Fred's Backyard LE Restoration Options

[friethmiller]

So, I finally decided to create a build thread for my 2nd 914.

Quick Story: Last summer (6/2022), I found this car listed on FB Marketplace and it intrigued me. It was listed as a ’72 but some of the pictures were telling me that this thing was probably a ’74 and possibly an LE. Against my better judgement, I decided to call. The man who owned the car told me that it was, in fact, an LE and that the “72” was a misprint. I told him I’d come pick it up and pay him his asking price of $1000. So, I rented a U-Haul trailer for $68 (incl. insurance), and drove 4 hours from Austin to Leonard, TX, which is about an hour northwest of Dallas. Got the car home without issue and shoved it into a storage unit for a month while I got thing prepared at my house/garage. Unfortunately for me, I had promised my wife that I wouldn't restore another car "in our garage". So, I'm stuck in the backyard [for now] attempting to restore a very rusty, old car. It’s kind of a pain when it rains and have to cover everything up, but I prefer being outside.

Condition: Poor! To say that the floor pans were a little rough, was an understatement. The car had been sitting in a field with all the doors/hoods off for years. This is never a good thing. When I saw the car in person, it had about 5 inches of wet leaves in the bottom. The trunk replacement was a "hack" with no welds to the transmission support. I can’t imagine driving the thing with the backend loose like that. The hell hole was in horrible condition with about ¾ of the passenger side longitudinal ripped open with rust. The list goes on. However, it did have its original 2.0L (minus FI) + transmission, and the dealer installed A/C. To be honest, the condition didn't bother me at all. I love restoring and repairing these cars. Plus the COA (or whatever they call it now) came back as a CanAm package car. This thing needs to be saved! I’m going to do my best to bring back this bumblebee. I've got a lot of pictures to post but here are some of the initial pics.

[technicalninja]

You've already made serious progress. Some parts of it look kick ass!

Some look "ass kicked"...

I especially dislike the cowl (bitch to fix) and the racoon sized hole in the driver's floorboard.

How old is the daughter?

I'm a huge believer in starting them out early. I did so with my boys and my oldest is a Senior at Tarleton University. He's Mechanical engineering with a minor in Electrical.

He's a better fabricator than ANYONE at the school including the instructors...

He goes "Mark Rober" on all of the projects and sets the "Bar" so much higher than anyone has hit in the past.

He built a bridge from cardboard that spanned 3 feet. It went over 1000 lbs. without failure (1K with students jumping on it!). The instructor STOPPED the "Test to Failure" as they started to worry about safety.
His was the only bridge in the history of the class that was un-breakable and we HAD to use a chainsaw to put it in the dumpster after he was finished.
His closest competition hit 175lbs before failure...

In his Digital Printing Class he took over the instruction of the Instructor as she had NO IDEA what the school printers could do...

4 times his projects have been confiscated by the instructors as they have wanted his bits to show future classes what is actually possible if you put the effort in.

Most of Bryan's contemporaries have never operated a power tool!
They can all design things.
98% of them cannot build what they design...

Now, there is one BAD aspect to having your children help you with the cars.
When they get older, they will CLAIM the car for themselves...
As a parent, you are SCREWED.
You WILL give it to them!

Bryan has already claimed one of my Zs and the ONLY MR2 turbo (91) that I own.

It ALL starts with "You wanna help me with the car?"...

[friethmiller]

You've already made serious progress. Some parts of it look kick ass!

Some look "ass kicked"...

I especially dislike the cowl (bitch to fix) and the racoon sized hole in the driver's floorboard.

How old is the daughter?

I'm a huge believer in starting them out early. I did so with my boys and my oldest is a Senior at Tarleton University. He's Mechanical engineering with a minor in Electrical.

He's a better fabricator than ANYONE at the school including the instructors...

He goes "Mark Rober" on all of the projects and sets the "Bar" so much higher than anyone has hit in the past.

He built a bridge from cardboard that spanned 3 feet. It went over 1000 lbs. without failure (1K with students jumping on it!). The instructor STOPPED the "Test to Failure" as they started to worry about safety.
His was the only bridge in the history of the class that was un-breakable and we HAD to use a chainsaw to put it in the dumpster after he was finished.
His closest competition hit 175lbs before failure...

In his Digital Printing Class he took over the instruction of the Instructor as she had NO IDEA what the school printers could do...

4 times his projects have been confiscated by the instructors as they have wanted his bits to show future classes what is actually possible if you put the effort in.

Most of Bryan's contemporaries have never operated a power tool!
They can all design things.
98% of them cannot build what they design...

Now, there is one BAD aspect to having your children help you with the cars.
When they get older, they will CLAIM the car for themselves...
As a parent, you are SCREWED.
You WILL give it to them!

Bryan has already claimed one of my Zs and the ONLY MR2 turbo (91) that I own.

It ALL starts with "You wanna help me with the car?"...

LOL! Very impressive. Yeah, I refuse to teach my son how to drive a stick just for that reason. I want my 914 to STAY in the garage when I'm not there. I'll teach him later when he can make better decisions (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) My daughter is only 15 but has an eye for the details.