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've been making small/slow progress. I just keep trying to do something on the 914 most days - just keep swimming! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smash.gif)

I saw a great idea in "9146C's" thread to lift the chassis up off the body dolly a few inches, so I copied his idea after a quick trip to Lowes for the parts. The front jacking "donuts" sit inside the rears (who noticed!), so I had to add some 1/8" plate to locate them in the proper spot. With a bit of assistance from my son, and some 4x4's laying on the QuickJack rails, we had success!


I was going to use "fender nuts" to give me a bit of wiggle room for flare alignment, but in the end it did not really help much - will be going back to my original rivnet/nutsert mounting idea.


Received my VW fender beading and set about getting it trimmed to fit and clear the mounting bolts, etc.


I believe once the flares are painted body color, and I figure out how to hold the beading in place on the back of the flares, this is going to look pretty decent.


I cut out some metal strips to rivet to the bottom of the fiberglass rockers - this was how James Patrick @ PMS said they mount the bottom of the rockers. A bit annoying, to say the least that you have to create your own mounts for $300 fiberglass rockers! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/hissyfit.gif) I may end up going with the weld-on ends eventually since the original metal rockers I have are in good shape. They do line up reasonably well once you get the lower mounts attached.


Next up was getting the fender wells and bottom media blasted and ready for the Raptor bed liner coating. Got sick of cleaning up media off the driveway really quick! I was able to reuse quite a bit of media by sifting it into a 5 gallon bucket, then sifting it again as it went into the blaster. I can't believe how much of that crap got into my shoes though - it was under my insoles! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)


I sprayed and wiped down the fender wells and the bottom with degreaser just to be on the safe side. There was quite a bit of grease on the passengers side near the rear axle that I had to scrape off before blasting. Grease does not like to come off by blasting - too soft I guess! Grease also got up into the passengers side rear shock mount - that was way too much fun to clean out! Looking pretty decent at this point - still need to finish priming the bottom - ran out of juice just behind where the steering rack mounts... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/yellowsleep[1].gif)


I had a bit of a distraction/another project for the Memorial Day weekend. But, I could not stop smiling about welding up "frog legs"! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol-2.gif) And I kept thinking of that line from the Six Million Dollar Man; We can rebuild him. We have the technology. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/av-943.gif)


Who ordered the "half-leg" platter?


And the "whole-leg"?


Whole Mariachi Frog again! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/piratenanner.gif)