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.

[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.