'73 Resto & Suby 6 Conversion, or a primer on "How to convert your 914 to a Subaru 3.0" Options

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What's it been? A year since I got Blackie running. I finally get it tuned to a daily driver status and should have been happy as a Lark then but what do I do? I sold the engine (w/90 hour's on the Hobbs) on the last Dawn Patrol GMR run. So I pulled the engine and began preparing Blackie for her transformation.


Before I go any further check out my Jack Stands. Min height 19.5", 12 ton and should hold up to a 6.7 quake or direct nuclear attack.


And out she comes.




One thing you have to love about these cars is that you can remove an interior in 15 minutes. 30 min's if you have a console. This was one shot before the interior is gutted.

and an hour later I'm scraping tar floorboards.

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Just got off the phone after discussing metal shrinkage with Ceasar (phatt911) and realized that this might be of some use to those considering a stiffner kit. As shown in an earlier pic, I measured the door gap at 3 equidistant locations on both doors prior to any welding on the long portions. I did NOT brace the door but did this instead. After leveling (and that is a trick) the car I would weld 3 spots (front, middle and rear to keep the weld spots spread out) on one side and then move to the other side and repeat. Never welding any area unless the metal was cool enough to place my dinkus upon. If additional time was needed I would do some grinding instead. After 6 or 8 welds on each side I would check the door gaps again. I welded all of the vertical spots (or sides) before doing the tops. The shrinkage that I experienced was .37mm after welding the sides. After welding the top portions the shrinkage increased to 1mm nominally. Or .63mm. Amazing! Half the area and half as many holes as the sides, yet twice the shrinkage. I had suspected this might be the case and had therefor left the top on during construction just in case. I think that bracing the door is the more prudent action but I like to test the water for myself from time to time and these are my results. Disclaimer: Your results will probably vary. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smoke.gif)