Gonna try to buy this 914 tomorrow, what do you think?, EDIT: Bought the car! Pics on 2nd page of topic. Options

[Slick914]

Hi. My name is Phil and I'm going to look at a 914 tomorrow for the first time. Was hoping I could get some pointers on problem areas. I've read that under the battery is the first place to check for rust. Also would like to know if $7500 would be a good price if all checks out as advertised.

Thanks in advance for any help/comments and I hope to be a 914 owner soon!


Here's the seller's description and a couple pics...

This is one of the cleanest 1974 1.8 914's out there. NO RUST. Upgrades include allot of small detail.
This car has a Porsche 924 front bumper, custom aluminum side skirts, the rear truck has an electronic truck lock with a PORSCHE back reflector, The rims are 15-inch custom polished Porsche alloys with wide tires. The rims have black plastic caps over the lug nuts and chrome valve stem covers. The spare is a matching mag and tire. The Targa top’s finish was removed and the top is painted to match the car. The mechanical changes to the 914 are the struts and the rear shocks were upgraded to gas style. The rear springs were replaced with 120 lbs. springs. The 914 handles beautifully. And it has dual carbs. The carbs have a linkage bar to ensure proper synchronization. The air cleaners are washable elements.
The interior has a custom steering wheel with Porsche logo, bucket seats with tilt and custom 914 floor mats. The dash is in like new condition i.e. it has no cracks or covers. All gauges and knobs are original. The radio is a Kenwood 4 channel with CD player with 4 speakers. The interior is in excellent condition. The interior is a must see. The car has 26,901 original miles. This means less mechanical wear on all moving parts. This car has always been babied. Rubber seals are in very good shape.
The original owner was a doctor. He bought the car new for his wife who barely drove it and it was always garaged and not driven in the rain or winter. I bought it in 2001. I have put about 8000 miles on it and again no rain or winter. I have not had time for driving this last year. Soon I will not have garage space for it. When I bought it I had the brakes and clutch gone over. This car drives like a dream. This 914 has no engine problems. In the morning when it is cold it turns over perfect with 3 pumps of the gas petal. The heater really kicks out the heat for a cold night drive with the top down. The paint is a Porsche red color.
This car comes with a car cover. An extra clutch cable, alternator fan belt, and synchronization gauge to synch the carbs. I have touch up pencil. I also have the original Porsche Owners Manual and service manuals including Dr. 914’s book, Weber carb manual, and a Chilton repair manual. Again the doors are perfect and operate perfectly. The center console is perfect. Again there is no rust underneath the car or in the doors or trunks. The under carriage was undercoated as they did in the 1970’s and is in excellent shape with no rust. I have many more pictures if requested.

(IMG:http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a125/philtheskipper/1971%20Chevelle%20SS/74%20LT%20Camaro/914d.jpg)
(IMG:http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a125/philtheskipper/1971%20Chevelle%20SS/74%20LT%20Camaro/914a.jpg)
(IMG:http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a125/philtheskipper/1971%20Chevelle%20SS/74%20LT%20Camaro/914b.jpg)
(IMG:http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a125/philtheskipper/1971%20Chevelle%20SS/74%20LT%20Camaro/914c.jpg)

[sww914]

It appears to be a much better than average car.
The front bumper is a 916 style bumper, not a 924 bumper.

[Allan]

Looks to be a pretty clean car from the pics and description from the seller.

I would recommend finding someone in your area from the club to go look at it with you if you're not familiar with these cars.

[scotty b]

Hard to tell with limited pics. Note that the trunk (gas tank area) is not red but yellow which indicates a mid level $$$ color change. IMHO You could hunt around and find a nicer car, but if you like the look of that one go for it. Check the rear trunk pan, front trunk pan, longitudinals, rear floor pan, metal around the pedal cluster. Look closely in the front trunk sides for any signs of wrinkled metal, or warped metal, Pass rear suspension mount etc....etc....etc.....

[aircooledboy]

My first thought is that the car has an awful lot of modification for a 28,000 mile car. It is 1)a color change repaint, virtually the entire interior is non-stock replacement (i.e 2) seats 3) door panels 4) carpet 5)steering wheel), 6) the "custom" rocker covers and the 7) replacement of the factory injection with carbs.

I'm not saying that makes it impossible for the car to be a 28k original milage car, but I am saying it is at least unlikely, and I would look very carefully at the details of the work and condition of the car before I accepted the sellers representations to be true. An experienced local to take a look would be your best bet.


Good luck (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[jonferns]

the color change is kinda a turn-off for me...it looks as if it maybe went from green --> yellow --> red, as you can see this in the gas tank area. painted roof, too "custom" interior, and suede (?) front trunk carpeting make it look too thugged out (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) ..not too original, but thats just me.

