 90's. I might use a floor jack though if push comes to shove.

That was the 1st time for me with pulling my back like that and it was not fun and had me laid out for a couple days. I was trying to move my engine a bit without a dolly or hoist. Made the mistake of lifting and twisting at the same time. Used to be able to do that when I was 20. No so much anymore! Not only are the 914's older and in worse shape than I recall in the 80's -- so am I!

Oh man, I feel your pain. I was actually in my 20s, and it was the 80s) the first, and worst time I put my back out. Did if lifting a stainless steel pan that probably weighed all of two pounds and something I did hundreds of times each week for that job. But for some reason, my back went out and my knees just buckled. I had to chest crawl back to my office to call my wife. Then I had to somehow drive my 914 across town to where my wife worked so she could take me home. The only way I could operate the clutch was to put my foot on the peddle and then push my knee down with my hand. At least you were doing something manly and can blame age. I hope it heals quick.

So here is a fun picture of my original 914 back in the early 90's.

They say that a 2 seat sports car is of limited use. I beg to differ. My buddy and I ran a house painting business during my 1st summer of college. I learned two important things.

1) Don't show up to do estimates in a 914. I never got any of those jobs. Wasn't until I started using my buddy's Citation that we started booking jobs!

2) You make do with what you have. This was bout a 16' ladder. At one point I had a 40' ladder on it but never got a picture of that one!


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............I'm popped out just reading this thread

Everyone is pulling for this one to be saved. Nice job!

Getting back to work after a few days off.

Slow going lately. Still removing parts and cutting metal to get access to the Hell Hole areas.

Had to remove the trunk to get the old trunk hinges out. Of course that meant screwing around with the torsion bars which is always a smashed finger waiting to happen if not done properly.

Also a reminder that I need to move the battery to the frunk! Previously was crudely mounted in the trunk and taking up too much area in that already limited space. Plus I prefer the weight to go up front like I had it in my 1st 914.

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Previous paint job used bed liner type spay on material to hide a variety of repairs. I already know the rear trunk bottom edge has had the fiberglass treatment. Afraid to dig into that one this winter. Non structural and honestly, it is pretty inconspicuous at the moment. I don't see a way to repair this right now without ending up with even more paint work on my hands.

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The trunk hinges had to be pulled:
1) to make way for new sheetmetal to repair the AC butchery. Hole saw pass thru is absurd. I can't believe the sheetmetal isn't rusted around the edges of the holes and leading to even more decay. Finally, a blessing! That is the mystery of this car so far. . . . how is the underbody so gone but the upper is in decent shape?

2) Repair the trunk hinge brackets. Although not broken off they were welded in with snot welds and look like they will eventually break. Even if they don't break I don't want someone to think I welded them!.

3) Upon removal, I discovered that the proper hinge bolts are long gone. Replaced with a 10 mm threaded bolt that is enlarging the bracket hole each time the trunk is opened. So the bright side is that I found this out before they broke! New brackets will address #2.

I'm constantly amazed how poorly previous owners took care of maintenance and repair. I understand 914's not getting due respect but come on. . . .

Makes be a bit worried about getting to that engine and transmission. I already know there are a couple of dicey exhaust studs and the compression is lacking

Got around to cutting the firewall to gain access to the Hell Hole to install the wheelhouse inner. More spot welds and cutting.

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Spent the better part of two days getting this far. I think I was in for about 4 hours just to rough fit the inner frame rail. The way it fits up the the front of the trunk is tricky. Had to spend a lot of time reworking of the frame rail flanges to get it to fit right.

The one thing that bothers me is this frame section is corrugated. The original is two layers of steel. Inner is corrugated but the outer is smooth.

I think I'm probably going to have to fabricate a 0.030" (ish) outer layer to smooth out the appearance of this. Ideally, I'd like the rail to look OEM. May be too much work. Time to think that one over for a while. Open to suggestions if someone else has traveled this road.

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Lots of rough mock up to figure how how stuff will fit and what the best assembly sequence will be.

Discovered that the Restoration Design outer clam shell will need to cut into two pieces for my install. There is no way to weld on the upper portion without cutting off that rear fender so it will have to get welded to the wheelhouse section before that whole section is welded in. Also it needs to sandwich to the wheelhouse and the longitudinal which can't be done after the door jamb is finish welded.

Not a big deal but better to find it out now before welding starts!

Posted a video up on YouTube. Posted as much for myself as a reminder that it did run . . . and why I want to get it back on the road.

Shift linkage was out of adjustment and I had some trouble finding reverse and kept catching 2nd. That my story and I'm sticking to it.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ5_EblRToE

Deleted duplicate post - oops!

https://www.harborfreight.com/4-ton-heavy-d...-kit-62115.html

I used this tool to slightly stretch my very tight door gaps (and then I returned the tool for a refund after I got done )

Spent a bit of time getting the 914 clock working.

