BUILD OF THE BLUE CLOWN CAR, Rebirth of a 914 and its conversion to a /6. Options

[earossi]

And, so the story begins: In the beginning, I hated the looks of the 914. I had been a 911 guy for years, and was not very impressed when I first drove a new 73 914 belonging to a friend of mine. It was not a pretty car and it was pretty gutless in comparison to my 1966 911. So, I dismissed the 914 from mind and spent the next 40 years owning and driving all sorts of Porsche machinery. But, never a 914.

And, then one day, I met Brad Mayeur. Brad owns 914 LTD, a small independent shop located in East Peoria, Illinois. No big deal, until you begin talking to this quiet and humble man. Brad has forgotten more about Porsches than many of us will ever know. And, he is unique in that he has focused much of his life to the 914.

I would never have met Brad, had it not been for a visit to spend a weekend with my youngest son in the Fall of 2006 at Bradley University in Peoria. Of my three sons, Dave, in addition to being the youngest, is the only one who shares the love for machinery with his Dad. So, during that visit, we were looking for something to do, since Peoria is not the busiest of towns in the Midwest. I remembered reading a story about Brad Mayeur in a magazine, and remembered that he lived in Peoria. It did not take long to come up with Brad's phone number. I called and explained my situation and wondered if there was a way to meet him to talk Porsches. Brad said to come right over, which we did, with great enthusiasm.

We spent about an hour talking shop with Brad, learning very quickly that this guy was not only knowledgeable, but really truly loved the cars. Then Brad cast the hook.......he threw a set of keys to my son (belonging to Brad's personal 914) and said.....go ahead and take the car for a ride. That was in 2006, and the smile and memory of that first ride has never left my son. He wanted to immediately buy an "old 914" to fix up. I suggested that he first find a daily driver that had reliability. In the end, we found him a nice used Boxster S, which he still drives today. But, in his heart and mind, he still lusted for a 914.

Two years ago (7 years after meeting Brad) I ran across an ad for a guy in Salt Lake City, who advertised that he would fully restore a 914/4 steel flared GT for $15,000. On a fluke I called the guy and spent about an hour on the phone talking to him. Typical story. He was a hobbiest attempting to turn his hobby into a viable business. At that time, Gene Rice had about 15 cars at his disposal, and as we talked, I conveyed to him that I was looking for a "rust free 914" for him to restore. He said that he had one that was close to rust free. So, by the end of the call, I had enlisted him to build a car. His representation was that he could fully restore a 914 in 90 days for the price quoted. So, off he went. In the end, the car cost more than quoted and the 90 days turned out to be closer to 6 months; but, I am getting ahead of myself. In Gene's defense, I was an active participant in both the schedule stretch and the increased cost.

Unfortunately, the first photos I got were taken at the time the car was on a lift during the installation of the flares.







In reality, the car was not rust free. But, most of the rust was minor surface rust. And, more importantly, the car did not have evidence of any collision repairs.

The builder, Gene Rice, had prior experience doing restoration work on Corvettes, but believed that the 914 was a niche segment that he could compete in once up to speed. Now, looking back on it, I can say with honesty that Gene is an able craftsman. His welding and assembly skills were fine. And, as I will detail as this story unfolds, Gene's main struggles were his lack of experience with 914's. Mine was "ok", but his next one will be better as Gene moves up the learning curve.

As you can now tell, my story telling is less technical than many of the threads on this forum. Though I intend to talk about the build, I believe that half the fun on one of these projects is the "journey" and the people you meet on that journey.

I would appreciate any comments, suggestions, and words of encouragement that would help me in telling my story.

[Phoenix914]

Though I intend to talk about the build, I believe that half the fun on one of these projects is the "journey" and the people you meet on that journey.

I completely agree. Please tell us more and post more pictures!

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[SirAndy]

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[FourBlades]

This should be a good story. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer3.gif)

John

[earossi]

Thanks for the comments and the requests for more pictures. I will attempt to provide them as the story unfolds.

As stated earlier, the fun to one of these projects is not only the creation of a car, but the journey in getting there. There was a PCA adage a couple of years ago that "its not only about the cars but about the people" is very true and exciting to me. One of my favorite sayings is:....."the fun is always in the hunt"! So, allow me to set the stage a little as the "hunt" got underway.

Inspiration for the project was my youngest son's desire to be able to drive a properly done 914. He and I saw it as a father/son opportunity to put together a project that both he and I would use for auto crossing. At the last PCA Parade he and I attended, we campaigned his Boxster. But, wanting to get back to a car in which you truly feel "connected", the 914 seemed to be the perfect platform. Particularly, if we could build a car with a little bit more horsepower.

We had talked to Brad Mayeur and had discussed such a car with Gene Rice, pictured below along with a shot of his garage.




As you can see, Gene has just a few cars from which to choose. In addition to those shown, he had access to another dozen or so cars at that time.

