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]

Month 10 continued….

Day 279

Today I continued to stone guard the front arches. I finished off up inside the shock towers and moved on to the rear of the wings down the back of the door hinge post and up and over the inside of the wheel arches to the front valance on both sides. This took quite a while to work it into every corner and around the panel seams. It’s a bit like decorating a room, do all the fiddly cutting in then paint the bulk of the walls after with a roller. Just need to do the roller bit now. Last night (and tonight hopefully) the weather was mild so still good for painting. It’s supposed to get colder overnight next week, so I need to get a move on this weekend!

Day 280

Today was a good day as far as progress goes. I finished painting the removed front suspension in my shed then back under the arches in the garage for a paint-athon moving from side to side, front to back, inside, outside upside down and back again. I feel like I've had a real workout today in that tiny garage!
More of the same tomorrow with the stoneguard and I might just get this bit done before the weather turns bad.

Day 281

Fortunately it was really mild today and the sun came out for a good part of it which heats up the garage roof and acts like a mini radiator.
This morning I got up early and started to clean all the bolts and washers in my shed that hold the suspension to the car with my detail wire brushes. They were surprisingly good condition beneath the old underseal. Most of the original BZP was intact and after an hour they were all clean. I then gave the underside of the car another coat of stoneguard just where the suspension fits before my son came over for an 8:30 am driving lesson.
After which we flatted the remaining half of the Morris hood, rubbing pasted and T cut it back to a glass shine before a couple of coats of wax. After cooking a large fry-up brunch, my son left for his part time job, and I continued on the 914.
I undersealed for a couple hours and with sidelights removed I finished painting the inside of the wings and around all the fiddly bits before filling in the remainder.
Coming up for air with all the paint fumes making me a bit heady I made a quick cuppa got some fresh air and returned to fit the suspension back up onto the car.

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I need to let the paint harden a few days now. They’re a few spots I’m not happy with on the suspension, but the paints too soft at the moment to address them. I’ll see how the weather pans out this week and get back to them; now I’ve got the thankless task of painting the floor pan next. Working in such a tight garage with no power or light, I haven’t got the luxury of being able to spray on the stone guard. Instead I have to decant it into a small pot then work it into every nook and cranny with a brush before going over a second time with a soft paint roller. Takes a whole lot longer than you’d think to work it into the old textured surfaces and replicate the missing areas.
Just gotta keep going. Takes my mind off my suspended driving license.

Day 282

Today was a long day.

I got up early and 800 grit, wet and dried the suspension and shocks. I wasn’t happy with the finish. There were a few tiny paint sags and a few tiny bits of dust in the paint that ended up being foam from my new roller stuck in the paint!
I got picked up this morning and taken to work early by a colleague because I needed to get ahead as this afternoon I was back in hospital for more tests.
This evening I had to catch the train back home from the city and got home a lot later than normal. Just got to wit now for the Consultants to give me the results.
I did manage however to get a fresh coat of paint on the areas of the suspension that were displeasing me late into this evening with foam shedding free roller.
There were a few scary moments in the torchlight this evening as a massive eight legged friend scampered across the garage floor towards me as I lay under the car. I did scramble out in a flash but now I don’t quite know where it went?

Day 283

Today I telephoned the wheel refurbishers who are bead blasting the rear of the wheels to see how they are getting on as I haven’t heard anything for 3 weeks.
Unfortunately it transpires that they haven’t even started them yet!
They've promised to take a look this week. A bit frustrating though as I was hoping to get them back and off to be electroplating stripped this week.
Hey ho, just have to wait a little longer.
I also called Vintage Tyres at Beaulieu where I have 5 new tyres reserved. It’s been a little longer than I anticipated having them reserved so to be fair I’ve paid today and should have them this week. They've found me some brand new 165 SR 15 Michelin XZX’s, which I’m pleased to have as they are the same as the originals the car came to me with and the paperwork in the history file shows were purchased by the PO in CA way back in the early 1980’s.
This evening I fitted the Torsion bar adjusting screws that I’d removed and cleaned up then began to start the deep clean of the floor pan. I began with covering the garage floor with lots of old newspapers and with a bucket of hot soapy water and scrubbing & tiny nail brushes I cleaned the drivers side floorpan up to the centre line from the steering rack back to the rear bulkhead. It’s not easy working upside down with water! With a little patience I got most of the mud sand and dirt off. Unfortunately most of it ran down my sleeve, inside my shirt and I now have muddy elbows and a muddy back from lying in the dirty water for several hours!
Again not easy with the car on axle stands only an inch from the tip of my nose when I crawl under it!
Tomorrow the passenger side floorpan…..the deep joy continues.

