Thinking about joining your cult, but I want to do it right. Options

[Nickanator8]

Hello cultists, I've been a lifelong Porsche fan but I've never actually owned one. I've eyed boxsters and 944s on occasion but I've never pulled the trigger on either. Like many of you I spend my free time browsing the internet for cheap cars that would be poor financial decisions and recently a 914 has come into view.

Craigslist Post

Here's the thing that concerns me most about buying any vintage car as a project car, let alone a Porsche: parts availability and price.

My plans for this particular Porsche would be broken up into two phases. Phase 1 would be a basic restoration to being street drivable. I want a fun weekend car that I can bring to the occasional autocross and thrash about. Ideally something unique, fun to drive, and inexpensive to keep running. Phase 2 would be after a few years of keeping the car relatively stock and would be a slow evolution into a barely streetable race car that makes it unrecognizable to its original form.

The catch is that my automotive wrenching capabilities are limited to regular oil changes in my garage, and I'm a bit of a tight-fisted scrooge which is a contributing factor to why I have never purchased a fun car before. I'm concerned that diving into a 50+ year old non-running Porsche is probably not the best way to dive into project car life or Porsche ownership.

So with all that in mind, I ask you this: should I throw caution to the wind and add this pile of German metal to my garage, diving head first into the pool of Porsche, or should I play it safe and wait for a better example to begin my lifelong addiction?

[Superhawk996]

I rarely get to dig this out but it's appropriate to your questions of 914 vs. Miata.

My Miata was run hard . . . daily. It was also autocrossed and did track days with it. Over dinner a friend bet me a case of Corona that it wouldn't make it to 100K miles without me having to open up the engine.

I won that bet easily. Being a sore loser, my buddy wanted to go double or nothing but shifted the goal post to 220K miles. I took his bet.

This video was posted to claim my prize.

Due to the engineering advancements between 1970 (1st year 914) and 1990 (1st year Miata) a 914 will probably never be able to pull this off.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-m2IT4Xojo

@Nickanator8

[Nickanator8]

Ok, so here's a question. As I've been diving down YouTube 914 playlists almost everyone starts their project by not just dropping the engine but doing a complete tear-down/rebuild as soon as they begin the process. Are these old engines really in need of a total tear down right away in most cases?

[Superhawk996]

Ok, so here's a question. As I've been diving down YouTube 914 playlists almost everyone starts their project by not just dropping the engine but doing a complete tear-down/rebuild as soon as they begin the process. Are these old engines really in need of a total tear down right away in most cases?

Short answer: Yes if you want a reliable 50 year old vehicle.

Nuance:

Depending on what you start with your mileage will vary. If you start with a $25k car with a reasonable maintenance history, you'll be fine as a hobby car. If you start with a $4k Craigslist special, you'll need to tear that sucker down. See my build thread in my signature block why this is so. Yes, I got it to run after 1st buying it but it would never have been reliable. The engine had massive rust in the sump from sitting, from having the cooling flaps pulled and not warming up properly, and from lack of due care by God knows how many prior owners before me. I could have probably driven it for a bit before it self destructed but it would have eventually. I even have a little snippet in my thread to show it driving under it's own power.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ5_EblRToE


What you need to understand is that 914's were largely perceived as VW's and generally maintained by folks that calling them a cheap SOB would have been a compliment. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/happy11.gif) I'm partly exaggerating, but not too much.

I bought my first 914 when I was receiving a reliable monthly check from USAF. Even then, things were tight. Later on when I was in college, I had zero money and my 914 suffered for it. So . . . I've been that guy and I fully understand how hard it is to maintain a 914 when you're broke.

Even excluding the shoddy nature of how many 914's were maintained, most of the parts on them are used up. Design life for your average auto ranges from 10 years 100k miles to 15 years, 150k miles. After that, stuff has lived it's life and is generally on the downhill side of life.

Expect all suspension bushings to be worn out. Expect torsion bars to be rusted pitted, and prone to unexpected breakage at any moment. Expect wiring to have been hacked by a maniac with nothing more than electrical tape and twisted "splice" connections with wire nuts. Engine harness wiring will be brittle and will crack and short at the worst possible moment. Expect the transmission to need a rebuild of 1st and 2nd gear synchro's. On and on.

Obviously there are guys on this site that have done far better. But if you've been paying attention for long, there are also guys on here with terribly unreliable hobby cars that have suffered all sorts of gremlins as they try to milk them along from one unexpected failure to the next.

Not trying to slam anyone that has had better luck and/or that bought a well maintained car. They are out there. But they are not at the bottom of the Craigslist barrel w.r.t price.