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]

A little more progress, I guess. Struggling with the very slow pace of my progress.

I switched back to a new spool of HF wire - still sealed with the label so that I could verify exactly what it was! Really struggling to get things consistent! I did not touch the settings when welding this patch for one of the AC holes, but the welds seem all over the map...


Going to regroup and try to get settings dialed on some scrap metal before any more welding!

Cleaned out the seam sealer in the frunk area under the gas tank. Just minor surface rust, thankfully!


I'm really feeling way too old for some of this work! I walked funny for a bit after getting this last section done...


I went back and cleaned off my failed paint test. At least the sail is solid and filler free!


Moved on to the seam sealer in the trunk. Had some rust hiding under it back there and a bit of heavier surface rust in the rear of the trunk to treat.


Question; When you treat rust with the acid treatment/converter and it turns black, is it good to go? Or, do you need to try and wire brush it more to remove the black?

Uncovered the body number in the right, rear of the trunk. Seems like stamping the number created a low spot which caused the area to rust, go figure!


I removed the factory jack mount since I do not have the factory jack, and may need to trim, or open some of this area for the Subaru intake, etc. I hope not, but we will see.


I want to use rubberized undercoating on at least the trunk floors to texture them, and to help a bit with road noise. I made sure to get the paintable kind in case I do not like them black. I read on the label that it needs to be sprayed on bare or primed metal. WOOHOO, more flap disk/wire brush work!


It's raining for the next couple of days, so no chance to work until things dry out again... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)