Project Blue Book

For all you Porsche 914 fanatics!

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chief
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Re: Project Blue Book

Post by chief »

neilbardsley wrote: Sat Oct 08, 2022 7:50 am Great job as always. How did you get louvres in your engine lid. Do you think they will hellp much with cooling?

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The jury’s out on the louvres. I punched them in for aesthetics to go with the over cills.
It will allow some heat to escape but it is a bit of a dead air area behind the rear window.
You have to admit they do look cool though!
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rhd racer
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Re: Project Blue Book

Post by rhd racer »

Aah! Do you need a fog light (age wise) - never had one on my ‘14?


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93 964 C2
99 Boxster 2.5 > 2.7 hill climber

71 914/6 3.0 - gone

'You see Paul, hill climbing is like making love to a beautiful woman. You get your motor running, check your fluids, hang on tight and WHOA..30 seconds later it's all over!' Swiss Tony
chief
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Re: Project Blue Book

Post by chief »

rhd racer wrote: Sat Oct 08, 2022 9:44 pm Aah! Do you need a fog light (age wise) - never had one on my ‘14?

Nope, just found one with the very rare factory bracket (now for sale if anyone wants it).
There will be a lot of stuff on this car that isn’t needed :lol:

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chief
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Re: Project Blue Book

Post by chief »

Finished!

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It's took a little while but finished now. I reproduced the heater control sticker a while ago and it's nice to finally fit it and be done.
I took the dashboard back out so I could trim the back that fits against the windscreen and seal. If I get this finished off I can bolt the dash in and the trimmer can get to the knee pad and dash top without having to disturb it.
First off I found out the old vinyl a clamped in place to see how it all worked. I decided to trim with under or scrim foam which worked quite well.

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I have gone for a slightly heavier grain for the leatherette for no other reason that it's a bit out of the way so needs to stand out a little more.

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Plenty of contact adhesive and the foam is all good. I decided to leave it until next week to really dry off.
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chief
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Re: Project Blue Book

Post by chief »

So time to attack the Targa Top. This is fiberglass and painted in a textured black paint from the factory. After fifty years it all looking a bit tired.

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As usual everything just came off. Not stuck screws or nuts. Porsche do make the right!
All the seals and rubbers had gone so hard and brittle. I am hopeful once done it will keep out the wind and rain.
Lots to refurbish. I thought i'd start on the big stuff and get tit out of the way. The top needed sanding right back and a few layers of high build primer to give me a fighting chance of getting it all level. Lots of curves to the surface so a good few hours spent on that.

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A little black powder to check for low spots.

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Lots of masking up of the garage just to be sure...

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Silicon cleaner and tack rag then we were off to the races!

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And first stage of the mission accomplished. I have all the seal and rubbers new and awaiting test fit, but first there are a lot of metal work to de-rust and paint. I will take the opportunity to put anti drum sound deadening in the roof void. This will be trimmed after, not the carpetey stuff that was glued in place from the factory.
More later....
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chief
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Re: Project Blue Book

Post by chief »

Firstly Merry Christmas to one and all!
I have been busy with the little Fourteen of late but not go around to updating this thread, so apologies for that...
We left it with the 50 year old Targa top sort of painted with the Raptor Bed liner. After leaving it for a goodly while to realy harden off it was down to sound deadening, seals and fittings. The latter were a cause of concern as there is not a lot still available for repair.

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Some time was spent cleaning the stainless strips and I sadly chrome painted the fitting screws as they were zinc and yellow plated origionally.
Sad I know....
Sound deadening fitted well as I have not done this before and was concerned how flat I could get it. This just had cheap gey trim fabric glued in place from the factory. The roof is like a big drum skin so I was keen to try to reduce the noise. I am aiming to do something a bit fancy with the covering that will go over the deadening material (more later).

You can see the rear clip fitting here that I refurbished and painted eveything satin gloss black to give it a bit of a pop.
This is how it used to look!

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The front clips were next on the 'To Do' list...

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A bit more like it. I appreciate that a lot of this is not that visible at first sight, but I feel it's the attention to the detail that will pay off in the end.

The rear Targa clamps were a head stratcher until good old 914 Rubber came to the rescue with a part refurb kit. You have to re-use the finger leavers but mine were in a sad state as you can see here.

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They are plastic dipped which I cannot replicate. The plastic had holed in places and was rusting.I ended up cutting the plastic away with a Stanley knife.

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Also in this image you can see I have started to clean the 'Hook' which pulls the rear of the top down to the Targa bar. These have worn out of shape and are part of the kit supplied by 914 Rubber (USA). I was thankful for this as I thought I might have to weld and reshape.

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So repainted with (yes I know) the famous crackle finish. I built a few coats to try and thicken them up a bit like the original plastic.

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Yet more crackle finish on the plastic cover so that it matches the vinyl. The factory ones are just poor looking plastic, can't be dealing with that!!!

