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]

Finally had a morning with little wind, so I gave it a go spraying the Raptor. It tried to rain on me a couple of times, but was not enough to cause any issues, thankfully. I got the trunk and engine bay all sprayed.


Cleaned the gun, and then mixed up another quart for the cabin.


Cleaned the gun between each quart, and used my last quart on the gas tank area & frunk. Almost made it, but not quite (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mad.gif)


I ordered a couple more quarts to finish things up; need to touch up a couple spots in the gas tank area, finish the frunk, and still need to spray the rockers. I started filling all the divots, lines, scratches, etc. in the rockers. Lots of filling and sanding!


I will take what progress I can get! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/brain.gif)