74 914 Rustoration Options

[eatpez]

I picked up this roller last year and my brother picked one up as well. The original intension was a pair of Hayabusa builds, but I'm not so sure anymore, so I'm starting a new thread. The car was more or less complete and cheap. The longs and suspension points were solid, so I figure it was something I could work with.

Late this summer, I finally got back into the car, and the plan now is to take my time and make decisions as I go. Naturally, that means the first thing that needed to be done was to strip the car down to the bare chassis and tackle the rustoration first. This is especially interesting to me because the last time I restored a 914 was 25 years ago and I never got the chance to learn how to do body/suspension work. I'm using it as an opportunity to learn how fabricate and weld.

This will be my new thread and I'll be digging up pictures and posting updates with progress as I dig them up.

[Superhawk996]

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Keep posting. How's this build going?

[Garland]

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Keep posting. How's this build going?

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A Michigan build!

[eatpez]

Okay, pictures that I did take during the teardown and inventory of the chassis are coming with the next post. I wanted to mention the best addition to my tool arsenal for the project so far.

The lugs, suspension, steering rack, trailing arms, etc. gave me fits - the car had obviously been sitting (and rusting) for years. I tried, propane, PB blaster, mechanical leverage (up to 6-7' with cheater), and an air impact gun. No dice.

Once I got this setup, along with the #6 heating tip, all I ever needed to do was heat the stuck nut/bolt until it just started to glow red and every single time the fastener came loose without any issue whatsoever.

I wish I had this sucker 25 years ago when I did my last 914 project. All hail my trusty little HF oxy/acetylene torch!

[eatpez]

Here are the pictures I took during the teardown. The neighbor's cat was interested in what was going on - you can see the car has been through many colors and as I learned in going over it - also had many battle scars.



The rear panel was really weak in a few places, as well as the rear trunk pan, and I decided that I was going to replace the entire panel instead of doing the fabrication work to clean it up. More on that later.

The area blocked in red, more pictures to come, was evidence of an old accident where front half of the inner front fender was replaced but the damage also affected the area where the sway bar comes through as well as the bracket just under it. I've since found a donor piece to patch it in later. Thanks to Garold down in NW Indiana for hooking me up with some hunks off of one of his chassis (more pictures to come on that too).







The longs and suspension points were solid, but it I plan on replacing: rear panel, rear trunk pan, floor plan, front trunk floor plan in addition to the fab work to fix up the firewall and the engine bay (hell hole, battery tray).

Typical lower windshield rust.

[eatpez]

Here are a few examples of what I found during disassembly:

1. At some point someone thought it would be great to just weld in a piece of plate with a few stitches and the seat rails to that. The floor definitely needs to go and I'm considering boxing it in for re-enforcement. Those decisions will be deferred until after I have the chassis restoration done and decide on the powertrain.



2. A view of the inner passenger side front well - to the left of the pink line in the seam where the repair was made from accident damage, but the area circled in orange is also still out of shape and since this is where the sway bars come through and the a-arm attaches underneath, I've got a donor section that I'm going to swap in here.



In general, I'm working back to front on the chassis, mainly because I need to get the rear done so I can use the bumper mount points to get it up on a rotisserie.