Time to un-DAPO the "new" car, Bad things happened to a nice car Options

[BillC]

So, I bought a "new" 914 a few weeks ago (a '73 2.0). When I received it from the shipper, I noticed was the seller was quite artful about his pictures, with what was and what wasn't shown. And, now that I've had a chance to start taking things apart, I have uncovered quite a bit of DAPO-done-damage, and I'm sure there's more hiding somewhere (oh boy! something to look forward too....). Some of the damage appears to have been there for a loooong time.

I've already received a piece from a scrap car to fix this hole:


Once I took the rockers off, I discovered this:

Yes, they hole-sawed through FOUR layers of sheet metal, including the heat duct. Not sure what they were thinking, but there it is.

In the trunk, I found three hole-sawed holes. I think they might have been thinking about mounting the fuel pump in a 75/76 blister, but they never finished the work (and also picked the wrong location).

[Frankvw]

good trick with adjusting these pliers !

Question, when you took out the battery tray, did you manage to do that damagefree for the other side ? (outerside of the car) ?
(in case someone wanted to replace his/her tray, could that be done without hurting the other side ?)

[BillC]

good trick with adjusting these pliers !

Question, when you took out the battery tray, did you manage to do that damagefree for the other side ? (outerside of the car) ?
(in case someone wanted to replace his/her tray, could that be done without hurting the other side ?)

It's relatively easy to remove the tray without damaging the outer quarter panel or the inner panel (the one you can see in the pic). I did it by using a dremel tool and grinding through the spot welds inside the battery tray; although it is kinda slow and time consuming. If you're careful, you can get all the spot welds and not damage the car's sheet metal.

For re-installation, I will drill holes for plug welds to attach the tray support to the car and the tray to the tray support. I will probably also drill holes through the inside panel, for plug welds to the lip of the tray. However, I'm going to test and make sure I can get my welder nozzle in the space between the inner and outer panels before drilling the holes -- if it doesn't fit properly, I'll have to figure something else out.

If you want, I'll take more pictures of the installation process, to show the steps.