Peter's Progress Options

[pjf]

Hi All. I've been around for awhile and even made a few posts but I finally got around to starting this restoration thread. My only claim to fame I would say is I was the guy who loaned Willam Harris some beat up steel wheels to finish his paint job. Still don't know why he returned them in favor of his pristine Fuchs.... Anyway, more years back than I'd care to admit I got the idea to restore a 914 and convert it to electric. I've worked on cars on an off and even graduated from the Somerville High Adult Ed Welding Night Course so I figured I'd go for it. A fairly ignorant Ebay winning bid later and I found myself the owner of a 76 from Texas. When the owner said that the right side door had a "latch problem" and the door wouldn't open I figured simple door repair, right? This was before discovering 914World and all the great information here. Things like don't buy 914s that have doors that don't open and don’t get POR-15 on your hootus. The thread by Michelko particularly inspired me to tackle the right side long. You guys are great and I want to thank everyone for their very helpful posts. (I got a “rebate” from the seller by the way).

Anyway here’s the car stripped down. As you can see space is no problem.

[pjf]

Advice well taken. I have to admit looking back at my photos that there are some pretty high welds in there. Whenever possible I check the backside of a weld for evidence that I got the penetration I know I have to have for the weld to be worth anything. With these rosette welds I try to burn in the center as much as possible for penetration but with old metal underneath blowing through is always a problem and you can't use as much heat as you'd like. With the welds at the rear end of the long overlay this was particularly a problem. This meant less heat and more buildup than I wanted. Before the buildup though I tried to apply as much heat as possible without blowing through. Its a balancing act. Hopefully there are enough redundant welds (repaired long then overlay) and they are of sufficient quality that there is a good amount of strength in this critical area. Needless to say I'm going to have my fingers crossed when I drive over my first section of rough road!