Restoring my first 914

[Darren C]

Today was an early start at work with two long meetings. Getting up extra early I bolted the dash top to the dash now the dye had dried so that it kept its shape. Even with the new dash cap in place its quite floppy and I was concerned that it may “set” in an odd way if left off too long. The bonding agent cures after 24 hours but can take over a week to fully set.
At work I managed to find 20 minutes in between meetings to pop over to the trimmers and collect the rear bulkhead panel that goes under the window behind the seats. All the messing about with the back boards, repairs and adding strength have paid off. The recovering looks far better than the old beat up lumpy appearance.
When I got home this evening I put them back together with new screws (the panel is in 3 sections) and cut the hole for the interior light.
I’d promised my son we’d go out in the Traveller this evening for more lessons, so I picked him up and spent the next 3 hours, kangarooing around the local industrial estate. To be fair he did very well as the old Morris has a manual choke, low biting point and very weak brakes, indicator lever that doesn’t auto cancel and obviously no power steering. It’s the best way to learn. If you can master that, then you can drive anything modern.
Retuning home safely we covered the Traveller up and I took him back to his mums in the Delorean as it hadn’t had a run in a couple of weeks.
Returning home and putting all cars away I sat down to open my post. There was a card in between the envelopes from DPD, “parcel left……….” I looked where it said and found a small box.
It was my new 914 gear knob. The original disk in the top with the gear selection has all cracked & crazed (a bit like shattered safety glass) so I found a new one on German ebay for a few quid. Hopefully with all these little things sorted it will look nice when I put it all back together.

[Darren C]

I started this morning on the steering wheel. I’d taken it off the car complete with column so that I could take the dash out. The first job was to remove the wheel from the column to start cleaning everything up.
The rim of the wheel is moulded sponge rubber that looks like the factory took a cast of a leather-bound wheel and just mass produced cheap sponge copies. Due to UV damage my wheel was quite perished and starting to crumble.
I decided a few months back to get it trimmed in leather (to copy the original moulded design). I’d spoken to Southbound trimmers a while ago about them covering it and was quoted £417.00, and they couldn’t fit it in until April 2016!
Suffice to say I started to look for alternative trimmers. The guy’s who’ve done my seats said that they could do it but reckon on 10 hours so the cost is not far short of Southbound.
Sometimes things just fall in to place if you wait awhile. I had a call from a friend who works at a high class restoration business wanting me to do his brothers wedding car, so a no monies deal was struck and I dropped off the wheel with him at lunchtime today.
On the way into work this morning I dropped off the dash panel with 3 holes that hold the main gauges at the powder coaters. The panel is chipped and peeling around the screws with a few scratches where the PO or garage must have slipped with a screwdriver in years past. This will be gently blasted and recoated satin black. They tell me it will be ready for the weekend which hopefully (if my new radio turns up) allow me to refit the refurbished dash back in the car.
Afterwards I visited the first trimmer (who did my seats) and picked up the windscreen pillar trims that were all split by UV, nicely trimmed with fresh vinyl.
Returning to the office after lunch there was a parcel from German ebay waiting.
Two brand new NOS genuine Porsche sunvisors. They look superb, unlike my old bags of spanners sunvisors that the trimmer pretty much didn’t want to touch with a barge pole.
After spending the afternoon at work distracted by looking at the sunvisors every 5 minutes, I returned home to carry on working on the car.
This evening I scrubbed and washed the remaining pieces of carpet that I took out under the dash & console. Again after several soaks, scrubs and rinse in the bath I hung them up to dry outside.
Next I began cleaning up the short seat belt clips that bolt to the tunnel. I got some new “Press” stickers from Rob on here off ebay (Cheers again Rob, top quality work ) so needed to get the assemblies spotless before fitting them. The bolts and washers that hold them to the car had black spots on the gold BZP so I wasn’t happy to re-use them. Fortunately over the last few evenings I’ve been rummaging in my sheds and found some new BZP bolts and washers in and old seat belt kit I had so all I needed to do was shorten the bolts on my lathe, machine a chamfer to match the originals and job done!
The plastic parts of the clips got a good scrub and the 4 tiny screws were removed one at a time and the heads wire brushed to a bright shine, the hole they came out off cleaned of gunk and refitted. I used cellulose thinners to clean the warning wires and white plug on the end before a brass wire brushing of the BZP eyelet on the ends.
They’ll look good as new when they go back in now.
As always, before I knew it the night started to draw in and I called it a day.