Day 284

The 5 new Michelin tyres arrived this afternoon at work. Looking really nice, but I had to move them out the office as the ladies didn’t like the smell of the rubber…
Suffice to say there were a few jokes going around this afternoon.

This evening more of the same I’m afraid. Scrub, scrub and more scrubbing under the floor pan. At least with it raining this afternoon I was already wet from having to walk home before I started so it didn’t matter at all having more water run up my sleeves.
Hope to have the whole floorpan cleaned for painting this weekend.

Day 285

Today I got a friend to drive me over to take a look at the 1st “trial” light bead blast of the rear of the wheels.

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I’m going to replate them with the clear anodise like they were originally, but the rear of the wheels needed a good clean up to prepare them for the process. Painting the rear or powder coating would be the easy option to “hide” corrosion, but my OCD wouldn’t let me live with a compromise here.
The result looks pretty good and I’m happy to let them do the remaining 4 rears of the other wheels. (The front face has been heavily masked up to stop the bead blasting getting anywhere near the polished surface).
This evening after work I continued with the floor pan scrub and finally tonight I have all the mud, sand and dirt off it.
Tomorrow its scrapers and wire brushes to remove any small areas of flaky underseal.
(Really looking forward to that)

Day 286

This morning before work I started by painting the front brake discs that I purchased from Pelican parts so that they are ready to assemble this weekend. Using the same very high temperature paint as I used on the rears, I painted the hub section and the outer diameter edge of the discs and left them to dry.
This evening I scraped off a few area’s of loose underseal and carried out some local texture repairs (as I did under the arches) to replicate the missing underseal so that it will dry overnight for a full re-coat tomorrow.
Wanting to progress further I retired to my shed and de-greased the front hub bearing caps, carefully removed the rubber grease seals and sanded the caps carefully before applying new satin black paint to finish them like new.
I cut a small piece of wood and made a nice tiny shelf to fit on top of my kitchen radiator and sat the bearing caps on it to keep them warm overnight so the paint doesn’t bloom in the cold night air.
It was a late start this evening afterwork, with food shop (using a friend as a taxi) and weekly washing chores, so after painting the caps it was gone 10:30pm so I called it a night as I needed to cook some dinner.

Day 287

Today I made very good progress with repainting the floorpan.
I started this morning and with a combination of brushes of varying sizes and a sponge roller I painted the whole of the floorpan from the steering rack right back to the rear bulkhead and suspension.
It was a bit like painting a concrete block wall for the first time. In the end I gave up with the roller and used brushes. Due to the very textured underseal it took a lot of effort to work the new paint into the texture. Especially difficult were the circular areas and sides closest to the sills where the seam sealer is the heaviest stipple texture.
Again all this working upside down was a messy job with the runny stoneguard.
By mid afternoon I’d completed the floorpan. The stoneguard dries quite quickly and the front of the car was dry by the time I reached the back. I could then see some areas/spots that I’d missed so spent another hour filling in.
Tomorrow I plan a second coat and some photos

Day 288

This morning I made use of the light at dawn and started early to assemble the front hubs. It was too cold first thing to paint so I started by fitting my new bearings into the Pelican Parts discs that I’d painted the other day.
I then re fitted the recently blasted and powder coated disc backing plates to the hubs followed by the discs.
I cleaned the paintshop dust from the brake callipers and refitted them next with new bolts and tab washers.
Finally the brake hoses were connected just in time for my son coming over to visit. While the morning air lost its chill, my son and I bled the brakes.

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Afterwards we cleaned up and went into town, as I’d promised him some new clothes and a haircut.
Arriving back home early afternoon, the sun was out and the temperature into double figures. It was warm enough to give the floorpan a second coat of stoneguard.

