Finally meeting the original owner of my 914 Options

[914Next]

I have exchanged emails with the original owner of my 914 a couple of times a year since I bought it in 2014. He had owned it for 41 years. He sold it to someone who sold it to me just 2-3 months later so Jim and I represent about 48 years of ownership.

Jim is a great guy who took amazing care of the car. He, his partner and son drove five hours from Minneapolis to our place in Ephraim WI. Had a great time chatting and going to dinner with them.

[euro911]

That's cool that you were able to keep in contact with the original owner.

I bought my first one (a '71) in 1973 from a friend who's dad owned a wrecking yard. He and his dad rebuilt the motor, repainted the car metallic gold, including the sails and a smoothed-out top, as well as putting a set of Gurney 'bottlecap' wheels on it. They also lowered the car a couple of inches. It looked totally different than any other 914 I had seen around before (IMG:style_emoticons/default/drooley.gif) ... Sorry, no pix. Had to sell it a short time later, as I needed to buy a van to haul my dirt bikes around ...



I picked up a second one (the 'BB') 33 years later, from a body shop in Orange County in 2006.



It was a botched-up '75 that took a lot of work to get back on the road. I think it had a few, or even several DAPOs before me. After I pretty much finished it, in a dumb move, I sold it to Bill ( @billh1963 ) in mid-2018 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/screwy.gif)




The third one was a '71 ('HOWARD') that I picked up for my wife in early 2007. I purchased it from the original owner (Jack - who was not a member here) and it was as stock as it could be. One of our beloved members, Howard Drano ( @Howard ) hooked me up with Jack when he found he was thinking about selling it. Howard unexpectedly passed away a few months in July of 2007, so my wife decided to name it 'HOWARD') (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)



I stuck the set of polished Empi 8-spokes that were originally on the 'BB' on it, replaced all the F.I. system's hoses, changed the oil, did a tune-up and drove it on the 2008 Rt-66 Run up to Winslow, AZ and back to So Cal ... and it ran great (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)



I still have this one, although it suffered some damage in an incident on it's way to AZ in late December of 2020, so it's going to take a bit more work than originally anticipated (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)





I bought my forth one (a '72) from Scott Kline ( @skline ). I grabbed the motor & trans, then sold the car to Thomas Spretke (@T H O M A S).




Thomas transformed it into the awesome 'Dark Knight'.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads/post-3095-1302019620_thumb.jpg)



Bought my fifth one, a 5-lugged '73, from Eddie Brown up in Bakersfield in 2009.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads/post-7300-1355037211.jpg)

I started de-rusting the surface rust on the body, and planned to stick my 2.7L/6 in it, but that's as far as I got by the time I was ready to close up the shop my brother & I had.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads/post-7300-1358129193.jpg)


Sold it to Steve ( @pneuhyde ) in mid-2013.

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/uploads/post-7300-1372635825.jpg)