The '76 - doing it right this time, Finishing the interior Options

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In 2009 I bought this '76 from The LeMay Museum. It had been donated to the museum by one of their members. They in turn decided to sell it and use the proceeds towards other projects they had in their inventory. Google them and you'll see it would not have been a good fit.
Upon delivery I discovered there were areas where rust had staked it's claim. The sail panels had, as I now know, the usual rust; the battery tray and the area immediately behind it plus a small area on top of the long beneath; and finally a few spots along the front rain channel.
To say I was distraught would be an understatement. Thirteen years and 2 more 914's later I know it was a good deal. Did I mention I paid $1600 for it delivered. The longs were solid as was the rest of the car. I removed the wiring mess for the car alarm & CB radio then reconnected all the wires to their original terminals. Next I replaced the Fuel Pump relay, added gas. After a turn of the key it coughed, farted and started. That's pretty much the Reader's Digest version but little more was done than that.
I hadn't worked on any cars since I was a teen and none of those needed rust repair. However, after building an airplane years earlier, I had some experience with aluminum and fiberglass. Do you see where this is going?
I thought it time that I go back and do a proper repair job on the old girl. Don't get me wrong. I thought that the aluminum angle patch pieces on the rain channel, the fiberglass in the Hell Hole and Bondo on the sail panels was "good enough"! Looking back, I didn't know Shit from Apple Butter.
It has remained as such but Since both of my Subaru conversions are basically finished, sans a paint job on the '73, I decided to go back and correct my "Get're done" repairs. I bought the rail repair pieces from 914rubber which in turn gave me an excuse to buy a metal shrinker/stretcher.
Bore yourself if you will, as there are more interesting and detailed metal restorations going on here, but I thought I'd better post these improvements for the next owner.

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2 of 4 and I just noticed I need to resize my camera so bear with me. The next update will have more pics per post.

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Now that it's painted I can say the Hell Hole repairs are complete. The paint makes it look better but my favorite result is seeing that jack point standing proud when on the lift. If that donut tucks up flush with the long when it is jacked up then you have some rot to deal with. It may not be obvious since there are so many layers in that area but don't be fooled. Time to clean up the engine/trans and reinstall those next. I'll finally be able to move it off the lift when I need to service one of the others. A long way to go on this car but this repair is now in my rear view mirror. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)



I picked this rear fairing up at a G&R event last year. It was ugly as Hell with several coats of black paint, lots of surface rust (yes, some people paint over rust (IMG:style_emoticons/default/WTF.gif) ), some dents and torn spots in the metal. Cleaned up nicely and it needs a little filler before paint but worth the price I paid. I don't have a TIG welder so I gas welded the tears in the metal. All of the tears were at the attach points except one at the bottom.



This stock fairing was just what I needed. The one that came with the car had been hacked to allow for this God awful twin tip. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/barf.gif) I'll cut that off and go back with the stock single outlet sans any chrome covers.