BUILD-OFF CHALLENGE: New 914 owner...what have I gone and done! Options

[Darren C]

Hi everyone,

I have been looking for a 914 on and off for a couple of years now and late one evening I bid on ebay for a car in Desert Hot Springs CA. A real leap of faith for me as I live in Chichester UK!
My first car was a VW Beetle and I’ve owned quite a few air cooled VWs and always wanted a 914, so now almost 25 years later I finally took the plunge and with sweat on my brow placed a last minute bid on ebay on a car I’d only seen in 4 small photo’s on line.
To my surprise I won the 914.
Problem was it lay 8000 miles away from me here in UK. I got hold of the sellers phone number and gave them a call. The car is a 1974 2.0L one owner from new sold in Palm Springs 914. The seller was the owners daughter. The gentleman passed away several years ago and she’d had it parked up on her driveway for 5 or 6 years. From the description in the listing it had a Salvage title due to sand storm damage on the paintwork. It looked reasonably solid in the few pictures I saw, but very sorry for itself with flat tires and bad paint. It was a gamble, but sometimes these things pay off.
I got the car picked up by a shipping agent and taken to Long Beach for shipping.

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2 months later it arrived in Southampton UK

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Last week I went down to Southampton and collected my new project just in time for Christmas.
I was recommended this site from another 914 owner and it's a great relief to find such a large active community. 914's were never sold in the UK, so all are personal imports and a rare thing to see on our roads.
I’m pleased to now join you guy’s and post my restoration progress in getting this little car back on the road.

Regards
Darren

[Darren C]

Build- Off Month 5

Day 121

Today early doors I wrapped up and placed in safe storage the recently painted parts and requested the measurements for fitting the Porsche engine mesh script. Auto Atlanta said the purchase came with a template, but the box only had the letters, no template?
At lunchtime I visited a local hardware store and purchased some white masonry paint and some grey garage floor paint ready to spruce up my new 914 home. On the way back to work I picked up a few M6 socket head bolts for the door interior handles as my car had a right old mix of fixings that weren’t right.
After work this evening it was unfortunately food shop & washing night so I got home a little later than normal.
I still managed to get an hour and a half in the new rented garage, dragging out old lino and carpet, bits of wood, bricks, old curtain rails and general junk that had been left in there by the previous tenant. The floor had at least two bags of builders sand spread over it to presumably soak up a massive oil leak from a car. Really nice of them to leave it in such an awful state and then let it out like that telling me it was all ready to move in. I had to take my wheel barrow around with a shovel to clear it out and now I have a wheel barrow full of oily sand that’s my responsibility to have to take down the tip.
“Sand why did it have to be sand?” (He says in an Indiana Jones snake homage kinda way)
Finally I gave the ceiling a brush down to clear some monster spiders and webs away before it got too dark to see.
The plan this weekend is to thoroughly clean it out and paint it. This will give a good month for the floor paint to harden before the car comes home and make a nice environment to re assemble everything in.

Day 122

Today I have mostly been…..

Working on the new 914 rented garage.

Sanding down the roof steels from yesterdays wire brush, they got a nice fresh coat of red oxide. They were really very rusty and flaky and I certainly wouldn’t of wanted a car sat under them like that.
After more spider eviction and brushing down I mixed up some sand & cement and went around the base of all the walls, filled and pointed all the gaps flush to the floor.
After getting the oily sand up yesterday I cleaned the floor with cellulose thinners and wire brushes to work it out and mopping it up with rags. I did this about 3 times during the day until most of it was gone.
Next I started cutting in all around the walls and crevices with the white masonry paint. If any of you have tried painting the inside of a concrete slab garage you’ll know its like trying to paint a very absorbent Swiss cheese. Bloomin hard going trying to work the paint into all the nooks and crannies; seems to go no where.
Anyways after 12 hours in there today I’ll be ready to get the paint roller out in the morning and paint the bulk of the flat area of the walls.
This evening I received an email reply from Auto Atlanta with the measurements for the engine lid PORSCHE script, hopefully tomorrow while the garage paint dries I’ll get a look at them.

Day 123

Today I got up at dawn and walked over to the 914 rented garage in the rain. The good news is that it was at least dry inside. This was the first day of rain since drawing the key so I had no idea what I’d find.
I continued to paint the inside walls with a roller today having used a brush yesterday to get into all the fiddly bits and edges. As predicted the wall soaked it up straight away. It will need a second coat tomorrow but it’s getting there now.
The garage internally is just over 15 feet long and 7 feet 6” wide but has no power or lighting. Beggars can’t be choosers and it’s a dry home for the 914 if a little small to carryout a full rebuild in!

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After finishing with the roller & tray I took it home and washed it out and made breakfast.
The rain stopped by 8:30 so I finished my breakfast cuppa and went back to sort out some roof gardening.

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Full maintenance rental agreement??? It must have taken a couple of years to grow a jungle like this on the roof. I started by hacking off what I could reach but soon realised that with a non-load bearing roof this was going to be a nightmare to sort out. In the end all I could do was gaffa tape a rake on to a broom handle to get twice the reach and drag and push the growth from over my garage. They’ve let it get so bad that only with a powered cherry picker will you get at it properly now. Anyhow I took a load of photo’s so I’ll be raising a maintenance request on Tuesday. In the meantime I spent all morning trying to hack it out the way.
While I was up there on my ladder I saw that the very deep wide gutters were absolutely chocked with mud and weeds. I spent another two hours digging out the gutter over the front of my garage and half over the garages each side. What a nightmare job, ¾ of the gutter is under the roof sheet so you can only reach in part way. You can just get your hand in, but make a fist holding dirt and you can’t get your hand out. It was 5” deep so I doubt it had ever been cleaned in the life of the garages. Anyway I got my bit clear and revealed for the first time in many years the top of two down pipes either side of me.

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It was mid afternoon now and walking back home with my ladder I went to put it in my shed and the painted render on the side of my house caught my eye. For a while now I’ve been meaning to strip off the flaky bits for a repaint but have never gotten around to it, so with a ladder in my hand and a scraper from cleaning the gutters in another it was silly not too. So I found myself up a ladder another couple of hours scraping the house. But it didn’t end there…..I saw some moss on my conservatory while on the ladder so I ended up cleaning the conservatory roof until I could barely walk. Trainers and ladder rungs are not a good combination and I only stopped doing more from the aches and pains.
Clothes into the washing machine and a quick bath, I then started on the engine lid PORSCHE script. Auto Atlanta sent an installation guide with measurements on it but to be fair it was pretty useless. Very vague and without a clue of where to take measurements from. End of letter? Start of letter? Middle of letter? It just didn’t show you anything worth while. I’d done a google search and looked through several forums late last night and found a much better guide.
With these measurements in hand I set about laying out and marking up. I used some masking tape (as its easy to write on) and set a strip parallel to the front of the grille at 81mm down. The mesh is formed evenly in line with the front edge so a good check was to make sure the tape cut the diamond holes in the same place all the way across.
Next I used the measurements found on line and marked them out from left side to right. Starting as follows. P 53mm O 222mm R 391mm S 560mm C 729mm H 898mm E 1067mm.
This is the distance from the left side of the grille to the start of the letter. The 81mm is the distance from the front of the grille to the top of the letter.
Now that’s all fine and dandy in theory but the letters have pins on the back that have to fit through the mesh and you just cant get it exact as the pins throw you off course.
That said I did a dry run and got them all within about 4mm which is not bad considering. Some were spot on and the others you just have to get as close as possible. I found that if you got the distance right the letters sat high or low off the tape and looked awful. It was better to get them spot on the 81mm tape line and accept a couple of mm out on the spacing.
The letters came with mastic filled genuine Porsche trim nuts. Now…the letters are plastic so I used an 8mm socket and extension bar, but NO RATCHET. I just tightened them VERY gently until the letter stopped wobbling by hand. In this way none of the plastic pins sheared off. Result!

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Day 124

Another very busy day. Up at dawn to give another coat of white paint to the garage walls with roller and cut in all edges a second coat with brush.
Late breakfast at 9am followed by visit to the hardware store to get some timber. Mid morning until late afternoon stripping down garden fence to replace rotten post that had broken in the tail end of a storm coming across the Atlantic from the USA. (thanks guy’s) It’s a proper made fence with feather board and arris rails, so every board had to be gently pried off and all the nails knocked out, old post out, new arris rails cut in and jointed new post in and all back together. I had to replace 9m of rotten arris rails so it was a bit of a task to do in a single day but by working like a madman and missing lunch I got it sorted with just one featherboard casualty.
Just need to paint it all again now, so if the weather stays dry I can do it this week in a few mornings before work.
I then went back to the 914 garage (walls now dry) and put a second red oxide coat on the roof steels and neatened up the edges where it meets the white walls. (A bit of paint therapy to chill out with after the fence)
Next I swept and swept and swept the floor ready for floor paint.
Cutting in all around the edges first with a brush to get a neat line, then finishing off with a roller. Floor all painted it was just starting to get dark, so back home to clean up.
Dinner in the oven I decided to strip the beds and do a couple of washes, sheets then working clothes. As I made my pack up lunch for tomorrow it started to rain (yet again!!) and I heard a drip, drip, drip from the conservatory!
Hey ho, ladder out again and stripped the UPVC trim from the underside of the roof frame to see where it was getting in. Looks to be on the apex somewhere, so all I could do was put a bucket under it tonight as it was too dark and wet this evening to do any more. Besides it’ll be light about 5:20 tomorrow so I’ll take a look before work. I ve now got an interesting evening ahead sorting out paperwork for my tax return (a task I really hate) so another late night to come.
But at least this weekends efforts have made a nice home for the 914.

