First Weld Job - Jan'12

After a very lazy Christmas I managed to steal a day off work and get my new welder (Portamig 185) fired up. I patched up the rear panel with a piece cut from a scrapped 914. The whole section of the panel above this small patch will be replaced with a flat sheet because it's in such a bad state..that's why I was able to cut the holes in it to be able to place the G-clamps. Proper welding clamps have been ordered online to avoid having to do this next time!

The weld aint pretty but it's sound and will be sanded away anyway so I'm happy with it...just don't go giving me marks out of ten for looks - it can only get better!

Once the flat panel above has been welded-in next, it'll be onto welding-in the trunk floor..then get the shell onto the rotisserie at last.

Engine and Gearbox Removal - Nov'11

What a bloody nightmare...if you ever need to take an engine out, best to get a second pair of hands to help. 2 trolley jacks, an old wooden pallet and 4 heavy-duty castors later and the engine is out...ahhhh (big sigh of relief!) I kept the engine and gearbox together which made for one mighty lump to shift around. I won't go into all the gory details but to say there were a few pitfalls along the way would be an understatement...onwards and upwards.

Oh, the little cut-out in the rear panel is where the car must have been reversed into a post or spike or something..it was beneath the bumper; the panel had a nasty dent in it that there was no way to beat out. The rear valence was also destroyed. I cut it out and have a small section to weld-in taken from a scrapped 914.

Cabin Floor 'Tar' - Oct'11

The cabin floor is coated with a thick tar-like mastic coating. The only way to get this stuff up is with a heat-gun, scraper and plenty of elbow grease. Hoorah!...the floor beneath is spotless. No floorpan welding required...on one side at least!














Guts and entrails....

Stripping Paint and Frozen Fingers! - Sept'11

Need to know which paint stripper to use...? I am now an expert on paint stripper having tried everything. Thinking special formula, super-strength or ultra-concentrated would surely be the way to go; turns out the best stuff by miles is good old fashioned original Nitromors...fascinating stuff eh! Heavy duty rubber gloves a must to keep the stripper off your fingers and freezing them.

So far, the metal is all looking good. Here is more paint off the windscreen panel and the headlight buckets.











And a shot of the whole car on a rare beautifully sunny day.

First bare metal - Jul'11

I had to get my first 'taste' of bare metal... Forward trunk floor is pretty good but the rear-most section is a nasty botched job by a previous owner. Will put that right with a Restoration-Design floor panel. The black is Kurust treatment on areas where rust was brushed out - but I'm not totally sold on this stuff; it doesn't adhere well to clean metal or brush on smoothly....will look at other options.

The panel along the bottom of the windscreen is really good but the seam between this panel and the wing has alot of rust. But I think I'll probably make it worse if I try taking the wing off to fix this. So this might be one bit of rust that gets away....

Dash and Dials and WIRES!!

Dashboard and dials out...loads of fiddly hidden screws to find to finally set the dash frame free. Frightening tangles of wire and plugs in the back of the dials jammed into place with toilet paper!...doesn't bode well. But I guess I'll probably need to replace with 911 dials to go with the 6cyl engine.

Get Yer Seats Out...Jun'11

Seats out and start on stripping the interior trim. Much is cracked from sun damage - the car came from California originally. Sills/Thresholds will be replaced. Guess what colour the car was orginally...just like the Cali sun!

Removing and stripping the doors...

The doors are removed and stripped. There's alot of surface rust on the inside of the door skin. This will be impossible to remove by hand without taking the door apart so I'll probably get them dipped and e-plated. The bike in the background is my father-in-law's Bantam 175. Needs electrics sorting - I'll try and get it going....one day!

Teardown begins - May 2011

Some 6 weeks later the teardown begins. The car is a 15 minute drive from home at my in-laws so I have to plan my time well - until I have my own garage I need to put in a good few hours of work at a time to make the trip worthwhile. The garage needs a good sort out but it's got plenty of room..potentially. Stripping the car starting from the front and working back. Headlights out...then fuel tank, windscreen, interior; finally the engine and gearbox in time etc.. First issue to note; the channels that hold the rubber seals under the front trunk hood are pretty corroded so will need replacing. The nasty late bumpers from '75/'76 must have been added to the car later..it's a '74 model so I wonder if it had a small shunt and needed new bumpers. There are signs of a small knock but nothing serious...

Delivery - March 2011. Bought on ebay as a project (obviously) from a indy garage in Essex. Although I think I paid more than I would had I bought from the US, the advantage was being able to look it over in the 'flesh' It's a solid shell but everything needs doing to it.

....building up to it..

Lots done on the car but haven't been bothered to update the blog..I wonder if I will!