this. this is the gospel.
it is much harder to look at boxes and shelves of parts and bare metal and stripped interiors all at once than just one project at a time.
2 years to shave the engine bay and build a motor on my last VW project. not because it took 2 years to do the work, but because i spent a lot of time not even wanting to go out to the garage because it was an unholy mess of dismantled car and too many simultaneous projects.

Like Chris, i found broken head studs when installing my ITBs. I think it must be near a 100% failure rate for the SC's.

Anyone have a line on any velocity stacks with built-in filters for these 52mm triumph ITBS? I bought some cheapo ones and they just couldn't handle any lean pops at all with out blowing the filter screens out of the stack.

With a heavy heart I am writing this update. I got a call from JWE on Friday with the results of the frame bench and you can probably tell the prognosis is not good. The chassis is not only bent but is beyond financial feasibility to fix for my purposes. The team there has been fantastic and I understand they are only bringing me data about my car, but it’s devastating. Their suggestion is to part out the car and begin the search for another vehicle. They use chassis’ in my condition for the purpose of building race cars and they see the best future for is along those lines, however they don’t have a need now.

There is some question about whether I should be sharing this information openly because I could have buttoned up the car and sent it one it’s way. However my moral compass shows no deviation when it comes to passing this vehicle onto another owner without fully disclosure of my knowledge, both earned and paid for, regarding this car. No one deserves to be put through what I have gone through with this car.

So where do we go from here, knowing I can’t build the car I own, here are the two options forward that I see.

Sell the chassis and go find a roller that I can plug my engine and trans into.

Part out the car in it’s current state and go on the hunt for a new car.

Other factors: I have a ton of money in parts for projects that were to happen during this engine out. I need to either sell or find a new car that I can leverage these parts with.

So this leaves me trying to find the path forward. If I were to hunt for a roller I wouldn’t mind a 75 so I can bypass ca smog but I am not sure I can be picky with the circumstances I am in. If I were to sell everything I might try and find a g50 Carrera or maybe just settle for a clean car. Then there is the talk of going outside the Porsche family and doing something stupid like buying a 355...

I really wasn’t expecting this story to end this way when I began with a picture of my son and I standing in the engine bay and wanting to share the crazy project that I baked up in my mind over years of Porsche fanaticism.

I have a couple asks of the community... if someone knows of anyone interested in a chassis in my shape please send them my way. I have pictures from the frame bench and JWE could speak to the condition. If anyone knows of a roller floating around that would fit my build please pm me. Lastly... if you were in my position, what would you do?

Can you visibly see the frame is bent? Did you ever get to drive it before the itb project took it off the road, and did it feel bent to you then?

Did you get a "good' price on it when you purchased it? This is relative I understand. But it helps to know that when deciding what to do next.

I'm not sure how much an out of spec frame would deter me if the car felt right otherwise when driving it. It's also easier to drive it like a toy and hot rod the heck out of it if you know it can't ever be a show car. It could still be made into an extremely fun to drive car I would imagine.
I think I'm suggesting you not care so much about having the most pristine example and just enjoy it for what it is.

Curious though, what made you want to get it on the frame machine in the first place? That would never have entered most people's minds and rest assured that I'll never put mine on one because ignorance is bliss!

i (we?) will have a hard time giving advice here without knowing how far out the frame/body is. if it drives decently enough, have JWE get it close and go full hotrod. that's sure as heck what i would do. you get full creative freedom to try things and feel no remorse if you're working on a 'ruined' car. that's what i did with my last BMW project. the car was super rough when i got it, so i didn't hesitate to chop into the body with the angle grinder or swap in a GM driveline. i got zero flack from the community because i was working with 'garbage' to begin with. (i didn't care. just a point of reference.)

the nice thing about building on a 'junk' tub is that you don't have to waste any of the money you've spent. build the car how you like and snatch up a clean tub when you find one.

I agree with the two posts above, unless it was crabbing when you drove it I'd reassemble it how you want and drive the piss out of it.

All the above responses are entirely legitimate. When I got the car I quickly realized it wasn't cosmetically perfect and I liked having the freedom to make it a hot rod. The most obvious trouble area was the fender above the tail light on the drivers side where you could see it was out of spec. Then I tossed some spacers on the rear wheels and you could tell the drivers side fender profile was a lot different. When driving down the road I never felt insecure about the car with freeway speeds up to 100+ mph. However I have always had trouble with getting the car into 2nd gear no matter what adjustment I made or parts I threw at it, and I do know what a 915 normally behaves like.

Why did I decide to go to the frame bench? Because of the obvious damage and being at the precipice of tossing a bunch of money at the car I wanted to know what I was working with. I have a vision for the car I want to build and it is NOT a concourse or prissy car so I had no problem with some bumps and bruises. But it is the car that I have been buying parts for as outlined in this thread and I am not willing to compromise that. However the pictures from the frame bench with the rear really being out of spec and the front not in spec either is whats leaning me to pulling the plug.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1544481258.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1544481258.jpg

The shop did say I could put it back together and take it down the road but they claimed it would never drive right. Also I cant just have a driver, part of this car for me is being able to wrench and upgrade it.

i wonder how much the motor and trans being bolted in would help with "bending" it back straight? i mean, there is only so much play in those mounts.

2nd gear in a 915 feels like this some of the time (other times it feels normalish):
Run out 1st gear to about 4k rpm and then go to change into 2nd...You think you're in 2nd but it didn't "feel" complete so you pull the lever just a little harder down. click clunk - thats it, you're now much more confident that you are in 2nd gear as you felt something align in thru the shifter. Release the clutch and plant your right foot
So much for that fast 1-2 shift.

That's my experience with 3 different 915 cars that I've driven.