Day 125

This morning I got up before dawn with the intention of looking at the conservatory roof, but unfortunately it was very wet & windy so I delayed the investigation. Strangely it had stopped leaking and the rain was far worse??? Don’t you hate it when things like that happen!
Anyway so as not to waste the morning I decided to put another coat of paint on the garage floor before work. Looks quite good now with two coats on everything (I even washed the inside of the door down) and a much nicer place for the 914 straight out of the paintshop in 4 weeks time.

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Lunchtime was written off today as I had to go see my accountant to drop off last nights homework for the dreaded tax return, so this afternoon I was itching to get home and start on more 914 car parts.
First job tonight was to put all the internal trims back on the inside of the conservatory roof. Bucket was bone dry despite raining until noon.
I then started on the door glass runners (the metal bits) The front was carefully cleaned as its anodised ali and anything abrasive would damage the anodised protection. Soap & water on a sponge and a bit of Cif cream on the stubborn bits, plus tooth brushes to scrub out the window channels once the old brittle trim was pulled out. Next a brass bristle brush of the bracket at the bottom and the one half way up to remove sand and grime. Quick rinse off and left to dry out side on a very windy evening. I then did the same on the rear steel channels which are BZP coated gold colour. Fortunately most of the gold finish is still there and with a good clean they came up really well. Looking only a few years old not 41 years old. Finally I used a little white spirit to clear a bit of impact glue residue from all the channels.
Next I used my tap & die set to clean up the threads on the bottom adjuster (the one with the slotted head & collar). The 4 cross head M6 bolts that hold the rear channel in from underneath also got a good brass wire brushing as did all the washers before a final coat of all fixings and adjusters in waxoil.
I’ll coat the rear steel runners and the 2 brackets on each front runner tomorrow when they’ve had a good 24 hrs to dry having been submerged in a bucket of hot water.

Day 126

This morning I got up a ladder and sorted out the leaky conservatory roof before work. Bloomin moss that I’d scraped off last week had found its way into a narrow channel in the aluminium extrusion and caused water to back up. Well that’s what it did with a watering can so a quick poke with a screwdriver and it was clear.

This lunchtime at work I ordered a spray can and a tin of brush on high temp impact adhesive from Woolies a UK car restorers Aladins Cave type store.. Hopefully be with me tomorrow ahead of the grand assembly.
I’d been meaning to call into the paint shop to catch up with the prep work and helped them strip off yet more paint.

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Between us we’ve got about 80% of the paint off the car now. Too many previous dodgy peeling paint jobs to just paint on top of it yet again. It had to be done properly. I spent a good while looking it over and to be fair it was nice to see absolutely no rust. Just a few old knocks and scrapes from general carpark damage (doors opened onto it and all that) They’d started to fill a few tiny dents in the rear quarters and despite my best efforts on welding in the front side marker blanks there was a tiny bit of distortion that required the smallest amount of filler there. Inevitable really unless you could get the wing off and roll it properly. But all in all I’m very happy with how it looks and amazed at the condition for a 41 year old car, its very straight under all that nasty paint.
There’s a bit more paint to get off the valances, in the nooks & crannies and A pillar (where the door hinges go) but after that it’s pretty much ready for primer. Besides you can't leave it too long in bare metal before oxidisation begins.
For this reason Stuart primed the bonnet, boot, engine lid, doors and pop up headlight covers yesterday afternoon. These were all stripped down to bare metal on both sides before primer went on. They’ve taken photos for me and I’ll get copies at the end of the job.
I went into the booth and checked out the removed and freshly painted panels.

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Once the main outer body of the car is primed and no ticking clock on it going rusty they tell me they can concentrate on prepping the inside of the bonnet and boot. I’d maybe have done that first but they assure me that it will be top coated and lacquered in the bonnet and boot first, allowed to dry, masked up then the outside done in colour. In this way they say no unwanted, unavoidable dry overspray when painting the car as a whole would build in the bonnet and boot. This should give a much glossier better finish in the bonnet and boot than the factory finish where the shell was painted whole. They can also concentrate more on the internal area’s which normally people wouldn’t take notice or care with. Sounds like a good plan to me!

So after work tonight I was spurred on to work on a few more parts. I finished the door glass runners. Steel BZP ones got a coat of waxoil (externally only, not where the rubber channel goes as I plan to glue that in) and the Aluminium ones got the steel brackets waxoiled too. Next I bagged up the fixings for them and moved them to a safe place to dry.
I then started on the body shell aluminium trim strips that hold the weather seals for the door glass. A pillar & Roll bar located. They had that bloomin awful caulking all over them so I had to scrape it off first. I used half a cloths peg (the one with a metal spring that you can take apart easily) Since the trim is Aluminium and anodised I didn’t want to scratch it. The half a wooden peg worked a treat. Again another wash in white spirit with an old toothbrush and they came up spotless. The rubber seals slide into them with a T shape moulding, it looks like at the factory some one bashed the T slot closed in the trim with a glorified screwdriver or similar to “clamp” the seal. Not sure if this is factory or over enthusiastic PO, but one things for sure, it’ll all need opening back up to slide a new seal in easily. Fortunately its only bashed in on the edge of the T slot facing into the car so it won’t be seen behind the seal. Running out of light and needing dinner I called it a night.
Something to sleep on and in the morning I’ll have devised a method of getting the crushed trim back to shape.

Day 127

Today I cut up some steel plate before breakfast to fit inside the aluminium trims (about the same size as the rubber T).
When I got home this evening with the aid of pliers, cold chisel, mole grips, hammer and the metal insert I set about getting the cripped sections of the trim straight again to accept the new rubber.
What a job that was, they had really stretched and cut the metal by crushing it. I got all the crimps out and plan to “lightly” crimp the new seals in so that hopefully in another 40 years they won’t cause too much grief.
Finally I cleaned up all 4 pieces with a light brasso. Not too aggressive as it would risk cutting through the anodised coating, but just enough to clear the water stains and limescale off them.
Placing them carefully back into my storage shed I next took out the set of trims that go over and around the Roll bar vinyl. The two small top pieces have old double sided tape underneath that seemed very stubborn to remove, so as not to risk damage I dropped them in the faithful white spirit ice cream tub to dissolve the glue over night.
I then took a look at the very thin trims that fit along the bottom of the sail vinyl and noticed one side had 4 clips the other had 3 and out of those 3 were damaged. I tracked down the part number tonight and it looks like they are widely available at the usual US vendors and some refer to source as Porsche, so armed with the clip part number (which also refers to early 911 door trim clips) I’ll check Porsche Centre Portsmouth tomorrow.

Day 128

This morning I took the two roll bar ali trim strips out of soak and scraped off the old double sided tape. The adhesive was still stubborn, but the thin foam of the tape came off, so back into soak.
Today at lunch I contacted Porsche Centre and the clips for the lower sail trim were still available and they said they could get some in for tomorrow morning.
I also had a card in the post for a parcel to collect yesterday so on the way home tonight I had a 25 mile trip to the Post Office depo to pick it up. It was my fuse box cover and the 4 “obsolete” rubber stops that cross referenced to a new number 2 for limiting the engine lid hinges when opening and 2 that cushion the front valance. Result!
I also called in to the blasters and powder coaters and picked up the license plate mounting brackets and the two brackets that fit behind the bumper. All looking like new.
Friday again (where did that week go) and food shop night, so after running around picking stuff up, it was quite late when I got home tonight. Determined to get some thing done I washed and cleaned up the rear roll bar trim that goes over the top of the rear window facing rearwards. It was full of sand inside as are all the ali trim pieces. After a final light polish I noticed that the roof must have rubbed/vibrated on it over the years and its worn a nice line through the anodising finish. Not certain anything can be done now, but with a polish it shines the bare aluminium to match the anodising so it’s lost to the eye. However I do know that now I know its marked I may have to change it as it’ll be sure to bug me.
Finally tonight I’m trying to track down a supplier of Perlon by the metre on line, but drawn a blank so far. Perlon is the trade name of the bonnet/boot carpet and targa headliner material, it comes in charcoal (what Porsche use) platinum, cinder & black.

