Heres the quick break down: My old car got totaled on the side of the road, i got a good settlement out of it and with the money im building A tube frame chassis 914 with Porsche Boxster suspension and a subaru turbo motor.
The goals:
(Disclaimer some of these are really down the road and may not make the initial version 2.0, maybe 2.1 or so on and so forth. They are also goals so weather or not i achieve them, it’s something to shoot for.)

Tube frame chassis, all made of DOM tube and when all when the car is fully built it should weigh 1600 ish lbs.

The motor: It will have a subaru turbo motor. The initial version will see a 2.0 just so i can start having fun but eventually it’ll be a hybrid 2.5 making 400whp

The suspension: It will all be porsche boxster same with the brakes so it should handle all the power and lack of weight im throwing at it.

The body: It will be all fiberglass panels dzused on with the exception of the A pillar which will be a stock piece from a 914 but it will retain a vin tag. The only other stock 914 related thing will be pop up headlights which will be retained.

Aero: This thing will have an extreme aero package. From the smooth underbelly with large rear diffuser and front splitter to canards and a chassis mounted rear wing, This “car” WILL have a presence like little else.

Interior: Skip... JK this thing will have a digital dash, k tuned shifter, willwood pedal cluster, and a plaid racing seat. Thats about it, passenger seat is seen as optional at this point.

So hopefully this should be good, i dont have much time, even in the covid 19 world we currently find ourselves in right now. It may not be a fast paced build but the goal is to have a roller by june... So lets get to building!

OG car:
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The Crash:
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Whats Left:
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I dont have many parts left, I took all the good parts off sold what i could and kept what i needed.

First step is the main frame rails. i bent these up and took way too long but they are within a 64th of an inch of each other and are dead flat.
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Next I needed to mock it up to find my width which is 22” inside to inside. I also wanted to see what it was gonna look like
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Interesting. Have been contemplating a similar midengine build using boxster suspension. Will be interested to see how this goes together!

Subscribed!

i like

Began welding the main bit of the chassis together. Fairly decent welds, im still getting used to the hand controls instead of a pedal to make it more simple to weld while on the floor.
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Damn pictures keep rotating, i even turn them in my phone but no luck.

This will be a great build!!!! Are you going to document it on the YT channel?

Loved your old car. It'll be great watching this!

I certainly will!

What do you call your tube channel?

very cool!

Ziptied, a place where u can see me do dumb things with cars.
https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCwkC6muunVD72SHwE9ZoXeA

Spent the day adding in the wings of the chassis under where the driver and passenger(?) sits and honing in my tube bender. Turns out my bending die is advertised as a 7” radius but in reality its an 8.125” radius (which made me waste some good metal to find out). More on what i was bending tomorrow when im done. Click to view attachment

Looks great so far.

Have you measured the floor jacks to ensure same height or not grossly off?

I miss those things

Yep i welded them in place to ensure the same height and to dissuade me from using them on something else. Also made them level because without much weight on them they dont sit flat.

the floor is flat too ?
garage floors are not exactly a surface plate.
looks are deceiving.

Flat and straight enough is flat and straight enough for a home build I'm sure he can build enough adjustability into the mounts to correct any twist in the chassis.

Correct however i regularly check measurements and after a good amount of welding .35 degrees is all the twist so far. My garage floor is absolutely not flat but once all the welding is done im gonna shim the stands to level it out. Too bad a chassis table is so damn big and expensive.... next time i guess.

Built a lot of gussets, i really badly wanted them to sit flush with the bottom of the floor but after an hour and a half of trial and error, i found it cannot be done on 90 degree joints with my tube notcher as is. I wanted the gussets to double as mounts to the floor pan but ill have to fab up separate mounts for that They gussets fit pretty good and i made all 8 in 30 minutes after that whole debacle. Now to weld in!
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Not a big day but got some of the gussets added in. I also added the middle bar back into the floor now that i know where center is.
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What’s the body concept going to be? Are you sticking to 914 or boxster chassis dimensions?

Love the progress

Lover your welding!

914 wheelbase, but based on what im seeing both front and rear are gonna be wiiiidddee.
It looks like the outside edge of the brake rotor is the same width as a stock 914 bodie give or take a little.

Remember their wheel offset is way different than the 914s, plus the track width is a few inches wider.

You should be fine with a decently flared body.

Boxster with 914 body for reference
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=332830

if i used normal tire widths

I want it to end up a lot shorter than that which may mean a couple bumps in the body maybe. A sacrifice im willing to make.

I have one word of advice: Triangulation.

Ahh but it is the word of the day with the new additions to the floor!Click to view attachment

I've seen a 993 rear suspension in a 914 that the owner narrowed the subframe assembly(pics someplace around here)

Ive thought about it but im not too worried about width. As low and wide as i can go is my goal... but not scraping the asphalt more like as wide as reasonable and as wide as i can afford.