The car chosen for our project was a 1976 914 with no options. The car's original color was Scarlet Red. As stated earlier, it was relatively rust free and had no evidence of any collision damage. It appears to have spent a number of years in the dry areas of Idaho, around Idaho Falls. I have not traced its history beyond Idaho, which is where Gene purchased the car. The car was originally fitted with a California legal 2.0, which meant less horsepower than an older 2.0. And, an exhaust system that was not as efficient as the earlier cars.

Which brings me to the next discussion I had with Gene. Having driven 914's with the 1.8 motor, I was slightly "underwhelmed" (being used to 911 power levels). So, we discussed the potential for Gene to do a /6 conversion on the car. Since he had no prior experience with conversions, Gene resisted since that type of project was uncharted territory for him. What he did offer was a big bore kit which would give me just shy of 2.1 liters and increased torque. The cost of the car included a rebuilt engine with the big bore kit and a refurbished transmission. So, we decided to move forward with the 2.1 and then to evaluate it for our needs.

Since we were to autocross the car, I wanted the suspension to be tweaked. By this time, I had been contacted by another long time teener, Rich Johnson, from Dallas. Rich had read several of my postings on Rennlist where I was discussing the pros and cons of doing a /6 conversion to my, soon to be delivered 914. Rich is another one of those folks that is a perfectionist! Those of you that do not know Rich, need to understand that he has hung around 914's forever, and managed to create a bit of a cottage industry developing and supplying various bits and pieces needed to do a /6 Porsche conversion to the 914. He has an incredible penchant for detail.

For my /6 conversion Rich supplied his design of a conversion engine mount, engine sheet metal, the proper oil tank and fittings, and other items. He also provided terrific council on suspension parts. I ended up having him prepare a big brake conversion which included the fitting of Boxster mono block front brakes fitted to a 911 front suspension which I was able to source off of Ebay. Rich sourced Koni Sport shocks for a 914. Since I have apparently reached my file size limit for this posting, I'll stop here and start another posting.

[earossi]

Picking up where I left off, below is a picture of Rich Johnson and me taken at our introduction meeting in Dallas last year. Rich is the good looking guy on the right.

I need to apologize. My picture file sizes are large and I don't possess the skills needed to reduce their size so that I could do a posting with more than just 2 or 3 pictures.....which is what has been happening to me. Perhaps someone with more computer skills than I can offer some suggestions on ways to reduce file sizes?

Below are a few more pictures of areas of my car when we first saw it being worked on:


Looks like two pictures maxed me out this time! Sorry about that.

[earossi]

[bigkensteele]

I am very interested in your story, and your writing is impeccable.

To help with your picture sizes, if you are using Windows, please go to the directory where you have stored your pictures. Right click on each one you intend to use in your posts, and click edit. This will open up Paint with your picture. You should see an option to resize. If you click that, you can specify a percentage of the current picture size. Go with 25% and you will vastly reduce the size of the files, and they will still be highly detailed for use here.

Thanks for sharing. You will find that this is a friendly bunch, and we LOVE pictures!

[earossi]

I am very interested in your story, and your writing is impeccable.

To help with your picture sizes, if you are using Windows, please go to the directory where you have stored your pictures. Right click on each one you intend to use in your posts, and click edit. This will open up Paint with your picture. You should see an option to resize. If you click that, you can specify a percentage of the current picture size. Go with 25% and you will vastly reduce the size of the files, and they will still be highly detailed for use here.

Thanks for sharing. You will find that this is a friendly bunch, and we LOVE pictures!

Thanks for your post. My photos are on my iMac, and are stored in iPhoto, rather than in Windows. So, though I understand you instructions on how to resize them in Windows, I'm still a bit lost on how to do that on my iMac.

[earossi]

So, on with the narrative. I looked at many after market suspension items such as various bushings made from plastics and/or steel. In discussing this with Rich, he advised against anything other than stock rubber bushings since a stock 914 suspension is rather stiff without modifications. Changing bushings out for materials like Delrin will add harshness to the ride with very little improvement in handling.....that was the council I got. So, I decided to go stock on all suspension isolation items such as bushings, ball joints, and trailing arm bushes. I did splurge on a set of Elephant Racing trailing arm bushes, but in rubber rather than in polymer. Now that I have driven my car for a couple of hundred miles, I think that the decision to stay stock was probably one of the best decisions I made on the car. The car tracks flawlessly, handles rough or uneven surfaces with no harshness. In short, the car feels very planted. The car actually rides less harsh than my 993!

My advice to anyone going down the restoration path I've just completed would be to resist the temptation of attempting to stiffen the ride to improve handling. IMHO, the tradeoff of improved handling for a harsher ride is just not worth the effort.

Another bag of worms involved correcting many things that had been done to the car over the years by folks who, apparently, had little idea of what they were doing. We found hardware that was either deleted or installed incorrectly. We found stripped nuts and bolts. We found mysterious wiring that was loose on both ends. Each item needed to be researched and then deleted from the build if it had not understandable purpose on the car!

