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.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1419606931.1.jpg)

2 months later it arrived in Southampton UK

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1419606931.2.jpg)

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1419606931.3.jpg)

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]

Month 7

Day 182

Today I have continued cleaning up interior parts.

The dash frame was stripped of foam & glue on the top and the basket weave panels.
The double sided tape residue from the panels was also scraped off and the whole thing washed and scrubbed within an inch of its life.
The basket weave material was then stripped off the metal backings and all glue and double sided tape cleaned off.
I then took the whole centre console apart, all screws, staples and clips removed so its in a dozen flat pack pieces along with the armrest cubby that’s in another half dozen parts.
I started to clean up all the angle bracketry that holds the console together and also the short piano hinge for the armrest.
After which I washed and scrubbed all the vinyl parts with Cif and a toothbrush to remove 40 years of grime, sticky gooo, hairs and spilt coffee & sugar that had got into all the joints…..nice
Before laying them all out in the heat to dry.
While the bucket was out I also cleaned the cover plate for the pedal assembly and the trims that go around the rear window.
In between all the cleaning I visited the trimmers today and dropped off the padded trim that goes on the front of the roll bar around the roof clips. It’s in about 6 pieces (split in half down all the fixing holes by the heat & Desert sun)
They asked me to put it in the trash when I left! But after a little calming down I got them to try and do something with it.

Day 183

This morning before work I carried on cleaning up parts of the now “flat-pack” centre console and general interior parts before laying them out to dry in my kitchen.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1461496927.1.jpg)

Over lunchbreak I tracked down a pair of new speaker grilles to replace mine that have cracks right through the screw holes and have corners missing. I also found a really nice original Blaupunkt radio for sale on ebay and after some deliberation I ended up placing a best offer for it.

This evening when I got home from work I carried on cleaning up the dash that’s now stripped bare in my garden as there’s no room in the tiny garage.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1461496927.2.jpg)

In the left hand corner under the dash top foam that I removed because it had gone all powdery a little of the black paint had rubbed off when I was cleaning the glue residue off.
It was then I noticed some hand writing on the dash top. Written on it when it was all green and sprayed over black and buried under the foam and vinyl never to see the light of day again.

Over the years restoring cars I have found many signatures, doodles and writing hidden away in old cars so I was keen to find out what it said.
I spent a good hour tonight with white spirit very carefully cleaning off the black paint to reveal the whole word.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1461496927.3.jpg)

Only when I figured it out did the penny drop and it certainly made me smile.

“Sambesigrun”

Day 184

Today I collected the second seat from the trimmers and picked up a piece of vinyl and thin foam material to redo the dash top over the weekend.
The seats look great but I need to give them a damn good clean. Although they’ve replaced all the smooth vinyl, the basket weave is still original and they haven’t cleaned it. Its still full of sanding dust from the paintshop, Desert Sand deep in the basket weave pattern and against the new vinyl it looks filthy (which it is) so tomorrow I need to give both seat inserts a good scrub.
After searching now for almost 6 months I came to a blank on finding a good or NOS dash top so I did a bit of reading up on which dash cap is best.
Well I ordered one off German ebay that was from a company called Motorform. Their ad and description made a big deal about it being made in Germany to match the existing texture and a high quality product.
It arrived today in a big box with Motorform printed all over it.
3 pages of instructions in German and one in English.
Reading down the page it said that Palco Industries Inc warranty this dash top?
Reading on it said for any defects or warranty please contact manufacturer Palco in Nevada.
So much for a dashtop made in Germany!
Being lied too and mislead by businesses really gets my goat. Why do they have to deceive you? There is nothing wrong with the product and I intend to fit it, but the good feeling has gone from the purchase now.
Anyway rant over.
This evening when I got home from work after food shop, I finished off cleaning the dash before respraying the satin black facia.
I also cleaned up the glovebox door and resprayed that. While the paint was out I sprayed the previously cleaned piano hinge for the armrest lid.
Leaving them to dry in the evening sun I moved on to cleaning up all the screws that hold the centre console pieces together. Most of the heads were showing marks and some rust staining so after screwing them all into a block of softwood I wire brushed all the heads and painted them satin black with a modellers brush.
The silver angle and brace brackets were then cleaned up and waxoiled followed by the hinge screws and all the speed nuts off the dash.
Before I knew it it was getting dark again.

Day 185

Today the morning was consumed by preparing one of my other classic cars for MOT and taking it down to the garage in the village. After which I just managed to make it to the motor factors to pick up some scotchbrite before they closed at noon.
When I got home the post had been and my roll of basket weave vinyl material had turned up from Southbound trimmers.
I started work on the 914 today by assembling the centre console with the nice shiny cleaned up parts.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1461496927.4.jpg)

I’m really pleased how it came out considering how tired and dirty it was.
The dash cap was the next job on the list. After dry fitting it a few times it was obvious that the dash top needed to be on the dash to give it some rigidity for fitting the cap.
As well as the cracks across my dash, the top of the binnacle/brow that covers the gauges had drooped down in the centre by a good ¾”. It was heat baked in that shape so the dash cap wasn’t fitting well and didn’t have enough strength the pull it back level. The only way to cure it was to cut several fan shaped cuts into the dash about half way through it so that it would bend easily back upwards.
Not for the faint hearted this!
I view the dash cap as a looks presentable “stop gap”until I find a good NOS dash top and to be fair the original dash top has had it, so cutting into it was an easy choice to make.
The dash cap is only thin vacuum formed plastic so even though I’d cut the dash to allow it to move back to shape it still had little strength.
I had some aluminium U section in my metal rack about 12mm square. I cut off a length to match the horizontal brow of the dash and cut out and inset it into the edge of the brow held in with lots of tiger bond sealant.
With this in place I shaved off a few bits of the dash surface to get the cap to fit as best it could before bonding it on over the top of the aluminium extrusion.
The dash cap itself is not the best made thing I have seen, but with a bit of fettling it fits in a just ok kind of way.
Preparing several clamps and bits of timber cut to length, and scotchbrite-ing the dash top and underside of the cap prior to bonding, I had everything to hand to clamp it down as soon as the adhesive was applied.
Once on I left it for the rest of the day outside to cure.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1461496927.5.jpg)
While it was drying I carried on cleaning up parts from the seat runners, detail wire brushing and waxoiling all nuts, bolts, washers, brackets, springs and levers. I found the centre console to underside of dash bracket in a parts bag too, and the black paint on it was a bit bubbly and flaky so that was all sanded off and etch primed before calling it a day.
The dash was carefully carried indoors, clamps and all. They’ll stay on over night so hopefully everything will be good in the morning.

