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]

Looks like you kicked ass on the first paint job as well!

I was kidding about painting in the dirt...

Using a proper paint booth is mandatory in my book.

That one you used for the first car looks fine IMO.

I'll shoot primer in bad conditions.

The primer that is on the outside surfaces that show needs the booth IMO...

As for shooting black, it is the easiest by far...

You can really determine how "wet" you are easily with good lighting.

Prepping for black is by FAR the hardest prep out there. It HAS to be perfect as black shows imperfections down to ten thousands of an inch!

All of my dad's bucks for fiberglass products were intentionally painted black for that reason. You can see your mistakes (highs/lows) SO much better in black.

Wanna go "all the way"?
This is how we make molds for fiberglass projects...

Paint and polish your project black then take a small penlight and lay it on one side of your project. Extreme darkness and the tiny penlight will show flaws down to the .0001 range. Fix issues, lather rinse repeat until you cannot find anymore.
Then you "super wax" it followed by PVA mold release.
This is the point you cover it with gelcoat then resin and glass to make a mold to re-create this "prefect" shape.

After you're done with your mold you DESTROY the buck (that you've just spent 2 weeks making perfect!) with sledge hammers...

That part is far more fun than you might imagine!
By the end of the "make it perfect" phase the HATE is strong.

Black cars are my nemesis. Harder to keep clean, magnifies bodywork issues, a LOT harder to cool in our 100+ summers. Nothing good IMO about black.

You have a bumblebee, you're screwed!
Has to stay black...