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I’m quite pleased with the result. It was worth taking time to 800 grit wet & dry all the suspension parts to get a super smooth finish.
Again taking time to replicate the Porsche stone guard finish with care (unlike the original sprayed on that seemed to be splattered all over everything) makes for a neat look.
I just need to get the wheels back now and I can remove the axle stands and fit my blasted and powdercoated steering rack undertray.

Day 289

Yesterday I’d removed the horn push from the Steering wheel again. I wasn’t happy with the black paint. I’d spent ages getting it super smooth but it just looked too glossy against the rest of the dashboard.
With the sun shining and the temperature in double figures I lightly scotchbrited it and gave it a thin coat of satin lacquer to tone it down slightly.
This morning I woke up at 4am and couldn’t get back to sleep so after an early breakfast I decided to un mask the horn push and fit it back in the car.
Tonight after work it was one of my other monthly car club committee meeting and I knew I’d not be home until after 11pm, so if I were going to achieve something on the 914 today it had to be done early this morning.
With the horn push refitted it looks much better with the less glossy black paint.

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Day 290

Today the evening was very dark with storm clouds, windy and wet.

I retired to the shed this evening and started cleaning up the wheel bolt heads. The new missing wheel bolt turned up week before last from Porsche Centre and it has a dull zinc plate. I plan to get the bolts replated but need to clean and fettle them properly first.
Pretty boring stuff, filing a few burrs, wire brushing and sanding, but preparation is everything.

Day 291

Tonight even with another dark and wet evening it was pleasantly mild. I managed to complete a little job that was niggling me.
Working under the arches with the stoneguard I’d noticed when sat under the arches with the suspension missing, looking outwards, that the rolled return of the front arch from 11 to 1 o clock is rolled tight over. This means that it was difficult to paint when the car was sprayed in the paintshop with the wheels on. The blue paint was a little thin on the return, and I suspect it was like this from new also as I could see the white of the factory primer through the colour.
I have about ½ litre of colour left from the respray so I carefully stirred/mixed the paint and poured a tiny amount into a mini roller tray and then with a new mini gloss roller with only a light coat of colour, rolled the paint onto the return of the arch (with the inner stoneguard masked off). Using this method there is an invisible edge of paint on the rolled arch. This was only the edge that’s rolled right over so you cant see it looking upwards at the arch, you need the wheel off and your head resting on the shock absorber to see it.
Tomorrow if its mild enough I’ll put a coat of clear lacquer over the basecoat colour using the same method.

Day 292

Today was a real bind as I had to leave early and got home late from work using the train (as my work colleagues are finding it a real chore to taxi me around while I cant drive) combined with it raining again, it was real grim.
This evening I decided to hold of coating the arch returns with lacquer as with the cold damp air it would most likely bloom. (go foggy with the cold and damp weather)
Instead I gave the engine bay a good clean. The garage I’m renting seems to have a real issue with dust/dirt. 3 garages down they are developing the old council estate, knocking down and building new flats so there is an excessive amount of dust generated, which seems to cover the car even when the doors shut. With no engine lid on the car yet, I keep washing off the bodywork but haven’t done the engine bay for a while. I must get an indoor cover sorted!
Anyhow after a good wash & wipe clean I sorted out a few bits and bobs including a couple more P clips to tidy hoses and wires, I called it a night as my second LED flashlight ran out of charge.

Day 293

Today was a GREAT day.

I had to go visit the Hospital and see my Consultant for the results of all the tests from my TIA.

No visible permanent damage.
High risk of a re-occurance
Keep on the Medication
Change my diet to keep low cholesterol
More tests required to find the cause.

Then he said the magic words….

“I will lift the driving suspension”





Today was the first day that I have been allowed to drive for a month (it could have been a year or indefinitely, so I was VERY lucky)
I made the most of it and when I got home I spent the rest of the day driving!
At lunch I called into the wheel refurbishers. Having had my wheels for over a month, they’d obviously lost the sense of urgency and had only done the back of one wheel. Hopefully they’ll get the other four done before the end of the month now I’m mobile and can check up on them!
Tonight I took my son to the movies so tomorrow I concentrate on the car!