Day 186

This Sunday morning I planned to have a lie in until 7am, but I was woken by the telephone just before 6am. It was work. A critical production machine had broken down at 3am, and the guy’s had waited until just before 6am to call me as they knew I’m normally up by then.
Unfortunately they couldn’t fix it so I had to go into work this morning to sort it out.
I didn’t get home until noon but started on the 914 straight away.
The dash top was taken off again and flipped over so that I could inject bonding agent into all the gaps I couldn’t get at when it was the right way up. Afterwards I carefully rested it upside down in my conservatory to dry.
The seat runners I picked up last week from the powdercoaters needed assembling, so I did those next. The height adjustment coil spring tension is held with the roll pin that goes through the lever & catch. What a fiddle it was to get them back in!
In the end I used a tiny deep socket and fed the pin inside it. With the extension bar on the end I had some leverage to hook the spring, feed the roll pin in and under tension, lift the extension bar to locate the nose of the roll pin in the hole and tap it in.
The runners then went into the shed to await fitting to the car after the back window and trim go in. With them out, its much easier to sit, kneel or stand in the car. Better left out to make life a bit easier.
With the dash top still drying I decided to put back the new padded vinyl panel on the dash nearest the screen.
The old foam padding under the old vinyl came off in a thousand bits so I had to make a template for the new foam.
Using the old vinyl sheet that came off the dash I drew around it onto the new vinyl I’d purchased. I allowed a little more material around the edges and cut it out.
Once I was happy with the new vinyl sheet top, I used the old vinyl to make the template for the foam. You could clearly see the shape of the foam in the old vinyl so I carefully cut off the perimeter and checked it against the dash top. A little trim here and there and it was a good shape.
This was drawn around onto the new foam sheet before cutting out.
Next I masked off the dash with newspaper and spray glued the top and the foam with high temp impact glue before carefully fixing it in place.
The top vinyl was next. It glues on only onto the metal, no glue on the foam. To achieve this I used brush on impact glue and carefully trimmed all the material to allow a good inch to fold over and glue under the dash by the windscreen.
Finally I bolted the dash top back on (bonding agent dry) to clamp down the glued vinyl between the dash top and metal dash, before bringing it back into the house.
Looking for more to do, I took the vents out of the previously removed knee roll.
They were pretty manky so I carefully took them all apart and after a soak in a bucket with a sprinkle of washing powder I set about them with a toothbrush to get 40+ years of grime off before calling it a day.
Day 187

Today I have mostly been continuing to work on the dash cap.

I called in at the trimmers today and matched some vinyl material to the grain cast on the dash cap.
The fit of the cap only wraps around the first ¾” of the brow on the original dash top. As the cap is about 2.5mm thick, it ends up with a step along the edge under the brow in front of the gauges. This looks worse at the bottom of the brow, just above the basket weave panel so I wasn’t happy with it.
To get the brow back into shape before fitting the cap (it had bowed down over the gauges) I had to make cuts in it. When looking up above the gauges under the brow you could not only see the step on the cap edge but also the cuts.
The answer was to trim it with a layer of new vinyl that meets neatly with the cap edge, so as to make up the 2.5mm thickness.
I carefully selotaped two sheets of A3 paper together end on end and used them to make a template of the underside of the brow. Rubbing over the paper held in place made and impression of the cap edge which I cut out with scissors to make a template.
After trial fitting and trimming the paper to a perfect fit I was ready to cut out the vinyl.
Masking taping the vinyl on dry to get it on square and tight to the dash cap edge, I then undid half the tape folded it back and applied impact glue to both surfaces. Once tacky I carefully rolled it into place guided by the other half being taped securely. I then repeated the process for the other half to get it stuck down neatly without risk of getting it out of line.
At the bottom of the brow above the basket weave I cut a few bits of vinyl packing and built the old dash up to be just one vinyl thickness shy of the dash cap.
A final full templated sheet of vinyl was then glued over all other pieces to make the finished surface flush with the dash cap.
After a cuppa I then rubbed the whole dash cap down with scotchbrite. The plastic surface the cap comes with looks waxy/glossy and a bit cheap. The grain is ever so slightly more prominent than the original but the “cheap” plastic finish was not to my liking.
After keying and degreasing the surfaces I gave the whole thing a coat of VHT Vinyl Dye in a satin black finish. This looked the business as it took the nasty gloss look off the dash cap and toned it down a little. It also dyed my vinyl insert under the brow to match the cap perfectly.
I let it go touch dry for ½ hour while I cleaned up and then brought it indoors to dry overnight.

Day 188

Today was an early start at work with two long meetings. Getting up extra early I bolted the dash top to the dash now the dye had dried so that it kept its shape. Even with the new dash cap in place its quite floppy and I was concerned that it may “set” in an odd way if left off too long. The bonding agent cures after 24 hours but can take over a week to fully set.
At work I managed to find 20 minutes in between meetings to pop over to the trimmers and collect the rear bulkhead panel that goes under the window behind the seats. All the messing about with the back boards, repairs and adding strength have paid off. The recovering looks far better than the old beat up lumpy appearance.
When I got home this evening I put them back together with new screws (the panel is in 3 sections) and cut the hole for the interior light.
I’d promised my son we’d go out in the Morris Traveller this evening for more driving lessons, so I picked him up and spent the next 3 hours, kangarooing around the local industrial estate. To be fair he did very well as the old Morris has a manual choke, low biting point and very weak brakes, indicator lever that doesn’t auto cancel and obviously no power steering. It’s the best way to learn. If you can master that, then you can drive anything modern.
Retuning home safely we covered the Traveller up and I took him back to his mums house in my Delorean as it hadn’t had a run in a couple of weeks.
Returning home and putting all cars away I sat down to open my mail. There was a card in between the envelopes from DPD, “parcel left……….” I looked where it said and found a small box.
It was my new 914 gear knob. The original disk in the top with the gear selection has all cracked & crazed (a bit like shattered safety glass) so I found a new one on German ebay for a few quid. Hopefully with all these little things sorted it will look nice when I put it all back together.

