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 wire brushed the vent holes as best I could and then coated them with the Eastwood internal frame coating. Should keep them from rusting, etc.


I drilled out the holes for the coolant lines through the longs. Took a deep breath before drilling through the panels I had just welded in!


I taped over the smaller holes in the "ducts" where I will run the coolant lines to the frunk, and most of the holes in the center tunnel so I could spray the internal frame coating without getting it in my face...


Still got some on my boots though...That's not coming off!


Here's the tube & nozzle it comes with. I taped the tube to a section of coat hanger to keep it straight, and to be able to aim it a bit better.


Stuff seems to work rather well, but it does make a mess, and is thin enough to drip out the bottom of the chassis (how it got on my boots).


Shot the dash support with some primer, and tried to catch all the other areas I had stripped so they are protected.


On/back to the frunk! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/piratenanner.gif)