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]

Gusset Reinstall and Engine Mount (12/2023): With the replacement of the inner console, it's time to weld the gussets back in place and finish the job. In the process of doing this I also rewelded the rebuilt engine mount. There's a thread detailing the restoration of this part (with photos) that I posted earlier this year: http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...=365096&hl=.

Note: the yellow substance is the CRC Marine Wax. I've cleaned the internals of the front of each gussets and am just giving it a bit of additional protection before it all gets welded close. Another Note: I took my time doing this welding and used a ton of compressed air throughout the process. It isn't very pretty but I think it'll do.









Now it's time to flip the car around and complete any additional welds so it all looks good. I also took this opportunity to add an extra piece of reinforcement that I had left over from my 914 GT kit. I didn't install this piece on my other 914 due to the fact that I used Restoration Design's Frame Stiffeners (https://www.restoration-design.com/store/product/PP346R).





Additional photos taken after welding up a few small holes and cut marks. Not too bad. In the coming weeks, I will be replacing the driver side inner suspension console.