Day 189

I started this morning on the steering wheel. I’d taken it off the car complete with column so that I could take the dash out. The first job was to remove the wheel from the column to start cleaning everything up.
The rim of the wheel is moulded sponge rubber that looks like the factory took a cast of a leather-bound wheel and just mass produced cheap sponge copies. Due to UV damage my wheel was quite perished and starting to crumble.
I decided a few months back to get it trimmed in leather (to copy the original moulded design). I’d spoken to Southbound trimmers a while ago about them covering it and was quoted £417.00 ($600) and they couldn’t fit it in until April 2017!
Suffice to say I started to look for alternative trimmers. The guy’s who’ve done my seats said that they could do it but reckon on 10 hours so the cost is not far short of Southbound.
Sometimes things just fall in to place if you wait awhile. I had a call from a friend who works at a high class restoration business wanting me to do his brothers wedding car, so a no monies deal was struck and I dropped off the wheel with him at lunchtime today.
On the way into work this morning I dropped off the dash panel with 3 holes that hold the main gauges at the powder coaters. The panel is chipped and peeling around the screws with a few scratches where the PO or garage must have slipped with a screwdriver in years past. This will be gently blasted and recoated satin black. They tell me it will be ready for the weekend which hopefully (if my new radio turns up) allow me to refit the refurbished dash back in the car.
Afterwards I visited the first trimmer (who did my seats) and picked up the windscreen pillar trims that were all split by UV, nicely trimmed with fresh vinyl.
Returning to the office after lunch there was a parcel from German ebay waiting.
Two brand new NOS genuine Porsche sunvisors. They look superb, unlike my old bags of spanners sunvisors that the trimmer pretty much didn’t want to touch with a barge pole.
After spending the afternoon at work distracted by looking at the sunvisors every 5 minutes, I returned home to carry on working on the car.
This evening I scrubbed and washed the remaining pieces of carpet that I took out under the dash & console. Again after several soaks, scrubs and rinse in the bath I hung them up to dry outside.
Next I began cleaning up the short seat belt clips that bolt to the tunnel. I got some new “Press” stickers off ebay so needed to get the assemblies spotless before fitting them. The bolts and washers that hold them to the car had black spots on the gold BZP so I wasn’t happy to re-use them. Fortunately over the last few evenings I’ve been rummaging in my sheds and found some new BZP bolts and washers in and old seat belt kit I had so all I needed to do was shorten the bolts on my lathe, machine a chamfer to match the originals and job done!
The plastic parts of the clips got a good scrub and the 4 tiny screws were removed one at a time and the heads wire brushed to a bright shine, the hole they came out off cleaned of gunk and refitted. I used cellulose thinners to clean the warning wires and white plug on the end before a brass wire brushing of the BZP eyelet on the ends.
They’ll look good as new when they go back in now.
As always, before I knew it the night started to draw in and I called it a day.

Day 190

This morning I continued cleaning parts before work and at lunchtime today I visited the laser/waterjet cutters (after a bit of CAD designing) to collect a polishing template they cut out to my drawing. This is something I’m working on to ensure the Fuch wheels can be polished factory accurate. All top secret stuff, if it works out I’ll be sure to post pictures on here.

With just a few minutes of lunchtime left I telephoned the classic radio company up that I’d bought the radio from last week (yet to arrive) and chased them up. Hopefully I’ll see it on Saturday.
When I got home this evening I carried on cleaning and sorting dash parts out. One problematic area was the ashtray. The tray was badly cracked and in danger of the front falling off. Searching on line this seems to be a common issue when people have over the years tugged on the ashtray to open it.
Mine was still salvageable having caught it just in time. I decided to make up a stainless steel reinforcing plate this evening from some off-cut sheet I had in one of my sheds.
I carefully made a paper template then cut out and formed the stainless to fit the ashtray perfectly. The end was rolled to match the finger recess, so that anytime in future when the ashtray is pulled open, you're pulling the stainless plate not the weak plastic bracket that’s cracked.
After carefully measuring and drilling rivet holes in a position to be obscured from view above by the chrome surround in the tray, I keyed the stainless and plastic with 180 grit before applying tiger bond adhesive. The plate was riveted in place and all excess polyurethane tiger bond that squeezed out was cleaned off with a cellulose thinners soaked rag.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1461496928.6.jpg)

It’s a solid as a rock now and when the adhesive sealant sets in 24 hrs it should be perfect for the future.
Yet again before I knew it, it started getting dark which is my cue to wrap up and get some dinner!

Day 191

I carried on cleaning the knee roll this morning to take it into work. I had contacted a specialist dash repairer (a lead given by the trimmer who did my seats) so a meeting was arranged in the car park this morning.
Unfortunately the chap said he could do nothing with it. He also said the trimmer who has my padded trim for the front of the roll bar had called him in to repair that for them (they tried maybe to sub it out) and he’d declined.
Suffice to say at lunchtime I went to collect it. Beforehand I called in at the motor factors and picked up some two part plastic bumper repair resin and some plastic flexible filler. I spoke with the trimmers and we’ve agreed for me to channel out all the splits, fill and level both parts. Return them to the trimmers and they’ll recover them with vinyl providing I make a good crack free base for them.
So….guess what I’ve got to do this weekend now.
Anyway after Friday food shop and getting home tonight to face the weekly clothes wash I did manage to find a couple of hours to carry on cleaning various dash parts.
I finished off the short seat belt catches, fitted the new “Press” stickers and bagged them up with the new bolts and washers.
I cleaned up the heater slide controls and notice that a lot of the coloured inserts for indication had fallen out over the years. I need to find a good close up picture now of what colour insert goes where (red/blue indication bars) That’ll be another late night on line searching google images and trying to source some thin coloured plastic to make new ones!
I also scrubbed up the ashtray I’d repaired last night, plus its runner and bracket that holds it in the dash. Since the dash cap sits over the dash I plan to shim out the ashtray bracket with 3 washers to push it forwards in the closed position so its in line with the dash cap face.
Finally tonight I cleaned a few more nuts and bolts up before calling it a day.

Day 192

Today I fitted the ashtray and put the dashtop back on (you cant fit the ashtray bracket easily with the dash top on). I packed the bracket out with a washer behind each of the 3 studs and with the dashtop tightened down I fitted the ashtray and aligned it before nipping up the nuts.
With the dashcap on, not only does it mean the ashtray has to sit further forward, the opening isn’t as wide! After a lot of deliberation I decided to file a couple of mm of each end of the ashtray to allow it to close properly into the dashcap.
I then rubbed down the stainless reinforcing plate I’d added and etch primed it. While the etch primer was out I moved into the loft, masked and etch primed the engine lid ready for the blacking out under the grille.
An hour later I scotchbrited the ashtray front and then to conceal the filing down I wet & dried the ends smooth before vinyl dying them to match the cap and painting the reinforcing plate black so it wont catch the eye..
After a few hours it was a perfect fit and colour to match the dashcap. If I hadn’t of posted what I’d done here, no-one would have known. Hopefully it’ll help someone considering a dashcap repair and let you know things aren’t always as easy as it says on the box!
Next I cleaned up and greased the lock barrel for the glove box and fitted it to the dash.
While the sun was out I decided to sort out the knee roll and the roll bar padded trim.
The spilts were right through the foam to the metal backing plate inside the trim linking every screw hole.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1461496928.7.jpg)

The surface of the old vinyl was raised up along the split so I had to cut out the slots to about ¾” wide (not for the faint hearted) and open up a large dovetail shaped cavity below each crack.
The foam underneath was then sealed and filled with flexible plastic filler.
I spent the rest of today building it up layer by layer to just below surface level.
To make matters worse a section of foam had been pulled off the metal backing plate in the centre as the old vinyl had shrunk. This then made a 6” long raised “lump” where it sits against the roll bar. Smack bang dead centre, so looked awful. The vinyl was so tight that it wouldn’t glue back down without tearing the foam again. The only thing I could do to get a good base for the trimmers was to cut out a semi circle from the top of the trim 8” long!
I spent another few hours casting a new infill piece.
As it started to get dark I cut out the internal corners of the knee roll (at both ends of the removed stainless trim strip) Again the original vinyl trim on the knee roll had shrunk and lifted in the corners looking like two large blisters. These got cut out carefully so as not to damage the foam underneath by only cutting the vinyl covering.
All exposed foam was then coated with the same ronseal dry rot hardener I'd used on the bulkhead trim card to provide a solid surface for the flexible filler tomorrow when it all dries.

