Starting a 1973 restoration, Restoring a left for dead $500 914... Options

[FourBlades]

Hello 914 World Members!

I am starting on restoring a $500 914 that was left in a field for several years with no windshield. The car belonged to the POs older brother and thus has sentimental value. The sold it to me on the condition that I not part it out. I was looking for a project so this was fine with me. This is my first restoration project so I figured I would learn a lot (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

The car is a mixture of really good sections, appears to have suffered no major accidents, is straight, never been repainted--but it has totally rusted out floors and hell hole. All the suspension mounting points are not rusted. The door gaps are all even and good. If I can replace the floors, I think it will be a good straight car. Many small parts were stolen while it was "stored" and the wiring loom is a complete loss.

Thanks for any comments...John

[FourBlades]

Fixing the driver's side jacking point. I cut off the lower part of the fender to be able to get to this area. I hated to do it, but it is really the only way to fix this right. I hope I can weld it back on without pretzeling my whole fender. Cut out all the rusted areas, and after much grinding, wire wheeling, and metal ready it looked like this.



Welded on some 16 gauge patches. I always coat the back of patches with high zinc weldable primer.



Welded a new jacking tube onto the patch and then welded a new jack plate over it. Welded a patch over the other hole. You can see some seam welded repairs at the top where I fixed some holes in the engine compartment above the long.



Ground as much as I could stand it and primed.



I have a new set of door sills to put on. AA is out of sill triangles or I would tackle this now. I could make some but I would rather just get the ones I already ordered than spend time on it.