Rust Assessment Anyone?
 

I removed my rocker panel to check out the rust situation and thought I would see what y'all thought.

What parts do I need to buy, what to simply patch.

There is only a couple of small holes under the completely destroyed battery tray.

I did jack up the car once with the factory jack in the square hole and it held, but after looking at the rust I won't do that again.

I also threw in a photo of the cool flat spot on my exhaust caused by the PO not re-tightening the tranny nuts. We were hauling it home on a dolly and it dropped! - sparks a' plenty!

http://www.wholewheat.com/914/rust/

Any and all feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks

oh my.
Uh. It may not be too late. Do you have alternate transportation? Do you have lots of time? Do you feel creative?

-or-

money, bring money. money will fix it. more money please.

My car was way worse than that and took 6 months with the motor out for dropped valve clutch etc.. to get the rust fixed. I was driving it before it dropped the valve. Drivers seat loose in the car with plastic milk jugs behind it for an adjustment. Sad shape. But it ran great and street leagle. Drivers seat pan was over 90% loose at the edges I mean like all the way around the seat all the way through. I had bad thoughts of hitting a pot hole going down the road and my own car running me over as my seat ejected the wrong way down and under instead of like the movies. That one would have really made some headlines. Man killed by hit and run driver and he was also the driver. If my car ever burns it will fall apart as I had no mig or tig just alot of brass rods and a torch. Once you dive into it and you start seeing progress the time will fly by and in the end you will have saved another 914 from getting scrapped.

I don't know, that's pretty bad. You might want to get the opinion of someone who has done this. My 911 is from KY and I'm still on the rust repair months later. Of course, I don't work on it full time, but several hours a week.

I did a 914 2 years ago. First, you have to get rid of the rust to expose the metal so you can evalute and be able to weld to it. Either acid or sandblasting (or both) will get the rust off.

You might start with the clamshells and jack brackets as well as the triangular underside jack points. You will have to fabricate many small pieces as well like the rear of the floor pans.

Very serious. You need to really consider if this is something you want/have time/$$$ to do. My guess is that you will find more of the same as you keep looking.

It will have to be a labour of love to do the repair. Its cost effective only if you do most of the work yourself. I just got mine back on the road this summer after many hours with the mig welder and grinder (see site for pictures worse than yours http://hellofriendpeace.tripod.com/). If you like that sort of thing you'll find the reward worth the effort.

Im of the same opinion. Might be better to find a good roller and transfer everything over... Might be cheaper in the long run. Unless you are a skilled welder, this is going to be expensive.

Unless you have unlimited time, junk it. Thats too far gone as its been sitting in the weeds for years.

Geoff

Thanks much for the excellent rust repair pictures and the input. At least we won't be too shocked when we dig into something worse. This is a school project, so cutting, grinding, blasting and welding are all on the agenda.

It looks as if Auto Atlanta sells exactly the sections that are rusted out.
Does anyone else sell these replacement panels parts?

http://***********.com/model/914-0704/rust/914-page063.html

http://***********.com/model/914-0704/rust/914-page064.html

Ask for ***********'s latest 914 catalog on CD (free), they have a video with a repair of the same region you are going to need to work on.

They should be available from Pelican Parts at less cost than AA. AA doesn't make these parts.

Geoff

Geoff is right. You should call PP and ask 'em if you don't see it online. Almost everyone here has an AA story.

I had less visible rust than you. Check this post to see pics. Kept going till the metal was solid.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-914-914-6-technical-forum/190157-changing-rear-firewall.html

PS: The bill came to about $5k CDN (approx. $4300USD)before paint. Most replacement panels were fab'd rather than bought. The car was a free 73 2.0L so I figured I would spend at least that on a fully restored car anyhow.

Where is the exhaust photo?

I was hoping you would keep us updated on the progress..... Did you get replacement panals? Would love to know what is happening and more about the project. This is a whole class thing?

Sorry about the delay... this will be a slow process. We are still performing exploratory surgury to determine to how far the rust has spread. Turkey induced coma halted any work this weekend.

As suggested, I did find the manufacturer of the replacement panels. Still pretty pricey.

Nothing further will happen until after the Christmas holiday. We are a private school and the class size will be very small.

check out restoration design in Eaton Rapids MI. They stamp alot of replacement panels and it is where most of the resellers get their parts.

http://www.restoration-design.com/

Yeah, I got a couple of my panels from restoration design and compared to other suppliers theirs were superior as far as fitting goes. Inner wheelhouse upper and engine tray and some odds and ends.

RD makes the panels for most places that sell 914 body parts. We get ours from RD, for the most part. Or from Porsche (and you can guess how much those ones cost!).

We do not currently list in our catalog everything that we can get from RD; they have updated their catalog more recently than we have. But we can get all of those parts.

--DD