BUILD-OFF CHALLENGE: New 914 owner...what have I gone and done! Options

[Mike Bellis]

This one might be the winner due to the quality of work and spectacular documentation. Great job!

[914forme]

All I can say is wow, keep it up!!!!

[gereed75]

All I can say is wow, keep it up!!!!

You sir are a restoration animal (IMG:style_emoticons/default/pray.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/pray.gif)

The wood rot tip and the restoration of the tail light buckets are priceless. What solvent did you use on them??

Amazing. Best of luck with the rest of the work.

[Darren C]

All I can say is wow, keep it up!!!!

You sir are a restoration animal (IMG:style_emoticons/default/pray.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/pray.gif)

The wood rot tip and the restoration of the tail light buckets are priceless. What solvent did you use on them??

Amazing. Best of luck with the rest of the work.

Thanks for the kind words!
The rear light housings are some kind of Thermosetting plastic. (Basically the plastic is very sensitive to heat and solvents)
I tried a few things initially as there was a lot of overspray paint on them from the poor repaint the car had.
White spirit seemed to be the least aggressive but Cellulose thinners is a definite NO, as it dissolves this plastic very quickly. I’d guess any Acetone based solvent would do the same, since most plastics that are sensitive to Cellulose won’t like Acetone.
The ”Brasso” metal polish seemed to be the best option. However it was hard and slow work.
There’s an old Uk saying…”You don’t get owt for nowt” which translates as meaning you have to put effort in, to get a good result out.

[Darren C]

Month 6

Day 152

She’s home!!!!

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This morning I picked up the car from the paintshop. The weather was kind and the sun shone as we carried it home. Quickly unloaded and tucked away in the garage I left for work.

During lunch I drop off the two large discs that go on the end of the pop up headlight motors to be blasted and coated black. I called Porsche Centre and ordered up a few odds and ends. The collar/covers for the wiper spindles and retaining nuts for the wiper arms.
I spent the day at work eager to get home and start on the car.
First job tonight was to start cleaning. Yes more cleaning. This time it was dust from the paintshop, it’s bloomin everywhere in the interior, engine bay and a light dusting over the new paintwork. Bringing it home on the transporter the wind whipped it up and covered everything.
I very carefully washed the car and wiped over as much surface in the interior as I could with a damp cloth. This will need repeating over the next few days/months to get rid of it all.
Anyway after an hour cleaning I was itching to start re-assembly. The first job was to align the rear boot lid. It was loosely bolted on for transport so I carefully got all the gaps right and nipped up the bolts. Next I adjusted the rubber stops to get it sitting flush with the rear quarters by the lights. Only then did I refit and adjust the latch and striker pin.
Once aligned and free to open and close easily I fitted the push button rear lock.
I’d bought a new 914 rubber seal to go around the lock.
The new seal was so soft that the slightest tightening of the nut on the push button barrel compressed and deformed the new lock seal. It simply curled up and away from the body. The silicone rubber based seal was no good at all :-(
Not impressed I cleaned up, polished and refitted my old lock seal which is far sturdier than the 914rubber seal.
Not a good start for 914rubber, fell at the first hurdle.
Anyway with my old seal cleaned and fitted I un-bagged the rolled up wiring loom that was in a carrier bag in the engine bay. Working to the deadline of getting the car ready for paint, I’d simply bagged it up out of the way without inspecting it.
Suffice to say the section of wiring loom running along the rear of the car between the lights had been painted blue! No surprise really as the back of the lights had blue overspray on them when the Muppets painted the boot floor long ago.
The only way to sort out the loom was to take off all the spiral binding tape and clean each strand by hand with a cellulose thinners soaked rag.
So there goes 3 hours this evening….Anyhow I got it all off before re-binding the whole rear loom with new black insulation tape being careful to replicate the helix binding pattern so the wires show through as if it was brand new.
With no electricity in the garage (contemplating a 100m extension lead) I had to call it a night when I couldn’t see anymore. Besides if I did get a light in there, I’d probably not bother going to bed at all!

Day 153

Today I got to the second paintshop about quarter to 7 and waited for them to open up so that I could collect my rear bumper before work. Rushed it home and unloaded; currently have the front bumper and roof in my sons bedroom, the rear bumper, engine lid grille, new windscreen surround trim and mats in my living room, the big box of rubber trims in my conservatory and the engine lid in the half finished loft conversion. Living alone has its advantages…..
Anyway at lunch today I called in and picked up my 3M butyl for the windscreen and rear window. Expiry date 2018 so good to go. I bought two boxes just in case. Like the caulking, the old boy in there had a trip down memory lane when he sold it to me, the younger guys just looked blank as he reminisced.
Tonight when I got home from work I continued on the rear wiring loom. The spade connections for the lamps were missing most of the black rubber sheaths and looked very dirty. I cut off what sheathing was left and in an upturned spray can lid gave the bundle of spade connections a good 15 minute soak in “Wonder Wheels”. While soaking I carried on cleaning dust from the engine bay with a damp cloth, sponge, brush and minimal water. It’s going to need a few goings over, but an hour a night for a few days (so I don’t get completely bored with it) and it should be as good as when I handed it over to the paintshop.
Taking the spade connectors out of soak they were miraculously returned to bright shiny copper, so a quick rinse and they were good as new. Magic stuff that Wonder Wheels is!
Next I cut ¾” sections of black heat shrink and re made the sheaths on all the terminals.
The numberplate light spades looked sorry too, so I did the same with them.
While they were soaking I fitted a few bits from my bag marked “rear boot”. The roof clamps went in with my security head bolts…perfect, look just like rivets but easily undo able if a clip breaks in future. The jack straps, boot floor plugs, two large caps in front of the shock mounts and the rubber shock mount top covers all got fitted.
I do have one question that someone might be kind enough to answer….

The rear roof rubber holders that fix by the lights, do the bolts get nipped up to pinch the rubber holder when its vertical or tightened just enough for them to fold down forwards when not in use

Finally this evening before I ran out of daylight, I fitted all the cleaned up rubber sheaths to the wiring loom clamp tabs and neatly laid the rear loom in place and rolled the tabs over gently to secure it. All I need to do to complete it is grab a couple of new rubber grommets tomorrow for where the numberplate light wires pass out through the rear panel.

Day 154

Today I picked up a box of 140 assorted grommets and some other odds & sods that I thought might come in useful from the Motor Factors.
It was a manic day at work so it was a nice unwind to start refitting bits on the car this evening.
First of all tonight I fitted the new refurbished rear light assemblies (been itching to get them on the car). I slowly pulled the 4 nuts up on each a little at a time with a good 10 minutes between each turn to evenly compress the light to body seal and not break the bonded repair on the RH lamp edge. In between I fitted other bits to the car until after a couple of hours the rear lights sat perfectly. Boy do they look nice!
Rear wiring loom all in place and new grommets fitted for the number plate wires finished off the rear boot.
The in between bits included un masking the fuel tank area and carrying out a first clean (of many to come) to get the paintshop dust out.
I also cleaned out the front bonnet area, the pop up light & wheel well free of dust.
I then fitted all the black sheaths in the front boot for the loom clamp tabs. Next I pop riveted the aluminium VIN plate back in place and the repainted black id plate in the wheel well. The fuel sticker was carefully cleaned of old adhesive on the back and with ultra thin high impact double-sided tape was fitted back on the RH wheel arch.
Small bits like the original grommets were fitted in the wheel well floor, the two rubber buffer stops under the front that the valance rests on and the spring nuts for the headlight motor covers. I then cleaned up the two earth threads for the pop up lights earth points before it got too dark to see in the rear of the garage.
I’d tried earlier this evening to fit the “2.0” badge on the rear panel (the “914” badge was purchased weeks ago from AA with the 2.0 badge but they emailed to tell me it was on back order so still waiting) Unfortunately there’s something fishy with the 2.0 badge. The black paint was already falling off it in the bag it came in and the badge was shiny brass beneath. Not sure if this was because it was NOS or a repro, but in came in a genuine Porsche box? On closer inspection the brass casting still had flashing on one pin which stopped it fitting in the hole on the car so I had to file it off. In the end pretty much all the black paint fell off, so I had to clean it all up with 800 grit to remove the rest and key the shiny polished surface. The black paint it came with didn’t stand a chance of hanging on to polished brass!
I gave it a coat of acid etch primer in my shed about 15 minutes ago, so shall leave it 24hrs until tomorrow night when I can satin black it.

Day 155

Today I have mostly been cleaning up the front wiring loom.
I started this morning by undoing all the cable ties and laying out the front loom in the wheel well on top of bubble wrap. A lot of the insulation tape spiral binding was damaged and hanging off so I removed all the loose sections and untapped all the spade connectors I’d covered while the car was away just in case the paintshop tried a battery on the car. Then I left for work.
During lunch I found a new aerial and purchased it to replace the original broken one.
Tonight I continued to clean every strand in the front loom with a cellulose thinners soaked rag, which took an age.
Afterwards I re bound it with insulation helix winding as I did last night on the rear loom before carefully feeding it around the boot back into place. Carefully replacing the grommets and rolling around all the tabs to hold it in place. With the earth eyelets connected back up everything is back in place, just the spade connections to clean tomorrow and it’ll be ready for the lights, motors and horns to be installed. I called the powdercoaters at lunchtime but the small headlight motor mounting discs weren’t ready today, but hopefully tomorrow so that I can rebuild the pop up lights over the weekend.
I unpacked the new 3 spade holder plastic blocks for the rear of the headlight bulbs (mine have UV crumbled) and noticed they are end entry for the wires on the spades, the car has side entry cables on the spades so I need to modify them to fit, so running out of daylight it’ll have to wait until the morning.
Finally this evening I sprayed the 2.0 badge black over the etch primer in my loft.
On another note 914rubber emailed me back about the soft boot lock seal and offered a refund if I send it back. To be fair the cost of postage is greater than the seal, so I will wait until my whole box of seals are fitted so that if there are any other issues it can all be dealt with in one postage. Fingers crossed everything else will be ok.

Day 156

Today I finished off the front wiring loom.
Starting early this morning I sorted out cleaning the remaining spade terminals before work.
A phone around at lunchtime was quite disappointing. The powder coaters hadn’t found time all week to do the two small headlight motor discs and the second paintshop’s painter had gone on holiday so no one was able to paint the valances and sills (rocker panels) until next week. (How does a paintshop business run like that?) Not on really as they’ve had them now for over a month and I handed them over all sand blasted and in etch primer so there was little labour required. Same old, same old. The older I get the less reliable the world is.
All annoying really as I wanted to fit the headlight motors and bumpers this weekend but can do neither now until I get the parts back.
Anyway, after another manic Friday at work and evening food shop I was determined to finish the front wiring loom. Working until I ran out of light this evening I managed to put new heat shrink on all the spade terminals, modify the loom to deal with the removed side markers and identify all cable colours and draw a quick chart for lamp connection tomorrow.
I then gave the 2.0 badge a coat of satin lacquer and cleaned out the paint from the rear panel mounting holes with a swiss rats tail being careful not to go through to the metal so the badge fitted fine.
Hopefully tomorrow will go better than today.

Day 157

Today on “914 The Big Build”

I have mostly been putting stuff back on the car….

The rear boot is finished apart from the seal that I need to identify in my big box of bits and it looks lovely. I fitted the 2.0 badge with a tiny O ring of caulking around the pins on both the outside and inside (you can just see the grey caulking in the picture) of the car before fitting the new rubber encased star washers on the rear. No water or rust will get in here!

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With the lights in, it’s starting to look more like a car.

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Working in the bonnet (trunk) area I fitted the pop up lights (less motors) and the new bonnet seal. Glued in with high temp impact adhesive. It needs to settle a few days from where it was folded up in the bag it came in which creased and deformed it a bit. Should be back to shape tomorrow as this evening it was far, far better than when it came out the bag in the morning. What a fiddle it was to fit, but went well in the end.

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Finally tonight I took off the bonnet release lever from under the dash and dismantled it and sanded it down for a re-paint. It was all chipped and manky so with a new cable to fit it couldn’t go back on as it was. Hopefully then with the cable in place I can fit and adjust the bonnet which will give me the datum for the pop up headlight covers.

Day 158


Last night after updating my daily diary it was still reasonably early so I decided to waxoil the rear of the pop up light & infill panels and gave the bonnet release lever a second coat so that they’d all be dry in the morning.
This morning I started by fitting the release lever and found a small issue. The plastic speaker surround was pushing the wiring loom up and when the bonnet lever was pulled the slot headed guide screw on the underside was rubbing over the loom. I’d not noticed it before when the lock was attached and it had over the years cut through some of the loom insulation. I ended up taking the speaker cover out and having to repair the loom. With the speaker cover back in it was the same issue? The solution is going to be a “P” clip or similar to hold the loom towards the centre of the car. I need to dwell on it for a while so I have left the speaker grill out for now so that I can get the car built up and deal with the loom when I move onto the interior.
So, the boot lock was fitted and adjusted so the bonnet sat down level with the wings. I adjusted the bump stops and fitted some protective discs of 3M stone guard. (A clear sticky back plastic that normally wraps the front paintwork of a car to protect it from stone chips) I cut some small discs out with my Swedish punch set, peeled off the backing, stuck them centrally on my bump stops with a tiny blob of caulking (adhesive side up) and closed the bonnet so they stuck on the bonnet underside. Opening up the bonnet again to remove the blob of caulking and fixing the disc firmly. This will stop the bump stops rubbing through the new paint. I repeated this on the rear boot too to protect the paint there.
Next I fitted the pop up light front infill panels with 6 new rubber plug/grommets and checked the bonnet height and alignment again.
I then moved onto the rear of the car and the two sections eitherside the engine bay where the small grilles fit. Not wanting to mark the new paintwork I masked the area around them before sanding the bodywork down with 400 grit. Then cleaned and etch primed ready for satin black under the grilles.
With the rear of the car masked up still, I decided to remove all the old glue from the roll bar top and sails with a cloth soaked in white spirit. Turning the rag repeatedly I removed all the glue residue. Next I sanded out the paint line where the paintshop had painted the rear quarter and up on to the base of the sails each side. There was only the tiniest of paint steps but I didn’t want it to show through the vinyl. All surfaces were then keyed very lightly with 240 grit, and wiped off multiple times with a tack rag.
I then fitted the new sail & roll bar vinyl kit I’d bought from 914rubber using spray high temp impact adhesive from Woolies. The kit is mostly cut to size so it is critical to get it lined up before any glue is applied. I did this dry by taping the vinyl in the exact position, top, bottom and sides with 2” masking tape, drawing a pen line through the centre of the tape and cutting it free along the vinyl edge with a Stanley blade. This left 4 bits of tape on the car and 4 on the vinyl. When lined up with the pen marks they would be in the perfect position. I masked off all around the car with several broadsheet newspapers and applied the spray glue in 3 section. Roll bar top first.
After the glue was touch dry I fitted the top vinyl. No mean feat when your lone working. I had to very carefully stick one side on the very edge, hold it up high and walk it through the car (easy with seats out) and then standing on the opposite side of the car still holding it up high, align it front to rear, keeping it tight I then lowered it progressively in place for a perfect fit. The edges were then worked into the contours before trimming the sides off. Finally I then cut the ends with a knife and steel rule exactly halfway down the centreline of where the two aluminium trims fit.
After a well deserved cuppa I stuck both sail vinyls on. Again this was precarious starting at the top and working down, careful to make sure the vinyl finished half way over all the trim hold along the bottom.
Again after working it around all the corners and into place It all looked good.
Fortunately I’d carefully marked and trimmed the vinyl before fitting as I didn’t want too many cuts with a blade when it was on the car which break the paint surface.
The short aluminium strips were then fixed to the roof and the 3 new clips fitted along the rear edge (I took me a while to figure they went on the car first then the longest aluminium trim clips on afterwards)
Finally I fitted the two thin aluminium trims at the base of each fin with the 8 new spring clips I bought a while back.
The two curved ali trims will need to wait until tomorrow as I want to fit the two black grilles eitherside the engine bay before they go on, but need 24hrs for the satin black to dry.
Last of all I satin blacked over the etch and after half an hour unmasked the rear of the car with all glue/paint overspray contained on the newspaper, had a final cuppa and just sat a while looking at the car
Day 159

A lunch today I visited the iron mongers and picked up some stainless ½” screws to fit the aliuminium trims on the rear of the “A” pillars and front of the sails (that hold the upper door seals).
This evening after work I fitted the two grilles either side of the engine bay opening. The new seal was cut to the odd shape of the old seals. All was clear when I fitted them that it has to follow the contours of the steel pressing below the grille, hence the odd shape.
The little rubber encased star washers that I’d carefully removed a few months ago were cleaned in cellulose thinners and a small blob of new caulking applied before pressing home. I found that an 8mm socket was ideal to push them firmly home while holding the grilles down from above.
Next I fitted the two curved aluminium trims on the rear edge of the sails. Again I used the caulking to seal around the stud holes to prevent water ingress and hopefully stop corrosion. I opted on using stainless nylocks on the underside to secure the trim again to stop corrosion and working loose.
It was a bit of a fiddle and faff to get the nuts and washers on in a narrow garage but patience paid off and the trims were fitted nicely.
Next this evening I fitted new speed nuts to the front panel that hold the valance on and checked all was good by winding in some new Acme screws before removing them to leave the speed nuts lined up. A quick brush with waxoil and I’d run out of light yet again.

Day 160

This morning early doors I started cleaning up the pop up light motor linkage plastic covers with Brasso and making sure the screws and bolts were all cleaned up before work.
At lunch I visited the powdercoaters and picked up the small black discs, all shiny and new. On the way back to the office I called in at Porsche Centre and picked up the two wiper spindle covers and new wiper arm retaining nuts.
Tonight when I got home I thought I’d take a couple of shots of the roll bar vinyl and trims that I’d fitted the last couple of days.

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With the motor mounting discs in hand I was ready to fit the pop up light motors.
I fitted them with the 3 allen socket head bolts just nipped up and connected all the wires, relay and earth cable. With the actuating arms DISCONNECTED I put the battery lead on and switched the lights on with the ignition on. The motors spun to the light up position. Next without turning anything off I disconnected the battery.
Doing this allows you to connect the actuating arms in the maximum extended position (short pivot end and long arm absolutely straight and in line). With the arms on and the nuts nipped up (while holding the arm so as the motor wouldn’t turn when the nut was nipped) the lights were in the up position.
Now; with many 924’s, 944’s and 928’s under my belt in previous restorations the alignment is straight forward as follows….

1. Loosen off the end stop bolt and wind forward.
2. Fit the top painted covers and the black plastic cowls.
3. Loosen the 3 allen head bolt slightly that hold the motor in place.
4. Wind the motor manual knob ANTI clockwise (its got a lefthand thread, if you go clockwise it’ll unscrew and fall off) until both lamps are fully down with the actuator arms folded one under the other over the top of the furthest allen bolt.

Its ONLY now that you can align the pop up unit.

5. The first thing to do is line up the front edge of the lamp pod (effectively how far the light closes) This is done by moving the motor forwards or backwards on its 3 bolts NOT by turning it. Once to front edge is level with the infill panel and wing the motor can be nipped up on the 2 bolts you can get to as one is behind the arm and can be tightened at the very end.
6. Next loosen the light pivot bolts, two under the wing and 3 in the bonnet.
7. With bonnet closed you can align and tighten the two bolts under the wing and make a note of were to move the bracket on the inner pivots in the bonnet. I use a bit of masking tape in line with the bracket so you can see how much you’ve moved it and in which direction.
8. The pivot bolts in 6 & 7 above set the height on the rear of the lamp pod and move forward and back to set the pod squarely in the car.
9. Once level, square and at the right height tighten all bolts.
10. Before any power is applied turn the manual lamp knobs anticlockwise to open and close the light to check all is good.
11. Finally turn the knob one last time to the fully open position (tighten up that last motor bolt you could’nt get to) and set the travel stop limit bolt. This is done by carefully slipping a 13mm open ended spanner down the rear of the light pod, hold the nut and with a screwdriver turn the bolt anticlockwise until it just touches the bracket on the pivot then lock off the 13mm nut carefully in that position.

Afterwards I put the battery back on and powered them up and down a few times to make sure all was good.
Light beam alignment will be set crudely shining at the rear of the garage with the bowl adjusting screws and done properly at the MOT (Ministry of Transport) test station with the light box.

Assembled left Pop up light

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Right Pop up light

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The finished alignment, pretty much as good as it gets

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Day 161

Today started good with a little more cleaning before work, a run around at lunchtime to get some more thinners and white spirit and home after work to start on the car.
I fitted the two ali trims on the front edge of the sails that hold the door glass rubber seals with my nice new stainless steel screws. A small amount of caulking was placed behind them, rolled into a long sausage string in my palms before sticking down the centre of the trims prior to screwing on. This should not only stop water ingress but also aid sealing the sail vinyl edge that’s behind the ali trim and just crying out for water to be held in there by capillary attraction if left unattended.
Next I repeated the process and fitted the forward ali trims that hold the seals on the windscreen pillars for the quarterlight glass.
All was going well until I decided to fit the rear boot seals from 914rubber. They sat too high and the lid wouldn’t close?? I emailed Mark who’s agreed to take them back.
So on to an internet search yet again to buy parts twice over….
I found what claims to be OEM pattern seals on sale at Rosepassion Porsche, in France, about 3 times the price of the 914rubber ones so begrudgingly I ordered a set and will keep you informed how they work out.
After the hiccup with the boot seals I thought I’d fit the lower front roof seal to the windscreen frame. (It’s the one that sits directly by the trim panel and sunvisors). This time it looked like the one that came off, so good start. There is a notch cut out in the centre to clear a block that lines up the targa roof when fitting it. The seal had a token gesture notch cut out that required completely re cutting with a new Stanley blade so that the seal fitted properly. After a few minutes I’d whittled a perfect notch and the seal slipped straight on. While I was in there I noticed the centring block was wobbly, and found two philips screws on the underside loose so gave them a tightening up. It was then apparent that the seal was over length. No problem, I’d rather it that way than too short. To cut it correctly requires the full up and over seal to be fitted so that I can see where exactly to cut. Running out of daylight, this is going to be a job for tomorrow. At least that large seal I purchased directly from Porsche, so hopefully no messing about required.