Day 129

Today I got up early and sorted out the two trims in soak, got the glue off the back and polished them up. They have rubbing damage like the rear trim from the Targa top, but only visible under scrutiny so for now they are wish list replacement, not essentials.
After breakfast I started on the other Sail roll bar surround ali trims. The two wide curved rear trims have a square plate with M5 stud at the base. This was held in with a big glob of caulking which I picked at until it was out so that the two fixings could be removed, along with the now compulsory filling of sand. These then had a Cif cream neat soak while I cleaned up and headed for Porsche Centre to pick up the trim clips.
They had just opened when I arrived and were preparing for an open day. I collected the trim clips and got an invite to return later this afternoon.
Returned home and checked the clips, perfect.
Phoned Southbound Trimmers and they can supply the Perlon by the metre. The roll is 1.5m so a metre gives you 1.5 x 1 for £16. Result. That’s the new headliner sorted.
Afterwards I gave the Cif soaked parts from earlier a toothbrushing inside and out before a light brasso to remove old calcium water stains. They came up well, a few old light scratches, but nothing bad.
Next I had dropped the square plate M5 fixings in the white spirit before going to Porsche Centre, so took them out brushed them clean and a quick coat of waxoil to finish. They were still nice shiny gold BZP not a spot of galvanic corrosion which was very surprising considering them sitting against aluminium all these years.
The lower small trims along the bottom of the vinyl were next to be cleaned up. Same process as above but I was annoyed to find a layer of paint on the underside. Real lazy nasty respray the car must have had! Suffice to say that I had to clear it all off.
I was about to continue when I heard the unmistakeable sound of a flat six arriving. My friend Charles had popped over with his son in their very, very nice early 911. After a short chat we went off to the open day for a couple of hours. I have to say the 911 sounds awesome and rides superb. What a treat that was. Thanks Charles.
So back to the grind. The two inner door top weather strips were next. I pulled out the rotten “fuzzy” seal and started to clean up the aluminium strips. These again were absolutely thick in paint where the car had been resprayed. It took me a good hour on each as I ended up using paint stripper on them in the end. Came up ok after all the effort and a finished polish with brasso again brought them back from the dead.
With the brasso still out I gave the two plastic covers from the headlight motor linkages a good polish. They were dirty, faded, dry looking and brasso did the trick in reviving them to a very glossy black.
Putting them back into storage I took out the black plastic surrounds from the headlight pods (that fit around the light itself). These too had plenty of paint overspray on them so had to be very, very carefully cleaned with cellulose thinners as and stripper would damage the plastic. The sides are smooth so it came of relatively easy, the front face however is textured which was a real pain to scrub old paint off. Again perseverance prevailed and after another hour on them the paint was gone.

Day 130

This morning I finished off the ali trims that hold the door window weatherseal and the fuzzy strip that goes along the top of the door.
New fuzzy strips from 914 rubber to replace the original rotten ones. Slide straight in the slot and then gently pinched the metal to hold it in place.
The strips are held on with 3 cross head screws so I predrilled the fuzzy from the back through the original holes. Since the fuzzy has a metal insert and the screws are countersunk I didn’t want the heads to scratch the glass so using a 2mm shim plate in the fixing channel to stop me crushing it, I used a large centre punch to “stamp” a nice countersink for the screw heads in the new strip.
Next I sorted out the new runner fuzzies. The front large ones that sit in the polished ali quarterlight runner had to neatly seat against the top rubber end cap (cut squarely). I’d taken all this apart previously to clean it so un packed the end caps and temporarily refitted them to allow me to get the fuzzy in the right place. The new ones from 914 rubber are lovely and soft unlike my brittle baked old ones. For this reason I decided to use a little high temp impact glue along the base of the channel to stop them moving when the windows are wound up and down.
I also did the same with the rear BZP runner Fuzzies

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Using a small ¼” brush I applied the glue, let it cure then carefully inserted the fuzzies. Top tip was to locate the seals at the top of the runners (without glue first) then glue from the first 2” downwards.

Finally the other ends were trimmed to length in situ when the glue was dry.

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Again I was really pleased how good the original zinc plate is on the runners. Usually because they sit inside the door they rot out until the ends fall off and the windows get dislocated or jam. I’m amazed at the condition of these sort of pieces.
Hopefully with everything refurbished the windows should open and close effortlessly.

That’s about it for today as I had my son all day, first driving lesson (white knuckle ride for me, but he did very well for a first attempt), cinema, Mcdonalds, shopping in town but still found a couple of hours for the 914!

Day 131

Today I ordered some more of the trim clips I picked up on Saturday from Porsche.
Each trim has 4 clips and I had planned on re-using some of the old un-broken ones. However when cleaning them they just fell apart with age so I needed a few more. All new is the way to go in this case.
I visited the paint factors at lunchtime and ordered in some new caulking ready to put things back on the car. I was quite surprised when the old boy in there told me that I was the first to ask in 10 years for caulking! Apparently with the advent of cartridge sealants no one uses it any more in the trade. Unfortunately nothing comes close to it so as a traditionalist I’ll stick with what I know and is period for the car. He was quite pleased to have the opportunity to order it in for me.
On the way home this evening I called in at the paintshop to select the satin finish from the test cards for the bumpers. I also measured up the Targa roof for the Perlon headliner while I was there.
Tonight I started on a bags of fixings I’d taken off the car for the bumpers and sill trims, carefully inspecting all threads, clips & nuts, then splitting them into clean or replace piles. The “replace” I first went through my shed to match up what fixings I already have and reduced it to a very small list of 4 items. I then turned my attention to the cleaning up the remaining fixings. Some are quite specific to the car and so I took great care in cleaning and preserving.
After a few hours I was ready to waxoil or paint. Even the tiny speed nuts that hold the chrome grille surrounds for the fog lights got a sand, wire brush and paint satin black.

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Finally I sorted out the rear bumper tow eye plug. It had been painted into the bumper (lazy or what?) and was thick in ripple stoneguard. This got cleaned off to discover sanding marks in the plastic. Can you believe the monkey’s who painted the rear bumper, instead of popping the plug out, just sanded over it and painted it in situ!
Anyhow to recover the situation I used various grades of wet and dry getting progressively finer with brasso to lubricate until the surface was polished free of all scratches and shiny, shiny like new.

Day 132

The Cleanathon continues!

This evening I started on the rubber dog bones, the buffers (two taper slabs that sit behind the front bumper) and some remaining lower body fixings that I kept when taking the bumpers and sill panels off.
The dog bones have metal tube sleeves through them which I pushed out (they are quite loose) so that they could be wire brushed, sanded and cleaned up before a light coating of waterproof grease to stop them going rusty. The rubber parts got a good scrub with Cif & hot water to clear off the sand and dirt. Left to dry and then finished off with a cellulose thinners wipe (constantly moving to a clean bit of rag each wipe) to bring them up nice and black like new. Finally the cleaned and greased tube sleeves were put back in before bagging up into storage.
The taper blocks had the same treatment to get them looking good too.
Next I concentrated on the two rear numberplate lights. Again full of sand and dirt I took them out of the rubber boots, removed the bulbs and gave them a good Cif toothbrush scrub and soak. The clear lens was filthy and again it all came up sparkling with a hot water rinse. I needed a modellers brush to get into all the detail and corners but with a little patience all the dirt and sand was gone. The rubber boots had the same treatment and finished off with cellulose thinners wipe the parts were left to dry. The bulbs got a 5 minute soak in “Wonder Wheels” and came up like new. Much easier than trying to clean off the verdi gris than wet and dry!
I’m letting the bulb holder part dry overnight and will wonder wheel dip it tomorrow when its bone dry as it works best this way.
In the post today I got my brand new Genuine interior light from VW Heritage (the original lens is broke clean in two). There was also another small parcel from 914rubber. The door window external weatherstrips and a boot lock surround (parts that were to follow from my original order)
Last night in the box of removed sill cover bits were the two jack hole covers. I’d started to clean them but the top edge had a few chunks missing. I’d started to file the edge down a little to hide the missing pieces but it was obvious the whole plastic covers were far too brittle to survive. Sun baked and fragile the just crumbled.
This morning before work I spent a couple of hours on line finding and ordering more bits and bobs. The jack hole covers I found new for under 4 Euros each so it was an easy choice to order new ones. I also tracked down speed clips and Acme bolt/screws (that fit on each end of the sill cover at the wheel arches) 20 assemblies in a pack that included speed nuts large washers and the correct hex head screws all in gold BZP to match originals for less than a fiver, so they got a instant buy-it-now too!
I’d had trouble last night finding the part number in the PET for the square bumper insert speed nuts that hold the number plates on (they fit in the square holes in the bumpers) but was helped by a UK owner with the part number.
Number in hand I found them on the same website as the jack hole covers and cheap too. While on their website I had a look through stuff on my wishlist and found the two short ali trims that run front to back on the roll bar at the top of the sail fins. Mine have some nasty vibration rub marks on them. Again the price was reasonable so those got ordered with everything else. The site is called Rosepassion Porsche in France. I got the two chrome bumper fog light surrounds from them previously and service was good so was happy to be a repeat customer.
Finally before leaving for work this morning I sourced a few general nuts, bolts and washers so everything holding the freshly restored and painted bumpers, sills and valances together will be shiny and new.