Was initially non-functional when I first applied power to it.

Took a bit of poking around on the various forums to try to figure it out. Estimate to repair was about $285 from Hollywood Speedometer. I'm sure they would do a great job but that isn't in the cards right now.

Although I was able to get it working, it sill isn't fit for use and the front plastic lens is scratched. Oh, and the inner bezel is painted red (as are all my other gauges) -- Oh, the things people do to these cars! so at some point in time it may go in for a professional repair.

In the meantime, the curiosity of how it works and the itch to repair it was killing me.

When I first got it, the factory seal on the back of the clock was still in place which was a good sign. That meant only the front of the clock had been opened up to paint the inner bezel. Looking at the outer bezel closely did show signs of this but overall, it was done reasonably well and carefully without mauling the bezel too much.

Opening the back reveled the internal thermal fuse was open.

However, I put a jumper across it, and the clock still wouldn't run. It didn't start ticking on its own. I did eventually find that if I put some light finger pressure on the main spring gear that it would tick. I figure this was due to a gummed up mechanism.

Flushed the mechanism with denatured alcohol.

Repaired the thermal fuse. This one is a bit tricky. The back of the case says to only use 120C low melt temp solder. I can't seem to find this at a resonable price. I think the only solder alloy close to that temp is Indium based and the only places I could find it were about $250 for about 10 grams of it.

I did finally find some commercially available solder with a 138C melt point at Micro Center. Close enough for Government work. Certainly better than 60/40 Tin/Lead electronics solder with a melt temp of 188C but I'd rather eventually fix this in the long term. Luckily I have a power supply that I can do current limiting on so no risk in the short term.

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https://www.mgchemicals.com/downloads/tds/tds-4902p.pdf

Powered it up and voila! Or so it seemed.

Although it would run it wasn't self winding properly.

This is the most ingenious thing about the clock. When a set of contacts close, a solenoid is actuated which winds the clock. As the solenoid reaches the end of travel, the inertia of the winder mechanism carries it just a bit further than the contact on the solenoid arm, and opens contacts, and shutting off the solenoid. All this happens in a fraction of a second.

So what was happening is that although the contacts appeared to be closed, there were ever so slightly shy and not making electrical contact. I suspect this is due to mechanical wear, arching, or maybe something has gotten bent over the years. I tired cleaning the contacts but no luck.

I found that by putting a small shim (tip of a small tie wrap!) on top of the solenoid arm, it added just enough preload to close the contacts and to allow the winding mechanism to operate on its own.

Video below is with the tie wrap tip, taped into place with a small bit of green masking tape.


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


If anyone has more information on these clocks or has a more successful long term repair idea, I'd love to hear it. Otherwise I may eventually use a bit of glue to hold the tie wrap in place until I decide if $285 to restore the clock is worth it. Not likely in the short term until I get this car back on the road . . . I already have a $15 clock in my garage that works!

Also, I've found that a 1/2 Amp fast blow fuse is adequate to protect the clock in the short therm. The solenoid measures about 9 ohms so maximum steady state current flow would be 1.33 Amps by Ohms law. However, a solenoid is an inductor and inherently limits current in-rush and its inductance will be much higher than 9 ohms. I could dig up the equation to figure out the instantaneous inductance but that is too much work when trial and error works as well. Anyway, when I use a 1/2 Amp fuse, I can see the filament "bend" as the mechanism closes and current flows heating the fuse wire. However before it can get hot enough to blow, the current stops. In the long term, this bending of the fuse filament will fatigue it but for now, it works fine to protect the clock.

Happy New Year! Thanks for posting your clock repair experience. My clock hasn't been plugged in for 35 years and I can't remember if it was even working back then, so I may have to reference this soon.

FYI, I had my local glass shop cut new glass lenses for my tach which had a plastic lens and it was a reasonable price. Lenses on my console gauges look good but I may eventually do the same for them. SEM Trim Black is a dead nuts match for the satin black used on the bezels. I resprayed both inner and outer bezels on my main instrument panel gauges and they look like new. Much cheaper than a full professional restoration at least.

I'm curious about the thermal fuse. Is there no way to replace with one with long leads attached so it could be soldered in with normal solder without melting the fuse? Having never seen inside one of these clocks, just wondering

Pelican forum has a picture that is not very clear - I'll try to post something a bit clearer in a day.

The bottom line is that the answer to the question is No. if the internal fuse is melted it needs to be re-soldered.

