Newbie Introduction, Buy or build Options

[Midenginer]

Hello,

Craig here from Southern California, good to meet you all!
I'm pretty excited about looking into buying a childhood dream car as a weekly driver for my short commute 1000' down the hill and up the canyon, Sunday drive, autocross, etc. and could use some advice.

My only other real sports car was one of the first 2006 Cayman S, which I had as my daily driver company car up to 115k miles. Loved it but maintenance / depreciation were costly and our first son in 2010 and second in 2016 led to a Volt and now my 2019 Cherokee Trailhawk which I'll keep as my daily driver.

I love watching all the beauties and reading the comments on BringaTrailer. Frankly, I should have bought a classic and a commuter rather than the Cayman in '06. My other 70's childhood dream cars Pantera, Ferrari's, Countach are all out of my budget and just as well because I think a 914 will suit me perfectly...but I've never even ridden in one, let alone driven one, so that's first on my list to do this week!

I'm not too concerned that I'll love driving one so the next big question is, for a budget of low $20's what should I get;
A) Best 2.0 I can find, hopefully black, with some smart mechanical and cosmetic modifications. Merry Christmas to me in 2020 possibly!
B) Can I build a 914 6 driver from a roller for that $? I would get the body work done, stick to a Porsche motor, any necessary suspension work, etc to start. I realize 6 restomods sell way above my budget but could I have a solid 6 driver built from a roller within my budget and then improve on it from there? I wouldn't want to wait years to get rolling either. Merry Christmas to me in 21? 22?? ok either way but the budget doesn't double;).

BTW, I don't have the experience, tools, time, space to do the work myself, as much as I like the idea just not realistic, so would have to find pros to do it. I lean towards B but if it's a stupid idea I'm ok, even appreciate, if you tell me so. If its unanimously a genius idea I'm ok with that too!

Hope this is the appropriate forum for this question.

Thanks for your time and expertise. Look forward to any comments...

Cheers,
Craig

[Racer]

x2 on buy. Plenty of nice cars out there for sale. Given a busy family, I would picture a "build" spending most of the time unbuilt in a bay of your garage. I can't imagine there aren't other our here local to you to offer up a ride (even during a pandemic?) as these cars are infectious!

But, even the "best" one will have some niddling things that need attention and the worst bought ones will need a LOT of attending too. And you will need to learn about "old school maintenance" vs just plugging a scanner into an OBDII port.

Drool over samples that have sold on BAT and here and spend some time researching these cars.

Wipe those dreams of a $20K 914/6 (or -6 project) unless you do ALL body/mechanical/paint yourself AND you don't keep track of any receipts, physically or mentally (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Superhawk996]

Wipe those dreams of a $20K 914/6 (or -6 project) unless you do ALL body/mechanical/paint yourself AND you don't keep track of any receipts, physically or mentally (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif)

You can't touch engine and the parts needed for conversion for $20K. I'm in the process myself and have the tools, space, and can do almost all work myself

Currently in for about $10k in 2.4L machine work for case, heads, crank. OEM bearings alone are $1200. I'm building motor myself and I'm no where near done yet. Still need Pistons & cylinder, induction, new cam chains, chain ramps, rebuild hydraulic tensioners, misc.

914/6 Exhaust headers $1400 - $2300 (w/heat exchangers)
914/6 Muffler - $600-800
Oil Lines hard & soft lines - $300-500
Engine Mount $350
Oil Tank & filler - $500 - 900
914/6 Flywheel - $500
5 Lug conversion - $500 - $1K not counting the actual wheels.
Still a ton of other miscellaneous bits I've not even mentioned.

You get the picture. Unless you're crazy like me (IMG:style_emoticons/default/screwy.gif) and enjoy building stuff as therapy, you're far better off to buy a conversion that is already done.

Stick with Option A. Buy the best 914/4 car you can afford & then enjoy it. Buy a conversion later on as funds permit.

[930cabman]

Wipe those dreams of a $20K 914/6 (or -6 project) unless you do ALL body/mechanical/paint yourself AND you don't keep track of any receipts, physically or mentally (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif)

You can't touch engine and the parts needed for conversion for $20K. I'm in the process myself and have the tools, space, and can do almost all work myself

Currently in for about $10k in 2.4L machine work for case, heads, crank. OEM bearings alone are $1200. I'm building motor myself and I'm no where near done yet. Still need Pistons & cylinder, induction, new cam chains, chain ramps, rebuild hydraulic tensioners, misc.

914/6 Exhaust headers $1400 - $2300 (w/heat exchangers)
914/6 Muffler - $600-800
Oil Lines hard & soft lines - $300-500
Engine Mount $350
Oil Tank & filler - $500 - 900
914/6 Flywheel - $500
5 Lug conversion - $500 - $1K not counting the actual wheels.
Still a ton of other miscellaneous bits I've not even mentioned.

You get the picture. Unless you're crazy like me (IMG:style_emoticons/default/screwy.gif) and enjoy building stuff as therapy, you're far better off to buy a conversion that is already done.

Stick with Option A. Buy the best 914/4 car you can afford & then enjoy it. Buy a conversion later on as funds permit.

+1 with this response, my vote is option A