Repair

1973 Porsche 914 1.7

Repair

Under Construction

It seemed easiest to start with the floor board repair, especially since it will all be hidden after the work is done. The brackets were still hanging in place, but the spot welded stiffening brace created a nice home for rust. After cutting out the rust, chipping back the undercoating and chemically treating the metal, new handmade inserts were spot welded in place as shown below.

A new piece was spot welded on top and bottom. 20 GA mild steel was used and channels formed in to add stiffness. The repaired area will be stronger than the original design.

After a light grinding of the welds the repair will be hardly noticable especially after undercoating is completed.

Time to start on the drivers side. Here you can see the repair piece just before being spot welded in place.

Welded in some metal screen to reinforce the fibreglass and now the corner is near complete. First time in 20 years that you could say that this car has a door sill.

The missing steel under the sails is now filled in with fibreglass. Near by steel was rust treated and is now waiting for final undercoating to keep the water away.

Its slow work but installing the outer rocker panel is not that complicated. The hardest part is working around the cowling under the front fenders. If you don't want to take the fenders off you have to notch the rocker panel to fit.

These are the easiest parts to get a hold off: Outer rocker, sill and jack support.

The rockers fit on real nice and are easily spot welded in place... well pretty easy I guess it took me several hours and lots of cooling time to get them welded on nicely.

Of course the side joints take most of the work, here are some shots of what they look like half way through the process.

Finally done, all new except I decided not to reinstall the jack support. Seemed easier to carry a new jack than to risk damaging the rocker panels.

Making new pieces from scratch can be done with patience and working one step at a time. The lower cover shown here was made in one piece and fit in nicely.

Front panel piece welded in, looks better than the picture shows.

Spot welded pieces in for the headlight shields.