Day 294

Today I started with taking my son out on some more driving lessons, 1200 flatted the front section of the Morris Traveller roof & front wing, then polished out with rubbing paste & T cut. Lunch, then out for more driving before dropping him back.
I then carried on with the “tinkering”.
I’m going to call it “tinkering” now, as I’m just finding stuff to do until the wheels come back and I can get the car down the UK Ministry of Transport Test Centre to have it Tested and hopefully certified and legal to drive in UK (and then they will issue a Title and license number) .
With the afternoon sunny and warm I mixed up some 2-pack lacquer and finished off the roll over edges of the wheel arches with a fresh mini gloss roller over the blue base coat I’d applied the other day.
I then crawled under the car and touched in a few little area’s of the stone guard in the original heavy ripple texture, where from certain angles I had missed a few valleys in the texture.
I also had an in line fuel pressure tester (with gauge) turn up in the mail today. I’ve wanted a professional one for a while and had knocked myself up one (cobbled from bits & bobs) that had started to leak a bit and I wasn’t sure on the gauge calibration so had taken the plunge and bought a new one.
I made up some extra fittings on my lathe this evening and shall have a play with the car fuel pressure tomorrow!

Day 295

Today I did a little more turning on my lathe to make a fuel return bleed and assembled my new fuel pressure tester.
I sorted out the fuel hoses in the engine bay and tidied everything up. A trip down to the local gas station with two cans (with a stop for lunch) I put fuel back into the car. It’d been dry since pulling the tank out to replace the fresh air blower motor a couple of months ago. After replacing the fuel pump relay (removed while I was sorting out the cars electrics that needed the ignition on) I ran the pump and found a few leaks. These were repaired and the pressures set and tested.
After some more fettling I ran the engine and warmed it through while checking for leaks from over the whole system, tank to engine bay & back.
One of the criteria when the car went into the paintshop was that the painters could drive the car. I’d temporarily rigged up the engine & fuel system so that this could happen, but now I needed to make a more permanent (and safer) situation.
With everything looking good I stopped the engine and made use of the heat in the garage to touch in a bit more paint including the LH heat exchanger where the outer casing had moved/expanded along the pipes about 3mm and revealed bare metal needing painting.
I was interrupted by a neighbour with car trouble so gave him a hand to fix it before returning to the 914. Finally fitting a few tinware screws that were missing and clipping the throttle cable near the coil to tidy it up before calling it a day

Day 296

Today I had another afternoon of testing and prodding at the Hospital. Despite the results the Consultant wanted a couple more tests run. I did however manage to visit the zinc platters and take along the wheel bolts.

I took along the brand new single bolt as an example of how I wanted the old bolts refinished in dull zinc.
After an inspection and discussion they agreed to do a sample strip and replate on one bolt only as a trial.
Expecting to return tomorrow the guy said, take a seat, have a coffee and I’ll do it while you wait.
10 minutes later he came back with a electro stripped and replated old bolt.
The colour & matt finish was good but the old bolt hex head had some wheelbrace/ socket marking.
The new bolt (and my old ones when new) had a very slightly rough texture in the metal from the forging/manufacturing process. Over the years taking them off and on with a socket or wrench had “smoothed” the textured surface. Not easily seen when in the old condition, but once the bolt had been replated the smooth corners of the hex had quite a comparison to the textured centre of the hex flats. The smoothness makes the zinc plate look more chrome/shiny than even dullness.
After a bit of deliberation I plan to take all the bolts over to the bead blasters tomorrow (including the replated one) and have just the heads blasted to return the texture finish evenly to the hex flats.

Afterwards they can go back to the platers for a coat of dull zinc. I want a minimum 15 microns to give good rust resistance whilst retaining the surface texture.
I know its an OCD thing, but I want the car to be finished to a high level, and marks on the wheel bolts will drive me nuts.

Photo below show (from left to right) New Bolt, Test replated bolt with texture worn fron wrench use & old bolt as it was before test replating (remaining 14 are like this).

