9140430200 914-6 Adriatic Blue restoration Vintage Excellence, this thread covers the restoration of 914-6 #200 Options

[VintageExcellence]

I have been a Porsche enthusiast since the mid 90s. Had a few 914s and converted them to 6s and had fun. Then I wanted a real 914-6 so I could have the genuine article, a car to restore to my own standards. In the mid 2000s you could find a beater 914-6 driver for $15k and a nice "restored" car for $25k. The restored cars back then were only restored within the dollar amount of their value or a slight bit over, these restorations had something to be desired and I thought I could build a better car myself out of a very good solid project car. I ran a classic car dealership in 2006, I looked at hundreds of cars per month for the dealership, snuck in a 914-6 search each day for a year... Then I found this car:


1970 Porsche 914-6, 2.0L, chassis# 914.043.0200, engine# 6404086 (Blue, 72,000 mi, steel wheels, needs work) in Houston, TX. Ph xxxxxxxxxxx Asking $13,000

This car was driven until late 1977 and then stored in my garage and totally neglected since I have been busy with other problems. Unfortunately I have lost the documentation on this car, so I will try to describe its history, but cannot back up many of my statements with tangible evidence.

I bought it used from a Porsche dealer (Holbert in Warminster, PA) in 1972 or early 1973 while I was living in northeastern Maryland. In fall 1973 I moved to Houston, Texas. It was maintained in Houston by the Jimmy Adams shop, which specialized in Porsches and VW's, and I drove it nearly every day. At some point (probably around 1976) the shop owner convinced me that Porsche 6-cyl engines needed a lot of care and would need an overhaul, so probably at about 60K mi (just my guess) the engine was torn down, rings, bearings, etc replaced, but I have no documentation. Adams said the pistons were higher compression than stock. In spring 1977 I was offered a temporary job in Austria, and the car was shipped back to Europe. I got to drive at 90 mph to work on the autobahn for a few months. I have documentation that the clutch was rebuilt by Porsche Wien-Liesing at 68K mi. In the ship on the way back to the U.S. the driver's door was dented. In late 1977 I noticed a lot of rust under the battery and on that side on the exhaust system. Also, the brake master cylinder started to leak. I took various things apart and cleaned and primered the battery area, but at that point (1977-early 1978) I became very busy, my job situation became unstable, and I have not touched the car since except to roll it out, clean a little dirt and put Armor-All on the vinyl last month. It has been in a closed garage but in a very humid climate since the beginning of 1978. I am looking for someone who wants it as-is to refurbish. I have been warned by an engine expert not to try to turn it over because he suspects rust internally.

On the way back from Europe the shipping company sprayed a brown polymeric goo on the outside of the car (esp. chromed parts) which was very hard to remove. In pictures of the car some brown is rust but some is this polymer. Also, the primer I put around the battery area is tan (almost rust) color. A prospective buyer will really have to examine it in person to decide, but I believe that someone can restore the car without major work. The fuel tank has been stored dry on a high shelf in the garage since 1978. In 77-78 the left door liner was removed and stored in preparation for removing the door dent, but this was never attempted. The front hood was removed and stored, but during storage a small patch of severe rust formed on the leading edge of the hood. In 77-78, besides putting primer in the battery area, I removed the exhausts and riveted pieces of galvanized sheet metal over rust holes in the heater boxes. More pictures on request.


Good old Dale said that he figured himself a hot shot when he got his PHD in the early 70s. He celebrated by walking in to Holbert's to buy a Porsche. Without the biggest budget he could not quite get into a 911. Maybe a 912 would work... the salesman took him over to a discounted 914-6 trade in with very low miles. Dale got the car for a great price and the moved to Texas and used the car as his primary driver. He got a job in Austria to work on the design of a power plant behind the iron curtain of the USSR and the 914-6 was shipped there to use as his driver. The power plant was canceled and Dale came back with the car. In 1977 he saw that battery acid had eaten the battery tray, this acid also dripped on the passenger heat exchanger which cause a few small holes. Dale panicked and took the battery out, the heat exchangers off and removed the front hood to get the fuel tank out (afraid of hidden rust down there too). This is the lesson to learn, he removed 3 critical functioning items from the car and ran out of time. The car then sat in his garage from 1977 till 2006 and was really a time capsule of originality.

The car sat on Pelican classifieds for a while and I made an offer, Dale accepted $9k for it and I flew out to see the car in person. Dale met me at the airport with a sign that simply read "914-6". He was a geeky scientist looking guy and not someone you would guess was a Porsche owner. I interviewed him about the car in the car ride and he was fascinated why I would want to know all this about his old car. The car sat in his single car enclosed garage, it was like a barn find pulling it out, unfortunately the front hood was rusted because he put it in a corner low spot that flooded every once and while. The heat exchanger had some slight rust but they were an easy repair. The rest of the car was complete, untouched, and 100% original. The full tool kit was there, owners manual, and some of the records. The battery tray was rusted through but none of the rust passed into the frame area and the rest of the body was rust free. I pulled out $9k in cash, Dale and his wife almost fell over, he was shaking as he counted the money inside his house. This was obviously a big sale for him and I assured him the car was in good hands and off I went. $700 to ship to my place in California.