Day 133

This morning I finished off the number plate lights using a small modellers paint brush to coat the metal frame and bulb holder with WD40. The frame is riveted on to the clear plastic lens around the screw holes. You can see part of the frame through the lens around the screws and I couldn't get in to protect it against corrosion. The answer was to use a very small brush dipped in WD40 to apply it and let capillary action draw it in between the lens and bracket. The light spade connections were cleaned up, bulb put back in and reassembled in the rubber housing. Using a multimeter to check continuity across the spade connections I knew all was good before bagging it up and going to work.
I called in at the paintshop in my lunchbreak to check progress, lend a hand with more sanding down and took a few more pictures. Not really much visible change to report despite a lot of hard work. The doors, bonnet, boot, engine lid and headlight covers had been flatted and they were working on prepping the inside of the front and rear boots. We had a discussion about how to best retain the tamperproof chassis number sticker and painting above the rear window (under the roll bar). When removing the sun baked vinyl off the top of the roll bar I’d found a tiny dent (pea size) so I got them to agree to fill and finish it too, even though it’s going to be hidden under new vinyl. I know, I know, its an OCD thing!
Tonight when I got home some of the new nuts and bolts had arrived in the post from Mondays order. I sorted them out and bagged up, taking away the rusty old ones in sequence to make way for the new ones. (Making sure I have new before throwing out the old)
I then started to clean up the over-riders.
Again I gave them a neat Cif scrub with a toothbrush, let it stand for 10 minutes and repeat before they saw water. This removed all the ingrained dirt so a final rinse in clean water left them looking good. The evening was lovely and sunny so I left them on the garden table to dry while I sorted out more bags of old nuts bolts and fixings, this set from the seatbelts. I brass wire brushed everything up and a very thin waxoil coat was applied to keep them all looking shiny gold BZP.
In the same bag was the two coat hooks. I polished the black rubber hook covers with Brasso to a shiny new finish and brass wire brushed the metal brackets and screws before a little waxoil.
The broken Interior light was stripped down and the bulb cleaned and tested before fitting it into my new replacement Hella light fitting
In the same bag was all the little black plastic trim panel screw caps I’d taken off. These got a toothbrush wash as the rear and face had a sand dirt and dust coating. Fortunately all the trim screws that were under the caps were clean and gold BZP intact, so a quick wipe (from being in a bag with dirty stuff) and they got bagged up again in a new clean zip top bag. Last of all I’d carefully kept the rear window shim strips so these got a good cellulose thinners wipe to remove the sand and dirt.
An hour later the over-riders were dry so I ran an M8 die down the threads and sorted out some new nuts and washers. All but one over-rider on the reverse around the threaded stud has the metal plate insert visible that’s cast into it when it was made. Unfortunately these had just started to go rusty so had a good miniature wire brushing. I rinsed them off again as they had rusty dust on them and brought them inside to dry overnight so that I can paint the visible plate inserts tomorrow.

Day 134

This morning the over-riders had dried thoroughly so I painted the bits of the steel inserts around the M8 studs that were visible and let them dry while I ate breakfast. I gave the studs a coat of copper grease, fitted the new washers and nuts then left for work.
During the day the Perlon delivery arrived. Looks a perfect match.
Porsche Centre called to say my latest parts were in. I’d ordered two new windscreen washer jets but the hose number was showing as obsolete, so I thought I’d give early 911 hose a try. It came in and fit the jets perfectly but was clear not black, so the search continues as my original hose is all perished.
Tonight after work I started on the pop up light assemblies. The car had been poorly resprayed with pretty much no parts taken off, so the pop up light frames had blue paint on either end. So much so that it completely coated the two pivot brackets, bushes and part of the headlight holder. I started to strip it all apart and dropped the pivot brackets, socket head bolts, and backing plates in a jam jar of cellulose thinners to soften the blue paint.
While they were soaking I picked off the paint from the 4 nylon bushes by hand and cleaned them up. Didn’t want to risk thinners on them in case it damaged them.
Fishing the parts out the jar I wiped off the lifted paint and detail brass wire brushed everything up clean. This took the best part of 2 hours then I gave them a trade mark light waxoil coating and refitted the clean bushes (dry no oil/grease) back on the ends of the pivot brackets. In the morning the waxoil on the bolts, washers and backing plates should be dry so I’ll loosely put them together to prevent loosing any bits and bag up.
A few more fixings had arrived in the post today (replacement self tappers and some 15mm od M5 washers, so as darkness fell I sorted out the rusty/worn fittings and substituted the new in my now numerous labelled zip top bags.

Day 135

This morning before breakfast I sorted out the fixings I’d cleaned and waxoiled last night, loosely assembling the pivot parts and bagging up.
During lunchbreak I called in at Porsche Centre and picked up my windscreen washer jets and remaining trim clips. I left the clear 911 hose which was a gamble that didn’t pay off.
Last night during an online search I found the genuine black high pressure washer hose on sale at VW Heritage (Beetle 1303) so ordered a few metres to replace all the hose in the car.
This evening when I got home a few more fixings had arrived (speed nuts and Acme bolt/screws) for the sill trim ends. I swapped over the old ones and placed the new in the sill rebuild fixings zip top bag and then started on the pop up headlight assembly.
I carefully stripped it down to the component parts ready for blasting. Mostly grey in colour the frame has a lot of blue overspray on it and painted in dirt & sand, so they’re going to need a good sorting out. While tinkering with the small removed parts I found that the pivot bushes on the assembly that connect to the motor arms are badly worn and crumbling from UV exposure. A quick search on line tonight seems to show they are obsolete! The 4 pivot ones seem to be still available (but I don’t need them) it’s the motor arm ones I’m having trouble finding. May resort to turning 2 down on my lathe in phozy-bronze if I can’t find nylon ones.
Anyway as night drew in (late start this evening from having to do the weekly food shop) I was rummaging in one of my sheds for some new speed nuts of the right size and colour when I found a bag of 10 black plastic rivets.
Now, I recall buying these in 1989 for a VW restoration, they were left over dash pad rivets I’ve had in the drawer for over 25 years!
Guess what……they look identical to the 914 sill trim and threshold kick plate black rivets!
Now these in black from all Porsche vendors and under a Porsche part number are ONLY available now in clear plastic as I found when buying some last month.
Having been resigned to thinking I’d have to paint the heads (which I was not happy about long term as the paint was bound to chip off) it was a glum prospect.
So tonight’s “find” was very welcome.
The best bit is they are in a genuine VW Audi bag with part number. Part number that’s different to the Porsche number.
A quick google of the VW number and hey presto multiple VW aftermarket suppliers with stock of black rivets to choose from. R-E-S-U-L-T !
Ordered enough to add to what I found to complete the re-assembly tonight before posting this.
The part number for all 14-ers wanting the correct rivets is 113857117B
Averagely the various websites have them at £1.14 each.

