Intro from Montana: '73 2.0L rustoration thread Options

[Dion]

“This little bastard is the one that finally made me lose my shit but I got it in “ (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol-2.gif)
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/popcorn[1].gif) loving this. Get em Brent !

[914_7T3]

I am amazed at the amount of detailed work that you are knocking out.

If my car needed that level of work, I would never be able to bring it back. It'll be so worth it when its done! Keep going!!!

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[bbrock]

I am amazed at the amount of detailed work that you are knocking out.

If my car needed that level of work, I would never be able to bring it back. It'll be so worth it when its done! Keep going!!!

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

I'm just hoping it looks half as nice as yours when its done. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/drooley.gif)

[bbrock]

“This little bastard is the one that finally made me lose my shit but I got it in “ (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol-2.gif)
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/popcorn[1].gif) loving this. Get em Brent !

Yep, a kanipchen was definitely had! The cramped and cluttered shop space really gets on my nerves and was particularly getting on them Sunday. It gets even worse when I think about this 2,000 sq ft. shop that I built with my own two hands specifically to restore this car decades ago, but for some reason, got the itch to move to Montana before the shop was even finished.







Okay, it was a good move. Just today I watched a bear walk across the neighbors lot, almost ran into a bull moose stepping out the front door to check on the dog, and listened to elk bugling from my porch. I have no reason to complain. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[bbrock]

One Last Thing

Was getting ready to wheel the tub out for a full Ospho treatment but I was never happy with my repair of the tricky area where the frunk cable pull attaches to the bulkhead. The butt welds were Swiss cheese and rough.



I close up all the welds, did a better job of grinding, and welded and redrilled one of the screw holes. This is yet another bag of buttholes looking photo, but the repair looks much better. Still not great, but they best I can expect working in an inaccessible place with surface pitted metal that wants to blow out, and a welder with mediocre skills at best... but it's strong.

[altitude411]

How do we get from this...

Okay, it was a good move. Just today I watched a bear walk across the neighbors lot, almost ran into a bull moose stepping out the front door to check on the dog, and listened to elk bugling from my porch. I have no reason to complain....

Brent B.

To...

This is yet another bag of buttholes...

'''in ONE day?!? Have you been drinking the water from the beaver pond again? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Awesome work my friend. Very much enjoying watching the build. I hope you are enjoying the beautiful fall colors on the "hill" before it all turns to white. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[bbrock]

How do we get from this...

Okay, it was a good move. Just today I watched a bear walk across the neighbors lot, almost ran into a bull moose stepping out the front door to check on the dog, and listened to elk bugling from my porch. I have no reason to complain....

Brent B.

To...

This is yet another bag of buttholes...

'''in ONE day?!? Have you been drinking the water from the beaver pond again? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Awesome work my friend. Very much enjoying watching the build. I hope you are enjoying the beautiful fall colors on the "hill" before it all turns to white. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol-2.gif) What can I say? I'm a mercurial fellow... like the weather. Did you get any of this stuff last night?

[altitude411]

Yuck! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/barf.gif) No. I'm a lowlander... only 4914 ((IMG:style_emoticons/default/shades.gif)) above, but like your paint job, I can see it from here (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)


* sigh* guess its time to winterize the boat

[Dion]

How do we get from this...

Okay, it was a good move. Just today I watched a bear walk across the neighbors lot, almost ran into a bull moose stepping out the front door to check on the dog, and listened to elk bugling from my porch. I have no reason to complain....

Brent B.

To...

This is yet another bag of buttholes...

'''in ONE day?!? Have you been drinking the water from the beaver pond again? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Awesome work my friend. Very much enjoying watching the build. I hope you are enjoying the beautiful fall colors on the "hill" before it all turns to white. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol-2.gif) What can I say? I'm a mercurial fellow... like the weather. Did you get any of this stuff last night?

Now that’s a pretty scene. That view I’m sure helps with tasks on hand.
Nice work as usual.

[bbrock]

Let's Drop Some Acid
Timothy Leary had his preference, but I went with phosphoric to turn on, tune in, and drop out. Started Friday afternoon by spraying the insides of all boxed frame members that weren't opened up and sprayed with epoxy during the few minor rust repairs I've done on the chassis. I left those to steep overnight to give plenty of time to convert any rust lingering in there. I may repeat that treatment depending on what a boroscope inspection shows.

Saturday morning I sprayed the rest of the chassis with a 25% solution of acid according to label directions for etching metal. I'm not convinced that's better than full strength. I let that sit for about an hour because it was chilly in the tent so I allowed more time. Then the whole tub got rinsed with water inside and out. I left it in the tent for a few hours to drip while I did some cleaning and reorganizing in the shop.

After rolling the tub into the shop, I went over every seam or area with overlapping metal with a heat gun to bake any moisture out. Same for enclosed frame members. I also left cranked the thermostat up on the garage just to make sure the car is completely dry. After it was dry, it left an ugly scene.



Next I set about scuffing all the loose coating left behind with red Scotch Brite pads. It's hard work and the hot garage makes it more so. Here's a comparison shot. Drivers side untouched, passengers side scuffed, vacuumed, and wiped down with wax and grease remover.



Here's a look at a full side done.



I'm working up quite a sweat today working over the rest of the tub. So those minor rust repairs? Here's a pic of whats left of the original rear deck lid on my car. Most of it is back in the car in various places, and that only counts for the patches in non-structural areas!

[TravisNeff]

Looking great Brent. I read on the label of my metal prep and it stated not to let it dry. I did the same as you in some spots, spray on and come back to it later.

[bbrock]

Looking great Brent. I read on the label of my metal prep and it stated not to let it dry. I did the same as you in some spots, spray on and come back to it later.

