Restoring my first 914

[Darren C]

Thanks Stuart, I’ve got to contact them over another order I’ve placed but they’re out of stock, so need to chase and see where we are with everything. I was a little disappointed yesterday at the Haribo jelly lock surround, rest assured I will let them know.
Today I got to the second paintshop about quarter to 7 and waited for them to open up so that I could collect my rear bumper before work. Rushed it home and unloaded; currently have the front bumper and roof in my sons bedroom, the rear bumper, engine lid grille, new windscreen surround trim and mats in my living room, the big box of rubber trims in my conservatory and the engine lid in the half finished loft conversion. Living alone has its advantages…..
Anyway at lunch today I called in and picked up my 3M butyl for the windscreen and rear window. Expiry date 2018 so good to go. I bought two boxes just in case. Like the caulking, the old boy in there had a trip down memory lane when he sold it to me, the younger guys just looked blank as he reminisced.
Tonight when I got home from work I continued on the rear wiring loom. The spade connections for the lamps were missing most of the black rubber sheaths and looked very dirty. I cut off what sheathing was left and in an upturned spray can lid gave the bundle of spade connections a good 15 minute soak in “Wonder Wheels”. While soaking I carried on cleaning dust from the engine bay with a damp cloth, sponge, brush and minimal water. It’s going to need a few goings over, but an hour a night for a few days (so I don’t get completely bored with it) and it should be as good as when I handed it over to the paintshop.
Taking the spade connectors out of soak they were miraculously returned to bright shiny copper, so a quick rinse and they were good as new. Magic stuff that Wonder Wheels is!
Next I cut ¾” sections of black heat shrink and re made the sheaths on all the terminals.
The numberplate light spades looked sorry too, so I did the same with them.
While they were soaking I fitted a few bits from my bag marked “rear boot”. The roof clamps went in with my security head bolts…perfect, look just like rivets but easily undo able if a clip breaks in future. The jack straps, boot floor plugs, two large caps in front of the shock mounts and the rubber shock mount top covers all got fitted.
I do have one question that someone might be kind enough to answer….

The rear roof rubber holders that fix by the lights, do the bolts get nipped up to pinch the rubber holder when its vertical or tightened just enough for them to fold down forwards when not in use

Finally this evening before I ran out of daylight, I fitted all the cleaned up rubber sheaths to the wiring loom clamp tabs and neatly laid the rear loom in place and rolled the tabs over gently to secure it. All I need to do to complete it is grab a couple of new rubber grommets tomorrow for where the numberplate light wires pass out through the rear panel.

[Darren C]

Today I picked up a box of 140 assorted grommets and some other odds & sods that I thought might come in useful from the Motor Factors.
It was a manic day at work so it was a nice unwind to start refitting bits on the car this evening.
First of all tonight I fitted the new refurbished rear light assemblies (been itching to get them on the car). I slowly pulled the 4 nuts up on each a little at a time with a good 10 minutes between each turn to evenly compress the light to body seal and not break the bonded repair on the RH lamp edge. In between I fitted other bits to the car until after a couple of hours the rear lights sat perfectly. Boy do they look nice!
Rear wiring loom all in place and new grommets fitted for the number plate wires finished off the rear boot.
The in between bits included un masking the fuel tank area and carrying out a first clean (of many to come) to get the paintshop dust out.
I also cleaned out the front bonnet area, the pop up light & wheel well free of dust.
I then fitted all the black sheaths in the front boot for the loom clamp tabs. Next I pop riveted the aluminium VIN plate back in place and the repainted black id plate in the wheel well. The fuel sticker was carefully cleaned of old adhesive on the back and with ultra thin high impact double-sided tape was fitted back on the RH wheel arch.
Small bits like the original grommets were fitted in the wheel well floor, the two rubber buffer stops under the front that the valance rests on and the spring nuts for the headlight motor covers. I then cleaned up the two earth threads for the pop up lights earth points before it got too dark to see in the rear of the garage.
I’d tried earlier this evening to fit the “2.0” badge on the rear panel (the “914” badge was purchased weeks ago with the 2.0 badge but they emailed to tell me it was on back order so still waiting) Unfortunately there’s something fishy with the 2.0 badge. The black paint was already falling off it in the bag it came in and the badge was shiny brass beneath. Not sure if this was because it was NOS or a repro, but in came in a genuine Porsche box? On closer inspection the brass casting still had flashing on one pin which stopped it fitting in the hole on the car so I had to file it off. In the end pretty much all the black paint fell off, so I had to clean it all up with 800 grit to remove the rest and key the shiny polished surface. The black paint it came with didn’t stand a chance of hanging on to polished brass!
I gave it a coat of acid etch primer in my shed about 15 minutes ago, so shall leave it 24hrs until tomorrow night when I can satin black it.

