Olympic Blue / Silver metallic 1972 US Import 1.7L

[LMR]

There are times when I wonder why I elected to have the summer off and do stuff in winter. The workshop was a tad chilly this morning



But with the heater on it soon got to a sensible temperature.

So I built up the indicators and side lamps. I have seen the kits for mounting the side lamps, but gave tried an alternative arrangement. This was partly driven by forgetting to order a kit, and partly I had some bulb holders in stock, and side lamp bulbs came free with my new headlamp bulbs.

So after making a suitable bracket, I bench tested the bulb



Then checked it with the lense in place.



Last weekend I applied a couple of coats of clear dinitrol to the back face of the the front bumper. I would like to get both bumpers rechromed, but they will have to wait for now. With some trepidation I then unpacked the 914rubber bumper tops. I have read the nightmares some people have had with these (See Darren C thread), and with the workshop at only 5 degrees I wasn't hopeful. I am pleased to say all of the fittings lined up. I did add a screw in each corner to pull the ends in.



And the fitted bumper



Before fitting I applied clear dinitrol to the paintwork behind the bumper. The bumper looks quite dull in the photo, that is because of smears from the dinitrol.

[LMR]

Another weekend of wiring. I have bought some relays as I suspect this one might not work!



and a few other bits and bobs





In a break from wiring (which isn't my favourite thing) I have trial fitted the sill covers, just to make sure they do not need adjusting.



They would have been riveted in place if I hadn't have run out of rivets.

Finally, I have replaced my axles stands. working under any car is a bind, and I was finding that my existing axle stands at their highest setting were not giving me enough room to comfortably work. A two post hoist would be lovely, but I have instead settled for some bigger axle stands. they are pretty substantial!

[chief]

Positively balmy by the time I got to The Potting Shed!
More great work for our Phil. The car is really coming on. Lots of nice small clean jobs now that can be enjoyed. The big chores a distant memory!
Keep up the good work Phil!

[defianty]

Good progress Phil, keep it up.

Liking the look of those axle stands. Been thinking about getting a bigger set myself.

[LMR]

Some more progress. After trial fitting the sill covers, they are now fitted. I have coated the underside with clear dinitrol, rivets also soaked in dinitrol, and just to be absolutely sure, I have sprayed dinitrol through the mounting holes. Not that I am paranoid about rust! I will be doing more rustproofing before the interior goes back in.



I then concentrated on the underside. I after stripping the driveshafts down, and taking the CV joints apart and rebuilt them, I have added new retaining clips to the boots, added heat shrink to protect the shafts and followed my usual obsession with zinc plating and had all the fittings done. The bolts are brand new, curtesy of Green Ernie



I then finished off the brake pipes. I had been putting off the rear pipes, but using the original pipes as templates bent them to suit. I found cable ties a useful aid with alignment.



I lay under the car for a while and was very confused as to why the pipes didn't fit. I then realised I had fitted the pressure regulator upside down. Once corrected, the pipes all fitted well







Whilst I was on a roll, I unpacked the heat exchangers, found the necessary hardware to fit them.



After crawling back under the car and a bit of wriggling, the result was this.



I bought a new back box a while ago. I have been curious to see how it looked. This is only temporarily mounted at the moment as I don't have the gaskets, but curiosity got the better of me!



Fitting parts is both very satisfying and is freeing up space. I am always happy to see an empty storage box.



Fitting parts to the car also means my workbench isn't cluttered. So I had a tidy up.



It's amazing how much progress one can make whilst avoiding the task which really needs addressing, which is to finish the wiring....

[LMR]

I had great intentions to be at my workshop by 0900 this morning, but a flat battery on my daughter's car soon changed that plan. Euro car parts listed 4 different sizes of batteries, which was a bit of a faff.

Anyway, back to Porsche stuff. I posed a question on the technical section about the size of cable to feed the battery. I bought some large cable and made some leads, a task made easier with this tool.



I had a look at a couple of 914s over the weekend (thanks three-two), and the original battery leads are pretty thin - I think 16mm2. I have made new leads using 35mm2 cable.

