29 December, 2005 -- Unfortunately, I'm going to have to give up on this project. I look forward to being ahead enough to get another one at some point (hopefully late 2006, early 2007) and get back in. As I said below, I've been amazed talking with other owners and the amount of co-operation in the 914 community that is near non-existent in any other community I've been in.

Since I appear to be lacking pictures of the interior, which is complete and sorta sad, I'll get some posted shortly.

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27 December, 2005 -- Finally got around to getting out tonight and messing with the Porsche again. I've poked and prodded and have wondered if the rust is excessive for a good restore. Then a matter of the engine. <_<

I've had the car for some time, but haven't had much of an oppertunity to tear into it as there are other projects ahead of it.. Anyways, noticed last week that the engine was indeed locked up, so tonight I changes the oil, filter, and pulled the plugs and poured some MM Oil in the cylinders. The most interesting thing came outta the drain plug... A milk shake. My first though was the coolant had.. oh wait, it's air cooled. . Pretty nasty stuff. If my camera phone can catch it in the light of the garage, I'll post what a mess it was. Add to that maybe 10-15 oz of crystal clear, soured water. I'd hate to think of what the rods and bearing might look like.. I'll give an attempt so as to not break anything, and see what happens.

The other kicker, and I need to look again to make sure I think I know what I'm talking about, is the heads on it now are not 2L heads. They have the four intake studs. I plan on popping off the valve covers to have a look at the casting number. I may wind up selling / parting out this one, and later down the road picking up another. I'm still amazed by the community, but financially, things are still tight. Trying to figure out which projects to complete and which ones to sell. Gotta admit, even without having a fully functional 914 (my taillights work and it rolls! ), they're fun.

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22 September 2005 - Pictures! Some of these are over on the site I've got at PP.
These are all older pictures, but I've not done much other than try to clean it up some. I'm still surprised that the passenger jack point didn't crumble away. It's more substantial that I thought.

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22 September, 2005 - Thursday

A gentleman swung by one afternoon about a month ago after seeing the 914 in the driveway, and we wound up talking for a while. As it turns out, he's an owner of a 914, an older Bug, and a 'Giha. He'd offered me some parts that his wife was "requesting" gone. At the time, I told him that I wasn't sure that I was going to keep the 914 due to a tight financial issue. Since that has more or less passed, and I'm back to squeaking by, I've decided I'd keep it. So now I want to hear it run. As I understand, it sat in a field for a number of years. I'm guessing less than the 8 the inspection sticker might lead me to believe due to the rust patters in some places. I need to go ahead and get the paperwork done on it, maybe tomorrow, so I don't have to worry about any legal issues.

Back to the present... I called up Mike C. and let him know that I was going to keep the car, and that I'd be interested in his extras, as well as his expertise. We wound up talking for a while again tonight, him giving me some pointers to breathing fire back into this ol' T IV I've got. He's also been gracious enough to help me with patch panels and if I get the car over there, allowing me to use his equipment to learn to weld. I have the distinct feeling that the car won't be drivable for a while, but may be "trans-portable".

The way it sounds, he's had quite a bit of experience with cars (mechanical, body-work, maybe some electrical) and an understanding wife. I'm quite excited about the prospect of having someone local who can help me with this project. I'm still bothered by the appearent condition of the right long, and slightly less so of the left long. The Hell hole isn't as bad as I'd first though, which is great. The Suspension console doesn't look pretty, but someone familiar with it would have a better idea as to it's shape.

Alrighty, somewhere to work from on the 914 as far as documenting progress, which so far, has been non-existent.
I've put up some pictures on Pelican's Site (http://www.pelicanparts.com/MotorCity/alchemi), but more will follow here as I start tearing into it.