1973 914-4 Racecar

[gms]

This summer two friends and I are hoping to do a couple races in the area. Back in October we purchased this 1973 1.8L car. It has issues with the side of the hellhole…but it is a race car so we don’t care. I am going to post pictures of the process as we prepare the car. The previous owner started to strip the car so we are going to finish stripping it first.

[gms]

Here are the initial inspection photos

[gms]

Surface rust in the trunk, no visible perforations.

[gms]

Suspension pick-up points are clean

[gms]

Look at these jack spurs, pretty clean for IL

[gms]

Here is the DOT sticker, looks like the car has 66K miles.
The mileage is probably actual this car has been in storage a long time.

[gms]

The door jams & thresholds looked clean.
Note: this car has aluminum thresholds.

[gms]

The only thing that I was concerned about was the floors

[Gustl]

Back in October we purchased this 1973 1.8L car.

shouldn't this be a 1.7 http://www.oct.at/images/idea.gif

[davep]

Looks like it has a 1975 nose with the bumper shocks. I'm guessing a combo of 1975 1.8 with a 1973 tub.

[Pat Garvey]

I don't know guys - looks to me like this is straight '73. If the front were from a '75, the trunk would have the extra surrounding brace, which I don't see in the pics. Doesn't matter what motor is in it, because it's going racing. But, with the problems in the hell hole, as well as the perforation behind the pass seat, I'd have some serious concerns about the long on the pass side & whether it can stand the stress of even autocrossing.

Nonetheless, good luck!

Pat

[gms]

Dave is correct, the car must have had an accident in front.
They replaced the front bulkhead with the 75-76 setup including the bumper shocks :confused:

Pat is correct, there is no front reinforcement pieces.

It is a racecar so I am not so concerned with originality.

[gms]

Removed all the parts from the car and prepare to strip the paint.

[gms]

After everything was removed (except the front & rear suspension) I decided to concentrate on the hell hole. The battery tray, support and engine shelf were removed. I also decided to cut the damaged part of the wheel house out.

[gms]

The longitudinal ended up looking fine, no holes just a rough surface so I
treated the surface and left this work for later. The battery will be installed in the passenger compartment so a battery tray will not need to be installed.

[gms]

Next I moved to the rear trunk and removed the surface rust and seam sealer.
Found no perforations in the trunk, just a couple areas with pitting.

[gms]

The aluminum thresholds were removed, I was pleasantly surprised to find nothing but surface rust around the seams and rivet holes.

[gms]

I probably should mention that I have not done all this work myself, GlennMarks (a member of this site) has been working on this car with me. He did a lot of the heating and scraping on the cabin floor. Much to my surprise there are no perforation there either, just pitting. The pedal area was treated after surface rust was removed.

[gms]

While cleaning the firewall I did find a rusted thru spot, this will easily be fixed with a 4" x 6" patch welded in.

[gms]

The orange paint was removed from the fenders

[gms]

and quarter panels

[gms]

The fiberglass hood and rear deck lid were stripped with a dual action sander.