Day 162

Today’s 914 escapades…..
I called in this morning before work and picked up the front and rear valances from the paintshop. Looking gooooooood!
Unfortunately they hadn’t painted the edge of the sills properly where the rivets hold it on so I’ve asked them to do it again. Classic case of “what thought did”. The painter said “I thought you didn’t see that edge”
Hey ho. That’s the way it goes. Suffice to say I’ve asked them to sort it but at least I can now fit the valances over the weekend and finally fit the bumpers.
At lunch time I tracked down another OEM seal and spoke to Porsche Centre about a new master key.
So tonight when I got home I spent a good while wrestling the large windscreen frame to roof seal into place and managed to fit both small screws in the corners. The sides I coated with some PH neutral soap (used for cleaning leather) to aid them sliding into the two ali channels. In this way if any residue remained it wouldn’t harm anything. The hardest bit was working out where to cut the lower rubber so it sits neatly against the inner corners of the up and over seal. Cutting a little off at a time and repeatedly fitting it to check, I managed to get a good joint on either end.
Since the rubber was slid in, the given practice is to squash/pinch it in place with the ali trim on the hidden inner edge. I plan on leaving it a few days before doing this. It can then “settle” in the car and hopefully when I pinch it in place it will not be stretched or compressed anywhere which could lead to the corners parting in future.
Finally this evening I fitted the front Euro modified side/indicator lights. Again this was a real fiddle under the wing trying to connect the spades on the back when you have new rubber sleeves over the loom that are quite rigid. Again trying to stretch the cover sleeve over the end of the lamp holder was also a real task, but with patience I managed to get them both on.
Starting to get dark I removed both sun visors and pivots. I plan on taking them down to the trimmers tomorrow. They look all lumpy so just won’t do. I’ll have a chat and see if the padding can be replaced without showing, but fear as they are heat welded vinyl wrapped they may need remaking with stitching. Whatever I opt for its going to be an improvement on how they currently look.
As the sun dropped over the horizon I quickly connected the battery and tested the lights.
All good.

Day 163

Today was an early start at work (typical Friday madness) so I didn’t get to do any 914 stuff until lunch. I picked up some more satin black paint for the engine lid (under grill) which I plan on spraying this weekend and called in at the paintshop to check on the sill progress. They are going to be ready hopefully on Tuesday. I also checked the tracking website for the seals from Rose Passion and fingers crossed I may get them tomorrow.
This evening after food shop I got home and unpacked the remaining parts I had on order from Porsche, before walking over to the garage.
I started cleaning up the trim under the windscreen frame above the sunvisors and down the pillars. There are a few tiny heat cracks in the trim which need sorting out. Again I think I’ll look at them over the weekend when I can push the car outside a bit. It was spitting with rain this evening so not a good idea.
With the sky looking dark I decided to come back into the house and start on the bumpers.
I first used an M8 tap to clean out the mounting hole threads and a small modellers paintbrush to paint through the fog lamp hole onto the rear of the mounting brackets where the spray gun hadn’t quite got in. Apart from that the finish is good. Don’t want any unprotected metal behind there! Should all be dry for assembly in the morning.

Day 164

This morning I got up early and fitted the speed nuts to the front valance and sorted out some BZP Acme screws for both valances.
I used my Swedish punch set to make a set of rubber washers for the front screws, just a shade bigger than the captive washers. With all new fixings I fitted the rear valance first.

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I’d opted for a stone guard finish on them both (to kinda match the Targa top and Porsche 944 sill (rocker) style) and had them painted on both sides after they were sand blasted and etch primed. Hopefully they’ll last well.
Next I fitted the front fog lamps and horns. New grommets in the lamp bases, but still waiting for the new Fog lamp glass lenses to arrive so left the bezels & reflectors out for now. With the cables neatly connected and clamped in place I put the battery on and tested the horns. All good.
The car was now ready for the front valance. After all the tin bashing and patience with a coat of primer and stone guard (inside and out) it came up pretty damn good.

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All screwed in with rubber washered Acme BZP screws and new speed nuts; all that was left to do was give them a lick of Waxoil with a modellers brush to keep them looking good.
The ends of the valances at the wheel arches were bolted together with stainless M5 bolts, nylocks, 12mm OD penny washers and some new rubber spacer sleeves.

With the waxoil tin still open I poured a bit into a jam jar and with a ¾” brush I set about painting the inside of both doors. This took a couple of hours as I made sure I’d worked it into every corner and crevice. The doors are so good a condition with zero rust that I want to keep them that way. Looking through the top of the door I waxoiled the rear of the inner panel (the one the door card attaches too) and then up and under the top of the door skin behind where the weather strip and mirror fits across the top of the door. I think I pretty much got every internal surface.
After a well earned cuppa I started to assemble the bumpers. I’d left the nuts and washers on the bottom of the old long rubber trims for safe keeping, but in doing so I’d forgotten to clean/replace them. Some of the BZP washers were looking a bit furry so I had a rummage in my shed and found some stainless bar. An hour on my lathe and I’d made 10 new ones to the exact outside diameter and thickness. (These are not a standard size to just match exactly, so making them was a good solution)
All was going well today until I opened the 914rubber “box of doom”. I got out the two uber expensive new bumper top mouldings and decided to fit them first.
To my amazement they were both TOO SHORT.
With the captive stud fitted in the middle of the bumper both ends were about ½” too short????
I tried putting the studs in at one end first and the second bolt was 1/4” out then the middle ½” and the third ¾” and the final one was a whole inch out!

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The only thing I could try and do was bolt it in the centre then have a bloomin tug o war stretch it to get the next stud in and a blue in your face white knuckle tug in fear of breaking it to get the last stud in place.
I was not amused at this high value item.
Quickly trying to fit the washers and nuts before it all popped out.
Problem now is that because its so stretched, the two ends after the end studs are curling out and away from the wheel arches and look awful!
I’m going to leave in overnight and see if the tension in the rubber eases and settles ( I can live in hope). It’s almost as if after it was moulded it shrunk in all directions?
The rear one was the same as the front but as there is no centre fixing in the bumper I was very worried that I’d tear/snap it when trying to get the 2 studs to locate at either end.
I also noticed the holes for the numberplate lights hadn’t been made so went to pilot drill them, but just thought I’d check the light fitment first. Good job I did as the indents/dimples guides in the new rubber were nowhere near right. The indent fixing guide was far too wide for my lights.

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The cut out for the light holder was so wide I only just managed to get holes into the rubber.
Yet again I am very disappointed in these remanufactured parts from 914rubber. Lets hope they stretch over night as my old ones are far too gone to put back on the car.
All in all its been another rollercoaster of a day.

Day 165

After updating my dairy last night I took another look and decided that the only way I could get them into shape at the ends would be with a mechanical fixing.
I took the plunge and drilled a small 4mm hole in each bumper end and painted the cut metal to stop it rusting before leaving it overnight to dry.
The problem is that with stretching the trims so much to fit the studs into the metal bumpers, the ends curl out of alignment with the wheel arch ends.

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When viewed looking upwards they are miles out and look awful.

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With the holes drilled in the bumper I wrestled and forced the end into shape and marked the rear of the rubber. Due to the shape of the metal bumper there was no way that I could get a drill in, so reluctantly I took them off the metal and very carefully pilot drilled the rubber.
After 16 hours bolted stretched on the bumper they still hadn’t got any longer and I had to force them back on.
Wrestling the ends into shape I drove a ¾” stainless steel screw in from the underside.

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I did this on all 4 corners using 1” screws in the front as the force was much greater to hold the ends in.
With it now looking better I built up the rest of the bumper parts using all stainless fixings.

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Finally I could fit the bumpers to the car.

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The numberplate lights were fitted and tested all good, so I moved on to the front.

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Not the easiest thing to fit but after another day of agro the result is better than my old perished trims.

Day 166

I emailed Mark at 914rubber some photo’s of the problems over the weekend and he replied today with acknowledgement and suggestions of cutting out the backs of the rubber bumper parts with a sharp knife to make them fit better. I’ve asked him to send some pictures of what bits to cut off them, but he is obviously aware that there is a common fitting issue with the product.

Anyway, today was going to be a long day. I left home at 7am for work and have only just got in the door at 11:15pm following a long day at work and straight on to a car club committee meeting.
I knew it was going to be a long one, so made sure I was up at 4:30 am this morning to get at least 2 hours in on the 914 today.
Before sunrise I decided today I’d fit the door handles that I’d cleaned up previously. The drivers side had a partially stripped thread down the blind hole in the Mazak. Probably due to finding a cross threaded hex head bolt in it when I took the car apart instead of a socket allen screw. I ground a spare M6 plug tap square off at the end and re-tapped the hole including about 3mm at the base of the hole that the factory didn’t tap out. It was easy to get to the very bottom of the hole with a ground off plug tap.
Next I got a new socket allen head bolt and cut it down so that it was 3mm longer than standard so that I could make use of the extended thread in the handle. All in all there was about 4mm of damaged thread at the start of the hole 5mm of old thread remaining and my new 3mm which allowed the longer bolt 8mm of good thread. More than enough to hold it firmly.
Next I opened pandora’s box of 914rubber parts and took out the new door handle seals I’d bought.
Hmmm, they were all silicone squidgy like the no good boot lock seal, not at all like the nylon of the original seal. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and cleaned the back of the chrome handle and applied a small amount impact glue to handle and seal (just like factory) and waited for the glue to go touch dry before attaching the seals in the right place.
They promptly fell off????? Eh???? The impact glue on the seal stuck to the glue on the handle but the silicone of the new seal was like some glue rejecting Teflon device and it simply didn’t stick at all. Back to the drawing board……Suffice to say I then wasted half an hour cleaning the glue off the back of the handles.
The only thing that I could find that would hold onto the seal was superglue. Not my first choice; but with 3 tiny blobs, both ends and middle, it held the seals firmly in line.
By this time the sun had risen and the birds were singing. I walked over to the garage and carefully fitted both door handles. A small coating of waterproof grease on the mechanism and they opened with the lightest touch……perfect.
The seals also stayed in place for now (not sure if it's the compression of handle to door or superglue, but time will tell).
Finally I put a blob of waxoil over and around the head of the socket allen head of the bolts to protect them from corrosion before sitting down to breakfast and then leaving for work.

Day 167

I got an email back today from Mark at 914rubber with a series of pictures of what “chunks” to cut out of the back of the rubber bumper tops to aid a better fit.
Basically he suggests cutting out two large triangular webs from each end of the rubber strip so it sits flat at each end. The webs are on the originals (from which I suspect they took a mould) and are there to reinforce the corners and kinda hook onto the metal bumper ends. They were designed that way for a reason.
The fact of the matter is that the 914rubber bumper tops DO NOT have a long metal strip inside to locate the mounting studs. They have local “penny washers” on the ends of the studs moulded inside the rubber. I suspect that they are the fibre glass stud type where the washer is drilled with a series of holes (a bit like an old movie film reel) this is moulded in place and the rubber or fibre glass fill the holes in the washer end which locks it from spinning when you put a nut on it. Here lies the problem, because the studs are not on one long plate the rubber can “shrink” and then the stud spacing shortens. The triangular webs that Mark suggest we cut off, do not hook over the end of the metal bumper as they are supposed to. Instead they fall short which stops the part sitting flush and makes the ends curl out.
The solution is NOT to cut out the web as Mark at 914rubber suggests; the answer is to scrap all the defective bumper tops and make new with a long curved metal insert with the studs fixed in.
Since they are a high value item I’m sure 914rubber had quite a few made at great expense and my ideal solution will not be an easy pill to swallow. As there is currently no alternative source for these high value items so we’re a little stuck and will have to make do and mend. Mark is aware of the issues with these parts and I suggested to him that he at least provide the purchaser with a detailed instruction on how to make them fit or better still he trial fits and adjusts each and everyone before they are shipped out. Anyone without some degree of engineering skill is simply not going to be able to fit these parts which in all honesty at the price should simply bolt on like the originals.
As for the 914rubber door handle seals on close inspection they have been injection moulded in a C&C milled die from all I can describe to you is bathroom silicone sealer. No where near as resilient as the originals. Trust me, if I had any originals then I’d be cleaning mine up and replacing. As for the impact glue holding them in place, I only replicated what I found on the back of my old handles.
Hopefully my observations and recommendations to Mark at 914rubber will move things up a gear which if implemented will only benefit the 914 community in future. After all his intentions are well meant and I’m sure these are just early development snags.

Today I got up at dawn and cleaned the rear boot carpet with 1001 carpet cleaner and gave it a good scrub before washing off in the bath. I hung it up to dry and then spent another half hour cleaning the bath tub which looked pretty dirty afterwards!
I left for work with the spare wheel in the back to take to my tame specialist metal polishers for a discussion.
Today at lunchtime I took the wheel to get the tyre off and then called in at the polishers. The Fuchs wheels are anodised and ONLY the sails/petals and outer edge of the rim is polished. I am investigating the processes required to replicate the original finish. I’ve found an anodiser that will electro-chemically strip the wheel, then the polishers can do their bit and then back to the anodisers for a fresh anodise clear plating. At the polishers today we discussed the finer details on where the polishing stops and how to achieve that. Watch this space as they say.
Anyway when I got home this evening the genuine seals had arrived from Rose Passion Porsche, so I started off by fitting the rear boot seals. Perfect!
Next I fitted the door check straps and the interior light switches. Following with the US licence plate brackets. I retained these as they stand off the front bumper to mount a plate squarely and flat on the curved & angled bumper. I’ve seen them in the PET so presume they are a genuine Porsche part so didn’t want to discard them.
I then fitted the outer door top weatherstrip ali trims (that hold the fuzzy and rubber seal strip). These need to go in first as with the glass in situ you cant get at the small screws that hold them on.
Finally (as the sill covers should be ready at the painters tomorrow) I waxoiled all of the sill panels on the car and the ends up a little way into the wheel arches, so that everything that sits behind the sill covers is well protected.

Day 168

Today I made reasonable progress on the grand assembly.
Firstly I fitted the two rear window channels that go inside the doors, next to the lock mechanism. I had two new rubber end stops that go on the top of the door clamped by the channel and fitted with a tiny screw from the rear which seemed to go on okay. I’d got some uber small stainless screws left over from a previous car restoration that did the trick. Nice and shiny when you open the door and see them!
Seems to be the best fitting bit of 914rubber yet.
The next thing to go on was the interior door handles and operating rods. Nice new spring clips on each end and cleaned up handles and rubber hoop guides completed the installation. After a little fiddling around with adjustment the doors opened, closed locked and unlocked nice and smoothly. Nothing like the sand filled mechanisms that I was frightened of snapping off the door handle when trying to open the doors when I bought the car.
After some fun and games taking the door apart the Rubic’s challenge of how to get the door glass out was easily solved and assembly was reverse of removal.
Basically the window mechanism needs winding so its about 4” short of fully lowered window position and fed into the door through the large bottom opening. The mechanism then needs to be sat neatly in the door bottom leaning inwards so that there is free space inside the door by the door skin. (you could cable tie it there if needed). The exterior ali weather strip needs to be fitted (as I did last night) and nothing else (apart from the rear channel/runner, door lock and handle)
The glass slips into the door in literally 2 seconds.
To do this you need to open the door fully so the windscreen pillar is out of your way, hold the door glass above the door (in the correct orientation as it would be if you could simply of lifted it vertically out) Move it slightly forward over where the quarterlight fits then TIP the REAR end down (about 30 degrees) and slide the bottom rear edge of the glass into the slot in the door. When you get to the metal runner that’s clamped on the glass you’ll see its wider than the slot in the door (particularly as the ali trim is fitted) so you feed this in through the bit where the quarterlight and front window runner goes, tipping the glass a little steeper about 45 degrees. Once the whole of the runner is in through the wider quarterlight gap you can then reduce the angle progressively as you feed the glass rearwards into the door until horizontal again (window wound up position) and then it can be lowered down into the door between the door skin and the mechanism that was strategically placed previously.
Simply let the glass sit on the bottom of the door while you raise the winder mechanism into place and bolt it in. All that’s needed then is to lift the glass inside the door onto the runners of the mechanism. If you did as I said firstly and set the mechanism to about 3 to 4 inches wound up before putting it into the door; then the runners and securing bolt for the front arm will be smack bang in the middle of the large opening and you’ll be able to see what your doing while fitting the front securing bolt through the nylon block into the glass metal bracket. Removal is obviously reverse of this. It did take me a little while when I stripped the car down to figure this out but knew there had to be a knack to it on a mass produced car, so hopefully this post will save time and potential damage for others wrestling with their door glass.
So that was today’s progress, right hand door glass in, run out of daylight yet again. Hopefully left door glass for tomorrow.

Day 169

Today was another long day at work, 6am start and 6pm finish so unfortunately I didn’t get a look in on the 914 this morning. This evening I carried on with the door assembly after fitting the rear boot carpet (all of 10 seconds) after its scrub and bubble bath earlier in the week.
The drivers door glass was fitted first this evening, same procedure as last night. I then fitted the two outer 914rubber weather strips followed by the long ali front window runner and quarterlight frame. I loosely fitted the top cap (without quarterlight glass) to set the adjustment bolt at the bottom of the door to ensure it fitted snug into the windscreen pillar seal. With a quick double check of all the bolts and a repeat of the same on the passenger door I was ready to test rolling the windows up and down.
Guess what…. the damn things just rolled in against the glass jammed up and came dislocated.
The 914rubber parts are really starting to get my goat. They are an “enjoyment vacuum” during this otherwise pleasurable restoration.
Not one to be defeated I thought maybe it was because the top inner door fuzzy weather strip was not fitted yet? Maybe if that pushes against the glass from the inside then it might stop the outer rubber rolling in? Back into the house to grab my new inner fuzzy seal, opened the bag went to fit and Oh Dear its supplied cut 2” too short!
The outer seals were 3-4” too long which is great because you can trim it to your exact size, the inner ones on the otherhand are only fit for the bin.
I’m getting quite fed up with sounding like a broken record in multiple emails to Mark at 914rubber, but his stuff (in my short experience) isn’t good. Trouble is I still have half a box of it yet to fit, so my returns parcel is still growing.
Not wanting to even trial fit the too short inner fuzzies for fear of it affecting my chances of a refund, I put them back in the bag.
At least the quarterlight rubber seals I bought were from Porsche Centre so I left the wind up windows (immobilised by 914rubber) and decided to fit the two quarterlight glasses and seals. Again with a little playing around I found that the easiest way to fit them was slide in the vertical part of the rubber down the post but don’t locate the bottom horizontal bit (if you do, the slot closes up and you cant get the glass in).
Next side in the glass down the vertical seal to locate and manipulate the horizontal seal onto the glass while holding it into the vertical slot with a little pressure. Next compress the forward end of the horizontal rubber slightly to “shorten” it and push the whole lot downwards. It should go straight into the door slot with the front end locating nicely. Tuck the front flappy tab under the outer door seal metal channel and then gently push in the thin bit at the rear of the horizontal between door skin and ali post. Perfect!
Put the two top caps on with the two cross head screws and job done.
VERY slowly close the door and check the quarterlight glass against the pillar seal. Having previously set this up with the ali post and glass out, all should be well.
I had a small adjustment to make on the windscreen pillar up and over seal at the very bottom as it was sticking down past the ali trim a few mm which caught on the quarterlight seal, but I’d not clamped it by bending the ali rail closed yet as I was waiting for it to all settle and for the test with the door built up. All reference parts in place now so I’ll let the two doors settle while closed until tomorrow and clamp the pillar seals in then.

Day 170

This morning before work I spent an hour playing around with the winder mechanism, window runner channels and glass track alignment. Hindered by the window scraper rubbers I ended up having to wipe the glass with soapy water just to allow me to roll them up and down.
I emailed Mark at 914rubber the other evening about the issue and he is aware of the binding and has a solution. He sells a better seal for the job that I understand is sold as a direct “genuine” part under licence or similar. Mark’s agreed to send me out the better seal in return for me sending the binding weatherstrips back, plus he’s sending out longer inner door seals to replace the ones that I found were too short yesterday.
He can’t be any fairer than that. I’d advise anyone who’s got an issue with the window seal to get in contact with him.
So at lunch today I picked up the two painted sill trims and dropped them off at home for safekeeping before returning back to work.
As I stepped in the door there was a card from Parcel Force with another customs charge. After work this evening before food shop I called in at the Depo and collected the rear “914” script badge (after having to pay a £17 ($26) customs charge on a $40 part!)
Once home I fitted the badge to finish off the rear of the car.
To continue with the door & glass alignment from this morning I needed the rear upright window seal fitting to the roll bar. With a little PH neutral soap and water they slid in nicely from the top and once certain they were in correctly I trimmed a tiny bit off the bottom to the correct length. Another 914rubber part but this time all went well.
I was just about to adjust the rear window runner inside the doors when Nathan from here called by. Suffice to say I spent the next 2 hours walking him through my car collection and talking all things Porsche! Before I knew it, it was 10:30pm and time to call it a day.

Day 171

Today I continued with the door, window glass, runners and frame alignment. No mean feat chasing your self in circles but I got there in the end.
Starting with holding a plastic 12” rule down the front edge of the door to front wing I adjusted the hinges and lock striker plates to get the fit right. Next the front ali window posts and quarterlights were pulled in at the top using the adjuster at their base so that the quarterlight glass met the up and over windscreen pillar seal evenly.
Next with soapy water on the glass to lubricate the scraper seal I wound the window up and down to get the best position for the M8 bolt in the nylon block on the bottom of the glass that holds it into the winder arm.
Then I adjusted the rear vertical channels again to get the glass (when wound up) to close evenly against the rear roll bar seal. I then looked at the glass side on where it meets the roll bar seal and noticed it was a tiny bit out of parallel, so undid the M6 bolt on the top of the front ali window post and gave it a tiny nudge rearwards before nipping up. After which I went back around all pivot points to double check everything. Last of all I then adjusted the travel stops on the winder mechanism to set the maximum glass height without over shooting the ali post rubber tops, then completed by tapping over the ali channels to clamp the up & over and roll bar window seals in place.
A few hours went by but the jobs done now.
After a cuppa I fitted the recently painted sill covers using all new plastic rivets, stainless bolts and Acme screws. They took a little adjusting and persuasion but went on well and look lovely!
The little VW plastic rivets were a bit of a pain to knock the pins down, but after working out that if you pull the pin from the rivet and put the tiniest bit of oil on the pin; they knock in far easier.
I then fitted the two polished up threshold plates but found that although the rivets fit through the plastic plate the holes in the car are ever so slightly (by about 0.3mm too small) I’d not had the problem on the sill covers as presumably the PO had drilled them out when the fitted metal pop rivets in the past. After running a 3.4mm drill down all the holes, followed by paint on a modellers brush I had a quick cuppa while it dried. Just in case any rust was going to get in there I waxoiled all the holes for good measure and fitted the threshold plates and remaining plastic rivets.
Next to go on was a new stainless steel radio aerial. A new grommet was fitted under the wheel arch and the cable fed along its original route before plugging into the back of the radio.
With the car pushed out of the garage for most of today it was the first time I had been able to stand back and view it. I’d noticed the front valance where it met the bottom of the bumper was a little out of alignment. One side I could see ¼” blue through the gap, the other virtually none. As that wouldn’t do… I set about un-screwing and manipulating to a perfect fit. Not bad really considering the mess it was in when I bought the car. After an hour it was all back on and perfectly aligned.
Last of all this evening I fitted the rear tow eye plug in the bumper to complete the lower section of the car.
With lawns to mow and a need for food I called it a day.

