BUILD-OFF CHALLENGE: Dirty Cossack's Build Options

[JoeDees]

I spent the whole weekend measuring and thinking. The next step is welding in the wheelhouse, so I figure there is no such thing as too much welding or thinking. I did trim little bits of the new RD wheelhouse (little bits at a time, kinda like digging a trench with a spoon) so as to compare how the pieces are going to go together.

I've found where the new pieces go... but I'm finding some of my confusion is on where exactly the passenger compartment's long piece ends and where exactly the long starts with its turn towards the inside.

Does the passenger compartment long ever angle? Or does it stay straight and then that turn is all on the engine compartment long piece?

[Andyrew]

Your going to support the doors prior to starting your welding right????

That chassis is going to be aeverely twisted if you dont...

[JoeDees]

Doors are braced, but I'm still concerned with some twist and droop. This weekend I developed a system of adjusting jacks, braces, rotisserie, etc to get the thing square on all 10 measurements I've taken. I'm still super nervous about welding time though. I'll prolly measure and adjust 1000 times.

[JoeDees]

After a weekend or two of measuring, fitting, and bracing, I finally welded a major piece in: the wheelhouse. It fit up pretty well and welded in well, though I definitely affirmed that I am more of a grinder than a welder. I really slacked on taking pictures...but on the other side of this picture is the outer suspension console welded back on. The other picture is the motor mount console being soaked with naval jelly or whatever it's called; I figure it's time to start prepping some parts...

Next weekend my mother-in-law comes to town, so I figure minimal progress will be made the next 2 weekends, but who knows.

I'm pretty nervous about welding in this upper long, this wheelhouse had plenty of surface areas for a solid installation, but for the upper long I'm really trying to find extra bracing ideas. I have so overlap things made for the bottom, but worry my welds could fail at the top. In some way I guess the suspension console will strengthen/stiffen the joint since the seam will be under it, but I'm thinking about adding some what will be ugly overlappers... I'm also trying to figure out if it will be necessary to add the cover to the RD piece like the factory...

[JoeDees]

I am disappointed in myself that I worked half days all last week and had a 4-day weekend but only managed to work on the 914 one day... My excuses are that I got an injection in my knee one day, spent 2 doing Christmas stuff with the wife (Die Hard marathon included), was sick 1 and straight up lazy another. So today was spent welding the scariest part back into the car after 8,000 measurements to ensure squareness and one of those half days at work spent talking to a coworker who was a licensed welder before he enlisted. So here it is, the engine compartment long welded in after welding in the wheelhouse without cutting the fender! The welds were ugly, but had perfect penetration, and welding in my little brace/strengthener/stiffener thing was mostly blind and done as a contortionist exercise (I missed a few of the holes). I also decided to use some pop-rivets on the underside one (it kinda weaves over and under) to hold the piece down where I couldn't get a good clamp on.

On another note, you can see where I made my zig-zag cut. I did this to keep as much original metal as possible and also because I theorized that the added edge area allowed for greater seam strength.

Next week is another week of 3 day workweek of half days (another knee injection Wednesday though) and then another 4-day weekend that I hope is productive...

[mbseto]

So here it is, the engine compartment long welded in after welding in the wheelhouse without cutting the fender!

Bravo! I've been sitting in my engine compartment trying to decide if this was possible. What I'm hung up on is whether I'll be able to weld on the outer suspension console. Either way, any advice for posterity?

[JoeDees]

The outer suspension console would take some serious contortionist skills; I just had the bottom half pulled off and the topmost part of that was a little rough.

The biggest piece of advice I'd give (and wish I'd done) is that you want the inner long (passenger compartment side) to be perfect and solid where it will meet the engine compartment long. I also wish I had waited to put the metal heater tube in, that work room would have been invaluable.

[JoeDees]

So today's short work was spent making a little patch piece from 16 ga steel and then welding it into the long area where it meets at the firewall. I got a little overconfident with heat (some warpage), especially where I ran the little bead. I got great if not perfect penetration in my ugly welds with only a few burn throughs (exactly where I expected them) by the firewall's remains. At the top edge you can see my aborted "big idea" of welding along that edge...I realized it'll be really hard to grind there...
I feel pretty confident in the strength of these welds and the long in general, I guess the first real test will be when I hoist the girl up onto the rotisserie in the coming weeks.
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/welder.gif)

I also finished up prepping the engine mount console and suspension console for their installations later this week. That will be followed by closing up the long/inner rocker; and then ??? probably a day playing with the rotisserie as a 914 merry-go-round.

