New Member, old car Options

[TACAN73]

So I bought a 914...
914's have been on my list for years. Last year, an Irish green '73 1.7 appeared on Craigslist and with some serendipity, a cashier's check, and a helpful friend it's now in my driveway. I did my pre-purchase research on 914world, and let me say, what a great resource this community has built. It made me very confident I could figure out what to do with this car, and how to get it right. After a year of research, disassembly, cleaning, a borescope, more research, and so on, I am getting close to a plan. Having a 914, even under a cover, in your driveway and you get to hear a lot about how your neighbors spent their time in high school. I even had a visit from a guy down the street with a 1972 he has owned for 30 years. The Good: the engine runs, the transmission shifts, and the bodywork seems straight. The Bad: passenger long is more of a suggestion in places and one of the previous owners (PO) tacked about 30+ hand made patch panels all over the place, including the entire passenger floor. The paint job seems to be the factory color, but the chassis plate and bolt heads are red, so not original. I live on a hill, so I don't think the 1.7 is going to cut it. I thought about a -6 conversion, then i saw what air cooling costs these days. All of this also has to happen in my driveway...

There's plenty of inspiration in this forum, though.

The current plan is to pull the motor, transmission, wiring harness, the brakes and replace those. I am split between the K and LS swap, having seen excellent examples of both. Boxster 6 speed, brakes and 5-lugs for sure. The body is going to get put on a rotisseries, repaired where needed, strengthened, and some flares added. I am not too concerned with doing a restoration, rather building a solid platform. I read Roy Smith's excellent book (The Racing 914's) and I think I am going to keep the exterior and interior close to what was raced in period (rally and the Marathon de la Route).

RFI's
1. Any recommendations on where to put reinforcements for a cage ?
2. Any advice on dealing with prior repairs- cut out or use (or threads that discuss this)?
3. The car has (to my surprise) all original glass. I don;t know if this should come out or stay in as the car gets structure built around it for a rollover stand/rotisserie. Any pointers appreciated.

All of the extra 914 stuff will be posted to the classifieds here first. Progress will be slow as I have an active racing program and two small kids. Looking forward to it!

[TACAN73]

Wow. Hello!
Here's a couple of pics. More to follow, it didn't occur to me to document at first:



That's L30E Bahia red under the Green. Note the bolt heads. First aha moment with this car. Next were these plates on the passenger long. Hmm.



After reading up on rust issues I went looking, and oh boy, did I find them. I tried the
passenger side jacking point and it folded in immediately. The top side (right where it bends upwards) was gone. I began to strip out the interior. Turns out it has two floors on the passenger side: a solid floor made out of galvanized sheet metal and about 75% of the original floor left. It's not a patch but a full sided pan on the right. Curious as the welding for the floor is really nice, but the material is like HVAC ducting stock. dead soft and not a stiffening rib in sight. This was the decision point for taking it off the street and a full teardown.