No excuses now for anyone having metal pop rivets in your sill trims ;-)

Day 136

This morning I carried on cleaning up all the pop up headlight parts. Running die nuts M5 & M4 down the adjuster & bezel bolts to clear out the threads. Cleaning up the brass lever pin and nuts and finally all the speed nuts. A quick waxoil coat and I had to leave for work this morning.
I’m working on a production line bodyshell trolley at work and today we had a Hi-ab lorry take it over to our workshops so I had to take delivery and sort a few things out.
On the way home this afternoon I called into Halfords (a UK motor factors) and picked up a bubble pack of speed nuts to replace two on the headlights (metal plate split by screw).
I also called in at the local scrap yard and had a look around for a few things.
When I took the seat belts out last month the bolts that go into the sills had started to rust on the heads and after cleaning them up the other night I wasn’t too happy with the lost gold BZP. A search late into the evening for the Repa special bolts cross referenced to early Golf, Jetta & Derby, still available from VW but a bit pricy at £8 + Vat each for a shouldered 7/16 UNF bolt! So I had a good walk around but no early VW’s to be found, however I didn’t give up and searched 40 or so cars, unscrewing multiple bolts to see what they were like. After persevering I found a match in the strangest place. Berlingo Van/people carrier, rear seat belt floor bolts. There were two Berlingos in the yard so I got 4 bolts. The heads are under plastic caps so when I flipped them off the BZP was perfect shiny gold colour. The shoulder length was also perfect match. Some may think I’m being fussy but it’s the one seat belt bolt head in the 914 you can see easily and a rusty one would drive me nuts.
Anyhow walked to the gate and showed the chap the 4 bolts and he said “go on you can have em” so all in all it was an hour and a half well spent.
When I got home the post had arrived and my new minature “U” trim that fits on the engine lid mesh had arrived along with the new black windscreen washer hose.
I went into my workshop and sorted out all the seatbelt bolts but there was one large rusted washer that I couldn’t match or find a replacement so I put it in the lathe and faced off both sides and the edge before hanging on a welding rod and spraying with Eastwoods BZP gold effect paint. It’s not seen so this seemed to be the most cost effective solution.
As it was a baking hot day today I decided to get the bucket out and some 1001 carpet cleaner and sort out the seat belts. They were absolutely full of sand so the whole thing got a good scrub and submersion. I pulled the belts out all the way and gently nipped them with mole grips so the spring spindle couldn’t wind them back in, then scrubbed and scrubbed them with 1001 and a nail brush gently on both sides, left to soak then scrubbed again. All the clips and fittings got a good scrub too.
I have a hook outside my sons bedroom window that we had a bird feeder on when he was younger, which worked out ideal to hang them on to dry in the first afternoon sun this year.

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Both Belts still retained the “Porsche” sewn in label and as the webbing dried they came up looking like new, no tears, scuffs or loose threads. The plastic sides of the Mechanism has blue overspray on them (god knows how the previous painters managed to get paint on it, when its behind the bulkhead trim?) So tomorrow when its fully dry a bit of cellulose thinners should get it off.
While the sun was out I decided to clean up the sill carpets. So more 1001 with a little washing up liquid and multiple scrubbing repeated for about an hour (1/2 on each) followed by several buckets of fresh water to rinse. After 5 or 6 buckets the water was still running dirty so fed up with fetching buckets of water I decided to fill the bath tub. (Its great being single)

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With a good soak and scrub they were finally clean. Mind you I did need to give the tub a good clean afterwards, perks of living alone!
Hanging the carpets over my shed roof to drip dry I moved on to the rear lights.
The US lenses were all red and I picked up some genuine amber Hella Euro lenses last year while the car was in transit from the US. Problem is the whole rear light assemblies they aren’t too clever.
I started by prying off the broken red lenses. They were siliconed on! Plus Caulk mastic-ed into the car and covered in blue overspray all over the rears with sand painted into them. (Really awful)
With the lenses off I emptied more sand out of them, peeled off the old seals, mastic and caulking and took the bulbs out. The PO had mixed a twin element bulb and single element bulb around in the RH assembly which had overheated and melted the reflector part. The housing was also warped so I may need a heat gun on it to straighten it out tomorrow so that the new lens seats properly. Next I took the two screws out that hold the reflectors and bulb holders into the housing and tipped out more sand. Inside the LH assembly I found a broken off wire that’ll need soldering back on.
To make the most of the sunny afternoon I filled another bucket and with a toothbrush and Cif cream I cleaned them both free of sand and dirt then left them to dry.
Finally I cleaned all the bulbs up, they were so dirty it was a wonder any light shone through.
With everything drying nicely I decided to take one of my other classics out for a run to make use of the lovely evening. I’d done a few carb adjustments on the car (mixture & idle) the last time I put it away but hadn’t gotten around to seeing how it performed on a run. The car has a mechanical pump and after a long time in storage it takes an age to crank over to get fuel up from the tank, so with this in mind I took the top of the air filter and squirted a few ml of petrol from a small syringe into each barrel of the carbs and turned the key. Fired straight away and ran for a few seconds. This was just enough to draw fuel so second turn of the key and it ran up perfectly. Top back on the air filter I went out for a 10 mile drive. Perfect, there’s nothing like a classic car on a summer evening.
As I put the car away I noticed the garage floor paint flaking where I’d painted over a previous tenants oil leak. So back out with the car, wire brush, brush and pan and floor paint. I stripped and repainted the 2 ft patch which was fortunately in the centre of the garage, so I was able to put the car away over the top of it before it dried. Job done.

Day 137


I had a well deserved lie in this morning and got up at 7:30. I started on the seat belts and now they were dry I cleaned off the blue overspray and polished the hoop guide that fits behind the mechanism and also the eye that fastens to the roll bar sail. One seat belt sill anchor had started to go white and furry so that got a brass wire brush before a very thin coat of waxoil to preserve.
Next I started on the rear lights. Having stripped them down I was left with a very dull grey box with old impact glue all around the frame and blue overspray all over the rear. I tried a small bit of cellulose thinners on the inside of the housing and got a reaction. Not what I wanted, but always wise to check an unseen area first. This meant I would have a real nightmare trying to clean off the blue overspray. In the end I opted for Brasso. This removed the paint and actually brought back the housing to a very, very high gloss black finish. Mind you it was very slow and monotonous work. It took me about 3 hours in all to do the Left hand lamp assembly, but the results were stunning in comparison to the un touched Right hand assembly.

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Taking a break from Brasso-ing I decided to give my aching fingers a rest and began repairs on the now shiny LH housing of the broken cable I found yesterday. The earth cable had snapped clean off inside the housing at some point in the past so I cleaned up the terminal, stripped back the wire and soldered it back on.
I then spent another fiddly hour cleaning up the lamp holders free of white furry oxide. The chrome/silver reflectors had lost most of their silvering leaving a patchy black surface in places. This wouldn’t give the best light so I used some Aluminium silver high temp paint to paint the dull areas. The bulbs also got a miniature wire brushing before a light WD40 and assembly. I used my multimeter on continuity to check each bulb was good before inserting in the holders. Finally with the holder assembled I did a quick continuity test on the spade connections (that I’d previously cleaned) and came up with another snag. No continuity? Hey? I took the reflector bulb holder out again and checked continuity at my solder. Perfect.
Back to the spade on the outside….nothing.
I was astounded, the spade on the outside is riveted to the cable crimp on the inside but the rivet must have corroded and there was no continuity from the rivet to the spade. The spade was solid in the holder so it wasn’t loose, the only thing I could do was solder the rivet to the spade on the outside of the housing. Fiddly clean up with a swiss file and a successful blob of solder did the trick.
With everything tested I glued the small reflector plate back into the outer end of the housing and opened my box of bits from 914rubber. Inside was a new outer lamp to body seal and a new O seal string to fit in my new Euro amber lens. Very carefully I assembled the unit.
A rummage in my box of bits and I found the 3 knurled knobs the hold the lens on, unfortunately they were covered in more blue paint! A quick cellulose thinners test and no reaction, so into a jam jar they went for an overspray softening soak.
The garage that did the poor paint job had also painted the boot floor with that tar stuff I scraped off last month in preparation to go down the bodyshop. The lazy sods had sprayed the boot floor blue on top of the tar stuff without bothering to take the rear lights out which is the reason they were covered in paint.
Anyway a quick tooth brush scrub in cellulose thinners and the knurl nuts came up like new.

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A protective covering of bubble wrap and into storage it goes.

Things were going fine and dandy until I started on the Right hand housing. I knew it was badly bent from an overheated lamp, but when I started to dismantle it I discovered the moulded tube that the single lens stud passes through was broken off and missing. It got worse, when I started to look closer I found that the frame where the lens seals and the body to housing seal rests was split about 4 inches long across the bottom and the top. Now I started to think…when I took the lights out the car it confused me a little as the white knurled nuts on the RH lamp were holding the housing in the car and M6 nuts held the lens on. This was back to front! Someone had mixed them up and since the lens studs had very little thread protruding they had crushed the housings in to fit M6 nuts and washers (easy when the stub tube is broken off! Makes me think they may have purposely broke the stud tube off so they could get the nuts to fit)
What mupperty!
The knurled nuts have a taper end that reaches in the housing and you would think it was obvious. Mind you they had forced a twin element bulb with different height bayonet pins into a single element equal height pin holder. With both elements lit the heat had melted the holder & housing. The M6 nuts in the wrong place had been over tightened and split the housing across the top and bottom.
What a nightmare, all caused by some idiot in the past. I guess it was a garage rather than the PO as I imagine the PO having had the car from new would have known how to change a rear bulb?