Got the last of the welding that is possible on my current tig cup, i was gonna get the right cup today but it was damn good friday. The last of the tight welds will wait till monday. I also finally got the main hoop bent and notched. It still needs a little work to get it right because its a little wide. i may tighten a couple bends a degree or so to bring it next to perfect. Nothing serious. But it’ll wait till tomorrow like the dash bar
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Finally building in 3d, got the main hoop finish notched and welded on!
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Killed the drill finally, i was trying to notch dash bars... Craftsman Warranty..?
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Craftsman warranty? Good luck with that. What was the original warranty? Head for Lowe's and see what they say. Let us know what happens if you pursue it. I have plenty of Craftsman tools and no Sears nearby. Good luck.

The "Craftsman tools warranty" died when Sears sold off the Craftsman name. The new stuff is no where near the quality it used to be, and even Sears (if you can find one) doesn't honor the warranty for the old stuff.

I hear Ace and Lowe's still exchange them. Craftsman as a brand is not dead... Just Sears.

Imagine if we had professional sportscasters, I'm thinking those "quiet talker/golf types", doing commentary as these builds were happening...

Post #2: "Interesting... He's gone with round tube for his main chassis frame. Let's see what he comes up with as a way to attach the floor."

Post #6: He's about to post some close ups of his TIG work and, and... NICE! Looking like a proper stack of dimes! I can barely hear over the roar of the Gallery! And those cheers are well deserved. Brilliant work, simply brilliant! He's setting some pretty high expectations.

Post #19: "...flat and straight enough for a home build." Fair advice from @Andyrew . We've seen others spend WAAAY too much time messing about on the last 5% of something when they could have been on to more valuable work.

Post #21: He's showing solid consistency on those corner braces. OH! And there's the comment about attaching the floor! Well, we can look forward to watching him solve for this. Given the work quality so far, I'm sure this will work out just fine.

Post #36-39: Classic! All the fabulous custom fabrication and they're focused on a drill warranty!

Tazz - Keep up the great work. Your build pace and quality are impressive! I can't wait to see this come to life!
Chris

Dang i appreciate it! the comment on post 19 seems like it may have hit a little close to home for you Ill figure out something with the floor. I work with pro mods at work and they just use dzus’s to hold the panels in. I dont think ill go that route but i do expect some pretty large sheets of aluminum coming my way. I might have you make some brackets on that plasma table

in my 914 my seat is on the floor in the back and 3 inches up in the front..
Yours with the tube dia. plus seat tilt, you be sitting pretty high? Im 6ft
Great project
Oh ya same seat..

no its not bad, i sat in it already and my head doesn’t poke out the top even with a helmet, and thats without tilt

Well, yes, I am talking about myself in that comment re: post #19!
I'd be happy to fab some brackets for you. Just let me know.

I think it is kind of telling that this tube framed 914 is starting it's life on jackstands!







Seriously, this is some beautiful work.

Clay

I started work on the dash bar and uprights today. I know its not a traditional design for the dash bar but ive seen enough examples of it to be comfortable with its integrity. It also allows me to accelerate my build and wait till i get the a pillar to build the upper half of the cage. In other news the craftsman drill crisis has been solved. Lowes wouldn’t warranty it and due to another serious crisis, craftsman is closed, so i bought another drill and put a protection plan on it... lowes will waranty that drill in about a week
Other Other news there officially will be a bump in the hood. The strut top is around 2” higher than the cowl sooo itll get a vent or something, im thinking like the ones on a charger daytona idk
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http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...845&st=240#

Exactly, but please end my suffering if i turn it into a face

Someone is going low low I take it? I like the idea of hiding it in fender vents. Probably make some rounded contoured RSR style vents...

@tygaboy could whip up some CNC cut pieces if you CAD drew it

My main goal is for it not to be bulky and tall like a rebodied boxster i want it short andto have correct proportions for a 914

Ok update: I was out of town for a couple days and was nearly dead from exhaustion for the next day and a half. So progress stopped for a bit, but now ive made some good progress! I built some cups to mount the subframes, they came out good but i ran out of gas almost immediately afterward. Then i put the subframe up in place and found my guess on the bars that could run into the wheels dont! and the mounting seems easy for the subframe in the front. I also took a scrap bar from a failed main hoop and it looks pretty good to me. Tomorrow im gonna take the struts off because they’re being a pain in the ass and it will make it considerably easier to deal with.

Really obscure question does anyone have a boxster they can jack up to tell me the control arm angle in full droop? If not ill have to figure it out somehow, i have the angle while loaded on the ground.

Subframe cups:
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Scrap Bar strut tower:
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With a wheel on:
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