Restoring my first 914

[Darren C]

LOL Maurice, you don’t know the half of it. I have 10 cars at the moment 5 under restoration. I also post on other club forums the progress on all my projects running in tandem. You just make time.
As Ferry Porsche once said “Cars are my life”

I work a 50 hour + week in my day job and in the summer usually get up around 4am to get at least 2 ½ hrs work on the cars before breakfast, go to work, and when I get home I usually work until 11pm on the cars. Very often I work through and don’t go to bed. My wife divorced me because I was the man who never stood still, I’m always working and when I’m not I’m thinking about cars. In between all that I run & organise many car club events and write for several magazines.
Winter is usually the time the writing increases and the labour reduces, purely because it’s too cold at night to work more than 5 hours each evening. I stay in bed until about 5:30am in the winter and try and get at least an hour in before going to work.
Cars are simply what I do, always have and always hope to. I usually give myself a target 6 months to restore a car and so in the last 32 years of car restoration I’ve done quite a few. Some go much quicker, some are slow burn. When I was younger I spent 1000’s of hours on Beetles (had 17 of them) then the penny dropped and I realised that 1 hour of your time is just 1 hour of your time so why waste it on a car that has a ceiling value of £10K, when you could spend that same hour on a car without ceiling value. I then worked my way through almost every model of Porsche and all sorts of exotica. Then 10 years ago age 40 another penny dropped. Why sell them? I always got my cars properly sorted out and I never really sold a car to someone who truly appreciated what had been done. So I always regretted selling my cars, so I decided it was easier to keep them. Over the years I was fortunate to have all sorts of stuff pass through my ownership and now I have a reduced collection of only10 cars (the divorce caused that!). As I said earlier, I’m the man who can’t sit still, so the 914 is part of a journey from the heart of selecting cars that I really wanted when I was younger, but for whatever reason didn’t manage to get.
It’s not about the value (been there done that), it’s not about profit (got the Tee shirt on that one) and since I don’t plan to sell anything it’s simply about passion and love for the car.

So tonight’s escapades involved putting a clear coat on the pedal assembly bracket, rubbing down last nights primer on the pedals themselves and giving them a coat of black. Wire hooks over the hall radiator and it’s a bit whiffy currently in the house!
I also sorted out some nice new split pins for the accelerator & brake pedal shafts and put another zinc coat on the brake calliper pins.
This weeks Darwin award for the “Numpty of the Week” who stalls my restoration progress goes to………….. the anonymous TNT delivery man who put a card through my door today without filling in the consignment number. I called TNT to arrange a 2nd delivery tomorrow and they said that I cannot arrange anything without the consignment number. When I explained the box was blank on the card they said I would have to either wait in on the off chance they would try and deliver again tomorrow (like I’m going to have a day off work) or get home to another card and hope the TNT man fills in the consignment number!!!
I said “what if I come to the Depo (open until 8pm) and just collect my parcel?”. “Sorry no, not without the consignment number. We can’t find your parcel”
“Cant you just check by my address, you know, the thing that’s written on it (that’s how the mail service has run since the year 1500) or by which driver was on my area route to locate my parcel?
“Sorry no, we don’t have time to read addresses, its all barcoded now, so we need the consignment number”
“But your driver didn’t write it on the card!”
“Have you tried on line?”
“Yes it says I need to put the consignment number in, which is why I’m calling you to arrange a delivery method or collection. Ok, look, I’ll just put a note on my door to tell them to leave it behind the coal bunker”
“Sorry, they can’t do that without authority from the Depo”
“Ok, I’m giving you authority to tell them to leave it as per my instructions”.
“Sorry sir, I cant do that without your consignment number”

Is it just me?

[moriarty]

Bl**dy Hell! Darren I think you deserve an MBE for services to the motor industry

I've had a similar problem with TNT recently, I bought a boot lid from a guy in Scotland and when it arrived it was badly damaged and completely unusable despite being well packed by sender! so won't be using them again.
Hope you get it sorted.
Maurice

[rhd racer]

Crikey Darren, you make me look lazy!

I am always on the go - be it house extension, daddy day care or the growing collection of cars (have two Boxsters now, the 2nd collected today!) and working from home, I often go out and put an hour in before work, sometimes 1/2 at lunch etc - going into the garage helps clear my head of work stress too.