Day 193

I spent most of the day filling cracks in the trim pieces. The weather was poor all day with constant rain & drizzle forcing me to work in my small 6’ x 8’ shed.
Eventually I finished the parts ready to drop off with the trimmers tomorrow morning, hopefully they’ll have a good base now to recover them with new vinyl without any of the damage showing through.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1461496928.8.jpg)

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1461496928.9.jpg)

After yesterdays dying of the ashtray it had 24 hrs to dry so I fitted it into the dash to check the final colour match and fit. Seems pretty good.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1461496928.10.jpg)

Needing a break from sanding and filing I nipped out to buy some fluorescent tubes and starters for my main garage before the 4pm end of trading then replaced a few in my garage that have been playing up for a while now.
After a quick cuppa I started on the 5 gauges from the dash and console. The bezels were a bit flakey the glass foggy and scratched and some dust/sand trapped inside on the faces.
I removed all the large rubber grommets that hold them in the dash and scrubbed them with soapy water to remove grime and more sand. Next I carefully opened up the bezels about 60% around each gauge and carefully took them off.
All 5 gauge glasses were removed and cleaned up. Only the volt meter and temp gauge are actually glass, the other 4 are plastic. These I cleaned and polished for several hours with Brasso to remove all the scratches and fogging. The faces were gently cleaned with a sable bristle brush to get all dust & fluff off. The inner cone bezels were removed and cleaned and the silicone rubber seals pried out the rear of all the bezels.
I then carefully placed all the glasses back into the gauge bodies to stop dust/dirt getting in and carefully placed them in my summer house while I work on the bezels themselves.
I ran out of daylight again so plan to strip all the bezels of the flaky dull paint tomorrow.

Day 194

This morning I did a little work on my son’s Morris Traveller, it had an exhaust blow from the manifold to down pipe so I took off the exhaust, cleaned it up, pasted and re assembled. I ran it up to set the paste and while I was at it, adjusted the idle speed which was a tiny bit low to the point it almost cut out when the clutch was depressed. Not ideal to learn to drive in so needed a tweak. I also adjusted and tightened up the wing mirrors before going to work.
At lunchtime I dropped off the filled trim pieces at the trimmers and hopefully should have them back for the end of the week.
The Blaupunkt Frankfurt radio turned up today and looks superb. It’s got a modification to plug in an MP3 player/ipod or something in the back (whatever that is) I’ll run the lead into the glovebox for the future but for now radio is just fine.
When I got home this evening the first thing I did was check the radio in the metal dash panel that I’ve previously stripped of basket weave. The radio panel was an old piece of zintec so has been changed at some point in time to fit the aftermarket radio the car came with. May have even been done by the main dealer as it’s a one owner car?
Anyhow, I tried the Blaupunkt but unfortunately it wouldn't fit. The two holes for the spindles fit but the rectangular hole for the radio tuner and push buttons was too small.
I carefully measured it all up, marked it out and filed the opening larger until the radio was a nice clearance fit. I’m going to trim it all with new basket weave so it will be fine now.
Next I carried on with the engine lid that I’d etch primed over the weekend. It had 48 hours to dry so I lightly scotchbrited the etch primer and sprayed it satin black tonight.
While it was drying I used paint stripper on the bezels and removed all the damaged flaky black paint.
Like the glass & plastic faces the bezels were another mix of brass and steel?

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1461496929.11.jpg)

No sooner had I stripped the paint off the steel one began to rust! I quickly cleaned them up, baked them dry in my oven and coated them with etch primer before running out of daylight.

Day 195

Fitting the dash cap is not as simple as the instructions would have you believe. I had to hack away quite a bit of my original dash top to get the cap to sit down neatly.
The cap finishes shy of the underside of the dash and around the brow (where the clocks sit) looks poor. As explained a days back, I had to build the old dash up with vinyl to disguise the "step" between cap and dash. Plus shaving off a good 2-3mm off each end of the ashtray.
Here's a close up so it may better explain.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1461496929.12.jpg)

Today I got up quite tired, my brain had been working overtime through the night designing a device to roll the bezel edges over neatly on the gauges, so I'd gotten little sleep.
I got up at dawn and started to sketch out my thoughts before doing a little research on how it was done at VDO. I have a cunning plan using my lathe and a modified knurl tool. Following a good rummage in my shed for materials to make it with I had breakfast and left for work.
At lunchtime I visited my friendly iron mongers and picked up some off cuts of bar and rod to make the bezel tool with.
On the way home from work tonight I had a 15 mile detour to pick up my son followed by 3 hours of driving lessons in the Traveller. Dropping him off afterwards I returned home to give the bezels a coat of black paint before nightfall.

Day 196

Today I continued working on the bezel replacement tool and at lunchtime I picked up some new star washers for the seat runner brackets.
This evening after work I spent a couple of hours continuing on my lathe before taking one of my other classic cars out to a pub meet.
Busy day but still got 4 hours in on the 914.
Day 197

This morning I put another coat of black on the gauge bezels and left for work.
At lunchtime I called in at the powder coaters but the dash gauge surround won’t be ready until tomorrow so I’ll pick it up then.
This evening I started by cleaning the rubber grommets that hold the gauges in the dash & console. I’d washed them in soap & water to get the sand and grime off, but they were still brown/grey and needed a good clean with a cellulose soaked rag to get them back to black
Next I ended up filing the interior light to get it to fit in the bulkhead trim snugly. A week ago I’d cut the vinyl and glued it around the opening to allow the light to fit, but I hadn’t fully tried it as the glue was still tacky. My original light was in half and melted so I got a generic T1 genuine Beetle one (I now know they’re slightly different) The difference is the T1 is made to locate in a thin metal hole, the 914 is a thick hardboard padded hole with metal tabs behind it. Overall the clips on the T1 light need filing open/back by a good 3-4mm and the metal clip re bending. After that all fits snugly. (note to self….next time buy a Porsche light and spend the extra £10 over the T1 light and it should fit!)
I then bonded the 4 aluminium ferrules at the base of the bulkhead trim from the rear with tiger bond and made a nice fillet around them to add strength. I’d fitted them dry last week but when messing with the light tonight, a couple looked wobbly.
With the tiger bond still out I fitted a new carpet eyelet from 914rubber to the cleaned up passenger mat that had been missing.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1461496929.13.jpg)

I plan on doing just the one. They look slightly different to the original ones having ridges around the eyelet, but much better than a hole with threads of carpet coming loose! Besides, keeping the other 3 (when they are fine) is being much kinder to the originality of the car (what’s left of it).
After cleaning up I did a trial fit on my fuch wheel polishing template. The idea is that I give it to the polishers with 4 nuts and bolts, they swap it from wheel to wheel and when they polish them there is no chance that they can slip or get it wrong. No matter how rough they are, only the factory polished areas of the wheel can be got at.
Sounds like a plan, but we’ll see how it works in reality.
After the trial fit in needs a tweak to put a slight curve/dish in it and maybe bead roll the circumference back up.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1461496929.14.jpg)

Yet again I ran out of daylight.

