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]

Interim post to bring my thread up to July 4th.

Day 265

I didn’t sleep a wink in the Stroke Ward overnight. The guy opposite didn’t make it through the night. The mechanical breathing machines in the wards rhythmic clunk and hissing plus the groaning and my own thoughts wouldn’t allow me the escape of sleep.

Over last night it was diagnosed as a TIA stroke as within 6 hours I’d gotten my functions slowly back. It was a 50/50 chance of a full blown stroke or a TIA, for the grace of god this time it happened to be a TIA.
My vision came back first. Tunnel vision followed by soft edged fuzzy vision. By 2am I could see normally.
This was the greatest relief.
Motor functions returned but I had a complete numbness/pins & needles loss of feeling on my left side.
They could only give me water (no food) for 24hrs. This was in the form of small chilled bottles. I found that holding the ice water on my right side I felt instantly that it was cold. Holding it on the left side I felt nothing.
Shakily I could walk and hold stuff in my left hand.
I stayed in the Ward all day being tested every 30 minutes.

Day 266

Another restless night. I did manage to catch a few random naps. At least I got Breakfast today. Having not eaten for 36 hours it was very welcome.
I was still lacking sense of feeling and the Consultant arrived after breakfast for a meeting.
Since I’d had a TIA, they decided that I’d have to take a range of pills including Statins indefinitely until more tests could be done. I was to be discharged that evening as I’d got 95% function back, but because it is classed as a brain injury I would have my driving license suspended.
This was NOT what a guy who’s whole life revolves around cars, wants ever to hear.
I argued with the Consultant that not only was it my job, it was my hobby and my life.
Suffice to say it changed nothing.
I had a long conversation and the outcome is that until I have further tests including more brain scans over a period of several weeks, there would be no change in the ruling until I got an “all clear”. Besides I hadn’t fully got my sense of feeling back in my left side and it was unsure if this would be permanent.
I had to phone a friend to come collect me that evening and to arrange to get my car moved from the Hosptial car park.
By 8pm I was discharged with a sack of drugs and back at home.

Day 267

On day 264 in the morning of the TIA before work I’d cleaned up the CV bolts and painted all the heads satin black and laid them out to dry before leaving for work. At lunchtime I’d picked up the new driveshafts from Porsche and the gaskets that I took a chance on. Sure enough the gaskets were too large a diameter, so it looks like I’ll revert to Plan B and cut some out myself. Interestingly the CV boots & cover flange fitted to the new dive shafts has 6 holes not 4 (which bugs my OCD) but has the dowels fitted. Looks like Porsche use a generic boot and flange these days.

I called sick into work this morning and had to be back at the Hospital this afternoon for another MRI brain scan so in my world it was another wasted day of trains & taxi’s with nothing done on the 914.

Day 268

After being poked and prodded all day again in Hospital, I’m getting bored with all the Cop type drunk tests (stand on one leg, touch your nose with your left finger and so on) they let me out this evening at 6:30pm.

Getting home late this evening I needed a little normality so off to the shed I went.

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The next job was to sort out the elusive gaskets. After finding the 912 ones were too big on Friday lunchtime I’d had an idea. I measured the CV joint to find the inner diameter of the required gasket (80mm) and got out a British Standard flange table. A quick visit to BSS and I had 4 + 1 spare 3” pipe flange gaskets with a perfect 80mm hole in the centre.
Carefully marking out the 4 bolt semi circles and the 2 dowel semi circles I cut them using my punch set and finished them carefully with a rats tail file.

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All that was left to do was then carefully mark out and cut the external diameter with sturdy scissors. Much easier to cut the outer diameter than trying to cut an inside diameter.

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I made 4 plus 1 spare so just need to clean up the outer stub flanges and we’re good to fit.

