Restoring my first 914

[Darren C]

Bruce, they are 9.5mm… looks like Berlyn Services have sent me Beetle discs then!
Can’t wait for the phone call tomorrow.

Today I needed to move forward regardless of the disc issue. The car is booked in the paintshop on the 2oth April, so today I started to strip stuff off ready for painting.
First I removed the front and rear bumpers. Both have a tiny bit of surface rust which isn’t an issue. They have dents and scrapes which is more of a problem. A bit of gentle tin bashing is required. It was nice to take them off and flip them over and find no rust at all, plus all the nuts bolts and washers were still shiny gold zinc plate.
Next the rear and front valances were taken off.
The rear is reasonably dent & rust free, the front however is pretty sorry for itself.



And the other side



Both pressings around the suspension mounts are dented, torn and generally in a mess. I’ll have to do some serious tin bashing here to revive them.

Again I was pleasantly surprised to find very, very little rust behind both bumpers (just a tiny spot where the valances are attached) and considering the damage to the front valance, the body behind didn’t have a scratch on it! Both bumpers were absolutely full of sand as expected, so after a hoover up and brush and pan, this is how the car behind looks.




And rear end



Just a few tiny bits of rust where the valances were screwed on and that’s it!

So, now came the moment of truth, taking the sill covers off…
Everyone I’d spoken to when saying that I had found no rust (apart from the battery tray) on my car, just smiled and said “wait until you take off the sill covers and reveal the jacking points”
To say they were full of sand was an understatement. I got almost half a bucket full out of each side, plus more Californian spiders nests and webs.
Again I used a soft handbrush (from my brush and pan) then a damp cloth to wipe the final dusty sand residue off and found them like this…



The jack points are a little dirty and I will have to give them a T-cut just to make them factory new again. (The door bottoms are rust free, that's just dirt & water stains showing in the camera flash)



There’s a bit of scratching down the jack tube, but most of the blue paints still in there. As per the rest of the car, I couldn’t find any rust to write about.
The lower vertical spot weld seam on the base of the sill has a few bits of chipped paint on it so I’ll touch them in with a small brush.
Apart from a T-cut I think I’ll get the paint shop just to mask them up and not paint them. I quite like the idea of keeping the original paint on them. Maybe a coat of clear Waxoil would be enough to preserve the surface for UK weather.
At least today was a result and redeemed some of yesterday’s frustration.

The thing is, now I have a summerhouse full of Bumpers, Sills & Valances to work on. Hey ho, it’ll give me something to do while the cars away at the painters

[Bruce M]

On the "scales of good fortune" those sills trump the disc issues by a ton

[Darren C]

So here is where I am at with Berlyn Services and my 914 front brake discs ordered 7 weeks ago.

Their website is still live showing the discs for sale with the correct part number. (link below)

http://partsforporsche.co.uk/fnt-disc-9 ... =3a&page=3

Now on the telephone this afternoon Mr David Barker of Berlyn Services said that he can get me the discs from a supplier that isn’t his normal source and I can have them hopefully for the weekend.

So all I need to do is pay him a further £140 on top of the price shown on his website for the discs that I have already paid for 7 weeks ago.

Alternatively I can wait (indefinitely) until his normal source of discs become available again.

Now call me old fashioned but I think that under the sale of goods act Berlyn Services and I have a “contract” at the price advertised and after 7 weeks I feel a bit miffed off to say the least that they now want another £140 from me, whilst they continue to advertise a fixed price on their website, which I paid in good faith.

This is basically holding me to ransom, issues with their supplier is NOT my problem, if they had supply issues way before I placed my order 7 weeks ago, why still advertise 914 discs for sale?

[Mr Pharmacist]

I think you should just get a refund from them and get them ordered from mittel motor and save being messed about further by berlyn services

[Darren C]

Thanks Stuart,

I have been lead a merry dance with them, multiple false hopes, and now being told I can have the discs by the weekend if I pay a further £140 is really the last straw. I am a patient man, but also have principles. Unfortunately I am so wound up by them now that walking away is not going to benefit anyone else in future.
They simply cannot run a reputable business like this and need to sort themselves out. If I let it go they'll just be more inclined to do it again and again to other people and bring more misery on unsuspecting customers.

The correct thing for them to do is just send me the discs that I know they can get within 48hrs and take it on the chin. I'm sure they make enough profit to cover any loss in this instance. Then take off sale 914 discs until they have stock and relist them at any revised price as necessary.

I'm sorry if I come across a bit blo*dy minded, but if it's one thing I cannot stand, it's an injustice.
People are truly judged on their actions when things are going wrong, not when they are going right.

