2016 BUILD-OFF CHALLENGE Contender ... Olympic Blue Resurrection.


Purchased my 914 in 1979. It’s a 1973 base model 1.7 I’m the second owner. Original owner drove it for about 75K.
In ’80 I slid off the road and went into a hillside, taking out the driver’s side fender. While in for that repair I decided to have some minor rust issues taken care of and had the whole car repainted. Back then lacquer was the hot set-up and it looked fantastic. Later while sitting in traffic a big Lincoln didn’t quite stop and pushed in the rear panel. Another trip to the body shop.. Then another time while driving home from work in the rain I hydroplaned coming out from under a bridge and clipped a jersey barrier. Minor damage to the pass. side, but again back to the body shop. So this car has seen its share of incidents over the years.
I drove it for 10 years with only minor mechanical problems until the clutch went out 1989 and the engine had 137K on it. Then I was faced with low funds and engine that when removed will need rebuilding. So I put it in storage in a limestone mine in Bradys Bend PA. Figuring I would get it back out and get it running again one day.

Here are the earliest pictures I could find.

And the day I was taking it to the mines

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It wasn't supposed to be here this long..

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Fast forward to 2010 -- Coming home. First daylight in 20+ years...

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I brought it home to a new 14 X20 SHED I had built just to work on the car. complete with 220V, phone and cable.

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After its first bath it doesn't look too bad. But in spite of being buried over 1 mile inside a mountain AND being in a temperature and humidity controlled storage the rust worms were still at work. albeit a little slower.

Since that time I have had the extensive rust issues taken care of by Chris at Tangerine and also had the fenders flared for the 5 bolt Fuchs I will be running.
I have completed the engine rebuild myself going from 1.7 into a 2056 with heads by HAM and a Raby 9590 cam, I am keeping the D-jet FI.
I am now working on the body doing body work and paint. I AM NOT A BODY MAN. I really don’t even like body work but think I am capable.

This is the hardest part for me. I would rather build engines. Most of my experience has been with Harley engines though and there just like big lawnmowers anyway...

Along the way I am learning to weld, machine small parts and paint and acquiring many new tools.

My own self-imposed goal was to drive it to 2016 Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix. Not sure if it will happen but without a goal it definitely WON’T happen.

I will post more pictures of the progress I have already made on the car.

This Build off Challenge will be just a little more incentive get out in the shed and work on the car.


Wouldn't it be great to get 30 Teeners back on the road?

Good luck to all participants and I welcome any interest and questions about how or why I did something

Tom

BTW did I mention I don't like body work..

Good back story Tom. I'm a big fan of Olympic Blue (Dad's car). Good luck with realizing your dreams!

Cool story. I love Olympic Blue....it's my cars orginal color and what I want to respray it as.

Also, don't think i have any flared OB cars in my cars folder. Sounds like you have a good plan.

Yep, cool story , I love the storage unit!

How many other cars down there?

I used to work in a Limestone mine, not for limestone mining, so I am very familiar with that dust. Very good story, can't wait to see this one come back to life, love the color.

couldn't count them.

There is a couple hundred miles of roadways inside the mountain. usually someone takes you in. cause you don't want to get lost in there.

someone elses video. > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IV_gTbs75Zk

And another, this shows more cars there.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH4YZm5U89k

every thing is in there boats, fire trucks, RVs, classic cars, you name it.

NO THANK YOU, I will stay outside!

Good story for sure. Good luck! Looking forward to the build.
Who would have thought....limestone mine.

Next a couple pictures of the rust.

I knew it was bad when I started jacking up the car to remove the engine and the doughnut jackpoints just crushed and collapsed INTO the longs... every time I worked on it I had a dustpan full of rusty pieces to sweep up.

Caution pics not suitable for the squeamish.

Crushed jack points

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Longs

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More

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You are now excused to for few minutes. I did..

If this was a west coast car it would have just been parted out..

Do you remember all the cool cars you used to have that you wish you never had sold? I had many. but I still had this one.... AND I had just got it out of the mines after 20 years of someday planning on getting it going again. What a dilemma. As the years passed I had decided it would be my retirement project. And when it was done the GF and I would drive off to many sunsets far away.

So in May '13 I retired and started on it in earnest.

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Having NO welding experience, and really not believing anyone local would have the necessary skill to take this on and do a quality job I contacted Chris Foley at Tangerine.