Day 172

Today I fitted the outer door seals that sit in the channel on the doors.
Using a modellers brush I put a tiny bit of impact glue in the base of the channel and on the corresponding part of the seals. Being very careful not to get it on the sides of the channel or seal.
With a small jam jar of soapy water and another modellers brush I coated the sides of the seal and the sides of the door channel; again being careful not to get the glue wet.
The seals then very simply slipped neatly in to place and sat fully home held in with their ridged sides and secured with the impact glue on the base.

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I then started to clean up the floor inside the car as the seats should be back soon from the trimmers.
This was one of those tasks that you intended to do within an hour that’s turned into a mini mammoth job. I took out the armrest centre console as the top needs a retrim due to going sun baked and splitting. Suffice to say there was another dustpan full of sand under it!
Cleaning it up by hand was a real pain. (no electric in the garage so no vacuum cleaner and I don’t have a battery one either). The more I scrubbed and cleaned the more stuff I needed to sort out. I removed all the vinyl coverings in front of the seat runners and around the centre tunnel only to find the glue that was under them was all goooo like an old boiled sweet. So with a white spirit soaked cloth I had a very sticky sandy mess to clean up. To get at it properly I took the seat runners, seatbelt clips, seatbelt relay and loom out of the way. Now with seat runners out I turned them over and found the black paint flaking, so they’re off for a blast and powdercoat tomorrow now along with the little cover plate in the centre tunnel! I stripped the runners down in my shed this evening, driving out the roll pins and removing all moving parts and bushes for a proper job. I think I’ll call in at the trimmers tomorrow too and drop off the centre armrest cubby lid and maybe while the other part of the seat runners are off the seat bases take a good look at them to see if they need a refurbish aswell.
Anyway with all the bits out of the way I managed to clean up all the floor under where the seats go as far as the cross member. With tooth picks, pens, coins, safetypins, business cards and sand there was plenty of cr*p under there! However I was rewarded by finding 3, yes 3 of the black plugs that cover the screws in the interior trim.
What was going to take me an hour this morning ended up taking all day, but before I pushed the car back into the garage this evening I took a couple of pictures of the assembly so far.

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The garage is so narrow I can barely squeeze down each side of the car, so opening the doors means pushing it outside!

Day 173

Today before work I started to brass wire brush the parts from the seat runners to get the white furry stuff of the BZP. I got an hour in before my son got up (he stayed over last night) and after breakfast we left about 6am to drop him off at his mums before going to work.
At lunchtime I called in at the trimmers and dropped off the padded centre tunnel arm rest lid and took a look at my seats. One was just about finished and the other not far behind. They hope to have them done next week (rear bulkhead included) so I need to get a move on with the interior ready for them to go back in.
Tonight when I got home I continued with “project floor clean” and spent a further 3 hours scrubbing the old glue and dirt off the floor under the seats and pretty much got it all clean now from the cross member rearwards. The plan is maybe tomorrow to start cleaning forward of the cross member (if my aching fingers are up to it).
I want to get it spotless under the carpets and free from the very last grain of Californian Desert Sand.

Day 174

This morning I got up early and masked off and painted the rear section of the floor that I’d spent several days cleaning up. I had a litre of basecoat paint left over so I thought I’d put it to good use while the floor was exposed. As per the rest of the car there was zero rust in the floorpan, just a lot of dirt & sand.
Having cleaned it up meticulously it was apparent that the factory barely put enough paint on the floor in the car to cover the white primer. It was very light and opaque in places. Giving it a good second coat would certainly help protect it for the future.
With the paint drying I left for work.
During lunch I called in at the powder coaters and dropped off the seat runners and the centre tunnel cover plate. I also spoke with Porsche Centre to see where the progress in a replacement key was. After no joy on the chassis number I emailed a close up photo as they suggested. “still with Germany” was the update.
Tonight when I got home the floor was nice and dry, so I cleaned up and rebound the visible wiring loom, replaced the cleaned up black sleeves on the loom clamps and reassembled the seatbelt relay block.

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All this will be covered up when the car goes back together but I know what’s under there. Just got to do the front half next.

Day 175

Yesterday I had a Fedex card through my door so today at Lunchtime I went and collect my parcel.
It was the Fog light glasses, and the replacement “non-grab” weatherstrips for the doors from 914rubber.
I opened the box and the seals are a slightly different design. Mark had also sent a replacement set of inner fuzzy seals (that were originally too short) FREE OF CHARGE. Thanks Mark!!!
Having waited so long for the Fog light glass the first thing I did tonight when I got home was assemble them with my home made seals in my shed. The weatherstrips will wait for the morning.
With the lamps bases on the car it’s not easy to get the power cable, bezel clip and screw in through the opening in the bumper. Again with a little patience, lying upside down and a torch held in my teeth I got them both on.
The next thing was to offer up (without screws) the nice shiny new chrome grilles and adjust the lamp allen bolt so that the lamp sits central in the grill hole, then nip up the bolt.
I put the battery on and turned the fogs on to check all was well before aligning the height of the beam and clamping off the hex head through bolt. Again this is tricky through the bumper opening with the horns in the way. A ¼” drive 13mm socket straight onto a UJ was the only way I could get at it.
Just as it was getting dark I fitted the nice chrome grilles with new stainless screws to finally finish off the front bumper.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1458845903.27.jpg)

Day 176

This morning I got up early and removed the handbrake lever and took it into my shed. Since painting the floor the other morning, it’s made things surrounding it look bad.
I rubbed down and primed the handbrake before breakfast being extra careful to mask up the nice 914 part number printed on the side in white lettering.
At lunchtime I picked up some stainless raised countersunk Phillips M6 for the door mirror and when I got home this evening I spent half an hour polishing up the heads so they shone like chrome.
The replacement seals that turned up yesterday got fitted next.
The reason the seals grab and jam is they seem too wide/tall. It’s obvious when you hold Marks replacements and the first one I bought side by side.
The seal on the left is the 914 replacement seal, the right is a 911 type seal.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1458845903.28.jpg)

As you can see the left hand one is shallower & shorter and has an extra part that reaches down by the “bulb” locating strip to stop it “rolling” into the glass.

I fitted the correct left hand seal tonight and the windows wind up and down with ease, just as Porsche intended.
The answer isn’t talcum powder, its fitting the correct seal.
The confusion is that 914rubber and other vendors sell/promote the 911 type seal first
With the original genuine Porsche quarterlight seal fitted last week I was a little disappointed that the thin insert piece that goes in between the Ali window post and outer door skin was too short. My old one was like this so it must be a common fault. Not to be defeated, and since the new window scraper seals were over length, I very carefully cut the ends to make up a tab and close the tiny gaps. (post fitting the new mirror screws)

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1458845904.29.jpg)

Finally I fitted the replacement correct length inner fuzzy door seals that Mark at 914rubber kindly sent to complete the door seal installation.

Day 177

I got up at 4am today and got a couple of hours in on the 914 before work.
While working on the doors and windows I’d noticed that the passenger door had up inside it, the plate with two threaded holes to take a passenger door mirror, but the door skin had no holes.
Porsche must have done this to allow passenger mirrors to be retro fitted or fitted by special order at build.
Now; with a LHD car in UK a passenger door mirror is quite helpful. So after a search on line I found some NOS for sale in Germany for £80 including the gasket.

All that was required was to locate the exact position of the threaded holes and drill the door from the outside….not as easy as you’d think.
After a few days pondering I decided to reach from inside the door, put my centre punch in the threaded hole from underneath and tap gently to make a raised pimple on the door skin that I could see from the outside.
Very carefully I centre punched the pimple and then drilled a 2mm hole. Looking from the inside of the door with a mirror on a stick I could see that I was almost central but not quite.
A 3mm drill was used next followed by a 3.5mm. In this way I removed the risk of cutting into the thread in the door and damaging it. The hole was then enlarged with my swiss rat tail file until it matched perfectly the threaded M6 core diameter. I then carefully ran a 5mm drill down it to ensure it was circular before using my sheet metalworkers step drill to take the door skin nicely out to 6mm without damaging the threads.
I repeated this on the other hole and had two perfect 6mm holes in line exactly with the factory threads.
Finally I cleaned up the burrs with a tiny countersink and painted around the holes with two pack paint.
Roughly an hour a hole but it was worth spending the time to get it right. Doing it wrong is only going to hurt the pocket!

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1458845904.30.jpg)

Day 178

Today was another very busy at work, but I did manage to squeeze in a little time on the 914 at the start and end of a long day.
As the paint around the holes had dried I fitted the new Passenger Mirror with a good coating of waxoil down and around the mounting holes before it went on.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1458845904.31.jpg)

It looks so nice that I may need to get another new one to replace the drivers side which has some tiny/miniature stone marks in it. Passenger door mirrors I know are controversial, but in UK with driving on the left, all you see in the drivers door mirror is the sidewalk, so definitely a good modification.

After a busy day at work, I got back into the garage at 6pm tonight and began “Operation Dash Stripdown”
The top roll has a few sundried cracks in it, the bottom roll has a single crack under the glovebox, the top padded vinyl has shrunk and come unstuck, as has the basket weave insert. All in all the closer I looked the more issues I found with it.
So the only way to sort it out is to redo it all. Taking the dash top roll off I was greeted with another load of fine Desert sand beneath it.
I also plan on cleaning up and repainting the front half of the floor so I stripped out the centre console and all the remaining bits of carpet ready for a good scrub up and bubble bath.
Who on earth thought it was a good idea at Porsche to have the steering column pass through the carpet?????
To get the passenger foot rest carpet out I had to remove the steering column!
Not a bad thing really as I found all the windscreen washer hoses perished and split behind there plus a few wires that had come unclipped from things.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1458845904.32.jpg)

Again I worked until it started to get dark and hard to see, but I made good progress.
Trouble is, just as my shed and summer house were gaining some space again Ive gone and filled them up and given myself another load of work to do.

Day 179

Today has been very busy.
Over the last few weeks I’ve been viewing cars for my 17 year old son and today we found a little gem. He wanted a Morris Minor Traveller (not my choice, but I’m happy he wanted a classic car over a modern soul-less tin box) We got up at dawn and drove up to High Wycombe (north of London) to view a one family ownership car with ONLY 54000 miles from new.
It was absolutely fantastic condition, and the history was amazing (little hand written notebook, browning edged pages in lovely handwriting listing every oil and parts change on the car). We just had to buy it. Both my son & I had great beaming smiles as we drove it home 100 miles without missing a beat this morning.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1458845905.33.jpg)

(Wood sheet only placed under the car as a test for a couple of days to see if it drops any fluids)
Anyway moving on, I have many classics and one I took out last week had a failed otterstat (something that most aircooled owners need not worry about) I’d shorted the switch to get home and a new one arrived in the post yesterday so after getting the Traveller home I drained and fitted the switch to the other car.

Determined to work on the 914 everyday I then continued with operation dash stripdown. The top vinyl directly by the windscreen had shrunk and the glue failed. Its folded around the dash frame and glued on so unfortunately the only way to really recover it properly is to take the dash frame out.
After a couple of hours which involved figuring out where all the fixings were and how on earth I was going to reach them I managed to get it out.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1458845905.34.jpg)

When I first got my car I’d mentioned to the UK club registrar the dash was green when looking up and underneath it. He’d said that the dashes were painted with each car, but when they came back from trimming the factory simply put them in the first car they came too.
On the reverse of my green dash is MY Karmann body number!

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1458845905.35.jpg)

Once the frame was out I relocated everything back to my sheds for storage and working on this week.

Day 180

Today’s escapades.
I got up before sunrise and pushed the car out of the garage much to the surprise of a Fox that shot across the rear of the car as it rolled out. Scared the living daylights out of me!
I managed to get a good two hours cleaning the floor before breakfast this morning. Again with no power I had to do it all by hand with wire brushes, scrapers and a brush and dustpan. But I got it pretty clean. I started by the windscreen and worked down, brushing all the dust, fluff and grime out the wiring and on to the floor before cleaning that.
At lunchtime I called in at the powdercoaters and picked up the seat runners and rear tunnel cover plate. They look like new!
Spurred on by them when I got home this evening I had another final clean up and decided to put the first coat of paint on the front half of the floor.
Just managed to finish before it got dark again.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1458845905.36.jpg)

If only I had power & lights in this garage…..I wouldn’t need to sleep when it got dark.

Day 181

Today I have been mostly cleaning stuff.

This morning I started cleaning up the wiring loom across the front half of the floor. Individually cleaning the cables with a rag soaked in cellulose thinners. I cleaned all the plugs and connectors that feed the gauges and heater indication in the centre console. Finally I cleaned the black plastic sleeves that go over the loom clamps on the centre tunnel before refitting them and putting the loom back in place before going to work.
During lunch I called in at the trimmers and collected the first completed seat and the centre console arm rest. They look superb!

Hopefully the second seat (half done) will be ready by the end of the week. Everything except the face of the basket weave has been renewed due to sun bake damage. Even the sides of the squabs (side of basket weave panels that’s smooth) has been replaced along with bolsters, headrests and backs.
Even though you can buy basket weave by the metre its not heat pressed with the parallel lines like the original and very hard to replicate. Fortunately as it’s a different type of plastic/vinyl to the smooth grained sides it seemed to retain its suppleness and not be as brittle as the rest of the trim. Must have better UV properties?
I also called Southbound trimmers (a UK Porsche interior specialist) and after taking measurements of the various basket weave panels that make up the dash this morning, I ordered enough new material to re-trim it. (The existing had some cuts and marks in it so had to go).

Anyway, after work this evening I continued the cleaning and sorted out the windscreen vents.
They were full of sand and had sun bleached to a nasty faded patchy white/grey. Against the planned new black vinyl on the dash top they would look awful. I decided to clean them up, degrease them and spray them matt black. They seem to be made of some sort of bakerlite/fibre/plastic, and the original colour is unique. Matt black seemed to be the least conspicuous and offensive colour choice and certainly looks a million times better than the patchy white.
Following the vents I noticed that the extended lip around the windscreen was originally painted black where the dash to screen rubber seal fitted, plus a narrow line of black around the rest of the frame. I carefully followed the existing line with fine line masking tape and repainted it black. This is probably to ensure you don’t see body colour when looking in through the screen between interior trim and the side of the ali windscreen surround.
Finally this evening as it started to get dark I washed a few bits of interior trim for around the rear window and gave them a good Cif cream scrub.




So that ends Month 6…..

I’m so pleased to have the car home, even if the garage is small, it’s only a short walk around the block to go work on it. With Spring in the air, the weather is improving daily and progress is steady. The cars starting to look real nice with all the cleaned up and new parts going back on!!

Thanks for taking time out to read my update, I hope you enjoyed the story so far.

[Andyrew]

Really a shame about those bumper tops. The work you did to them really makes them look much better.

Only got about halfway through this on my lunch, your ability to do work on the project every single day just astounds me!

Your attention to detail is fantastic (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Olympic 914]

Looks really good, paint turned out great.

Fantastic job.

Are your bumpers and valences finished in the same satin? other than the texture under the paint of the valence.

I am considering doing my bumpers and valence similar to yours.

[Darren C]

Hey Tom,

Thanks for the kind words, good paint really makes a car and I just love the Alaska Blue colour. There's a few small areas that I need to flat and polish just to clear some faint gun finish "orange peel", but apart from that I'm very, very pleased with the job.

You're correct on the bumpers and valances. It's the same satin black top finish with textured stone guard underneath on the valances and sill (rocker) panels only. All the parts were bead blasted inside and out before etch primer then main 2K primer, and flatted down before colour or texture was applied. The finish on the inside of the bumper is as good as what you see on the outside. In the close up photos, the particles you can see are dust that settled on them while at the paint shop (when the paint was dry thankfully). Looking back at my pictures, the rear/insides were painted first then allowed to cure before they were flipped over for the outside to be painted. You can see dust on the insides of the rear bumper and even the shape of the two bits of masking tape that covered the holes for the license plate fixings in the dust! I did clean them off before fitting, just forgot with all the excitement to dust them down for the photos :-)
I also did the targa roof at the same time so that all the satin black matches. I think you can see the roof stood against my sons wardrobe in the picture of the two assembled bumpers.

Regards
Darren

[914forme]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/drooley.gif) Keep up the great work

[Ferg]

Really really well done. Keep it up!

[matthepcat]

Wow. Just wow.

[Darren C]

Month 7

Day 182

Today I have continued cleaning up interior parts.

The dash frame was stripped of foam & glue on the top and the basket weave panels.
The double sided tape residue from the panels was also scraped off and the whole thing washed and scrubbed within an inch of its life.
The basket weave material was then stripped off the metal backings and all glue and double sided tape cleaned off.
I then took the whole centre console apart, all screws, staples and clips removed so its in a dozen flat pack pieces along with the armrest cubby that’s in another half dozen parts.
I started to clean up all the angle bracketry that holds the console together and also the short piano hinge for the armrest.
After which I washed and scrubbed all the vinyl parts with Cif and a toothbrush to remove 40 years of grime, sticky gooo, hairs and spilt coffee & sugar that had got into all the joints…..nice
Before laying them all out in the heat to dry.
While the bucket was out I also cleaned the cover plate for the pedal assembly and the trims that go around the rear window.
In between all the cleaning I visited the trimmers today and dropped off the padded trim that goes on the front of the roll bar around the roof clips. It’s in about 6 pieces (split in half down all the fixing holes by the heat & Desert sun)
They asked me to put it in the trash when I left! But after a little calming down I got them to try and do something with it.

Day 183

This morning before work I carried on cleaning up parts of the now “flat-pack” centre console and general interior parts before laying them out to dry in my kitchen.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1461496927.1.jpg)

Over lunchbreak I tracked down a pair of new speaker grilles to replace mine that have cracks right through the screw holes and have corners missing. I also found a really nice original Blaupunkt radio for sale on ebay and after some deliberation I ended up placing a best offer for it.

This evening when I got home from work I carried on cleaning up the dash that’s now stripped bare in my garden as there’s no room in the tiny garage.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1461496927.2.jpg)

In the left hand corner under the dash top foam that I removed because it had gone all powdery a little of the black paint had rubbed off when I was cleaning the glue residue off.
It was then I noticed some hand writing on the dash top. Written on it when it was all green and sprayed over black and buried under the foam and vinyl never to see the light of day again.

Over the years restoring cars I have found many signatures, doodles and writing hidden away in old cars so I was keen to find out what it said.
I spent a good hour tonight with white spirit very carefully cleaning off the black paint to reveal the whole word.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1461496927.3.jpg)

Only when I figured it out did the penny drop and it certainly made me smile.

“Sambesigrun”

Day 184

Today I collected the second seat from the trimmers and picked up a piece of vinyl and thin foam material to redo the dash top over the weekend.
The seats look great but I need to give them a damn good clean. Although they’ve replaced all the smooth vinyl, the basket weave is still original and they haven’t cleaned it. Its still full of sanding dust from the paintshop, Desert Sand deep in the basket weave pattern and against the new vinyl it looks filthy (which it is) so tomorrow I need to give both seat inserts a good scrub.
After searching now for almost 6 months I came to a blank on finding a good or NOS dash top so I did a bit of reading up on which dash cap is best.
Well I ordered one off German ebay that was from a company called Motorform. Their ad and description made a big deal about it being made in Germany to match the existing texture and a high quality product.
It arrived today in a big box with Motorform printed all over it.
3 pages of instructions in German and one in English.
Reading down the page it said that Palco Industries Inc warranty this dash top?
Reading on it said for any defects or warranty please contact manufacturer Palco in Nevada.
So much for a dashtop made in Germany!
Being lied too and mislead by businesses really gets my goat. Why do they have to deceive you? There is nothing wrong with the product and I intend to fit it, but the good feeling has gone from the purchase now.
Anyway rant over.
This evening when I got home from work after food shop, I finished off cleaning the dash before respraying the satin black facia.
I also cleaned up the glovebox door and resprayed that. While the paint was out I sprayed the previously cleaned piano hinge for the armrest lid.
Leaving them to dry in the evening sun I moved on to cleaning up all the screws that hold the centre console pieces together. Most of the heads were showing marks and some rust staining so after screwing them all into a block of softwood I wire brushed all the heads and painted them satin black with a modellers brush.
The silver angle and brace brackets were then cleaned up and waxoiled followed by the hinge screws and all the speed nuts off the dash.
Before I knew it it was getting dark again.

