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]

One more major longitudinal problem to fix. Made a home brewed "lower inner long patch" out of 16 guage steel. I say lower because mine wrap around the lower part of the long, unlike the Engman and other long kits that wrap around the upper part. This works because I have no floors on my car. I realize this will lower my floors by one fourteenth (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) of an inch.

There are some waves in the lower side of the longs that fit the factory floor pan edge. I will have to flatten my floor pans in these areas to fit the now flat bottom of my longs. We'll see if this is a big problem or not pretty soon. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

I can also add an upper long kit cut off half way down to meet with my lower kit later if I want to.



Welded it on. The weird shape allows it to fit around the firewall and the heater tube. I welded it to the heater tube pretty solidly. You can also see some patches I made to my firewall. The entire firewall and engine bay is pretty much done at this point. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)