I also sent Chris many of these same pictures and after much discussion he agreed to tackle the project.

So I borrowed a buddy's race car trailer and headed to Connecticut.

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Stay tuned folks... more to come...

Great story Tom, I look forward to following your build.

Looks like your car may be one of the 73 1.7Ls without the appearance group. The rawest most basic 914 made.

Ouch

That rust is serious!!

Yep, no extras on this one.

Its an early '73 Build date 9/72. #2387

No door bars, not sure about the roof yet. and as I found out yesterday, early rain tray. didn't know there was a difference.
mine got a little cracked up and warped in storage and a friend has an'74 parts car I thought I could use the rain tray from. no such luck.

I did manage to straighten my rain tray out with a heat gun, and repaired the cracked using epoxy. looks to be holding so far. Time will tell.

This is the work that was completed by the guys at Tangerine Racing.

as usual things are worse once you start tearing into them than you thought.



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Couple more

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While Tangerine was working on the body I started to work on the engine..

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Case all cleaned up

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Crank built... 71mm crank

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Curious on what kind of long stiffening Tangerine did? Looks like some sort of outside (like 914ltd), and also something on the inside (like the Engam kits). They don't sell anything directly like that from what I can find on their site....

I'm curious on that too... From those rosette welds on the outer long, I'm guessing it's actually a stiffener welded to the existing outer on the ribs?

I believe they welded the outer pieces to what was left of my outer longs. after cutting away the bad parts.

and the passenger side inside long was pieced in.

My guess is these parts were made in house, Maybe Chris will chime in.

I know it is heavy duty stuff. it looks to be 1/8" at least on the outers.

Built a cart to move the car around and work on it. sandblasting in the driveway. Mostly the stuff I couldn't easily get at with a sanding wheel or disc.

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Prepped the trunk for paint, Figure this is a good place to practice painting

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And my first attempt at paint.

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Those are the 914LTD long stiffening kit.

And I will Say the 914LTD log kit is a great item. Even if you don't have log issues they stiffen the chassis up significantly. I love the set I aded to my car. I think it does more than the Engmann kit.

Got some more paint on it. finished the undersides. Everything no one will see. Just trying to get good with a spray gun.

all the undersides, inner fenders, under the trunks etc. got two coats of Rust Bullet. I like this stuff because it is hard as a rock. I didn't put it on any rusty metal like they say you can though. I blasted and sanded everything first. the two coats go on about 2-4 hours apart then the next day I would hit it with two coats of epoxy primer and two coats of urethane. I used PPG paint for the epoxy and PPG JAU for the color.

Same for the interior and engine compartment. all these surfaces have 6 coats of paint on them now.

Just got the underside of the pan and the engine compartment finished in epoxy and color today. I still have to reshoot the rear trunk because I burned up the paint there welding in the rear sway bar mounts.

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What a pain lying on your back spraying with the car literally 12 inches from your face. The rotisserie would be REALLY nice....

Guess I have to start working on the fenders again..

It looks great. I always love to see fresh paint go on. I makes me imagine that must have been how it looked coming off of the assembly line.

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Subscibe

Big setback today....

There is a guy I spoke with last week about plastic media blasting the doors, F+ R trunk lids and my spare roof.

So I got my parts out of the storage facility and stripped everything out of the doors. and off the roof. Loaded them up in the truck and thought I would call before I drove down there.
He tells me he is going out of town for a job and won't be back until the 2nd week of November. DAMN DAMN DAMN.

I made a bunch of calls and couldn't find anyone else in the Pittsburgh area that does this. found a guy that does soda but he is mobile and has do it at your place.

that really won't work for me, and I am not real interested in the water that they use to clean off the soda.

Guess I just wait until he gets back. and the weather gets colder by the day here. not great for painting.

its not like I don't have other things too work on, it just screws up the plan...


Rant over..

Paint looks fantastic and the engine work you are doing is amazing. Love that light blue color. Am currently trying to decide whether or not to paint my car. It has a custom paintjob that I love but since I have to cut into the body so not sure matching the existing paint color will possible.

How much do you anticipate it costing to paint it yourself?

-Brett

Still doing body work on the Pass side fenders. not much to show there.

Picked up some parts from the powder coaters, more stuff no one will see.

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On the seat mounts I had to devise a way to remove the spring for the tilt mechanism, This is what I came up with. It worked good for both disassembly and reassembly, without damaging my new powder coat.