Day 198

Today was definitely Friday. Mad panic last minute dot com day at work. Suffice to say I had a real headache by the time I got home!
In the middle of the madness I did manage to call in at the powdercoaters and pick up the gauge dash panel and the centre console bracket. Then moved on to the trimmers to collect the last parts I’d dropped off on Monday. Unfortunately they hadn’t done them yet, but I managed to pick up a metre of vinyl off the roll to make all the sections that fit over the cross members under the seats and console this weekend.
After work, food shop and calling in at the hardware store to get some more white spirit tonight I got home and mowed the lawns (which had missed a week because of rain) before starting on the 914.
I tapped out the holes in the powdercoated bracket, then cleaned up a few more parts including the odometer trip reset cable that I found behind the dash disconnected?
When I took the dash apart the panel that I’ve just had powdercoated for the gauges had a real mix of screws holding it in the car (presumably lost over the years) and replaced with whatever came to hand. I sorted through them and worked out what was original and managed to find some similar headed screws in my shed but the two I needed were supposed to be countersunk, so had to put them into my lathe and turn a countersink on the rear of the heads to make a matching set. Finally I cleaned up the old and new screws before screwing them into a piece of softwood and repainting them satin black.
A few other dash fixing bolts, nuts & washer got cleaned up and waxoiled before I called it a day.

Day 199

Today was one step forwards two steps back!

I got up bright and early to fit the new washer jets and hose while the dash was out as mine are all perished and split. I also planned to fit the new plastic grid and surrounding seal to the top of the fresh air box under the scuttle slotted opening.
To do this the air box has to come out and to get it out you have to take the fuel tank out.
Having done this before I was well versed in getting the wedge blocks and hoses off and the tank was out in about 10 minutes.
This revealed a whole load of paintshop dust over the area that I’d previously cleaned. No problem I thought, when the air box is out I’ll give it all a good wash and polish in there.
Anyway, when lifting the blower box out I saw something jamming one of the butterfly flaps up inside the tube where the hoses fit.
I took the box outside and gave it a good shake……rattle, rattle, rattle
Time to unbolt the fan off the bottom and take a look.
OH DEAR

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1461496929.15.jpg)

So full of California Desert sand it had locked solid the fan impellor and when the PO had tried to turn it on the whole thing had shattered and the motor brushes had got so hot the holders had melted and run into the windings. What a god awful mess.
The only thing I could do was split the housing and take all the debris and sand out then order a new fan assembly.
After that set back I thought I’d at least get the rest of the car cleaned up behind the fuel tank and removed airbox. More sand and paintshop dust, but after a couple of painstaking hours I got it looking nice and clean.
Unfortunately as I was cleaning I noticed the wiper motor wobble?
Hmmm, what’s going on here then?
On closer inspection the motor was loose in the housing and the 3 bolts that hold it in place were partially unscrewed?
So out it had to come to allow free access to tighten the bolts up as you cant really get a swing on them in situ.
Once out I had to give it a good clean up which took another couple of hours after which I cleaned and lubricated the joints and spindles, working them too and fro with the motor off while being cleaned.
To be honest I should have done it earlier but it had just fallen off the radar. Anyways with the wiper motor out I gave the rear of the bulkhead a good clean behind it before refitting the wiper assembly back into place with the new 914rubber grommets on both sides of the scuttle.
The time was now 6pm and I’d been at it for 12 hours and finally got to fit the washer jets and new hoses, carefully cutting them to factory length, placing them in the original fold over securing tabs and installing the check valves. The hose was then fed through the bulkhead grommet and labelled ready for when the steering column goes back in.
Finally I cut to length (and at a matching angle to the body panels) the two rubber trim infill strips that go between the scuttle and wings at the base of the windscreen pillars. This was a 5 minute job I’d been meaning to do for a couple of weeks, having had them sat on the dining table far too long!
Finally I filled a bucket and dropped in the blower fan housing for an overnight sand soak just as it started to rain.
Some days don’t always go to plan, but I’m glad I found the fan & wiper problem before putting the dash back in and limiting access to that wiper frame retaining nut.

Day 200

Today I made up time from yesterdays woes.
Starting early I prepared and trimmed the dash panels with new basket weave that I got from Southbound Trimmers the other week. Very carefully I covered the main steel panel either side the steering column and left spare material by the radio plate. Enough to be able to cut the material with a Stanley knife from the rear and trim the radio panel with the “off cut” so that the basket weave pattern was an exact match along the join.
Next the radio panel and glovebox panel were covered, replicating the fold over at the end of the radio plate where it meets the glovebox. The glovebox panel folds over on each end and a flap along the bottom glues around and onto the back of the door.
The new basket weave material was white on the reverse so at every cut on the edges you could see a white dotted line. The only thing I could do was with a modellers brush, paint the edge of every cut, hole, opening and end of the material with matt black paint.
While all the glue & paint was drying I made a card template for the chrome Blaupunkt face plate. This took me a good while until I was happy with the fit.
This was then transferred to the material and painstakingly cut out so that the weave pattern was all in line, straight and true to the panel. Very carefully I masked up the chrome surrounds on the radio face plate and applied impact glue to it and the rear of the material.
Taking great care I fitted the basket weave into the face plate.
Now some of you may wonder what I’m doing here with the radio?
Well, most people who care, fit the radio like they would in an early 911, by just having the square tuner and the knobs poking through the basket weave. I’m sure some Porsche dealers did this, and fitted Blaupunkt radios.
However I wanted to be a little different.
In the Porsche 914 hand book on the page showing the dash with all the switches and gauges labelled there is a picture of the radio. It has a face plate on it!
After speaking to a few old radio Guru’s it looks like the radio in the Porsche handbook is a VW branded radio. I’m also told the face plate is black plastic with a silver painted rim to mimic chrome. I can see why they chose that; it matches the chrome surround on the heater/fan controls.
I wanted a quality radio, so opted for a Blaupunkt Frankfurt, but in wanting to create a look to match the handbook, I thought I’d do it in a much better quality way. I had offers of buying a black plastic silver rim painted face plate but opted for a metal chromed version to fit the Frankfurt that matched the plastic face plate exactly (including nice radiused corners) that was deep enough for a material insert.
I also managed to combine this with the large rubber knobs to fit the Blaupunkt, but look like the VW ones in the handbook.
It’s taken me a good few weeks to sort all the radio parts out, but the end result should hopefully be worth it.

