Richard's progress thread Options

[Richard Casto]

A little history first...

This is my third 914 and it will be a keeper. First two are from my college days in the late 1980's but both of those are gone (1st was totalled in a crash, the second had terminal rust and eventually became a parts car) Fast forward roughly 20 years. Got married, had two kids and I decided I could not continue to put off building my dream car. While I had always wanted an original 914/6, I also wanted a general purpose fun car (Street, Autocross and Track) that would have had more power and safety features than a stock 914/6. I can't afford to have multiple 914s (a stock 914/4, a 914/4 with a modern Type IV, a stock 914/6, a 914/6 GT Clone, a track only 914, etc.), so rather than molest a "real" 914/6 to build my dream "six", I decided to start with a regular 914/4 and do a six swap.

This car was purchased in 8/2005. Over the past two years I have disassembled the entire car and am now at the point of doing repair and refurbishment. Which is why I picked now as the time to do the progress thread (who wants to read about the dis-assembly of a car!)

Goals for the car...

• While I appreciate 914/6 GTs, I have no desire to spend the time and money to make this a "GT Clone".
• While I appreciate 914s that have SBC or Subaru engine swaps or even big modern Type IV engines, I wanted to keep the spirit of the 914/6 which means a Porsche flat six. I am looking for "safe" power and torque. So this excludes building up a wild 2.x engine. So I either going to do a 3.0 or 3.2 (90% sure it will be a 3.2).
• Again, with the spirit of building something like a 914/6, I will be doing a five lug conversion. I already have a complete front end including 3.5" struts.
• I will be using a 901 transmission in the near term and when I can afford it, I will be moving up to a 915 transmission.
• I don't think the wide body look works for every car and I tend to like the narrow body style better, but I am a big fan of plenty of rubber on a car. So I am doing steel flairs.
• I am not a huge fan of the 916 front and rear bumpers, so I am keeping the stock style front and rear bumpers.
• This will be used at track events, so I want a full cage. But at the same time I want to be able to put the top on the car. This is going to be a challenge as I am also 6'5". So getting me into a seat, with helmet on that fits under the top of the cage and with the top fitting is going to be a challenge.
• I really want to minimize how much I modify the body itself. I wanted mods to be "bolt on" vs. cut and weld. This is currently stopping me from doing a "GT Style" front oil cooler. I most likely will put a cooler in the rear with ducts and thermostat controlled fan. I know that in a way this is more complicated than the front cooler, but it is what I want. The only exceptions to this rule so far is the flairs and the installation of the cage. The flairs I think are in the spirit of the car as they are the steel repro of the factory flairs and the cage is a safety item. I haven't decided about things like cutting an access hole for the engine (set timing, etc.), mods to the floorboard to get the seat to fit as well as "stiffening" or "reinforcement" kits. I want this car to be SCCA SM2 legal for autocross. But I may just say "screw it" and do some of these factory stiffening kits even if it puts me into XP class.
• I want to keep the "bling" factor down on the car. So the interior and exterior will have a very "stock" look (no rear wings, etc.) I am also going to go with the factory color of "Irish Green" as you don't seem to see many in that color.
• Ideally I would like to refurbish or replace as much as I can as I reassemble the car, but due to funds, some stuff may be put back that I will replace at a later date. The dash cover is a simple example of this. Mine is cracked, but I may not be able to get it recovered until later.
• Do as much of the work myself as I can. For me the trip there is just as important as the destination. I want to know this car inside and out when I am done.
• I want to do any rust repair "the right way". What I mean by this is that I will only be in doing surgery on this car once. So if I see rust, I am going to fix it once and fix it right. And the resulting repair will hopefully look as close to factory original as I can make it.
• I would like to be done by the end of 2008. As with anything, time and money have a big impact on this.

I have my own website that contains a higher level of detail on specific sections of the car as well as a more detailed general Blog. I currently host this at home and sometimes the server is down, but it is up most of the time. You can find that here...

http://motorsport.zyyz.com/project_914.htm

[3d914]

Richard,

THis is awesome stuff. I have taken on a similar rebuild project, but have begun to cringe at the idea of digging into the Hell Hole!

I have a couple of questions . . .

1) Are there any cross-section drawings or photos that show the layers of metal for the rear passenger longs - near where the battery tray leaks?
Or do I just have to cut through one layer at a time?

2) You may have mentioned it in a previous posting (and if so point me to the page) - but what type & model of welder are you using (Mig, Tig, Flux)?

Thanks & keep up the great job!

[Richard Casto]

Richard,

THis is awesome stuff. I have taken on a similar rebuild project, but have begun to cringe at the idea of digging into the Hell Hole!

I have a couple of questions . . .

1) Are there any cross-section drawings or photos that show the layers of metal for the rear passenger longs - near where the battery tray leaks?
Or do I just have to cut through one layer at a time?

2) You may have mentioned it in a previous posting (and if so point me to the page) - but what type & model of welder are you using (Mig, Tig, Flux)?

Thanks & keep up the great job!

Hey don't be afraid. It is scary, but you will sleep better at night knowing it is done. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) I have felt depressed at times when it was all torn and cut apart, but now that it is going back together I feel much better. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/aktion035.gif)

Regarding question #1. Here are two good threads...

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=66790

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=66637

The first is AA showing a bunch of repro parts welded together. Look for the post #13 from McMark. He talks about how the repro parts are not 100% accurate in that the section below the battery on the inside is two layers. The inner layer has a corrogated shape (which the repro has as well). Then there is an outer skin that covers this. Both make a "C" shape and it is the outer skin that has the flang that is spot welded to the rest of the car.

In the second you can see some nice detail photos taken from where the jack receiver would be back into the inside of the hell hole. You can see the corrogated metal and how the "C" is built and how the corrogated part is not as wide as the rest. I have some similar photos in this thread and on my site, but I think these are a bit better than mine.

Regarding #2. I am using a basic 220V Lincoln MIG unit with non-flux .025 wire (using gas). Because this is thin metal welding so a 110V unit would be just fine. I really expensive unit with more flexability on settings would work even better (with regards to setting on the welder), but I think that successfully welding thin sheet metal is 90% technique. Just practice a lot and get used to what setting/technique work well for you. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/welder.gif)

Good luck on your car!

Richard