Restoring my first 914

[Darren C]

Thanks for the kind words guy’s. Yes it is monotonous working under the arches, but as you say the result is well worth the effort. Glad to be of service Kev with the spline count. (I did rotate the shafts in the box before taking the photo so that the part number was visible to help others who might want to order a set).

This morning before work I cleaned up the drive flanges that attach to the end of the shafts and fit into the hubs. I also purchased a new set of shiny gold BZP twin hole plate washers for the CV joint bolts (couldn’t put the old ones back on these uber shiny driveshafts)
The Porsche ones are no longer available but IRS Beetle ones are; from VW Heritage. Slightly different profile but the best I could find from the same stable and era.
This morning I gave them a light coat of Waxoil and slid them along a wire to dry while I put a thin coat on the drive flanges and the CV joints and gaiter metal flanges too. This should stop the nice shiny BZP from fading or going white and powdery before rusting.
I left everything to dry and went into work for 7:30am.
At lunchtime I convinced a colleague to drive me out to the paint suppliers and picked up 4 more litres of stoneguard. I used 1 ½ lites under the two rear arches, so a quick calculation showed I didn’t have enough in the old tin left for the front. I’m also considering redoing the floorpan while the wheels are away and the cars up in the air. Not savouring the thought of the deep clean and prep, as it’s a large area!
Anyway this evening after work I decided to fit the driveshafts. Fitting the flanges into the hubs first and loosely fitting the castellated nuts I carefully degreased the perimeter of the CV joint where the thin gaskets fit with cellulose thinners. I then cheated by putting two tiny opposing dots of superglue on the gasket and stuck it to the CV joint.
This allowed me to push the bolts with plate washers through the joint before feeding it over the gearbox and heat exchangers and down the hole in the trailing arm to meet the flange without the gasket falling off and getting damaged. I used this method as I didn’t want to have to remove or disturb the heat exchangers. With a spline tool on a short ¼” drive extension I tightened the all bolts up gently to make sure everything was good and the gasket was fine before swapping to 3/8” drive and tightening them up a little at a time using opposites to pull the dowels home equally.
I left the transport/packing caps on the gearbox end to stop grease getting everywhere and manoeuvred the CV joint with loose gasket (no need for glue this end as you can hold and see everything) into place and bolted it up to the drive flange.
The N/S is a little more of a fiddle with the starter motor in place but with patience it does fit in without taking the heat exchangers or starter off.
I nipped everything up and then went around again just to be certain I’d not missed anything before calling it a night.
It does look nice with new driveshafts fitted.

[Darren C]

Today I had a whole day in Hospital undergoing further test, scans and general poking and prodding.
I decided to get a couple of hours in on the 914 before catching the morning train and had to think of a few tasks that wouldn’t get me too dirty. Following on from last nights driveshaft installation I needed to tighten up the castellated nuts on the hubs and fit the split pins. I sorted out some new split pins and pre cut the length and then using two wheel bolts and a very large crow bar in combination with the handbrake I locked each hub in turn so that the nuts could be tightened to the high torque.
The pins were added and then the nuts and pins given a light coat of clear waxoil to protect the gold BZP finish.
With the waxoil can at hand I gave the CV bolts a light coat along with the 3 bolts and plate washers on each underside that hold the outer trailing arm support bracket. I was pleasantly surprised when I cleaned these off last week to find them still shiny gold BZP so the waxoil should keep them this way.
I wrapped up and got the train into the city and walked a mile to the Hospital.
During the day Porsche centre telephoned me to say my wheel bolt was in, so while I’m not mobile I’ve asked them to post it out so hopefully if it doesn’t arrive tomorrow I should have it by Monday.
During the numerous scans today I had a lull from 11:30 until the ultrasound at 2pm. Not wanting to sit doing nothing I decided to walk across the city to the motor factors and pick up some bits and bobs. Easy when you’re in a car but I underestimated the distance on foot. I ended up power walking 2 hours for about a 5 mile round trip to get back in time for my next Hospital test!
Anyway after walking back to the station and getting home this evening I started on the steering wheel.
The steering wheel spokes were a little dull and had a few tiny chips here and there. I’d expected the trimmers to maybe make a mark or two and to get glue on the spokes and true to form that’s what they did. I carefully cleaned all the excess glue off with white spirit.
Next the spokes were T cut to restore the faded paint to a very nice gloss finish.


After a couple of hours working carefully with the T cut on both sides of the 4 spokes and around the hub I use a very fine modellers brush to carefully touch in the small chips so they disappeared. Finally I used Brasso on the hub which is made of plastic to get a glass shine.



