So, what's the opinion? Is this something that I can fix myself? I'm willing to take classes at the local community college to learn proper welding, willing to practice a lot, and, of course, willing to spend more time than seems reasonable repairing it (of course, ask me in a few months what I think, and you may get a different answer. :)
Perhaps there are a few pieces that I should have an experienced welder take care of, such as the suspension console?

double bummer. what do you intend to do?

kevin

Well...... you've got a very common problem with these things. It's obvious water has washed battery acid down into your suspension console, longitudinal, and probably your firewall behind the passenger seat.

It can probably all be fixed if you want to fix it. I would say some of it you could do if you take some classes, but I've heard the suspension console is particularly difficult to get right as you mentioned. There is probably more rust, so keep looking!

Are your door gaps uniform? Do the doors open and close easily and line up? Do you have access to someone who weighs at least 200 lbs? If so, have him/her sit in the passenger seat and open and close the door. Does it work OK?

The door gaps appear pretty uniform, although the seem a bit close, but they seem close the whole length of the gap. Fortunately (or unfortunately :) I'm 200 lbs. I sat in it, with the top off, and didn't have any difficulty opening the doors.

wow, that doesn't look good at all, those are the areas of the car that i knew had to be in good shape, luckily on my project they are, but like the guys said it's all time and money:p

That's a good sign. That would indicate your car is not sagging. Once they start to sag a bit... that's bad.

I'm sure a lot of the guys who have fixed this stuff will chime in. I've seen a lot worse that was repaired successfully. Not by me...

Since you're planning to do some metal work you might as well give the car a thorough rust inspection. Check the floorpan, behind both rocker panels, trunks, behind the back panel in the interior, etc and find out what you have. You might as well get it all now.

Do the door test with the windows rolled up. The even gaps are a good sign, though.

Like the guys said, this all depends on your available time and money, but you've got some major emotional strings involved, yours and hers, so "damn the torpedoes...". Hope you have a garage to work in.

What you need to do first is determine the full extent of the rust issues on the car, not just that suspension console. Your pictures show what is causing your "wheel walk". Inspect the front suspension too. Other common areas for 914 rust are the front and rear trunk floors, behind the rocker panels, under the passenger seat.

The Pelican Parts website has an excellent library of technical articles on many aspects of 914 repair. Start with the one on removing the engine (it really isn't that difficult, and you'll need to to get at that rust), and explore the other articles as questions rise. You can get great tips also by doing keyword searches on the BBS forums themselves. You'll be amazed at the knowledge you have access to here.

You'll be taking a lot of parts off the car to get at places you need to repair, so make some space in your garage and get some plastic bags and markers to catalog stuff with.

You can do a lot of the sheet metal replacement welding yourself (after some training and practice), but the suspension console is best left to a pro. The reason is that those particular replacement part(s) need to be precisely oriented in 3 dimensions and kept that way during the welding process (metal expansion during welding messes with alignments). Otherwise, your wheel alignment will never be right, and the car won't be safe.

Don't be afraid to ask questions.

Jeez... It looks like someone tried to repair that suspension console area by brazing it! You'll have to cut all of that out, I think, and start over fresh. Ugh.

Can it be saved? Yes, it can! Check the following web site for info about a car that was about as badly gone as yours, and how it was resurrected:
http://www.highway914.net/

Lawrence posts here occasionally (he's the one with the Cartman avatar ;) ) and can tell you about it. He did exactly what you are talking about doing--went to the local JC and took welding and auto body classes, and then got to work on the car. If I recall correctly, his attitude toward it now is, "Am I glad I did it? H**l yeah! Would I ever do it again? H**l no!!"

So check our tech articles, and check the ones on Lawrence's site. That'll give you some idea of what you're in for.

--DD

The big butt test was done with the windows up, so no problem with that. Spent some time at Lawrence's site, hopefully I won't find unhardened bondo on mine. From your responses, I think I am going to attempt the repairs. My thinking is ranging from "just take out enough to fix the rust problems, and then put it back the way it was" to "while I'm in there, maybe this would be a good time to fixup some of the rust bubbles on the paint and have it resprayed, maybe a complete restoration". We'll see where I end up. I figure that I couldn't honestly sell it to someone without pointing out the problems, and so the car wouldn't bring much. And, with the emotional attachment to it, it's worth some money to fix. Looks like it's time to buy some stock in Ziplock and invest in a good digital camera. Thanks for all your responses, I know I'll be back with more questions. Just moved into a new place, and so the garage is filled with boxes along with my 914. Have to get the boxes cleared out first, so that's my first step. I'll just take it one step at a time...http://www.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/loki5.gif

Rust is a crafty beast...It will make you lie to yourself and you will believe it...

Inspect and reflect...Rust is like an iceberg. the tip is only visible leaving 80% unseen. Before you break into a full run at the repair keep looking for rust. remove the interior and check the floors. Remove the sound insulation in the engine bay and check the fire wall. If you plan to repair the rust, repair it all at one time...Don't spend the rest of your 914 ownership chasing rust.

By all means try and tackle thej ob yourself. It is not brain surgery. It is, however, laborious and expensive...to do it right.

Best of luck and keep asking questions. Most of us on the List have seen your script played out more than once