Day 185

Today the morning was consumed by preparing one of my other classic cars for MOT and taking it down to the garage in the village. After which I just managed to make it to the motor factors to pick up some scotchbrite before they closed at noon.
When I got home the post had been and my roll of basket weave vinyl material had turned up from Southbound trimmers.
I started work on the 914 today by assembling the centre console with the nice shiny cleaned up parts.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1461496927.4.jpg)

I’m really pleased how it came out considering how tired and dirty it was.
The dash cap was the next job on the list. After dry fitting it a few times it was obvious that the dash top needed to be on the dash to give it some rigidity for fitting the cap.
As well as the cracks across my dash, the top of the binnacle/brow that covers the gauges had drooped down in the centre by a good ¾”. It was heat baked in that shape so the dash cap wasn’t fitting well and didn’t have enough strength the pull it back level. The only way to cure it was to cut several fan shaped cuts into the dash about half way through it so that it would bend easily back upwards.
Not for the faint hearted this!
I view the dash cap as a looks presentable “stop gap”until I find a good NOS dash top and to be fair the original dash top has had it, so cutting into it was an easy choice to make.
The dash cap is only thin vacuum formed plastic so even though I’d cut the dash to allow it to move back to shape it still had little strength.
I had some aluminium U section in my metal rack about 12mm square. I cut off a length to match the horizontal brow of the dash and cut out and inset it into the edge of the brow held in with lots of tiger bond sealant.
With this in place I shaved off a few bits of the dash surface to get the cap to fit as best it could before bonding it on over the top of the aluminium extrusion.
The dash cap itself is not the best made thing I have seen, but with a bit of fettling it fits in a just ok kind of way.
Preparing several clamps and bits of timber cut to length, and scotchbrite-ing the dash top and underside of the cap prior to bonding, I had everything to hand to clamp it down as soon as the adhesive was applied.
Once on I left it for the rest of the day outside to cure.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1461496927.5.jpg)
While it was drying I carried on cleaning up parts from the seat runners, detail wire brushing and waxoiling all nuts, bolts, washers, brackets, springs and levers. I found the centre console to underside of dash bracket in a parts bag too, and the black paint on it was a bit bubbly and flaky so that was all sanded off and etch primed before calling it a day.
The dash was carefully carried indoors, clamps and all. They’ll stay on over night so hopefully everything will be good in the morning.

Day 186

This Sunday morning I planned to have a lie in until 7am, but I was woken by the telephone just before 6am. It was work. A critical production machine had broken down at 3am, and the guy’s had waited until just before 6am to call me as they knew I’m normally up by then.
Unfortunately they couldn’t fix it so I had to go into work this morning to sort it out.
I didn’t get home until noon but started on the 914 straight away.
The dash top was taken off again and flipped over so that I could inject bonding agent into all the gaps I couldn’t get at when it was the right way up. Afterwards I carefully rested it upside down in my conservatory to dry.
The seat runners I picked up last week from the powdercoaters needed assembling, so I did those next. The height adjustment coil spring tension is held with the roll pin that goes through the lever & catch. What a fiddle it was to get them back in!
In the end I used a tiny deep socket and fed the pin inside it. With the extension bar on the end I had some leverage to hook the spring, feed the roll pin in and under tension, lift the extension bar to locate the nose of the roll pin in the hole and tap it in.
The runners then went into the shed to await fitting to the car after the back window and trim go in. With them out, its much easier to sit, kneel or stand in the car. Better left out to make life a bit easier.
With the dash top still drying I decided to put back the new padded vinyl panel on the dash nearest the screen.
The old foam padding under the old vinyl came off in a thousand bits so I had to make a template for the new foam.
Using the old vinyl sheet that came off the dash I drew around it onto the new vinyl I’d purchased. I allowed a little more material around the edges and cut it out.
Once I was happy with the new vinyl sheet top, I used the old vinyl to make the template for the foam. You could clearly see the shape of the foam in the old vinyl so I carefully cut off the perimeter and checked it against the dash top. A little trim here and there and it was a good shape.
This was drawn around onto the new foam sheet before cutting out.
Next I masked off the dash with newspaper and spray glued the top and the foam with high temp impact glue before carefully fixing it in place.
The top vinyl was next. It glues on only onto the metal, no glue on the foam. To achieve this I used brush on impact glue and carefully trimmed all the material to allow a good inch to fold over and glue under the dash by the windscreen.
Finally I bolted the dash top back on (bonding agent dry) to clamp down the glued vinyl between the dash top and metal dash, before bringing it back into the house.
Looking for more to do, I took the vents out of the previously removed knee roll.
They were pretty manky so I carefully took them all apart and after a soak in a bucket with a sprinkle of washing powder I set about them with a toothbrush to get 40+ years of grime off before calling it a day.
Day 187

Today I have mostly been continuing to work on the dash cap.

I called in at the trimmers today and matched some vinyl material to the grain cast on the dash cap.
The fit of the cap only wraps around the first ¾” of the brow on the original dash top. As the cap is about 2.5mm thick, it ends up with a step along the edge under the brow in front of the gauges. This looks worse at the bottom of the brow, just above the basket weave panel so I wasn’t happy with it.
To get the brow back into shape before fitting the cap (it had bowed down over the gauges) I had to make cuts in it. When looking up above the gauges under the brow you could not only see the step on the cap edge but also the cuts.
The answer was to trim it with a layer of new vinyl that meets neatly with the cap edge, so as to make up the 2.5mm thickness.
I carefully selotaped two sheets of A3 paper together end on end and used them to make a template of the underside of the brow. Rubbing over the paper held in place made and impression of the cap edge which I cut out with scissors to make a template.
After trial fitting and trimming the paper to a perfect fit I was ready to cut out the vinyl.
Masking taping the vinyl on dry to get it on square and tight to the dash cap edge, I then undid half the tape folded it back and applied impact glue to both surfaces. Once tacky I carefully rolled it into place guided by the other half being taped securely. I then repeated the process for the other half to get it stuck down neatly without risk of getting it out of line.
At the bottom of the brow above the basket weave I cut a few bits of vinyl packing and built the old dash up to be just one vinyl thickness shy of the dash cap.
A final full templated sheet of vinyl was then glued over all other pieces to make the finished surface flush with the dash cap.
After a cuppa I then rubbed the whole dash cap down with scotchbrite. The plastic surface the cap comes with looks waxy/glossy and a bit cheap. The grain is ever so slightly more prominent than the original but the “cheap” plastic finish was not to my liking.
After keying and degreasing the surfaces I gave the whole thing a coat of VHT Vinyl Dye in a satin black finish. This looked the business as it took the nasty gloss look off the dash cap and toned it down a little. It also dyed my vinyl insert under the brow to match the cap perfectly.
I let it go touch dry for ½ hour while I cleaned up and then brought it indoors to dry overnight.

Day 188

Today was an early start at work with two long meetings. Getting up extra early I bolted the dash top to the dash now the dye had dried so that it kept its shape. Even with the new dash cap in place its quite floppy and I was concerned that it may “set” in an odd way if left off too long. The bonding agent cures after 24 hours but can take over a week to fully set.
At work I managed to find 20 minutes in between meetings to pop over to the trimmers and collect the rear bulkhead panel that goes under the window behind the seats. All the messing about with the back boards, repairs and adding strength have paid off. The recovering looks far better than the old beat up lumpy appearance.
When I got home this evening I put them back together with new screws (the panel is in 3 sections) and cut the hole for the interior light.
I’d promised my son we’d go out in the Morris Traveller this evening for more driving lessons, so I picked him up and spent the next 3 hours, kangarooing around the local industrial estate. To be fair he did very well as the old Morris has a manual choke, low biting point and very weak brakes, indicator lever that doesn’t auto cancel and obviously no power steering. It’s the best way to learn. If you can master that, then you can drive anything modern.
Retuning home safely we covered the Traveller up and I took him back to his mums house in my Delorean as it hadn’t had a run in a couple of weeks.
Returning home and putting all cars away I sat down to open my mail. There was a card in between the envelopes from DPD, “parcel left……….” I looked where it said and found a small box.
It was my new 914 gear knob. The original disk in the top with the gear selection has all cracked & crazed (a bit like shattered safety glass) so I found a new one on German ebay for a few quid. Hopefully with all these little things sorted it will look nice when I put it all back together.

Day 189

I started this morning on the steering wheel. I’d taken it off the car complete with column so that I could take the dash out. The first job was to remove the wheel from the column to start cleaning everything up.
The rim of the wheel is moulded sponge rubber that looks like the factory took a cast of a leather-bound wheel and just mass produced cheap sponge copies. Due to UV damage my wheel was quite perished and starting to crumble.
I decided a few months back to get it trimmed in leather (to copy the original moulded design). I’d spoken to Southbound trimmers a while ago about them covering it and was quoted £417.00 ($600) and they couldn’t fit it in until April 2017!
Suffice to say I started to look for alternative trimmers. The guy’s who’ve done my seats said that they could do it but reckon on 10 hours so the cost is not far short of Southbound.
Sometimes things just fall in to place if you wait awhile. I had a call from a friend who works at a high class restoration business wanting me to do his brothers wedding car, so a no monies deal was struck and I dropped off the wheel with him at lunchtime today.
On the way into work this morning I dropped off the dash panel with 3 holes that hold the main gauges at the powder coaters. The panel is chipped and peeling around the screws with a few scratches where the PO or garage must have slipped with a screwdriver in years past. This will be gently blasted and recoated satin black. They tell me it will be ready for the weekend which hopefully (if my new radio turns up) allow me to refit the refurbished dash back in the car.
Afterwards I visited the first trimmer (who did my seats) and picked up the windscreen pillar trims that were all split by UV, nicely trimmed with fresh vinyl.
Returning to the office after lunch there was a parcel from German ebay waiting.
Two brand new NOS genuine Porsche sunvisors. They look superb, unlike my old bags of spanners sunvisors that the trimmer pretty much didn’t want to touch with a barge pole.
After spending the afternoon at work distracted by looking at the sunvisors every 5 minutes, I returned home to carry on working on the car.
This evening I scrubbed and washed the remaining pieces of carpet that I took out under the dash & console. Again after several soaks, scrubs and rinse in the bath I hung them up to dry outside.
Next I began cleaning up the short seat belt clips that bolt to the tunnel. I got some new “Press” stickers off ebay so needed to get the assemblies spotless before fitting them. The bolts and washers that hold them to the car had black spots on the gold BZP so I wasn’t happy to re-use them. Fortunately over the last few evenings I’ve been rummaging in my sheds and found some new BZP bolts and washers in and old seat belt kit I had so all I needed to do was shorten the bolts on my lathe, machine a chamfer to match the originals and job done!
The plastic parts of the clips got a good scrub and the 4 tiny screws were removed one at a time and the heads wire brushed to a bright shine, the hole they came out off cleaned of gunk and refitted. I used cellulose thinners to clean the warning wires and white plug on the end before a brass wire brushing of the BZP eyelet on the ends.
They’ll look good as new when they go back in now.
As always, before I knew it the night started to draw in and I called it a day.

Day 190

This morning I continued cleaning parts before work and at lunchtime today I visited the laser/waterjet cutters (after a bit of CAD designing) to collect a polishing template they cut out to my drawing. This is something I’m working on to ensure the Fuch wheels can be polished factory accurate. All top secret stuff, if it works out I’ll be sure to post pictures on here.

With just a few minutes of lunchtime left I telephoned the classic radio company up that I’d bought the radio from last week (yet to arrive) and chased them up. Hopefully I’ll see it on Saturday.
When I got home this evening I carried on cleaning and sorting dash parts out. One problematic area was the ashtray. The tray was badly cracked and in danger of the front falling off. Searching on line this seems to be a common issue when people have over the years tugged on the ashtray to open it.
Mine was still salvageable having caught it just in time. I decided to make up a stainless steel reinforcing plate this evening from some off-cut sheet I had in one of my sheds.
I carefully made a paper template then cut out and formed the stainless to fit the ashtray perfectly. The end was rolled to match the finger recess, so that anytime in future when the ashtray is pulled open, you're pulling the stainless plate not the weak plastic bracket that’s cracked.
After carefully measuring and drilling rivet holes in a position to be obscured from view above by the chrome surround in the tray, I keyed the stainless and plastic with 180 grit before applying tiger bond adhesive. The plate was riveted in place and all excess polyurethane tiger bond that squeezed out was cleaned off with a cellulose thinners soaked rag.

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It’s a solid as a rock now and when the adhesive sealant sets in 24 hrs it should be perfect for the future.
Yet again before I knew it, it started getting dark which is my cue to wrap up and get some dinner!

Day 191

I carried on cleaning the knee roll this morning to take it into work. I had contacted a specialist dash repairer (a lead given by the trimmer who did my seats) so a meeting was arranged in the car park this morning.
Unfortunately the chap said he could do nothing with it. He also said the trimmer who has my padded trim for the front of the roll bar had called him in to repair that for them (they tried maybe to sub it out) and he’d declined.
Suffice to say at lunchtime I went to collect it. Beforehand I called in at the motor factors and picked up some two part plastic bumper repair resin and some plastic flexible filler. I spoke with the trimmers and we’ve agreed for me to channel out all the splits, fill and level both parts. Return them to the trimmers and they’ll recover them with vinyl providing I make a good crack free base for them.
So….guess what I’ve got to do this weekend now.
Anyway after Friday food shop and getting home tonight to face the weekly clothes wash I did manage to find a couple of hours to carry on cleaning various dash parts.
I finished off the short seat belt catches, fitted the new “Press” stickers and bagged them up with the new bolts and washers.
I cleaned up the heater slide controls and notice that a lot of the coloured inserts for indication had fallen out over the years. I need to find a good close up picture now of what colour insert goes where (red/blue indication bars) That’ll be another late night on line searching google images and trying to source some thin coloured plastic to make new ones!
I also scrubbed up the ashtray I’d repaired last night, plus its runner and bracket that holds it in the dash. Since the dash cap sits over the dash I plan to shim out the ashtray bracket with 3 washers to push it forwards in the closed position so its in line with the dash cap face.
Finally tonight I cleaned a few more nuts and bolts up before calling it a day.

Day 192

Today I fitted the ashtray and put the dashtop back on (you cant fit the ashtray bracket easily with the dash top on). I packed the bracket out with a washer behind each of the 3 studs and with the dashtop tightened down I fitted the ashtray and aligned it before nipping up the nuts.
With the dashcap on, not only does it mean the ashtray has to sit further forward, the opening isn’t as wide! After a lot of deliberation I decided to file a couple of mm of each end of the ashtray to allow it to close properly into the dashcap.
I then rubbed down the stainless reinforcing plate I’d added and etch primed it. While the etch primer was out I moved into the loft, masked and etch primed the engine lid ready for the blacking out under the grille.
An hour later I scotchbrited the ashtray front and then to conceal the filing down I wet & dried the ends smooth before vinyl dying them to match the cap and painting the reinforcing plate black so it wont catch the eye..
After a few hours it was a perfect fit and colour to match the dashcap. If I hadn’t of posted what I’d done here, no-one would have known. Hopefully it’ll help someone considering a dashcap repair and let you know things aren’t always as easy as it says on the box!
Next I cleaned up and greased the lock barrel for the glove box and fitted it to the dash.
While the sun was out I decided to sort out the knee roll and the roll bar padded trim.
The spilts were right through the foam to the metal backing plate inside the trim linking every screw hole.

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The surface of the old vinyl was raised up along the split so I had to cut out the slots to about ¾” wide (not for the faint hearted) and open up a large dovetail shaped cavity below each crack.
The foam underneath was then sealed and filled with flexible plastic filler.
I spent the rest of today building it up layer by layer to just below surface level.
To make matters worse a section of foam had been pulled off the metal backing plate in the centre as the old vinyl had shrunk. This then made a 6” long raised “lump” where it sits against the roll bar. Smack bang dead centre, so looked awful. The vinyl was so tight that it wouldn’t glue back down without tearing the foam again. The only thing I could do to get a good base for the trimmers was to cut out a semi circle from the top of the trim 8” long!
I spent another few hours casting a new infill piece.
As it started to get dark I cut out the internal corners of the knee roll (at both ends of the removed stainless trim strip) Again the original vinyl trim on the knee roll had shrunk and lifted in the corners looking like two large blisters. These got cut out carefully so as not to damage the foam underneath by only cutting the vinyl covering.
All exposed foam was then coated with the same ronseal dry rot hardener I'd used on the bulkhead trim card to provide a solid surface for the flexible filler tomorrow when it all dries.

Day 193

I spent most of the day filling cracks in the trim pieces. The weather was poor all day with constant rain & drizzle forcing me to work in my small 6’ x 8’ shed.
Eventually I finished the parts ready to drop off with the trimmers tomorrow morning, hopefully they’ll have a good base now to recover them with new vinyl without any of the damage showing through.

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After yesterdays dying of the ashtray it had 24 hrs to dry so I fitted it into the dash to check the final colour match and fit. Seems pretty good.

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Needing a break from sanding and filing I nipped out to buy some fluorescent tubes and starters for my main garage before the 4pm end of trading then replaced a few in my garage that have been playing up for a while now.
After a quick cuppa I started on the 5 gauges from the dash and console. The bezels were a bit flakey the glass foggy and scratched and some dust/sand trapped inside on the faces.
I removed all the large rubber grommets that hold them in the dash and scrubbed them with soapy water to remove grime and more sand. Next I carefully opened up the bezels about 60% around each gauge and carefully took them off.
All 5 gauge glasses were removed and cleaned up. Only the volt meter and temp gauge are actually glass, the other 4 are plastic. These I cleaned and polished for several hours with Brasso to remove all the scratches and fogging. The faces were gently cleaned with a sable bristle brush to get all dust & fluff off. The inner cone bezels were removed and cleaned and the silicone rubber seals pried out the rear of all the bezels.
I then carefully placed all the glasses back into the gauge bodies to stop dust/dirt getting in and carefully placed them in my summer house while I work on the bezels themselves.
I ran out of daylight again so plan to strip all the bezels of the flaky dull paint tomorrow.

Day 194

This morning I did a little work on my son’s Morris Traveller, it had an exhaust blow from the manifold to down pipe so I took off the exhaust, cleaned it up, pasted and re assembled. I ran it up to set the paste and while I was at it, adjusted the idle speed which was a tiny bit low to the point it almost cut out when the clutch was depressed. Not ideal to learn to drive in so needed a tweak. I also adjusted and tightened up the wing mirrors before going to work.
At lunchtime I dropped off the filled trim pieces at the trimmers and hopefully should have them back for the end of the week.
The Blaupunkt Frankfurt radio turned up today and looks superb. It’s got a modification to plug in an MP3 player/ipod or something in the back (whatever that is) I’ll run the lead into the glovebox for the future but for now radio is just fine.
When I got home this evening the first thing I did was check the radio in the metal dash panel that I’ve previously stripped of basket weave. The radio panel was an old piece of zintec so has been changed at some point in time to fit the aftermarket radio the car came with. May have even been done by the main dealer as it’s a one owner car?
Anyhow, I tried the Blaupunkt but unfortunately it wouldn't fit. The two holes for the spindles fit but the rectangular hole for the radio tuner and push buttons was too small.
I carefully measured it all up, marked it out and filed the opening larger until the radio was a nice clearance fit. I’m going to trim it all with new basket weave so it will be fine now.
Next I carried on with the engine lid that I’d etch primed over the weekend. It had 48 hours to dry so I lightly scotchbrited the etch primer and sprayed it satin black tonight.
While it was drying I used paint stripper on the bezels and removed all the damaged flaky black paint.
Like the glass & plastic faces the bezels were another mix of brass and steel?

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No sooner had I stripped the paint off the steel one began to rust! I quickly cleaned them up, baked them dry in my oven and coated them with etch primer before running out of daylight.

Day 195

Fitting the dash cap is not as simple as the instructions would have you believe. I had to hack away quite a bit of my original dash top to get the cap to sit down neatly.
The cap finishes shy of the underside of the dash and around the brow (where the clocks sit) looks poor. As explained a days back, I had to build the old dash up with vinyl to disguise the "step" between cap and dash. Plus shaving off a good 2-3mm off each end of the ashtray.
Here's a close up so it may better explain.

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Today I got up quite tired, my brain had been working overtime through the night designing a device to roll the bezel edges over neatly on the gauges, so I'd gotten little sleep.
I got up at dawn and started to sketch out my thoughts before doing a little research on how it was done at VDO. I have a cunning plan using my lathe and a modified knurl tool. Following a good rummage in my shed for materials to make it with I had breakfast and left for work.
At lunchtime I visited my friendly iron mongers and picked up some off cuts of bar and rod to make the bezel tool with.
On the way home from work tonight I had a 15 mile detour to pick up my son followed by 3 hours of driving lessons in the Traveller. Dropping him off afterwards I returned home to give the bezels a coat of black paint before nightfall.

Day 196

Today I continued working on the bezel replacement tool and at lunchtime I picked up some new star washers for the seat runner brackets.
This evening after work I spent a couple of hours continuing on my lathe before taking one of my other classic cars out to a pub meet.
Busy day but still got 4 hours in on the 914.
Day 197

This morning I put another coat of black on the gauge bezels and left for work.
At lunchtime I called in at the powder coaters but the dash gauge surround won’t be ready until tomorrow so I’ll pick it up then.
This evening I started by cleaning the rubber grommets that hold the gauges in the dash & console. I’d washed them in soap & water to get the sand and grime off, but they were still brown/grey and needed a good clean with a cellulose soaked rag to get them back to black
Next I ended up filing the interior light to get it to fit in the bulkhead trim snugly. A week ago I’d cut the vinyl and glued it around the opening to allow the light to fit, but I hadn’t fully tried it as the glue was still tacky. My original light was in half and melted so I got a generic T1 genuine Beetle one (I now know they’re slightly different) The difference is the T1 is made to locate in a thin metal hole, the 914 is a thick hardboard padded hole with metal tabs behind it. Overall the clips on the T1 light need filing open/back by a good 3-4mm and the metal clip re bending. After that all fits snugly. (note to self….next time buy a Porsche light and spend the extra £10 over the T1 light and it should fit!)
I then bonded the 4 aluminium ferrules at the base of the bulkhead trim from the rear with tiger bond and made a nice fillet around them to add strength. I’d fitted them dry last week but when messing with the light tonight, a couple looked wobbly.
With the tiger bond still out I fitted a new carpet eyelet from 914rubber to the cleaned up passenger mat that had been missing.

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I plan on doing just the one. They look slightly different to the original ones having ridges around the eyelet, but much better than a hole with threads of carpet coming loose! Besides, keeping the other 3 (when they are fine) is being much kinder to the originality of the car (what’s left of it).
After cleaning up I did a trial fit on my fuch wheel polishing template. The idea is that I give it to the polishers with 4 nuts and bolts, they swap it from wheel to wheel and when they polish them there is no chance that they can slip or get it wrong. No matter how rough they are, only the factory polished areas of the wheel can be got at.
Sounds like a plan, but we’ll see how it works in reality.
After the trial fit in needs a tweak to put a slight curve/dish in it and maybe bead roll the circumference back up.

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Yet again I ran out of daylight.