I then turned my attention to the horn push. This was looking a little worse for wear and had lots of chips and worn off paint. I’d scrubbed it with Cif cream a few weeks ago and now it was time to sort it out. Starting with a fine (400 grit) wet & dry I carefully feathered all the edges of the chips. I looked at trying to remove the foam pad out the centre of the metal surround but decided against it as it was well and truly bonded in there and risked damage trying to get it out. The only thing to do was to take extreme care working around it. There was a little oxidation of the Mazak in the corner and a section of paint had fallen off. Again I carefully removed the loose paint and feathered the edges before going over the whole metal section with red scotchbrite to key the surface.



After masking up with some fine line detail tape, degreasing and a wipe with a tack rag I locally etch primed just the areas of bare metal and left it to dry for tomorrow.

[Darren C]

Today I started by flatting down the etch primer on the steering wheel centre with 1200 wet and dry. Drying any water off thoroughly I degreased and tack ragged the surface before the first coat of black paint. I took extra time on this small part as it will sit in full view every time I sit in the car so any small imperfection would drive me mad.
Allowing a good hour between each coat I built up the colour in several thin layers to a high smooth gloss finish with no orange peel.
In between coats I cleaned the horn contact ring on the back of the steering wheel hub and with a light coat of grease I fitted the steering wheel to the car.
I also moved 4 cars around to empty my main garage as one of the strip lights had burnt out the ballast last week and tripped the breaker. I had a spare ballast in the loft of the garage so stripped a spare unit down and replaced the burnt out one. As a precaution I’d bought some new starters having seen the ends were quite brown from heat; so went around and changed all 12. I also had a bit of a spring clean in my workshop. I was loosing floor and bench space with a collection of old worn 914 parts and a few bits from the other cars that just seem to mount up.
After 4 or 5 (can’t quite remember) coats of black paint (and changing the gearbox oil on my Volvo in between) it was almost finished. I brought it indoors and sat in on the kitchen worktop and warmed it gently with a small electric fan heater on low setting for an hour, rotating it every 15 minutes to help the paint cure. Normally I’d put stuff in the oven, but this still had the plastic/sponge pad attached so I didn’t want to damage or melt it.
After another hour to cool I unmasked the pad cleaned it gently and fitted my new decal.



I was fortunate enough to find the original “To Start” decal under the centre console carpet when I lifted it out. I’d spoken to Kev about this and also posted on 914world where their concours historian & guru had replied with a photo showing where the decal was originally fitted.
The old decal was intact but the adhesive on the back was long dry and full of dirt from being on the floor of the car for 40 years. Enough detail remained for me to scan it and send the details to Rob (Jas966 on here-cheers Rob you’re a star! ) who very kindly made me a new one.
I’d imagine most owners on purchasing their new 914 would have peeled this off and thrown it out; after all it’s not particularly attractive.
I kind of like the idea of having it on the car now that it’s looking almost new again, so decided to reinstate it.
With the wheel centre still nice and warm from the heater I warmed the decal and carefully applied it using a stiff bristle nail brush to work it into the grain texture of the horn pad.


I plan on leaving it 24hrs for the paint to dry a little more then fitting it back in the car

[LouisCurtis]

Looks great Darren!!! Great effort with the sticker.

[Darren C]

Cheers Louis

Today was a busy day.
I started early by going to fit the horn push in the steering wheel. True to form it was awkward and in the end I had to take the steering wheel off and change the cable from the contact ring and solder a new spade on it. I’d heat shrunk the old spade but it was proving difficult to fit the horn push as the heat shrink was not flexible enough to allow it to move while fitting. Eventually after a few dry runs with the wheel off the car I sorted it out. Fitted back on the car and battery on, turn the key and the horn sounded continually.
Battery off and horn push off again to examine, and I found the bayonet frame in the wheel slightly bent? All I can think of is that it got bent at the trimmers as it was fine when I took it apart. The bent frame was just holding the horn centre in enough to make contact at the bottom which was sounding the horn. With this gently bent back up the horn push was refitted and worked fine.
My son arrived just as I’d taken the battery back off. I called a friend and we spent a few hours this morning out on a driving lesson. (I had to ask my friend over to sit in the car with us as I’m not allowed to drive at the moment and technically that even means I can’t supervise my son. A right royal pain in the arse). As a reward I cooked a Sunday Roast for us all and while it was in the oven we flatted one half of the Morris bonnet with soapy water & 1200 grit to remove some old orange peel and dull paint, before rubbing paste, T cut and a good wax.
With everyone fed & watered and on their way I returned to the 914 and started under the front N/S wheel arch. I’d cleaned and scrubbed the inner arch previously, but there was plenty of splattered underseal all over the suspension. I started by scraping it off the shock absorber and working down to the torsion arm, hub and steering rack.
I spent 3 hours scraping off the excess underseal on the N/S before running out of charge on the LED light and calling it a day.