I've used two brands of this stuff now and each had slight different instructions despite being basically the same chemical. JASCO said if it dried before you neutralized it, to respray with the acid to reactivate before neutralizing. Both said to let it sit overnight to convert rust but this Klean-Strip brand says nothing about reactivating. I do anyway. I'm going to have to retreat the trunk. Not sure what happened but about half of it is mostly flash rust with little to no sign the acid did anything. Don't think I'll be diluting per directions on the next round.

[KELTY360]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smilie_pokal.gif)

That is a sight to behold! Must feel pretty good to be at this stage. Just a word of warning - don't drag a couch into the garage so you can be comfortable staring at it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/shades.gif)

[bbrock]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smilie_pokal.gif)

That is a sight to behold! Must feel pretty good to be at this stage. Just a word of warning - don't drag a couch into the garage so you can be comfortable staring at it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/shades.gif)

Thanks Marc. As you know, there is no room for a couch which is a good thing, otherwise... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)

I keep thinking about our conversation about whether I'd be able to get paint on this car before he snow flies. Well, the snow has flown (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mad.gif) But still hopeful I'll see a week of good weather before winter is here for real. Heading to town in a few to pick up tint for Raptor and some DCC for interior so I'm ready if it happens. Probably just jinxing it by doing that. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

[Lucky9146]

Really great to watch the progress and this is a nice pic. Keep at it we are all rooting!
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/white914.jpg)

[bbrock]

I copied this over from Ben's build thread so as not to hijack too much and if I'm going to start agonizing over color choice (a milestone), I might as well document it here (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) .

Just hit a similar snag. Went to buy a quart of DCC silver metallic. First, the computer popped up different formulas depending on whether you searched the codes for Porsche vs. VW. Neither formula is available in DCC. Both formulas can be mixed in single-stage Omni MTK. The Porsche color can be mixed in 2-stage Deltron DBC but the only 2-stage option for VW is Omni. I had the guy mix a sample of each and am going to spray out a test panel, but already I can see from the smudge dots he put on the cans that the Porsche formula has a richer metallic look. The guy said the Porsche formula uses higher quality toners and 2 metallic components vs. just one component in the VW color. Will make a decision pending spray out results but leaning toward Porsche at this point even though the VW formula is probably technically more correct.

I believe you want a 2 stage paint, that was from the factory on metallic cars. They used to do single stage metallics in the 60's and earlier. As for VW vs Porsche paint, I don't know much about that. i would assume the -4 cars got vw color and the -6 received the porsche color (but that is all a guess)

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif) Plan is to do 2-stage on the exterior but single-stage in trunks and cabin to save money. It was pretty obvious the factory didn't clear coat the cabin area of my car so I suppose even more correct would be base coat with no clear in there, but I'm not THAT married to authenticity.

I think you are right about the 4 vs. 6 colors. I'm pretty sure I've read that the six chassis were shipped from Karmann to Porsche and THEN painted by Porsche. Interesting that the VW and Porsche codes cross-reference though. I have a couple issues with using the VW color. First is that I can't get it in the higher quality DBC, paint which everyone says is very forgiving for inexperienced painters like me. The second is that I suspect the Porsche color is going to look nicer. I've noticed in photos of silver metallic 914s that all look beautiful, but some seem to "pop" a little more than others. I wonder if the differences in formulas might cause that. I wouldn't think I'd suffer a authenticity hit by using the Porsche color on a four cylinder chassis, but wonder what people think.

[TravisNeff]

I was reading on Pelican a paint guy (Freddy?) stated that the color of the primer below can affect how much the paint pops.

[bbrock]

Sheldon Cooper presents: FUN with FILLER

Spent time this week filling my butt welds with the same reinforced filler Ben used. I like it. Applies easy enough and seems really strong.



I'm applying it to butt weld seams and then block sanding it flat with 80 grit. Right now the goal is to get all the seams coated and sanded but I'm not getting carried away with getting the surfaces perfect. If I have filler remaining after going over all the seams, then I'll go back around and fill any low spots and block to perfection. Otherwise, I'll wait until after primer is on and fill with more basic (and less expensive) filler. It's nice to see those welds finally disappearing and I'm happy that it isn't taking very much filler to make that happen. Some welds taking less than others of course, and my latest welds definitely require less filler than the early ones.





On the seams that will be covered with Raptor, I'm mainly concentrating on feathering the edges and sanding them smoother than the under coating texture will be. Doesn't seem to be much point in spending the time to make them perfectly smooth.









Took this crappy phone pic of a bear across the road at my neighbor's place on my way to the dentist yesterday.



A smaller bear left these tracks on our porch this morning. I left the primate track is for comparison.



Oh yeah, it snowed last night. Actually the second of these in a week. It's mostly melted already but emphasizes that I'm on borrowed time for getting paint on the car.

[mb911]

Brent, I found that I was better of using a DA with 40 grit for that stuff. It cuts it much faster and blends quicker..
It's a great product for sure.

[bbrock]

Brent, I found that I was better of using a DA with 40 grit for that stuff. It cuts it much faster and blends quicker..
It's a great product for sure.

Thanks Ben. I'll break out the DA when I do the fenders. Most of the areas I'v done so far have been in recesses where a DA won't help. I could have used it on the interior floor but found knocking the filler down with 36 grit on a block when it was a little green and then blocking with 80 grit didn't take too long and kicks up less dust. I've been a little stingy with the filler this round just because I want to make sure I get all my butt welds covered. This has left a few shallw low spots that I'll catch with regular filler on top of the primer if I don't have enough of this stuff to do it all. Looks like I'll have plenty but being cautious.