Giving Up, Abandoning the project Options

[amfab]

Hi Everyone,

After not touching it for four years, I am reluctantly giving up on my 914-6 project for a variety of reasons: the tub needs too much work, i was dealing with some health issues, I have been wanting to spend more time down in Mexico working on my house there, playing around with my boat etc. I just crossed 60 and it seems there is just not enough time for it all.

In the next few months, I will be selling off the parts I have collected over the years. This will include a 1986 3.2 with a 915, restored chrome bumpers, decent seats and interior bits, fiberglass hoods, repro 914-6 rear calipers, restored alpha brembo fonts, 15 inch Fuchs, stainless headers, oil tank, restoration sheet metals bits, aluminum front cross members, a decent interior, 19mm master cyl. restored gas tank, etc. I also have a lot of 914-4 suspension bits and other parts lying around, front A-arms and a few doors, glass, window trim, gauges, taillights, and lenses—just a ton of little things leven a nice rotisserie with a jig thingy I made. I was collecting for so long I dont even remember what I have.

I have a couple of questions before I start digging stuff out and listing all this stuff and begin selling it off.

1) is there any sort of swap meet in Southern California that I could just trailer a bunch of stuff to anymore? I remember the old Pomona swap meet back in the day. And didn't Bruce stone set up a few swapmeets in the past?

2) I know posting in the classifieds requires pricing and I have been out of the loop for a few years so I will need some assistance with valuation. Where in the forum should I be asking those types of questions?

My main goal is to not make abandoning my project another big project.

Thank you in advance for any ideas, assistance or other comments.

-Andrew

[campbellcj]

Sorry to hear this as well and best of luck with everything! I can somewhat relate to the situation and if I had more sense I would get rid of a ton of stuff and simplify my life...

I'm sure someone will swoop up your project and carry it forward soon.

Cheers,

[amfab]

This is probably a TLDR for most

It was a difficult decision to give up on this project, but I have come to terms with it. You guys, however, jeese! Being away from 914world for so long I had forgotten what a supportive community it is with so many great people‚ you are making it hard to leave. Rich and Jeff have been unbelievable sources of information over the years, Bob, I still have the door and some other parts you sold me, I hope the projects you were working on have gone well. Oscar you bought my 2.0 and I still have the beautifully chromed bumpers you sold me wrapped up in plastic under the house. You were so kind to introduce me around at the gathering at Pierce College a few years ago. Bruce, I only met you once at your place but the gas tank I bought—and other small parts over the years, like the pedal cluster parts, etc. are so well done. I hope you all are doing well. I keep remembering a post by, I think it was Eric Shea a few years ago about how easy it is to take a car apart but to finish a project and put it all back together is something not everyone can do.

Back to the parts pile. I want everyone reading this to know that I really should have started with a better tub. As we all know how these things go, once you decide to go all the way you just keep uncovering more and more issues. That was my downfall. After the sandblast, I should have gone looking for a better tub. I didn't and went down the rabbit hole of repairing what I had. This is what did me in when other life things got in the way.

To give you the state of the tub now, the rear fenders and rear panel taillight-to-taillight are off the car from the sails down and back. The Restoration Design floor pan has been fitted but waits to be welded on until after the center hump is restored.
The outer lower firewall is tacked in and the upper firewall has been substantially patched. I have a section from another firewall that will make a nice access panel for the center. There is no rust on the car—but that means nothing other than you can clearly see where all the rust was—holes where the rusty stuff was blasted, cut, or ground away. The inner longs have been restored as well as the engine compartment on top of, and up the wall from the hell hole. The longs are patched, reinforced along the bottom, and coated inside up and over the rear suspension but the heater ducts and RD outer clamshells have not been installed, nor has the little box under the front door post (I was trying to work out something clever to support it that will allow the oil lines to go to a cooler) I have the Brad Mayeur Kit that was to go on after the longs were sealed up. I also have just the firewall piece from an Engman kit—with the Brad Mayeur kit I felt the full Engman was overkill. I say all of this to give those thinking this is a chassis that needs a couple of things then it can be assembled a sense of the reality of the situation. I stumbled across a beat-up, but dry 73 with primer all over it a couple of months ago at my mechanic's and seriously considered buying it because it would possibly make the project doable for me—he wouldn't sell. I am saying all of this to let people know that the tub still needs a lot of work. Maybe not as much work for some, as I am a bit of a perfectionist. But if you want something on the road quickly you should probably look for another tub. My goal was to build something 100% filler-free where weld patches were undetectable and a car as light and as stiff as I could from the ground up. A narrow body without the weight of big late-model calipers with all reinforcement down low. Fiberglass hoods up top followed by a long-term low-carb diet for me.

The chassis sits with door braces on a jig I made that attaches at the front and rear suspension points. With all the metal lost and replaced over the years, I was continuously surprised at how close the measurements stayed to factory spec.—I remeasured every time I did substantial welding. The jig I made is mounted to a Titan 4500 rotisserie (that will go with the project) it is in good shape aside from some stains from dripping Ospho or welding sparks. Without too much trouble the chassis on the jig can be removed from the rotisserie. The whole thing however will not fit in a POD, unfortunately. If this was to go any distance a trailer is the best option with it on the rotisserie.

I am actually in a good place mentally giving up on this. Aside from wanting to spend more time in Mexico, I have some foundation issues I need to address in my garage and under my house—exactly the places where all the stacks and boxes of parts from the 914, my 1964 International, and misc extras from my 993 are making any work inaccessible. I am also considering selling my 993 Targa as well as I haven't driven it in three years now. I bought an Audi Q3 and now that I am working remotely, most of my driving is just back and forth to Baja.

As you can see, there are a lot of factors going into giving up on this, but the last straw was visiting my sister two weeks ago and borrowing my brother-in-law’s low-mile 1999 Boxster that he picked up for $13k. While it is definitely not a 914-6, it has the motor right behind the seat and has that non-polar movement balance feel of a 914, and is just underpowered enough to be fun. Most importantly it is cheap, assembled, and running. Too bad I do not like fried eggs.

All of this being said it is going to take me a while just to dig stuff out, catalog, and snap picts. I am heading to Mexico for a month or so next weekend so that will not happen soon. I will start the process a bit this week.

From the responses I have received, I think the sell-the-whole-thing-as-a-project Idea is probably the best route. I will provide more information to those interested in that route. For now though, I will probably not entertain individual parts requests.

Just starting this post and having people respond reminded me that I have the plastic backing for the firewall pad, the oil tank and lines from Ben, the headers are from him too. Also, I sent some 911 struts to Chris at Tangerine to be modified years ago but he never got to them and I never followed up, they may still be there. Honestly, there are some things I may have purchased or may not have—I was racking my brain to remember whether I bought a front adjustable sway bar or was just shopping… I remember I bought a rear one and mounts…

You can see why the whole-thing-as-a-project seems the most attractive right now.
Sorry for the long post I will follow up on a couple of DMs now. Pricing as a whole is hard to determine at this point. I need really need to figure out what 3.2s sell for currently as it will determine the lionshare of the total. I bought the motor six years ago and everyone is telling me 3.2s are quite hard to find these days.
Attached is me shaking the sand out. You can see how its mounted to the rotisserie.

-Andrew  914Shake_copy.mov ( 3.86mb ) Number of downloads: 148
 914Shake_copy.mov ( 3.86mb ) Number of downloads: 148