[Darren C]

Today was another 4 hours under the front wheel arch scraping underseal off the front suspension; it really is rock hard and a bit of a nightmare to get off. I took a few pictures so you can see the task in hand. Fortunately under all the underseal there is very little rust if any to speak about.



Absolutely everything got sprayed but with a little time and patience I’m slowly getting it all off.



I worked on the O/S this evening and started at the top of the shock absorber and worked down to the torsion arm and to the end of the steering rack.
Yesterday I got most of it off the N/S.



Once it’s all scraped off I plan on lightly sanding down any paint edges and locally priming any bare metal as I did with the rear suspension. It’s going to take a few more days and long hours to sort it, but hopefully I’ll have it all prepared ready for a weekend of painting.

[Darren C]

Today I made up two short brake pipes with the formed end on one end only. I passed them through a couple of new unions and then brazed up the open unmade ends of the pipes to blank them off.
I clamped the flexi hoses on the front suspension and undid the brake pipes at the shock absorber and quickly swapped over and fitted the two “blank” pipes I’d made up. This allowed me to remove both front callipers without loosing brake fluid.
The callipers were carefully placed in my shed and next I removed the front discs and dust/stone guards from the rear.
All the grease was cleaned off the stub shafts and I now had much better access to continue cleaning and dismantling the front suspension at my leisure.
So another couple of hours cleaning after the mechanical strip down and my LED lights were out of charge so I called it a day.

[Darren C]

Today was another day under the front wheel arches. After scraping off the underseal over the last few days there are a some areas that needed sanding and preparing. I spent several hours today with 320 grit wet and dry feathering any paint edges, smoothing out runs in the original paint and dealing with tiny bits of surface rust.
I took apart the tension/limit stops for the torsion bars so that I could clean and prep behind and spent a good while on the trackrods removing some nasty old pipe wrench/mole grip marks.
By 9pm I retired to my shed and cleaned up the torsion bar tension/limit bolts as the long exposed thread on them was quite rusty. After cleaning up the hex heads I called it a day.
A few more hours sanding and fettling and it should be all ready for paint.

[911hillclimber]

Fastidious as ever!
Why have you not removed all the suspension, done all the detailing and replaced after?
It would be easier?

[Darren C]

I actually have, in part. It's unbolted and hanging down so that I can get around and under everything.
Space is a premium at the moment as my workshop, conservatory and loft conversion is full again with another project I'm working on in tandem with the 914.

[Mr Pharmacist]

Er, how on earth have you got time to work on another project at the same time?!?!

[glovebox]

Er, how on earth have you got time to work on another project at the same time?!?!

For someone who works 28hours a day !!! I'm a little disappointed it's only two projects !!

[FACE WITH STUCK-OUT TONGUE AND WINKING EYE]

[Darren C]

Actually guy’s, just having a classic car is a cause for a project!

Today I continued to prep the front wheel arches and suspension. Finishing sanding down and with it part dismantled I dusted and degreased everything.
With the seasonal temperatures beginning to drop I’m in a race against nature now to get anything on the car painted. If the temperature goes too low the paint just wont flow or dry properly and with no power in the garage I’m trying to get it all painted this weekend. If not I’m considering options of renting a Calor gas heater or similar, but I’m not keen with the idea as they generate a lot of moisture and there’s not much room in the small garage to set it back far enough from the car.
With time pressing, tonight I gave all the areas above where the suspension bolts on a coat of stone guard and continued on the underside of the wheel well sides where the torsion bars run and up and over the steering rack back to the sills. I used another litre of the stone guard, painting until I ran out of LED torch charge again.
Tomorrow I plan to paint up inside the shock towers and then everything will be done so that I can move on to painting the suspension and bolting it all back up in place at the weekend.

[Canarydelia]

It may have been said before, but I now realise why Darren has taken so long over this project (ahem).

What you need sir is a couple more LED lights that you can switch on after the first one loses charge. That way you you can work through the night.

Keep up the great work Darren. I'm thinking there needs to be some grand DDK ceremony when you get on the roads for the first time in all her glory! Maybe a 914 salute as you drive through all our lesser examples parked either side of the road?

[Darren C]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, lesser examples are always controversially subjective. I’m not planning any rose petal lined cavalcade just yet, more like a smokey hydrocarbon fest with a hint of wet paint and trail of oil drops.