Advice on originality Options

[RangerDick]

Hi there, I'm the owner of a 1973 2.0 liter which was given to me by my father, the original owner. The car is Saturn Yellow all original. It has probably 230K miles and the motor has been rebuilt with euro spec parts. I have done a comprehensive inventory f the car and it needs the brakes rebuilt, suspension re done and a few other things. I'm planning on replacing the plastic fuel lines and new shifter bushings.

I'm looking for advice on rebuilding the front suspension. Is it considered taboo to use poly bronze bushings, turbo tie rod ends and Koni shocks in the rebuild, respective to originality?

My goal is to make the car a fun driver that I can take to the occasional auto cross and back road burner.

Thanks for the input.

[Tom_T]

Hi RangerDick -

Glad to hear that you're keeping your Dad's car in the family & original - it looks like a nice survivor for sure! Try to not do anything non-reversible, with a survivor like that though.

I see you have Rich Bontempi's plate frames on the car, so he can help you with suggestions for performance, handling, etc. - as both a great 914 mechanic & former 914 racer. There are a bunch of other 914world members up in the Bay Area too, who can help with your question.

Shocks/Struts are replacement/wear items, & it was common to put in better ones when the time came - as I did on my rolling resto/mech-rebuild in 1980-83 when I put in Koni Reds on all 4 corners. So they wouldn't be an originality problem.

You'll need the front struts which are made to fit the front struts on your car - which were mostly Boge type from the factory, & they make both Koni & Bilstein inserts to fit in them (as well as Boge) - unless your Dad ordered or got the optional Koni or Bilstein struts - in which case you'll need to stick with either of those brands respectively. Again, check with Rich.

Personally, I preferred the overall handling of the old school Koni Reds which I got, over the Bilsteins or stock Boges, after driving friends' 914s with Koni & Bilstein shocks/struts, as well as to the original Boges on mine since I bought it from the OO in `75 (I'll have Koni restore mine for my current resto).

Nor would turbo-tie-rods as wear items/upgrades be an originality problem, which I too will be doing for my resto coming up too.

You may want to add a bump-steer kit if you notice that problem driving it after the suspension renovation, but I'd wait to try it out first without the kit (mine wasn't a problem before nor after).

However, I would reconsider the poly-bronze bushings though, because I think that will give you too harsh of a ride for all other uses not at AX/Track times. There are good poly street & race/AX poly bushings out there, so check with Rich at HPH for his reccos. The race ones will be much stiffer & give you somewhat harsher street ride - so you may not want to go to them for regular driving comfort (especially if you plan to bring wife/GF/SO, kids, other non-racer friends, etc. along for the street rides.

The tires also play an important part in the 914's suspension & driving habits, so you may want to stick with stock-ish tire sizes of 165HR15 (165/80R15) or 185/70HR15 (TR & VR speed ratings also work for a 2.0 /4) - both to keep a comfortable ride for others - if not yourself, as well as to avoid adding odometer error "ghost mileage" to your 914 (as well as speedo error for cops), as happens with other sizes like 195/65R15 etc. Then get another set of 4 light wheels & high performance tires of your choice which will fit & not rub in lock-to-lock steering/etc. for AX/Track purposes - especially since you'll wear through tires faster doing that.

In all cases, use a tire size calculator to compare other tire sizes with the stock 165/80R15 on 914s in order to minimize your speedo error to <1% or so, to avoid adding non-existent miles to the car - even when doing AX/Track events.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/tirecalc

Back in my 1980-83 rolling resto/rebuild i had all 4 corners of the suspension redone with the Konis, but I stuck with factory bushings which were still available back then in street or "performance" flavors & IIRC we went with the perf. ones - but then it ws my DD & I never AXed in it, but did do some fun/hard twisties driving..

Additionally, it looks like your front suspension is still a bit higher that Euro spec, so you can vastly improve balance & handling by dropping it another 1/2" - 1" or so - again ask Rich to adjust the front torsion bars to drop it, or show you how.

The past engine rebuild to the Euro spec 8:1 CR P&Cs for 100 HP was common - especially after CA passed the older classics smog exemption (& before in the other 49 states), so that's not an issue in most cases either, especially if it were rebuilt with a Porsche P&C kit/parts.

I may do mine that way if it ever needs another engine rebuild (mine was rebuilt in 83 to stock (well, honed with a tad more cc's), but only had +/- 20K miles on it when it got whacked while parked in a parking structure in 85 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif) - so it's just going to get "recommissioned" & cleaned up for this resto).

Also - regarding cosmetics:

If the interior upholstery/carpet & paint are all original - or at least 75% or more original - then I'd advise trying to do whatever you can to keep it that way, & restore the paint finish yourself or with a concours paint pro (check around with your PCA Region/Zone Concours folks for reccos on that). It looks like the front lid may have some oxidation & maybe the rear lids too - so try to have them carefully take out the oxidation so it will match closer to the less exposed side panels/etc. They can also touch-up the paint chips around the wheels wells, door(s), etc. - without going into non-original paint status.

A well refurbished original paint & interior will both retain more value, & qualify the car for Preservation Class in the PCA & other Concours events (even if you don't do them). But if it's been resprayed already in it's lifetime, then you're free to repaint if/as needed, but keep the original factory delivered color.

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Have Fun! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)
Tom
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