[911hillclimber]

Brilliant!

You surely can't be married!
Cleaning carpets in the bath would not happen here!

Look forward to the dash / interior pics soon.

Stop slacking in those meetings and get on with it!

[Darren C]

You surely can't be married!

Not any longer, I swapped my old house & ex-wife for freedom.

This morning I continued cleaning parts before work and at lunchtime today I visited the laser/waterjet cutters (after a bit of CAD designing) to collect a polishing template they cut out to my drawing. This is something I’m working on to ensure the Fuch wheels can be polished factory accurate. All top secret stuff, if it works out I’ll be sure to post pictures on here.


With just a few minutes of lunchtime left I telephoned the classic radio company up that I’d bought the radio from last week (yet to arrive) and chased them up. Hopefully I’ll see it on Saturday.
When I got home this evening I carried on cleaning and sorting dash parts out. One problematic area was the ashtray. The tray was badly cracked and in danger of the front falling off. Searching on line this seems to be a common issue when people have over the years tugged on the ashtray to open it.
Mine was still salvageable having caught it just in time. I decided to make up a stainless steel reinforcing plate this evening from some off-cut sheet I had in one of my sheds.
I carefully made a paper template then cut out and formed the stainless to fit the ashtray perfectly. The end was rolled to match the finger recess, so that anytime in future when the ashtray is pulled open, you're pulling the stainless plate not the weak plastic bracket that’s cracked.
After carefully measuring and drilling rivet holes in a position to be obscured from view above by the chrome surround in the tray, I keyed the stainless and plastic with 180 grit before applying tiger bond adhesive. The plate was riveted in place and all excess tiger bond that squeezed out was cleaned off with a cellulose thinners soaked rag.



It’s a solid as a rock now and when the adhesive sealant sets in 24 hrs it should be perfect for the future.
Yet again before I knew it, it started getting dark which is my cue to wrap up and get some dinner!

[Darren C]

I carried on cleaning the knee roll this morning to take it into work. I had contacted a specialist dash repairer (a lead given by the trimmer who did my seats) so a meeting was arranged in the car park this morning.
Unfortunately the chap said he could do nothing with it. He also said the trimmer who has my padded trim for the front of the roll bar had called him in to repair that for them (they tried maybe to sub it out) and he’d declined.
Suffice to say at lunchtime I went to collect it. Beforehand I called in at the motor factors and picked up some two part plastic bumper repair resin and some plastic flexible filler. I spoke with the trimmers and we’ve agreed for me to channel out all the splits, fill and level both parts. Return them to the trimmers and they’ll recover them with vinyl providing I make a good crack free base for them.
So….guess what I’ve got to do this weekend now.
Anyway after Friday food shop and getting home tonight to face the weekly clothes wash I did manage to find a couple of hours to carry on cleaning various dash parts.
I finished off the short seat belt catches, fitted Rob’s “Press” stickers and bagged them up with the new bolts and washers.
I cleaned up the heater slide controls and notice that a lot of the coloured inserts for indication had fallen out over the years. I need to find a good close up picture now of what colour insert goes where (red/blue indication bars) That’ll be another late night on line searching google images and trying to source some thin coloured plastic to make new ones!
I also scrubbed up the ashtray I’d repaired last night, plus its runner and bracket that holds it in the dash. Since the dash cap sits over the dash I plan to shim out the ashtray bracket with 3 washers to push it forwards in the closed position so its in line with the dash cap face.
Finally tonight I cleaned a few more nuts and bolts up before calling it a day.

