Who's restored a 914/4? Not 6, but 4, Let's hear the stories and see the pics please Options

[Gint]

Sure, everyone knows of the /6 owners that have spent all the money, but what about the /4's? I vaguely remember a few folks that have restored 4 cylinder 914's. Have some pics to share? Success/failure stories? I wanted to start a completely new thread for the subject.

[Doug Leggins]

One thing that I did not plan or anticipate at the start of the rebuild was the level of detail that I got into. I had a plan to build a good, presentable daily driver. I had bought a near complete 73 that was stripped down to a bare shell, and boxes and boxes of parts. The car was originally an Arizona car, had been off the road for 15 years and was near completely rust free. Nearly all of the parts were present to rebuild the car and most were in good shape.

My plan was to get a good paint job, clean up a few parts before install, replace the required mechanicals and transplant a 1.7 from the 72 914 that I was driving. It seemed like a pretty good, medium budget ( $5,000 - $7,000) plan. That plan only lasted to the point when the tub got painted. After I saw the beautiful signal orange paint on the tub, I started questioning whether or not the parts that I had for the car were in good enough condition to bolt back onto the freshly painted tub. It didn't take long for me to buy a few new parts. Exterior parts came first, then the interior parts that I had didn't measure up, so new and reconditioned interior parts were accumulated. Then the mechanicals didn't seem to meet the need of such a nice looking car. And as luck would have it there were group buys being set up on Tarett sway bars and Koni shocks and with those parts the Mueller bearings would be just right and then ... Powder coating threads started popping up and touting how cool powder coating parts were.... And then threads about re-chroming bumpers and replating hardware and .... The parts desire just grew and grew, and the club members kept developing more and more improved parts. And then, of course new seals were needed....

Finally after about 3 years of building, buying and upgrading, I had a 73 914 back on the road. She's turned out pretty nice, and what a "ride" the build had been! By the end of the build it turned out to be a complete nut and bolt, no part left untouched, build. I thoroughly enjoyed the build and now have have great times with the car. Going to car shows is just flat out fun!!! especially the hot rod car shows. I was surprized at first at how much attention that a nice 914 can get. At times I took a 57 corvette and the 914 to some local shows and I would get just as many, well almost as many, comments/questions on the 914 as the 57 vette. The last car show that I attended last year I ended up parking the 914 next to a beautiful, freshly rebuilt red 63 corvette coupe. This spot actually made me feel right at home (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) . I cleaned up the car a little that went through the show for about an hour. When I got back to the car the guy with the vette asked me to please stick around awhile. He said that nearly everyone walking by was asking him questions about the orange car and he wanted me to start fielding them.

My caution to each of you considering a rebuild/restoration of a 914, be it a 6 or a 4, be careful. It is easy to get a little carried away with upgrading "while your in there". (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) My encouragement to each of you considering rebuilding/restoring an 914 is "Do It"! It's a tremendous amount of effort, reward and fun!!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)