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?

[Nickanator8]

Ok 914 hive mind, I have a new question for you all. This car is still nagging at the back of my mind as a possibility for a fun weekend project car and eventual weekend cruiser. Obviously there are a lot of unknowns right now but assuming there isn't an egregious amount of rust how much would you theoretically pay for such a *fine* example? Personally I'm leaning as close to $1k as possible due to so many obviously missing parts.

[dherr]

Ok 914 hive mind, I have a new question for you all. This car is still nagging at the back of my mind as a possibility for a fun weekend project car and eventual weekend cruiser. Obviously there are a lot of unknowns right now but assuming there isn't an egregious amount of rust how much would you theoretically pay for such a *fine* example? Personally I'm leaning as close to $1k as possible due to so many obviously missing parts.

Couple of comments on this. First of all, I have or had all the cars you talked about except for the Boxster (that one is on the list). NA Miata's are solid modern cars (I drive mine daily) and are reliable, simple to work on and have few issues. 50 year sports cars are projects and take time and money to build. So since you are not an accomplished mechanic, buying one like this CL car is likely to just end up as a bunch of disassembled parts that sit in your garage. I say this as I just bought one this summer. Car was disassembled in 1994, he ordered a new rebuilt 2.0 engine, has parts from two other parts cars and it all sat in the garage until 2021. The good news is that while it needs lots of work, it is as rust free as they come, so a great basis for my project. What I have learned about these cars is that the hidden rust can really be a problem, as the 2nd car I bought supposedly had the hell hole fixed properly, but that meant it was stuff full of fiberglass. Fortunately I can weld so I jumped in and cut it all out and the rest of the car was solid. But it is pretty easy to miss. If you bought this car, would you think it was pretty nice right? Well overall it is, but I ended up striping it and painting it after fixing the hell hole. This car cost me 3 times what the other car above cost. So be careful, you are best off to get someone knowledgeable about these cars to help you with the inspection.
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Car now
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