Bringing it back:, Improved Original for 4742910780 Options

[Van B]

Underbody front sway bar project is finally on a vector for success. I had to give up on the 996 bar. But an Addco bar proved to be a cost effective option and still allows me to use modern drop links. This one is a 19mm solid bar and specs out very close to what we calculated for the OE bar previously.

I’m going with the front mounted orientation as it is really the only way to avoid clearance issues… unless I want to develop a bar from scratch. But, I have talked with Addco and they are willing to make me a hollow bar if I want. So, I’m going to be thinking about it, of course.

The front trunk reinforcement turned out to be a good opportunity to deal with some rust spots too (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

[wonkipop]

noice, very noice.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

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guess who came into the workshop today?
the glasurit man. the one who gets the real stuff.
he was in to discuss paint strategy for a lancia fulvia.

interesting bloke. he is a pom. quite a character.

he reckons they have dropped manufacture of a whole lot of yellow tinters.
(not that yellow tinter is necessarily yellow paint in the end but......)
he reckons the ukraine war has upset things. apparently a number of the tints were sourced there. (eastern europe still is happy to deal in poisons which a lot of these old paint ingredients are). problems. dropping lines of colours left right and center.
he is relying on his own (now getting old) stock of tinters for some desperate folks. which he reckons are getting close to borderline to be able to mix up some classic colors.

it was an interesting conversation.
i did ask him about porsche 914 color - saturn yellow. told him it might be listed under VW and the year 1974. he said he would look into it and ring mike back if he could find out current info.

[Van B]

POM = Redcoat, right?

Anyone who prints the queen on their money is suspect in my opinion lol!

I may have actually found a place in Dallas, TX that still sells and stocks 22 line. My initial conversation is promising.

We'll see if I start to gather momentum soon, but maybe this summer I can undertake that challenge. I've been so pleased with the performance of my "Doney Kong" copper manifold that I decided to pull the trigger on a proper 3M spray gun setup for both paint and undercoating.

Once I get this sway bar setup complete, it will finally be time for suspension tear down.

[wonkipop]

POM = Redcoat, right?

Anyone who prints the queen on their money is suspect in my opinion lol!

affirmative to both.

though pom = all limeys and not restricted to 18th century military personnel.
the queen is dead, the punce is now on the lucre, even less trustworthy.

good news re 22 line potential in the former american colonies.
its definitely being turned off according to the p/l/rc.

[Van B]

Work has been brutal (my real job) and my progress on the car was rapidly approaching zero, but Ive managed to finalize my underbody front sway bar. I know a few of you will just wonder why I didn’t go with the OEM setup, but you’ll have to add that to your list of unanswered questions lol…

Inside the trunk, I did a base layer reinforcement of 16ga steel; hammered the edges enough to follow the curve. I wanted to distribute pressure over the widest area I could… and maybe even transfer some load into compression of the vertical sides.

[Van B]

Then I topped it with 1/4” plate to ensure I have no distortion or flex at the mounts. Stitch welding that much on a low heat setting took forever, and just couldn’t be made pretty like a single bead, but I did avoid warping.

After several dry fits, I was inspired the box wrench I strained to reach while I worked the ratchet underneath. Thus, I cut some sheet metal into a dog bone shape and welded the bolts into a handy removable single part. Made it low profile so it wouldn’t rub the spare tire.

[Van B]

And as a final touch, I got some CNC aluminum brackets. All in all, I’m pleased with the result. Modern drop links will ensure no binding and should give a long life. When I pull the control arms, I’ll finalize that mount and consider moving them out a bit more. I want to get at least 75% of the arm length to work the sway bar. If anyone knows the distance from centerline pivot, to the OE link mount, I would appreciate the reference.

[wonkipop]

175mm from c/l of torsion bar to c/l of drop link mount.

sway bar mounts look good.
be interesting to find out this works out when you are back on the road (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)

[Van B]

175mm from c/l of torsion bar to c/l of drop link mount.

sway bar mounts look good.
be interesting to find out this works out when you are back on the road (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)

As always, thanks @wonkipop . I’m looking forward to that day. I’m sure it will be better than no sway bar, but the real test will be comparing it with OE sway bars like you and @starbear

[Van B]

I had hoped to post up the results of my fuel pump and filter project, but while working on it all, I discovered the dreaded tunnel rust (IMG:style_emoticons/default/headbang.gif)

That leaking master cylinder I replaced last year apparently had been leaking bad for a while (DAPO) and the fluid worked its way through the tunnel.

Obviously I wasn’t expecting this and had to come up with a plan for what must be the most difficult rust repair known to the 914 world.

I decided to go full send. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ar15.gif)

I bought a chemical resistant garden sprayer… thanks COVID for making such products enter the marketplace lol…

Anyway after about a gallon of evaporust and a dozen iterations of spraying a pressure washer through the tunnel and catching the flood with a shop vac, I got a pretty impressive result!


I forgot to take a before photo… mostly because of the sheer trauma and panic lol, but you can see on the right side of this pic what the whole tunnel looked like, and worse.


Finally I sprayed some phosphoric acid to convert what was left.


