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]

The wildest thing is he's doing this in the DIRT!

No climate-controlled shop...

Teenagers helping him...

Work that will require CLOSE inspection to determine it's been replaced.

One of my rules is "leave no marks" if possible. He's getting close on a "complete loss of pan" car...

I wouldn't have thought a novice could produce that level of work in the best of environments.

Doing it "in the dirt" makes it all the more impressive IMO.

Are you planning on painting it in the dirt as well?

That would make you MAGICAL!

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/first.gif)

[friethmiller]

Are you planning on painting it in the dirt as well?

Well, I don't mind painting primer out there in the dirt. For the final paint job, I might be forced to throw up a few walls and make a temporary paint booth or something. I painted my other 914 a few years ago. I rented a paint booth located at a local airport. It had been previously used to paint helicopters. It was my first experience painting a car. A little nervous thinking about painting black but I'll cross that bridge later, I guess