914 2.0 > 3.0 GT Conversion

[hot66]

Stephen, looking forward to seeing the car develop not sure if I missed it , but are you going wide or narrow ?

[defianty]

Hi Stephen....good to read that you are back with us...looking forward to reading more...you guys up for coming to Spa next May again...?

Hi Jonathan, thanks. I think we'll be heading back to the Oldtimer GP, Nürburgring. We went last year and it was a fantastic event but nothing booked yet.

[defianty]

Stephen, looking forward to seeing the car develop not sure if I missed it , but are you going wide or narrow ?

Thanks James, it'll be wide! I look I've coveted for years.

[ollieg]

Watching with interest...I have a very similar project also on hold - life getting in the way etc.. (GT Tribute with a 3.0SC motor).

Good luck with it all..

Ollie.

[sladey]

Brilliant stuff Stephen - glad to have you back and looking forward to the conversion. Not a massive fan of the stock 914 but I love the wide-bodied ones, especially after chasing Andrew Armallagh orange one through wales

[defianty]

Not quite sure where the past couple of months have gone

Things have been a bit stop start on the car and although I'd like to be further ahead that I am, I'm happy with the progress.

However plans have changed slightly! What originally was six conversion and then a GT rep-a-like too is now all of that and pretty much a nut-and-bolt restoration. It snowballed! I decided that I was just not going to be happy doing half a job.

I've been stripping and cataloguing the car for sometime now and I'm finally at the stage where it's just one piece of metal albeit with doors, boot lid and bonnet still attached for safe keeping. No ones tells you just how much space a car takes up when you strip it. Car parts everywhere!

Overall I'm really impressed with the condition of the car. The excessive amount of underseal that was applied to the car years ago has really done its job thankfully. Removing the stuff has been the bane of my life though, it's everywhere and I mean everywhere. The control arms are covered, the struts, brake lines, cables - it's f£$*ing everywhere

Getting there...


After cleaning up, nice original paint.


It's never all good news though, I had always suspected the offside rear wing had had a knock in the past. A poke around the other day revealed this.



Lovely, but it's what I expected. Fortunately I picked up a nice used rear wing a few months ago so it'll all be replaced and made good.

Corrosion wise I think I got away lightly, just a few areas that need attention. The sills were both full of crud around the jacking points. The drainage hole just aren't big enough and it's a common problem with 914's used in the rain frequently and not cleaned properly.



They'll both be removed and replaced with new.

There's a small amount of rust in the hell hole which is easily sorted and a large patch on the firewall due to a soggy sound pad. Usual 914 stuff. Other than a small patch at the base of the windscreen on the scuttle that's it, so not bad at all.

[defianty]

After weeks of stripping the car and cleaning I decided I needed a change and to work on something a little more exciting.

Since buying another engine lid I've been eager to cut it up and make a GT style engine lid. Now I've seen many takes on this and people have different opinions on the best way of doing it. After plenty of research this is what I decided on.

One crusty engine lid ready for surgery!


Cut out arear marked


Radiused corners to match the existing


Volia!


And of course you can't forget the Sladey holes!


Lots of fettling later


Altogether I think it came out well. I want to tidy up the end of the new grill by welding in a plate to make it all flush. I'll get to this after I get the lid back from media blasting.

[defianty]

In order to save on space I've decided to start with the suspension. In its current flithy state I don't fancy stashing it away in the loft so I thought I'd break it down and get to making it all as new. Obviously I had to remove another couple of pounds of f$*&ing underseal!

Rear removed and partly cleaned. Shocks and springs will be replaced - more on that later.


Front components - again shocks to be replaced.


New bushes, ball joints and bearings ordered. All were in fairly poor shape and needed to be replaced. Quite how the ball joints made it though the last MOT I'll never know!

Cataloging everything before plating and powder coating where necessary. I found visulising it this way made it all seem really simple and easy to mark out items that need to be replaced with new. Only time will tell when I come to put it all back together!




And that's about where I'm up to right now. More soon!

[defianty]

Received my front brake calipers back from Classic Car Automotive a few days ago. Looks like they've done a great job and an extremely quick turnaround too. I specifically asked for a plain zinc finish and they did just that.

[Bootsy]

Looks good under that under seal though - bonus

[Mr Pharmacist]

Looking good Stephen!

Thanks for the GT lid write up - I was thinking of doing the same myself. Where did you get the new mesh from? It looks like a closer match to the original

[defianty]

Thanks Stuart.

I bought the green lid from eBay a while back and reshaped the mesh from that. The grill with the Porsche lettering was from my car originally.
The only reason they look a bit different is because of the paint. That'll obviously be rectified later.
Through research I did manage to find a company in China that would reproduce the mesh to a custom spec. Unfortunately the minimum order quantity was way more than I could ever sell on.

[Mr Pharmacist]

Thanks Stephen - I've got a spare lid too so can take the same approach!

[Ian Gunney]

Looking good Stephen!

Thanks for the GT lid write up - I was thinking of doing the same myself. Where did you get the new mesh from? It looks like a closer match to the original

I used a second original grille mesh when I made the one on my car.

Ian

[ollieg]

Good stuff...are you going to do the body repairs yourself?