Mark's (914Rubber) Project Car Options

[cary]

Hmm.
Mine have been the other way 15 years.
I'll flip these over when I get it back on the ground. Only takes a few minutes.

Thanks for the heads up ....

[rhodyguy]

Turn the engine mount bolts so the threaded portion is up.

[cary]

Thanks, rhodyguy

Saw that this am. I knew something thing didn't look right when I got done. I was focused on the transmission mount. This was the first time I'd taken out the engine with the four small bolts on the tranny, rather than the two big ones.

Just mentioned it to Super In Law. He said, you'd think after doing 20-30 914 engine R & R's we would have caught that. Or not done that.

[cary]

First order of business was the fuel line pressure test. Passed with flying colors.

The heater blower failed its power up test. Everything tested out at the relay socket except a signal coming from the switch. Wonder why .............


Wire from the switch to the socket ohm'd out.

Then I installed Mark's J pipe grommets. That was followed with installing Marks black heater tubes.

Installing the new accelerator cable had issues. The bowden portion isn't long enough for dual carbs. To get the 90 degree turn needed to line up with the carb bar. It comes out of the tube coming out of the firewall. Which then allows water to enter the tunnel. I ran into a big chunk of rust about 3 inches into the tube. Cleared it with a short awl. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) The bowden needs another 3-4 inches to get a nice arc.

Back from lunch and I went after the front end. Switch out the struts, new wheel bearings and rebuild the calipers. Started with the right side. Strut pin came out without much trouble. Getting the strut off the a-arm that was another story. I just couldn't get the last 1/4 inch. But it finally popped loose.
Strut went back in lickety-split.



Wheel bearings were SOP.

Then on to the calipers. After getting it in my hand, the rust that I expected was right there. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/barf.gif)



When extracting the pistons with air. The inside came out pretty easy. But I had to put a c-clamp to hold the inside one in place. Then laid on the air to pop out the outer one. It finally popped out.

[cary]

To prep the pistons. I tape the outer bore and run the top thru the blaster. Then I clean off the rust/dirt build up with a Ro-Loc green conditioning pad. Then take to the buffer to polish up. Then a little brake cleaner to tidy things up.

[cary]

Big family brunch for mom at noon. Then back to the grindstone.
Car is to be delivered at 10am tomorrow morning.
Coming from 30 years of grocery store management. No such thing as OT or 40 hour work week. I'm big on thru put.

If the right strut comes off. Should go pretty fast. I only had 3 hours on the other side. Even with the stubborn strut.
Popped the right pin and gave it a good bath of PB Blaster before I headed home to watch the Blazers beat the Warriors.

That will only leave bleeding the brakes (flush till clear on all 4 calipers) and bolting up the CV joints before 10am.

[JRust]

Nice Cary! Can't wait to see all this work in person. Talk about under the gun. Sure hope you have your car ready for WCR (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) . Are you bringing the super in law with you to WCR?

[cary]

My car is good to go. Just needs a good cleaning. I've been driving it everyday.

Had brunch.



Then went back to work. Finished the left front.
Then went after the right side. Struts, wheel bearings and calipers. Nothing to exciting.
Refurbished the pistons and sprayed down the hardware with cold galvanizing.





Didn't have too much trouble with the right strut coming loose which sped up the process. All that remains is bleeding the brakes and mounting the CV joints. Took some doing, but right on schedule.

[Mikey914]

Cary, Again, I thank you. There is no way I would be ready for WCR in time. I wound up getting called out and will be out of town til Late Friday night, but I'll get ahold of you tomorrow.

I think that if you "officially" open your shop you will have no problem getting work. The work that has been done is as I would have, if I had all the skills you and super in law have. I literally could not have done a better job, and your willingness to put the hours in..... you will not find ANYWHERE else. I would not expect that you would continue to work all the hours you are, but again....THANK YOU (IMG:style_emoticons/default/first.gif)

[cary]

Hmmmm.
Well then that changes the plan. That will give us time to make sure the heater fan switch is functioning 100%.

[cary]

The primary plan is to get Mark a functioning and dependable car.

We did find the blue car will need a back half floor pan this winter. I've been 100% focused on the mechanical issues. So I haven't really looked at the sheet metal.
I know that Mark had already spent a bunch of money on the repaint and interior.
That's why I didn't do the quick & dirty change out on the front struts. That's the way we did them at the rally service stops if one blew up. But too much of a chance for scratches and dents. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

So with my time extension I'll wire wheel off the floor pan and look for issues. It has multiple patches and we found one hole that will need a patch and seam sealer.

Now for the $1,00,000 question. How much am I charging per hour ?

Mark is getting the first paying customer, good guy deal. $30 per hour for two people.
I only log in and log out my time. Easy to keep track of. But other than this week end Super In Law is with me every day.

Next five projects will be $38 per hour for two of us.
Then we'll move to $44 per hour for a while.

Everyone told me to start at $50 per hour. But the cars just aren't worth that much yet. Because of the nature and the age of these cars they'll all have issues. And my primary mission is to get cars back on the road. Be it complete projects like Mark's green car. Or get a project started by doing the initial heavy lifting. Or get someone through a tough spot they don't have enough weapons for.

[cary]

Refurbishing the fan/heater switch brought the fan to life.

Heater wire was ate by the rust worm. The one green car isn't any better.
75 and later cable is NOL.
For the heater wire. We'll pull the wire out of the green car and
experiment with soldering and or brazing.

[cary]

Just for an FYI. We couldn't get the heater cable to solder together, but we did get it brazed. I cut it back 4" inches so the joint is well inside the tube. So there wouldn't be any interference issues.







* Reworked accelerator cable
* Bleed brakes - twice
* Adjusted brake pedal free-play
* Reinstalled CV joints
* Removed drivers side seat and carpet for floor patch welding
* Trimmed and fitted floor patch
* Reset rear shock spring plates

Mark - you need clutch pedal stop for pedal board

[Mikey914]

Got pleanty in stock, thanks for the reminder

[cary]

Nice Cary! Can't wait to see all this work in person. Talk about under the gun. Sure hope you have your car ready for WCR (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) . Are you bringing the super in law with you to WCR?

No on Super In Laws attendance. Company coming to town for the U of O Law School graduation on Saturday.
I told him he'd be the star of the show. Sill no go ..................

[sixnotfour]

silver solder/braze would be perfect for the heater cable ..higher heat than solder lower than brazing ..
https://weldingsupply.com/cgi-bin/einstein....Next::1:::::PF5

[cary]

I felt that there should be something that would need less heat than the brass.
Torch or soldering iron?
They're fine enough I felt like I should have been able to tin them and solder them together. I tried all the different solder rolls in my plumbing repair stuff. Wouldnt begin to adhere.

[cary]

Note: we did hand file down the brazing to make them as smooth and streamline as possible. But not so much that it would reduce the bond.

[76-914]

Cary (or Mark) I've got the heater switch and pull wires left over from my conversion to a wasser pumper. Yours for shipping cost. LMK. Kent (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[cary]

We'll need wires for the green car. I'll let Mark chime in on the arrangements.
Save the switch for someonelses project.

Thanks, Kent.