[Darren C]

Today I have mostly been cleaning up the front wiring loom.
I started this morning by undoing all the cable ties and laying out the front loom in the wheel well on top of bubble wrap. A lot of the insulation tape spiral binding was damaged and hanging off so I removed all the loose sections and untapped all the spade connectors I’d covered while the car was away just in case the paintshop tried a battery on the car. Then I left for work.
During lunch I found a new aerial and purchased it to replace the original broken one.
Tonight I continued to clean every strand in the front loom with a cellulose thinners soaked rag, which took an age.
Afterwards I re bound it with insulation helix winding as I did last night on the rear loom before carefully feeding it around the boot back into place. Carefully replacing the grommets and rolling around all the tabs to hold it in place. With the earth eyelets connected back up everything is back in place, just the spade connections to clean tomorrow and it’ll be ready for the lights, motors and horns to be installed. I called the powdercoaters at lunchtime but the small headlight motor mounting discs weren’t ready today, but hopefully tomorrow so that I can rebuild the pop up lights over the weekend.
I unpacked the new 3 spade holder plastic blocks for the rear of the headlight bulbs (mine have UV crumbled) and noticed they are end entry for the wires on the spades, the car has side entry cables on the spades so I need to modify them to fit, so running out of daylight it’ll have to wait until the morning.
Finally this evening I sprayed the 2.0 badge black over the etch primer in my loft.
On another note 914rubber emailed me back about the soft boot lock seal and offered a refund if I send it back. To be fair the cost of postage is greater than the seal, so I will wait until my whole box of seals are fitted so that if there are any other issues it can all be dealt with in one postage. Fingers crossed everything else will be ok.

[Darren C]

Today I finished off the front wiring loom.
Starting early this morning I sorted out cleaning the remaining spade terminals before work.
A phone around at lunchtime was quite disappointing. The powder coaters hadn’t found time all week to do the two small headlight motor discs and the second paintshop’s painter had gone on holiday so no one was able to paint the valances and sills until next week. (How does a paintshop business run like that?) Not on really as they’ve had them now for over a month and I handed them over all sand blasted and in etch primer so there was little labour required. Same old, same old. The older I get the less reliable the world is.
All annoying really as I wanted to fit the headlight motors and bumpers this weekend but can do neither now until I get the parts back.
Anyway, after another manic Friday at work and evening food shop I was determined to finish the front wiring loom. Working until I ran out of light this evening I managed to put new heat shrink on all the spade terminals, modify the loom to deal with the removed side markers and identify all cable colours and draw a quick chart for lamp connection tomorrow.
I then gave the 2.0 badge a coat of satin lacquer and cleaned out the paint from the rear panel mounting holes with a swiss rats tail being careful not to go through to the metal so the badge fitted fine.
Hopefully tomorrow will go better than today.

[Darren C]

Today on “914 SOS The Big Build”

I have mostly been putting stuff back on the car….

The rear boot is finished apart from the seal that I need to identify in my big box of bits and it looks lovely. I fitted the 2.0 badge with a tiny O ring of caulking around the pins on both the outside and inside (you can just see the grey caulking in the picture) of the car before fitting the new rubber encased star washers on the rear. No water or rust will get in here!