[Darren C]

Today I fitted the ashtray and put the dashtop back on (you cant fit the ashtray bracket easily with the dash top on). I packed the bracket out with a washer behind each of the 3 studs and with the dashtop tightened down I fitted the ashtray and aligned it before nipping up the nuts.
With the dashcap on, not only does it mean the ashtray has to sit further forward, the opening isn’t as wide! After a lot of deliberation I decided to file a couple of mm of each end of the ashtray to allow it to close properly into the dashcap.
I then rubbed down the stainless reinforcing plate I’d added and etch primed it. While the etch primer was out I moved into the loft, masked and etch primed the engine lid ready for the blacking out under the grille.
An hour later I scotchbrited the ashtray front and then to conceal the filing down I wet & dried the ends smooth before vinyl dying them to match the cap and painting the reinforcing plate black so it wont catch the eye..
After a few hours it was a perfect fit and colour to match the dashcap. If I hadn’t of posted what I’d done here, no-one would have known. Hopefully it’ll help someone considering a dashcap repair and let you know things aren’t always as easy as it says on the box!
Next I cleaned up and greased the lock barrel for the glove box and fitted it to the dash.
While the sun was out I decided to sort out the knee roll and the roll bar padded trim.
The spilts were right through the foam to the metal backing plate inside the trim linking every screw hole.



The surface of the old vinyl was raised up along the split so I had to cut out the slots to about ¾” wide (not for the faint hearted).
The foam underneath was then sealed and filled with flexible plastic filler.
I spent the rest of today building it up layer by layer to just below surface level.
To make matters worse a section of foam had been pulled off the metal backing plate in the centre as the old vinyl had shrunk. This then made a 6” long raised “lump” where it sits against the roll bar. Smack bang dead centre, so looked awful. The vinyl was so tight that it wouldn’t glue back down without tearing the foam again. The only thing I could do to get a good base for the trimmers was to cut out a semi circle from the top of the trim 8” long!
I spent another few hours casting a new infill piece.
As it started to get dark I cut out the internal corners of the knee roll (at both ends of the removed stainless trim strip) Again the original vinyl trim on the knee roll had shrunk and lifted in the corners looking like two large blisters. These got cut out carefully so as not to damage the foam underneath by only cutting the vinyl covering.
All exposed foam was then coated with the same ronseal dry rot hardener I'd used on the bulkhead trim card to provide a solid surface for the flexible filler tomorrow when it all dries.

[Darren C]

I spent most of the day filling cracks in the trim pieces. The weather was poor all day with drizzle forcing me to work under the carport.
Eventually I finished the parts ready to drop off with the trimers tomorrow morning, hopefully they’ll have a good base now to recover them with new vinyl without any of the damage showing through.





After yesterdays dying of the ashtray it had 24 hrs to dry so I fitted it into the dash to check the final colour match. Seems pretty good.



Needing a break from sanding and filing I nipped out to buy some fluorescent tubes and starters for my main garage before the 4pm end of trading then replaced a few in my garage that have been playing up for a while now.
After a quick cuppa I started on the 5 gauges from the dash and console. The bezels were a bit flakey the glass foggy and scratched and some dust/sand trapped inside on the faces.
I removed all the large rubber grommets that hold them in the dash and scrubbed them with soapy water to remove grime and more sand. Next I carefully opened up the bezels about 60% around each gauge and carefully took them off.
All 5 gauge glasses were removed and cleaned up. Only the volt meter and temp gauge are actually glass, the other 4 are plastic. These I cleaned and polished for several hours with Brasso to remove all the scratches and fogging. The faces were gently cleaned with a sable bristle brush to get all dust & fluff off. The inner cone bezels were removed and cleaned and the silicone rubber seals pried out the rear of all the bezels.
I then carefully placed all the glasses back into the gauge bodies to stop dust/dirt getting in and carefully placed them in my summer house while I work on the bezels themselves.
I ran out of daylight again so plan to strip all the bezels of the flaky dull paint tomorrow.

