74 resto + s14

[2dingos]

I am fairly new to this site, and found it whilst looking for ideas and information to help me get ready for this. That being said, some of you may have seen this car on e-bay last december-ish. I scooped it for $1452. There was little write up on it, just that the motor did not run. There were 3 pics of it I think so I started bidding. With one second left, I sniped it. It took a lot of haggling to get a shipping company to bring it across from Sacramento to upper new york state. In the end, I had to drive to Boston, from Ottawa Canada to meet the truck yadda yadda yadda. When I finally got it home, it was full of snow and frozen solid. All in all a solid looking car.

I am looking for those pics.

[2dingos]

Once it was home and the snow dug out of it, and it was partially thawed, I took a couple pics before the dismantling began. There was a little damage to the roof from roof racks, this seemed pretty minor. The rear strut towers, I had read were common rot spots, seemed good. The grille and rear end pretty good, with the exception of a cracked right taillight. The interior was hideous, with one of those carpet dash covers to mask the many cracks. The seats, while some vintage fans may like them, were awful.

[2dingos]

I did the kid on christmas day thing and started tearing down the car. As I did, I made an effort to bag and tag things. Not knowing at that point that little of it would make it back on the car. I started doing, as many of you have, reading and asking questions about ways to tinker with this car. Having looked at the M2 site by .... ? I saw many slick cars there, and got a few ideas. So, knowing that I am not a welder or master fabrication guy, I decided that S14 might be the way to replace the dead engine this came with.

So the hunt began for an engine. I finally found one, with pretty much everything on it.... in fact short of having a car on it, it seems nearly ready to drop in when ready.

[2dingos]

As things came off and out of the car, I started to think to build a sleeper would be pretty sweet, but to redo this car with all new chrome etc etc would actually sink me, or restrict me from ever completing it. So I have decided that sleeper is out, and instead I will try and do a sweet looking screamer. Now, keep in mind these cars are rare up here. I get the impression there are many to the south and for sure in the west. So no matter what I will get looks. I will be ditching the front bumper all together, and replacing the rear with a very low profile fibreglass one in black.

I hope seeing these pics brings you guys back to when you stripped your cars. I can't lie, I am a bit nervous about putting it back together.

[2dingos]

So somewhere between delivery of the car and delivery of the motor, I got married, honeymooned, ripped out all the floors of the house, the whole kitchen gutted, new ceilings throughout the house, and got her pregnant. Some things were put on the back burner for a bit, mainly the car. She could not care about the car, good in a way since she won't want to much input. Along the way, I have started to get a few parts together from ebay and such. I got a pair of Tenzo seats that accept a 5pt harness. The battery relocation wiring kit has arrived, steering wheel/quick release and adapter are also in. I have read some on megasquirt in forums, and short of a few nightmares, it seems like a good way to improve the engine performance...... comments?

2dingos at gmail dot com. I have an edis and trigger wheel here in case i go this way.

[2dingos]

Still no real amount of bondo or major suprises, which is nice.

[2dingos]

I am pretty sure that my 15X6.5 intra wheels are gonna work on this car, so it will just be a matter of refinishing them. With all the glass out, the engine out, all the door guts out, the gas tank, all the lights the dash etc...... this is looking half terrifying, half exciting. I have found a really good body/paint guy who will be coming to look once the paint is stripped of. He seems quite keen to start. It would be great to have it out to his place before mid october.

Now off with the subframes.

[Colin]

Cool. I'm jealous of your s14. Do you mind saying how much it set you back?

[Guest]

Hey there,

I am in Ottawa as well! Ottawa fire, live in Merrickville and I'm just finishing the floorpans on my 73 tii and then weld them in. Cool to find more guys up here with the disease.

Cheers, Chris

[2dingos]

Colin, the whole S14 was just over 4grand with the alternator, ecm, header and O2 sensor etc etc...... don't be jealous, just jump on the first one you find as they seem to be getting more and more scarce, especially with the 88-91 M3 prices skyrocketing......

Achilles, send me an email at 2dingos@gmail.com

Got to paint stripping and removing the original sound deadener yesterday after removing the rear subframe. Does anyone have a good suggestion to remove that asphalt sound deadener? Currently I am using blow torch to melt then metal scraper to get it off.......

[Guest]

I did the floors on mine this summer. It was pretty brittle so I used a stiff angled scraper to get off as much as possible, using a heat gun to soften things up ( the torch fumes things up too much ). After the bug chunks were off I used paint thinner and scrub pads and the residue comes right off. Chris

Email on the way.

[justinevert]

As for the tar on the floor boards, try the dry ice method, (has been discussed several times here)

Take about 30 lbs of the stuff in trash bag (or pellets), score the tar on the floor board, spread the dry ice over the patch of tar, let it sit for about 1/2 hour, take a mallet and hit the hardened tar and it will shatter and peal. No gooey mess nor fumes but you still need to use thinner to clean up the residue. Should save you 30 lbls of weight too.

Justin

[2dingos]

thanks justin. i am going to buy some dry ice tomorrow, seeing as how i got pretty queezy from the tar smoke. As for saving weight, I am putting even more sound deadener back into it once it is painted and the roll bar is in. Like Blunt, I want my wife to be able to tollerate riding in it, and I want her to let me take the baby in it, in her little recaro seat.

[kris]

Great work so far. Looking forward to your build and seeing you on the road in Ontario

[BLUNT]

looks great. youre really ripping into it and going big. i like that. keep posting pics. they are so fun when done