Restoring my first 914

[Darren C]

Beautiful! So, where do we place our orders for a bracket?!!

Nice try Phil

I wish I had the time
The plate is just mild steel 30mm x 2.5mm from the rack at B & Q with a bit of 16mm bar turned as spaces buzzed up with my mig welder. No skill required...honestly.

So I dropped it off at the powder coaters this morning before 8am and after work this evening in exchange for a box of tea bags it was nicely blasted and powder coated satin black.



I ordered some over length screws (to fit through the bracket & bushes) on-line on Sunday, so hopefully they'll be here tomorrow so I can fit it to the car.

[Darren C]

The stainless 1 1/2" screws arrived today in the post so this evening I fitted the extinguisher.



Having got the car out of the narrow garage a few times over the last couple of weeks, tweaking and messing with the Carb jets (driving under load always shows up a few niggles you can't see when running stationary) and noticing a few paint issues, I've got it running really sweetly now. I needed the accelerator pump rods adjusting to cover the change from idle to main jets that bogged the car down under load but didn't show while running parked up.

So still waiting for the logbook to arrive, I got a little bored this evening so decided I'm going to hand flat and polish ALL the paintwork. It's not a bad paint job, but it generally bugs me to see slight orange peel in places. Tonight I've made a rod for my own back now........by flatting a rear quarter down with 1200 wet & dry.....hand polishing with rubbing paste, finishing paste, then T cut. After 4 hours solid I have a rear quarter that has a glass smooth surface finish now.

Trouble is; it may take me a whole month to do the rest of the car.

[C3s]

Go for it, you can't beat perfection [RECREATIONAL VEHICLE]

[Darren C]

My favourite quote..

"Small things make perfection, but perfection is no small thing"

[Darren C]

Yesterday the V5 arrived in the post.

I’d had a plan for the number plates since the car arrived in UK and had been itching to put it all together. This is why I restored the original US plate support frames.
My car was a 1 owner California car from Desert Hot Springs just East of Los Angeles. Historically old US cars had bezels from the supplying dealers or custom bezels fitted by the owner. These vary in style and quality. The early ones are the nicest and are a good quality item.
I managed to track down a set of period VW-Porsche dealership bezels from the early 1970’s from a dealership near to where the car originated.
Being a California State car it had the classic Blue and yellow licence plates and the Bezel has a California Blue enamel infill.
This I thought would look great on an Alaska Blue car, and be appropriate in many ways.





Since the car is an American import, you are legally allowed to fit the 305mm x 152mm US size number plates as long as they meet the regulations on colour, reflective, font and spacing.
Most companies who make up these “import” plates tend to default and put the text on 2 lines. I had to buy the plates in component form and get my local sign shop to make the reg number up so that I could squeeze it into 1 line. (Pushing the boundaries slightly, but this allowed me to fit my lovely VW-Porsche cast, chrome plated and enamel filled period bezels).



I’m really pleased how they came out and they certainly finish the car off in a “faithful to its history” kinda way.

[Tosh]

That's lovely - and I drove through (past) Desert Hot Springs on Thursday!

So, is it for sale yet?

[Darren C]

It's a keeper Tosh
How was Desert Hot Springs?

Besides it's not finished yet, got lots of flatting down and polishing to do to rid it of the scourge of orange peel.
Finished the drivers side this week. Passenger side next week, followed by bonnet & boot, rear lock panel, scuttle and lights, so I reckon at least another 60 hours hard graft.

[Darren C]

Just a quick update…

Week 2 of early mornings before work, flatting down a single panel with 1200 wet & dry by hand. On average 3 hours hand flatting and then after work 4 hours hand polishing (as I have no power in the garage and don’t want swirl marks) with various grades of rubbing paste, T cut and polishes, linear motions at 45 degree increments between changing paste grades.
Last week I managed to finish the Drivers rear quarter, door and wing. Over the weekend I completed the passenger rear quarter.
This morning at 4:30am with the aid of my torch I started the passenger door.



After work today I polished and polished until 10pm in torch light to complete the door.