So after a dry run to check and adjust the radio fit with the dash out of the car, I set about glove box assembly. Cleaning all parts so that it all looks like new, the hard to get at bits and bobs got fitted while the dash was out.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1461496930.16.jpg)

So, with dash built up I fitted it back into the car this evening.

It was a bit of a fiddle doing it single handed, but with the blower box and tank out it was far easier to get the 4 x M6 nuts on under the scuttle. Next I put back all the heater/blower hoses in each corner under the scuttle (removed to access the M6 nuts) and the wiring loom was all laid back into place and the securing tabs folded over.

The 3 light switches to the left of the column were put back in and the cigarette lighter wired up before I called it a day.

Day 201

Today I carried on cleaning the blower air box up ready for the new fan that’s currently in transit to me.
The casing of the blower motor box is made of the same thermosetting plastic as the rear light housings, so I couldn’t resist the Brasso tin coming out after I’d washed the plastic and spending a good few hours polishing it up to a high gloss shine.

I took out the blower fan speed control resistor/thermal link block first and found the 2.5 Ohm coil resister (looks like a spring) completely missing?
It wasn’t in the bottom of the housing with all the debris so it must have been long gone. So after cleaning up the cables and thermal links, heat shrink shrouding the female spade; I tested the resistance on the medium speed resistor. It should be 0.75 Ohms but it tested out at about 0.9 Ohms so close enough for medium fan speed. The 2.5 Ohm one is for slow speed.
Next I cleaned up the link rod, removed, cleaned and greased the Bowden cable and took the butterfly valve flaps apart. The foam seals had crumbled in each butterfly so I cleaned up and repainted the metal parts and cut some new circular seals from some foam rubber sheet I had in my shed.
While all that was drying I started cleaning up the light switch knobs (taking out the lenses/icon discs and checking the tiny lamps inside before reassembly. Finally I polished up the cigarette lighter end and cleaned the knob and icon disc.
After nearly 24 hrs not seeing the car, I had withdrawal symptoms and instead of calling it a night; I went out to the garage in the dark, torch held in my teeth and fitted the 3 light switch knobs (minus the icon discs) and the cigarette lighter. Carefully screwing in the switch knobs until they came to a stop. Only then did I fit the icon discs so that they are all upright level and true.
OCD at its best, but wonky icons on the switches would give me a Herbert Lom twitch.
Just need to sort out that slow speed fan resistor now.

Day 202

Today I carried on cleaning and preparing the fresh air blower box.
At work today I had a delivery from Euro Car Parts. The new blower fan motor and impellor that I ordered on line on Sunday night arrived. Looking at the box it seems to be OEM supplier too (There is the standard Porsche sticker with bar code and part number on it, right next to the Euro Carparts sticker with their code number on it)
The fan is part No 911 571 320 32 and Euro list it as Porsche 911 1969 to 89. They were on offer at £130 inc free shipping. A lot of money for a small fan, but although you can buy just the motor, I had no choice in the matter as I needed an impellor too, so had to bite the bullet.
I’d searched earlier for the speed control spring resistor block but hadn’t been able to find it just on its own, but a fellow UK owner contacted me to say he had a spare!
This evening after work I started to assemble the butterfly flaps (now the paint on them is dry) with the new rubber seals. I can’t fit the new fan motor and close up the casing just yet as the resistor block has to be fitted to one half of the casing first.
In the meantime I took apart the top section of the fresh air blower box which is the induction side of the fan (under the scuttle grill). It’s held together with Omega clips which need circlip pliers to remove.
Looking in the top of the box where the mesh fits, I could see plenty of blue paint. Not from the recent job as it was masked off, but from the PO poor respray. Taking the box apart revealed far more blue paint than I’d expected. This needed cleaning out (along with yet more sand) as with a new black plastic mesh fitted all you’d see is blue overspray through the colour contrast of the black mesh.
Unfortunately the plastic the box is made from is dissolved with cellulose thinners, so using it to clean off the blue paint is not a good idea. On closer inspection the paint had part dissolved the plastic surface of the inside of the box, so the only way to sort it out was to sand it down with 180 grit, 240 and finish with 600 and scotchbrite.
As you can imagine: this has taken most of this evening to complete. After the scotchbrite I masked up the outside of the brasso polished box halves and using the plastic satin black spray I re coloured the inside of the blower box.
During the clean up, I found two hairline cracks in the short drain tube stubs on the reverse. Not visible when the box is fitted in the car, I’d not noticed them before. Left alone they could propagate and the stubs fall off completely leaving nothing for the hose to connect to.
After some thought and a rummage in my shed I found two 15mm end feed copper water pipe sockets which were about 17mm OD and fit snugly inside the drain tubes.
I roughed up the outside of the fittings with a small file and the inside of the drain tubes with rolled up 80 grit then used the polyurethane sealant to bond them into place to line the cracked tube.
Hopefully now when the drain hoses get refitted the clips will have a solid tube to clamp and the plastic will be re-inforced so it shouldn’t fracture.
Finally tonight I cleaned up the 6 x Omega clips that hold the top of the blower box together and repainted them black before calling it a night.

Day 203

Today I got up early and started refurbishing the dash fan controls. The panel with the levers was looking very tired. I mentioned earlier in the thread that the coloured inserts had fallen out over the years and only one tiny blue bar above the fan speed lever remained. The front of the controls had faded to grey and where the levers had slid over the years the slot was worn down to bare metal. The lever ends were very dirty and the Red end was dark brown with dirt & UV damage. The chrome surround was all gummed up with sticky goo, maybe spilt coffee and suchlike over the years.
I stripped it down to its component parts and cleaned up all the electrical contacts and tested it all with my meter to make sure it all worked before starting to restore the appearance.
After removing the lever ends, the rectangular lever sleeves and chrome surround I pushed out the light lens with “Fan” and the fan icon from behind. The two lower lenses were stuck well so rather than risking breaking them I masked them up with low tack and a scalpel.
The long script is a foil sticker so trying to take it out would also be risky, so again I masked it carefully. The face of the unit was then de-greased. (I’d actually washed and scrubbed it a few nights before) and this is basically what state it was in (minus the one and only remaining blue insert bar)

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1461496930.17.jpg)

