1974 Restortaion/Build Thread, Finally getting started Options

[9fourteen]

I have finally started to rebuild my 74 914. I got my garage setup, tools ready, just need to find the time now. I figured I would start a thread to keep track of progress. I bounce around between many projects and usually busy on other things so I expect this to take many years.

Paid $900 for it and drove it home. I drove it a few times before it developed a serious oil leak and has been sitting in the garage ever since. I am finding a lot of hidden rust on this car. Typical spots but a lot that has been hidden by previous repaints and repairs. Hell hole is shot, outer longs in bad shape, floor pan needs repair, etc. Like I said, typical 914 rot. I am a complete beginner at this so it will be a learning experience all the way. I plan on doing it all myself and getting in way over my head.

Here is a picture of the car as it was bought about 10 years ago.

[9fourteen]

I got it welded in. Not a perfect job but it works. Took forever to figure out how to weld that thin metal. blew a lot of holes. had to make some additional patch pieces, etc. After several hours of welding, grinding, rewelding, grinding some more I go it looking pretty good. I figured this was the best place to start since it will be covered with the bumper so if I made some mistakes learning it wouldn't matter so much.

The biggest thing I learned on the welding was to be patient. If you try to weld too much too fast you will blow a hole. Skip, tack welds was the trick. Also I was welding with too thick of wire. I was using .030 wire and switched to .023. that made a huge improvement. I also manually adjusted my Miller welder instead of using the auto set settings. That got me better results. I was very frustrated at first but once I got the welder dialed in, right wire, right technique I started to really enjoy it.