I did attempt to stiffen up the trailing arms. After doing this, I began to second guess my decision to stiffen the arms. Stiffening the car oftentimes just transfers the loads to other suspension members. For instance, I was advised to not over stiffen the trailing arms, since the stiffer arms transfer the shock loading into the suspension consoles. So, I was asked if I thought that repairing or replacing a damaged suspension console would be easier or less costly than repairing a bent trailing arm? These philosophical points are still argued in different camps.

My philosophy in doing this car was to pay attention to function and looks rather than to originality of design. I guess that I believe in the "form follows function" philosophy that Porsche espouses. So, I elected to delete the wide Porsche reflector that was spread over the full width of the cars rear. The reflector, in my opinion, was not terribly functional and it added too much bling to the car. Likewise, since my car was a 76 model, it was equipped with the huge rubber bumpers that were fitted to those cars. I really liked the earlier chrome bumper cars, so decided to back date my car. And, since my 76 diid not have fog lights, I had Gene drill out the hole allowing installation of the lights. The wiring harness for the lights was actually already installed on the car, but not the mounting holes or the switch and relay needed to complete the install.


Gene fits his "stock" package with 15"non-staggered Fuch replicas. Though I like the Fuch design, not so much the replicas. So, I sourced my own set of wheels moving up in diameter from the 15" Gene usually fits, to 16" wheels. I also wanted a staggered pattern to handle the bump in engine power I had planned for in the future.
After responding to a number of sellers who had wheels, I ended up with these:



They are Fuchs 16" diameter in 7 and 8 inch widths with 911 offsets (as opposed to 944 offset wheels). I was able to fit 205/45/16 tires on the front and 225/45/16 tires on the rear. Though I have not yet autocrossed the car, they feel fairly predictable. And, the front wheels fit around the larger Boxster brake calipers I had fitted to the car.

Also, by this time, the rebuilt engine and tranny arrived at Gene's shop. It's interesting to note that in the Salt Lake area of Utah there are a covey of shops and individuals who are focused on producing, restoring, or modifying Porsche parts.

[e_artiles]

Great write up...I look forward to the rest of your restoration.
Is there any chance that you can share the contact info on the gentleman in Utah that is doing your bodywork?

[Cairo94507]

I agree 100% with your premise re the suspension bushings for a street car.

I bought new Bilsteins for all 4 corners, new rubber bushings all the way around from Elephant Racing and stock 914 F&R sway bars with new 18mm torsion bars and 140 pound progressive rear springs. It is my hope the car rides very nice without being stiff.

[earossi]

I agree 100% with your premise re the suspension bushings for a street car.

I bought new Bilsteins for all 4 corners, new rubber bushings all the way around from Elephant Racing and stock 914 F&R sway bars with new 18mm torsion bars and 140 pound progressive rear springs. It is my hope the car rides very nice without being stiff.

I think that you will be fine with the torsion bars you are planning to use. I had wanted to upgrade from the stock bars to 19mm bars, but was unable to source any. In fact the smallest bar I could find was 23mm. Brad Mayeur thought they would work fine, and he was right. But, I think the biggest contribution on the suspension was to replace all the rubber parts with new rubber. The car is extremely compliant over all types of road surfaces, and feels really "planted". Stability control is excellent. Of course, I have not pushed the car to its limits yet. Our first AX is 4 or 5 weeks from now. But, I am looking forward to it! As it stands now, the car is perfect on the street.

[earossi]

Here's a picture of the refurbished tranny waiting for installation.

[Cairo94507]

Pretty. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/popcorn[1].gif)

[Camaro Mike]

Thanks for taking us along on your journey. The start of your story and the people you've worked with during your build is similar to what I'm considering myself so its very interesting to me.

[mepstein]

Why such narrow wheels (6's ?) on a flared car?

[GeorgeRud]

Great write-up. Keep it (and the pics) coming!

[earossi]

Great write-up. Keep it (and the pics) coming!

Thanks George.

[earossi]

Why such narrow wheels (6's ?) on a flared car?

That is an excellent question. My answer is a little bit convoluted! Since I was putting a fairly powerful six in the car, I wanted to have plenty of rubber on the ground to transmit the power without wheel spin. So, larger rear tires dictated the flared car. And, that is what Gene was marketing at the time, though his cars were powered by an engine that was about 100+ hp. He went up in size on his wheels, but did not go staggered.

We tried to get 235 mm tires to fit the rear of my car, and felt that they were to close to the flares without rolling the fender lips (which I chose not to do). So, we test fitted 225's on the rear and they cleared the flares by about 1/2". So, that is what I went with. 225's on 8 inch rims.

For the front tires, though I wanted to go larger than stock, I was concerned about turn in effort if I went too wide on front tires. The car is fitted with 7 inch rims on the front. Low speed handling was a criteria. So, I fitted 205's to the front. Today I ran the car on an autocross track, and found that I could easily lock up the fronts. So, I need to investigate better tires or the possibility of going up on tire width. I could get 215's to easily fit in the front wheel wells. But, again, larger tires will increase the turn in effort, which is not what I want at this time.