BUILD-OFF CHALLENGE: MichiganMat Options

[MichiganMat]

Hey er'body, Im MichiganMat from San Jose and Im building a 914.

Backstory:
This summer I had the pleasure of picking up a '75 914 chassis here in San Jose for a mere $300.
It came with with virtually nothing:
no driveline, no interior, no pedals, etc. Stripped, but solid, with minimal overhead and cost.
I've been building 911s for many years now and had an extra set of wheels and 911 front struts in my shed, so I thought hey, lets do this.
My brother and I are just finishing up putting an STi motor into our '67 912 too, so with that project wrapping up Im ready to jump into another.


The Plan:
Well, I got the car for cheap, and I've already got a perfectly good '75 911S to daily/rally/etc with, so the plan is to build a stripped down 914 racer for AX and track fun.
The car will be getting:
- Tangerine Racing rollcage, tied to 8pts, with nascar door-bars
- Rennspeed fiberglass body (fenders f&r, hood, trunk, and both bumpers)
- Mad Dog chassis reinforcement kit and hell-hole repair
- Resto-Design floorpans, seat areas dropped by 2", with custom tunnel
- Tilton pedals
- 5 lug conversion
- 16x7 Fuchs all the way around with 2nd option of 15x7ATE's with canti slicks
- /likely/ wrx drivetrain, but Im exploring my options...


Where sits today:
I picked up the car in May and I've since then I've put it on a home-built rotisserie, cut the pans, tunnel, trunk, headlight buckets, and front fenders out of it, and fixed the hell-hole area.
The pans were totally rotted, the battery tray was nonexistent, the fenders on all 4 corners had damage. Pretty easy to make the decision to start fresh, haha.
Today, most of the chassis kit is installed but I can't finish it until the roll-cage is put in. Tangerine is almost done with the cage so it'll be another week or so until I see it.
In the meantime, the plan is to clean up the wheel-wells, fix the rust in the longs, put in the trunk cross-sections, and primer the reinforcements.
Then I'll get to work on the tunnel, mod'ing the pans, installing the fiberglass, etc.


Anyways, hello, nice to meet you guys, and Im looking forward to the challenge!

[MichiganMat]

The next challenge: how to plumb the radiator.

Im struggling here. Im looking over the various approaches here on 914World.com and Im trying to reconcile longevity, complexity, and cost. The last time I built one of these systems I used all aluminum piping, not long runs of hose, and I built them into protected places that would never fail.

So our options are:
- under the floorpan
- along the rocker panels
- inside the longitudinals in the heater ducts
- inside the the cabin, either along the longs or down the middle of the center tunnel.

Materials:
- gold-stripe radiator hose
- aluminum tubing with silicone connections

I really don't feel comfortable running lines under the floorpan of the car where they can get hit or cut by road debris.
Id prefer to run along the rockers, but I don't see how to do cleanly.
I've seen many different methods of running hose inside the heater ducts of the longs, but that feels like too much hose over too long of a distance.
Id like to run mostly aluminum tubing, but I cant' see way to run it along the longs inside the cabin. The seatbelt mounts on the passenger on both sides will conflict.


So Im at a bit of an impasse here. Im even thinking of how to put the radiator not at the front of the car but back in the trunk or in the engine compartment (some builds have done that too!). I dunno, I just want to make it last, but the locations and materials are just not friendly at the moment.

There has to be a solution in there someplace...

[914forme]

The next challenge: how to plumb the radiator.

Im struggling here.

Id like to run mostly aluminum tubing, but I cant' see way to run it along the longs inside the cabin. The seatbelt mounts on the passenger on both sides will conflict.

Do it like a Buel, run it through the frames, Porsche also did the same thing on the 917. In your case, add some DOM and run it that way. More of a joke than a solution BTW, But I have thought about it.

One of the first documented sub conversion did it right down the tunnel with copper pipe.



Might not be the way you would go, but it has been done.

Here is what You have to look at.

What has been done. The Alien has racked up many miles, Rick used hard lines under the car.

Renegade Hybrids have racked up many a mile on their V8 conversions same idea, but they use green stripe under the car.

But I am with you, when I look at the floor pan, and the dents I have, I think Norfolkingwaypal, but proven designs are what they are. I have thought about moving everything under the car, fuel lines, brake lines, coolant, etc. Maybe add a couple of beams to make it a little more protected. None of my modern cars have any lines fuel, brake, or other lines on the inside. Only thing in the cabin are electrical harnesses.

Doubt I solved your problem. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/stirthepot.gif)