Day 198

Today was definitely Friday. Mad panic last minute dot com day at work. Suffice to say I had a real headache by the time I got home!
In the middle of the madness I did manage to call in at the powdercoaters and pick up the gauge dash panel and the centre console bracket. Then moved on to the trimmers to collect the last parts I’d dropped off on Monday. Unfortunately they hadn’t done them yet, but I managed to pick up a metre of vinyl off the roll to make all the sections that fit over the cross members under the seats and console this weekend.
After work, food shop and calling in at the hardware store to get some more white spirit tonight I got home and mowed the lawns (which had missed a week because of rain) before starting on the 914.
I tapped out the holes in the powdercoated bracket, then cleaned up a few more parts including the odometer trip reset cable that I found behind the dash disconnected?
When I took the dash apart the panel that I’ve just had powdercoated for the gauges had a real mix of screws holding it in the car (presumably lost over the years) and replaced with whatever came to hand. I sorted through them and worked out what was original and managed to find some similar headed screws in my shed but the two I needed were supposed to be countersunk, so had to put them into my lathe and turn a countersink on the rear of the heads to make a matching set. Finally I cleaned up the old and new screws before screwing them into a piece of softwood and repainting them satin black.
A few other dash fixing bolts, nuts & washer got cleaned up and waxoiled before I called it a day.

Day 199

Today was one step forwards two steps back!

I got up bright and early to fit the new washer jets and hose while the dash was out as mine are all perished and split. I also planned to fit the new plastic grid and surrounding seal to the top of the fresh air box under the scuttle slotted opening.
To do this the air box has to come out and to get it out you have to take the fuel tank out.
Having done this before I was well versed in getting the wedge blocks and hoses off and the tank was out in about 10 minutes.
This revealed a whole load of paintshop dust over the area that I’d previously cleaned. No problem I thought, when the air box is out I’ll give it all a good wash and polish in there.
Anyway, when lifting the blower box out I saw something jamming one of the butterfly flaps up inside the tube where the hoses fit.
I took the box outside and gave it a good shake……rattle, rattle, rattle
Time to unbolt the fan off the bottom and take a look.
OH DEAR

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So full of California Desert sand it had locked solid the fan impellor and when the PO had tried to turn it on the whole thing had shattered and the motor brushes had got so hot the holders had melted and run into the windings. What a god awful mess.
The only thing I could do was split the housing and take all the debris and sand out then order a new fan assembly.
After that set back I thought I’d at least get the rest of the car cleaned up behind the fuel tank and removed airbox. More sand and paintshop dust, but after a couple of painstaking hours I got it looking nice and clean.
Unfortunately as I was cleaning I noticed the wiper motor wobble?
Hmmm, what’s going on here then?
On closer inspection the motor was loose in the housing and the 3 bolts that hold it in place were partially unscrewed?
So out it had to come to allow free access to tighten the bolts up as you cant really get a swing on them in situ.
Once out I had to give it a good clean up which took another couple of hours after which I cleaned and lubricated the joints and spindles, working them too and fro with the motor off while being cleaned.
To be honest I should have done it earlier but it had just fallen off the radar. Anyways with the wiper motor out I gave the rear of the bulkhead a good clean behind it before refitting the wiper assembly back into place with the new 914rubber grommets on both sides of the scuttle.
The time was now 6pm and I’d been at it for 12 hours and finally got to fit the washer jets and new hoses, carefully cutting them to factory length, placing them in the original fold over securing tabs and installing the check valves. The hose was then fed through the bulkhead grommet and labelled ready for when the steering column goes back in.
Finally I cut to length (and at a matching angle to the body panels) the two rubber trim infill strips that go between the scuttle and wings at the base of the windscreen pillars. This was a 5 minute job I’d been meaning to do for a couple of weeks, having had them sat on the dining table far too long!
Finally I filled a bucket and dropped in the blower fan housing for an overnight sand soak just as it started to rain.
Some days don’t always go to plan, but I’m glad I found the fan & wiper problem before putting the dash back in and limiting access to that wiper frame retaining nut.

Day 200

Today I made up time from yesterdays woes.
Starting early I prepared and trimmed the dash panels with new basket weave that I got from Southbound Trimmers the other week. Very carefully I covered the main steel panel either side the steering column and left spare material by the radio plate. Enough to be able to cut the material with a Stanley knife from the rear and trim the radio panel with the “off cut” so that the basket weave pattern was an exact match along the join.
Next the radio panel and glovebox panel were covered, replicating the fold over at the end of the radio plate where it meets the glovebox. The glovebox panel folds over on each end and a flap along the bottom glues around and onto the back of the door.
The new basket weave material was white on the reverse so at every cut on the edges you could see a white dotted line. The only thing I could do was with a modellers brush, paint the edge of every cut, hole, opening and end of the material with matt black paint.
While all the glue & paint was drying I made a card template for the chrome Blaupunkt face plate. This took me a good while until I was happy with the fit.
This was then transferred to the material and painstakingly cut out so that the weave pattern was all in line, straight and true to the panel. Very carefully I masked up the chrome surrounds on the radio face plate and applied impact glue to it and the rear of the material.
Taking great care I fitted the basket weave into the face plate.
Now some of you may wonder what I’m doing here with the radio?
Well, most people who care, fit the radio like they would in an early 911, by just having the square tuner and the knobs poking through the basket weave. I’m sure some Porsche dealers did this, and fitted Blaupunkt radios.
However I wanted to be a little different.
In the Porsche 914 hand book on the page showing the dash with all the switches and gauges labelled there is a picture of the radio. It has a face plate on it!
After speaking to a few old radio Guru’s it looks like the radio in the Porsche handbook is a VW branded radio. I’m also told the face plate is black plastic with a silver painted rim to mimic chrome. I can see why they chose that; it matches the chrome surround on the heater/fan controls.
I wanted a quality radio, so opted for a Blaupunkt Frankfurt, but in wanting to create a look to match the handbook, I thought I’d do it in a much better quality way. I had offers of buying a black plastic silver rim painted face plate but opted for a metal chromed version to fit the Frankfurt that matched the plastic face plate exactly (including nice radiused corners) that was deep enough for a material insert.
I also managed to combine this with the large rubber knobs to fit the Blaupunkt, but look like the VW ones in the handbook.
It’s taken me a good few weeks to sort all the radio parts out, but the end result should hopefully be worth it.

So after a dry run to check and adjust the radio fit with the dash out of the car, I set about glove box assembly. Cleaning all parts so that it all looks like new, the hard to get at bits and bobs got fitted while the dash was out.

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So, with dash built up I fitted it back into the car this evening.

It was a bit of a fiddle doing it single handed, but with the blower box and tank out it was far easier to get the 4 x M6 nuts on under the scuttle. Next I put back all the heater/blower hoses in each corner under the scuttle (removed to access the M6 nuts) and the wiring loom was all laid back into place and the securing tabs folded over.

The 3 light switches to the left of the column were put back in and the cigarette lighter wired up before I called it a day.

Day 201

Today I carried on cleaning the blower air box up ready for the new fan that’s currently in transit to me.
The casing of the blower motor box is made of the same thermosetting plastic as the rear light housings, so I couldn’t resist the Brasso tin coming out after I’d washed the plastic and spending a good few hours polishing it up to a high gloss shine.

I took out the blower fan speed control resistor/thermal link block first and found the 2.5 Ohm coil resister (looks like a spring) completely missing?
It wasn’t in the bottom of the housing with all the debris so it must have been long gone. So after cleaning up the cables and thermal links, heat shrink shrouding the female spade; I tested the resistance on the medium speed resistor. It should be 0.75 Ohms but it tested out at about 0.9 Ohms so close enough for medium fan speed. The 2.5 Ohm one is for slow speed.
Next I cleaned up the link rod, removed, cleaned and greased the Bowden cable and took the butterfly valve flaps apart. The foam seals had crumbled in each butterfly so I cleaned up and repainted the metal parts and cut some new circular seals from some foam rubber sheet I had in my shed.
While all that was drying I started cleaning up the light switch knobs (taking out the lenses/icon discs and checking the tiny lamps inside before reassembly. Finally I polished up the cigarette lighter end and cleaned the knob and icon disc.
After nearly 24 hrs not seeing the car, I had withdrawal symptoms and instead of calling it a night; I went out to the garage in the dark, torch held in my teeth and fitted the 3 light switch knobs (minus the icon discs) and the cigarette lighter. Carefully screwing in the switch knobs until they came to a stop. Only then did I fit the icon discs so that they are all upright level and true.
OCD at its best, but wonky icons on the switches would give me a Herbert Lom twitch.
Just need to sort out that slow speed fan resistor now.

Day 202

Today I carried on cleaning and preparing the fresh air blower box.
At work today I had a delivery from Euro Car Parts. The new blower fan motor and impellor that I ordered on line on Sunday night arrived. Looking at the box it seems to be OEM supplier too (There is the standard Porsche sticker with bar code and part number on it, right next to the Euro Carparts sticker with their code number on it)
The fan is part No 911 571 320 32 and Euro list it as Porsche 911 1969 to 89. They were on offer at £130 inc free shipping. A lot of money for a small fan, but although you can buy just the motor, I had no choice in the matter as I needed an impellor too, so had to bite the bullet.
I’d searched earlier for the speed control spring resistor block but hadn’t been able to find it just on its own, but a fellow UK owner contacted me to say he had a spare!
This evening after work I started to assemble the butterfly flaps (now the paint on them is dry) with the new rubber seals. I can’t fit the new fan motor and close up the casing just yet as the resistor block has to be fitted to one half of the casing first.
In the meantime I took apart the top section of the fresh air blower box which is the induction side of the fan (under the scuttle grill). It’s held together with Omega clips which need circlip pliers to remove.
Looking in the top of the box where the mesh fits, I could see plenty of blue paint. Not from the recent job as it was masked off, but from the PO poor respray. Taking the box apart revealed far more blue paint than I’d expected. This needed cleaning out (along with yet more sand) as with a new black plastic mesh fitted all you’d see is blue overspray through the colour contrast of the black mesh.
Unfortunately the plastic the box is made from is dissolved with cellulose thinners, so using it to clean off the blue paint is not a good idea. On closer inspection the paint had part dissolved the plastic surface of the inside of the box, so the only way to sort it out was to sand it down with 180 grit, 240 and finish with 600 and scotchbrite.
As you can imagine: this has taken most of this evening to complete. After the scotchbrite I masked up the outside of the brasso polished box halves and using the plastic satin black spray I re coloured the inside of the blower box.
During the clean up, I found two hairline cracks in the short drain tube stubs on the reverse. Not visible when the box is fitted in the car, I’d not noticed them before. Left alone they could propagate and the stubs fall off completely leaving nothing for the hose to connect to.
After some thought and a rummage in my shed I found two 15mm end feed copper water pipe sockets which were about 17mm OD and fit snugly inside the drain tubes.
I roughed up the outside of the fittings with a small file and the inside of the drain tubes with rolled up 80 grit then used the polyurethane sealant to bond them into place to line the cracked tube.
Hopefully now when the drain hoses get refitted the clips will have a solid tube to clamp and the plastic will be re-inforced so it shouldn’t fracture.
Finally tonight I cleaned up the 6 x Omega clips that hold the top of the blower box together and repainted them black before calling it a night.

Day 203

Today I got up early and started refurbishing the dash fan controls. The panel with the levers was looking very tired. I mentioned earlier in the thread that the coloured inserts had fallen out over the years and only one tiny blue bar above the fan speed lever remained. The front of the controls had faded to grey and where the levers had slid over the years the slot was worn down to bare metal. The lever ends were very dirty and the Red end was dark brown with dirt & UV damage. The chrome surround was all gummed up with sticky goo, maybe spilt coffee and suchlike over the years.
I stripped it down to its component parts and cleaned up all the electrical contacts and tested it all with my meter to make sure it all worked before starting to restore the appearance.
After removing the lever ends, the rectangular lever sleeves and chrome surround I pushed out the light lens with “Fan” and the fan icon from behind. The two lower lenses were stuck well so rather than risking breaking them I masked them up with low tack and a scalpel.
The long script is a foil sticker so trying to take it out would also be risky, so again I masked it carefully. The face of the unit was then de-greased. (I’d actually washed and scrubbed it a few nights before) and this is basically what state it was in (minus the one and only remaining blue insert bar)

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1461496930.17.jpg)

I carefully applied a few light coats of satin black spray before and after breakfast and left it to dry when I went to work.
This evening I cleaned up the chrome surround with Brasso and then started on the lever ends.
Again using Brasso I polished up the two black lever ends first. The red one which was brown and looking awful I had a little trick I’d used on previous 911’s.
The plastic its made of seems to develop a UV skin that discolours and holds grime. Using just my finger nail I gently scratched the whole surface skin to reveal red plastic beneath before finishing it off with a Brasso polish to look like new. With Brasso still in hand I polished the lever sleeves.
Over the day I’d had a think about what I was going to do to replace the blue inserts. Porsche make these out of a thin coloured plastic. It was just a case of finding some thin plastic of the right shade of blue.
Thinking all day I remembered a box that Hacksaw blades come in was about the right blue. I sort it out and sure enough it was a good colour match, so I cut the side off it.
Next I sanded one side of the plastic to key the surface for glue before it was cut to size because it was easier to do it when the plastic was 2” x 3” rather than tiny bits. With the end of a sheet of A4 paper laid on top of the now dry lever face I rubbed it to mark the paper and cut out the tiny pieces as templates.
The paper was tried in the recesses to check before being transferred to the plastic and cut out with a scalpel. Finally a few spare were made and a dry run fit carried out. Bloomin fiddly I can tell you, so only by using tweezers could I fit them.
I then cleaned out the bottom of the recesses to remove any paint so I could glue them in place. Using tiger bond and a pin to apply it to the inserts on their reverse while holding them in tweezers I stuck each and every new insert in place.
The “fan” script and icon were then glued in with tiger bond from a pin only around the frame as light shines through the rear of them and any glue over the back would stop the illumination.
The white paint on these icons and the two lower script lamp panels was a little worn so I made a simple paint pad. Using a clothes peg and a small (about 4mm x 8mm) pad of old inner tube rubber glued on the end of the peg I carefully painted the rubber with a little satin white paint from a modellers brush so as to put a thin wet layer of paint on the rubber. Simply hold it square to the icons and “stamp” the top and the icon is neatly refreshed with new white paint.
After a well earned cuppa I carefully put the lever sleeves and ends back on and the chrome surround having carefully tweaked the tabs inwards a little so that it grips better.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1461496930.18.jpg)

All restored it should look neat when it goes back into the retrimmed dash next to the super Blaupunkt radio I’ve put together.

Day 204

The Used speed resistor block turned up today. The spring resistor missing from my assembly was on the replacement but one end was broken at the securing crimp. This wasn’t a problem as losing 6mm ¼” off the resistor wire would make very little difference.
I’m not sure what state the car was that it came from, but how the heck did it end up getting red spray paint on it buried deep in the fan housing? Fortunately the resistor was free from paint. The hardest bit was opening up the factory crimps without damaging the wire. I ended up resting it over my vice with the jaws open about 3mm and with a tiny needle punch, opening up the crimp from the inside to free the resistor spring.
Since they get so hot when in normal use, they have a heat shield, sit in the air flow and a thermal bi metal switch to short them out and speed the fan up if they overheat. Consequently you cant solder them in place as it would just melt. They can only be crimped.
Once the resistor spring was out of the used holder I very carefully cleaned up mine and opened up the crimps, removed the two tiny remaining broken strands and opened up the broken end coil of Stuarts donor to make a new “leg” and fitted it in my holder. Using long nose mole grips I re-crimped it tightly into the terminal block and tested it with my meter. 2.5 Ohms. Perfect.
With everything ready to go I rebuilt the lower half of the fan housing with the new fan. Re using the fan seal to casing (still life left in it)
Here’s the finished fan assembly with donor terminal block resting on top with removed resistor spring, cleaned up cabling, spades and new yellow heat shrink.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1461496930.19.jpg)

Next I assembled my Uber Brasso polished shiny, shiny Intake box that sits above the fan with my cleaned and painted Omega clips.
With a strip of Isoline foam tape cut down to ½” wide I made a new gasket for the fan to intake box which had just turned to powder.
Finally fitting them together to complete the refurbished blower assembly, ready to go back in to the car over the weekend. You can see the tail ends of the tube reinforcements I added in the photo. These will be concealed inside the hoses when they go back on.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1461496931.20.jpg)

Day 205

Today’s progress was short and sweet as it was Friday which true to form was a bit of a nightmare at work. No time for lunch break today and even when I left from work on my way home in the supermarket tonight my work called me at 6:30pm and basically told me to abandon my shopping trolley half way around the store and rush in to fix a production critical machine. I got back to work at 7pm to find the so called “engineers” had repeatedly reset the low oil level cut out and bodged the machine to run on with no oil in it since yesterday and now it had completely self destructed so there was nothing I could do but say you’ll have to wait until Monday when the supplier in Europe reopens (and if the transport strikes are over) I might be able to locate a new one. They’re going to have some explaining to do I’m sure.
I didn’t get home until 9pm and jumped straight on to the gauges. Using my device and a few other medieval implements I’d sorted out I rolled the bezels back onto all the gauges. They went back on a treat and with only one small casualty; a tiny paint chip that I touched in on the rear of the bezel that won’t be seen anyway.
I’m pleased with how they look now, far, far better than they were and with all the other sprucing up of the dashboard in general they shouldn’t lower the tone at all.

Day 206

Today I made reasonable progress only delayed by 914rubber yet again!
With the blower box out I fitted the dash controls and connected the two cables back onto the levers on the drivers side then checked and adjusted the clamps so that the levers moved all the way across the control unit from left to right and the butterfly flaps opened and closed correctly in proportion.
Before the blower box went back in I gave it one last clean behind.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1461496931.21.jpg)

All was going well until I unpacked the new 914rubber mesh and seal for the top of the blower box. The mesh plate is angled down around its perimeter and the slot in the rubber seal is horizontal, so when you fit the mesh inside it (which is a fiddle) the rubber rolls over to match the angle of the perimeter of the mesh and wont easily fit or stay in place on the lip of the blower box.
It drove me to despair this afternoon, the bloomin thing wouldn’t stay in place for more than 10 seconds with the blower box off the car, let alone trying to fit it.
In the end I had to file the whole edge of the 914rubber mesh plate square (taking off the angled perimeter slightly and the underside part of the angle so that it sat in the rubber seal better without rolling the seal over.
Only then would it stay in place on the blower box.
Thinking I’d resolved the issue I then tried to fit the blower box back in the car. The damn 914rubber seal was far too hard and chunky for it to slide between the two metal securing plates welded on the underside of the scuttle without dragging it off the blower box.
Off again and back to the shed, I put a little superglue on the seal to hold it to the blower box and a light smear of grease on the sides to ease it between the two metal brackets.
Back to the garage and carefully slid it into place. Great, I thought. Then the next nightmare showed itself.
The 914rubber seal is quite chunky and the rubber isn’t forgiving so guess what….I couldn’t get the bolts in from either side as the seal wouldn’t compress enough on the underside of the scuttle to allow the blower box to lift upwards and align the bolt holes. We’re not talking a little here, with a piece of 3 x 2 wood as a lever under the blower box forcing it upwards with more pressure than I liked the holes in the box were still no where near, the box needed to go up a further 4mm. No chance.
I wrestled and wrestled with it for over an hour but the rubber seal was too hard and too big.
There was nothing I could do but have to take it out yet again. I was so frustrated with the 914rubber part that I had to go indoors have a cup of tea and calm down.
The only thing I could think of to do was physically cut 4mm of the top rim of the blower box to allow the seal to sit lower and the box to fit higher in the car. Again this was another 2 hours wasted trying to make stuff fit.
Anyway with it cut down, superglued back on and greased on the outside it eventually fit back in the car and the holes lined up (still needed a lever with the 3 x 2) but with points filed on the bolts I got them to go in eventually. Finally I fitted the air duct hoses and the drain tubes to complete it.
What a nightmare such a simple seal can cause.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1461496931.22.jpg)

I carried on by testing all the tiny indication & gauge illumination lamps in the loom with my multi meter and found 11 blown yes ELEVEN. How can you let a car get into this state of disrepair?! Fortunately a rummage in my shed resulted in finding 7 and I popped out and bought the remaining 4.
Fitting the lamps into the back of the blower controls was another fiddly job, they have a tiny flat on the holder and it needs to be aligned to fit it in all the way home.
The “fasten seat belts” lamp went in next and the rest of the wires on the heater control were reconnected.
Lastly this evening I dropped the fuse box and disconnected the power lead for the radio. Over the years the PO must have had a couple of radio replacements and the power lead had been cut and crimped 3 times between the fuse box spade and the radio so I plan on putting a new wire in without joins along with new speaker cables.
Just about to make up a new lead and my son arrived so we went out this evening for 2 hours driving lessons.

Day 207

Progress was reasonable today with the new cabling made up and installed for the radio including new speaker wires. While the fuse box was dropped I sorted out a few potential problems in there and replaced a few cables that had been cut and re joined some time in the past.
I then installed the Blaupunkt radio in the dash, made a bracket for the rear and wired it up.
Looks superb!
Next I started on the steering column that I’d removed previously. Stripping it all down I cleaned off the flaky paint from the universal joints, cleaned them all up and repainted them satin black.
The intermediate shaft got a good clean and all the gunk & sand cleaned from the splines and a finish with waxoil.
The wiper & indicator stalks were removed dismantled and cleaned. The washer jet valve had the pipe tails snapped clean off it. Strange as the perished old rubber hoses were stuffed up behind the dash but didn’t contain the missing pipe tails off the valve?
Anyway this afternoon I tracked one down from VW Heritage so ordered a replacement.
Finally I cleaned all the column housing and fixings ready to go back in tomorrow after the paint dries.

Day 208

Today I continued with the dashboard installation.
I glued in the 3 pieces of carpet under the dash this morning before work. The right hand one has the hole for the steering column to pass through so needs to be installed first.
It was a manic day at work with the start of some big projects so I never got a chance for lunch today or chasing 914 parts.
After work I cleaned up the socket headed bolts that hold the steering column in and lightly greased the Universal joints and splines.
The paint had dried overnight so I fitted the steering column. I found it was easier to fit the Top UJ and shaft to the column and slide the lower UJ onto the rack, feed the assembly through the dash hole and locate the shaft into the lower UJ before fitting the 4 socket head screws.
I used two small fox wedges to very slightly open the clamp on the lower UJ and the shaft slid in easily. Once the column was bolted under the dash I slid the lower UJ to align the recess for the cross bolts, fitted both bolts and removed the fox wedge and nipped up the bolts. Job done.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1461496931.23.jpg)

Finally I fitted the wiring plug to the rear of the ignition lock and made sure the loom sat comfortably without tension. Once the new washer jet valve arrives I can assemble the stalks and refit them.