I carefully applied a few light coats of satin black spray before and after breakfast and left it to dry when I went to work.
This evening I cleaned up the chrome surround with Brasso and then started on the lever ends.
Again using Brasso I polished up the two black lever ends first. The red one which was brown and looking awful I had a little trick I’d used on previous 911’s.
The plastic its made of seems to develop a UV skin that discolours and holds grime. Using just my finger nail I gently scratched the whole surface skin to reveal red plastic beneath before finishing it off with a Brasso polish to look like new. With Brasso still in hand I polished the lever sleeves.
Over the day I’d had a think about what I was going to do to replace the blue inserts. Porsche make these out of a thin coloured plastic. It was just a case of finding some thin plastic of the right shade of blue.
Thinking all day I remembered a box that Hacksaw blades come in was about the right blue. I sort it out and sure enough it was a good colour match, so I cut the side off it.
Next I sanded one side of the plastic to key the surface for glue before it was cut to size because it was easier to do it when the plastic was 2” x 3” rather than tiny bits. With the end of a sheet of A4 paper laid on top of the now dry lever face I rubbed it to mark the paper and cut out the tiny pieces as templates.
The paper was tried in the recesses to check before being transferred to the plastic and cut out with a scalpel. Finally a few spare were made and a dry run fit carried out. Bloomin fiddly I can tell you, so only by using tweezers could I fit them.
I then cleaned out the bottom of the recesses to remove any paint so I could glue them in place. Using tiger bond and a pin to apply it to the inserts on their reverse while holding them in tweezers I stuck each and every new insert in place.
The “fan” script and icon were then glued in with tiger bond from a pin only around the frame as light shines through the rear of them and any glue over the back would stop the illumination.
The white paint on these icons and the two lower script lamp panels was a little worn so I made a simple paint pad. Using a clothes peg and a small (about 4mm x 8mm) pad of old inner tube rubber glued on the end of the peg I carefully painted the rubber with a little satin white paint from a modellers brush so as to put a thin wet layer of paint on the rubber. Simply hold it square to the icons and “stamp” the top and the icon is neatly refreshed with new white paint.
After a well earned cuppa I carefully put the lever sleeves and ends back on and the chrome surround having carefully tweaked the tabs inwards a little so that it grips better.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1461496930.18.jpg)

All restored it should look neat when it goes back into the retrimmed dash next to the super Blaupunkt radio I’ve put together.

Day 204

The Used speed resistor block turned up today. The spring resistor missing from my assembly was on the replacement but one end was broken at the securing crimp. This wasn’t a problem as losing 6mm ¼” off the resistor wire would make very little difference.
I’m not sure what state the car was that it came from, but how the heck did it end up getting red spray paint on it buried deep in the fan housing? Fortunately the resistor was free from paint. The hardest bit was opening up the factory crimps without damaging the wire. I ended up resting it over my vice with the jaws open about 3mm and with a tiny needle punch, opening up the crimp from the inside to free the resistor spring.
Since they get so hot when in normal use, they have a heat shield, sit in the air flow and a thermal bi metal switch to short them out and speed the fan up if they overheat. Consequently you cant solder them in place as it would just melt. They can only be crimped.
Once the resistor spring was out of the used holder I very carefully cleaned up mine and opened up the crimps, removed the two tiny remaining broken strands and opened up the broken end coil of Stuarts donor to make a new “leg” and fitted it in my holder. Using long nose mole grips I re-crimped it tightly into the terminal block and tested it with my meter. 2.5 Ohms. Perfect.
With everything ready to go I rebuilt the lower half of the fan housing with the new fan. Re using the fan seal to casing (still life left in it)
Here’s the finished fan assembly with donor terminal block resting on top with removed resistor spring, cleaned up cabling, spades and new yellow heat shrink.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1461496930.19.jpg)

Next I assembled my Uber Brasso polished shiny, shiny Intake box that sits above the fan with my cleaned and painted Omega clips.
With a strip of Isoline foam tape cut down to ½” wide I made a new gasket for the fan to intake box which had just turned to powder.
Finally fitting them together to complete the refurbished blower assembly, ready to go back in to the car over the weekend. You can see the tail ends of the tube reinforcements I added in the photo. These will be concealed inside the hoses when they go back on.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1461496931.20.jpg)

Day 205

Today’s progress was short and sweet as it was Friday which true to form was a bit of a nightmare at work. No time for lunch break today and even when I left from work on my way home in the supermarket tonight my work called me at 6:30pm and basically told me to abandon my shopping trolley half way around the store and rush in to fix a production critical machine. I got back to work at 7pm to find the so called “engineers” had repeatedly reset the low oil level cut out and bodged the machine to run on with no oil in it since yesterday and now it had completely self destructed so there was nothing I could do but say you’ll have to wait until Monday when the supplier in Europe reopens (and if the transport strikes are over) I might be able to locate a new one. They’re going to have some explaining to do I’m sure.
I didn’t get home until 9pm and jumped straight on to the gauges. Using my device and a few other medieval implements I’d sorted out I rolled the bezels back onto all the gauges. They went back on a treat and with only one small casualty; a tiny paint chip that I touched in on the rear of the bezel that won’t be seen anyway.
I’m pleased with how they look now, far, far better than they were and with all the other sprucing up of the dashboard in general they shouldn’t lower the tone at all.

Day 206

Today I made reasonable progress only delayed by 914rubber yet again!
With the blower box out I fitted the dash controls and connected the two cables back onto the levers on the drivers side then checked and adjusted the clamps so that the levers moved all the way across the control unit from left to right and the butterfly flaps opened and closed correctly in proportion.
Before the blower box went back in I gave it one last clean behind.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1461496931.21.jpg)

All was going well until I unpacked the new 914rubber mesh and seal for the top of the blower box. The mesh plate is angled down around its perimeter and the slot in the rubber seal is horizontal, so when you fit the mesh inside it (which is a fiddle) the rubber rolls over to match the angle of the perimeter of the mesh and wont easily fit or stay in place on the lip of the blower box.
It drove me to despair this afternoon, the bloomin thing wouldn’t stay in place for more than 10 seconds with the blower box off the car, let alone trying to fit it.
In the end I had to file the whole edge of the 914rubber mesh plate square (taking off the angled perimeter slightly and the underside part of the angle so that it sat in the rubber seal better without rolling the seal over.
Only then would it stay in place on the blower box.
Thinking I’d resolved the issue I then tried to fit the blower box back in the car. The damn 914rubber seal was far too hard and chunky for it to slide between the two metal securing plates welded on the underside of the scuttle without dragging it off the blower box.
Off again and back to the shed, I put a little superglue on the seal to hold it to the blower box and a light smear of grease on the sides to ease it between the two metal brackets.
Back to the garage and carefully slid it into place. Great, I thought. Then the next nightmare showed itself.
The 914rubber seal is quite chunky and the rubber isn’t forgiving so guess what….I couldn’t get the bolts in from either side as the seal wouldn’t compress enough on the underside of the scuttle to allow the blower box to lift upwards and align the bolt holes. We’re not talking a little here, with a piece of 3 x 2 wood as a lever under the blower box forcing it upwards with more pressure than I liked the holes in the box were still no where near, the box needed to go up a further 4mm. No chance.
I wrestled and wrestled with it for over an hour but the rubber seal was too hard and too big.
There was nothing I could do but have to take it out yet again. I was so frustrated with the 914rubber part that I had to go indoors have a cup of tea and calm down.
The only thing I could think of to do was physically cut 4mm of the top rim of the blower box to allow the seal to sit lower and the box to fit higher in the car. Again this was another 2 hours wasted trying to make stuff fit.
Anyway with it cut down, superglued back on and greased on the outside it eventually fit back in the car and the holes lined up (still needed a lever with the 3 x 2) but with points filed on the bolts I got them to go in eventually. Finally I fitted the air duct hoses and the drain tubes to complete it.
What a nightmare such a simple seal can cause.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1461496931.22.jpg)

