Here's one of mine. A 2 inch lap joint in the rear fender, with a raw, open edge inside. And lots of bondo outside.

Floor pan replaced with tin and home depot angle iron. This was from a local body shop where they claimed to have made many of V8 powered 914 conversions

"dem there is ya speed holes..."

Metal straps riveted in to keep the floor boards from sagging.

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<<<hoping my first 914 doesn't show up in this thread

Ah . . . so many to chose from on my POS.

How about the 1/4" of fiberglass that covered the entire floorpan to seal the rust pin holes.

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Or maybe the rust / sludge in the case that scored up an already 0.010 undersize crank and the oil pump?

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Or maybe the brazed passenger side suspension console?

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Unfortunately as nice as my car looked from the topside, the underbody carnage just keeps going on, and on, and on.

Was that the white 74 2L that was for sale around Adrian MI area about 2 years ago. I looked at that car. Crawled underneath and looked under the battery tray area. The jack point was GONE and other major rust issues. Door gaps were good but for how long ?? I walked not staying long and glad I did

Nope. It was a 73 2.0L red widebody that I knew was a candiate for longitudinal reapir. I saw bits fo fiberglass on the floor and rear trunk so I had an inclination of what was getting into. Could also tell front left had been clipped but overall appears to be done reasonably well but I will most certainly redo later as there are some lap joints in it just like @bkrantz post. Lap joints are just a sign of a lazy body man. Or, maybe better said as a body man that is working on a job rate and doesn't really care about the longevity and/or quality of the work since most cheap a## customers don't and only want bottom dollar repair. I was basically out to save a car that otherwise should be scrapped and to not feel bad when I cut it up to convet to a six and to know what I have is solid moving forward.

One of the three rear suspension console bolts was broken off in the console.

One of the front steering rack crossmember attachments was broken off.

A/C butchery was known but still amazes me what hack jobs the dealers did.

I like this thread idea!
How about a truck door hinge to fix a broken rear suspension console

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That door hinge! WTF! haha!

Awesome idea for the thread. Here is my previously discussed lower jamb section...

Brazing, rivets, mig wire, 1/4"+ of filler, and maybe... cement? 5 different pieces in one small section.

OMG. The sheer insanity and stupidity! That truck door hinge is certainly a top contender for absolute stupidist things I've ever seen done.

Hopefuly that was only used to allow the vehicle to be rolled. I can't imagine that having been able to take an lateral G force without simply ripping the sheet metal screws out of the console.

Wish I had pictures but some of these are from cars long gone.
Bad repairs are not limited to 914’s.
How about a Speedster that was converted to disc brakes with a pipe fitting screwed into the banjo bolt hole.
Or a 356A sunroof coupe that was hit in the front and had a clip welded on with the right side 2 inches forward of the left. Lap welded on of course with huge overlaps and rust underneath.
I had a 67 911S with an engine rebuilt by Vasek Polak that had the cam sprockets offset the wrong way so the chains hit the case openings.
I have a 75 9911S that had F/G flares held on with drywall screws.
Another 67 911S with brakes that had been rebuilt by a big name repair shop with the right rear caliper dog bone spacer installed under one caliper bolt only. The caliper was crooked and rubbed on the disc hub. Still left the shop.


That door hinge is the best of the worst so far though.

On my one owner (till I purchased) parts car, the owner substituted plywood for the metal floor. Seat bases held on with wood hinges.

More hardware store seat hinges and some lovely "why waste all the welding consumables? A few tacks should be fine!"

Maybe the PO knew with gaps that big, more welding would only make things worse?

What a house of horrors...

That hinge. And some of these patch panels. Yikes. And I thought my version 1.0 side marker delete (Bondo over/into metal plates tacked on the back of the front fenders) was bad...

Did it work???????

@gms : Glenn, that rear suspension hinge wins.


I up the 1/4" of Bondo previously posted to a 1/2" swamp pour, plus bits of an old fridge placed lovingly in the goop before applying. It was so thick when I cut the panel open, you could smell the resin (that was buried so deep) curing as it was exposed to the air...

- Tony

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Ohhh, thats good!

thats gotta be a top ten?

How about this frunk pan repair with a little fiberglass? Pretty shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiity if you ask me!




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It's not a real DPO repair until they use expanding foam and copper flashing to "remake" the engine shelf.

Death by V8 conversion (and rust)

The rust was covered by fiberglass that had been molded to look like the original steel.
This is what I found when I removed it.