Day 209

This morning I finished working on the gauges. All lamp holes/tubes were internally cleaned and the protruding lamp holders re covered with heat shrink as some of the old covers were very loose and fallen off.
During lunchtime I called in at the trimmers and picked up the roll bar trim that I’d had to use filler on to sort out the multiple splits. I was pleasantly surprised how well its come out. They used a very thin pliable vinyl and heat gun to form it around the old part and unless you look really, really hard you’d be hard pushed to see its been recovered. With this part in full view with the roof off it needs to look good!
This evening when I got home I fitted the 3 large gauges and new powdercoated panel (with home made screws) into the dash.
Starting with the Speedo I carefully fitted all the lamps and connections including the Speedo cable and the odometer trip cable that I found disconnected? Fortunately once located back into the speedo and underside of the dash it worked a treat so I was happy that another fault was resolved.
The Tacho was next using the gauge hole to the left to work through. It was a puzzle getting it into the dash, but after figuring out you cant do it with the rubber grommet fitted to the gauge, it went in much easier.
Finally the combination gauge went in. Along the way I had to un-plat and de knot the loom so it sat nicely, which had mysteriously got itself tangled when the dash was out?
It took me a couple of hours as I was extra careful not to rest or knock the freshly painted gauge bezels during sorting out the wires and connecting up.
Next I moved into the shed and continued to clean up the indicator & wiper stalks cleaning all the contacts I could get at. Finishing off with my multi meter and with the Haynes wiring diagram I tested all the terminals where the plugs fit in each stalk position to make sure I’d got good continuity. The wiper connection in the haynes showed 5 cables, the plug on the car loom has 5 female spades but the wiper stalk connection has locating holes for 5 male spades but only 4 fitted? This confused me a little as when I took the column out the PO had disconnected the wiper plug and tucked it back up under the dash to stop it hanging down? No idea why? Certainly the wipers wouldn’t have worked, but I don’t yet know why. The mechanism was very tight before I removed all the sand and clean it up, so maybe that’s it. In Desert Hot Spring where the car came from google says it barely rains so maybe it seized with lack of use and got disconnected as the wipers were rarely needed. Who knows? I’ll be sure to find out once the battery goes back on.
For now I’m waiting for the new washer valve to turn up (due tomorrow) before I can refit the stalks and give it a try.

Day 210

Picked up the lower dash roll at lunchtime from the trimmers at lunch. They called me to say they’d had a problem and could I come and take a look. During trimming they’d burnt the vinyl while trying to stretch it so had to take it all off to start again. Unfortunately the glue had stuck well and they’d accidentally torn off several section of the old vinyl & foam in a few places so I need to refill it all again for them to have another go.
When I got home this evening the washer valve had arrived, so I unpacked it and found it wasn’t made that well with lots of sharp plastic flashing on the hose tails that would potentially split the rubber tubes, so spent the next half an hour with a swiss file dressing it. Finally this evening I fitted the valve and stalks back into the column and sorted out the lay of the tubes and cable neatly behind the dash. What a game it was trying to fit the new rubber tubes, even after soaking in boiling water I could only get them on an inch, they were so tight. To be safe I put a couple of miniature cable ties around them to stop them blowing off. (But I’d be very surprised if they move at all as they were so, so tight on there).



So that was Month 7….

Dashboard refurbished and back in with good progress made on the retrimming the remain interior parts (with a few issues to sort out). The wiring loom and steering column is back in & connected up and the blower, wipers and ducting is all refurbished under the hood.

With the weather slowly improving I’ll be able to push the car outside next month so I can have room to open the doors and really get stuck in on the interior assembly.

Thanks again for taking time out to read my ramblings.

[Darren C]

Ok, Lets call this post a bonus!

There’s been a lot of posts and threads asking for advice on Carb Conversion throttle linkages and cable positioning. I’ve been kinda sitting on some information from my experience of restoring my 914 that will hopefully be helpful to other owners.
So I’ve decided to break cover in the middle of my thread to add this little post.
Enjoy

Regards
Darren

This is how to make the ultimate smooth running, easy returning and very accurate balance adjustment twin carb 914 linkage.


First sorting out some thick 316 stainless plate I spent several hours hacksawing by hand, this.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1462741286.1.jpg)

I continued to file, drill and fettle that piece of Stainless plate until it was a reasonable match for my cornflakes box imagineering template.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1462741287.2.jpg)

I spent a couple of hours in my shed and started to turn down a piece of 316 Stainless bar.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1462741287.3.jpg)

I machined out two counterbores to an interference fit for two ball bearing races I’d bought. I selected high temp bearings with steel dust covers to keep the grease in while exposed to engine heat. Next the flange was drilled and the bracket tapped M5 to hold it in place.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1462741287.4.jpg)

The following afternoon I turned down another Stainless bar to make a spindle. I incorporated a boss to sit between the bearings and run freely with 0.25mm clearance, so that if ever a bearing failed it would run on the boss rather than collapse.
To finish the ends were threaded M8 and two opposing flats filed accurately to accept the levers (yet to be made).

I continued in my shed and made a top link arm with an off-cut of the stainless sheet. Very carefully filing out the slotted hole until it was a nice fit on the spindle I made yesterday.
Afterwards I carried out a dry run with a few parts borrowed off the worn FI throttle body (un-modified).
With the re-used spindle return spring it should give a “stock feel” to the pedal. I just need to make an anchor for the spring near the base and a cable fixing arm during the week and it should be good to go.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1462741287.5.jpg)

The following evening I returned to my shed and made a spring anchor from more stainless to tie in the linkage return spring. While lying in the MRI scanner that afternoon in Hospital (long story) I had the idea to use one of the threaded bolt holes in the bearing housing as a fixing point (which fell just in the right place for spring tension) instead of welding a tab on. Much neater idea, I thought, and also variable if required, unlike a permanent weld if I’d taken that route. I also made a stainless spacer/bush to go between to factory recycled throttle arm and my new dual arm (to replace the packing washers I'd used to help set the positioning up during design)

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1462741287.6.jpg)

The next evening I spent a few hours fettling the top arm, drilled and tapped it and fitted the ball joints for the throttle rods. I also used another bit of Cornflakes box to inamgineer a nice looking bracket to attach to the assembly to anchor the throttle cable. Just need to pick up an off cut of 3mm stainless plate tomorrow to make it with.
The parts I removed from the old throttle body (arms, washers, bushes etc) I bagged up ready to drop off at the zinc platers . I plan on getting the whole lot done in gold zinc (including the bits I’ve recycled on my new linkage plus those I haven’t) in this way at a later date when I invest in putting back the FI system, they’ll be all shinny & new looking.

The following day in the shed I spent 3 hours cutting out and filed into shape the throttle cable mounting bracket.

After getting home late from work the next day I manage to mark and drill out the throttle cable bracket I made last night with several holes and fettle some 5mm stainless bar to make the linkage arms with. I also made two angle gauges to enable me to bend the 3mm stainless plates tomorrow at work to the exact angle.
I also had an M5 left hand thread die turn up in the post so fingers crossed I have the tools required now to make the adjustable linkage rods at the weekend.

I took the brackets into work the next day and used the bending press to shape them. I also called in at the platers at lunch and picked up the gold BZP replated original throttle arms, bushes, nuts and washers all looking fantastic shiny and new. A final call into the tool shop before going back to work and I picked up a small 13/16” die wrench for the LH thread M5 die I purchased earlier in the week to make the linkage rods. (My other wrenches are too large to hold the tiny die)
This evening I started to clean up the brackets to get some of the press marks out ready for assembly the weekend.

Finally I assembled the parts of the throttle linkage I d made that week after cleaning all the fold press machine marks out to give a brushed stainless finish.
The freshly gold BZP parts were added. (The return safety spring has the tension off in the picture. When fitted it will be rotated 180 Degrees, and the allen key is just holding in the throttle cable clamp temporarily for the photo)

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1462741288.7.jpg)

As I’d said earlier, Carbs were fitted from my shed stock way back in October 15 to get the engine running for the first time in several years so that I could find out just exactly what I’d purchased blind. The paint shop had also said to me that they’d only take the car in for paint if it drove, so carbs were a quick no cost solution for me as I have numerous old & new sets in my shed from my VW days.
Here’s an OLD PICTURE from October, showing the “replica” Chinese Webers and an old Empi throttle linkage I used to see if the engine would run.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1462741288.8.jpg)

Next I fitted my home made throttle linkage. Far, far better than the mass produced Empi linkage I’d had on the car earlier, that is crude at best and not throttle cable friendly in a 914. This was the main reason for making a much better linkage that works well with the STANDARD 914 throttle cable, using the STOCK position of the cable as it travels in the engine bay, thus removing any binding or length issues.
All those cornflake box templates, measuring & measuring again paid off.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1462741288.9.jpg)

Perfect fit.
Next I made two 5mm diameter stainless throttle rods, LH thread one end RH thread the other, then fitted lock nuts and ball joints.
I then swapped out my old replica Webers for a genuine set of carbs and replaced the mains and idle jets to better suit a 2.0 litre. The floats were set and with new gaskets and home made stainless studs in the manifolds, they were fitted to the car.
In the afternoon with a fire extinguisher at hand I ran up the engine and tuned the carbs with the linkages off before setting carefully the rod lengths (of the new stainless linkages I’d made that morning) and fitted them between carbs and main assembly.
With the 914 throttle cable fitted and adjusted it all worked a treat and looks pretty neat too!

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1462741288.10.jpg)

The key is to understand the geometry, length of pivot arms and optimisation of cable layout and positioning to obtain a good proportional smooth throttle opening.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1462741288.11.jpg)

I hope this helps other 914 owners with Carb conversions that are experiencing issues.

[JoeDees]

That "bonus post" just blew my mind! Incredible work.

[jkb944t]

Wow! This is some very impressive workmanship!

[Darren C]

Month 8


Day 211

Today I contacted Porsche Centre to chase up the new ignition key as it has been 2 months now since ordering the spare. “It came in today” was the reply. Hmmm, co-incidence? I also ordered up a set of screw covers for the trims around the roll bar and the windscreen pillars. Most of the originals were missing or chewed up. Still available (as they fit 924,44 & 68 also) in stock Porsche UK and £1.97 each. Hopefully have them on Friday ready for the weekend.

The plan is to fit the windsheild and rear window this weekend. I’d placed them in the back of one of the garages for safe keeping after taking them out the week before going to the paintshop.
Setting up my trestles with extra foam padding I got out the rear window and with a brand new Stanley blade in my scraper I removed the old window stickers for South California University and Yellowstone Park. There was a good coat of paint on the glass too. Seems the last paint shop didn’t even take care to mask the glass let alone remove it. This all needed scraping off with a perimeter line of water limescale before the glass was scrubbed with Cif and scotchbrite. (A cheap supermarket green scotchbrite that doesn’t scratch). Flipping it over I cleaned both sides before starting on the windsheild
The glass is a replacement, having been fitted some time ago it was stuck in with tons of silicone! There was plenty left on the glass after slicing it out the car which needed cleaning off.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1464670538.1.jpg)

Again as with the rear window there was plenty of dirt, limescale (from years of car washing) and general grunge on the glass, so it got a total Stanley blade scrape and scotchbrite Cif.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1464670539.2.jpg)

After a few hours I’d got it cleaned up ready for the weekends installation. I’m not happy about the rear view mirror mount, so may need to take a look at prying it off the glass. The PO has glued it back on but scuffed up the base with 40 grit to key it and it looks awful from the outside looking in. Partially black with random sandpaper silver scratches to bare metal showing. I tentatively tried to get it off the glass tonight but its rock solid. As I was running out of daylight again, rather than rush it, I can take a look tomorrow.

Day 212

This morning before work I had a go at getting the mirror of the windscreen. The PO had stuck in on with what looked like araldite epoxy glue and had made quite a mess around the base. It was on rock solid so I had to get serious with it to remove it.
Setting up a layer of left over underlay from some laminate flooring from my old house (that I’d kept as it comes in useful for kneeling on while working) I carefully angled the screen, like in the car, so a good proportion of the glass edge rested evenly across the underlay pads.
The next bit isn’t for the faint hearted.
I got a new Stanley blade (loose) and rested it across the corner of the foot of the mirror. Next I used a toffee hammer sliding along the glass, ensuring it pressed on the inside of the screen as it moved (as you used to do when you nailed in window panes in old houses before using window putty) so that it struck the top of the Stanley blade and slowly drifted it between Mirror foot and glass until it was released.
The Mirror eventually came free, and wiping sweat from my brow I put everything away and left for work.
At lunch today I called in at a local sign writers (I hate using that name as today its all vinyl stickers as no one paints signs anymore) and arranged for a 20mm wide black glass vinyl strip to be made. This is going along the bottom of the rear window. I believe Porsche used a form of insulation tape like you use on wires to cover the inside bottom of the glass to stop you looking in from outside and seeing the un-upholstered back of the bulkhead trim.
The sign vinyl strip will do the same job but stick far better and make hopefully a neater job. The guy said if he made one specially for me it would be £30, but if I could wait a day or two until he’s doing some black vinyl work, he’d cut me several for a £10 while the machine is set up.
When I got home this evening I found the two seat belt triangular plastic covers for the roll bar had arrived from VW Heritage. They’d been on back order for a few weeks and it was a nice surprise. I tried the fit and it was perfect. Bit of a punt as they are listed as early VW Golf on their website but after a lot of trawling on line the pictures of the Golf ones looked just like the 914 covers.
After playing with the belts, I got the trestles back out and marked the mirror position on the outside of the screen with masking tape. Flipped the screen over and set about carefully scraping the old glue off the screen with my Stanley scraper. A final Cif & green scotchbrite and you’d never know it’d been there.
Finally I gave the glass a final clean and put it back into the rear of the garage until the weekend.
Hopefully tomorrow I’ll pick up the screw cover caps from Porsche Centre and the plan is to turn down a cutting tool tomorrow evening to remove the a small circle of vinyl on my re-trimmed interior parts. (I’ve had the windscreen pillar trims, roll bar side and top trims all recovered) There’s about 20 or so holes to neatly cut in the new vinyl so I can get the screws in and caps on. With the new caps in hand I can measure them accurately with my Vernier to determine what size vinyl hole cutter to make. The old ones I have left are miss-shaped so not reliable to measure and the old trim holes were a bit worn. With a bit of luck If I cut the vinyl holes accurately the caps should be a snug fit and not need anything on them to hold them in place.

Day 213

Today I called in at Porsche Centre and collected the screw caps and key blanks. I went to a franchise key cutters at lunch to get the blanks cut. They refused as I’d not bought the blanks from them! I went to a local independent locksmith and while he was cutting the keys he was obviously curious about the car they were for and we had a good chat. When he found out the franchise key cutters refused to cut the original Porsche blanks he laughed and said have them on me and refused to take any money!
This evening after work & food shop I measured up the blanks and turned down a simple tube cut tool and tested it in some spare vinyl for the cap fit before very carefully sitting down and cutting out the holes in the newly trimmed parts.
They’ve come out really good in comparison to the nasty split parts full of filler that I handed to the trimmers.

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Again I ran out of daylight.

Day 214

Today I felt like murdering an old friend……

I got up early this morning and cleaned up around the rear window. I sorted out the small packing pieces form a bag of parts I’d previously made up and stuck them in place with a blob of caulking. I set up my padded trestles and gave the rear window a final clean up and degrease. Using the new 3m Butyl I carefully set a strip around the window aperture with the join spliced in at top centre.
Very carefully I lifted the glass into place and gently pressed it home, looking from the inside outwards to check an even stick and compression of the butyl.
Next I gently rested a piece of 4 x 2 against it while I went back to the house to sort out the roll bar trim. (Not that it was going to fall out, more for peace of mind)
I fitted the two plastic surrounds for the rear roof latches back into the trim and unpacked the latches bolts and washers.
The latches were fitted to the roll bar and nipped up then the recovered padded trim fitted over them. What a puzzle that was for a while trying to get it back on around the roof catches, but with a little patience it went on. I’d pre fitted the horizontal screws so that the points showed through as they were a real sod to get out the trim before recovering and don’t easily go straight back in without dropping into the deep hole in the foam of the trim and then you cant get them to line up with the inner metal frame. Pre-fitting them was the easy way to do it.
After a little manipulation the trim was pushed into place and the horizontal screws tightened up. The vertical screws go through a much thinner piece of foam in the trim and with a torch looking up its much easier to align the holes in the car body and with a magnetic screwdriver just put the screws straight in.
The new blanking caps got fitted next, much more supple than the old rock hard ones and the trim was complete.
I then fitted the two re-trimmed windscreen pillar trims. I’d asked the trimmers to leave a flap of vinyl on the top so I could feed it around the metal channel under the rubber. With the ends of the lower roof seal pulled out and the tiny screws and cup washers out, all that was needed was a tweak the fit was good.
Due to the dash cap being fitted and the trims being recovered they were a little tight at the bottom. A little soft soap (PH neutral) was put on the metal pillar, rear of the trim and end of the dash cap. The Pillar trims slipped in a treat. As with the roll bar trim the screws were pre fitted so the tips just poked through and with a little manipulation all holes lined up and the trims secured. The tiny upper screws and cup washers refitted along with the lower roof seal, with vinyl flap tucked under. Again all new screw caps were fitted to finish off.
After a bite to eat I started to fit the trim clips around the screen that hold the ali surround. I used a very, very small blob of caulking made into the tiniest of washers to surround the hole as they went in. This should hopefully prevent any water/rust starting around the clips. Next I fitted the two packing shims and set up my padded trestles.
Having lifted out the screen on my own, loaded it in my car on my own and brought it home where over the last few months I’d moved it numerous times I thought just to be safe I’d call and old friend over to help me lift it into place on the car. I lifted the screen out of the garage where its stored and carried it around to my lock up where the 914 is kept. Resting it on the trestles I gave it a final clean around the edge.
My friend arrived and I carefully explained what we needed to do. I went to sort out the new dash to screen rubber seal while he kept watch on the screen on the trestles.

Now this is where my day took a turn for the worst. My dear friend who is very enthusiastic, but is by no stretch of the imagination practical minded. While I was working on the car he went to lift the windsheild, but held it on the bottom corner and “thought” he could twist and lift it from just one corner while he swapped his hand over.

“KLICK”…..

I looked over from the car towards him at the trestles and in his left hand was a long razor crack right through the windsheild from top to bottom…….

I was simply lost for words. Nothing I could say would help the situation. He was with all good intention trying to help me, but had no idea of the consequences.
Next time I’ll just fit it on my own.

So tonight I am drowning my sorrows with a few beers.

I called a UK 914 specialist earlier to ask them about availability and got a Pilkington number for the screen. I phoned around a few local glass places but they all said that they wouldn’t know until Monday on UK stock as the suppliers were closed on a Saturday.

So if anyone is free tomorrow I may need a lift with a long heavy roll of carpet wrapped in bin bags that I’m burying in the woods!

Day 215
Today I sorted out a few long term electrical Gremlins. With most of the dash built up the majority of the loom was reconnected (apart from the centre console) so I decided to put the battery back on and test everything.
I started with the wipers. When I came to dismantle the dash I found the plug was already pulled off the wiper stalks and tucked up behind the dash? While the stalks were out I’d cleaned and tested all the contacts and cleaned the pins and spades in the plug. The wiper mechanism was unseized and cleaned and greased, all wires reconnected, battery on, ignition on, wipers on. NOTHING!
Here we go…..
So now was the time to find out what on earth was going on. I started at the fuse No8 and had power, so I gave the holder another clean and checked the fuse fit just in case. Still power but no wipers?
So I bit the bullet and took out the blower box again to check the wires on the wiper motor. I really wanted to do this before I put the blower box in, but I’d bench tested the wiper motor and it was ok, so never expected a loom issue (plus the dash was still out so I couldn’t test it in situ until today). Anyway, tested the wires and I was getting an intermittent low voltage on the red/white feed. It seemed to be ok with the cable pulled off the wiper motor but loose voltage when the wire was reconnected?
I went around in circles for a while and in checking the wiring diagram the same feed runs the fresh air blower. I’d bench tested the new motor, bench tested the rebuilt speed control and the slide fan controls in the dash and it all worked. Guess what, with the blower box out of position but loom plugged in it didn’t work either!
Looking at the wiring diagram the wipers share a power feed with the fresh air blower relay.
I dropped the fuse box and pulled out the fresh air blower relay and found a melted and burnt pin on the relay and in the holder. This must have happened to the PO when the blower fan broke up. There was some burning on the heater slide contacts I’d repaired earlier so it looks like the whole thing happened at the same time which would have probably smoked and smelt bad.
So now I kinda understand the PO unplugging the wiper plug now as I would imagine the melted relay would possibly smoke when the wipers were turned on (since the old fresh air blower motor had gone open circuit)
All was revealed. I set about repairing the relay holder and temporarily stuck my fuel pump relay in place (as it is brand new)
Put everything back together in the fuse box and battery on. Hey presto I had wipers!
Great I thought, moving the fresh air blower slide to try my new fan….Nothing!
With the air box still out I pulled the plug, switched on the fan and measured the voltages. 12V, plug back on, no fan? Eh?
After a bit of head scratching I decided to pry open the plug and take a look inside. There it was, a splayed open tube connector on the +12V (ironically all the –ve were fine). Cleaned up and back together, plug back on and eureka the fan worked.
I then spent a good hour wrestling the blower box back into position and compressing the top rubber seal. The lesson here is; check the wipers before fitting the blower box!
Next I tried all other switches. First to fail was the indicators, two blinks then nothing. Here we go again. Well to cut a long story short it was loose & dirty spade connectors on the relay base. Not wanting to be caught out again I removed all other relays and cleaned up their pins, female connectors and tightened everything up.
Trying everything else all was good except a gauge illumination bulb in the left gauge. Quickly popping out the gauge yet again I changed the bulb. All in all that’s 12 faulty dash bulbs the car had.
Before I knew it it was time to go pick my son up for another interesting white knuckle driving lesson in the Morris Traveller.
A welcome break in outing the Gremlins.

It’s an early night tonight, Got to be up a 3:30am tomorrow to get to the airport to fly over to Jersey with work, so I had to wrap up and get on line to order some new relays.