After it all dries, I’ll spray some phenolic resin and from eastwood and then some epoxy sealer just to be sure…

[wonkipop]

well you might be suffering corrosion trauma (hey - it is a 914) but i am looking at above tunnel surfaces and observing a highly intact car. all those stuck on vinyl pieces on the floor just like they are supposed to be....are there. nice. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

bonus - gorgeous green/yellow paint on the upper floor pan. original. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Van B]

Thanks wonki. That's an important reminder.

What's frustrating with all these trouble areas is that they're all preventable with proper maintenance and repairs. Overall, I've managed to catch everything before it went real bad.

Soon, I should be back on track. I'm real close to starting the chassis/suspension rebuild.

[wonkipop]

if its any comfort i had to get stuck into mine a few years back during recommission when i had the tank out and suspension off. where we had done work on the firewall for RHD conversion 30 odd years ago was showing signs of corrosion initiation! nipped that in the bud.

i love por15 and seam sealer. (not).
its good stuff but jesus get any on your skin anywhere and you are wearing it, its not coming off. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)
luckily i did not have tunnel trauma syndrome. had a good look in there doing the fuel lines.



ps. as an aside i ran into the guy who did the conversion mod work on the firewall and pedals etc all those years ago a couple of months back. he is a respected mgb guy a few years older than me.
he is still alive. he was at a hillclimb event the mg club run. he asked me about the car and was very surprised and delighted i still had it. he has a mgb he bought as a twenty year old in the 1970s. getting on to 60 years of ownership.
back in the early 90s he was converting a lot of mgbs shipped out of california and then onselling to japan. a lot easier to convert an mgb than a 914.

[Van B]

After dealing with the tunnel and some excursions looking at parts, charting the way ahead, I needed some results. A few weeks ago, I got fed up looking at the lumpy stitch mig welding on my underbody sway bar mounts, so I TIG’d it up with many many tiny welds. Then I steam pressure washed the old ziebart off. Today I did the acid phosphate etch and cracked open some of my fancy 3M underbody coating and pressurized spray gun.

This stuff is gonna be awesome, but I’m gonna need more. It’s a rubberized coating, but it dries pretty hard yet stays flexible… borderline plastic like.

[Van B]

For the one or two 914world friends I have still following my progress, here some more of what I’ve been up to.

3M seam sealer and rubberized coating on the back wall to seal it all up


And a pretty hilarious late night find on Amazon… yes “Amazon Basics” butyl sound dampening mats.

I bought it first because it was too funny to say that I have amazon sound dampening, but also because its crazy cheap. Lets face it, everything out there is private label manufacturers anyway. And this stuff specs out pretty well, right in the middle at 1.5mm butyl with .1mm foil. And it’s priced cheaper than the 1mm stuff
https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Car-Sou...e/dp/B07XMF3KK5

Final top off is eastwood closed cell foam. All 3 layers together are lighter than the original back pad but far more effective, mostly due to the form factor and adhesion of the amazon butyl, but there is definitely a cumulative effect to cover more frequencies of vibration

[wonkipop]

For the one or two 914world friends I have still following my progress, here some more of what I’ve been up to.

3M seam sealer and rubberized coating on the back wall to seal it all up


And a pretty hilarious late night find on Amazon… yes “Amazon Basics” butyl sound dampening mats.

I bought it first because it was too funny to say that I have amazon sound dampening, but also because its crazy cheap. Lets face it, everything out there is private label manufacturers anyway. And this stuff specs out pretty well, right in the middle at 1.5mm butyl with .1mm foil. And it’s priced cheaper than the 1mm stuff
https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Car-Sou...e/dp/B07XMF3KK5

Final top off is eastwood closed cell foam. All 3 layers together are lighter than the original back pad but far more effective, mostly due to the form factor and adhesion of the amazon butyl, but there is definitely a cumulative effect to cover more frequencies of vibration

might have to save my pennies and get on a plane for 28 hours when you get it back on the road. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

i fancy a trip to the smithsonian so i could do a combat drop in for a reco mission.
would put me close to @StarBear 's boot camp. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

its looking good.
you got me wondering why i have 50 year old rust inducing sound junk still in the jaffa.

[Van B]

That would be really cool wonki!
I’ve got plenty of hilton honors points that I could contribute to that leg of the trip too!

Overall, I’m really pleased with the amazon stuff and I would recommend it. Get a roller though. 2mm butyl would be nice, but 1.5mm with the undercoat that will be on both sides is a superior solution IMO.

Butyl on foil doesn’t bridge well at all, obviously. So, I ended up doing a lot of cardboard templates.

[StarBear]

That would be really cool wonki!
I’ve got plenty of hilton honors points that I could contribute to that leg of the trip too!

Overall, I’m really pleased with the amazon stuff and I would recommend it. Get a roller though. 2mm butyl would be nice, but 1.5mm with the undercoat that will be on both sides is a superior solution IMO.

Butyl on foil doesn’t bridge well at all, obviously. So, I ended up doing a lot of cardboard templates.

If wonki’s trip happens, let me know! I’m not that far away (in NJ)!

[Cairo94507]

I am following your build. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[tygaboy]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif)
I'm a follower, too. Between @Cairo94507 Michael and me, you've got at least double what you thought you had. Now stop whining and get back on the project! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)