[Darren C]

Today I contacted Berlyn Services to see if there was any movement following me declining to pay an additional £140 to have the correct Discs.
After getting no further I contacted the Trading Standards Office closest to them and filed a report. I then took legal advice and contacted Berlyn again to try and resolve the issue.
They have now completely declined to exchange the Beetle discs they sent me for Porsche 914 discs that I ordered, so unfortunately this afternoon I have started the basic requirements of a Legal claim against them for Breach of Contract in the Sale of Goods Act.
Basically I have given 14 days notice for them to resolve the problem (in addition to the 7 weeks they have already had) after which if they do not exchange the parts supplied I will take them to a small claims court.
I can’t be any fairer with them, the law is quite clear.

Extract from the sale of goods act:

1, You are entitled to ask the trader to repair or replace the goods at their expense.

(They cannot ask me to pay a further £140 for them to obtain goods from another supplier)

2, You are entitled to claim damages from the trader to cover your losses if they were caused as a direct result of the goods being faulty. This is called consequential loss.
(The discs supplied can be classed as faulty because they do not fit my car.)

3, The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 set out the rules that apply to the delivery of goods. The trader must deliver the goods to you unless you have agreed otherwise. The goods must be delivered without undue delay or in any event not more than 30 days after the day on which you entered the contract. This does not prevent you and the trader from agreeing your own arrangements for delivery but you should ensure this arrangement is written into the contract.
(Over the first 30 days since the order was placed they have always maintained that they could provide the goods, yet they did not. This strengthens my claim of consequential loss should I choose that route in addition to replacement costs for new discs from another supplier)

4, A trader may commit a criminal offence if they advertise a misleading price.

(Related to point 1 above, should their normal supplier not provide them with parts, under the sales contract we have it is an offence to request more money from me. This is compounded by the fact that throughout the term of the sale contract they have continued to advertise the discs for sale at the price I have paid with no consideration to withdraw the advertisement or mark as “out of stock”)

So there you have it, it’s a shot over their bow, let’s see what happens in 14 days. Obviously if the goods do not get exchanged and I am forced into legal action, out of respect for them & the law I will not continue to comment on this or any other forum until the case is resolved.
I just hope that the situation is resolved soon without all this agro.

Moving on…..

Tonight for a couple of hours I took my frustrations out with a bit of tin bashing. The passenger side sill cover had damage around the jacking hole. Not certain how this came about but it’s possible the car slipped off the jack at some point in its history and the tip of the jack caught the hole in the sill cover and folded the top of the aperture in under itself. The metal was rolled up and under so it took a bit of straightening out. Then with a range of hammers and dollies I beat out all the deformation. Draw filing the surface and a little more hammering, finished with 80 grit on a block got it flat and true without the need for any filler. Next I flattened out all the fixing holes which had been dished down by using pop rivets rather than the original fixings. Again a little more straightening out of the sill cover return edges (that were a bit wavy) and its as good as new. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll cast an eye over the drivers side and deal with all the niggles in that one.

[Mr Pharmacist]

What a palava with those discs. I hope you get a swift and sensible solution!

[nrc914]

That is one solid clean car you have there Darren underneath all that sand!

It's a shame about Berlyn Services as I know Bert from there has been quite helpful and competitive with pricing over the years with the 944 guys over on the PCGB forum but I guess parts for those are more readily available and standard or they know the cars better perhaps. Hope you get a resolution from them without the need to go to court.

Keep up the good work.

Regards

[Green Ernie]

Hello Darren, love the thread. Don't know how you find the time to fit it all in. I'm in the middle of restoring my 75 1.8 from California but i don't have the sand issues you have. The sills look similar to mine, like a new car. I am backdating my bumpers and i am just about to fit new driving lights and am going to drill a hole to mount each of them, i am going to use a thread insert tool to fit a 10 mm Rivnut. Could you do me a big favor? I was looking at your pics of the front of your car without the bumper and i am looking for the measurements of where i need to drill the holes. Could you tell me the measurement from the bottom edge of the body to the hole centre and the distance from the bumper mounting hole centre line.