Day 138

This morning I started on the sill kick plates before breakfast. As with most body fittings they had blue overspray on them and badly masked thick blue paint on the ends. I cleaned this off with a little cellulose thinners on a cloth before giving them a good scrubbing with Cif cream before leaving for work.
Today at lunchtime I took the pop up light frames and bezels down to the blasters to clean up.
When I got home this evening there was a parcel from Rosepassion Porsche. It was the two jack hole plug/caps, the captive square spring nuts for the number plates and the two new roll bar top short ali trims.
The sill plates had dried over the day but they had numerous scuffs and marks on them (that I knew were there) and were a little grey and faded. This was compounded with some limescale from years of washing the car and the water left sitting on the plates.
The two front ends closest the door hinges had curled up and when I got the car were sitting about 1/4" high? I gently heated them on the rear with my heat gun and clamped them flat while they cooled to get them flat.
I then set about polishing them up. About 1 ½ hours on each and they came up really well to a very high gloss shine.
Before and after

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I managed to get both done before nightfall, ready for the grand assembly when the car finally comes home in a couple of weeks time

Day 139

This morning the polish on the sill kick plates had dried and with all best intentions to buff it off yesterday there was still some slight white residue in the tiny groves of the plates. An old toothbrush dry scrub fetched it out and I put them into my shed for safe storage before leaving for work.
During lunch I called Porsche Centre and rattled off a few numbers I’d tracked down last night from PET.
Tonight when I arrived home there was a parcel from Just Kampers, it was the little sill rivets. It made me laugh when I opened the parcel and found each of the 26 rivets packed individually. It took me half an hour to unpack them all and put them into one small bag!
I then took out another collection of parts in a small box that I’d marked up rear boot.
This contained all the black plastic sleeves from the wiring loom retaining tabs. Mostly painted blue and covered in dirt. I spent a good while cleaning them all up with cellulose thinners.
Next was the rear rubber clips that hold the Targa roof in storage. Again blue paint and dirt so they got the same treatment.
The two white nylon front roof clips were next. They were rivet on so I’d carefully drilled out and removed them before going in to the paintshop. One of the eyelets was split from presumably the force of an enormous pop rivet. I searched out a few dome headed stainless socket head bolts, ones with a security pin in the hex hole at a glance they look just like a large pop rivet. The plan is to refit the clips with a nylock nut and gently nip them up to hold them securely without splitting the eyelet in two. Hopefully they’ll pass for rivets and if ever I need to change the clips I wont need to get the drill out again.
Next out of the box was two opaque plastic plugs that had been painted blue. A thinners soak and toothbrush got them looking good again. They’re the ones with the knurl edge which got all the ridges brushed clean to look like new.
The two jack straps were next. The rubber was split and perished but I’d already ordered new straps from 914rubber that arrived a couple of weeks ago. All that was required was to brass wire brush then furry white oxidation off the wire hoops and fixing plate and a light waxoil to dry overnight. Hope to assemble the hoops onto the new rubber straps in the morning.
Finally there was a few nuts, screws, bolts and washers that needed a clean and waxoil and the box of bits for the boot was completed.

Day 140

This morning before work I assembled the jack straps and pinched the hoops in my vice so they were nice and square before bagging them up for storage with the other dry waxoiled bits.
During lunch I phoned the paintshop for an update and they asked if I could call in and see them.
I visited after work and all it was, was a request to take the seats out the car. The whole car is now in primer and flatted. It goes in for colour tomorrow. They had difficulty spraying the primer under the roll bar over the rear window so asked if I could take the seats out so that they can climb easily in the car and get the spray gun at a better angle for the colour and lacquer. Not such an issue with primer when it gets flatted but the colour needs to be applied smoothly.
Seats obviously come out in seconds and it was quite a joke amongst the workshop guy’s there who took the micky out of the chap who asked me to come in and take them out when they saw me remove them in 5 seconds. Anyhow no bother to me as I’d rather they’d ask than force them if they didn’t know how to take them out.
Besides this kinda geed me on to getting them off to the trimmers. The basket weave is perfect but the vinyl on the headrests is sunbaked and cracked so the plan is to retain the basket weave inserts and replace all the plain vinyl.
Tonight when I got home I decided to prep the rear bulkhead trim panel for re-upholstery. It’s the same sun baked brittle as the headrests, so I hope to get the whole thing redone.
When I took it out I noticed the bottom of the panel was a little soft, weak and out of shape. Especially around the engine lid pull.
Flipping it over I could see that the hardboard type backboard must have gotten damp at some point (water stain marks on it) and it’s obviously been in and out in the past but looks like the sides had been pulled rather than taking out the 4 screws and lifting it vertically. The hardboard fibre material was delaminated and fractured. To simply re trim over it would not give a solid base and be all floppy.
The solution is an old car restorers trick I learnt 30 years ago that I’ll share.
All you need is a tin of wood rot hardener and a brush. It’s a clear liquid made for applying on rotten wood that soaks into it and sets rock hard to form a solid base to fill and paint. When brushed on old hardboard it soaks in and sets rock hard putting the strength back in. Ideal for back panels, door panels and headliner back panels that are soft and crumbly.
I painted the first 8-10 inches of the backing panel (after carefully stripping off the vinyl wrap around to gain access). 10 minutes later it was solid.

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Next I concentrated on the area around the engine lid pull. It looks like someone in the past must have pulled the panel off without taking off the pull knob (un screws easily) and the escutcheon/sleeve which comes off the same way. The muppets had broken a large chunk out of the hardboard backing around the pull cable hole and bent and weakened the board in the area.
Despite the soak in wood hardener the backing board was not really in good shape to simply trim over.
The panel has a factory “U”channel down the sides to strengthen the back board so I replicated it in some Zintec steel sheet I had in my workshop, made a”U” and because it was steel I could easily pinch it to nip up the metal over the hardboard to hold it on firmly. Finally there is a slight curvature in this edge so I carefully bent the new metal to the right shape.

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Tomorrow I plan to drop it off with the seats at my local trimmers, and when its recovered it should be nice and strong and the correct shape.

Day 141

This morning I loaded up the interior parts (bulkhead trim all nice and dried solid as a rock) and called in at the trimmers before work.
They had a good look over the seats and other parts and seem happy to do the things I asked (which is basically replace all vinyl except the basket weave which is still very good)
At lunchtime I had to nip out and pick some materials up for work from a supplier on the same estate as the paintshop so I stopped off for a good chat and helped them finish flatting the primer. Next we degreased and used a tack cloth over every surface before I watch them start to put the colour on the car from inside the booth while I was dressed up in a chemical attack suit!.
This is the bit I really like with a restoration; it’s like reaching the summit of the whole job and gives a real feel good factor for the start of the grand assembly.
Stuart the painter put the very first base coat colour on and managed to take a couple of pictures from the end of the booth without contaminating the finish. This is the first of 3 planned coats and then a final lacquer top coat (all traditional metallic paint practice) I especially requested 2-pack paint which was specially ordered in. No namby-pamby water based rubbish here.

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The plan tomorrow is to leave it in the booth all weekend to dry, so it’ll get an extra day.
This also gives me time to sort the remaining removed parts out before it comes home next Friday. I plan to call in at the other bodyshop who are doing the bumpers, sills, valances and roof tomorrow morning to see how they’re getting on too. I hope to time it that they’ll be ready next Friday as well. In that way I can put them straight on the car (except roof) without them hanging around too long and risking getting marked.
Tonight when I got home I started on another bag of parts marked bonnet. This contained fixings for the headlight assemblies, chassis plates, cable clamp sleeves, various rubber bungs and screws. As per usual I spent a couple of hours cleaning it all up and substituting any parts for new that didn’t make the grade.
Finally I sorted out a few new little parts from the large 914rubber box and placed them in the right labelled bag for the area they fit.
Can’t resist wanting to call in the paintshop at some point tomorrow and check on the car with the lacquer on it before the weekend!!!

Day 142

Today was a typical black Friday at work, suffice to say I started at 7am and got home at 21:30, only because I made a conscious decision to get up and leave. We’re back in at 5am tomorrow so what wasn’t done after 9pm tonight will simply have to wait.
Besides there’s 914 bits to work on!

I did however manage to rush over to the blasters & powder coaters and picked up the pop up headlight frames, bowls and bezels during lunch. They look superb! The plan is tomorrow after work, to reassemble the parts and fit the new H4 headlights.

When I got home about half an hour ago there was a couple of parcels waiting by my shed.
The light adapters to fit side and indicator (white/amber lens euro conversion) bulb holders & housing/divider and in the second parcel was my rivet mimicking stainless bolts for the targa roof holding clamps in the boot.
I sorted a few parts out, into the correct Bonnet, Boot, bags while my dinner was cooking including some new bump stops and star washers. Half an hour today, but at least I found some time in my manic day today to do a little preparation.

Day 143

Today was a very early start at work, but I was out by early afternoon. I drove up to Guildford to look at an interesting potential new project for after the 914’s done for my son’s first car.
Back home late afternoon I started to assemble the pop up headlight parts. Tapping out all the threads and cleaning the holes for the bushes before assembly.
Copper grease on the fixed bolts and waterproof grease on the headlight adjusters I put them back together.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1456350669.20.jpg)

Next the new UK version RHD H4 headlights were added to complete the refurb.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1456350670.21.jpg)

A wrap up in bubble wrap and boxed up into storage awaiting the car coming home next week.
I had a rummage in my shed and there’s enough bits left to keep me busy until next Friday so if it all works out then I just need to bolt everything that I’ve refurbished back on!