Day 216

Today was a long day. I flew out to the channel island of Jersey and was sat in a Waterfront Café in St Helier the capitol city eating breakfast before 8am. Following a very busy day of meetings I flew back and arrived home just after 7pm.
Not wanting to loose a chance to work on the 914 I went straight into my shed and started on the dash knee roll that the trimmers had, had an accident with.
The top edge of the roll which sits under the basket weave panel was torn quite badly in two places where they had pulled off the new vinyl after burning a hole stretching it into shape. I ended up having to cut all the loose original vinyl off until I came to a good bit that was still bonded to the foam. All in all I ended up with almost 10” x 2” missing off the knee roll. The foam then needed to be undercut to allow the new two part plastic resin to get a good hold on the old edge of vinyl. I mixed up a few batches one after another to build up the undercut edge and left it to dry while I grabbed a quick cuppa. The resin fortunately sets in minutes so next I keyed the surface of the resin and the old vinyl edge with 80 grit and applied a light skim of filler.
Before I knew it I’d spent over 2 hours this evening on the knee roll, so having been up for over 18 hours I was starting to feel a little tired, so left the filler to cure until the morning when I’ll start to sand it down.

Day 217

I was thwarted by the rain today. Hoping to rub down the flexible filler I put on the lower knee roll last night, I drew the curtains this morning to rain. Rubbing filler down inside is not a good idea as the dust makes a right old mess. A change of plan was in order so I sorted out the washer tubes between bottle, column and spare wheel.
I’d purchased all new rubber and had fitted between jets and column switch while the dash and blower box was out but not got around to the bottle.
I removed the tube & bulkhead grommet to the spare wheel and the washer bottle cap with short 5” tube and fittings.
New tube was cut to length and with some boiling water the tube was softened and all the ends & valves refitted.
I used some short ½” in length adhesive lined heat shrink and replicated the sleeves on all ends of the hoses.
The new hose was then fitted back into the car with a cleaned up bulkhead grommet and the cap refitted to the bottle. The car was finally free of all perished water hose.
At lunchtime I called in and picked up some black silicone sealant and some more masking tape.
I’d fitted the rear window with the correct butyl 3M ribbon at the weekend but I wasn’t too happy with the weather protection. Looking from inside out I could see I had a good 360 degree seal on the butyl to glass but there was a nice tiny channel between glass and body where the butyl holds the glass off by about 2-3mm.
Also when cleaning the glass the other day the vertical sides of the window where it meets the shell has a 2mm gap where the butyl is visible and is sticky causing fluff from the cleaning cloth to get stuck to it. This would drive me nuts, so I carefully taped the glass and shell as tight as possible into the corners and applied a tiny bead of black silicone sealant around the glass. With any excess cleaned off and the tape removed I had a very neat thin silicone coating over the butyl.
This should not only stop the sticky issue tight into the corner of the rear window but should stop the gap holding water, prevent leaks and help stop any future corrosion. Being silicone it can be easily removed if ever I need to remove the rear window.
Along the bottom edge its just lower than the steel lip so wont be seen when the decklid seal is fitted.
Next I sorted out two new fuel hoses for the fuel tank. I’d fitted new hoses before the car went off to paint, but they could do with being a little longer for ease of fitting/removal. I’d got plenty of spare new hose left so cut and fitted two more that were another 4” longer than the previous ones.
Finally I refitted the fuel tank retaining straps that I’d removed to get at the blower box before running out of torch light. With the washer hoses in and the blower & wiper motor sorted I plan to get the tank back in tomorrow.

Day 218

The weather was dry today so I got chance to rub down the flexible filler in the knee roll repair and start to reshape the damaged area. I applied another thin layer of filler and left for work.
This evening before getting too dusty with filler I decided to fit the rear window to deck lid seal as the window was well and truly stuck in and silicone cured. I wasn’t happy with the 914rubber seal so I’d bought a new genuine one. This went on a treat and sealed nicely along the glass just above the silicone and butyl.
Next I refitted the fuel tank and clamped it down. I was about to refit the filler and expansion tank but noticed the clamp ring was chipped around a few of the M5 bolt positions. I’d previously cleaned and repainted it so I was a little annoyed it had been chipped when I took the tank off again. A quick removal and strip off of all the paint to bare metal again, I gave it a new coat of fuel resistant black. This will need to dry overnight before I can fit the expansion tank tomorrow.
Main fuel tank in place I fitted the washer bottle and linked all the new pipes up that I’d made last night.
While the paint dried on the expansion tank ring I sanded down this mornings filler on the knee roll.
A third layer was required to sort out a few air/pin holes and shaping so I mixed up a new batch and applied it carefully before leaving it to dry overnight. Hopefully this will be the last sand and finish before I can give it to the trimmers again.

Day 219

This morning it was dry early on and I managed to rub down and refill the knee roll once more before the rain arrived at 7am.
We had some really heavy rain & thunder through the day, but as if by magic at 5pm the rain had stopped and by the time I got home it was dry again in time for more sanding and filling.
The accident at the trimmers had caused me a whole load of trouble chasing my tail across the knee roll to repair the torn off surface until I could make good.
After a lot of perseverance I finally sorted it out.

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The plan is to drop it off at the trimmers again in the morning so that they can try again to recover it.
After dusting myself off I fitted the fuel expansion/breather tank with the newly painted securing ring and nice shiny M5 stainless bolts and washers before running out of light.

Day 220

This morning before breakfast I gave the dash knee roll a final sand and inspection before loading it up to take to the trimmers.
I dropped it off a lunch time and called in at the post office to collect a sign for packet. Two new round relays I’d ordered to replace the fuel pump one I’d put into the blower and a spare.
Hopefully the knee roll will be re covered in new vinyl by the end of next week so I can finally get the dash all back together. It’s starting to look good with the refurbished gauges and column back in.

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The saga of the windsheild continues. I hope to get a replacement in the next two weeks. A brand new one so to be fair it will be much better in the long run than the old one which wasn’t original anyway. Until then the window frame is all prepared and waiting; just butyl to add once the screen is here.

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On the way back from the post office at lunch I called in at the sign writers and picked up my laser cut black strip for the bottom of the rear window. I chose a satin black vinyl with a slight texture so it should blend in completely with the bulkhead trim.
I also had it made 25mm wide instead of the factory 20mm insulation tape so it covers right over the bottom of the glass edge.
After work it was food shop and weekly clothes wash so once the shopping was put away and the washing machine on I leaped into the garage.
The rear window was cleaned a 3rd time and I carefully applied the vinyl with a rubber scraper following the curvature exactly without any trapped air bubbles. It looked superb!
Next I carefully fitted the two pillar trims. They were a little tight due to re covering of the top roll bar trim and the fact both side trims were recovered too. After a little effort the screw holes lined up perfectly and the trims were fixed in place. The coat hooks were next and I had noticed that the rubber cover that goes over metal bracket has two lugs on the base that “clip” over the metal bracket. When I stripped the car down one rubber cover was missing, but I fortunately found it under the seat. The reason was now clear. The metal bracket had been overtightened in the past which had compressed the foam in the pillar trim. This meant that the two lugs on the bracket sat into the trim foam and the rubber cover couldn’t clip over them and just falls off. I made a small black rubber packing piece to hold the bracket off the crushed trim about 2mm. This raised the bracket back to the normal height and the cover went on with a dull click and was locked firm in place. Finally I fitted two new blanking plugs over the screws.

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Plan for the weekend now is floor vinyl, seat belts, carpets and bulkhead trim.

Day 221

This morning I got out of storage all the old bits of vinyl that I took off the car when taking out the interior. They had been well and truly sun baked to a crisp, scratched, punctured and torn in places so the only solution was to remake them with fresh supple vinyl.

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Using the old bits as a pattern I drew around them with chalk onto my roll of black vinyl. This wasn’t as easy as you’d expect as they were blistered curled up and generally hard to lay flat.
After drawing around them I added another ¼” as they had definitely shrunk.
Cutting them out neatly I had a fresh set to go in the car.

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I spent the rest of this afternoon carefully gluing them in place with high temp/high grip impact adhesive working them into all the corners and around the curvatures. This took far longer than anticipated.
The first easy ones to go on were the two rectangles. These go just below the corners of the rear window to cover the metal panel where the seat belts exit.
Next the two “hockey sticks” that go along the rear of the door opening. Care was taken here to glue and cut them to roll over the spotweld flange that the door seal fits on, making sure they go from pillar trim to a good 5” along the top of the box sill.
The two sections that go over the crossmember were next. These get quite fiddly behind the hand break and around the switch. Also a little stretching was require near the centre tunnel to stretch it over the contours.
Once in it was the remaining centre tunnel sections that caused me the most difficulty. Getting them right into the corners at the rear of the tunnel and around the raised seat mounting was tricky. More so on the passenger side where I had to remove the seat relay and hold back the loom a little while I worked the vinyl into place.
After a quick trim with a Stanley knife all looked neat and tidy.
With a few hours of the day still left over I decided to fit the seatbelts and the handbrake switch.
Previously cleaned up and with new bolts and washers the seatbelts went in a treat.
Making good progress I took off the handbrake lever and fitted both sill carpets before refitting the handbrake, battery and testing the handbrake switch and buzzer.
All good!

Day 222

My son stayed over last night so we had a morning dedicated to driving lessons and highway code questions. Unfortunately when putting the cover over the Morris Traveller I noticed a drip from the rear n/s hub. Bloomin axle oil seal is leaking. Another job to do!
Anyway after taking my son for lunch, dropping him off, mowing the lawns and washing 3 cars; this afternoon I started on the 914. I started by fitting the newly recovered bulkhead trim. After strengthening the backboard and adding metal channels it was far stronger than before and kept its shape at the base and sides better. After wiring and testing the interior light (all ok) I fitted the bulkhead trim in place. After a bit of fiddling around I realised the small handbrake cable cover plate has to be off to get the trim in. With the plate off it sat nicely in the car with the 4 hook tabs located under the window, the screw holes lined right up.
Next I fitted the new door rubbers to the openings and carefully cut them to a perfect length for a neat fit.
The sill threshold trim that goes over the door seal and grips the carpet was split in a few places around the screw holes so I’d bought two new black coated metal ones from 914rubber. The screws I’d previously cleaned and repainted satin black ready to fit went back in and all holes lined up. The plates were carefully installed ensuring the carpet was tight up to the door trim and gripped tight so it wasn’t baggy.
To be honest these 914rubber metal sill trims are the best thing I’ve had so far from them!
Next I unpacked my previously fully refurbished seat runners that I’d done while the car was at the paintshop.

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Theses were carefully fitted with the toothed bracket and after a little adjustment of the small M6 bolts (at the hinged bracket on the floor) the mechanism operated smoothly and the latch located fully to allow the seat runners to raise and lower.
The previously refurbished seat belt clips were the next to go on with nice new shiny bolts & washers and the new “Press” decals.
Slowly gaining space back in my house and shed I took the re trimmed and rebuilt armrest out of storage and test fitted it.

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I took these photo’s, then realized I’d put the seat belt catches in back to front! I quickly swapped them over.

The engine lid pull knob that was originally on the car was split and pulled straight off the cable before opening the lid so it was another item I’d purchased from 914rubber in my bulk order. I went to fit it next and found that the internal thread wasn’t formed correctly and needed a M5 tap run down it. Afterwards it fitted snug. Considering the mess the rear bulkead trim had been in when I got the car, all the repairs and strengthening had paid off before it was recovered. The fit was now perfect into the corner of the car around the engine lid release. I was very pleased with the result.

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Finally I tidied up the cables to the seatbelts and seats and fitted the small rear carpets.

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After a well earned cup of tea I decided to give the car its first wash since getting home. The garage is quite clean but over the last 3 months the car had gotten dusty from having the garage door open a lot and wind blowing dust around combined with some left over from being at the paintshop. Before I knew it, it was getting dark again.

Day 223

Today was a busy day. This morning early doors I worked on the seat belt covers that fit over the metal guide on the roll bar pillars. I’d gone to fit them yesterday and they were a tight fit but jammed the webbing of the belt.
These were the early golf ones I’d got from VW Heritage on a punt. They looked identical to the Porsche ones, but on fitting; the part that clips just above the seat belt webbing was in fact too chunky and closed the gap in the belt guide.
With a bit of Stanley knife surgery and a rats tail file I cut out the back of the cover and filed the two circular openings slightly longer to allow the cover to sit higher over all. Next I carefully trimmed a little off the clip part that goes around the pillar bolt to allow that to clip in at a higher point. This all sounds far more complicated than it really was, but the net result was after an hours fiddling about, the covers fit perfectly and the belts slid in and out freely.
I left for work and during my lunch break continued with the replacement windshield search. Autoglass a UK national supplier can get me one in from Pilkington but its special order, £575 and 3 weeks lead time. On a whim I called Porsche Centre Portsmouth and ordered a new adhesive pad for the rear view mirror and just for a laugh asked them about availability of windscreens for 914 from Porsche direct. The answer was available Germany from Porsche 1 week lead time and £275 plus VAT.
No brainer that one. Genuine Windsheild ordered!
So with a few minutes of lunch break left I called in at the local motor factors and picked up some new Bosch windscreen wiper blades in anticipation.
It was a late finish at work today and straight home for a quick change and off out to another car club committee meeting, so only just got in the door at 10:30pm in time to update the thread this evening, but at least I got a couple of hours in on the 914 this morning.

Day 224

This morning I started on the pedal assembly cover plate. The fibre board was looking a little tired and worn. I unbolted the clutch pedal stop, sanded down the board and gave it a fresh coat of satin black paint.
During lunchtime I shopped around for Morris parts for my son’s car and continued with the 914 this evening.
I first cleaned up the removed pedal stop, nuts & washers and gave them a coat of waxoil. Rummaging around in my shed I found a bag of parts that I’d not gotten around to cleaning up so got stuck in with them. This contained the heater “on” light block from the centre console, the heater lever escutcheon and a selection of fixings for the console, dash knee roll and pedal cover plate.
Cleaning the parts up I found the 4 screws & cup washers for the centre armrest, so after a quick clean up I fitted them to the car and screwed the armrest in place.
There was also a bag of screws for the speaker grilles.
4 months ago I’d ordered a brand new set of speaker grilles from Auto Atlanta.
I should have known better, as 6 months ago I ordered a 914 rear badge that is STILL to arrive. They emailed me to say there was a problem with the fixing pins and it needed to be rectified before they would send the badge out.
So guess what. The two new speaker grilles I ordered and paid for are in a new email “on back order” with NO date by which to expect them.
Blo*dy frustrating. Why oh why don’t these so called specialist suppliers tell you the parts are out of stock before taking your hard earned cash. I certainly won’t be using Auto Atlanta again!
Anyway in my shed of parts that have arrived was a new accelerator cable from UK supplier Roger Bray. I hope to get the knee roll back this week from the trimmers so I thought I’d do a few little jobs under the dash while access was easy.
I removed the old accelerator cable and fitted the new one this evening. The old one was getting tight to operate and made the pedal heavy. Once the cable was out it was obvious why. The white nylon sheath had snapped inside the tunnel tube, right where the metal ferrule fits on under the car (where the black outer sheath starts). This effectively made the cable “hinge” at the ferrule and had bent/creased the inner wire. Moving the pedal the bend in the wire was getting tight as it passed in and out of the black sheath.
Anyway with the new cable in place the pedal was far lighter to operate.
Before I knew it I ran out of light again.

Day 225

What god awful weather today, more like November than summer.
I was rushing around this morning sorting stuff out on my son’s car so it wasn’t until this evening I got to carry on with the 914.
At lunch I did manage to call in and see the trimmers in anticipation of getting the knee roll back but they hadn’t started it yet.
This evening I removed the gear knob, leather gaiter and fitted the centre tunnel carpet first. Then re assembled the pedal board with its bump & travel stops.
The board was carefully fed over the pedals and laid to rest in position. I then fitted my two new genuine Porsche pedal rubbers for the clutch & brake.
Back to my shed and out with a brand new 914rubber accelerator pedal that I’d bought in my bulk order. All was going well until I bolted it to the floor and went to fit the accelerator pushrod into the socket.
The brand new straight out the packet 914rubber accelerator pedal was making a cracking noise when it hinged?
That didn’t sound at all right.
I unbolted it from the floor and in my hand flexed the hinged base.
“Crackle” and “Grind” with jamming as it moved.
This got my interest so with Stanley knife in hand I cut the rubber off the back of the hinge part to find the internal metal hinge snapped clean off the base!
The metal was absolute rubbish inside the rubber moulding. As thin as paper and looked like it’d been beaten from a baked bean can on the streets of Beijing.
The metal in the hinge is about a quarter the thickness of the genuine one and poor quality at that.

So combine this with the horizontal rain and the too dark to see by rain clouds I had a miserable evening.
I retired to my shed and cleaned up a few more bits including the semi circular pedal board retaining clamp that had the tiniest bit of paint flaked off. I stripped it completely and gave it an etch prime. Finally I cleaned up the leather gear lever gaiter and gave it a good coating of hide food to help soften and restore it before calling it a day.

Day 226

This morning before work I mixed up a little 2 pack clear lacquer and using my airbrush I gave the pedal cover retaining plate a clear coat. This was flashed off at 50 Deg C in my kitchen oven while I ate breakfast.
In my lunch break today I called in at Porsche centre and ordered a replacement genuine accelerator pedal and checked on progress of the screen.
This evening I had quite a good assembly.
With the clear lacquered retaining plate now dry I bolted down the pedal plate with all the cleaned up fixings.

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Next after having a trial fit and good look at clearance; I decided to fit the centre console before the knee roll is re trimmed as I reckon it’ll fit with the console in place.
Unpacking all the cleaned up fixings and bracket I screwed the console in place.
The newly refurbished 3 gauges were fitted to the panel and carefully holding it clear of the gear lever (with knob missing, it was just asking to scratch something) I fitted all the cables to the gauges and took off the very last of my paper wire i.d. labels.
With the panel propped upright I started assembly of the base insert panel.
The leather gear gaiter was nice and supple now and a nice black lustre was returned after 24 hours soaking in hide food. This was buffed lightly and fitted back into the base panel.
Next the heater lever escutcheon was given a blast of my heat gun and left to cool. The two long sides had, in the Desert Heat, bowed inwards to narrow the slot and restrict the lever movement. This looked awful, so with a small timber insert in the slot to hold it back open, heat was applied and left to cool back into shape. Being extra careful of course not to melt it and only heat from the underside so any risk of visible damage was removed.
The escutcheon was then clipped into place and the panel carefully held over the gear lever while I fitted the Heater illuminated block and wired it up. I’d cleaned up the block yesterday and sure enough the bulb was blown so this evening I fitted a new bulb and tested it. Heater block on the panel was finally clipped down and the vertical gauge panel fitted and clipped last.
The heater lever knob had faded to a milky pink on one side so I’d already purchased another (in the 914rubber bulk order). I was expecting it to not screw on, but no problems here, screwed on easily and was a nice even rich red colour.
Finally I nipped back indoors as it started to get dark and retrieved the passenger foot mat before fitting it in place and making sure the floor posts sat fully through the rubber eyelets to locate it correctly.
It’s starting to look quite nice in the cabin now. I was going to take another picture but the camera ran out of charge. I’ll take some over the weekend (if I manage to get that knee roll back)

Day 227

Today was one of those 914 one step forward two steps back days.
This morning I fitted my nice new gear knob. The old one had the clear insert disc in the top all crazed and cracked like a shattered piece of safety glass. It was nice to see a new flawless gear knob on the car.
I left for work and had a phone call from the trimmers mid morning. What I thought was going to be “your knee rolls ready” ended up being “can you come and take a look, we have a problem”
I called in at the trimmers in my lunch break and unfortunately they’d had another accident trying to cover the old vinyl.
Unfortunately they’d made another tear in the old surface and pulled out some of the original foam and new filler trying to remove the new vinyl that they had glued on.
I know it wasn’t intended, but I was really annoyed that this was the second time they’d damaged the part trying to cover it.
I had no option but to bring it home again for the third repair.
Suffice to say, this evening after food shop, I ended up cleaning and starting to fill the new damaged area.
I managed to get a first fill and sand and a second fill (to dry over night) on the knee roll before it got dark. Fortunately it was a nice sunny evening so sanding filler down outside was possible.
Not quite what I had planned for this evening and into tomorrow, but I have no option but to fix the damage.

Day 228

This morning I awoke just after dawn and started work on a few more 914 parts. The filler was dry on the knee roll but before I got all dusty I thought I’d sort out the rear view mirror which had been bugging me.
Being a California Desert car the plastic of the mirror right against the screen had been well and truly baked to a crisp. The UV had started to degrade the surface which had gone white and started to crumble. The mirror glass itself was in fair condition so rather than try and buy a new assembly I thought I’d give it a go with refinishing it. The mirror glass was carefully masked and padded. The fixing foot was painstakingly draw filed with chalk to get all the PO random scratches out of it while keeping the surface perfectly flat. Finally I sanded it with various grades of wet and dry in a straight line to give it a perfect brushed finish. Next I gave it a good 3M red Scotchbrite to take off the UV damaged surface layer and key it ready for a coat of satin plastic paint. With such a hot day today I managed to give it several light coats over the day in between other jobs. The result was a brand new looking mirror ready to go on the new screen.
With the first coat of paint drying nicely (taken inside my conservatory to stop flies & dust) I started to sand and refinish the knee roll.
After a couple of hours the knee roll was all repaired again ready to take to the trimmers on Monday.
By now it was 10:30 and my son had arrived to work on his Morris. After a quick cup of tea we pulled the rear axle half shafts, drove out the rear bearings and replaced the oil seals and re packed the bearings in the N/S hub. Stripped and de greased the mess in the brakes and fitted new shoes and adjusted everything. Next we took off the O/S hub to change the shoes and found the start of an oil leak on that side that wasn’t leaking externally! Hey ho, should have bought two seals; but as a jobless student he could only afford one, however its a good lesson in false economy for him. So that was the end of that. We ordered a new seal kit and held back on fitting the new shoes on that side until the O/S seals are fitted. A few other jobs done on the traveller, it was 4pm and time to take my son for dinner and back home.
As soon as I got back I started on the 914 seats. The runners that fit to the underside of the seats needed cleaning up. I brass wire brushed them clean and stripped the paint off the adjustment hoop handles down to bare metal as it was all flaking and looking awful. The handles were rubbed down and painted with a durable gloss black and coated the runners with waxoil before being put alongside the rear view mirror to dry.
Next I started on my newly upholstered seats. Only the original basket weave was left, all other vinyl has been replaced with new. Unfortunately as good as the trimmers are at seats, they won’t spend time cleaning stuff, so the basket weave was still pretty dirty. I used a foaming trim/carpet cleaner and a toothbrush and spent about an hour on each seat cleaning into the weave pattern to get them somewhere like presentable before running out of light.