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The plan is to get them looking like original brand new against the refurbished wheels without spending a fortune on buying all new bolts.
The new bolt from Porsche admittedly has a high texture finish to the head, which seems to be slightly rougher than my old bolts. It’s the wrench marks that really show as a “polished” smooth contrast to the texture that is my issue. It’s a little like the contrast of the Fuch wheels between dull and smooth surfaces. It really stands out, so off to the Blasters the remaining bolts go!

Day 297

Today I took the wheel bolts to the blasters and got all the heads cleaned up and textured evenly to remove the socket wrench marks before dropping them off at the zinc platers.
This evening I emptied out a few boxes and bags and took stock of the few remaining parts that I’d removed from the car to work out the best restoration methods.

Day 298

Today I picked up the freshly dull zinc plated wheel bolts. The pre blasting really did the trick and all the heads are now a nice even texture with no socket marks showing in the zinc plate.

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The dark rings on the thread is where they were wired up to hold them in the tank for plating. This will have a nice coating of copper grease so should be fine when fitted.
I’m really pleased with how they came out. It cost me £10 to get them done which is just less than the price of the one new bolt from Porsche (which I needed anyway as I had a rogue Beetle bolt in there) What a bargain price to get them looking all like new again.

Interestingly the bolts had little VW stamps on the ends..

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Day 299

Today was a little frantic to say the least. I had a 10:15 hospital appointment in Portsmouth but decided to get up early and do a bit on the 914 very early on.
I’d picked the wheels up from the blasters on Friday and taken them home. The guy who works at the platers said he needed them pretty clean so that it wouldn’t contaminate his chemical tanks. The blasters had done the rear of the wheels as asked but the rims had lots of hardened black rubber marks from the tyre beads and the face of the wheels had old black and dirty stick foam from old wheel weights. All this had to come off before I could drop them off to be stripped of the original clear anodise coating.
It took me a good 2 ½ hours this morning to clean all this off with a combination of aluminium plate scrapers (I’d cut from some spare ali sheet) brass wire brushes, Cif cream (good olde Cif) and some pan scrubber scotchbrite (the green stuff that wont easily scratch) and a good amount of Cellulose thinners to clean after and remove the old grease from down and around the bolt holes
As it was a Monday and I’d had engineers working on a project at work over the weekend I needed to go into work before the Hospital appointment at 10:15. I had breakfast on the run, loaded the car with the wheels and shot off for 2 hours at work before leaving in good time for the Hospital.
Today I had an EEG test following my TIA last month, where they wire about 30 electrodes on your scalp to measure your brain waves, make you look at strobe lights and hyperventilate until you start to starve your brain of oxygen (all in the name science).
What they don’t tell you is that they measure and mark your head/hair with a pastel crayon then a sort of paste and glue the electrode onto your head, so by the time it was time to leave I had a head covered in goo, sticky stuff and spots of yellow pastel crayon. Not a good look and certainly gave me a few funny looks on the walk out of the hospital!
Anyhow, still looking like some crazy punk rocker I dropped the wheels off at the platters to get them stripped of the clear anodise before rushing home to wash my head.
After a manic wash and brush up I leapt back in the car, hair still wet and raced to Chichester Hospital for a 2pm MRI brain scan.
This was a novel experience too. Stripped of any metal jewellery, clothing containing metal and fitted with ear plugs and ear defenders, my head was sat in a cradle with a cage place over it while I entered the large donut MRI machine. This banged, clunked and buzzed in an alarming way for 20 minutes with me daring not move a muscle as it carried out an in depth brain scan.
Fun over I asked the lady where I collect the photo (in a sort of Roller Coaster, end of the ride way).
Back in the Hospital carpark I turned my phone on and got a message to say the wheels had been stripped and were ready to collect. By now it was 4pm and a toss up between going back to work for an hour or picking up the wheels. Guess what choice my fried brain made……

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They’ve come up like brand new!
Tomorrow the next stage of this refurbishment process is to go back to the blasters to gently blast the dull area’s between the polished petals to remove some old battle scars (scratches, knocks from lazy wrench action etc) to give a uniform texture before going off to the polishers.
Once all this is done they can be re anodised in clear. I forgot to mention that when I dropped them off this morning before work the chap used a special meter on them to measure the original factory anodise thickness. This ranged from 8.5 microns on the face of the petals (which you can only presume wears thin with washing over 40+ years) to 11 microns on the inside of the wheel (under the tyre where it cannot get washed/rubbed)
The platers reckon they can get 20 microns on them when they re anodise, so hopefully this will exceed the factory finish and prove to be longer lasting.