Day 144

Today was an unusual day. This morning I got up early and cleaned one of my other classic cars and went across the village where I live to a grand opening of a automobilia distribution business and spent most of the day with UK TV celebrity Mike Brewer from Wheeler Dealers. I’d worked with him a couple of years ago on one of the shows and at a few PR events since, so it was nice to catch up on the gossip about the next series of shows planned and the cars they hope to feature. There’s a few nice pictures on Mike's Twitter page/website thingy and my car took pride of place behind Mike for his public address. (This was more by luck that planning)
I left mid afternoon and got a few hours in on the Front Fog lamps. The glass lenses are almost sand blasted to a frosted glass appearance by thousands of micro chips, I searched on line but have still to find a good new source of just the glass. I tried some jewellers rouge on them which seems to have started working, but after about 3 hours on one lens I’ve managed to clear only 10% of the chips. I suppose its 27 hours to go at this rate to clean up the first lens, or hopefully salvation if I can find a new supplier!
An old Armed Forces friend came around this evening with his new Audi S4, so work stopped while we went out for a rather nice test drive.
Funny old day, but at least somewhere in there I found 4 hours for the 914.

Day 145

This morning I started getting “horny”

With the horns of course……..

Like everything else they were covered in sand and to make matters worse it looks like the garage that sprayed the bumpers with black stone guard just took off the grilles masked the spot light lens and sprayed away. The result was the front of the horns were covered in thick black stonechip paint overspray.
Suffice to say it took me ages to get it off with a combination of cellulose thinners and a plastic filler spreader as a scraper (so as not to scratch the horn face). Fortunately this was a blessing in disguise and the galvanised steel beneath was quite good. A brass bristle brush cleaned it up nicely.
The same process was repeated on the rear of the horns and care given to the spade terminals and mounting bracket to get them back to a presentable condition.

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Next I started on the fog/spot lamps. I’d started to take them apart yesterday and got side tracked trying to polish the glass free of stone chips.
The lamps themselves are a steel bowl with a single black epoxy spray coat. Even though my car is virtually rust free the lamps with no real decent primer or paint coat from new suffered worse. The bowls were very rusty on the rear.
The only thing for it was to strip them completely. I started on the Mazak mounting with a wire brush burnish and then on to the bowl to remove the paint and reveal the rust.

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Once clear of paint I spent a good hour with various grades of sandpaper to remove the rust. Finishing off with a 240 grit to key the surface for paint.
Before & after

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Repeating on the other lamp until they were both cleaned up, inside and out.
Lastly the bezels got the same treatment, but these are brass underneath so no rust. They did have flaky paint and like the bowls no primer, so the best way was just to strip them back to bare metal.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1456350670.25.jpg)

Once all the parts were cleaned up I very carefully masked the Mazak mounting bracket inside and out and used my Swedish Punch set to cut perfect little circular bits of masking tape for the 4 rivet heads that hold the bracket to the bowl (as these aren’t supposed to be painted). OCD I know, you’ll never see them as they are tight against the car and behind a grille but the devil is in the detail and I know they’re right.
Lastly this evening I gave them a nice coat of etch primer all round and placed them in the oven at 50 Deg C for an hour.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1456350671.26.jpg)

I’ve just taken them out and they will spend 24hrs in my conservatory until tomorrow evening when I get home from work and I can apply the satin black top coat.

Day 146

This morning before work I called in at the paint shop. The excitement of knowing the extra coats of Alaska Blue and Lacquer were dry and the car was coming out of the booth was too much for me to ignore.
After all the “wow, wow and more wow” I took a few pictures…

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1456350671.27.jpg)

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Inside the front and rear boots and spare wheel well are like glass! I am really blown away with how good a finish they have made, the photos don’t do it justice. (The paper in the wheel well is just protecting it from the headlamp covers sitting in there for safe keeping.)
The colour match is superb, that’s why it always pays to buy quality OEM paint. The soft edge mask that was put around part of the door shut panel to protect the chassis anti tamper sticker is completely invisible where old paint meets new.
Really itching to get it home safely now. They are working on the insides of the removed panels this week and it should be all ready on Friday.

At lunchtime I rang dozens of specialist in “glass” to see if anyone would buff out the two front fog light glasses to no avail, looks like more hours with jewellers rouge.

Tonight when I got home I prepped the etch primer on the fog lamp housings and sprayed them satin black over the course of 3 hours. In between flip over times I started to clean up the lamp mounting brackets, bolts and washers plus the bezel clips and screws. All got a good detail brass wire brushing back to shiny BZP and a coat of waxoil. I even brushed and cleaned all the spring wires that hold the glass & reflector into the bezel. Fiddly little so and so’s.
Finally I use some old car inner tube (from one of my old pre-war cars) with my punch set to make two new rubber washers that go between the lamp brackets and the car body.
Last night I searched for new gaskets for the fog lamp glass edge (where it fits into the bezel) but even armed with the PET part number everywhere seemed to show “no longer available” so as a solution I gambled £3 on ebay for some very thin rubber “U” channel that may do the trick. Will keep you all informed.

Day 147

Today I called in at the second paintshop I’m using before work. I had a look at the bumpers, valances, roof and sills. They had painted the rear of all panels and I asked for the stone guard on the rear of the sills and valances. The satin black was then applied and I was asked to check the sheen/colour one last time before they paint the fronts of all pieces. The sand blasting and hours tin bashing paid off, if the rear of the panels is anything to go by the fronts will do justice to the rest of the cars paint job. They look great.
At lunch today I called in at the motor factors and picked up my new box of 3M Caulking strips to fit behind the various ali trims. I also called in at my friends garage with the flatbed transporter. There’s a small glitch in the plan to pick up the car. It will be ready Friday afternoon but the Transporter is booked out. Saturday he can pick the car up but the paintshop won’t open up. Bloomin frustrating. Looks like it’s going to have to be Monday at 7am and be an hour late in to work.
Hopefully the bumpers, sills, roof and valances will be ready Friday (I can pick these up in my Volvo estate) so with the roof to assemble & trim, plus the bumpers and a few little bits left over in my shed, they’ll still be plenty to do over the weekend.
Tonight when I got home I continued with the front fog lamps, giving them a coat of fuel resistant satin lacquer. Not that I plan to spill fuel on them; just that these modern rattle can paints are namby-pamby tree hugging rubbish these days and the Eastwood range of US rattle can paints are far tougher and durable, so a satin lacquer coat is all that’s needed.
Next I got the two oval side/indicator front lamp units out and started cleaning them up. Again a laborious task due to the supplying Porsche Dealership having the underside and arches sprayed with a Shultz type stone guard underseal. This had to be picked and scraped off the holders bit by bit before I could brass wire brush them to a reasonable finish.
The insides (under the lens) were full of sand. Just when I thought I’d seen the last of it! They got a good clean out and a Cif cream clean to brighten up the reflective surfaces before a rinse off and left to dry.
Finally I cleaned up the “U” shape mounting brackets and finished with a light waxoil coat before running an M6 die down the mounting studs to clean up the threads.
I carried out a dry run on my Euro lamp adapters and a small tweak will be required to get them to fit correctly, but that’s for tomorrow night.

Day 148

This morning before work I unmasked the Front fog lights and using a new Stanley blade very carefully picked off any tiny masking tape ridges on the rivets.
One lamp had a loose paper sticker in it when I took them apart. It was a Hella sticker with the bulb type. I could see where it was fitted and took a photo of the old sticky mark and the angle it was at before cleaning up the lamps. After cleaning the sticker I re-glued it back in place where it went. Finally before leaving for work I fitted the cleaned up mounting brackets.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1456350671.29.jpg)

Today was manic at work so I had to miss lunch all together but when I got home tonight I started work on the front side/indicator lamps that I’d cleaned up yesterday.
In US format they have a twin filament bulb that is side & indicator through the fully amber lens. I want to convert mine to Euro spec with a clear sidelight at the bottom of the amber lens. To do this requires fitting another lamp holder in the housing and new lenses to mimic the true Euro spec. I’d bought the lenses last year before the car arrived in UK knowing that they’d be needed
Next I re-engineered some lamp holders to convert the front lights.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1456350672.30.jpg)

And fitted

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1456350672.31.jpg)

Fortunately the original top lamp holder has two nice clear holes already in it so I simply fed the new power and earth out through them. The plan is to keep the twin filament bulb at the top, use only the indicator filament spade connection and fit the other filament cable straight to the new lamp holder for a clear sidelight. No modification of the original wiring loom required.

