74 Roller rebuild and Subaru conversion, 1974 rebuild and Subaru conversion project Options

[mgarrison]

Hello,

I new around here, but have been lurking for a bit trying to soak up all the 914 knowledge and information I could! I was looking into building a Factory Five 818 kit with the Subaru flat-4, but the cost of entry was a bit too high, and the time & space needed to build a car from scratch seemed overwhelming. But it got me thinking; that's basically a tube-framed 914 with an odd body. I wonder if anyone has put a Subaru flat-4 in a 914? A few Google searches later I learned that a lot of people had, and parts were out there to spend my money on!

Long story short, I found two rollers with no engines or transmissions in Tucson, AZ a couple of hours South of me. Soon I rented a car hauler for a couple of days and my "Craft Project" (my wife's label) was begun.

The rollers were a green 1971, and a red 1974. I wanted to restore the 71 because it just seemed to have more character. The 74 had been partially stripped for an electric conversion project, and seemed less "car like". Sadly, the 71 needed a bit more work than I was setup to handle. So, it had to be the 74 who I have simply labeled as "Red".

I will try to track my build process here as best I can. I tend to get working on things and forget to document things, but will try to keep track.

Here's Red when we got her home on the trailer and tucked away in the back yard for the moment.

Mike

[mgarrison]

I got distracted for about a week fab'ing up a body dolly. It took a lot longer than expected (of course), but seems to work well!

Here's what I came up with based on how high I could jack up the 914, and the local supply of steel tube...



I dropped the front and rear suspension, as well as the steering rack of the body to lighten things up as much as possible.



It took a team effort, but we finally got the dolly positioned where I wanted it. Will be nice to have my jack stands back, and not have to bend over much to work on the 914.



I was even able to position the 914 a bit by myself in the gravel. That was a bonus as I expected it to take 2-3 people to move it in the gravel! Lot's of room to tuck things away under the body now.



I just need to figure out how to tie it down to the dolly so it can't move/slip...