BUILD-OFF CHALLENGE: Dirty Cossack's Build Options

[JoeDees]

I had every intention of making an introduction video, but I found that I had ruined my wide angle lens trying to film some cool shots of grinding. So while I'm waiting for the new lens to be delivered, I will go with this novel:
I bought the car about a year ago with the shortsighted intention of throwing it back together and having a driver until its turn came for rustoration. I bought the car and a carload of parts from a guy in Dallas who did some really shady work and an incredible job hiding other rust; magician style he distracted with his obvious poor work. The drivetrain was out of the car and registration said it had been sitting for 12 years, so I don’t know what made me think I could get it driving in a month… Soon after buying the car, my daily driver VW went down and needed a bunch of work and Uncle Sam gave me orders to move 800 miles. I fiddled with the 914 now and then, mostly just probing for rust, but focused my attention on prepping my other projects and VW for sale, knowing I could only bring one car with me and it had to be rolling so I couldn’t really tear into it. I’ve been here in the new, much smaller shop since June and have been slowly tearing into the 914 between honey-do new house projects, new job training, and getting the new shop in order.
As we sit now, the car is on jackstands with the rotisserie acting as additional bracing, the engine and trans are under a workbench, the bigger pieces of the car are using the extra bedroom (the one my wife says needs to be vacated when we get pregnant) and others in boxes in my closet. Tearing the car down, I’ve found almost everything worse than I expected. The gas tank is pretty nasty with rust, all 4 calipers are locked up and the wheel bearing grease congealed. Removing the bumpers I found some evidence of prior damage and filler. Further probes into the longs found some rust on the driver side, and the passenger side nearly shot. The hellhole was a known problem, and turned into a chasm. I haven’t really dove to much into the floor, but found rust around the firewall and under a seat mount. The good news seems to be in a relatively dry trunk and pedal area.
My project’s Big 5 jobs are: 1) Rust repair. 2) Body work and a complete repaint. 3) Complete overhaul of the brake system, bearings, CVs, getting the window to work and stuff like that. 4) Engine rebuild. 5) Customization: wart removal, interior work, and an attempt at making custom made bumper tops.
In this build off challenge I face multiple fronts of challenges: 1) I grew up helping my Dad fix VWs, redid a Triumph Spitfire in my early 20s with his help, and have done numerous small projects over the years, but this is my first full rustoration on my own. 2) I have a severely limited budget. I am active duty Army, and everybody knows that NCO paychecks leave much to be desired. 3) I’m often short on time. My current assignment is as an instructor requiring me to work 10-12 hour days and 50-60 hour weeks. 4) I have a bum knee that makes it almost impossible to crouch and am fighting a shoulder issue that makes working overhead painful (praying for no surgery). 5) Nothing but the windshield and fine machine work like the heads and crank will be farmed out, I’m doing this on my own.
Well this is where we are starting, and honestly, who knows where we’ll end up. I haven’t really decided on color, engine, or upgrades, though I’m leaning towards keeping the 1.7 Liter Fuel Injection unless a good deal on another engine arises. I’m also thinking of keeping the car black but going minimal chrome, but who knows what the good idea fairy will deliver. I hope you enjoy the journey as much as I do.

[JoeDees]

Shop soundtrack: Euro 2016 Final (Sunday), some MLB, and my rockabilly Pandora station.

Doesn't seem like the most productive weekend if you just go by picture quantity, but I think it was a good one none the less. I had some more cancerous metal to remove on the driver side jack point, and since I knew I was removing a layer at a seam I decided to install my car dolly to use as support to prevent sagging: the dolly in the center + rotisserie holding ends + door braces seemed to hold it square, not that I think I really removed enough to truly endanger a sag. I started by using that Eastwood green stuff inside the longs (that shit is nasty, wear long sleeves, gloves, and a face shield), then went into cutting out a difficult area. Treated some rust with naval jelly, weld thru primed etc wasting time before I used the under-coating gun and hose to spray the eastwood heavy duty anti-rust in the long (see note above about nasty and getting everywhere). My pre-inspection with an old web cam showed very minimal rust, and my post inspection shows I got good coverage.

Sunday started with taking the dog to the dogpark since she was running like a nut in the house and backyard, but when we got there she chilled...then when we got home it was back to crazy...a harbinger of the day to come... In the garage I used Saturday's paper model and 18 gauge sheet to finish fabricating the patch. It took a while because some areas were almost impossible to reach and the cuts on the car were all kinds of crooked. Got it fit, plug weld holes drilled, cleaned, prepped and weld-thru primed (I turn into a really impatient kid while I wait the prescribed time for that stuff to dry) and welded on little bits at a time to prevent heat warping the area. Due to the cuts' nature and old metal removal style, not to mention trying an experimental welding technique that in some areas was a cross between plug and seam I didn't get the prettiest of seam at the rear or bottom (should have waited and done the bottom after bringing it back on the rotisserie--who likes overhead welding?) but I got good penetration and strong welds so whatever. In the crazy category I got great penetration and a good weld seam at the top where I had to play contortionist, line up a spot and close my eyes and turn my head since I couldn't get the helmet into that fender space area and still have the reach and depth perception to line up a weld. One really little spot at a time and good to go. I even had to half blindly grind that weld with the little Dremel grinding disk yet somehow it turned out looking pretty good. The whole area was awkward to grind and part turned out really nice and the other needing a little filler...whatever, better than overgrinding here. As you can see I have fully committed to deleting the jack posts: both sides now.

Now for the weird: with just minutes left before family dinner time I decided to start on that door sill patch. I reached into the scrap metal box and pulled out a little rectangle, perfect fit. It needed a centimeter trimmed off the end, one edge was the natural edge of the sheet (read: straight cut) but the other two were a little crooked/wobbly/whatever you call it, just so happens that these previous crooked cuts were the exact crookedness of the doorsill's crooked cuts!!! Go figure. Worked about 5 minutes drilling the plugweld holes and shaping the end for the jamb overlap (more serendipity in that the little crook was the exact size of a little crook on the anvil so super easy to shape); cleaned it up and sprayed the weld thru just as dinner was served. So welding will be job #1 next weekend.

Random product note: I got sick of paying $30 a can for weld-thru primer that always clogged up, sprayed poorly or whatnot so I thought I'd try the Eastwood stuff. Had it for at least the last month's worth of work and the can still sprays perfectly and it seems to weld-thru at least as good as the 3M or Copperweld. I'll recommend.