I don't have the talent to do much properly, but I'll give anything a good go!

I will give your description to my wife - it may make her feel thankful that I am do less than you, and therefore buy me some time!!!

Cheers
Wayne

[Darren C]

Thanks Maurice, you don’t realise how close to the truth you are. Pm sent.

As for an MBE, you could always write to Liz at Buck House and put in a good word for me.

Wayne, good plan, tell the wife, but leave out the bit about me loosing half my cars to my ex. I’m doing up my house too. I took the hipped roof off and put in two gable ends, steel ridge beam and a pitched roof. Then a dormer and loft conversion (still in progress, all dry lined just ready to plaster) Built a kitchen extension into a new conservatory, then built two mega garages for the cars, a carport, an engine rebuild room disguised as a summerhouse and my workshop with lathe etc. Re wired the house and block paved the drive, built a front wall and now a third garage (temporary) to work on yet another car project. (All within the last few years, I self taught myself bricklaying and have never employed any contractors for anything)
Unlike you I go to work for stress relief
Anyway back on track with the thread. Today I did a few hours this morning before work on one of my other classics as it’s booked in for MOT tomorrow morning so before breakfast I carried out the pre MOT adjustment of the handbrakes and went over it with a fine tooth comb. I got it booked in at the crack of dawn tomorrow so I can get back home early to work on the 914.
Before I left for work I put a polite note on the door for the TNT man explaining that I’d called his Depo and tried to sort out a “leave in a nominated place” instruction.
When I got home tonight, it worked! The parcel was there. It was my new clutch and accelerator cable and exhaust gaskets from Roger Bray. I’d also called into Porsche Centre Portsmouth on my way home and picked up the two handbrake cables (for info, they were cheaper than anywhere else I tried and the longer cable was the same price as the short cable, everyone else wanted more for it?) I also got some new round relays as I had to play musical relays on the relayboard last weekend. A new flasher relay (I think that’s what’s wrong with the hazards and indicators and at £12 it’s worth a punt, plus changing it after so long sitting is a good idea)
Looking through Porsche PET parts catalogue last Sunday before I ordered anything I worked out that the handbrake cables come with the concertina gator where the cable goes into the car (in front of engine) but not the gator/bellows at the calliper? Why this is I don’t know? But anyway I got a pair of these from Porsche centre £3 each. Well worth it as my old ones are completely shot and they stop all the dirt getting into the cable, so a no brainer to change them.
Tonight I have given the pedals a coat of clear lacquer and they are hanging back over the radiator. I also cleaned up the pedal springs and fittings. The coils were full of 40 years of grit from the soles of shoes so needed a good sorting out before they went back on.
The floor where the pedal bracket was removed was very dirty full of sawdust, sand, grit and general gunk. I gave it all a good clean with the intention of painting it before the pedals went back, but once I vacuumed it and wiped it with a damp cloth, blue paint was revealed. No rust at all, just the original factory primer with a dusting of blue exactly as it left the factory. I’m a sucker for keeping stuff original so instead of painting over the floor I gave it a coat of clear waxoil just under the area where the wood panel covers. I was careful not to apply too much and keep it off where the carpet goes as it never really dries. It was just basically applied where the bulkhead meets the floor and under the pedal bracket itself.
The plan for tomorrow is to get all the cables replaced and take a good look at the handbrake lever which seems to be bent out of shape.
Plus of course take some pictures

[Darren C]

It was a long day today, but the sun shone and I took one of my other cars in for MOT first thing this morning. Luckily it passed, so another year of classic motoring ahead. The guys at the test centre had never seen one, and as it was a clean pass with no advisories I had to oblige by letting them have photos with it for their facebook pages and garage business website. This took me an hour longer than anticipated as passers by kept stopping to talk.
Anyhow I rushed home, put it away and started working on the 914.

As promised I took a few photos, so you can see how rust free this little car is. I was in two minds whether to post them or not as I haven't had chance to clean up underneath yet. This is pretty much how it came off the boat.
Floor with pedal box removed (still waiting for the bronze bushes to arrive)



The other side showing new Master Cylinder



The rear of the hell hole from underneath.



