Don't believe me when I say I'm working...

Wow no update since April. That must really be tough work I'm doing... Well it did make a hug mess; and I'm 10 gallons of cleaner later. But here's the rebuilt transmission prior to reassembly.

Finally done with the cleaning and alignments and the seals.

I'm trying to locate some high temp silver spray paint so once it's all bolted together I can give it a nice coat.

Back to black

Black on black doesn't photo too well; but this weekend I got to work on putting the drive train in. Apart from the getting the transmission joined to the motor the whole assembly has to be mounted into the car. The rear will make use of the existing transmission mounts.

But the front of the motor has to be supported. So I'll re-task the forward engine mount.
But it had to be cleaned (which required it to be repainted as well).
I'm not sure where my hex-nut/allen 3/4 inch driver went, so the assembly hasn't been tighted up yet; but here's the dry fitting.
Does that look like 1.70" +/- .01 of an inch? Did I mentioned I can't find my caliber ether?

Oh MY!!!

In the deep voice of Mr. Sulu! OH MY!!!

Look what I found on my doorstep...

22 lbs of aluminum and steel .

I got my adapter plate!

It's everything the I wanted; milled to perfection. The hub adapter fit 'like a glove'.

It may have been a heck of a wait. But Electro-Auto continues the earn their reputation of quality. There is a chance that the stand off ring might be too long, but that I can get shortened locally.

Of interest: the instruction now ask the the clutch plate and clutch be balanced (and lightened) by a local machine shop. I guess the number of vibrating 914's has been noticed.

In my case I think it might be the rear bearing in the transmission that might be bad. But regardless; it's great that they are including the new steps.

Ironically now that I have the part I been missing for a year; I don't have any free-time till me and my Uncle get some paperwork done.

AC55 Solution!

Woot-Woot! Turns out what I need is NEMA C-Face kit for a AC55!Who knew? Turns out Beth at Azure Dynamics does, and will sell me one. So though I'm not a big fan of cracking the motor open (they're sealed), I am a huge fan of this solution!

So the only remaining mounting question is the forward mounting bracket. I was measuring this weekend; and it's very close to being spot on.

Just slowed down

I'm still working on the car, just real slowly. I'm often asked how long it will take, and my answer is always the same: "The more money I spend; that faster it will go."

Well I'm spending very little currently.

But I am purchasing things. I have two large purchases coming soon. I'll post on then when they arrive, so as to build suspense.

Working so hard!!!

I worked my helpers so much today; they had to take a nap.
I wish I could join them.

Getting ready for the home-comming

As long as the car is out of the garage for the second to last time (getting the breaks once overed will be the last time). I wanted to make sure the garage would looks it's best when it gets back in there. This is something I've wanted to do since moving in.


Insert awesome car in to this picture here.

And a huge thanks goes to Rick, for what could have been two days of back breaking work; being two mornings of back breaking labor (with a lot of joking between shots of Gatorade).

Last time it will be yellow.

I've got the date; June 12th. I'll send the car up north, and it will come back minus any paint. But here it is: for the last time, in yellow!


Front end completly torn down.


All the door trim and dashboard removed.

Engine compartment all bare and wraped for transport.

And the final indignity. No doors or wheel.

Next shots will be of the naked cars. At last dirty pictures. Ironically they actually will be very clean...

Well there’s your problem

Having dropped the engine; there remained one major system to remove.

All the wires. Rick came by and we got medieval on the wiring harness. And the gas lines, clutch cable, gas and speed-o-meter cables.

Oh, yeah:

All the internal (and external) trim.

Two weeks of work

I've been getting a lot of support, both from friends and my wife. My friends getting greasy and my wife freeing up my time.

Well maybe the brakes still need a little work…

But major props to Alberto at club NARP for spending a day here at Ground Zero Labs.

Something seems to be missing….

Look ma, no engine (and transmission (and exhaust)).

Hey is that rust, or are you just happy to see me?

Pulled off the side runners and finally saw what was (and wasn't) left of the car side. I have no frame flex or distortion so there's something holding the car together. It's just not the right side of the car

You know you might need that part of the car for later….. The sad part is when I removing the side panel, the jack point was interfering. So I put a screwdriver in the bend it out of the way… by hand.

The left side runner has a surprise for me as well…

I didn't know people took 914's off road. But how, that much mud get's into a side panel; I'll never know.

Taking things apart

As you may recall I'm going to send the 914 off to be Soda Blasted. This is a greatly improved version of sand blasting. This will take the car down to bear metal. Having never done this before the fine people over at Cal-Blaster have advised me to remove everything from that car.

"The less on the car, the better our access." So I'm removing everything.

Here's the front of the car, sans headlights and bumper. The fog-lamps and headlight frames were removed next.

The rear getting the same treatment.