Day 269

This morning I awoke at 3:30am with too many ideas running through my mind, by 4am I’d realised a design for a new fuel rail, calculated the flow, itemised materials and worked out a rough cost. I’d decided the best composition of a painting that I’m planning, decided on the plan this week for the 914, had considerations of how to get mobile while I’m not allowed to drive and had a few more ideas for my other cars.
Suffice to say by 4am I couldn’t lay in bed any longer so got dressed and went out to the garage. The weather was awful this morning before dawn so I got a few bits from my shed and closed myself in behind the up and over door with two LED lights.
I fashioned two long handled paint brushes from some flattened tube and sticky tape and began work on the RH rear inner arch.
While lying in hospital over the weekend I actually got a lot of stuff sorted, designed, tweaked and considered in my mind. As they say I had plenty of time to think.
One thought I had was about the final finish of the old factory underseal on the car. The product Porsche used dried to a matt finish and wasn’t jet black as a result. Simple underseal off the shelf is too Black, too glossy and slightly gritty in texture. I had a product in mind from an old 911 restoration I did a few years ago, rummaged in my shed last night and found a half used 5 litre tin. This is a professional stoneguard designed for spraying in a Shultz type gun. It dries to a matt black very resilient hard finish.
Since the task was to “restore” the under arch Porsche finish (and I’d locally repaired the flaked damaged areas with a similar texture) I was able to just lightly paint the new stone guard on with a brush and stipple finish it to loose any brush marks.
This morning I started on the RH rear arch and managed to coat everything forward of the rear wheel including behind the door striker plate panel, and up under the roll bar fin. I coated everything down to the sill panel on both the inside of the rear quarter panel and the inner arch making sure every surface was covered.
I was back at work today (yes back at work 5 days after the TIA, I got bills to pay and we don’t get sick pay) and had arranged a colleague to pick me up, so needed to get cleaned up and changed for 7am.
This lunchtime I called Porsche Centre and ordered a single 914 wheel bolt to replace my single rogue Beetle bolt. They’re still available and I’m curious to see what final finish the new bolt arrives with. The old ones have a dull zinc plate (or what’s left of it). I plan on having the bolts replated and hopefully the new bolt will show me what a new bolt should be like.
Anyway after getting home a little later than normal from work this evening I carried on to complete the RH wheel arch.
I took a photo with flash, so the arch looks far grayer in the picture than in reality.

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The two trailing arms were repainted and “toned down” to give them a natural look rather than a just painted too shiny gloss. Both "K" marks were carefully retained to look like original un-restored finish
I was extra careful with the stone guard and used a small modellers brush to detail around all the fiddly bits like the suspension bolt caps and sill screws to finish the LH arch.
Going back a page you can see the washed and scrubbed original Porsche coating has been matched pretty well with the new stoneguard for colour and matt finish. I'm really pleased with the way its turned out.
Tomorrow the plan is to do the same with the RH rear arch.

Day 270

Today was a repeat of yesterday but with a lie in until 5am this morning!
I finished off the LH rear arch this evening after work to match the RH. The “K” mark was retained on this trailing arm too (its just behind the brake pipe obscured in the picture below). On this side of the car it didn’t have the circle around the K, possibly to id the parts left & right at the factory?

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(The runs in the stoneguard near the front of the inner arch are genuine Porsche, so I left them!)

