Complete bare metal restoration. Or not?, Opinions? Pitfalls? Options

[wndsnd]

I did mine in about two and a half years. A total strip and restoration. I did all the metal work, prep, and prime and sent to a shop for paint. The paint took 3 months. Reassembly took about 8 months.

Finally I gave it to Tangerine Racing (Racer Chris and EJM) to sort out my mistakes, and add some bling. I have put about 5000 miles on this summer, from the first real road trip to Hershey this year to learning to autocross.

I am building a six now, but I expect this conversion piece to be about two years as well.

John

[stevegm]

I did mine in about two and a half years. A total strip and restoration. I did all the metal work, prep, and prime and sent to a shop for paint. The paint took 3 months. Reassembly took about 8 months.

Finally I gave it to Tangerine Racing (Racer Chris and EJM) to sort out my mistakes, and add some bling. I have put about 5000 miles on this summer, from the first real road trip to Hershey this year to learning to autocross.

I am building a six now, but I expect this conversion piece to be about two years as well.

John

That is very helpful. Thanks.

[stevegm]

Thank you. All of your comments have been very helpful. It has confirmed what I already suspected. It will take much longer than I thought to do the full restoration.

But, for me, building the car is the most fun part. And, I have other cars I can drive until it is done. Perhaps most importantly, I know that if I don't do the full-blown restoration, as soon as I am finished I will wish I would have. So, it isn't much of a choice. I am planning to do the full shabang.

I am getting the little bit of rust fixed in November. I don't think there will be many surprises there (famous last words, right?). Someone else will do most of the body work and paint. I expect to have the car painted by February 1st. My initial goal was to be done in time for Octeenerfest, which is next September. So, that gives me about 7 months for reassembly, after paint. I know it is unrealistic. But, I work best under pressure.

It seems that reassembly is the part of the project that everyone underestimates (in addition to rust surprises). My main concern is sourcing nuts, bolts, plating things, and stuff like that. The car was complete when I began. So, I have everything, and it is being indexed and organized as I disassemble the car. But, I know I will want new nuts and bolts, plated stuff, etc. Are there sources for this stuff?

Any advice and experiences related to reassembly would be great. I'd love to hear about the things that caused issues in your restorations, so I can try to avoid as many as possible. Maybe I will start another thread specifically for - Full Restoration Major Hurdles.

UPDATE: I started a thread for this type of stuff - http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=244149

[mepstein]

Scotty b is doing my bare metal resto, flared conversion car. After a while, I got impatient and bought another 914 to keep me busy. It's a driver that needs some work and will probably be restored once the 6 is done. The 3rd 914 project was spur of the moment purchase but will one day be a subie conversion. Either do a quick fix up on this car or get a driver. It's way more fun to have both than to be onstantly staring at a car on jack stands

[Socalandy]

Mine was mostly stripped but from the return after media blasting to completion was about 3 years. Nights, weekends and lots of planning.

[stevegm]

Scotty b is doing my bare metal resto, flared conversion car. After a while, I got impatient and bought another 914 to keep me busy. It's a driver that needs some work and will probably be restored once the 6 is done. The 3rd 914 project was spur of the moment purchase but will one day be a subie conversion. Either do a quick fix up on this car or get a driver. It's way more fun to have both than to be onstantly staring at a car on jack stands

I have a Boxster to drive (3 days a week or so). I considered buying a 914 DD to play with during the restoration. But, first, my wife may not go for that; and second, I think I might just end up playing around with that car instead of the restoration. I work well with projects with a medium-term goal. So, I will likely just focus on the '71. Unless I come across another car I have to buy, that is :-)

[Gudhjem]

I'll add my 2 coppers, since I have some experience now with this undertaking.

I started my resto planning on fixing the floor pans and the crack in the drivers side long on what I thought was a fairly rust-free car. That was 4 years ago. I'm now in the middle of a complete tear down, handling all of the metal work myself. I'm about to update my thread (http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=115210&pid=1428359&mode=threaded&show=&st=&), but my point is this:

If working on the car is your hobby and not a full-time job, it will probably take you a very, very long time to drive it again. If the objective is just to drive it, maybe you should repair only what's needed. But if the objective is also to enjoy the journey, if, like me, you really like working on this stuff and take pride in finishing it with everything dene just right, go the full resto route.

It's pretty clear mine will take way longer than my most pesimistic estimates, but I don't regret it, since I love working on it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/welder.gif)

--Steve