Then I went down a rabbit hole and thought I would triple my efforts into used Porsche sales and opened a restoration shop using a name I had created in 2000.... Vintage Excellence

I had purchased a project 911S and this 914-6 as projects that I could tuck away and restore once production was up and running in the restoration shop. My dream of owning a perfect 914-6 and early 911S was on its way. I started the grab for NOS parts for my cars. These cars had to be perfect, I would use my knowledge from trolling VW & Porsche swap meets starting in 1994, expertise from a Porsche parts sales business started in 1997 thousands of parts sold and dozens of parted out 914/912/911s later, I worked for a shop called Oest Enterprises in Torrance for Dieter R. Oest restoring old Porsches and dealing with Dieters massive used parts inventory - Dieter was a former Vasek Polack 935 crew chief and a long time racer. I had worked for a kooky character named Bill Higgins who advertised out of the paper Auto Trader for many years selling classic Porsche parts - there I parted out cars and watched Bill flip a bunch of wrecks, I could not stand the junk car sales so I went out on my own at that point. I put myself through college via the Porsche parts and car sales business and learned plenty by the time I got my degree. I bought a suit and was interviewing for all these silly corporate jobs and I didn't like it so I took a few months off. Then through a friend I got the job at the dealership Cardiff Classics as the General Manager which brings us back to the beginning of the story.

[VintageExcellence]

Since my job was now a career I had to put the 914-6 away just for a few months while I got the old 2 car garage ready to restore the 914-6. So I took the fence out and hid the car in the back yard so the city would not complain about non running cars in the driveway.

I'll put the 1970 911S back there too. It will only be there for 6 months or 1 year tops!

[burton73]

Very Cool. I had a 70 s and it was very impressive. Your 6 is close to my 6 #41.

Engen number is 70 from mine.

Bob B (IMG:style_emoticons/default/welcome.png)

[ClayPerrine]

That's the same color as mine.

Congrats, but I hate the fact that you stole it from Texas.

[pete000]

Great read !

[Mueller]

That's the same color as mine.

Congrats, but I hate the fact that you stole it from Texas.

The factory thought of California 1st for the 914 market (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)


Cool story, glad that car doesn't have GT flares or you'd be knocking down a fence.

[raynekat]

Cars outside in the backyard? Whoa....

[Cairo94507]

Nice story and I love Adriatic Blue. I hope the car is restored and returned to the road soon. Good luck.

[VintageExcellence]

I am working away on this car, so much that I barely have time to post much. Here are some pictures of the car stripped. Time for a nice paint job. It was nice to start with a body in this condition. More later.

[Cairo94507]

Cool picture of the body parts. Keep up the good work. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[VintageExcellence]

When I bought this car I figured I would turn it into a GT. I saw a flared 6 driving around my town when I was a teenager so I really wanted that look. I was going to do steel GT flares, a 2.8L short stroke MFI engine good for 300hp and 930 brakes. One of my clients owned the Lufthansa 914-6GT back when I bought this car which kinda inspired me and I was on the fence of turning it into a full replica or a street GT version. I met Armando years ago, contributed to his amazing site and wanted to do something at least half as good as his car is to be. Eric Shea and Andy Thonet built some very cool GT cars. Hard to keep up with those types of builds when this is your side project and not your number 1 car. I got heavily into early 911S cars which is my number one passion but still this 914-6 has been on my mind for a decade so I have some decent ideas.

In case you have not paid attention to the dates it has been well over 12 years since I bought the car and the supply of 914-6 restoration projects has really dried up. My restoration business got in the way of restoring this car but that can be a good thing as nothing detrimental was ever done. Most of my daily work is bringing cars back to their original condition, not building race car replicas. It makes sense to build this car authentic and as an original condition show car, but with the proper drivetrain.

So the plan was changed to a factory looking car with all original parts. Except that lousy drivetrain that they put in this car.... because of all kinds of politics the 914-6 was doomed before it hit the shelves. The car bodies cost much more that Porsche anticipated due to management changes at VW raising the price. Then in a marketing management type thought process Porsche installed the previous years engine so that is would be slower than the more expensive 1970 911T - the worst 6cyl they ever built from the 69 911T went into every 914-6. These low horsepower engines are no fun, they were intentionally dumbed down, to bring the entry level price of the cars down and as an engine builder I can think of a dozen better configurations that should have gone in these cars. My overall goal for the car is the 914-6 that should have been built without regard to the 911 model, using factory parts from other cars, a 914-6S if you will. S brakes, front/rear swaybars, and some type of very cool engine. The entire car will look stock, no aftermarket junk or reproductions, no mods that the factory could not have done, and the beauty of the 6cylinder appearance is that it can look the same wether it is a 110hp 69T or a 190hp S config as long as you stick to carburetors.

[VintageExcellence]

paint progress

[VintageExcellence]

Paint code samples. Bumpers are back from chrome, finally got to pull out my NOS front and rear bumper tops. I knew at some point they would become NLA, 12 years ago availability was getting spotty.

[Mueller]

Nice to see you working on the car!

Great looking bumpers....

[Mueller]

Nice to see you working on the car!

Great looking bumpers....

[Larmo63]

Where was this car when I came down to your shop?

I'll bet the 914-6 rear badge I bought came from this car.....<

[Cairo94507]

Nice looking bumpers. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/britt.gif)

[VintageExcellence]

Where was this car when I came down to your shop?

I'll bet the 914-6 rear badge I bought came from this car.....<

Yes, you bought the original badge from this car. I found an NOS set of badges for the restoration. Car was in paint when you came by, I am lapsing the time a bit.

I have done a few of these cars but never one this in depth. Here are the other's I have had #162 & #1800

[VintageExcellence]

When I did the work on the Orange car I doubled up on the caliper restoration, well quadrupled up. The rear calipers were involved and took some time to get right. Here are the calipers - I am putting 70S front alloy calipers and the stock 914-6 which is a great combo I think, throw in some spacers to add vented rear discs.

[billsimmeth]

Mark, you nailed the setup of #162. We are having a blast together! I'm sure the blue car will be equally impressive.