Sig. Orange ‘72 Restoration : Literati914 Options

[Literati914]

I picked up this ‘72 locally a few years back. It was just a shell .. no doors, no trunk or frunk lids, no windshield, no bumpers, no fresh air boxes or wiper assembly, no interior (expect the crappy dash), damaged wiring harness. I even had to bring front hubs and wheels just to be able to move it! The guy said he had parts somewhere but I was never able to get any if them.

The floors were Swiss cheese (see the before pics) worse than I’ve seen on a car that I’d consider a good rebuild candidate tbh. PO used bondo to fill the holes, I kid you not. The back part of the rear trunk was terrible - had been patched with fiberglass cloth that water had gotten under. Then everything covered in a bedliner product that was only sticking in about 80% of it’s coverage, including wheel wells.

The body itself was in pretty good shape.. the shell had even been recently painted (original Signal Orange), but done poorly, there is literally dried clear dripping at the wheel well edges. There are also some bubbles forming in a few spots under the paint that will now need to be addressed.

Over the last few years I’ve sourced most of the missing parts (that cheap parts car is paying for itself in this one). I picked up a set of unused floors from a member here a couple years ago too.. as well as ordered other needed sheetmetal items for it. So I’m now ready to start restoration on this one. I like having a thread showing the process and the before/after but admit I’m not always the best at getting it all documented. Here’s the car as it sat a couple weeks ago (with random doors, roof, etc).

[Literati914]

Got it on jack stands.. removed the suspension, axles, etc and ditched the white hood, it was bent.

[Literati914]

The floors make me wanna (IMG:style_emoticons/default/barf.gif)

[Literati914]

Bondo:

[friethmiller]

Nice! Looks like a great car to rebuild, IMO. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/popcorn[1].gif)

I'm not too far away, if you need any assistance. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/welder.gif)

[Literati914]

Trunk floor - YIKES !

[Literati914]

Replacement parts:

[Literati914]

That trunk has been bugging me the most and so I got started on it first:

[Cairo94507]

Very cool project. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/popcorn[1].gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[Literati914]

Just cutting this panel out alone, makes the car seem sooo much better!!

[Literati914]

Next, I got busy removing the bedliner stuff (heat gun and scraper) - gotta get it ugly before it gets pretty :

[Literati914]

The fiberglass cloth used on the back edge of the trunk floor apparently trapped water enough to create some rust thru areas. This will be repaired before the new trunk floor goes in:

[Root_Werks]

Very cool project! Gotta love new panels, really makes the tub solid again.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/welder.gif)

[jesse7flying]

You planning on keeping it Signal Orange? Great color on a 914, always thought it looked sharp.
Jesse

[Literati914]

You planning on keeping it Signal Orange? Great color on a 914, always thought it looked sharp.
Jesse

Yes this one will stay the original signal orange.. it's grown on me a lot since I've had the car sitting around.

[trojanhorsepower]

Looks fun. Good luck.

[Literati914]

I cut this section off my parts car (late model) to replace the same area .. the contours are the same but I’ll have to eventually drill holes for the early bumper bolts to pass through:

[Literati914]

Here’s a shot showing the compromised metal areas cut away from the rear panel:

[Literati914]

I cut away the edge of the piece that sits atop the crossmember, so that I will be able to weld the edge of the rear trunk piece there without the bulk. BTW that top section is still spot welded along it’s top edge:

[Literati914]

Since the cross member section of this car is in good condition, I decided to cut down the RD trunk panel so that it would perfectly sit on the edge of the crossmember before welding in: