A Long Story Options

[Poor-sche Lover]

So, I was perusing the board, being bored, and I thought I would share my story. If you're looking to waste a few minutes (okay, maybe more than a few), read on.

My peculiar affection for the 914 started simply out of neccessity. I have always loved the 911, but as a broke teenager, it was, well, a tad out of my budget. So, I went cheap. Enter the 914. Yeah, it's ugly, but it IS a Porsche.

I found my first project car in the back of a semi-trailer repair shop in the middle of nowhere. It was a '74 Delphi Green Metallic 2.0, with a single Weber carb and a big-bore kit. Know that at this point, I knew nothing about these cars, Webers, or a big-bore kits. I bought it for $100 and a rust-bucket of a Chevy Corvair. So, we put it on a trailer and got it home. Surprisingly, after a little tinkering at home, we actually got it running. Poorly, but running. The only immediate problem was that a lot of the body was in pretty crappy shape. My master plan was to find a donor car, transplant the better parts, get the thing painted, and laugh at the people when they think I'm pouring gas under the hood.

My second project car was found in the backyard of an ex-convict's house in my hometown of 150 people. Yes, 150. It was an Olympic Blue 1.8, I think. Another $100, another 914. There was actually no engine in there, though. It was just the body, but the pieces I needed were in much better shape. So, I took it apart, took what I needed, and sold the rest. There are two great stories that go with this one. First of all, the very first time I sat down to remove some of the interior, the body snapped in half. Ahh, don't we all remember our first experience with body sag. The second story takes a little more setup. I was taking off the rain tray on the engine compartment lid. I then noticed there was something stuck in between the grille of the lid and the metal slats that support the grille. I pulled out a small plastic bag that clearly had gotten water into it. I opened it up, and found about 10 tiny plastic bags, each with a small amount of a suspicious white, powdery substance. I don't think I need to say any more (wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more). I guess I should have known from the psychadelic rainbow on the rear window.

So, I put the two into one, and I was ready to go for the rest of the bodywork, but I had a few problems. I found a few oil leaks, a lot of electrical gremlins, a LOT more rust, some exhaust leaks, everything that can go wrong in a 914. But as a broke college student, things progressed pretty slowly. Trying to fix all these, I got excited, frustrated, excited, pissed off, excited, bored, excited, desperate, excited, broke, and excited again. Finally, as I was getting ready to jack up the car to drop the engine for the third time in one week, I found a surprise. When I started raising up the car, the wheels remained on the ground. Body sag, Chapter 2! So, my project stalled. The result is shown in the first three pictures.

My third project car (notice a theme, here) was found out by a shed in a town about 20 minutes away. This is amazing, considering I own literally half of the 914's I've ever seen in my life. This time, I laid down a whole $350. For those of you keeping track, that's three 914's for $550 and a pile of Chevy rust. Some pictures follow. Most of them are the problem areas I've already found. It is a '73 Zambezi Green 1.7, with dual Dellortos. The body on this is much better. For one thing, it's still in one piece. This time, my engine is pretty much ready to go. I'm actually going to try and fix the rust now, so that I can drive this thing. But as a first-year teacher, cash is still an issue, but hopefully less than it used to be.

Hopefully, I'll be posting more pictures as the project moves along. Consider this Step One. Thanks for listening. Let me know what y'all think.