With the lights in, it’s starting to look more like a car.



Working in the bonnet area I fitted the pop up lights (less motors) and the new bonnet seal. Glued in with high temp impact adhesive. It needs to settle a few days from where it was folded up in the bag it came in which creased and deformed it a bit. Should be back to shape tomorrow as this evening it was far, far better than when it came out the bag in the morning. What a fiddle it was to fit, but went well in the end.





Finally tonight I took off the bonnet release lever from under the dash and dismantled it and sanded it down for a re-paint. It was all chipped and manky so with a new cable to fit it couldn’t go back on as it was. Hopefully then with the cable in place I can fit and adjust the bonnet which will give me the datum for the pop up headlight covers.

[chief]

Looks like brand bloomin new Darren. Great effort sir!

[LMR]

I don't know what impresses me more, the rate of progress or the quality of your work! I think I will print out your updates and use it as a workshop manual!

[Darren C]

Thanks guys. Remember assembly is not always the reverse of removal.

Last night after posting my update it was still reasonably early so I decided to waxoil the rear of the pop up light & infill panels and gave the bonnet release lever a second coat so that they’d all be dry in the morning.
This morning I started by fitting the release lever and found a small issue. The plastic speaker surround was pushing the wiring loom up and when the bonnet lever was pulled the slot headed guide screw on the underside was rubbing over the loom. I’d not noticed it before when the lock was attached and it had over the years cut through some of the loom insulation. I ended up taking the speaker cover out and having to repair the loom. With the speaker cover back in it was the same issue? The solution is going to be a “P” clip or similar to hold the loom towards the centre of the car. I need to dwell on it for a while so I have left the speaker grill out for now so that I can get the car built up and deal with the loom when I move onto the interior.
So, the boot lock was fitted and adjusted so the bonnet sat down level with the wings. I adjusted the bump stops and fitted some protective discs of 3M stone guard. (A clear sticky back plastic that normally wraps the front paintwork of a car to protect it from stone chips) I cut some small discs out with my Swedish punch set, peeled off the backing, stuck them centrally on my bump stops with a tiny blob of caulking (adhesive side up) and closed the bonnet so they stuck on the bonnet underside. Opening up the bonnet again to remove the blob of caulking and fixing the disc firmly. This will stop the bump stops rubbing through the new paint. I repeated this on the rear boot too to protect the paint there.
Next I fitted the pop up light front infill panels with 6 new rubber plug/grommets and checked the bonnet height and alignment again.
I then moved onto the rear of the car and the two sections eitherside the engine bay where the small grilles fit. Not wanting to mark the new paintwork I masked the area around them before sanding the bodywork down with 400 grit. Then cleaned and etch primed ready for satin black under the grilles.
With the rear of the car masked up still, I decided to remove all the old glue from the roll bar top and sails with a cloth soaked in white spirit. Turning the rag repeatedly I removed all the glue residue. Next I sanded out the paint line where the paintshop had painted the rear quarter and up on to the base of the sails each side. There was only the tiniest of paint steps but I didn’t want it to show through the vinyl. All surfaces were then keyed very lightly with 240 grit, and wiped off multiple times with a tack rag.
I then fitted the new sail & roll bar vinyl kit I’d bought from 914rubber using spray high temp impact adhesive from Woolies. The kit is mostly cut to size so it is critical to get it lined up before any glue is applied. I did this dry by taping the vinyl in the exact position, top, bottom and sides with 2” masking tape, drawing a pen line through the centre of the tape and cutting it free along the vinyl edge with a Stanley blade. This left 4 bits of tape on the car and 4 on the vinyl. When lined up with the pen marks they would be in the perfect position. I masked off all around the car with several broadsheet newspapers and applied the spray glue in 3 section. Roll bar top first.
After the glue was touch dry I fitted the top vinyl. No mean feat when your lone working. I had to very carefully stick one side on the very edge, hold it up high and walk it through the car (easy with seats out) and then standing on the opposite side of the car still holding it up high, align it front to rear, keeping it tight I then lowered it progressively in place for a perfect fit. The edges were then worked into the contours before trimming the sides off. Finally I then cut the ends with a knife and steel rule exactly halfway down the centreline of where the two aluminium trims fit.
After a well deserved cuppa I stuck both sail vinyls on. Again this was precarious starting at the top and working down, careful to make sure the vinyl finished half way over all the trim hold along the bottom.
Again after working it around all the corners and into place It all looked good.
Fortunately I’d carefully marked and trimmed the vinyl before fitting as I didn’t want too many cuts with a blade when it was on the car which break the paint surface.
The short aluminium strips were then fixed to the roof and the 3 new clips fitted along the rear edge (I took me a while to figure they went on the car first then the longest aluminium trim clips on afterwards)
Finally I fitted the two thin aluminium trims at the base of each fin with the 8 new spring clips I bought a while back.
The two curved ali trims will need to wait until tomorrow as I want to fit the two black grilles eitherside the engine bay before they go on, but need 24hrs for the satin black to dry.
Last of all I satin blacked over the etch and after half an hour unmasked the rear of the car with all glue/paint overspray contained on the newspaper, had a final cuppa and just sat a while looking at the car