Regards

Matt

[Biggles]

Matt

jumping onto your thread, this link should help you out. Doing the same myself:

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php? ... 404&hl=dog bones&st=40

[Darren C]

Thanks Nathan,

The car was a real gamble, you know how it goes, up late at night on US ebay.com looking at all the sooooo tempting cars for sale on there.
The listing wasn’t great (a couple of sentences to describe the car) and the pictures were just thumbnails that you couldn’t zoom in on and no other bidders.
I watched it for a few days, emailed the seller to see if they would entertain an overseas bid and just had a good feeling so took a last second snipe bid.
60% luck 40% knowledge really. The damn sand is the biggest issue, but sand cleans up easier than rust, so despite a good old moan every time I find more sand, deep down I’m really pleased that its not rusty. £ for £ I think I got a good deal on the price of the car (less than Mike Brewer paid for the wheeler dealer car). Apart from the hiccup disc saga, most problems/parts have been easily sorted to date.
Today I had carried on working on the sill covers taking out small stone and possibly an old seat belt dents. 3 hours on the passenger side sill cover and they're all gone. I spoke to my bead blaster this lunchtime and it looks like the parts (bumpers, valances & sills) are too big to fit in their small chamber, so I looked at alternatives.
I used another local company a while back for another restoration who sand blasted my 944 body. They’ve agreed to do the parts for me.
I might get my own back by using sand to my advantage for once on the car
I may throw in the engine lid as it’s the same as the rest of the body, badly resprayed and peeling. The intricate underside of the engine lid pressing is going to be a pain to clear all the bad paint off. I suspect that the intricacy of the underside was the reason they couldn’t be bothered to prepare it properly before it got resprayed in the past. I don’t want to make that same mistake so sand blasting it free of all paint is probably the best way to ensure a good respray now.

[Green Ernie]

Matt

jumping onto your thread, this link should help you out. Doing the same myself:

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php? ... 404&hl=dog bones&st=40

Hello Biggles, thanks for that. I did study that 914world thread when i did the bumpers and found it ok but not brilliant. So when i did mine i photographed the conversion on my car. When i get time and work out how to post the pics i shall put them on this site and hope it helps someone in their hour of need. The only thing i couldn't find were the measurements for the hole centres, i have guessed them at the moment and someone is lending me the Rivnut tool next week to do the job.

Matt

[Darren C]

Hi Matt,

No problem, I plan on taking off the lights and horns this Saturday in preparation for the respray. I'll take the measurements for you and post them on here so that it helps you and anyone else that needs the information.

Regards
Darren

PS. As for finding time, this week already I have taken delivery from the laser cutters of 200 Stainless Steel door brackets that I have designed, made prototypes and converted the drawings to CAD for other car club members, fettled, welded and made some up (completed a photo thread listing of the whole progress/story on another forum) posted them out to Mark and also spent time getting shipping quotes for the guy's in Australia.





I am completing bookings for the charity do on the 11th and sorted out catering and peoples enquiries. Arranged a visit to help a guy fix his car on Friday and sorted some parts out for him, posted restoration progress of my other cars on other forums, expended time writing letters and emails to Berlyn. Had my sons 17th birthday and sorted stuff for that, been to work this week for 40 hours and its only Thursday

[Green Ernie]

Thanks, Darren.

Matt

[Darren C]

No problem Matt, if you haven’t drilled the holes for the bumper/dogbones yet I can measure those as well as the fog/driving lamp holes if you want me to.

Today I had some more ridiculous emailed excuses and accusations from Berlyn Services as to why they won’t swap the Beetle discs for 914 ones. It’s getting far to silly now to repeat on here.
Anyhow things must go on, so this morning before work I did a bit of etch priming over the tin bashing I did last night on the passenger sill. Just to stop the bare metal going rusty while I work on the parts so they’ll be ready as a group to send in for sand blasting. Plus with a coat of primer you can see if you’ve missed any small dents much easier.
At lunchtime I popped into Porsche Centre and collected the 968 sill rubber T seal. Close but not quite cigar. It’s a good T shape and size for the 914 engine lid trim, but the upright part of the T is a bit short to clamp properly on the 914. Worth a punt though. Some you win some you lose.
Tonight when I got home there was a small packet in the post from Peter (top bloke) on this forum, sent me a sample of some T trim he has. Spot on! Top work Peter that was really appreciated.
Tonight I started dent removal of the drivers side sill cover. Not as bad as the passenger one was, just the dishing around the incorrect pop rivet holes and two tiny dents in the side. All sorted now.
With the welcome light nights starting now I etch primed the second sill and started on the rear bumper. There was a very nasty scrape type dent between the number plate and the over rider. (Looking closely at the pictures the seller sent me when my car got loaded on the transporter - I asked her to take lots 360 degrees around the car before shipping - I can clearly say the rear bumper dent was caused somewhere in transit from California to Southampton). The bumper is much thicker steel than the sills so it did put up a lot of resistance. After an hour I have pretty much got it out. The test is to close your eyes and run your fingers over it, with a human hand you can feel within a few 100’s of a mm.
Anyway I had to wrap up about 8pm, not so much a light issue, more a consideration for my neighbours. It’s not fair on them hammering and banging at 5:30am and 8pm. So the plan tomorrow is to finish the rear bumper defects and put in a few hours on one of my other cars.