The Floor pan



Behind bumper



As you can see from above I managed to get the exhaust system off today. I cannot believe it but there were NO head to manifold copper gaskets fitted. I had to check and double check, but the PO must have left them out! The back box is the original but has a tiny hole in it as mentioned before, so I have a new one on its way. I plan to take the heat exchangers down to my friends who bead blast on Monday. They are pretty solid, just a bit surface rusty, so a blast and paint is in order before they go back with new gaskets and back box.
The bottom of the engine is very oily, most of it pouring out whilst it stood for many years topped up to the filler cap. Now the exhaust is off I can get properly at it and that’s the plan for tomorrow.



This afternoon I fitted the new clutch cable. I need to get some new nuts for the end of it. The thread is an odd size, not 6mm or 8mm, so I clean the old ones up for now.
I also fitted the two new hand brake cables, and the new gators on the end. Boy were they a fiddle to feed the clevis through. The hole in the end is about 4mm, the clevis is about 8mm square (square peg round hole syndrome) After a grease up they stretched over neatly.
I also took out the drivers seat and after cleaning up all the usual stuff, coins, straws, packets of sugar, business cards and general debris I took a look at the handbrake lever. As suspected once the seat was out you could see it was bent and slightly twisted. So much so the part that presses the handbrake switch missed it completely! The handle was rubbing on the carpet of the sill, so much so you couldn’t get your hand around it. It had to come out. After another fiddly 10 minutes it was in the vice and I straightened it out, cleaned under it and after greasing the hinge pins it was put back. Next the new cables were attached to the balance arm and the cover plate refitted. No rust was found underneath it so I was well pleased too.
After a cuppa I then fitted the new relays to the engine bay relay board so I have all new relays now.
I then dropped the fuse box to fit my new hazard/indicator relay. But guess what…I’d been sold the wrong one! Hey ho, I’ll have to sort it out on Monday. The old one has 4 pins, the new had 3. I’ve taken the part number directly off the old one so should be able to sort it without too much fuss.
Finally before I ran out of daylight I changed the square cork gasket under the oil filler breather.

[Mr Pharmacist]

What car did you take for the MOT today?

The clutch nuts are M7 for some reason.

IIRC the 3 pin relay will work but the indicator lights on the gauge won't work correctly (both lights will flash at the same time). I think 4 pin are expensive.

I'm well impressed with your progress. I've been busy striping my engine down and today the front suspension came off to replace the bushings and also new brake discs and turbo tie rods. But my progress isn't as quick as yours!!

[Darren C]

Thanks Stuart,

I was thinking they must be M7 or something odd like that, but why would you make them such an odd size, its not like you have to feed the cable through a 7mm hole or anything, the only thing I can think of is the gap between the forks on the clutch lever means the block with the locating vee's dictated the size

Thanks again Stuart I think I have some M7 nuts somewhere in my shed. Thanks for the advice on the relay too. I didn't try the 3 pin but will get it exchanged for the 4 pin type as I'd like it to all work properly. As for speed of progress, I wish I could go faster, I just keep getting held up by the parts suppliers. Been waiting 2 weeks now for new discs and bearings to arrive from Berlyn Services.

The car I took for MOT this morning was my nut & bolt restored Delorean
(I have two mates in Leeds with Deloreans too, so you may have seen one near you)

[Mr Pharmacist]

Deloreans are very cool! I saw 3 of them at once last year on a road near my house - one of them in full back to the future get up - maybe they were your mates?

Parts always slow me up to. Very frustrating!

[karmann]

I look forward to the new progress on this car, such a good read!
I got the Porsche Post magazine waiting for me when I got home from work this evening, I was pleased to see that Kev has added a photo and description of both my new Alska blue 73 and your Alask blue 74.
Keep up the good work!

[shoestring7]

The car I took for MOT this morning was my nut & bolt restored Delorean

That was my guess!

C>

[Darren C]

Yep Stuart that sounds like Nick T, James and Mike B with the BTTF car.
It’s a very small community in the DMC club with about 30 cars in the UK roadworthy you get to know everyone!
Cheers Matt, I did see your picture at the top of the 3 Kev included in the Register write up yesterday in Porsche Post. Looks a very nice car, if mine comes out looking half as good as yours I’ll be well pleased.
Charles, that was an “educated guess”

So on to today….