[Darren C]

A lunch today I visited the iron mongers and picked up some stainless ½” screws to fit the aliuminium trims on the rear of the “A” pillars and front of the sails (that hold the upper door seals).
This evening after work I fitted the two grilles either side of the engine bay opening. The new seal was cut to the odd shape of the old seals. All was clear when I fitted them that it has to follow the contours of the steel pressing below the grille, hence the odd shape.
The little rubber encased star washers that I’d carefully removed a few months ago were cleaned in cellulose thinners and a small blob of new caulking applied before pressing home. I found that an 8mm socket was ideal to push them firmly home while holding the grilles down from above.
Next I fitted the two curved aluminium trims on the rear edge of the sails. Again I used the caulking to seal around the stud holes to prevent water ingress and hopefully stop corrosion. I opted on using stainless nylocks on the underside to secure the trim again to stop corrosion and working loose.
It was a bit of a fiddle and faff to get the nuts and washers on in a narrow garage but patience paid off and the trims were fitted nicely.
Next this evening I fitted new speed nuts to the front panel that hold the valance on and checked all was good by winding in some new Acme screws before removing them to leave the speed nuts lined up. A quick brush with waxoil and I’d run out of light yet again.

[Darren C]

This morning early doors I started cleaning up the pop up light motor linkage plastic covers with Brasso and making sure the screws and bolts were all cleaned up before work.
At lunch I visited the powdercoaters and picked up the small black discs, all shiny and new. On the way back to the office I called in at Porsche Centre and picked up the two wiper spindle covers and new wiper arm retaining nuts.
Tonight when I got home I thought I’d take a couple of shots of the roll bar vinyl and trims that I’d fitted the last couple of days.





With the motor mounting discs in hand I was ready to fit the pop up light motors.
I fitted them with the 3 allen socket head bolts just nipped up and connected all the wires, relay and earth cable. With the actuating arms DISCONNECTED I put the battery lead on and switched the lights on with the ignition on. The motors spun to the light up position. Next without turning anything off I disconnected the battery.
Doing this allows you to connect the actuating arms in the maximum extended position (short pivot end and long arm absolutely straight and in line). With the arms on and the nuts nipped up (while holding the arm so as the motor wouldn’t turn when the nut was nipped) the lights were in the up position.
Now; with many 924’s, 944’s and 928’s under my belt in previous restorations the alignment is straight forward as follows….
(another one for you to print out LMR)

1. Loosen off the end stop bolt and wind forward.
2. Fit the top painted covers and the black plastic cowls.
3. Loosen the 3 allen head bolt slightly that hold the motor in place.
4. Wind the motor manual knob ANTI clockwise (its got a lefthand thread, if you go clockwise it’ll unscrew and fall off) until both lamps are fully down with the actuator arms folded one under the other over the top of the furthest allen bolt.

