914/6 - Texas GT

[23e Heure]

Moving around now to the side profile.

The 914 front wing is shaped with a "S" like indentation. GT bumpers - like standard bumpers are straight edged.
As we are working with GRP I guess you could if you wanted to spend time and money cutting and fettling a GT bumper to meet that contour.
Again, it's something we talked about. But not for more than 5 minutes: time and money aside, GTs and standard cars never have that done, it would actually look "wrong" on the finished car.

The neatly fitted bumpers approach is something Porsche toyed with when they designed the 916. Nothing wrong with it, but somehow to my eyes it is simply too "sculpted" or moulded.



Instead on the straight edged bumper you line up the edge with the upper part of the "S", and allow a finger's width gap along the bottom part.
Again, only test fitted with tape, the fit will be neater and more uniform side to side later. And once painted black this will look very different too:




The lower valence will be lined up for optimum fit with the end of the arch flares. Very pleased with how they line up already, even before fettling:

[23e Heure]

Similar story at the back of the car. There's an S indentation in the rear wing, and GT bumpers are straight edged.



Again, the 916 had a perfectly sculpted, one piece rear bumper. Each to his own, and not to my taste:




When we were at the Nurburgring Oldtimer last summer, there was a very well turned out red GT rep parked on the in field.
The owner had worked a rear bumper to meet that S contour. I like that idea better at the back than the front, but there is still something not right about it.
That may partly be a result of me looking for too many hours at pics of real GTs, and "getting my eye in". Race cars are not perfect fits, and all that.
What is for sure is that the owner of the red car spent more hours than I could afford on getting this fit: he told me they sacrificed "several" 914 GT bumpers before they succeeded by using a 916 item, and "too many" man hours in the fettling:




The red car is running with no lower valence, and a 2 out exhaust.
I'll be running with a standard 911 exhaust (the sound from the Webers is sweet and loud enough!), and a 'short' lower valence.
And just look at how good the fit is where the valence meets the flares... Almost no fettling required here

[23e Heure]

It's not all plastic fantastic work going on this week though.

A 6 engine shoehorned into a 914 engine bay is a Tight Fit.
Even Chris Turner's small hands could not do much to service the engine when it was in the car, and most work on a 6 engine requires for the engine to be dropped.
I've invested in a great weld in 6 mount to replace the bolt in mount originally fitted by the guy who did the conversion. Hopefully that will help when the engine goes in and out for any major works.

But the idea of having to drop the engine every time you want to adjust the timing, or to attend to a critical job like replacing the fan belt, is simply impractical / madness.

So we've copied the approach adopted by all the GT racers, and many 6 conversion owners: an access panel in the firewall, between the seats:



This removable plate is held by captive nuts welded engine side, and can be unscrewed from inside the cabin.

The pic of mine is still rough and ready: carpet glue all over the firewall, and a bare metal plate.

By the time we are finished the firewall will be cleaned, soundproofed and carpeted. And the plate will be powdercoated satin black. Hopefully we'll end up looking close to this (albeit without the cage, for now):

[23e Heure]

Some other bits and pieces to document.

If the word "gusset" makes you snigger, then this bit is for you. The rear chassis jack points are oft referred to as the gussets.

More often than not, over the years these get abused and dented out of shape. On both sides mine looked like this:



Despite appearances, the rust was not much more than surface stuff, so maybe I could have cleaned them up and had them protected when Richie treats and underseals all of the floor.
But while the car is in having stuff done I thought: what the hell, let's just do this properly.

New ones are being made by Restoration Design: http://www.restoration-design.eu/store/product/PP342L
I got the RD items through Patrik Hess for cheaper than direct from RD though, he's worth a second look for most parts: http://914er-shop.de/en/sheet-metal-par ... -for-lift1

[23e Heure]

In a car without a front oil cooler the spare wheel sits flat on the frunk floor, under a neat carpetted wooden panel.

Well that's not going to be an option in my car, so a space saver will be fitted upright to the frunk "dividing wall".

The guys fabricated a decent bracket to hold it securely in place.
The bracket is fitted so that the spare wheel sits about 10mm away from the dividing wall, so zero risk of rubbing. This will all be light ivory white when the frunk gets painted:




The pic below is not my car, but to give you an idea of how we will end up:

[23e Heure]

And last update for today. I get all this work done and now I'll need to work out how to pick up the signal for Radio 4

[eitnurg]

But the idea of having to drop the engine every time you want to adjust the timing, or to attend to a critical job like replacing the fan belt, is simply impractical / madness.

It can all be done with the engine in place: and without disturbing the integrity of the car (it's not called a 'firewall' for nothing).

Use a Porsche-supplied "C"-spanner on the fan hub, with a home-made strip bolted to the end, that mounts on the coil mounting studs on the fan surround. This locks the fan, and leaves both hands free to undo the fan hub with a normal socket. Reassembly is a reverse of removal, as it says in the book, but a thin (thin) dab of grease between the shims is sticky enough to keep them in place while everything else is put together. It doesn't make the process easy, nothing will, but it's as close to it as possible and is no longer daunting.

Anything to do with the distributor, just take it out: judge by feel which way the rotor is pointing, and make sure it goes back in the same position. Timing is set by strobing the flywheel marks at the other end of the engine anyway, and with modern electronic ignition systems once the distributor is in place it shouldn't need to be disturbed.

Oh and btw, the white '916' in the pic used above is mine. Use the pic as often as you like, but you ought to know that it's not a real 916: it's a conversion. I built it many, many years ago, before George got his silver one pictured lower down. And you're right: fitting the bumpers was a nightmare, the only ones available were absolute shite, and the quality doesn't appear to have improved since.

[23e Heure]

Thanks, your car does look sweet: easily mistaken for the real thing... perhaps even more so if it had a red interior

Comments taken on board re the service hatch. Even so, it's defo going to be easier with the hatch there, others do the same for good reason.

[23e Heure]

Front trunk is done. Oil cooler lines run thru into the cabin.



I don't like the red and blue anodising on today's aeroquip fittings, and had spent ages cleaning mine off with oven cleaner before the car went to wales.
Sadly my bag of fitting didn't have enough right angle fittings, so the guys put new red and blue ones in, right in the most visible place.

I want these cleaned up too, and Moggy is going to get busy with his marigolds

[23e Heure]

The oil lines run through into the cabin, drivers side, just to the left of the pedals.

We are going to fab up a kick plate to cover these:




Steel oil lines down the sills:



The 914/6 oil tank is inside the rear wing, behind the driver:

[23e Heure]

For the timebeing some of the car is a mess...

GT shoulder harness brackets will now go on to the firewall, with reinforcing plate on the engine side.

[911hillclimber]

great thread this, nice to see something different done so well

[Darren65]

...I don't like the red and blue anodising on today's aeroquip fittings.....

Me neither! .....for reference I used black fittings supplied by Atec in Brackley.... http://atecautotechnic.co.uk/en/ .....

[23e Heure]

We are finished - at least for now - at Harry Hockly's. The car is now being trailered to the paintshop, where it will have a short rest and lick its wounds, waiting its turn in Richie's queue.

Cars never look their best at this stage, but it is still important to document every step of the transition.

If it looks a little elevated, that's not because I've let Moggy set things up the way he likes them (gravel rally spec), but of course because the engine and gearbox are not installed:




The rear badge delete left some scars. I have something more appropriate waiting to go there when everything is shiny again...

[glovebox]

Look great