This morning I started by very, very carefully removing the sleeves on the front brake hoses as Kev recommended. The new ones came with large “rub” sleeves (basically two bits of rubber tube over each hose). As I’d noticed before this stops the hose bending smoothly in an S shape and really looks uncomfortable left on. With a very steady hand and a Stanley knife I cut them along their length. I locked the blade so only the tip protruded out the knife and was less than the wall thickness of the rub tube. In this way I removed the risk of accidentally nicking the brake hose beneath. A small screwdriver levered the rest off and the tube tore the last amount to come off neatly.
I also took a punt on some lock tabs for the front callipers from VW heritage (1302 beetle & type 3) as the genuine ones are no longer available. The part number was almost identical to Porsche number. Unfortunately the distance between the holes is too small, so back to the drawing board and £3 down!
The underside of the engine required a damn good clean, so dressed up with goggles on and 5 litres of brake cleaner/degreaser, an array of wire brushes and elastic bands on my sleeves I started the messy task.
I got a bit carried away and in the end spent 5 hours on it. Boy was it messy, I had a right old job getting the baked on oil off, even the detailing wire brushes wouldn’t touch it! With the heat exchangers removed I could get in just about everywhere, almost as easy as it would have been taking the engine out. I then progressed to the sides of the engine bay and around the trailing arm suspension mounts and the engine cross member mount.
After a well deserved cuppa, I set about waxoiling the areas of body work and suspension mounts I’d cleaned up.
My plan is to carryout a thorough restoration/recommission and preserve the car along the way and protect it as best I can from the British weather without going mad with a million hour, concours, see your face in the paintwork under the car resto. Having been down that road before, as nice as it is to look at, you just can’t use, enjoy the car and relax with it. A few friends have asked me why I haven’t taken the engine out. To be fair it would have made things a little more accessible but I don’t think (and hope) its not required at this stage of recommissioning. Space is also an issue, its amazing how much room it all takes up when you start taking things apart. At the moment I have the car in the corner of a friends Industrial Unit and he runs a business from there so I have to push it outside into the gated compound every evening after working on it and back in each morning. Not ideal but with 9 cars at home currently, the plan is to get the 914 running and stopping, then bring it home. In that way its much easier for me to move cars around to get others in & out.
Next while there was “plenty” of access I took off the rocker covers and set the tappets. They weren’t too bad, the exhausts had closed up a little and the inlets were only a tad out. It was obvious the covers hadn’t been off in ages as the gaskets were like baked rock. I had a bit of a struggle prying them off. I have new supple cork gaskets to go back on, but since I’m taking the heat exchangers down to be bead blasted tomorrow I thought I’d stick the rocker covers in with them and get them painted up nicely. I also took off the large wire retaining clips, to clean and paint them too. With new gaskets I hope they’ll be leak free.
Next I took off the two heater flap boxes (the bits that open and close when you pull the console lever). Tonight in my shed as it got dark I gave them a good degrease. These will be my evening project this week. Too delicate to bead blast I’ll refurbish them by hand.
Late last night I was online searching and managed to find a supplier of the red silicone canvas wire bound heater hose in the right size. Ordered some up so when everything goes back I can replace the hose, particularly as one side has collapsed and the wire reinforcement looks like a birds nest inside it.
I also tracked down some new manifold nuts (shouldered copper) and some special header paint.
Hopefully I’ll have more joy with the deliveries this week than TNT last week.

[Darren C]

It was a very early start this morning. Before sunrise I was up and at my friends unit to do a bit on the car and then push it out into the compound so he could start work at 7am. It was throwing it down yesterday evening so I decided to leave it until this morning to avoid getting too wet.
Today the NOS rear exhaust box arrived from SVP Porsche that I saw on ebay. Very well packed and in perfect condition. Weighs an absolute ton, they don’t make them like that anymore!
I dropped off the heat exchangers and some other odd bits at the bead blasters in my lunchbreak and also ordered some heat resistant paint. The manifolds will get too hot for powdercoat so paint is my best option.
What was the original colour for the heat exchangers?
The tubes for the heating that attach to the exchangers are showing Black, the NOS back box is Grey. I presume the heat exchangers were originally Grey too?

