Getting back into the 914 world, My history and next steps. Options

[vonsteigerho]

I'm a newbe to this forum and getting back into being a 914 owner.

Back in highschool (class of '83) I had a '70 1.7 liter from Florida. When I bought the car, it had high miles. The only thing good about the car was the frame that had no rust and was straight. I had to rebuild everything else. Regardless, I loved that car and dream of it to this day. Wasted a lot of time and money fixing it up before getting a '74 part car with shot longintudinals. Put the engine, tranny, shifter linkage, interior, rims from the '74 into the '70. When I was done, I had a really nice car. Sold the car in '87 when I graduated college and bought a Jeep.

I'm ready to become a 914 owner again. I have a space in the garage and a few more bucks to spend than when I was in highschool. However, I have 2 kids so not a ton of time and not a lot of money.

This time around, I know a lot more about 914's and what it takes to build the car I want. Things are starting out a bit backwards, because I'm buying the parts car first. Negotiating to pick up a '74 2.0 rust bucket in my home state of NJ. The price is $800 without the rims, but still far in excess of $800 in parts. I just was the car for the 2.0 liter and the midshifting tranny.

Here is where I need your help. Because the '74 will give me enough parts to build a road worthy car, I'm really just looking for a road worthy frame with a title. Any suspension upgrades would be ideal.

I don't plan on doing a restoration or create a show car. Instead, I want to build a lightweight roadster with highperformance 4 cylinder, tuned suspension and improved breaks. Most of the money and time will go into the engine.

If any of you guys live near NJ and own a chasis that fits the bill, please let me know. I've been reading these postings for a while and realized there are guys out there will multiple cars never seeing the road.

It is my plan to keep this thread going once I get a car so I can ask a lot of questions. For example, how can I replace the headlight motors with a manual pull to save weight? How do you balance a motor?

I will also start a build thread when the time comes.

[charliew]

I totally agree on the buy the best you can afford. If you throw in all the tools and the cost of materials especially any color red paint the price of a good complete car gets cheaper all the time. Most car guys can handle the wrench work but chasing good parts, doing lasting body work and putting a good paint job on is usually way past the regular car guy. When you gotta hire out work is where it gets expensive. Also a good 2 liter 914 motor is about the most expensive 4 cylinder you can hotrod in my opinion.

That car on ebay looks nice in the pictures but it's not a 7k car, it will go for more than that, probably 10k, also in my opinion. That would still be way cheaper than building your own.

[vonsteigerho]

I totally agree on the buy the best you can afford. If you throw in all the tools and the cost of materials especially any color red paint the price of a good complete car gets cheaper all the time. Most car guys can handle the wrench work but chasing good parts, doing lasting body work and putting a good paint job on is usually way past the regular car guy. When you gotta hire out work is where it gets expensive. Also a good 2 liter 914 motor is about the most expensive 4 cylinder you can hotrod in my opinion.

That car on ebay looks nice in the pictures but it's not a 7k car, it will go for more than that, probably 10k, also in my opinion. That would still be way cheaper than building your own.

It's a nice car and agree that I couldn't buy a project and rehab it for like they did for less than $10k. I saw a build thread where the guy spent $10k on rust repair.

That being said, it's not the car for me. It's a great "restoration" except for the conversion to carbs which really seem like a wise move on what would otherwise be stock car. I'm looking to do some suspension and more substnatial engine upgrades. It wouldn't make sense to go tearing apart the car on Ebay because it appears "finished" as it sits.

A performance daily driver (chipped paint and all) is more for me and I'll leave the show cars to others. That is not to say I won't drive the car to shows so I can see the work others have done. Looking through the build threads, I'm amazed at what people have done to 914s. These rotisery restorations are incredible and then they put in custom interiors, etc... Can't wait to check out some of these in person.

I realize one could probably get more hp for the money going with a Subaru or Chevy motor. However, I'm afraid it will raise the compexity of the build and reliability will suffer. As soon as you go water cooled, you are talking about a lot more custom parts and things to break. Many people will probably disagree with me so let's just say it goes beyond my talents. Not to say building a performance type 4 motor is easy. I realize that it takes professional help to get decent performance.

Lastly, even figuring out how to make suspension and break upgrades isn't trivial. I'm hoping people in this forum will be able to give me some advice suspension and breaks.