This project feels like it is rolling now! I even priced my paint and primer today ($460), but know I still have a long way to go before that.

[JoeDees]

Question for the gurus:

When installing the motor mount console shelf thing onto the RD corrugated long, what did you do about the dead space divots?

[JoeDees]

It took a while to get it measured out and then held in place (I used little pop-rivets to hold it in place), but I put the motor mount console thing on. Super ugly welds (par for the course) but I was really surprised at the ones on the firewall side, which were done half blind with my left hand...

[JoeDees]

I spent the day off fitting and prepping the inner rocker panel for welding and fabbing/prepping a piece of the firewall. I was planning to weld them in, but elected to knock off early and watch some college football playoffs. Which means I will kick-off the new year with some welding and finally hoisting the 914 up onto the merry-go-round. I'm excited and can't wait! Next year will see a lot of the tedious work, but this is where the build really kicks in. I meet my surgeon about my shoulder on Monday and hope it doesn't take me out of the garage too long... It'll really suck having something around a month off work and not be able to spend it in the garage...hopefully I can pull some light duty. Serious pics to come tomorrow, a major corner will have been turned!

[mbseto]

Looks like you decided not to make a layer to go over the inner wheelhouse. How did you decide?

Hope the shoulder mends up well. Doesn't look like it's slowing you down much.

[JoeDees]

I debated it for a while and wondered how sturdy I could get it regarding the mounting of the motor mount console and suspension console, but the decider was that I saw Cary didn't so figured I was good to save some time, worry, and sheet metal.

[JoeDees]

Today was a big day in that I closed up the passenger side long! I tried a different weld-thru primer and had some splatter issues, and some burn through problems... I think I was a little excited.
But the really exciting news is that I got the dude up on the rotisserie and it didn't break in half! I then had to enlist the wife's help and we spent 4 hours trying to get the whole thing balanced. It's almost there so I haven't got to go full loop yet, only about 60 degrees each way, but after one or two more adjustments tomorrow it will be on like Donkey Kong. I can already tell that the rotisserie is going to make this job waaaay easier than my previous experiences.

[JoeDees]

Funniest part of the day was that I almost forgot to put the heater tube back in!

[JoeDees]

Non-car update:

No shoulder surgery to keep me out of the garage on the calendar yet! I Saw the specialist about my shoulder today. He doesn't think the chronic instability, weakness, lack of mobility, and dislocations are due to the labral detachments, but rather that the detachments are due to the instability and dislocations. He thinks I have some weird form of dhakjsdhlfkajhdg (some big word I didn't catch) nerve palsy that causes certain muscles and muscle parts to not work and therefore let my shoulder (mainly shoulderblade) go haywire. It could be worsening and partially intermittent, which is why sometimes my arm doesn't swing when I walk etc. (After physical therapy or heavy work it won't swing) I have a bunch of crazy tests coming up, and from the talk I'm extra glad I have full health coverage.

[r_towle]

Get a second opinion so you don't waste a lot of time and money going down the wrong road for your shoulder.

Rich

[JoeDees]

I'm active duty Army so it won't cost me a thing except my actual arm! hahahaha

But seriously, I'm really glad I'm at a small post and get referred to civilian doctors; everybody's heard the stories about Army doctors.

[rick 918-S]

Nice to see your working through the process in spite of the arm.

[JoeDees]

This was the month of health chaos. First I missed a weekend of work because I was sick, then a weekend because the wife was sick, and then I missed a Sunday and another weekend with the eye injury. I think I only actually had about 3 days working in the garage. In those days I got the inner rocker panel welded in (as seen above), got the 914 fully up on the rotisserie and stripped some more stuff off of her, cleaned off some surface rust, roughly trimmed the excess on the rocker/floor/long seam (pictured below), and rehabbed and welded the whatever that thing is called back into place (pictured below) using some scraps of trimmings where needed--this is whose grinding tried to take my eye. Here's hoping for a better February.