I put a couple screws in to hold the seat mount and the turnbuckle worked beautifully to pull the spring so I could drive in the pin...


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And finished.....

Yeah, I had the tilt levers CHROMED... a good friend runs a chrome shop. I couldn't help myself...

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Like I said, More stuff no one will see....

Looking good Tom!

Just a quick bit of advice. I did exactly like you and had my seat runners powder coated. I fitted them back in my car and then put the seats back in only to find they jammed up solid. I then had to figure a way to get at the runners to unbolt them off the floor still stuck to the seats so I could flip over the seats and drift the runners off with a hammer and block of wood.
My advice is take the 2 runners off the base of the seats and check them on your newly powder coated frames before you've fitted them in the car and got the seats stuck!
I had to sand down the mating surfaces of the powder coat to get them to slide easy before I put it all back in the car.

Good luck. (They do look nice)

regards
Darren

Thanks for the heads up... I did have to ream out the tilt arm bushings because of the chrome, but hadn't thought about the seat runners.

Updates? Love this build so much....

Started doing the bodywork on the Pass side, Trying to get out there on the warmer days. easier to heat up the shed.

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Then I got a pretty nasty cut across the knuckle of my right hand middle finger. took 7 stiches to close....

Slowed me down a little, was supposed to have a brace on it for 2 weeks.... I didn't think about how much you use that finger. other than for waving at foolish motorists.

anyways every time I started working with it. I would open it back up.

I know excuses are like assholes.....

but in spite of that I did get a couple things accomplished..

stripped the old bearings / races out of my hubs and bead blasted them.

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and installed my Elephant Racing rubber bushings in to my front control arms. Not as easy as in the video ( especially with this finger ) but still went pretty smoothly.


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Question on the torsion bars, do the L /R markings go in front or in back?

Vendors


I took advantage of 914 Rubbers Black Friday sale and put in an order, even though I won't need the stuff for a little while. price ~ 500

I sent my front A calipers to PMB for a rebuild, and ordered the rest of my brake needs price ~ 2000

Hope to get these damn stiches out in time for Pennsylvania Deer hunting on Monday....


Later..

Time for an update to this.

the bodywork is coming along.

front fender shaping up.

from this.

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to this, the flares are very subtle. I like the way its turning out
Still not perfect though

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and the rear quarter is shaping up also. this is just rough shaping.

from this angle you can see how much it flares out. I'll be fitting 8'" Fuchs under here.

still working on getting the fender lips right though.

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Along the way I am accumulating a lot of body work tools

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a bunch of Dura blocks and soft blocks

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and a shitload of sandpaper.

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too bad the tools don't have magic built into them. you still have to know how to do it.

I am sure a lot of experienced bodymen could do a better job with kitchen utensils though.

Great progress on the bodywork!

I find I spent most of my time with a flexible/firm 17" board. Occasionally you grab the 6" block or a small roll to get the narrow spots.

You definitely have the tools to do the job now!

with the cold weather I am now working on some mechanicals.
stuff I am more comfortable with.

went to put on the turbo tie rod ends and found out that the one side steering rack bushing was really stuck on there. looks like some moisture got in there and rusted it up ( Imagine that, Rust. )

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after a bunch of PB blaster, and a soak in kerosene, I decided to try a little heat.
after carefully heating up the rack rod, and some persuasion with a deadblow hammer, not wanting to ruin the NLA end bushings I finally got it to move off the rack. the lathe and some emery cloth to polish the rack helped a lot.

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It cleaned up pretty nicely, also put the emery cloth to the rack end bushings.

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it all looks good now. just waiting on the bearings I ordered to come in and I can put every thing back together.

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Don't do too good of a job on the body work, or all of your 914 friends will want to "un-retire" you!!

Great job you are doing!!!!

Retirement is great... I don't know how I ever had time to work.

Funny though, you think it looks good and then shoot another coat of primer and all the flaws just jump right out at you....

almost makes me dread putting color on it..

Looks like your are doing a good job. Just wanted to mention using guide coat when you sand that way it will show you all the low spots, ive been a bodyman and painter for many years and still use it.good luck, and take your time.

Alright, another bodyman on the board. Oh, your build is looking great, too.

Nice progress.

January...

What happened to that month??

Little body work done.

Got my bearings and finished the steering rack.



