recommissioned., australian 914 Options

[wonkipop]

after 16 years of storage its back up and running.

had this for 31 years.
picked it up in chicago when i lived there back in late 80s/early 90s.
off the first owner.
brought it back to aus with me.

its largely original. 40k miles.
where its not original is i had to convert it to rhd. did that back in 92-93.
thats another story if anyone is interested.
rest of it is showroom stock and untouched.
just finished doing a clay bar deep clean on the phoenix red.
got to the end of today and i was back in 1974.

got inspired by 50th hoo hah. been at it since october last year.
co-vid lockdown got me some extra "vacation" time on the project.

keep on 914-ing all of you.

don't know if this image will work but giving it a try.

[sixnotfour]

WOW.. ah the days gone by nose up stance....looks right off the lot new..
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/welcome.png)

[BPic]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/welcome.png) Nice looking car. If you have pics and info on the RHD conversion it would be great to see how you did it.

[wonkipop]

@sixnotfour . yes, its sitting up too high at front. replaced all shocks. no more boges so its running on biltsteins. boges are in the box with everything else that has ever come off the car. you can still read the 1974 date stamps on the strut towers. we set it up level but have been running it around the block and its resettling so it will all get reset up.

@Bpic . i will see what i can find. when the conversion was done it was a world pre digital cameras and iphones so not much in archive. but i can verbal it. the conversion was done painstakingly and using an original crayfords car as a model (there were two and still are two in australia). the crayfords car belonged to a good mate who has since passed away. bless his soul, he was the original 914 man of aus. but i have some pics showing the firewall which we uncovered again from recent work since we have rebuilt the entire fuel system. plastic fuel lines were well past expiry date. let me just say converting a 914 to rhd drive is just about the most crazy thing you can do (but i was young then and determined), but its better than driving in the gutter, which i did for a while on special permits. these days you do not have to do it in aus if the car is on historic plates. but its no fun on a narrow country road gutter driving. in a funny sort of way i am glad i did it. i will expand later on why a lhd drive vw or porsche is ultimately always better than a rhd vw or porsche, factory or not. its all to do with the stretch to the clutch pedal. and i have driven vws all my life. rhd drive and lhd drive.

[76-914]

What is "driving in the gutter"? There was another chap in Ireland that converted his to RHD 2-3 years ago. He detailed most of that build here. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/welcome.png)

[mepstein]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/welcome.png)

[Bleyseng]

What is "driving in the gutter"? There was another chap in Ireland that converted his to RHD 2-3 years ago. He detailed most of that build here. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/welcome.png)

Haha, it's where you are driving on the road next to the gutter vs sitting next to the dividing lines of the road. I have to do this sometimes when in Suriname (borrowing a car) which is tough as its also confusing when turning or driving thru a roundabout.

[PanelBilly]

Great work.

[wonkipop]

thanks for explaining what i meant Bleyseng.
had a laugh when realised unintended meaning.

yes it can also be dangerous to be lhd in a rhd country.
particularly in a 914 - the targa bar is a big blind spot when you arrive at an intersection or a roundabout and you are turning left giving way to traffic coming from the right. particularly if the car is slightly angled at the intersection as you often are.
(think right hand turn in america, but imagine yourself in a rhd drive car doing it).

road safety issues were the reason australia did not allow left hand drive cars to be road registered in most states until relatively recently. now they can be registered on restricted historic plates as a member of a club for the purpose of anachronistic recreation.

i'll try take some reasonable interior shots of rhd configuration today and post.

there are a few rhd 914s get around in australia. originally there were approx 4 in total here in the 1970s. two were imported via the australian distributor as assessment cars and ultimately converted in their workshops. both were 6s. another two were brought in via private import and were converted to rhd first in the uk by crayfords.
a good number came in during the late 80s to the late 90s. for the most part converted here. and now you seen a few lhd 914s getting around on historic plates.

[campbellcj]

Very cool and (IMG:style_emoticons/default/welcome.png) I had heard a former ravenna 73 of mine ended up in Australia but never any real trace. There can't be all that many LHD or converted 914s there in total I figure.

[phillstek]

Great to see another 914 back on the road here, well done!

Bought mine from Ca. in ‘88 and converted it to rhd and a six as soon as I got it. Didn’t think the rhd conversion was all that difficult at the time but wouldn’t bother now given the changes in rego rules.

[914-300Hemi]

Great looking car. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/welcome.png)

[sixnotfour]

Always liked this RHD (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)

[wonkipop]

@ sixnotfour - i like that one too. 917s were rhd too.

1989 & 2020

[wonkipop]

ext 1989 & 2020. same paint. factory. cleaned up ok.