The ends of the starter motor leads



And the new earth lead for the battery, next to the old lead



I am not yet (mentally!) ready to connect the battery up yet, so spent the rest of the afternoon reassembling the instruments. I had stripped them quite a while ago, had the rear casings zinc plated and painted the dial surrounds, and was quite please that I remembered how they went together!





And just to close out my busy day, whilst sorting my daughter's car, I had forgotten to switch my own lights off, so also had a flat battery. Sometimes things just don't go right......

[Darren C]

Great progress Phil

[LMR]

I had hoped to have the wiring sorted by now. It is most definitely not my favourite task. When the loom was out of the car I did some resistance checks with an Ohm meter, and things checked out okay. I knew I had to repair the wiring for the interior lights (which I will come back to) but the rest seemed fine. Once back in the car have found 3 wires that looked a little shabby.



Now, because I am getting increasingly anal about putting this car back together, when I replace any wires I am ensuring they are the correct colour, including the tracer colour rather than slice in a repair. Of course all this takes time.

Chief has very kindly laminated a wiring diagram for me.



Back to the interior lighting wires. Four wires run across the dashboard. They were, well ruined. So I ordered the relevant cables, measured the existing ones, cut the cables to suit and fed them back into the loom. It was only when I was almost complete did I notice the new wires were too short.... It turns out I had measured the broken cable rather than the complete wire . Definitely a case of measure twice, cut once. I could have spliced the wires and made them longer. But as noted early, I am getting anal, so more wire ordered.

July is ages away, isn't it......

[chief]

Yes Phil, July issssssss ages away

Totally agree with your direction re the wiring. Most problems can be traced right back there!

[LMR]

I will finish the wiring soon, but do need the occasional distraction. I thought I would share the following photos as I often sit and ponder where to repair components or replace. In this instance refurbishment has given some reasonable results.

When I took the ducting parts off the original heat exchangers they were covered in oil and underseal and looked pretty ropey. After a soak in white spirit and then petrol they still didn't look great



So, an few mins with a clean and strip wheel cheered up the appearance a bit



And after collecting from the plating this morning.



I went through a similar process with other parts





I know I could have painted these at home, but plating is relatively inexpensive, and if I had have painted them, I might have obscured the date stamp on the part. Tiny details like this won't mean much to most people, it won't affect reliability and won't make the car more valuable, but there is a certain satisfaction in saving old parts!

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[chief]

'A certain satisfaction in saving old parts.' A classic quote there our Phil. I think we should all repeat this five times out loud before ditching a crud covered part! Top stuff

[defianty]

Looking good Phil, I picked up a few bits from the platers myself yesterday - always nice to see newly fresh original parts.

There's going to be some great 914's hitting the streets before long.

[LMR]

I had planned a weekend off, but did pop into the workshop this afternoon. I am still working through the wiring, and whilst it isn't a task I enjoy, I know it needs doing. I now have everything pretty much connected up, so I took a brave pill and connected the battery. Nothing set alight, so I felt pretty good. The initial test of switches gave pretty much nothing, so I rechecked the connections. One of the earthing points was overcoated in paint, so I cleaned that and reconnected. I had side lights, the headlamp motors worked but no headlamps. After getting over the novelty of the headlamps going up and down, I got into fault finding mode. After checking various wires I turned my attention to the relay. I unpicked the cover and found the inside was corroded and the pivot from high beam to low beam was seized, and the connectors for both had seen better days. I was able to create a contact though



I will source a replacement relay. It was a good feeling though and I will press on with the rest of the electrics next week.

[LMR]

After changing from the 1.7 to 2.0 litre heat exchangers, I needed the different exhaust support bracket. I couldn't find one, so I borrowed one from Chief, then bought a sheet of stainless steel



mid cutting



and after a bit more time with the angle grinder and a file

deadwind cavern

I have bought a dimple die to add some strength to the bracket, but the stainless steel is proving vey difficult to drill. I was hoping the next pic would be the bracket fitted and the exhaust finally bolted up. Alas the gaskets are the wrong ones.

[chief]

A noisy day considering you were sporting a hangover!