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.

[friethmiller]

Passenger Inner Suspension Console Replacement - Part 2 (11/2023): The first thing to do is remove the remainder of the original inner console and then prep the new/used donor part for install. Once I removed the donor part from its parent frame rail section I was able to get a good look at its condition. While its not great, it is in better shape than my existing console.





After a quick inspection, I decided to separate the console into its pieces in order to properly rust treat prior to install. These photos show the "before" and the "after" It took several days of rust treatment and a bit of wire-wheeling. While not perfect, it will do for now. My plan is to spray in rust treatment at the end once the part is secured on the car.





Knowing the condition of the metal, I decided to go ahead and reinforce the part. Based on what Tangerine racing offers for this, I was tempted to just order the kit. However, I happen to have 16 gauge sheet metal laying around and thought I'd give it a go. Here's a few photos of the process. I created one piece for either console. This was a pretty straight forward. It would have been easier with some nibs (as suggest in this thread earlier). My next posts will show how all of this is fitted and welded to the console.



Before the part would be ready I had to fix the rust damage at the one end and then weld the two half together. I also fitted the reinforcement piece. I found it much easier to do the bending with the console half with me at the metal break. The following photo show this process.





I didn't like the looks of the metal in the recess on the replacement console so I used a piece from my original console to make a quick repair. Finally, I had to deal with the missing ear at the top of the replacement console. Unfortunately, my original console was rusted out here, as well. I decided to use the ear from the other side of my original piece. I figured I could fashion it to look the same. I only need the portion at the top to match. I can grind the edge here to straighten everything out.