I've read of others just using normal solder and then putting the fuse external to the clock. Per my post, 1/2A fast blow would do the trick. However if the internal fuse melted (as mine was) it would need to be resoldered to get power to the solenoid. If you get closer to doing this, I'd be happy to walk you though it with better pictures or video.

https://cdn9.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/...repair/fig3.jpg

Is there enough room inside the housing to solder in a miniature fuse 'socket'? Then you can install a small replaceable 1/2 amp fuse without worrying about melting the element when it needs to be replaced. I've replaced mini-fuses in old VCRs and microwave ovens, they're something like 1/8" diameter x 1/2" in length ... (unfortunately, I forgot the size designation)

Littlefuse also has miniature ceramic fuses with axial leads that could be used if you heat-sink each lead while quickly soldering one in

https://www.littelfuse.com/products/fuses/a.../251/251_5.aspx

Just spotted this thread. Nice work! & Good luck.
Look forward to seeing your progress. Looks like you have a handle on it all.

Yeah, those are what I was thinking about too. Here's an example of what I was looking at: https://www.galco.com/buy/NTE-Electronics/N...ASABEgIvMvD_BwE

I suppose you could add in one of those miniature fuses but it wouldn't serve much of a purpose.

What maybe isn't clear is that the internal "fuse" is the dab of low melting temp solder itself. Tthere are basically two "eyelet" loops.

One is fixed firm to the solenoid. The other is "sprung" down from the rear of the clock. This is just a piece of spring steel that is copper plated.

The sprung eyelet portion is pulled down to the fixed one and then the solder is placed which holds the two pieces together.

If a short were to occur in the solenoid, or if the mechanism were to jam preventing the winding contacts from being opened after only momentary contact, the thin spring steel will heat up, melting the low temp solder and the "fuse" then springs open breaking the current flow.

Remember, the purpose of the fuse isn't to protect the clock, rather, it protects the car's wiring.

So if the internal fuse is already opened from whatever cause, the root cause needs to be fixed. In my case this was to flush the sticky internals with alcohol to free up the stuck rewind mechanism and the mainspring gearing.

In theory, if you either put the mini-fuse inside (maybe between the eyelets) or outside the clock, it wouldn't really matter. Just protect your vehicle wiring.

I looked at the spec's on the mini-fuses you linked to. Those take quite a while (up to minutes) to blow depending on size of the fuse. It would take some careful sizing to get the right fuse vs. time to melt it. I'd prefer to just go with a simple external 1/2 fast blow automotive glass fuse since I know this works to run the clock but would also be low enough amperage to blow well before melting the clock power feed if a short were to occur.

Attached is a closer view. Sorry for limited resolution. I can send high res photo via e-mail if that would help.

Yellow arrow points to the "sprung" eyelet. Red circle is around the two eyelets that are now soldered with the low temp solder.

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Great looking restoration!

Check out this page for rear suspension inner console reinforcement plates:

http://www.tangerineracing.com/chassis.htm

John

Thanks for the details on the clock. Makes sense now. I'm thinking maybe I should open mine to clean and relube before plugging it in as a preventative measure.

Happy to be of help!

I ordered some special watch oil that is supposed to be used to lube the clock jewel and other mechanical pivots. We'll see how that works!

I especially appreciate the tip on the trim spray and on getting glass cut - something will definitely have to be done to correct the red inner bezels!

I think I may try to polish out the plastic lens. If that doesn't work I'm going to try your glass tip.

Didn't get much done that looks impressive.

I did sandblast and prep the engine mount with POR Metal Prep.

Back side was pretty heavily pitted. It cleaned up but there is some metal loss.

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Does anyone have any tips on what to do with the heavily pitted material?

Front slide looks good.

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Seems like if I've gone to this trouble to do all this removal and salvage of the part, I'd rather know that there is enough material there for sure.

I think there is still enough base metal there to weld to but would feel better if I maybe doubled it from the front side?

Thank you -- Love Tangerine!! Bought a set but haven't had time to get to these yet.

Have not posted in a while but I've been working. Not terribly exciting visual progress.

At this point I'm basically struggling with too many degrees of freedom on placement of the inner wheel house panel.

I was finally able to settle on that and have since Cleco'd it into place after I was satisfied that the panel is in the right fore aft direction and also that the basis of the interface to the inner and outer longitudinal are at the right Z height and are basically level to the other driver side rail as a reference.

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Spent the last couple weekends on two tick points:
1) Jack post location & prep
2) Getting outer suspension trailing arm mount prepped

On the jack post front I ran into a interesting issue. Since I've been using Jeff Hail's Thread as the basis for getting me started and rationality checking what I do I found that the dimensions he had noted didn't match to my vehicle for the jack post location.

Jeff has kindly posted so much information and he's a much better artist than I will ever be. I think this one may have been a typo.

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Dimension of 43 1/4" didn't match my vehicle though all of Jeff's other measurements for things like the suspension console mounts did match exactly.

