DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

Fantastic work again on this Stephen!

chief wrote:Mental!
I thought I was getting deep Stephen!
Brilliant work though. I call that 'Invisible Mending'.
Keep battling, we're all behind you pal....

No stone unturned Chief, that's the plan.

Thanks, I was pleased with how all that turned out.

Psw1811 wrote:Outstanding work - I’m still in the process of collecting parts to commence my restoration, after seeing the standard of your work I’m very scared of what lies ahead!!!

I have the vast majority of parts I need now. I managed to score very well in the 914Rubber Black Friday sale and saved a fortune on lots of finishing bits. Still cost a small fortune though!

Be sure to post your progress on DDK it helps mentally, acts as a great diary of events and the odd positive comment give you a well earned pat on the back when you're out in the garage alone in the cold all the time!


Thanks for the other comments fellas.

Great work Stephen, very impressive!! Keep at it soon be done............

Stephen, just wanted to comment on your build. It’s brilliant.
So similar to what I’ve underway. Been following your progress. Mine has been slowed
a bit due to daily life stuff. Really enjoying what your doing.
I have a build thread on 914 world. ( http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=293995 ). I had entered their build challenge for this past year.
Not making that deadline. Keep up the great work .
Cheers, Dion

Hi Dion, thanks for the kind words.

I've just read through your thread over on the world. It really is surprising how much rust these cars can hide! I've subscribed to your thread. Keep up the good work.

I also have an duplicate of this thread running over there too. http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=310626

Originally I was going to keep my 914 7K Tachometer and use a Tach Adaptor to convert the signal to display correctly. However something caught my eye on Instagram a few months ago and I decided I go for something a bit different.

I contacted the guy on Instagram, username classicautoclock. Waldek lives in Poland but used to work at North Hollywood Speedometer, so he knows his stuff. Turnaround was just a few weeks and I'm very happy with the results. Also the price was very good.

If you need your gauges rebuilt or modified, Waldek is worth having a chat with.

Here's my original Tacho


Here it is now.

Love it


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Looks great, but you already know that!

Nice....

Looking good

That Tach is the ticket. Excellent choice Stephen.....I may have to investigate that.
Well done.

Into to the Hole!

The hell hole of course. I think at this stage, more than anything, this was a test of patience and planning along with the skills I'd already learnt.

So what do I have to work with !


It didn't get any better when you got closer either

Pretty eh! Now we all know this could have been a lot worse as despite the heavy pitting in the metal there was only one very small hole in the ramp area and I think I made that whilst cleaning. At this stage I did ask for a bit of advice on how to proceed and armed with that information I set off.

First job was to tackle the area behind the original 4-cylinder engine mount that I'd removed months earlier. I gave up counting after drilling out the millionth spot weld but we got there in the end.

It looks all innocent and easy to cut out doesn't it! Such a f*&^%r!


Here you can see the strenghting, and in good condition too.


Skipping to the end - All buttoned up.

Next I wanted to tackle the firewall. I think most of the damage here was from soaking wet soundproofing, but it was probably a sprinkle of battery acid that broke the camel's back.



I decided I'd have a go at fabricating this part and after a bit of headscratching I came up with the idea of making it in three pieces.

Here's the fabricated repair being welding together.


And here it is in place ready to be tacked in.


And finished. I was quite happy with that.

Back in the engine bay it was on to the ramp area under the battery tray.

With my shrinker it was fairly easy to fabricate this part. Although fitting it wasn't!


I made a mistake here as I didn't realise this area was double skinned. Luckily I didn't cut too much away and it was easy to fit. Should have done more homework. *Slaps own wrist.



Rotten part of the ramp removed.


With the ramp area out of the way it was time to turn to the inner wheel well. Originally I didn't know how I was going to repair this area as I don't have the fabrication skills necessary. Fortunately Restoration Design made a replacement panel. However it was out of stock and needed to be retooled. Luckily after a call out a 914World member had one in his stash and a deal was struck. Another hefty shipping bill from the US

Here's the new panel on arrival.


Here's what I decided to use of it.


Almost in...


Done.