Ex BUILD-OFF CHALLENGE: Brett's 914, Got engine installed and working on wiring! Options

[brettrarnold]

Background
This car was the first car that Brett drove when he was 13 and was given to us in 2014. It had been sitting idle back in Indiana under a family friend's carport for the past 15 years before Brett went back to Indiana and towed it out to Colorado with his father in July 2014. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/piratenanner.gif)

When we got it, we didn't have a garage to work on it and it sat idle being stored outside for another year until we could afford a house with a garage. Colorado is pretty expensive so after we got a house with a garage, we then needed to save up more money to work on it.

Also I must mention in my ignorance, there were 3 distinct phases of thinking for getting this car fixed which I now find funny and are listed below

Phase 1: I will tow this car out to Colorado and get it the engine running for maybe $2,000 and have a working car.
Phase 2: Holy shit after researching this is impossible and will have to pay somebody to fix it for $15-20k.
Phase 3: I have enough local support and 914world resources and can fix this myself for around $10-15k.

Build-Off Challenge
So Amy and I are going to be tackling different aspects of this car so the posts will be coming from both of us. I will handling the rust/engine work and Amy will be on Interior and Exterior. Also she may help with some of the posting so we will start each post with name.

Brett
Step 1 (Complete) was to remove the engine and assess the frame rust situation. Never having removed an engine from a car, this was an extremely daunting task. The steps listed in Pelican Parts tutorial - 914 Engine Removal Made Easy is by far the most difficult thing I have done to a vehicle thus far. Hell I don't even know the difference between a camshaft and a carburetor much less a CV joint or a clutch cable. But after staring at it for about 2 weeks, I decided to just start unhooking shit and labeling. Made a ton of progress and finally got the engine about 95% unhooked. Had a friend come over to help me out and we actually got it out. WOOHOO!!!

Step 2 (Complete) is to strip out all the interior. I ordered chassis braces and other misc items from Tangerine racing and am still in the process of identifying all the rust areas that need repair.

[brettrarnold]

Alright alright getting back into working on the 914 after a long hiatus and some serious life changes that have freed up some time for me. That being said I'm excited to get back to working on her and posting on here.

So after doing welding I must've installed the chassis braces incorrectly or something because both doors are quite tight but the passenger door is the sticky wicket. Is there anything I can do to expand it to give the doors some more space? I mean it will work in the current state but certainly not ideal.


Second, for the engine bay Gint stopped by today and gave me some pointers and he mentioned to use lizard skin. Ive seen other folks using the spray in bedliner raptor stuff. Has anyone used either or something else and have any recommendations?

Third I am going to start making a bracket to install the radiator. Is there any issue with having it angled in here?


Alright so next on this list is going to be dry fitting the motor and transmission to see if there is anything that I need to fabricate. This was so long ago, what exactly is this black mounting piece?


Another item that im quite confused on is wiring. I have the ECU from the donor car (LL bean outback) but not sure exactly how to go about pairing it to the 914. What is the process? Do i have to pull everything out and lay it out then reinstall the wires or should i just leave all the wires in place and label them? Here is a photo of the ECU i pulled out of the car.


Anyways glad to be back at this and now that i found my old digital camera that takes photos small enough to post, this should be pretty cruzy!

-Brett