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More conversion carnage.

Ha! Maybe they were just "adding lightness!"

Man, our poor little cars... I know there are other makes/models that have likely been subjected to the same nearly unbelievable levels of hack-fuckery, but I have to believe that, % wise, our little cars are in the top 10.

I start to laugh, but then it hits me... and I shed a tear for these unfortunate victims.

Let's raise a glass to them and remember them in the moment they rolled off the assembly line and into the hands of their excited original owners.

VW beetle. 100X worse.

Having grown up with beetles in New England, I have seen, and done, some stupid shit to repair floorboard.
I must say, the truck door hinge for the rear suspension, with self tapping screws...that wins

Very fugly so far! Keep them coming, and maybe we can set up a poll for worst of all time.

Seeing all this makes me realize my own car wasnt as bad as I thought it was when I first got it....

I feel the same, but, then I think about how desperate people were to keep these 914's on the road. That desire to have something different than what 99% of the population was driving. Mid-engine, light weight, great handling, steering, and braking in a era of overweight domestic land yachts. When I had my 914, my winter car was a 76' Chevy Caprice Classic. Spring never came fast enough!

Though some of the "repairs" are just plain ridiculous, they somehow prevented some of these cars from becoming scrap as early as the 80's. 914's continued to survive and become potential "resucue projects" for those of us not smart enought to just go buy a clean CA tub!

Mark, that car must’ve been owned by a window and siding guy...

But I am thinking the copper was put in to back the welding so they did not blow a lot of holes into the new shelf, and just never got around to it.

how to ruin a good 914 and waste tens of thousands of dollarsClick to view attachment

What is that a Chalon that mated with a Lotus Esprit?

The real question is how did you get stuck with it?

My best guesses in order of likeliness:

1) Mechanics lein owed to you?

2) Original owner was so stoned, he forgot where he parked it and never came back.

3) Community service vehicle -- Kids don't do drugs! This could happen to your sense of good judgment! Drugs make you do stupid things.

George likes to pretend it's really a Centenario.

The copper was used to fill in the large holes and it was foamed into place. I dug out at least 2 square feet of expanding foam. It was crazy.

I am glad you think so George....I saw that car at your shop last fall and I thought the same thing.....ohh what a waste of a good car.

The main problem with that car was there was a time in the 80's where I probably would have thought it was cool.

More of a self reflection on me than on the car to be honest.

It does indeed look like someone put a boat load of time and money into it . . . unlike the truck door hinge project.

A great reminder of why im just building my own chassis, and that these cars were treated as garbage for a few decades. A true shame, but it is funny...

Shame....
About 15 years ago a 914 buddy organized a sawz-all party to cut up his 914 because it had a dent right in front of the passenger side rear tire.
It could have been pulled and straightened but he had another chassis and didn't need or want this one.
I don't remember it having any rust. At all.
We cut it up in pieces small enough to fill a dumpster.

I wonder what that would be worth now?

Lots more as scrap metal prices have gone up!

How about this fix? nothing that aluminum plates self tapping screws and JB Weld cant fix.Click to view attachment

Uh yeah. . . that ought to do it.

The bottom one is doing all the work
The other four are just for show.

factory spec alignment

and the other side

I look at the repairs I did when I was a kid, and the tools I had to use, you made due with what you have. We lived on a ranch just at the base of Wolf Creek Pass Colorado. Yes that one, heard that damn C.J. McCall song every time I went to town. You learned to make stuff, and keep stuff going with out much more than the fence pliers and pocket knife you always had with you.

Matter of fact I saw a post on one of my formers cars on Facebook, saying it was tired and trashed. One mans junk another treasure.

If the repair was done to be dishonest or deceitful that is one thing. Shame on them, fix it right, be honest, up front, and do the right thing even if it costs you and learn from it. If it was done due to honning your skills, well then that is totally different story. Still be honest, own your work, but you can't be mad about it, your learning, hopefully always, and repairs I did last week will look different than the ones I do tomorrow.

Right now I am going through my fathers -6, when he started car came off an impound lot, stuff was done, he did what he had the talent and tools to do. Sometimes I look at it and ask why. Then I get humble and remember at that time it was a fun car, that he and his SCCA buddies would run around in. What am I doing today, that someone latter will point and say that's not right.

Well said.

I hope you'll allow this - it's not a 914 and it's not mine.

You could almost call it sculpture rather than repair.
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