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Rack rebuild thread


Then Feb 2 went to Punxsutawney for Phil's prognostication. 130 yrs. anniversary.
and for only the 18th time in 130 years Phil did not see his shadow. portending an early spring instead of the usual 6 more weeks of Winter...Yeah !!

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Since then I got most of the front suspension installed. still have to connect the sway bar. think I will start it at 1/4 from the soft position.

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I know most people would finish the body work before starting to put stuff on.

I like to do some mechanical work to get away from the bodywork for a little...

Not my plan, but the car will be able to drive even if its still in primer...and with the early spring that Phil predicted I should have plenty of time to get the bodywork done and paint it....





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Cold out this morning.... 15 deg. to cold to work in an unheated shed..

Good time to unbox and inspect my new parts from PMB.

rebuilt 911 A front calipers, PMB repro 914 GT rear calipers.
Sebro vented rotors front and back.
rebuilt pressure regulator, new 19mm ATE master cylinder.

Damn those A calipers sure are heavy....



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Real nice Tom,

I'm very impressed with your quality of work, the cars going to be fabulous when it's done.

Continuing with some mechanical work.

I installed the new bearings into the rear control arms. also installed the Elephant racing Rubber bushings.

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YES it is as big a PITA as others have said. No pictures of the installation..

But a good friend had just bought a HF 20 ton press and that gave me an excuse to go visit and spend a couple hours. No problem getting your hands clean after all the liquid soap we had slathered around. eventually we got the shafts pushed in nicely.

I whipped up this tool out of plumbing supplies to support the rear of the wheel bearing when we pushed the hubs in with the press.

2" pipe with a floor flange. worked great , don't know how often I will use it again though..

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Installed the Tangerine shift rod bushing into the firewall and then installed the SS fuel lines. both operations went smoothly.

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needed new nuts for the rear control arms and after an exhaustive internet search came up with a BMW part that I like more than the stock original parts. they are flanged all steel locking nuts.

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got the rear control arms bolted up and you can see the new flanged nuts in this pic. also the other tangerine SS lines. installed just so I don't lose them.

Yes they are KYB shocks.... I know they are not the favored shock around here but I got a good deal on the set from a friend that only had them on a little while then upgraded to Konis all the way around...
I figure they are an easily replaced item if I don't like them..

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I think I will work on replacing the tunnel brake lines next and after I gather the rest of the lines up start to bend new ones. One of my first purchases when I started this project was a line set from AA, it is supposed to have all the lines precut to the correct length with ends already installed. we shall see how that works. Had I know earlier I would have gotten the prebent set from PMB and just been done with it.

So now I have suspension.

moving along...

When I saw your updated subtitle I thought you had been suspended from the build-off challenge.

LOL! Me too...car looks GREAT!

Tony

Yeah.. I was going for that..

Nice subtitle. You got me. I thought you were throwing in the towel for a second. Then I thought - No, not Tom.

March 16 progress report.

Still doing body work. I have the pass side in good shape now, at least to my untrained eye.

I have gone from the raw pieced together quarter panel, the result of flaring the fenders.

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worked it to this mottled looking mess.

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and finally to this much sexier looking shape.

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So body work on the pass side is pretty much done. hope it looks good when I get the final paint on it. I still need to revisit the drivers side and do a little more shaping on the fender lips. Many, many hours into this.

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Stripped the 35 year old acrylic lacquer paint off of the rear trunk lid, it looks good underneath. only a little work needed here.

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shot some epoxy on it before I start.

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Have the doors stripped out and will be having them blasted, I know there is a bit of previous bodywork hiding under there, still have to scrap out the old sound deadener before blasting.

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After much internal debate I finally decided on what type of paint I am going to use. I am going with PPG Concept, Single stage

So I bit the bullet and purchased my paint. $$$

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And decided on a big boy spray gun to go with it. DeVilbiss 670+. I don't want to shoot this paint with a HF gun.

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Vendors used.

Spoke for the LED front and rear lights. Thanks Jerry.

also refinished my turn signal buckets and bought new lens for them. and grabbed these LEDs for the reverse lights.

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Had Bruce Stone redo my pedal set, and the turn around time was fantastic!! Thanks Bruce.

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That's it for now...

I am coming to Hershey for the first time and am looking forward to meeting all of Yinz, I am sure seeing all the running Teeners should be an inspiration. See you in two weeks.