This lead to much double checking and trying to figure out if I was doing something wrong. Ultimately the measurements from my car need to be considered "master" for my project.

In my case my jack post needs to be at 47 1/4 inches as measured from the very front of the front fender lip that the outer rocker locates from. It was the same for the driver side on my car.

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I can't reiterate the importance of doing mock up work just to double check.

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In my case, installation of the outer rocker confirms that 47 1/4" is the right measurement for me.

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So satisfied that I had things in the right place, I've welded the jack post to the Wheelhouse panel.

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The trailing arm mount on my car came with one of the three bolts pre-broken and better yet, there were remnants of a broken EZ-OUT in inside the bolt hole. The only real way to fix this is to either use and EDM machine to burn the hardened extractor out (not possible on vehicle) or to replace it.

This lead to me ordering a bobbin from Tangerine (Did I mention they are a great vendor ).

First I cleaned up the other two holes with a tap and Proof Torqued the fasteners to make sure they were sound and would hold torque. It would be really crappy to find out later after welding the console mount that one was weak and would strip.

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Putting it in the new bobbin took a bit of time. However the one thing I can say with absolute certainty is that this was much easier to do on the bench. I wouldn't look forward to doing this under the vehicle

Started by removing the bad bobbin.

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The new bobbin is on the left.

Since my outer console mount had some metal loss on the floor of the mount, I decided to put in some new metal as reinforcement. Had to do a little pattern development.

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Welding in the reinforcement


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I also ran into a little problem where the new bobbin wasn't at quite the same height as the other two. It was maybe about 3/32" too low. I used the old trailing arm outer pivot to serve as a datum. By tightening the other two bolts first the third can then be pulled up to the right height. At that point I began tacking and final welding.

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I also predictably ran into some issues blowing holes into the thin pitted metal that was previously reinforced. Patience . . . and TIG welder really helps with this.

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All in all things turnd out to may satisfaction.

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Next step: Gotta get this located properly to the inner wheelhouse panel. In my case, since I didn't cut the outer quarter panel for access, it needs to be welded to the panel before I weld in the wheelhouse panel.

I drill two holes in the bottom of each jack point support to allow for better drainage.

Then a small dose of Eastwood's Internal Frame Coating can be sprayed in there to keep the inside surfaces protected.

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Thank you for confirmation others are doing this. I think this probably is the right thing to do. I was thinking of this when I was welding it up. the two options are keep water out which is near impossible or give it a way to drain. I will drill holes and coat the inside with paint before I do final assembly to the vehicle.

Having a rough go of getting the trailing arm mount positioned properly. I've been chasing measurements around the past couple of weekends. May be drifting into OCD territory on this but I'd really like to ensure the suspension mounts are located as exactly as possible.

Would appreciate any insight from others that may have fought this battle.

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Currently can get X/Y dimension correct but Z dimension is too low by 5-6 mm. Trying to force it up in Z results imparts a twist to the body at the rear locators of 4 mm. I'd rather not do that.

Due to the geometry of the frame rail, the X dimension and the Z dimension are interrelated. the dark blue line is where the mount wants to be if Z dimension is correct, the current (orange line) is where X/Y dimensions are correct. You can see the variability between them and how they are related by the angle of the frame.

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I've been using a trammel to measure the body locations but this measurement technique seems to have about 3mm of error on each end depending on how square the measurement point is to the trammel. This could account for up to 6mm of measurement error end to end.

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Ideally the trammel extensions should be kept as short as possible to minimize parallax error. However, that isn't possible given the need to clear the body cart and the difference in Z height between the front mounts and the rear trailing arm mount.
The error is actually much larger than 3mm unless I use a level to ensure that the trammel extensions are 90 degrees to the trammel bar.

I had loaned a laser plumb bob to a buddy for the last couple years to do a basement remodel. I've gotten that back and intend to remeasure everything today using the laser to drop the suspension locators to the floor and then measure that with a simple tape measure.

The laser plumb bob specs are +/- 3mm at a 15m on the laser projection upward and +/- 6mm at 15m on the downward projection. The downward projection is literally an inch off the floor so that error is negligible. Likewise, the up projection will only be less than 1 meter so again negligible. . . . . IN THEORY.

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We'll see how this works out today.

Also picked up some front brake calibers from PMB to address my old ones that were sticking during my October "test" drive.

This is always a tough call given that I'm a pretty cheap bastard. Rebuild myself and save money but takes time OR pay someone else $$ and save time. Right now my time is in shorter supply.

I've rebuilt 914 calipers before and quite frankly it is a bit of a pain. And even when I've done it they still end up looking ratty even though they are perfectly functional.

I've got to say that the work PMB does is top notch. Automotive jewelry !

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I intend to pick up some rears and to have my proportioning valve freshened by PMB as I can cash flow that in the coming months.