Day 300
Today I dropped the wheels back off at the blasters and explained what was needed on the “dull” area’s of the wheel faces, so hopefully they get out the numerous dents and scratches for a flawless finish!
I had a few parts turn up in the mail today including the majority of my 316 stainless pipe fittings that I plan to construct a neat Twin Carb fuel rail with. (This is the one I mentioned designing last month).
After unpacking the pipe fittings I started on the new stainless fuel rail and made up the parts ready for Tig welding.
I should have enough bits to keep me going this weekend while the wheels are still away. I’ll take some pictures tomorrow of progress as I’ve not been home in daylight today, early start and long day at work getting in the way of the 914 restoration!

Day 301

Today I had a good day making stuff.
Since the weather was awful I spent the day in my shed and cut and treaded some stainless pipe to make up a nice fuel rail with centre feed so as not to starve either carburettor. To ensure that there was no risk of fuel leakage from any of the thread fittings, all joints got stainless Tig welded up.
To make sure all the welds and joints were good I capped the ends and pumped it up with my foot pump to 10 psi. (I plan on running between 3 & 3.5 psi, so a test at 10 psi is more that sufficient). To double check I submerged it in the bath tub for a good while and all went well.

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Next I turned down a fuel bleed/return. When running carbs with an electric pump it helps to have a bleed/return to keep the pump happy when the engine is at idle and the floats are closed. It also helps to cool the pump if there is always a flow.
The easiest way to do this is machine out a shouldered bore inside a spare carb hose tail. After rummaging in my shed I found some old bits of carb and unscrewed a hose tail. This was lightly bored out on my lathe and from a scrap bit of brass I turned an insert with 1mm bleed hole. It’s always important to turn a chamfer/cone on the end facing against the fuel flow. This helps if there are any dirt or particles in the fuel system. The hole is less likely to block as the dirt/debris tends to head down the chamfer/cone to the sides of the pipe and keep the hole clear.

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Day 302

This morning I had a lie in until 6am. I went and picked my son up and we spent a good 2 hours out driving in the Morris Traveller. As the weather was blustery with constant drizzle all day, I let him get away without flatting and polishing a body panel after we’d finished. After a fry up brunch I dropped him home and started on the 914.

I had a good day fitting parts to the car and making a few adjustments to get this just right.

As I’d said earlier in my thread, Carbs were fitted from my shed stock way back in November to get the engine running for the first time in several years so that I could find out just exactly what I’d purchased blind. The paint shop had also said to me that they’d only take the car in for paint if it drove, so carbs were a quick no cost solution for me as I have numerous old & new sets in my shed from my VW days.

I temporarily fitted rubber fuel hoses and used rivi-nuts in the factory holes in the bulkhead between engine bay and trunk to secure the fuel hose to the bulkhead with stainless rubber lined P clips. (This picture is from last November)

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1469382123.16.jpg)

Moving on to today I fitted the stainless steel fuel pipe manifold I’d just made using the same rivi-nut fixing points for a much neater and safer out of the way installation.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1469382123.17.jpg)

Just need to hunt down some tiny metal tubing this week to make a nice twin vacuum tube between carbs and dizzy.

Day 303

Today I chased up the wheels, they’ve had them a good few days now but told me they have been too busy to start them this week. Fingers crossed they might be ready to take to the polishers by the end of the week. With the engine running, and most bits done I’m itching to get the car down to the test centre for the MOT. It’s most likely that they pick up some inherent “made for USA market” faults and make me go take it away to make it comply with UK market law, so I need to plan time to do any remedial works.

