Mars on a budget, 75 914 field-find into cool driver Options

[JeffBowlsby]

Scarlet Red is extremely rare color for 914s. Hopefully you can repaint this to the original color someday. Nice find.

[Mayne]

Wow, it sure has been a while since I updated this thread. But the 914 is still around and I've been making steady (well, periodic) progress. Here's some of work that has happened over the last year and a half.

Previously, I had started removing the baked on Porsche script, but I gave up for fear of destroying the paint (not that it's very good, but the goal is to preserve it for now). So in a fit of cleverness, I order multiple samples of red vinyl wrap. Once I found one that was a reasonable match, I laid a swath of it over the old script and installed new black script. Not a bad result, I think:

[Mayne]

Woops, got ahead of myself with the pics of the hood. Anyway, that bodywork was in preparation of wrapping the hood with matte black vinyl. Again, a solid improvement IMO:

[Mayne]

In the time I've owned the car, it's never had a front valance, leaving it looking pretty bare and unfinished. A front airdam/spoiler from 914Rubber solved that, and a universal rubber lip from eBay visually lowered things a bit more:




More to come...

[ndfrigi]

Looking better and better Jeremy!

[tygaboy]

Nice hot rod look! It's turning out great!

[Mayne]

Looking better and better Jeremy!

Nice hot rod look! It's turning out great!

Thanks! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)

[Mayne]

The car came with Mahles, which I like quite a lot. But they tuck under the arches so much, it's anti-stance! One inch bolt on wheel spacers at all four corners to the rescue. Fronts were easy, the rears took some fender rolling. That's with 205/60s. No rubbing now.





As you can see in some previous photos, I also painted the wheels black, against my better judgement! They actually look pretty good, but I think I might try plastidip Vintage Gold and see how that looks.

[Mayne]

The targa top was in pretty solid shape, but faded and discolored from the New Mexico sun (like everything else on the car!). I tried some Duplicolor Rocker Guard, which I think worked pretty well. I also re-glued the sagging headliner.





The targa storage clips were in rough shape, with the white plastic ones to the front broken and the rubber ones to rear torn. I rummaged around through the spare parts that came with the car and found some good white clips. I had to drilled out the rivets on the old ones. Then I ordered a few new rubber clips. Now the good looking top can be securely stowed. Having lived through the "charm" of other vintage convertibles, I love the 914 targa design!

[Mayne]

Overall, the car has very little rust (I know, if has some, it has more!). But one of the areas that had to be dealt with was the rear trunk floor. It is rusted through at the low point near the tailight panel. At some point, someone had drilled the trunk lid for a luggage rack and I believe that rain was getting through the holes during the years of outdoor storage. At any rate, it rusted through. I have done a fair amount of proper rust repair in the past, but I needed something quicker and cheaper for now. I cleaned up the rust, coated it in POR-15, and patched it up with fiberglass. It's not great looking but it serves its purpose!



Another issue was in the front trunk where a substantial portion of the floor was cut out for AC, I guess. Some weatherstripping and a sheet metal panel (painted with some automotive paint I had mixed up at a paint supplier) made the trunk serviceable and protected from the elements.

[Tbrown4x4]

I never even noticed Scarlet Red in the paint codes. It looks great! I understand the need to keep the budget down. Drive it now, and make it perfect later.

[rick 918-S]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smash.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sawzall-smiley.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/welder.gif)

[Mayne]

When we found the car in the field, the owner had put in a new windshield. While we were looking over the, car and the various parts he had, he place the extra tach he was showing us on the front cowl near the windshield. Meanwhile, the cable to the front trunk was stuck so we spent a bit of time getting it to open. Finally victorious, we opened the trunk. Well, we forgot the tach was there, so it got squished against the windshield and sent an impressive crack across the glass. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

So, I had to have another one installed. Which was actually kind of helpful, since I wanted to deal with the dash. It made it a little easier to install the new dash cover (from 914Rubber) that goes between the dash and windshield, as well as a new rubber gasket.


I also did a little repair work on the actual dash.


And the steering wheel, which was missing parts for the bowtie horn pad to stay in place, was refurbished. I actually ended up sending the center piece to Rich Bontempi and he sourced the necessary hardware to get it working again. Then I resprayed the rubber pad in low gloss vinyl paint and the metal part in satin enamel.

[Mayne]

I never even noticed Scarlet Red in the paint codes. It looks great! I understand the need to keep the budget down. Drive it now, and make it perfect later.

Thanks. I admit it's been a challenge to keep things from getting out of hand. I want very much to do a full restoration/build on the car, but it's just not the right time.

So, the story goes on, of course. I had gotten the car to the point we see above. There were still plenty more things to sort out, but I was feeling pretty happy with the progress. Then, one day while trying to sync up the carbs, I found a wire that had come disconnected near the coil. It was sparking every time it hit metal. I messed around trying to figure out where it should go, but everything I tried resulted in a no-start.

It was about this time that I had pulled the motor from my 87 944 Turbo for a complete reseal, clutch, rod bearings, and turbo upgrade. Feeling frustrated with the 914, I tucked it out of the way in garage. That was about six months ago. Now the 944 motor is almost ready to go back in the car. Gratuitous photo, because you know, "pics, or it didn't happen":


But recently, I had been thinking about why the 914 wouldn't start, and I decided that maybe I fried the electronic ignition module in the distributor. So a couple of weeks ago, I ordered a new one just to see. Last weekend, I got it in the mail, charged up the battery, installed it, and what do you know, it fired right up. I had to take it for a little drive to surprise my brother down at his shop. Here it is with his recently slate grey painted 69 911:

[johnhora]

Jeremy...the top repaint came out nice....looks good!

[Mayne]

Jeremy...the top repaint came out nice....looks good!

Thanks!

[Mayne]

Managed to make it to Cars and Coffee on 9/14:


Shifting into first and reverse was just driving me crazy. This morning I adjusted the clutch cable this morning, moving the release point higher for the pedal. I will adjust it back a touch, but it's much improved.

So, I took one of the longest drives I've done so far in the car, heading out to the foothills east of Albuquerque on a tight canyon road, then up part of the Crest road in the Sandia Mountains. The old 914 was doing well and loved the cool mountain morning air. It was lovely threading it through all the turns on a nice smooth road with that raucous type 4 bellowing away!

[Mayne]

I also got an awesome 50th anniversary key fob. Thanks Oscar!


And I know many delete the side marker light "warts", but I added some used ones I picked up on eBay. Better than holes in the fenders!

[Mayne]

Continuing with my yearly update of my 914 project thread! I continue to make small bits of progress on the car, despite it not looking too different. The main thing I'm trying to do is get it to where it can be driven regularly with some reasonable reliability. In the words of Captain Ron:

"The best way to find out, Kitty, is to get her out on the ocean. If anything is going to happen, it's going to happen out there."

So with that in mind, I drive it, it breaks, I fix it, etc.
Waiting for my daughter to bring me a new battery:

Broken clutch cable:

Lost taper screw at firewall shift linkage:

[Mayne]

On one drive, I suddenly lost the ability to shift into 4th and 5th. Could this be the culprit?


Better:


Also got a radio blank-off plate from 914Rubber:



Best wishes to all!