Anyone know for sure

Thanks in advance

Tonight after work I started to clean up the heater flap boxes. One was coated in oil so barely rusted at all, the other was bone dry, so a lot of surface rust. I spent a good 3 hours cleaning them with a combination of emery, sand paper and various wire brushes before soaking them in phosphoric acid to get the bits other methods can’t reach. After a good wash off, they are currently in my oven at 100C to dry out completely. Tomorrow I hope to paint them black, to match the remaining original colour.

The RH Heater flap box has the dome "mushroom" cap missing and had some open ended hose connected to it? Kev seems to think it was a California Modification to take heat away from the fuel pump possibly. But here in UK it shouldn't be needed.

Does anyone out there have an old knackered heater flap box that I can rob the mushroom cap off to replace mine?

While they were soaking I set about stripping all grime, rust and paint off the spring wires that hold the rocker covers on. Rubbed down to bare metal I de greased and gave them a coat of primer.
I’m going to have to get things put back on the car soon as parts are now in 3 rooms at home, my summer house, the car mats are on the garage floor and slowly but surely the 914 is taking over.

[Porky Scratchings]

Hi Darren,

I'll echo everyone else, really enjoying my daily fix of "Restoring My First 914", better than Eastenders!

I have a Flapper Box that suits your needs, will try and post off today, least I can do.

Cheers - Peter

[Darren C]

Many thanks Peter, let me know what I owe you.

I contacted Porsche Centre at lunchtime and tried to understand why the flasher relay they supplied on the right part No had only 3 pins. Apparently this is the superseded part? Without the “C” pin it won’t light the dash arrows. The chap was really helpful and we filled in a questionnaire for incorrect/defective parts and sent it off to Stuttgart there and then. I’ll let you know if they respond.
I tried my local motor factors who phoned Hella technical with the number on my old relay and was told it didn’t exist! So I kinda had a “computer says no” episode.
Then I thought about a very good electrical supplier near me Furneaux Riddall (an electrical car & marine parts supplier since 1918). I gave them a call with the Hella number, the pin configuration and the pin id. Within a minute they rattled off about 5 different alternative relays from £16 to £22. Some in stock, so I plan on popping down to see them tomorrow as I ran out of lunch time today.
I got home this evening to find 6 tins of VHT grey paint, some new M7 nuts, and another packet of slotted stainless cheese head M6’s (I’d ran out when putting the engine tinware back on and thought I’d order more for the plates and ducting around the heat exchangers). There was a card from Royal Mail to say I have something else needing a signature at the local depo. They don’t open until 7am so it’ll mess my plans up for the pre-work jobs in the morning, but hopefully it’ll be some form of progress I suppose in just collecting it.
After checking all my deliveries I started to clean up more parts tonight. I started with the “Hoop” shaped clamps that hold the ducts onto the fan housing under the car. I gave them all a good degrease, sand and wire brush up before coating with a silver zinc paint. (to match the original finish on these parts) I was also very careful to retain the cork gaskets that sit in these brackets as they were in good condition.
Next I cleaned up the clamps that hold the heater lever operating wire onto the Flap Boxes. I spun them in my lathe to clean, re tapped and then a coat of zinc silver. I got some new M5 bolts, cut them to length and faced the ends off neatly with a chamfer in the lathe.
The heater flap boxes were bone dry after last nights baking exercise after washing off the acid. Tonight I gave them a prime with some VHT primer. Apart from the missing “mushroom” cap that Peter is sending over, they came up great. I’ll let them dry overnight and paint them black tomorrow.
While still in the mood for painting I gave the spring wires (for the rocker covers) a nice coat of engine enamel black over the primer. Hanging over the radiator (yet again with other stuff) they’ve come out like new.
I’ve left the 4 x legs that hold the mushroom cap bare metal for now and cleaned them all up. Hopefully as soon as Peter’s cap arrives I can weld it on and finish the paint job on it.

Any feedback guys on the original heat exchanger colour?

[Mr Pharmacist]

pretty sure it was a silvery grey colour on the original exchangers