For peace of mind I was a little concerned of the closeness of the rear lamp wire to the housing, so I cut a small piece of old car inner tube rubber to make an insulation pad. In this way if any over enthusiastic bulb changing occurs it wont short out and blow a fuse.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1456350672.32.jpg)

Hopefully this will help anyone else out who wants to change to Euro style and they’ll know what to do.

Day 149

This morning I loaded up parts and tools ready for a lunchtime visit to the paintshop.
The car was due home today but the transporter was booked, the earliest the paintshop and transporter are both available is 7am on Monday morning. So as they are not open tomorrow I needed to fit the door, bonnet & boot locks to hold everything shut for transporting home.

I called in at noon and they had quickly hung the doors, so a few tweaks from me to get them sitting right and I fitted the cleaned up locks and striker plates. The bonnet & boot were on tressels still so I fitted the catches to them and the car. I also took along all the new rubber bump stops and screwed them in slightly high so that the closed bonnet & boot wont rattle and mark the paint because the seals aren’t on yet on the way home.
I was pushed for time but managed to load up the engine lid and pop up light covers to take home today before going back to work.
On the way home before food shop, I called in and picked up the targa roof and the front bumper from the second paintshop. Plenty to keep me busy this weekend!

After getting home and unloading the parts I had to stop and admire them while I had a well deserved cup of tea.
I decided to finish off the second front sidelight this evening so more scraping and scrubbing required to clean up the housing.
Before & after

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1456350672.33.jpg)

After last night shenanigans I repeated the same modifications to the second euro side light conversion plate and fitted it in the holder.
All that was left to do was insert bulbs and with the aid of a wiring diagram and spare car battery I tested all the connections.
I opted for a Hermaphrodite spade connector on the new earth lead and a male spade on the new side lamp positive lead. Both were crimped soldered and heat shrinked.
After a bulb test the original pins on the lamp were easily identified.
Pin 31 earth (with dual spade so original car loom can be connected)
Pin BL (remains un modified and is Positive to indicator filament - the brightest- of the twin filament bulb)
Pin 57 side light feed (original pin covered with grey heat shrink to prevent connection. This is where the new positive feed goes to new clear sidelight, so basically what was originally pin 57 is now the new flying lead)
All should be contained within the new rubber cable sheath to the lamps and no modification of the car wiring loom required

Finished lamps

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1456350672.34.jpg)

Day 150

Today I got up early with the intension of painting the engine lid satin black under the Grille.
The new paint on the top surface of the engine lid is flawless but on closer inspection I was not happy with the underside. It looks like during painting a load of sand from somewhere became dislodged and fell all into the wet paint along the forward edge eitherside of the hinges.
I very carefully masked up the top surface with two layers of kitchen roll, bubble wrap and finally a cardboard cover. All carefully cut to shape and only masking taped around the sides to avoid marking the fresh paint. With this in place I taped a double cardboard top onto my Black & Decker workmate and flipped the engine lid over to work on the underside. After a bit of poking around I discovered that the diagonal brace was full of sand behind it where you couldn’t see. I spent a good two hours with a toothbrush size brass bristle wire detail brush with the handle sawn off fiddling around to scrub all the braces on the lid that you cant see between top skin and brace. I then used scotchbrite to feed into all the nooks and crannies dragging back & forth to clean every last grain of sand out. I must have got half a tea cup out, totally shocking! It must have blown in there layer upon layer and set with moisture, completely out of sight.
I then spent another 3 hours sanding down the new paint on the underside of the engine lid with 600 & 800 grit to remove all the bits of sand & dirt that had blown into the new paint.
Finishing off with more scotchbrite to key every ridge & valley. Whilst I was being messy I sanded and keyed the top surface of the engine lid to take the satin black that I’d planned just to do today.
It took an age to clean out all the dust & dirt, with vacuum cleaner, dry brushes, tack rags and degrease wipe, then tack rag once more.
Fortunately I have a litre of mixed Alaska Blue from when I did the engine bay a few months ago, so I set about re-spraying the whole enginelid underside in my part finished loft conversion. Still considering whether I should make it a bedroom or a spray booth?
After a good few hours drying in the blistering heat of the loft I mixed up some 2 pack lacquer and gave it a good coat.

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I spent a good long time making sure the hinges and braces were absolutely perfect and I’m reasonably pleased how it came out.
While it was still tacky I very carefully took off the masking tape and cardboard protection from the top surface as masking tape left too long on fresh paint marks the finish. Finally hanging it carefully to cure for a few days with minimal surface contact.
In between the paint coats while waiting for it to dry I started to strip and clean the replacement rear lamp assembly I’d got from Stuart at UK 914 owner (many thanks).
With Stuart’s old housing and my old lamp holders I reckon I can make up a decent righthand lamp to match my Left one.
A good Cif cream scrub was had of all parts and washed off. While they dried on the garden table I cleaned up a few more parts that I’d taken off the car previously. These included, the adjuster/stop nuts and bolts for the pop up lamps, the wiper collars, nuts, the pop up lamp arms and a few odd bits for here & there.
With things drying all over the house & garden I quickly popped out to buy two new bulbs for the euro modified front side lamps and grab a bite to eat.
Metal parts dried I gave them a light waxoil coat and fitted the bulbs, and the new rubber seals to the side lights before bagging up and putting into storage.

The plan for tomorrow is to brasso polish up the rear light housing firstly. The satin blacking of the engine lid will have to wait for a few days now for the paint on the underside to harden, but to be fair there’s plenty other stuff to do.

Day 151

This morning I starting to clean up the light lens Stuart sent me. The lamp holder was carefully removed by cutting out the resin around the spade connections and sliding the block out. The mounting studs were quite rusty so they got a good clean up with a M6 die, and a paint with aluminium silver. The first thing I did was check the plastic to make sure it wasn’t too UV degraded. This was a quick check by polishing one end to see if it was feasible to restore the unit.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1456350673.36.jpg)

The housing was reasonably good except for the frame across the top of the indicator that was broken and a few chunks missing. This was ok in my old unit that has a melted hole in the top, so I cut a section out and bonded it into Stuart’s housing to repair the corner. Next I grafted in a new tube to the single lens stud hole from my old housing. I discovered a couple of weeks ago that the housings were melted by cellulose thinners. I used this to my advantage and semi dissolved the joined in section and with a cellulose soaked rag, wiped over it. This levelled off the frame edge and made an invisible join. Several small area’s were treated the same with a little cellulose thinners to melt and 800 grit wet & dry to flat off. Following the repairs I spend a good few hours polishing the housing up with Brasso.
Finally my old cleaned up lamp holder was bonded into the replacement housing and the bulbs refitted. A quick check with my multimeter, the seal was fitted to the new Euro lens and the lens fitted to the housing with the cleaned up knurl nuts.
Last of all after cleaning all old impact glue from the housing surround the new seal to body was stuck on.

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All wrapped in bubble wrap with the LH lamp and put in to my shed awaiting assembly.
Next I turned my attention to the pop up lamp motors. They got a thorough clean with a modellers brush in white spirit to get all the sand, grease and dirt out the worm drive casing webs. The whole assemblies were then brass wire brush burnish/cleaned to an as new finish. The electrical leads were individually cleaned carefully with a small rag soaked in cellulose thinners, followed by the relay holder. The relays were removed and the cross in each pin slightly opened with a Stanley blade, cleaned up and refitted. Finally the earth eyelets were cleaned before the whole assembly was coated with WD40 and wiped dry to a nice as new lustre, zip top bagged and back into my shed.
With the Brasso still out this evening I cleaned the door mirror within an inch of its life. I must have polished it a dozen times until I was happy it was good enough. I brass wire brushed the cross head fixing screws to a bright shine and spent a good while brushing out the cross head screwdriver slots in them too.
The mirror glass is held in with a black plastic surround which I cleaned with a combination of more brasso and a final wipe with a clean rag in cellulose thinners to bring it back to a jet black shiny appearance. I sorted out the new Mirror to Door gasket from my large 914rubber delivery and bagged it with the screws and mirror before placing in the shed.
Looking for a break from polishing and change of scenery, I went to the garage, swept it out free of any dust/leaves and cut two bits of 4 x 2 to act as wheel stops for pushing the car in tomorrow morning. There’s a slight ramp up to the garage door so don’t wont to push eagerly tomorrow and bump the garage wall!!
Before calling it a day, I fetched my trowel and dug up a load of weeds that had sprung up across the front of the garage door since I cleared it up a couple of weeks ago.

Fingers crossed the car will be home in the morning!



Month 5…..PHEW what a month this was!
The ugly and unloved little 914 is starting to change into a beautiful butterfly.

With the prospect of a very shiny fresh paint car coming home next month I can’t wait to step up a gear and start getting it all back together.

Thank you for taking time to read my Build-off daily diary.