Day 229

This morning I had a well deserved lie in and started on the car at 7:30am. I’d charged my camera up last night so first thing this morning I took a picture of the recently restored rear view mirror before bagging it up for safe storage until the screens fitted.

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I tried the recently refurbished seat runners (the ones that fit to the underside of the seats) onto the runners in the car. Hmmm, bit tight on the new powder coat so I spent the next hour fettling them until they slid with ease.
Just then about 9am the heavens opened and I had to quickly push the car back inside the garage.
I took the runners back into the house and fitted them to the bottom of the seats.
The pull handles and shiny metal runners looked good back in place.

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The basket weave in the seats that I’d spent a good few hours yesterday had dried thoroughly but now there was still some greyness in the bottoms of some of the tiny square recess’s in the pattern. As it was throwing it down outside now, I spent another hour re-cleaning the seats again with a toothbrush working into the depths of the basket weave before placing them back into the conservatory to dry.
Still raining outside I decided to get my freshly restored and painted Targa top down from the loft. I gave it a wipe with a damp cloth as it was a little dusty before measuring it up for the new Perlon headliner. This is roughly 45” x 24” I carefully unrolled my new Perlon and marked a piece out to the size above, making sure all sides were true and 90 degrees to each other, then cut it out. Dry run fit and all was good.
Masking off the inside of the roof to leave only the area where it needed glue I then used a high temp, high strength spray glue from Woolies. Same on the reverse of the Perlon, waited 10 minutes until touch dry, then carefully fitted it.

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I used an old fashioned beech wood wallpaper roller to go over every square mm to ensure it was well and truly stuck down. All that was then required was a tiny trim around the two rear catch mountings and the small webs along the front that are hidden under the padded trim. Looks very nice now. The old headliner was sand logged (see way back in this thread) and despite numerous vacuuming and brushing, it still dropped grains of sand and fibres of Perlon so with my new interior that simply wouldn’t do!
Just then there was a knock at the door and an old friend had decided to pay me a visit. Good time for a break, we popped out to the local Marina for a bite to eat and a catch up.
Perfect timing as after lunch, mid afternoon the sun had finally come out, so work could continue.
Car pushed out the garage once again I fitted the seats.
With camera in hand and the sun out I took a few more pictures starting with the re-assembled restored centre console, gauges, heater controls and gear knob.

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Then of course the seats, which after that second scrub up looked like new again. New vinyl and soap & water, no nasty “wet look” greasy plastic cleaners in sight!

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Just need to get that dash knee roll re trimmed, get some new speaker covers and I can complete the dash.

Day 230

This morning I dropped off the knee roll at the trimmers and went into work. At lunchtime I called in at Porsche Centre and picked up the new accelerator pedal. It was obvious looking through the bag even before opening it, that it was far, far superior quality to the 914rubber one.
First thing this evening when I got home I fitted the pedal to the car. Installed the restored drivers mat (with remade heel pad) and clipped it to the floor properly using the two eyelets and connected the pushrod ball in the socket of the pedal.
With the drivers floor mat back in the car its amazing how it transforms from work in progress to looking almost finished.
Since it was still dry this evening I got the two door cards out of storage and started to clean them. Much like the seats, the dreaded basket weave material was holding no end of dirt, sand and grime. I spent a good hour on each panel with a foaming cleaner and toothbrush. Some of the staples along the bottom behind the panel have come away and the basket weave is loose. Once cleaned and dried out I plan on re-gluing and stapling it all back in place. Fortunately the only small tear is around a bolt that holds the armrest on so should be covered.
As it started to get dark I brought the panels inside to dry out. I expect they’ll need another going over tomorrow when I can see any dirt left over once dry.

Day 231
Today I had an early start at work. I’m organising another car club stand at a charity event for Children in Need called Carfest so need to get ahead of things at work so I can make time to organise for the show.
At lunchtime I called Woolies and ordered some more high temp glue, spray and tin. I’d used the last up on the headliner and I have more new Perlon to trim the bonnet area with.
This evening I spent another hour cleaning the door cards again to get the remaining dirt out of the basket weave. Leaving them to dry I started to re assemble the Targa roof, fitting the catches, trim and new rear fuzzy seal. The door window top seal runners had me perplexed for a short while. They are curved and you’d expect them to be convex from the outside, but they are in fact concave. The edge of the targa top is straight and the channel is curved. I hadn’t noticed it when I stripped them down, but it did confuse me for a short while.
In the end I took the roof over to the car and fitted it (minus the window top channels) to see for sure how they went.
The roof was a real tight fit onto the car with all the new seals and took some pushing and pulling to install it for the first time. I think I’m going to have to leave it on the car a good while for everything to settle in.
With that cleared up I took the roof back to the house to fit the runners and new 914rubber window top seals.
Channels fitted a treat but sliding the Tee of the window rubber into the runner was another matter. I tried all sorts. Talcum powder, soft soap, washing up liquid, Vaseline (not all at the same time) and after getting about 6” of rubber in the channel it was rock solid.
I spent the next TWO hours wrestling the seals. In the end I had to forget trying to slide the seal, but instead I had to squash it down its length so that the T curled in on itself enough to locate it into the channel. By the end I’d had enough and having got just one side in, I’ll leave the other side until tomorrow when I’ve had time to relax and regain my patience.

Day 232

Anyway this evening I got the last seal in. The seals were a good 2” too long (well one was the other was an inch too long). Even before fitting one was longer than the other. Once in – and considering I put them in by squeeze not slide – I needed to cut them to length at the windscreen end. I did this with a brand new Stanley blade and squared off the ends that had arrived wonky.
I was then ready to trial fit on the car again.

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All fine in the end.
The square cut off end by the windscreen met the frame rubber perfectly and the 45degree end over the roll bar sat neatly on the vertical seal giving a tiny resistance as the rear latches were closed.

With the door windows wound up there’s a bit of adjustment to be made to the regulators to level the glass off against the roof seal. This was something I couldn’t do until the roof was finished which is why I’ve held off with fitting the door cards until now. Something for next week.

Day 233

Today I finally got to pick up the knee roll from the trimmers. It was about ¾ done and they decided that this was as far as they could go with it after all the shenanigans. So that left the final trimming, glueing of all the return edges and stapling to me!
My high temp high strength new pot of glue had arrived from Woolies so today I set about finishing of the vinyl covering myself. I had to stretch and glue the vinyl down the recesses for the fixing bolts and around both ends. Not an easy task and I can see why the trimmers didn’t want to go much further than the flat surfaces. They had however managed to heat stretch it around the face of the knee roll without a stitch join or crease, so that was appreciated.
Anyhow after a couple of hours I got it all stuck down, cut off the excess and put in a few staples (out of sight) to make sure it doesn’t retract the stretch in it and undo easily. Not factory to have staples but considering the state it was in originally its much improved. Just need to let it settle and the glue dry properly over the next few days before it goes back into the car. I’ve put it in my conservatory living in hope that the sun will come out over the week and with the heat, anything that’s going to move or come unstuck should reveal itself.
I also had a small packet arrive over the weekend with the oversize screw plugs that go in the ends of the dash and door panel. No longer available from Porsche I tracked some down in the US $5 all up including postage and got them within the week.
AASE Sales. (not sure how you pronounce that)
While the glue was out this evening I also stuck down the door panel basket weave edges that had come unstapled along the bottom.
My son arrived this evening and we finished off by replacing the O/S drive shaft seal on the rear axle of the Morris before it got too dark to see. Just cooking dinner as I write this in my daily diary then afterwards I’ve got to drive 30 miles to drop him off...I'll be so glad when he passes his test!

Day 234

This morning I finished off gluing a couple of rogue edges of vinyl down on the knee roll that had lifted overnight and using my Swedish punch set I cut the small circles out where the side screws and cap fit, before leaving for work.
During lunch today I chased the new windscreen from Porsche Centre Portsmouth and picked up some more 3M 3/8” Butyl window tape from the Motor Factors as I’d used more than anticipated on fitting the rear window.
This evening when I got home from work I got the 2 stainless trims out of storage that go across the knee roll and sit at the bottom of the basket weave dash insert. The trim was held in place with a double sided tape which seemed to have a cloth inner (a bit like a material sticking plaster) The residue was scraped off and old glue removed with a little cellulose thinners before a good Brasso metal polish ready to go back on the knee roll when I can find some similar double sided tape.
Earlier I’d fitted the targa roof and noticed the window glass wasn’t level/parallel to the roof. The glass was up into the rubber end cap at the top of the quarterlight front runner, but with the roof now on, it was about ¼” (6mm) low at the rear leaving a clear gap into the car?
I’d looked at multiple images on-line of the glass to roof alignment, some hard to make out, but generally they seemed to vary wildly. I’d also looked at other 914’s and had come to the conclusion that the panel and glass fit wasn’t that great originally, but certainly better than I had at the moment.
With the door panels off I thought I’d have a play around to see what could be done to make the car watertight
Before I’d fitted the roof, the glass was adjusted so it sat evenly on the vertical seals and the angles adjusted at the bolt adjusters on the base of the runners in the bottom of the door. I’d also adjusted the limit stop (B) so that the glass stopped when it reached the runner end cap at the top of the quarterlights, yet still the glass was low at the rear in comparison to the horizontal roof line. The glass needed to rotate ever so slightly in the door to raise the rear.
This had me flummoxed for a while because the short horizontal mechanism channel runner at the rear of the door held on with M6 hex bolts was as high as it could go, yet the glass was still low……….
After a bit of head scratching and trying different things, the penny dropped.
The mechanism is a sort of pincer, and if the distances between the two tops of the pincer are shorter/closer then the net result is the reach is higher. Since the rear part of the pincer is a roller in a runner (short horizontal mechanism channel in para above) and that was already adjusted as high as it could go, it couldn’t be that. However the front pincer top is a M8 bolt in a slotted block (A) which you can adjust.
Simply moving the M8 bolt to the rear (the block forward) allows the glass to lift further and change its angle/rotation within the door.

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With the M8 bolt (A) slid to the rear, the end stop (B) needs to be adjusted again and another ¼” (6mm) can be gained at the rear of the glass before it hits the front quarterlight runner end cap.

RESULT…

Level glass on both sides that goes up to sit neatly on the Targa roof seals with no gaps for water or hopefully wind noise.

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With everything adjusted I checked the windows wind up freely, doors open and close easy and then nipped up all the adjustment bolts to complete the job.
Day 235

Today I have continued to work on the knee roll. A little more fettling and gluing was required. I picked up some high strength doublesided tape at lunchtime from the Motor Factors and fitted the stainless trims to the rear of the roll, making sure to carefully measure the “gap” position where the steering column plugs go.
I got the two vents out of storage and fitted those into the knee roll so that I could check the 4 clips on each open properly to lock it in place.
The hardest part of re-trimming the knee roll was getting the vinyl to stretch and glue down the bolt hole recesses. In the end I had to apply gentle heat and draw them down with a long nut and bolt and the old penny washers. Leaving the glue to dry overnight I hope to finally get it back in the car tomorrow and complete the dash.
Finally this evening I gave the basket weave on the door panels another scrub; they seem to dry after a few days each time with grey muck at the bottom of some of the pattern which is quite frustrating, but I’m getting there.

Day 236

Today I finally finished fettling the re-trimmed knee roll. I’m quite pleased with how it came out in the end after all the grief it caused. The plan (like the roll bar trim) was to try and make it look as original as possible and as if it hadn’t been re covered at all. Considering all the splits and chunks missing from it and the 3 filler repairs, it didn't turn out too bad in the end with a good grain match to boot.

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After work today and with nice new shiny bolts I managed to fit it back into the car today.

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I hope this inspires others to have a go at fixing up their interior parts when they think all is lost through age and damage. Most things can be repaired & restored in some way.
Just need to get the steering wheel back from the trimmers now.

Day 237

Today was a mix of sunshine and showers. (typical British summer)

Anyway, late morning I started on the old front trunk carpet. The old Perlon was very dirty and torn so had to go.

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The hardboard spare wheel cover has the Perlon stapled on, so I carefully picked all the staples out and cleaned up the board. The edges are painted black but several areas had worn and started to crumble. These were re painted with matt black paint; applying it heavily so it soaked right into the board on the edge, this sealed as well as coloured it. The underside face that sits against the wheel wasn’t too bad just a few chips which I touched in with a modellers brush. While that dried I got out the remains of the Perlon sheet I’d bought for the headliner and marked carefully around the old carpet with chalk.

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These were carefully cut out with my shears and the hole for the washer tube punched out. I had a little delay looking for my Staple gun and in the end I remembered I’d lent it out but couldn’t get hold of the guy so had to nip and buy a new one from the hardware store. By the time I got back the black edge paint had dried so I carefully stapled the Perlon on; stapling alternate 90 degrees with the gun so that the staples had the best mechanical advantage to not pull out.

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The front bulkhead and whole boot was then carefully masked off and high temp, high grip spray glue applied to it and the rear of the carpet. While the glue touch dried I took off all the masking tape and paper so that there was no chance of the Perlon getting stuck to the masking paper and tape while being lifted into place.
Once the bulkhead carpet was in place I fitted the new rubber seal across the top. This was a genuine Porsche seal and fitted perfectly to complete the trunk.
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Day 238

What a day today!
The UK 914 club convinced me to come along to meeting at a Castle today. A 300+ mile round trip but well worth it. Up at 5am I was at South Mimms for 8am and met up with a good group of 911’s & 912’s before leaving around 9am for the more driving in convoy to the show.
It was great to meet everyone today and to see so many nice 914 & 914-6’s together. Lots of great information gained from hanging around with 914 owners.
Weather was great and time flew.
As always I was keen to get at least an hour a day in on my 914, so rushed home to make a start.
I was asked today if my daily 914 Build Thread was genuinely real time….the answer is yes! Today was genuinely day 238 of ownership of my car.
Arriving home I started by getting my new sunvisors out of storage. The originals were in a shocking state all lumpy and mis-shaped so couldn’t go back in the car. The brand new ones were found on German Ebay and purchased a couple of months ago.

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To show its realtime (to the UK guy’s) I’ve included my entry pass from Castle meet in the pictures!
The old screws were cleaned with a brass bristle wire brush before a brasso polish of the heads ready to fit.
They came in a single box so the passenger side visor needed sliding onto the centre rod. This was a bit of a fiddle as the vinyl was heat welded all around so the hole needed very carefully cutting in it to allow the rod to fit. The rest of the installation was fine once the distances were set for the brackets to match the windscreen frame screw holes.

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They look pretty good in place. As it got dark I finished off and took a picture using the flash, they look slightly grey with the flash but in reality they are black honestly.

Day 239

This morning I gave the door cards another clean and got the door damp proof membranes (or what was left of them out of storage)
One was reasonably intact but the other was shredded and half missing. The only option was to make new ones.
At lunch today I hunted down some new plastic sheet to make the door membranes. One little tip I’ll share from having been down this route many times is that VW & Porsche membranes have a “flap” that is heat welded onto the membrane which allows the water/moisture to run into the door and not out between the bottom of the door card and door. The membrane is a particular type of plastic and my top tip is to use the plastic off a new mattress (that has the ends heat welded). At lunchtime I called in at the local Bed Store and asked the manager for some mattress plastic. When they deliver beds they usually take it away for the customers so to them it’s just waste back at the store and they’re glad to give it you!
This evening using the best remaining membrane I marked out two replacements and cut them out.

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The holes for the window winder spindle were punched out and two strips about 8” wide cut from the spare plastic to make the flaps.
The trickiest bit next is to heat weld them onto the full size membrane. From the look of the originals this was done by passing it through two heated metal wheels. Now I could have made a jig/tool to fit on the end of my soldering iron, but having done this before the quickest and easiest way is to use the soldering iron bare.
Heating it up fully I used some scraps of new plastic to trial the pressure and speed of drawing the soldering iron over the plastic. Not too slow to melt clean through and not to fast to just melt one sheet and have no joint. A small allowance to slow as you draw is required as the iron cools with prolonged contact.
With a metal sheet laid flat on my bench and some trial scraps I perfected the plastic weld before moving onto the new door membrane.
The flaps were neatly welded on giving about a 40mm overhang along the bottom as per the original.

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Finally I trimmed off the ends to finish the new membranes. (old is vertical to left, new are horizontal to right)

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It’s also worth pointing out that the welded on flap sits against the door card and the full sheet sits into the door bottom so that any water doesn’t get trapped in the horizontal weld and run to the sides and wet the door card.

Day 240

Today before work I painted the rear of the door cards with the same wood hardener as I had done the rear bulkhead trim before it was recovered to add strength. With the door cards it not only adds some strength but also seals the hardboard which makes it far less prone to soaking up water, blowing and falling apart.
I placed the door cards to dry in the conservatory and left for work.
I had some good news today…my windscreen is in at Porsche Centre.
The plan is to go pick it up on Thursday with a suitable large van as it’s in a crate.
This evening after work I started on the interior door furniture. I’d put the parts into storage straight from stripping down and they are in a bit of a state.
I began by taking apart the drivers door pocket, lid, and frame. I took everything apart and gave it a good scrub with Cif and hot water. The pocket/cubby has a flock finish on the inside on top of the pressed cardboard base. This was absolutely shot, scratched and worn mostly off and covered with years of grime, sticky stuff and sand. The only solution was to strip off the remaining flock with a detail wire brush.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1464670549.42.jpg)

While the card base was slightly damp from washing I clamped the lower edge in the vice between 2 bits of timber to “press” it back into shape before leaving it to dry.
The top hinged armrest lid and frame were next to get a Cif scrub, followed by the passenger side armrest.
With everything left to dry I cleaned up all the screws, bolts and cup washers that hold it all together with a brass wire brush before running out of light.
Having a rummage in one of my sheds I found an old flocking kit that I’d got left over from another cars restoration, so tomorrow I’ll re do the inside of the drivers door cubby and hopefully get everything sorted for a door interior rebuild at the weekend.

Day 241

This morning I coated the inside of the cubby with the flock paint/adhesive and then sprayed on the static charged nylon fibres which stand upright in the adhesive to create a new flock coating.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1464670549.43.jpg)

With the camera flash you can see the flock fibres more clearly.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1464670549.44.jpg)

The process takes a good few hours to dry, which was ideal as I then left for work.

I’d had a card through the door yesterday evening to say I had a parcel with customs charge to pay at the Depot in Segensworth. Living near Chichester this is quite a way away (70 miles, that’s a long way in UK) and a real pain to collect so I raced over from work this evening to pick it up.
Good timing, it was a replacement Right hand door pull/armrest with a perfect plastic cover surround for the top mounting bolt. My original has the cover completely missing so you see the metal tab and bolt. Unfortunately you can’t buy just the oval plastic cover as it comes as part of the armrest! I’d tracked one down on US ebay which claimed to be in perfect condition and also managed to get a good price on a multiple purchase of an excellent RH speaker grille too. (Thanks Ron if you read this)
As always I had a hefty customs charge of £40 to pay which really does annoy me, but hey, no one likes the taxman.
Anyhow I was late getting back home tonight fighting the rush hour traffic for almost 20 miles to find yet another card on the doormat!
Same Parcel Force Depot, different parcel.
Why oh why didn’t they tell me there was another parcel waiting for me when I had just picked up the first one? I phoned and went through all the options and 30 minutes later they took me off hold. After paying the second customs charge I asked the guy if they put all parcels with the same postcode in the same place in their depot (I thought this would be logical considering they must load up the vans by route or area). “Yes” he said, so I asked then if I had two parcels waiting and came in with one card would there be a system to flag up I had two parcels when they processed the first one? “No” was the reply.
So the net result is I have to drive all the way back to Segensworth tomorrow to pick up the second parcel that was sat right next to the first one on the same shelf in a bay allocated to my Avenue! They won’t deliver it to my home as it’s a customs charge parcel and I’ll be at work and it needs a signature. They won’t re direct it to my work address as it’s a customs charge parcel that can only go to the address on the label. So as well as paying for postage and then £90 for customs I have to drive another 70 miles to collect the parcel! Oh well.

Rant over I took my frustration out by scrubbing the new parts within an inch of their lives with Cif and cleaning up the 3 metal fixing tabs on the armrest with a detail wire brush before painting them to prevent rusting in future.

Day 242

This morning the flock had dried completely so I re-assembled the door cubby before leaving for work.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1464670550.45.jpg)

At lunchtime the Windsheild arrived from Porsche Centre, hooray!
The plans to put it in next weekend.
This evening I raced over to the Parcelforce Depot again to collect the Auto Atlanta speaker grilles. Opening the box this evening I found the RH one broken and both were of really, really poor quality (absolute tat) so I’m not at all pleased with these reproductions and now I’m going to have to send them back for a refund.
This is the way of the 914 emotional rollercoaster!
To take my mind off it, I retired to the garage and fitted the door damp membranes I’d made earlier before running out of daylight.
Carefully checking everything inside the door was tight, I used caulking rolled into a thin strip to attach the plastic. In this way they can be removed numerous times and resealed if I ever need to get back inside the doors. The caulking is like a very sticky Blu-tack so is great for this purpose.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1464670550.46.jpg)

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads_offsite/i265.photobucket.com-18255-1464670550.47.jpg)

Perfect fit with the doubled up heat welded flaps tucked neatly inside the door so any water runs into the door and not soaked up by the door card.



So that was Month 8

90% of the interior is restored and back in, and the car is starting to look real pretty.
Again it’s been a rollercoaster of highs and lows. Things didn’t go to plan, my friend breaking the windshield, the trimmers continually having trouble with the knee roll and issues with parts. On the flip side with a little perseverance as a whole the car looks fantastic and much better than hoped for.
With just a handful of months left now in this 12 month build challenge I feel that the light at the end of the tunnel is near and I cant wait to finally get to drive it!

Thanks again for the kind comments posted earlier and for taking time out to read my thread.

[Gmanscott55]

This build thread and level of detail is insane! Like being a fly on the wall taking it all in.

Well done and really a beautiful car! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smilie_pokal.gif)

[jd74914]

That interior looks fantastic Darren!

[siverson]

Nice work!!!

[Big Len]

I've never seen anything like this. Speechless.