The rear Targa pad is also a reproduction from 914 Rubber. Mine were cracked and being in the Californian sun for 50 years had given up.
I spent a whole day trimming and fiddling to get this to fit nice and tight. I am really happy with the outcome. The front one again from them needed trimming and gluing into place. This next ugly photo shows the effort you sometimes have to go to...

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This is just being finished now, but I couldn't resist fitting the roof just to see what it will look like.

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I like big butts and I cannot lie...

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Next task is to assemble all the engine bits and bobs to check everything fits in place before going off the Angus to be rebuilt. I thought I clean the geabox up as well as I hate the thought of taking dirty stuff to someone and just expecting them to do the dirty work. Sets a bad tone in my mind.

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I cut some threadded rod and made a safe assembly to put onto my engine stand.

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I have loosend all the nuts and threaded inserts with heat and patients and loosley put back. the gear cluster looks good but the diff bearing race tracks look a bit worrying. The diff will be changed for one that has the narrow splines to take 911 flanges. This keeps the whole driveshft set up the same as I have gone five stud for the outers.
Well that's me for now. Thanks for looking in and I wish all a healthy, happy New Year!
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majordad
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Re: Project Blue Book

Post by majordad »

Surely it’s move the upper levers right etc ?
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camperco
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Re: Project Blue Book

Post by camperco »

That’s terribly decent of you Mark


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Re: Project Blue Book

Post by camperco »

Mmmmmm Jenvey…. We’ve been helping them out with installation details on the new 6 cylinder version.

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Greatworth Classics & VW Camper Company

Its a feature - not a fault sir..
chief
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Re: Project Blue Book

Post by chief »

Firstly, sorry for being away for a while. There was good reason. however, thank you for all you encouraging comments. They really are appreciated and give me energy to carry on. Some interesting work has gone on with Project Blue Book just now. But where to start....

We left it with cleaning the gearbox and having a little nose inside to see if there were any issues. So I attached the clean shiny box to the engine for mock-up.

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Next task was to get it into the car so I could start checking the tinware and making up the fuel lines.

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I recon that took 20 minutes to do what with having the ramp. The gidt that keeps giving!


​I was pretty sure that the tinware would fit apart from one piece. I painted all but that one. and started to assemble in situ.

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Yes, yes I know more of that crackle finish. But in my defence it just suits the whole 70's feel.

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This last picture is with the modified 912 Air Clearner in place. I just needed to see it the height was right and that i could still shut the engine lid.

I was a bit nervous in truth, but measure twice cut once and all that.

I needed to just re-shape that last unpainted piece of tinware a little just to be right. Once that was done I cut the holes for the heater blower and to match the holes in it's sister piece.

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You can see a sneak peak of the AN fuel lines fitted here. But here are a couple to show the detail.

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Hopefully the stealth black hides them against the Air Cleaners. I need to fabricate a nice bracket to secure them onto the fan housing, which I will do soon.

Next job was to design a throttle linkage and cable routing. I used a deign from Tiawan and modified it to suit my application.

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What I wanted was a system that could be used from the back of the engine and not have a throttle cable coming over the tinware and fan shroud from the front. This would look untidy and couldn't live with that now could I?

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I created a throttle tube and associated strenghtening that comes from behind (Gearbox side). It is all linished down and is practically invisible.

I painted the back tin, but forgot to take any pictures. The reason for this was that I was under a bit of time pressure....

I measured the dimensions for the throttle cable and have had this fabricated by 'Speedy Cables' in Wales. A very, very professional outfit. I can highly reccomend them. Nothing was too much trouoble, so I thank them, top job!


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The reason for my hurry (Shown above!) Engine & box along with everthing associated with it packed up and ready to go off the 'Greatworth Classics' where Angus and the boys will be performing MAGIC. No point in going into detail now, but rest assured some of this stuff will be pretty ground breaking.

​So all dropped over and time to get on with part done stuff...


Time to sign off. I've bored you all enough for now...

All the best everyone and "Good luck England!" for Saturday.
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Gary71
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Re: Project Blue Book

Post by Gary71 »

Great update! I’d missed all the previous black crackle content and must say it looks good :)

The central throttle spindle looks interesting, is that something you made?
Lightweight_911
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Re: Project Blue Book

Post by Lightweight_911 »

.

Great ingenuity & fabulous workmanship - as we've come to expect !! 8)

.
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rhd racer
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Re: Project Blue Book

Post by rhd racer »

Yes worth the wait that one - excellent work


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99 Boxster 2.5 > 2.7 hill climber

71 914/6 3.0 - gone

'You see Paul, hill climbing is like making love to a beautiful woman. You get your motor running, check your fluids, hang on tight and WHOA..30 seconds later it's all over!' Swiss Tony
jtparr
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Re: Project Blue Book

Post by jtparr »

Just love to see the passion that we all have being expressed in such great work….
Fantastic….
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sladey
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Re: Project Blue Book

Post by sladey »

Great work- looks fantastic
The simple things you see are all complicated
I look pretty young but I'm just backdated yeah
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