I carried on by testing all the tiny indication & gauge illumination lamps in the loom with my multi meter and found 11 blown yes ELEVEN. How can you let a car get into this state of disrepair?! Fortunately a rummage in my shed resulted in finding 7 and I popped out and bought the remaining 4.
Fitting the lamps into the back of the blower controls was another fiddly job, they have a tiny flat on the holder and it needs to be aligned to fit it in all the way home.
The “fasten seat belts” lamp went in next and the rest of the wires on the heater control were reconnected.
Lastly this evening I dropped the fuse box and disconnected the power lead for the radio. Over the years the PO must have had a couple of radio replacements and the power lead had been cut and crimped 3 times between the fuse box spade and the radio so I plan on putting a new wire in without joins along with new speaker cables.
Just about to make up a new lead and my son arrived so we went out this evening for 2 hours driving lessons.

Day 207

Progress was reasonable today with the new cabling made up and installed for the radio including new speaker wires. While the fuse box was dropped I sorted out a few potential problems in there and replaced a few cables that had been cut and re joined some time in the past.
I then installed the Blaupunkt radio in the dash, made a bracket for the rear and wired it up.
Looks superb!
Next I started on the steering column that I’d removed previously. Stripping it all down I cleaned off the flaky paint from the universal joints, cleaned them all up and repainted them satin black.
The intermediate shaft got a good clean and all the gunk & sand cleaned from the splines and a finish with waxoil.
The wiper & indicator stalks were removed dismantled and cleaned. The washer jet valve had the pipe tails snapped clean off it. Strange as the perished old rubber hoses were stuffed up behind the dash but didn’t contain the missing pipe tails off the valve?
Anyway this afternoon I tracked one down from VW Heritage so ordered a replacement.
Finally I cleaned all the column housing and fixings ready to go back in tomorrow after the paint dries.

Day 208

Today I continued with the dashboard installation.
I glued in the 3 pieces of carpet under the dash this morning before work. The right hand one has the hole for the steering column to pass through so needs to be installed first.
It was a manic day at work with the start of some big projects so I never got a chance for lunch today or chasing 914 parts.
After work I cleaned up the socket headed bolts that hold the steering column in and lightly greased the Universal joints and splines.
The paint had dried overnight so I fitted the steering column. I found it was easier to fit the Top UJ and shaft to the column and slide the lower UJ onto the rack, feed the assembly through the dash hole and locate the shaft into the lower UJ before fitting the 4 socket head screws.
I used two small fox wedges to very slightly open the clamp on the lower UJ and the shaft slid in easily. Once the column was bolted under the dash I slid the lower UJ to align the recess for the cross bolts, fitted both bolts and removed the fox wedge and nipped up the bolts. Job done.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1461496931.23.jpg)

Finally I fitted the wiring plug to the rear of the ignition lock and made sure the loom sat comfortably without tension. Once the new washer jet valve arrives I can assemble the stalks and refit them.

Day 209

This morning I finished working on the gauges. All lamp holes/tubes were internally cleaned and the protruding lamp holders re covered with heat shrink as some of the old covers were very loose and fallen off.
During lunchtime I called in at the trimmers and picked up the roll bar trim that I’d had to use filler on to sort out the multiple splits. I was pleasantly surprised how well its come out. They used a very thin pliable vinyl and heat gun to form it around the old part and unless you look really, really hard you’d be hard pushed to see its been recovered. With this part in full view with the roof off it needs to look good!
This evening when I got home I fitted the 3 large gauges and new powdercoated panel (with home made screws) into the dash.
Starting with the Speedo I carefully fitted all the lamps and connections including the Speedo cable and the odometer trip cable that I found disconnected? Fortunately once located back into the speedo and underside of the dash it worked a treat so I was happy that another fault was resolved.
The Tacho was next using the gauge hole to the left to work through. It was a puzzle getting it into the dash, but after figuring out you cant do it with the rubber grommet fitted to the gauge, it went in much easier.
Finally the combination gauge went in. Along the way I had to un-plat and de knot the loom so it sat nicely, which had mysteriously got itself tangled when the dash was out?
It took me a couple of hours as I was extra careful not to rest or knock the freshly painted gauge bezels during sorting out the wires and connecting up.
Next I moved into the shed and continued to clean up the indicator & wiper stalks cleaning all the contacts I could get at. Finishing off with my multi meter and with the Haynes wiring diagram I tested all the terminals where the plugs fit in each stalk position to make sure I’d got good continuity. The wiper connection in the haynes showed 5 cables, the plug on the car loom has 5 female spades but the wiper stalk connection has locating holes for 5 male spades but only 4 fitted? This confused me a little as when I took the column out the PO had disconnected the wiper plug and tucked it back up under the dash to stop it hanging down? No idea why? Certainly the wipers wouldn’t have worked, but I don’t yet know why. The mechanism was very tight before I removed all the sand and clean it up, so maybe that’s it. In Desert Hot Spring where the car came from google says it barely rains so maybe it seized with lack of use and got disconnected as the wipers were rarely needed. Who knows? I’ll be sure to find out once the battery goes back on.
For now I’m waiting for the new washer valve to turn up (due tomorrow) before I can refit the stalks and give it a try.

Day 210

Picked up the lower dash roll at lunchtime from the trimmers at lunch. They called me to say they’d had a problem and could I come and take a look. During trimming they’d burnt the vinyl while trying to stretch it so had to take it all off to start again. Unfortunately the glue had stuck well and they’d accidentally torn off several section of the old vinyl & foam in a few places so I need to refill it all again for them to have another go.
When I got home this evening the washer valve had arrived, so I unpacked it and found it wasn’t made that well with lots of sharp plastic flashing on the hose tails that would potentially split the rubber tubes, so spent the next half an hour with a swiss file dressing it. Finally this evening I fitted the valve and stalks back into the column and sorted out the lay of the tubes and cable neatly behind the dash. What a game it was trying to fit the new rubber tubes, even after soaking in boiling water I could only get them on an inch, they were so tight. To be safe I put a couple of miniature cable ties around them to stop them blowing off. (But I’d be very surprised if they move at all as they were so, so tight on there).



So that was Month 7….

Dashboard refurbished and back in with good progress made on the retrimming the remain interior parts (with a few issues to sort out). The wiring loom and steering column is back in & connected up and the blower, wipers and ducting is all refurbished under the hood.

With the weather slowly improving I’ll be able to push the car outside next month so I can have room to open the doors and really get stuck in on the interior assembly.

Thanks again for taking time out to read my ramblings.