Its ONLY now that you can align the pop up unit.

5. The first thing to do is line up the front edge of the lamp pod (effectively how far the light closes) This is done by moving the motor forwards or backwards on its 3 bolts NOT by turning it. Once to front edge is level with the infill panel and wing the motor can be nipped up on the 2 bolts you can get to as one is behind the arm and can be tightened at the very end.
6. Next loosen the light pivot bolts, two under the wing and 3 in the bonnet.
7. With bonnet closed you can align and tighten the two bolts under the wing and make a note of were to move the bracket on the inner pivots in the bonnet. I use a bit of masking tape in line with the bracket so you can see how much you’ve moved it and in which direction.
8. The pivot bolts in 6 & 7 above set the height on the rear of the lamp pod and move forward and back to set the pod squarely in the car.
9. Once level, square and at the right height tighten all bolts.
10. Before any power is applied turn the manual lamp knobs anticlockwise to open and close the light to check all is good.
11. Finally turn the knob one last time to the fully open position (tighten up that last motor bolt you could’nt get to) and set the travel stop limit bolt. This is done by carefully slipping a 13mm open ended spanner down the rear of the light pod, hold the nut and with a screwdriver turn the bolt anticlockwise until it just touches the bracket on the pivot then lock off the 13mm nut carefully in that position.

Afterwards I put the battery back on and powered them up and down a few times to make sure all was good.
Light beam alignment will be set crudely shining at the rear of the garage with the bowl adjusting screws and done properly at the MOT station with the light box.

Assembled left Pop up light



Right Pop up light




The finished alignment, pretty much as good as it gets.

[nrc914]

Great writeups Darren - you're obviously an old hand with popups and I'm sure the steps will all make sense when printed out and stood in front of a light unit! Fit looks perfect and sail panels look great. Can't wait to see this one finished but will then miss your daily blog - dilema!

Cheers

[Darren C]

Thanks Nathan, It’ll be a few more weeks yet before the little 914 hits the road so no dilemma just yet. Besides I’m already searching world wide ebay for the next project. Like I said at the beginning of this thread…I am the man who never sits still.
Plus I also have other car project running on other forums too!
Anyway on to today…
All started good with a little more cleaning before work, a run around at lunchtime to get some more thinners and white spirit and home after work to start on the car.
I fitted the two ali trims on the front edge of the sails that hold the door glass rubber seals with my nice new stainless steel screws. A small amount of caulking was placed behind them, rolled into a long sausage string in my palms before sticking down the centre of the trims prior to screwing on. This should not only stop water ingress but also aid sealing the sail vinyl edge that’s behind the ali trim and just crying out for water to be held in there by capillary attraction if left unattended.
Next I repeated the process and fitted the forward ali trims that hold the seals on the windscreen pillars for the quarterlight glass.
All was going well until I decided to fit the rear boot seals from 914rubber. In all fairness Kev had warned me not to buy them in the first place, and true to his word they were completely wrong!
The rear boot seal along the quarters and across the light panel isn’t even close to Factory design and the U shape bit that fits the steel edge sits too high which makes the hollow spongy bit on top higher still. So much so that with it fitted you have to really force the boot down to latch it.
The seal that goes over the engine bay bulkhead has the same issue and with that fitted and the boot lid lowered it stops 8 inches high over the latch and there was no way on earth I was even going to try and shut the bootlid.
Hey ho, looks like my 914rubber returns parcel is getting bigger by the day. I was warned, so only myself to blame here.
So on to an internet search yet again to buy parts twice over….
I found what claims to be OEM pattern seals on sale at Rosepassion Porsche, about 3 times the price of the 914rubber ones so begrudgingly I ordered a set and will keep you informed how they work out.
After the hiccup with the boot seals I thought I’d fit the lower front roof seal to the windscreen frame. (It’s the one that sits directly by the trim panel and sunvisors). This time it looked like the one that came off, so good start. There is a notch cut out in the centre to clear a block that lines up the targa roof when fitting it. The seal had a token gesture notch cut out that required completely re cutting with a new Stanley blade so that the seal fitted properly. After a few minutes I’d whittled a perfect notch and the seal slipped straight on. While I was in there I noticed the centring block was wobbly, and found two philips screws on the underside loose so gave them a tightening up. It was then apparent that the seal was over length. No problem, I’d rather it that way than too short. To cut it correctly requires the full up and over seal to be fitted so that I can see where exactly to cut. Running out of daylight, this is going to be a job for tomorrow. At least that large seal (on Kev’s advice) I purchased directly from Porsche, so hopefully no messing about required.