Day 271

This morning before being picked up for work I cleaned up the drive flanges that attach to the end of the shafts and fit into the hubs. I also purchased a new set of shiny gold BZP twin hole plate washers for the CV joint bolts (couldn’t put the old ones back on these uber shiny driveshafts)
The Porsche ones are no longer available but IRS Beetle ones are; from UK stockist VW Heritage. Slightly different profile but the best I could find from the same stable and era.
This morning I gave them a light coat of Waxoil and slid them along a wire to dry while I put a thin coat on the drive flanges and the CV joints and gaiter metal flanges too. This should stop the nice shiny BZP from fading or going white and powdery before rusting.
I left everything to dry and went into work for 7:30am.
At lunchtime I convinced a colleague to drive me out to the paint suppliers and picked up 4 more litres of stoneguard. I used 1 ½ lites under the two rear arches, so a quick calculation showed I didn’t have enough in the old tin left for the front. I’m also considering redoing the floorpan while the wheels are away and the cars up in the air. Not savouring the thought of the deep clean and prep, as it’s a large area!
Anyway this evening after work I decided to fit the driveshafts. Fitting the flanges into the hubs first and loosely fitting the castellated nuts I carefully degreased the perimeter of the CV joint where the thin gaskets fit with cellulose thinners. I then cheated by putting two tiny opposing dots of superglue on the gasket and stuck it to the CV joint.
This allowed me to push the bolts with plate washers through the joint before feeding it over the gearbox and heat exchangers and down the hole in the trailing arm to meet the flange without the gasket falling off and getting damaged. I used this method as I didn’t want to have to remove or disturb the heat exchangers. With a spline tool on a short ¼” drive extension I tightened the all bolts up gently to make sure everything was good and the gasket was fine before swapping to 3/8” drive and tightening them up a little at a time using opposites to pull the dowels home equally.
I left the transport/packing caps on the gearbox end to stop grease getting everywhere and manoeuvred the CV joint with loose gasket (no need for glue this end as you can hold and see everything) into place and bolted it up to the drive flange.
The N/S is a little more of a fiddle with the starter motor in place but with patience it does fit in without taking the heat exchangers or starter off.
I nipped everything up and then went around again just to be certain I’d not missed anything before calling it a night.
It does look nice with new driveshafts fitted.

Day 272

Today I had a whole day in Hospital undergoing further test, scans and general poking and prodding.
I decided to get a couple of hours in on the 914 before catching the morning train and had to think of a few tasks that wouldn’t get me too dirty. Following on from last nights driveshaft installation I needed to tighten up the castellated nuts on the hubs and fit the split pins. I sorted out some new split pins and pre cut the length and then using two wheel bolts and a very large crow bar in combination with the handbrake I locked each hub in turn so that the nuts could be tightened to the high torque.
The pins were added and then the nuts and pins given a light coat of clear waxoil to protect the gold BZP finish.
With the waxoil can at hand I gave the CV bolts a light coat along with the 3 bolts and plate washers on each underside that hold the outer trailing arm support bracket. I was pleasantly surprised when I cleaned these off last week to find them still shiny gold BZP so the waxoil should keep them this way.
I wrapped up and got the train into the city and walked a mile to the Hospital.
During the day Porsche centre telephoned me to say my wheel bolt was in, so while I’m not mobile I’ve asked them to post it out so hopefully if it doesn’t arrive tomorrow I should have it by Monday.
During the numerous MRI brain scans today I had a lull from 11:30 until the ultrasound tests of the arteries in my neck at 2pm. Not wanting to sit doing nothing I decided to walk right across the city to the motor factors and pick up some bits and bobs. Easy when you’re in a car but I underestimated the distance on foot. I ended up power walking 2 hours for about a 5 mile round trip to get back in time for my next Hospital test!
Anyway after walking back to the station and getting home this evening I started on the steering wheel.
The steering wheel spokes were a little dull and had a few tiny chips here and there. I’d expected the trimmers to maybe make a mark or two and to get glue on the spokes and true to form that’s what they did. I carefully cleaned all the excess glue off with white spirit.
Next the spokes were T cut rubbing polish to restore the faded paint to a very nice gloss finish.

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After a couple of hours working carefully with the T cut on both sides of the 4 spokes and around the hub I use a very fine modellers brush to carefully touch in the small chips so they disappeared. Finally I used Brasso on the hub which is made of plastic to get a glass shine.

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I then turned my attention to the horn push. This was looking a little worse for wear and had lots of chips and worn off paint. I’d scrubbed it with Cif cream a few weeks ago and now it was time to sort it out. Starting with a fine (400 grit) wet & dry I carefully feathered all the edges of the chips. I looked at trying to remove the foam pad out the centre of the metal surround but decided against it as it was well and truly bonded in there and risked damage trying to get it out. The only thing to do was to take extreme care working around it. There was a little oxidation of the Mazak in the corner and a section of paint had fallen off. Again I carefully removed the loose paint and feathered the edges before going over the whole metal section with red scotchbrite to key the surface.