[Darren C]

This morning I did a little work on my son’s Traveller, it had an exhaust blow from the manifold to down pipe so I took off the exhaust, cleaned it up, pasted and re assembled. I ran it up to set the paste and while I was at it, adjusted the idle speed which was a tiny bit low to the point it almost cut out when the clutch was depressed. Not ideal to learn to drive in so needed a tweak. I also adjusted and tightened up the wing mirrors before going to work.
At lunchtime I dropped off the filled trim pieces at the trimmers and hopefully should have them back for the end of the week.
The Blaupunkt Frankfurt radio turned up today and looks superb. It’s got a modification to plug in an MP3 player/ipod or something in the back (whatever that is) I’ll run the lead into the glovebox for the future but for now radio is just fine.
When I got home this evening the first thing I did was check the radio in the metal dash panel that I’ve previously stripped of basket weave. The radio panel was an old piece of zintec so has been changed at some point in time to fit the aftermarket radio the car came with. May have even been done by the main dealer as it’s a one owner car?
Anyhow, I tried the Blaupunkt but unfortunately it wouldn't fit. The two holes for the spindles fit but the rectangular hole for the radio tuner and push buttons was too small.
I carefully measured it all up, marked it out and filed the opening larger until the radio was a nice clearance fit. I’m going to trim it all with new basket weave so it will be fine now.
Next I carried on with the engine lid that I’d etch primed over the weekend. It had 48 hours to dry so I lightly scotchbrited the etch primer and sprayed it satin black tonight.
While it was drying I used paint stripper on the bezels and removed all the damaged flaky black paint.
Like the glass & plastic faces the bezels were another mix of brass and steel?



No sooner had I stripped the paint off the steel one began to rust! I quickly cleaned them up, baked them dry in my oven and coated them with etch primer before running out of daylight.

[Green Ernie]

Great thread Darren, I have ordered a dash top cover for my car having seen yours,
keep up the good work.
BTW i am searching for a rear boot lock and key if anyone has one.
Regards Matt

[Darren C]

Thanks Matt,

Good luck with the dash cap, it’s not as simple as the instructions would have you believe. I had to hack away quite a bit of my original dash top to get the cap to sit down neatly.
The cap finishes shy of the underside of the dash and around the brow (where the clocks sit) looks poor. As explained a few posts back, I had to build the old dash up with vinyl to disguise the "step" between cap and dash. Plus shaving off a good 2-3mm off each end of the ashtray.
Here's a close up so it may better explain.



Please feel free to pm me if you have any trouble.
If no one on here comes up trumps on a boot lock for you, I have seen a few good secondhand ones going around on US ebay (ebay.com not .co.uk)

Today I got up quite tired, my brain had been working overtime through the night designing a device to roll the bezel edges over neatly on the gauges, so I'd gotten little sleep.
I got up at dawn and started to sketch out my thoughts before doing a little research on how it was done at VDO. I have a cunning plan using my lathe and a modified knurl tool. Following a good rummage in my shed for materials to make it with I had breakfast and left for work.
At lunchtime I visited my friendly iron mongers and picked up some off cuts of bar and rod to make the bezel tool with.
On the way home from work tonight I had a 15 mile detour to pick up my son followed by 3 hours of driving lessons in the Traveller. Dropping him off afterwards I returned home to give the bezels a coat of black paint before nightfall.

[Darren C]

Today I continued working on the bezel replacement tool and at lunchtime I picked up some new star washers for the seat runner brackets.
This evening after work I spent a couple of hours continuing on my lathe before taking one of my other classic cars out to a pub meet.
Busy day but still got 4 hours in on the 914!

[Green Ernie]

[Hi Darren, my dash cover arrived today In a plastic bag via Parcelforce! I commented to the delivery guy that it was not very well packed and he pointed out a note from Parcelforce that said that it had had to remove items or packaging from the parcel as it had arrived damaged to them. There were no detailed notes and I have received 1 x dash cover in good condition and 1 x dash top adhesive both in a sealed plastic bag. Can you tell me how your parcel arrived and if I am missing anything (instructions?) quote="Darren C"]Thanks Matt,

Good luck with the dash cap, it’s not as simple as the instructions would have you believe. I had to hack away quite a bit of my original dash top to get the cap to sit down neatly.
The cap finishes shy of the underside of the dash and around the brow (where the clocks sit) looks poor. As explained a few posts back, I had to build the old dash up with vinyl to disguise the "step" between cap and dash. Plus shaving off a good 2-3mm off each end of the ashtray.
Here's a close up so it may better explain.



