Starting a 1971 IMSA 914 Restoration, A privateer run 914 with Sebring and Daytona history Options

[FourBlades]

Been working for several weeks to rebuild the front end of the car.



The front fascia only comes up about half way and both head light buckets are
rusted badly.



I have replacements that Thomas sent to me I will use to fix this.



Somehow I can't get the new section to fit the car. It is like it is too wide to fit
between the fenders. Took some measurements on my other 914s for comparison.



No wonder, this car is 2.5 cm narrower than it should be, it is 125.75 cm across
at the very front.



Love the Area 51 welding jacket.

John

[FourBlades]

Get out the porta power and start pushing it back into shape.



Push it, check it, push it, check it. Get frustrated by the spring back and really
crank it. Needed to cut through the fascia to the proper fit and bending. Push it
and now it stays where it should. Checked the diagonals and widths. Hammer
it here and there to shape it right.



Try fitting the pieces again.





Now everything fits well.



Nothing like a 4 ton hydraulic ram to ensure cooperation.

John

[FourBlades]

Tack weld the pieces on and check the fit with the hood. The hood fits well except
where they must have reshaped it to make up for the pushed in driver side. The
driver side fender was replace at some point by brazing on a piece from a green
car.



Check the fit of the headlights and covers.



It all fits decent. The gaps are a little big but it is good enough for a race that
has been wrecked multiple times.

Fully welded it a few inches at a time by cutting through the overlapping pieces
and filling in the kerf.

Clean it up and prime it. I ran out of one color of rattle can self etch and started
in with another color part way through.



Starting to look pretty good.



This was a pretty major effort to reconstruct but I am happy with how it turned
out.

John

[FourBlades]

Ha ha remember what I started with:



Gives me the willies to remember that.

John

[carr914]

John, did you see that someone is selling an IMSA front bumper in the Classifieds?

[FourBlades]

TC,

Yes I did notice that. I am going to check if the one that came with the car is
usable. I am now at the point where I can determine if it will work.

I'd rather use the original piece if I can.

John

[gms]

TC,

Yes I did notice that. I am going to check if the one that came with the car is
usable. I am now at the point where I can determine if it will work.

I'd rather use the original piece if I can.

John

This is totally fixable! reuse it!

[PeeGreen 914]

Have you ever heard of Vice Grips? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif) I hope you own stock (IMG:style_emoticons/default/happy11.gif)

Your work is ever impressive (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif) Awesome seeing this come together (IMG:style_emoticons/default/aktion035.gif)

[FourBlades]

You can never have enough clamps, I actually bought a few more really wide ones
for this project.

Things made out of fiberglass can usually be repaired if you don't mind the itching.
The fenders and bumper had all been repaired multiple times by globbing
on more kitty hair and bondo. I will grind them down to the correct thickness
again and repair them the right way, with 12:1 feathering of holes and cracks and
then adding new cloth. I used to shape and glass surfboards about 20 years ago,
where does the time go?

John

[Cairo94507]

Just WOW! I love the work you are doing to save this piece of Porsche history. Very nice indeed.

[trojanhorsepower]

John,

Great work as always! I was just wondering... what was the point of welding in two large pieces instead of one large one? I am guessing it was to preserve as much of the original car as possible, but would like to hear your thoughts on that.

Thanks and keep up the good work.

-Peter

[gms]

John,
this shelf/support is not on the 1971 cars, get it out of there (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[gms]

Things made out of fiberglass can usually be repaired if you don't mind the itching.
The fenders and bumper had all been repaired multiple times by globbing
on more kitty hair and bondo. I will grind them down to the correct thickness
again and repair them the right way, with 12:1 feathering of holes and cracks and
then adding new cloth. I used to shape and glass surfboards about 20 years ago,
where does the time go?

Glad to hear this, that bumper is fairly unique.

[FourBlades]

Thanks for all the comments!

Peter: I had two pieces from two different cars. I think this made it easier to get
them in. Trying to get one piece with the headlight buckets attached and all the
lower trunk stuff probably would not have worked. The car narrows the closer
it gets to the front, so you can't slide a piece in from the front without some
major cutting of one side. I actually cut the fascia in half vertically to make
fitting it easier, so it was three major pieces put in.

Glenn: I left the reinforcement on until I fully weld all the new stuff to try to
maintain the original shape. I plan to remove it once I start fitting the front
oil cooler.

John

[SirAndy]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/first.gif)

Very nice work indeed!

[FourBlades]

Been having some computer issues and finally upgraded to windows 7 which has
allowed me to eradicate all viruses.

Been working on finishing up the engine bay. Welded on Tangerine Racing rear
suspension ear reinforcement plates and made some removable chassis braces.
The longs were cracked on the outside around the suspension points so this
should help stabilize them.



Those are 1/8 plates welded on the firewall. I put the attachment point down low
where the floor pan helps reinforce the firewall.



I added some 16 gauge plating to the top and bottom of the suspension mounting
point where the brace attaches. I am missing a jam nut on this brace.



I've got some smaller heim joints and tubes to build reinforcements for the carrier
on the other end of the suspension mounting point. That should help stabilize the
other end of the rear arm and keep the toe in from changing.

John

[FourBlades]

Cut out the rusty hell hole.

Some cool rat parties went down inside this race car.



Cleaned out the rat pad using latex gloves which were promptly tossed.



Took some recon photos of the inside.

Does not look too bad actually.



This will get treated and painted before sealing it back up.

John

[ellisor3]

John,

That looks fantastic, you have balls the size of church bells to take on that project. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

Can't wait to see it finished. Are you painting it back to its racing colors?

[FourBlades]

Been working on the tunnel and cross brace. Basically all the metal within an inch
of the floor is completely rusted away. Cut this all back to solid metal and patched
in new pieces.



I thought about trying to get a perfect tunnel from a donor and buy new, repro
cross braces and inner firewall pieces. I could have made the interior look close
to brand new stock but the guys who built this car originally would never have
done that. I plan to just have a bare metal, painted interior where all the welded
panels will show. I could try to grind all the welds smooth, but again, that was
never what the original builders did.

They did race the car with factory sound deadening tar in place. That all went with
the old floor pan and it got stripped off the tunnel. I wonder why they did not
bother with that obvious and easy weight reduction?

Should I replace the factory tar to be closer to how it was in the day? I have no
idea but I am leaning towards no.

Welded on a new fender to replace the trashed one. Terry (914xprs) supplied
this cherry piece for me.



John

[FourBlades]

John,

That looks fantastic, you have balls the size of church bells to take on that project. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

Can't wait to see it finished. Are you painting it back to its racing colors?

Yes, I plan to paint it the way it was when it raced at Sebring, which is close
to how it looked when I got it, minus some jewelry store sponsorship.

I have been loving your build thread. What a great color and a great motor. Joe
is doing some really nice work on it.

That will be one of the best 914s around pretty soon now.

John