Anyway this lunchtime I ordered up a couple of metres of small metal tube to make the vacuum pipe with.
When I got home this evening I did a little housekeeping in the engine bay and noticed an open tube from the tinware on the drivers side forward of the inlet manifold. I think this is the old warm air take off for the induction. With the twin carbs it isn’t really required so I turned down a spare bit of stainless bar on my lathe and plugged the hole so that any air wouldn’t escape into the engine compartment and instead be redirected over the cylinders.
I also had a tinker with the spring tension on the newly made throttle assembly. I’d made a spring anchor with a threaded end which fits in either of the 4 bearing housing mounting bolt holes. By moving it left or right by a hole, I can adjust the coil spring tension and ultimately the accelerator pedal feel/resistance.
The throttle arms fitted directly on the carbs have their own return coil springs and with the new assembly “safety” spring installed the resistance (when set as I found on the FI) was overall greater than stock as your pressing against two carb springs in addition to the FI springs. Since I cannot safely remove the two carb springs (which is not recommended) I took the Safety spring anchor off tonight and set the tension less by moving it back to another hole. This worked a treat and the pedal feel is much nicer than before.
It’s these little tweaks that I need to make and find over the first few months of usage until I get everything to my liking, fluid and just so!

Day 304

Today, with blustery rain and wind I’ve kept indoors all day (There’s British summer for you) . I took the engine lid out of storage in my attic and started to re-assemble it as I’ll soon be ready to put it back on the car.
First I fitted the two new rubber bump stops to the hinges, followed by the cleaned and refurbished spring rods that hold the lid open under hinge tension. The small plastic clip and screw were cleaned within an inch of its life and fitted back on.
Next I used my Swedish punch set to make the holes in the new rubber T seal for the engine lid grill (that I’d previously fitted the Porsche script too). I then fitted the grill using the cleaned up captive rubber coated washers with a tiny bit of caulking applied to the rear to seal the hole in the engine lid and hopefully prevent any future corrosion due to held water under the washers.
Finally I fitted the new genuine Porsche U trim along the outside edges. I tried alternative suppliers but found only the genuine Porsche seal is the exact size U, nothing else seemed to come close.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1469382123.18.jpg)

Tomorrow I plan on getting the water tray out of storage and sorting out the fixings to complete the lid rebuild.

Day 305

Today I picked up a few stainless fixings and this evening I fitted the refurbished water tray to the inside of the engine lid. I discovered why the tray was cracked when I got the car. There should be two bushes in between the tray and the two outer M6 securing bolts. Without them the bolt pulls the tray into the metal pressing and cracks it. I’d repaired the tray and only when looking at the PET last night for the M6 bolt lengths did I see the Bushes. These were missing from my car. I can only guess that when the Muppets who carried out the awful respray for the PO back in the past, took the tray off, lost the bushes and bolted it back on pulling up the bolts tight and cracking the water tray.
Anyway, suffice to say I’ve made new ones this evening and bolted on the repaired tray without issue.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1469382124.19.jpg)


The grille I fitted last night with the rubber T seal was causing me some concern. The last and first inch of the seal has to have the bottom return lip cut off to clear the lid pressing. This means with a 914rubber seal (unlike a more rigid plastic original seal) it seems to just flap around as it’s too flexible. Last night I masked it up, after posting on here, and injected a tiny amount of Tigerseal between grill and lid at each end of the seal and stuck it back in. With a small bit of masking tape to hold it in place I left it to dry until today.
With the tape removed it was held perfectly in place with no Tigerbond visible. No more flapping about and hanging out.

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So that was Month 10……

Despite all the setbacks from the TIA, the Consultant thankfully found no lasting brain damage. I’m still having many ongoing tests and have to stick with the Medication and low cholesterol diet until they can find what caused it.

The good news after a month is that I can drive again. For someone who’s raison d'être is cars, it’s the best news ever!

Progress on the 914 has been good in cramped conditions and bad weather setbacks, the whole underside is restored and repainted, front suspension and brakes refurbished, rebuilt and back on. Wheels part restored and the wheel bolts refurbished. A little self indulgence was had on making a neat 316 Stainless Steel fuel manifold for the Carbs in the engine bay; and the engine lid was re-assembled.

We only have 2 months left now before the end of this 12 month Build-off Challenge and I’m on track to have the car tested by the UK Ministry of Transport so that after many years sitting un-used it can be returned to the road and enjoyed again.

Thanks yet again for taking time out to read my thread. I hope you find it interesting.