[milhouse914]

Hi Darren, do you still have a 928 ?

Ta

James

[shoestring7]

Great stuff Darren - keep the updates coming!

C>

[Darren C]

Will do Charles.

James, unfortunately not. I sold my last 928 back in 1991. I’d bought that one about 3 years earlier from a filthy got rich quick builder. He used it to ferry bricks, sand, cement and had two tubs of emulsion paint tip over in the boot. It glued the carpet and rear seats down to the floor! The idiot also fitted a CD changer by screwing it down through the carpet and into the fuel tank with 3 inch wood screws. Suffice to say it was a 7 year old 928 that I bought for £6500, re trimmed it, painted it and sold it for £12,000 and bought a 3 litre 911 SC and got £3K change to plough into the 911.
Those were the days…A billy bob basic 928 on tele dials worth 25% more than a nice 911 SC. I suppose it was just the right time to get out of 928’s, but I’m sure it’ll come full circle again one day.

Anyway on to today’s 914 escapades.
I called in this morning before work and picked up the front and rear valances from the paintshop. Looking gooooooood!
Unfortunately they hadn’t painted the edge of the sills properly where the rivets hold it on so I’ve asked them to do it again. Classic case of “what thought did”. The painter said “I thought you didn’t see that edge”
Hey ho. That’s the way it goes. Suffice to say I’ve asked them to sort it but at least I can now fit the valances over the weekend and finally fit the bumpers.
At lunch time I tracked down another OEM seal and spoke to Porsche Centre about a new master key. Also spoke with Kev about fitting the up and over front door/roof seal and he told me about the two hidden tiny screws in each corner. (Cheers Kev)
So tonight when I got home I spent a good while wrestling the seal into place and managed to fit both small screws in the corners. The sides I coated with some PH neutral soap (used for cleaning leather) to aid them sliding into the two ali channels. In this way if any residue remained it wouldn’t harm anything. The hardest bit was working out where to cut the lower rubber so it sits neatly against the inner corners of the up and over seal. Cutting a little off at a time and repeatedly fitting it to check, I managed to get a good joint on either end.
Since the rubber was slid in, the given practice is to squash/pinch it in place with the ali trim on the hidden inner edge. I plan on leaving it a few days before doing this. It can then “settle” in the car and hopefully when I pinch it in place it will not be stretched or compressed anywhere which could lead to the corners parting in future.
Finally this evening I fitted the front Euro modified side/indicator lights. Again this was a real fiddle under the wing trying to connect the spades on the back when you have new rubber sleeves over the loom that are quite rigid. Again trying to stretch the cover sleeve over the end of the lamp holder was also a real task, but with patience I managed to get them both on.
Starting to get dark I removed both sun visors and pivots. I plan on taking them down to the trimmers tomorrow. They look as sorry as a sack of unwanted puppies on their way to the canal. So just won’t do. I’ll have a chat and see if the padding can be replaced without showing, but fear as they are heat welded vinyl wrapped they may need remaking with stitching. Whatever I opt for its going to be an improvement on how they currently look.
As the sun dropped over the horizon I quickly connected the battery and tested the lights.
All good.