Please feel free to pm me if you have any trouble.
If no one on here comes up trumps on a boot lock for you, I have seen a few good secondhand ones going around on US ebay (ebay.com not .co.uk)

Today I got up quite tired, my brain had been working overtime through the night designing a device to roll the bezel edges over neatly on the gauges, so I'd gotten little sleep.
I got up at dawn and started to sketch out my thoughts before doing a little research on how it was done at VDO. I have a cunning plan using my lathe and a modified knurl tool. Following a good rummage in my shed for materials to make it with I had breakfast and left for work.
At lunchtime I visited my friendly iron mongers and picked up some off cuts of bar and rod to make the bezel tool with.
On the way home from work tonight I had a 15 mile detour to pick up my son followed by 3 hours of driving lessons in the Traveller. Dropping him off afterwards I returned home to give the bezels a coat of black paint before nightfall. [/quote]

[Darren C]

Hi Matt, sorry to hear your parcel woes. Mine came in a box with 3 pages of instructions. (2 German 1 English)
PM me your email and I'll scan and send a copy as a pdf tomorrow.

Cheers
Darren

[JAS 966]

Still amazed you manage the time to write all this up Darren.... But great reading as I lie here on my sun lounger!! Glad you're pleased with the 'PRESS' decals .... My very small contribution to clearly what is becoming a very thorough restoration.... Keep it up!
Rob

[Darren C]

Thanks Rob, I'll post some pictures of your Decals when the seatbelts go back in the car, as for finding time I do this in my spare time; I work a 60 hour week at work you know.

Pdf dash instructions sent via email Matt, good luck with the installation.

This morning I put another coat of black on the gauge bezels and left for work.
At lunchtime I called in at the powder coaters but the dash gauge surround won’t be ready until tomorrow so I’ll pick it up then.
This evening I started by cleaning the rubber grommets that hold the gauges in the dash & console. I’d washed them in soap & water to get the sand and grime off, but they were still brown/grey and needed a good clean with a cellulose soaked rag to get them back to black
Next I ended up filing the interior light to get it to fit in the bulkhead trim snugly. A week ago I’d cut the vinyl and glued it around the opening to allow the light to fit, but I hadn’t fully tried it as the glue was still tacky. My original light was in half and melted so I got a generic T1 genuine beetle one (I now know they’re slightly different) The difference is the T1 is made to locate in a thin metal hole, the 914 is a thick hardboard padded hole with metal tabs behind it. Overall the clips on the T1 light need filing open/back by a good 3-4mm and the metal clip re bending. After that all fits snugly. (note to self….next time buy a Porsche light and spend the extra £10 over the T1 light and it should fit!)
I then bonded the 4 aluminium ferrules at the base of the bulkhead trim from the rear with tiger bond and made a nice fillet around them to add strength. I’d fitted them dry last week but when messing with the light tonight, a couple looked wobbly.
With the tiger bond still out I fitted a new carpet eyelet from 914rubber to the passenger mat that had been missing.



I plan on doing just the one. They look slightly different to the original ones having ridges around the eyelet, but much better than a hole with threads of carpet coming loose! Besides, keeping the other 3 (when they are fine) is being much kinder to the originality of the car (what’s left of it).
After cleaning up I did a trial fit on my fuch wheel polishing template. The idea is that I give it to the polishers with 4 nuts and bolts, they swap it from wheel to wheel and when they polish them there is no chance that they can slip or get it wrong. No matter how rough they are, only the factory polished areas of the wheel can be got at.
Sounds like a plan, but we’ll see how it works in reality.
After the trial fit in needs a tweak to put a slight curve/dish in it and maybe bead roll the circumference back up.



Yet again I ran out of daylight.