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).

[Cairo94507]

Chasing the rust is a very very slippery slope. I began drinking when we were cutting out rust and replacing panels. I did not think I was going to survive that seemingly never-ending trauma.

In reality, looking back, dealing with the rust really was not that bad on my car. It mostly had bad body repair work from when these cars were a dime a dozen (and in VA) when no one took the time to do it correctly.

Fortunately, I had Kent Simmons (Auto Art Customs,Torrance, CA) on the job and he was 1000% up to the task. I have never regretted meeting and getting to know Kent. All I can say is if you have rust, not even bad rust, find someone who knows what they are doing so that rust issue, even after rust repairs, doesn't keep haunting you in all sorts of different ways. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[BillC]

So, the new sander belts came in and I got back to work on the car this morning.

Here's what the remains of the jackpoint reinforcement looked like from inside the quarter panel:


About a half-hour later, this is what that space looked like:

I am really liking this little belt sander. However, the generic 36-grit belts were disappointing -- the grit was caked on so thick, most of it cracked off pretty quickly. Fortunately, I also ordered some 3m cubitron 60+ grit belts that did a great job on the old sheet metal and rust.

Once I got the rest of the old reinforcement out, including cleaning the remnants off the jack post, I tried dry-fitting the new piece. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I can get the panel in place with just some wiggling; I was afraid I'd have to cut it in half, but no need.


After that, I soaked the whole area down with Ospho. The plan is to use some Eastwood internal-chassis paint inside that area once everything is welded back in place.

Also, since I had the welder out, I decided to weld up the hole in the sheet metal under the door opening. You can see the hole in the above pics.


With any luck, I'll be be able to weld the reinforcement in place tomorrow.