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 the block off plates from Mad Dog Motorsports for the heater openings under the dash. No instructions, but it mostly made sense once I laid it all out.


I finally was able to get my flares and rockers. A big shout out to Patrick Motorsports (who knew they were local!), and James Patrick for taking the time to go over his approach, and lessons learned on how to install the flares. I really appreciated his time and getting to see some really cool cars, and learning the local options for take-off parts, etc.

I started with the rockers first. Got them trimmed, openings cut out, and holes drilled for mounting.


I did my best to get each side of the car all lined up between front, rear, and rocker. It's challenging to try and test fit the flares without an extra sets of hands.


How does that song go? "The first cut is the deepest"...


I used my butt-weld clamps to mostly keep things in place until the cut was finished.


Definitely had the "what have I done!" moment!


It sure takes a bit of sanding to try and get the flares to fit tight to the body.


I just have things temporarily mounted. Still need to sand things a bit more in a few spots, and I need to find the right bolts and order some more rivnuts.



No clue why it keeps rotating the images until you click on them! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/screwy.gif)