@ phillsteck, might see you around, but i haven't been to sydney for 20 years and probably won't get there ever again. i do like sydney kind of. glad you had it easy on the conversion. i found it a little difficult and it was interesting confronting it again.
replacing the fuel lines got us fair and square in conflict with the handbrake guide tubes which were perfectly mirrored 30 years ago, right in the way of what i had to bend up to get to the fuel pump. which had to be replaced and caused yet another piping headache.
(might try and get the original rebuilt but i think its eternally kaput.

[wonkipop]

discovered this along the way in the recommission installing new shocks.
hidden under the undercoating overspray.

date stamped 22/01/1974 (or in a america-lish - 01/22/1974. struts date stamped 4 days before car was produced on 26/01/1974.

[wonkipop]

MADD

[Midway]

Nice. I have a silver '72 here in W.A. Only 914 I've ever seen is my own. Didn't bother converting to RHD but considered it, have now adapted okay but it does feel a bit weird at times.
Is that dash a cut up original then re-joined and then covered with vinyl? Or what method did you use?
The main problem I have here is that there are not enough corners and they keep "improving" the roads by making them straighter.

[wonkipop]

g'day midway.

i lived in WA for two years 93 to 94. worked at UWA in perth when first back from usa. i liked perth, it felt remote from the rest of aus. the indian ocean is beautiful.
my 914 was with me. there was one other 914 in perth at the time. belonged to a mechanic at a VW workshop called Arnoldi's.

re dashboard. i believe it actually comes via WA (along the way), the dash is a complete fibreglass unit. the mould was available to guys around melbourne converting the cars in the late 80s/early 90s. reputedly the mould was a crayfords unit sent out to australia (to perth according to story or myth) for a licensee to convert 914s for the australian market when the cars were new.

where it differs from crayfords original finished dashboard of the 1970s is the ash tray has been incorporated (bit of work if i remember right) and its not hand glued and hand stitched leather covering as they did. we did a full vinyl vacuum wrap. its not two piece like a factory dash where the top padded section is fitted down on to the top of lower metal dash (which has its own section of padded vinyl competing the section to the windscreen. the lower dash knee padding and air vents are re-used. the chrome trim strip removed and refixed from left to right. the heater blower controls cannot be repositioned precisely as per a factory mirror because the firewall swings in and restricts space so it ends up slightly closer to steering wheel than original. barely noticeable.
the guage panel moves across and is reused intact. strangely crayfords and some aus conversions go to the trouble of mirroring the instrument pod by swapping speedo for aux instruments. i didn't. i did what the factory does for 911 rhd cars. instrument guage layout is same for lhd or rhd - its never mirrored, just on left or on right.
the sapphire radio could not go back in, would not fit, upper fire wall too close. still have it in a box. and the glovebox is just big enough for a pair of giant jackie onassis sunglasses if you need to store such a thing, but not much else can fit in there. fuse board was left in original position and wiring extended across to switches and guages.
crayfords and some other converters moved the fuses. its much of muchness whether you do or you don't. if you look at a lot of european cars sold in australia in genuine rhd factory state the fusebox is always on the left still. especially french cars.

i have seen cars here that were converted by sectioning and welding the dash. that can work for the metal pressing that is the backbone for the dash. is a lot of work. i have also seen sectioned upper padded elements that were then re-skinned. but the join and glue lines are often evident and visible in side light.

the pedals are an area where people did do different things. most conversions i have seen along the way seem to use a rhd 911 pedal cluster. all good except the 911 is a narrower car in terms of its interior with the drivers seat closer to the centre line of the car. we reworked the original pedal cluster in exactly the same way crayfords did. copied a crayfords cars that was here i had access to.

you are correct, doubt anyone would do a right drive 914 in australia ever again since club rego made it possible to be lhd.

[wonkipop]

some images of firewall area. tank out for remaking fuel lines recently.
some surface rust starting was found down in the v joint below the fuel tank due to condensation maybe. on top metal surface of the cavity not bottom (underside -road surface). we went back over all the welds from when i converted it and gave seams etc some love/attention 30 years on. tight fit to bring the fuel lines through to the bottom of the tank.

you lose tank connections access port (or its severely reduced in size with conversion), so back then an access hole cut in the front truck firewall hidden behind the truck carpet to assist getting fuel lines on to the tank. the tank loses about half of its lower bulb and has reduced capacity.

some images from last few months. in one of them you can see mods to lower firewall from cabin side. evident where we have been attending to seams and welds. on lh side the original firewall and floor piece for the pedal mounting gets removed and moved across to right as part of the new drivers footwell. a replacement panel is folded and welded in.

another bit of useless information, but all this stuff is sheet steel and welded on my car. would not have thought to have done it any other way, neither would anyone else in the 80s and 90s. i've seen a crayfords car up close and they were pop rivetted panels with mastic sealant!!!!! some of the panels were sheet steel but one of the firewall panels was a fibreglass moulding. no welding! the 1970s!?