It’s bloomin hard graft and I can hardly lift my aching arms and bend my fingers but the glass like result, I think, is absolutely stunning.
On the flip side it does show the slightest dent in the car and I’ve discovered some very, very tiny carpark door dents in the drivers door that you couldn’t see before that are now driving me to distraction.

[Darren C]

After 2 solid weeks flatting and polishing by hand the results are beginning to show.
This morning I was giving the sides of the car their first wax polish after all the wet & dry and paste, when I happened to look down and the car had vanished.



I stepped back in amazement, but the car had just disappeared into the floor.



For a blue metallic paint (not just a plain black which is easier to get a mirror effect from) I think I’m starting to loose all traces of orange peel to achieve the result I was looking for.

So late morning today I took the car out on its maiden voyage (other than MOT and a few tests around the block) and met up with fellow Fourteeners and drove to East Wittering for lunch. It was great to be in Convoy with a group of 914’s, and quite a spectacle it was.
The cars running a little rich at the moment so a little more jetting and twiddling to do, but apart from that all seems good.
It was a real experience throwing the little car around the country lanes. I can now see why everyone raves about the handling….great fun!

Thanks to David for organising. It was a real pleasure to meet everyone.

PS don’t panic Matt, I started to work on your light this evening and all being well should have it restored and working by the end of the week for you.

[LMR]

Stunning paintwork. I hope to one day have the same result - but I think I might need a few more weeks in the workshop

[914 KEV]

So late morning today, I took the car out on its maiden voyage (other than MOT and a few tests around the block) and met up with fellow Fourteeners and drove to East Wittering for lunch. It was great to be in Convoy with a group of 914’s, and quite a spectacle it was.
The cars running a little rich at the moment so a little more jetting and twiddling to do, but apart from that all seems good.
It was a real experience throwing the little car around the country lanes. I can now see why everyone raves about the handling….great fun!

Today it was a real pleasure to see Darren finally drives his 914 on its first proper outing on a drive with other 914 owners, on a run to the south coast to have lunch together at Billy’s on the Beech.

Darren joined the 914 convoy (that had driven down from the outskirts of London) in Boxgroove.

It was a great to see Darren drive his 914, he had a big grin on his face and you could see he was really enjoying the 914 driving experience.

[Green Ernie]

After 2 solid weeks flatting and polishing by hand the results are beginning to show.
This morning I was giving the sides of the car their first wax polish after all the wet & dry and paste, when I happened to look down and the car had vanished.



I stepped back in amazement, but the car had just disappeared into the floor.



For a blue metallic paint (not just a plain black which is easier to get a mirror effect from) I think I’m starting to loose all traces of orange peel to achieve the result I was looking for.
Cheers Darren, no panic i'm off to see my car at the body shop tomorrow to look at some problem they've got. Fingers crossed
Btw that paint job looks amazing
So late morning today I took the car out on its maiden voyage (other than MOT and a few tests around the block) and met up with fellow Fourteeners and drove to East Wittering for lunch. It was great to be in Convoy with a group of 914’s, and quite a spectacle it was.
The cars running a little rich at the moment so a little more jetting and twiddling to do, but apart from that all seems good.
It was a real experience throwing the little car around the country lanes. I can now see why everyone raves about the handling….great fun!

Thanks to David for organising. It was a real pleasure to meet everyone.

PS don’t panic Matt, I started to work on your light this evening and all being well should have it restored and working by the end of the week for you.

[Darren C]

Thanks for the kind words guys.
Thanks for sharing the pictures Kev, and thanks to David and everyone for Sunday.

Now this might be a little shocking......

After exchanging some emails over the last few weeks.......

This afternoon I drove the 914 to Porsche Centre Portsmouth and did a straight swap (no money exchanged hands) for a brand new Black Edition Boxster.

[glovebox]

Huh !!??? [FACE SCREAMING IN FEAR][FACE WITH STUCK-OUT TONGUE AND WINKING EYE]

[Bruce M]

Haha...

Borrowing it for a display?