914 2.0 > 3.0 GT Conversion

[early911parts]

I got a spot on Repro of the Bracket for the Fuel gauge at 40€ + postage ( ca 5- Euro )

Marek

[defianty]

With a lot of the small jobs now completed it was time to turn to the bodywork. For this I'd be needing my big boy pants!

I've mentioned before that the car had some rear quarter end accident damage. Fortunately it was relatively minor but as you can see from the photos below it was all covered up with filler. Time to get serious.

The 914 is very slowly catching up to the 911 in the way of reproduction panels. But there's still a long way to go and many panels are NLA. With the prices of original 914-6's reaching the heights they are now original panels are very expensive.

I managed to find a good used replacement wing about six months ago so this will act a a donor for my car.

Here's the extent of the damage on the rear corner.




I've now also sourced a rear panel as that needs replacing too. I'm waiting for that to arrive now.

[defianty]

So with the rear corner damage and this at the other end...


It was time to get rid!




Cleaning the and reshaping the inner wing as a few imperfections remained from the accident damage. Now smooth again and matching the other side.

[defianty]

Unfortunately the other side isn't going to be much simpler.

More filler found in a similar place to the other side. This will have to be cut out and replaced. I've a bit of corrosion over the door handle recess so that will be addressed at the same time.

[defianty]

On a lighter note

My GT arches arrived a couple of weeks ago so I set about taping them to the car for a sneak peek. Great!



I've now attached the front ones in the correct position but will not install them until I have the rear end back together.

[chief]

Sterling work there our kid.
Are you Tig welding the arches?
The reason I ask is I found panel beating so much easier with the softer weld that it offers.

[defianty]

Yeah I agree TIG would be easier but I'll MIG welding these on as it's all I have. Fairly confident I'll get a good result. I'm sure people will tell me otherwise if I didn't when I post the photos up here.

[chief]

I found that with the length of weld (Over 5 foot on the back arches) the heat of the mig will pull the panel into a 'V' needing lots of filler at the end.
Using the softer Tig process allows dolly beating and avoiding anything other than high build primer. Might be worth investigating.....
Good luck and keep up the great work!
Chief

[defianty]

Time for a little update after taking a bit of a break from the car.

As seen earlier I made a GT style fuel gauge, no it was time to create the pod for it to sit in.

For those that don't know - 914 dashboards are painted with the car and then removed and painted black but rarely do they actually get fitted back to the correct car, hence my Bahia Red dash.

A previous owner had installed something other than the standard size in the radio aperture, step one was to fit that. Tough welding as the metal is so thin!





Although it'll be covered by the fuel gauge, if I want to install a radio I'll have the option.


A piece of 61mm ID tube and sheet metal cut to size is all that's needed.



In primer...



No more Bahia Red!



Many thanks to Garry at Classic FX for the basketweave.



All safely stored away in the loft until installation time now.

[defianty]

Back to the front of the car to complete the oil cooler installation.

The trouble I went to finding someone to make the louvred panel for me was ridiculous. No one would reply to my enquiries and I end up using a guy that took about a week to reply to each email. Soooooooo frustrating! Even more frustrating was after stumbling across a time-warp metal merchant locally earlier this week, that whilst lovely old boy there hobbled off to cut some sheet to size I find myself staring at a sign - 'Louvred panels made to order'

Anyway, here's my original front trunk floor looking rather shabby, a previous owner had mounted a kerb or similar and made a bit of a mess. This was the perfect opportunity to rectify that.



Most of the damage repaired and offering up louvred panel.



Lots and welding, grinding and swearing later! Ta da!



I can now finish off the front grill I made and get everything dry fitted.

[defianty]

Time for a September update I think.

Lots has gone on this month and it's seen me get to a stage where there's is little left to do other than work on the shell of the car. The coming posts are of various bits and pieces that have been finished off.

Getting close to finishing off the front oil cooler install. I wanted to use the original mounting holes on the oil cooler shroud so I made this adaptor plate.




Being a very early US 73 2.0L my car sadly didn't have sway bars that became standard. Having driven 914's with and without there was no way I wouldn't be installing one. I initially found a original one but then changed that with this Weltmeister as I wanted to extra performance that offered. Installation was fairly simple.

[defianty]

I finally bought an engine stand and got my engine off the floor from the palette it had been sitting on for almost a year. Although covered it had been a bit neglected so it was time to give it a clean up and add the new tinwear and ancillaries.

For starters I had the valve covers powdercoated


Then installing the tin wear.







This wasn't staying red


That's better!



PMO's going on.


That's it almost done - SC decals added


I'm just waiting on my conversion wiring harness to be made by Perry Kiehl.

[defianty]

Having a small vinyl cutter at home has been useful in restoring my dash switches. Here's the cigarette lighter completed.


I've completed a couple of others too and they've turned out equally as nice.

I've been doing the seat rails for months, seemed like a lot of work for yet another something no one ever sees, but they certainly needed some TLC.

Worse condition than I remembered.


Stripped down, frame blasted and painted. Bright parts replated.


Refitting those springs were a bit of a nightmare but I finally came up with a solution after bending a couple of screwdrivers

[defianty]

New custom made Hayward & Scott heat exchangers arrived. Such a shame they're going to be hidden away under the car.

Hayward & Scott are fairly local to me and were really good. I called them a few months ago to discuss what I was after. They mention they had just finished a couple of sets for a US customer and I was more than welcome to pop in to take a closer look. During my visit I placed an order.

[defianty]

The last mechanical part to look over was the gearbox. I had always had issues with mine in the past and I knew it needed attention. My initial plan was to rebuild it myself but after spending a fair amount of time reading up I decided it was best to get someone else to do it. I did buy a replacement gearbox a few years ago but that also had issues although it was much better than the one I had. The plan will be to make one good from the two and replace other parts where necessary like the syncos. I would just do the easy part and do some cleaning.

Removing paint that had been put on years before.


More time later than I care to mention!


This really didn't want to clean up very well....


... so I dropped in off for vapor blasting.



I'm hoping to drop the boxes off for rebuilding soon so will update on the findings later.