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After masking up with some fine line detail tape, degreasing and a wipe with a tack rag I locally etch primed just the areas of bare metal and left it to dry for tomorrow.

Day 273

Today I started by flatting down the etch primer on the steering wheel centre with 1200 wet and dry. Drying any water off thoroughly I degreased and tack ragged the surface before the first coat of black paint. I took extra time on this small part as it will sit in full view every time I sit in the car so any small imperfection would drive me mad.
Allowing a good hour between each coat I built up the colour in several thin layers to a high smooth gloss finish with no orange peel.
In between coats I cleaned the horn contact ring on the back of the steering wheel hub and with a light coat of grease I fitted the steering wheel to the car.
I also moved 4 cars around to empty my main garage at home as one of the strip lights had burnt out the ballast last week and tripped the breaker. I had a spare ballast in the attic of the garage so stripped a spare unit down and replaced the burnt out one. As a precaution I’d bought some new starters having seen the ends were quite brown from heat; so went around and changed all 12. I also had a bit of a spring clean in my workshop. I was loosing floor and bench space with a collection of old worn 914 parts and a few bits from the other cars that just seem to mount up.
After 4 or 5 (can’t quite remember) coats of black paint (and changing the gearbox oil on my Volvo V70 in between) it was almost finished. I brought it indoors and sat in on the kitchen worktop and warmed it gently with a small electric fan heater on low setting for an hour, rotating it every 15 minutes to help the paint cure. Normally I’d put stuff in the oven, but this still had the plastic/sponge pad attached so I didn’t want to damage or melt it.
After another hour to cool I unmasked the pad cleaned it gently and fitted my new decal.

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I was fortunate enough to find the original “To Start” decal under the centre console carpet when I lifted it out. I’d posted earlier in the Originality section on here (914world) where a guru had replied with a photo showing where the decal was originally fitted! Many thanks.
The old decal was intact but the adhesive on the back was long dry and full of dirt from being on the floor of the car for 40 years. Enough detail remained for me to scan it and send the details to Rob (a nice guy in UK that makes long lost auto decals) who very kindly made me a new one (and a spare).
I’d imagine most owners on purchasing their new 914 would have peeled this off and thrown it out; after all it’s not particularly attractive.
I kind of like the idea of having it on the car now that it’s looking almost new again, so decided to reinstate it.
With the wheel centre still nice and warm from the heater I warmed the decal and carefully applied it using a stiff bristle nail brush to work it into the grain texture of the horn pad.

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I plan on leaving it 24hrs for the paint to dry a little more then fitting it back in the car.

Day 274

Today was a busy day.
I started early by going to fit the horn push in the steering wheel. True to form it was awkward and in the end I had to take the steering wheel off and change the cable from the contact ring and solder a new spade on it. I’d heat shrunk the old spade but it was proving difficult to fit the horn push as the heat shrink was not flexible enough to allow it to move while fitting. Eventually after a few dry runs with the wheel off the car I sorted it out. Fitted back on the car and battery on, turn the key and the horn sounded continually.
Battery off and horn push off again to examine, and I found the bayonet frame in the wheel slightly bent? All I can think of is that it got bent at the trimmers as it was fine when I took it apart. The bent frame was just holding the horn centre in enough to make contact at the bottom which was sounding the horn. With this gently bent back up the horn push was refitted and worked fine.
My son arrived just as I’d taken the battery back off. I called a friend and we spent a few hours this morning out on a driving lesson. (I had to ask my friend over to sit in the car with us as I’m not allowed to drive at the moment and technically that even means I can’t supervise my son. A right royal pain in the ass!). As a reward I cooked a Sunday Roast for us all and while it was in the oven we flatted one half of the Morris bonnet with soapy water & 1200 grit to remove some old orange peel and dull paint, before rubbing paste, T cut and a good wax.
With everyone fed & watered and on their way I returned to the 914 and started under the front LH wheel arch. I’d cleaned and scrubbed the inner arch previously, but there was plenty of splattered underseal all over the suspension. I started by scraping it off the shock absorber and working down to the torsion arm, hub and steering rack.
I spent 3 hours scraping off the excess underseal on the LH before running out of charge on the LED light and calling it a day.

