Red 914 Back On the Road Again!, 9 months, 13 days, and 3 hours after the accident Options

[Spoke]

It only took 9 months, 13 days, and 3 hours to get my red 1971 Porsche 914 back on the road after the rear-end accident. It is finally registered, insured, licenced, and back on the road. I drove the car to work today for the first time since Jan 4.

The only parts replaced were the chrome bumper and taillight.
The fender, rear end, trunk lid and lower rear valence were pounded out and repaired. It took a lot more work than I had anticipated but is was worth it. I lost part of the racing stripe on the side and the paint almost matches the original paint. The paint was free so no complaints here. I may paint the rest of the car sometime in the future.

Spoke

[Spoke]

Thanks all for the complements. I just wish the paint finish would have come out better. Have big time orange peel. I had 65-80F reducer and I estimate the temp in the garage to be in the low 90's, and the air in the compressor to be probably > 100F.

For the painting I bought a Devilbis HVLP gun from Eastwood. Eastwood is in Pottstown PA, about 45 minutes from my house. They have some nice stuff there. Just wish I walked in with $1000 instead of $100 for the HVLP.

I painted the car in the garage. Cleaned the floor well, wetted it down before painting. I placed the compressor outside of the garage window so I didn't have to listen to it run and ran the hose through the window. In the other garage window, I placed a regular floor fan blowing out. Since the garage is attached to the house, I covered the entrance to the house with a plastic sheet taped with 2 inch blue tape to seal the house from the paint booth.

Here's my repair thread: Big Hammer

I learned a lot about bodywork from Chris Hawn at Klasse 356 here in Allentown. These guys do fantastic work on 356's. I stop there about once a week to pick up parts or just to drop by and see the work they do or stop by to get my Porsche fix. I used about 2 quarts of bondo, most of which ended up on the floor after sanding. Chris showed me how to tell high spots and low spots in a fender, as well as proper sanding techniques.

Did all the work in my garage, basically by myself. The 3 most important tools that I used was a big sledge hammer (for obvious reasons), a scissor jack from my previous Audi, and a Millermatic 135 welder.

I used the scissor jack to push out the metal where possible, especially inside the trunk and in the wheel well.

All the pushing and pulling ripped apart seams as well as the trunk floor seams that broke upon impact. The welder was critical in doing this job. I can't imagine working on my car without it. If you don't have one, work to get one or borrow one. I have welded so many things on my car so far: swaybar tab, muffler metal tear, muffler hanger, rust holes in the body, rust holes in the rear valence, and so on.

Spoke