what do you think of this 914-6? [I bought it!], back to original Irish Green now Options

[siverson]

(UPDATED with comments below)

From the photos, this is what I see that is not correct. Anything I'm missing?

Not correct / things to fix:
- outside mirror
- speaker boxes
- after market front air dam
- 80s radio
- white valve covers
- rust (?) spots on carpet
- painted (?) headlight motors
- 4-cyl center console
- color change back to Irish Green
- wheel center caps need to be anodized or something
- incorrect jack
- black plastic threshold plates and carpet cleat should be aluminum

Not right but no reason to "correct" (IMO):
- Euro lenses
- Euro driving lights vs USA fog lights
- 15x6 Fuchs (was originally steel)

May or may not be correct:
- horn button is not correct
- center seat fabric should be smooth (Center cushion could be the Colgan aftermarket item, period correct)

questions / not sure:
- antenna may not be right... ?
- repro rear trunk carpet (missing grommet). or might be orig.

-Steve

[siverson]

Well I've been digging into fixing all the things wrong with my new -6.

I assumed the engine would need a full rebuild, and of course it did. And like all 914 projects it ends up taking twice and long and twice as much as you'd expect.

I've done 95% of the work on my orange conversion, but for this project I'm just planning on keeping it a stock [very nice] driver and letting some shops do 90% of the work.

I had European Motorsports in nearby Vista do the engine rebuild. They do general euro car maintenance and work on some very high end cars at the same time. An original 73 RS and original speedster were both getting engine rebuilds at the same time as mine. I've never had them do major work like this before, but they come pretty highly recommended.

I'm pretty happy with the results and communication so far, but I thought I'd share some photos here for any additional input you guys may have. While I'm not building a perfect concours car, I guess I did expect things to end up, cosmetically, a little more perfect and shiny. Especially given the $$$$$ involved. Or maybe I'm just way overly anal retentive on my orange car. Let me know your thoughts.

After much deliberation, we re-used the old cylinders and bored them out to 81mm (from 80mm) and have new 81mm pistons. E cams, updated tensioners, and otherwise 100% stock. I really didn't have any interest in trying to get a little more horsepower out of it, because even if I could get 170+ HP out of the little 2.0 (or 2.4 or ...) it would still be a relatively (to a 3.6) slow car. So the build was just to get a very nice 2.0 motor.

Factory 80mm 2.0 pistons are much (like an additional $6k) more expensive than going to 81mm. And in the interest of keeping everything stock, I didn't want to machine the heads for anything larger. I think it will end up with 130 HP or so. Should be fun.

And new flywheel, new clutch, and rebuilt the transmission too...

See any problems? Things that should be changed before it goes back into the car?

My questions:

- is that hardware (1 nut, 1 wingnut) correct for the air cleaner/snorkel?

- I'm guessing blue plug wires are wrong?

- can the carbs be cleaned up easily with a little more effort or ?

- rubber fuel lines ok or should I really bother finding german/cloth lines?

- allen bolts on cam covers look right?

- whats proper for the valve covers? (lowers were updated to later covers)

- what the proper way to cover/protect the oil temp/pressure wires? or is there nothing like it currently is?

Thanks for any tips!

And I'll follow up shortly with the "replace the battery tray" repair that turned into something much more! (first time that's happened in a 914, right?!?! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

-Steve