Day 275

Today was another 4 hours under the front wheel arch scraping underseal off the front suspension; it really is rock hard and a bit of a nightmare to get off. I took a few pictures so you can see the task in hand. Fortunately under all the underseal there is very little rust if any to speak about.

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Absolutely everything had gotten sprayed with stone guard but with a little time and patience I’m slowly getting it all off.

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I worked on the RH side this evening and started at the top of the shock absorber and worked down to the torsion arm and to the end of the steering rack.
Yesterday I got most of it off the LH side.

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Once it’s all scraped off I plan on lightly sanding down any paint edges and locally priming any bare metal as I did with the rear suspension. It’s going to take a few more days and long hours to sort it, but hopefully I’ll have it all prepared ready for a weekend of painting.

Day 276

Today I made up two short brake pipes with the formed end on one end only. I passed them through a couple of new unions and then brazed up the open unmade ends of the pipes to blank them off.
I clamped the flexi hoses on the front suspension and undid the brake pipes at the shock absorber and quickly swapped over and fitted the two “blank” pipes I’d made up. This allowed me to remove both front callipers without loosing brake fluid.
The callipers were carefully placed in my shed and next I removed the front discs and dust/stone guards from the rear.
All the grease was cleaned off the stub shafts and I now had much better access to continue cleaning and dismantling the front suspension at my leisure. To do a good job I needed to stripdown the front suspension and take it off the car.
So another couple of hours cleaning after the mechanical strip down and my LED lights were out of charge so I called it a day.

Day 277

Today was another day under the front wheel arches. After scraping off the underseal over the last few days there are a some areas that needed sanding and preparing. I spent several hours today with 320 grit wet and dry feathering any paint edges, smoothing out runs in the original paint and dealing with tiny bits of surface rust.
I took apart the tension/limit stops for the torsion bars so that I could clean and prep behind and spent a good while on the trackrods removing some nasty old pipe wrench/mole grip marks.
By 9pm I retired to my shed and cleaned up the torsion bars, track rods and tension/limit bolts as the long exposed thread on them was quite rusty. After cleaning up the hex heads I called it a day.
A few more hours sanding and fettling and it should be all ready for paint.

Day 278

Today I continued to prep the front wheel arches with the suspension off. Finishing sanding down and with it part dismantled I dusted and degreased everything.
With the seasonal temperatures low for the time of year I’m in a race against nature now to get anything on the car painted. If the temperature goes too low the paint just wont flow or dry properly and with no power in the garage I’m trying to get it all painted this weekend. If not I’m considering options of renting a Calor gas heater or similar, but I’m not keen with the idea as they generate a lot of moisture and there’s not much room in the small garage to set it back far enough from the car.
With time pressing, tonight I gave all the areas above where the suspension bolts on a coat of stone guard and continued on the underside of the wheel well sides where the torsion bars run and up and over the steering rack back to the sills. I used another litre of the stone guard, painting until I ran out of LED torch charge again.
Tomorrow I plan to paint up inside the shock towers and then everything will be done so that I can move on to painting the suspension and bolting it all back in place at the weekend.



So this takes us up to day 278 of 914 ownership which is July 4th (starting on October 1st 2015)

The biggest challenge this month, was to recover.
Personally the not being able to drive is the hardest thing for me to accept.
Being suspended from driving indefinitely and having to visit the local Doctors Surgery and the City Hospital every other day for tests is a real bind. Fortunately my work colleagues are my taxi service, but my relentless need to do stuff and go places is awkward for all.
Hopefully the Neurologist will get to the bottom of it and I’ll have an idea of what my long term prognosis is.
I already know I’m restoration crazy, so maybe they’ll actually medically confirm it!