New Discovery: How to speed your 914 project along, Makes weeks of progress in days!! Options

[Brian Mifsud]

Wife calls me at work on friday about a notice in the mail, dated the day before. My '76 is parked at the rearmost of my lot-length driveway (basically in my backyard). My 1930's single car garage can either house the car, or my shop tools, but not both.

After sitting under a car cover for a few years, and registered "non-op", the city decided to (or was prompted by a neighbor) to take a look-see, and let me know I have 10 (now 9) days to move the car into a covered garage, or get its registration current, or it will towed. City code check showed they have right to enter property to inspect, and tow/remove any unregistered/immobile/"Junk"/etc vehicle if they want to. Now I'm panicing!


City code states that the only acceptable situation for keeping an unregistered car on my property is if I keep in a fully enclosed garage (backyard with 6' - 8' fences don't count). (I'm screwed! Visions of chaining my car to a few spare boat anchors, engine blocks, and my house foundation in a desperate attempt to foil the tow truck driver are dancing through my head!)

I had removed the cover three weeks ago, and jacked up the nose to service the leaking fuel tank lines (all new now). I had made the mistake of leaving it on the jacks after I completed the job because I was refinishing the belly pan and hadn't reinstalled it yet (all the under coating was gone from the leaking gas). Since it was on jackstands, the roof of the car was visible from the street if you made an effort to look for it (after passing the boat on a trailer and a hedge!)

I tried to contact the cities "abatement officer" on friday, but could only get a voisemail. Panic heightened.

I spent the whole weekend and monday in a marathon thrash festival of digging up parts from dusty storage, degreasing/reassembling the engine, refinishing sheetmetal, replacing all hoses/seals etc. Pulled all the emissions equipment out of the basement, picking through my ebay purchases of '76 emissions gear to find good air pump, air injection-manifolds, anti-reversal valve, brackets etc (dropped the good pump and broke the cast iron pulley, thankfully had a backup on the "frozen" pump).

Finally, monday afternoon, the "abatement officer", called me back. A very sweet sounding woman explained to me that it was mostly a safety concern with the car jacked up. I reassured her that it was off the jacks now (why hadn't she called me back on friday.. it took all of 25 seconds to drop the car back down). I asked her what I could do about the "10 day timer" now, with only 7 days left (not sure if my new clutch is the right part as it was purchased for 930 engine to 901 transaxle). She said the "timer" was fully in her control, and don't worry about it... (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/wacko.gif)
She said she'd come out and verify the car was not a safety hazard any longer, and that she'd work with me on getting it up and running again. (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/laugh.gif)

The long and short of it.. I got 2 or 3 weeks worth of "evenings and weekends" out of the way, and hopefully will be smogging the car late this week. I thanked her for being so reasonable. I mentioned I had taken a day off work to get it done in time, and she was immediately apologetic (amazing, this is a city employee!), and said her intention was not to put THAT much pressure on me.


A little pressure can go a long way in motivation... I don't recommend this type however....phew....