First fit of the engine shelf section, after a quick trim of unnecessary rear part. I do need more of the rubber seal channel than the shelf itself.



After lots of check and grind and metal work cycles, this is about 90% right.


​​​​​​​

 

Had a couple of hours in the garage, got the fit as close as possible, and then adjusted the fit as I tack-welded the shelf section in place.

 

If you ever get done with all the welding, what colour are you going to paint it??? Inquiring minds want to know...

 

Most days I think it will be the original color: Bahia Red. On rebellious days, I think about Saturn Yellow (also a 1973 914 color).

 

Finished up the engine shelf section. I feel pretty happy about the results, except where I fumbled the grinder at the junction of the groove for the engine compartment air seal, and chewed up the edge. I might splice in a short segment.

 

On to the remaining things in the engine compartment. First is the right trunk hinge bracket. I already removed the old, torn bracket which left a few small holes, and a bit of brass from PO repair attempt.




Holes welded up and ground down.



And after much measuring and re-measuring, I tack welded the new hinge bracket in place. I will check the location again tomorrow, and finish the welding.

 

Also started the next task. Both engine lid hinge brackets were torn off. PO "fixed" them by bolting through the firewall.





I cut out enough to get straight edges, and then did a bit of metal work. I will cut some patches tomorrow.

 

Here's a teaser- my '73 in bahia red at a recent cars and coffee. My dad got a bahia red '71 six months after I got my silver '71... and Pete Stout said the '73 would have made the cut at the Rare Shades event last fall in LA (though I took the Mexico blau spyder) so I'd probably leave it in original colour as well.

 

^^Very nice! And, yes, inspirational. We will see what happens in a few months!

 

So when I measured the right hinge bracket that I tack-welded yesterday, I found it was about 1/8 inch too low. So I cut it out, tacked in again, and triple-checked the measurements, based on the original left side hinge. Once confirmed, I welded it in for good. Unfortunately, my MIG is acting up again, so I might grind down these welds and redo once I figure out what is wrong.

 

Here are the patches in place for the engine lid hinge mounting points.

 

And the engine lid hinge brackets.

 

I need new lid brackets on my '71. One side has just fatigued after nearly 50 years and the left side of the lid is about 1/4 lower than the right when closed. Hard to fix with engine in car etc so will wait until it gets new paint...

Think I have a new leak in the oil cooler on the '73- developed a pretty sizable oil leak from the front the engine with drips on the bottom of the cooler... looks like I'll be dropping the engine. Putting new center muffler and airbox on the turbo first so I seem to have plenty of projects lined up.

 

My last task in the engine compartment is plugging the festival of holes in the firewall left by POs.




This is my favorite. Not sure why somebody did this.




Step one, after some flattening, is cleaning things up for welding the holes shut.

 

With a bit of extra time, I started exploring the next job: the corners of the cowl panel, where it meets the front fenders. The front trunk lid opened beyond the hinge stops (the hinges were wobbly) and made contact, perhaps many times, with the cowl. This bent the weatherstrip channel and tore the corner joints.

Here is the right side, where I have removed the fender.



And the left side.