[customstarr]

Quick word of advice... never trust a sellers words, only trust your ears and eyes. I don't mean that in an overly negative way (not all sellers are scam artists) - but his idea of "no rust" or "runs great" may be different than yours.

I've talked to many sellers on the phone who said: "Yeah, it's mint!" only to find out that their meaning of mint was waaaaayyyy different than mine.

Just give it a good thorough inspection - bring a flash light. Look everywhere. Put the car through the motions - city cruise, highway drive, check all electrical and guages for proper function, listen to the engine at all RPM ranges, restart the car multiple times, let it run from cold to hot to monitor idle and performance, check brake system and parking brake, look for excessive shifter and pedal slop, check all the critical rust areas, check condition of all rubber seals (weatherstrip) - those babies can get expensive. And on, and on, and...

Of course, if you can, take it in for a pre-sale inspection at a dealer or quality repair shop that knows these cars. It sure helps to get it up on a hoist.

If I was spending $7K+ on a 914, I'd give it the mexican border patrol inspection, and bet I'd put it on a rack.

[customstarr]

Oh yeah... I'd certainly want details on how those "custom aluminum side skirts" were installed. Should be interesting.

[Rand]

Just a personal opinion, but I would want more power for that kind of money. I wouldn't pay that much for a 1.8.

If it truly is pristine with zero hidden rust, and as nice as they claim, then it's worth it. A perfect tub is hard to find.

If you don't know where to look for hidden rust in these things, please take someone with you who does. Mine was claimed to be rust free, and a novice examination agreed. Then I tore into it and found a lot of hidden rust.

The worst of my rust problems were under the hell hole... behind the rocker panel, bottom side of passenger side frame rail between suspension console and firewall. The PO had covered/hidden the rust damage on the top side. When I started prodding with an ice pick underneath, it poked through and knocked things loose... then a lot of crap fell out.

Some of the things that were said kind of bother me. Like "The carbs have a linkage bar to ensure proper synchronization." WTF? I've never seen dual carbs withOUT a linkage bar. And why did they do a carb conversion on a car with that few original miles? The fact it has custom side skirts raises an eyebrow with me... be extra careful to check for rust damage/repair under there.

A few little red flags if you ask me. Maybe nothing, but just be careful.

[Slick914]

WOW! Thanks for all the info guys. At least now I'll maybe appear to have some knowledge about these cars when I'm looking at it and asking him questions. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Really appreciate everyone pointing out everything that they see!

[Bill Smith]

so did you buy it?

[Dr Evil]

Hey Phil (IMG:style_emoticons/default/welcome.png)

If you cant get behind the rocker panels, I would seriously worry. For the price you are basically paying for the "upgrades". You may be able to get a more original, better shape, more powerful car from some place like CA shipped for that money. So, if you realy like the mods and the body, engine, tranny, etc is all solid go for it. I would not be in a hurry with this one. I would bet it takes a while to sell as it is under powered and over priced (IMHO).

Sorry if too negative, I have been burned and consider sellers to be ignorant of the truth (not flat out liars, just ignorant).

[rick 918-S]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/welcome.png) By the looks of that car you need a local. Looks like they color changed a Revenna Green car. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/popcorn[1].gif)

[914-8]

Carbed 1.8 with a bunch of bizarro mods, it's probably worth somewhere around half what he is asking.

[DerekKim]

IMO for 7500 those side skirts look like ANUS! Did the price of 914's go up recently? I got mine for 3400. It was tired yeah but overall in good shape. Oh and welcome. If you ever DON'T want to get work done on your car then come here... unless you were rear ended... in which case come here to get that itch to drive it... I've been itchin for four months... It's coming back in August woot! Ok sorry I'm a little excited. Have fun and drive it hard! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/thumb3d.gif)

[Tobra]

keep looking

[boxstr]

28K original miles and the motor and body mods don't equate?? The side skirts are waitng for a lowcurb to scratch them or damage them beyond repair.
Not to diss on the car, but a 28K mile car should bring a much higher price. The color change is also a HUGE red flag.
CCLIN914NATION

[914-8]

The car probably has 28,000 original miles, but 200,000 aftermarket miles, for a total of 228,000 miles.

[GWN7]

If it's got only 28,000 miles ask to see the Porsche Maintenance Record book. A car that original (IMG:style_emoticons/default/av-943.gif) should have one with it.

A guy once was selling what he claimed was a 60,000 mile car till I looked thru the book and saw the service stamps went up to 110,000 then the story changed.

[Slick914]

I didn't buy it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

As far as the car being clean, the guy was right about that. The car didn't have ANY rust issues that I could find. The drivetrain and suspension all seemed to be top notch as well. What I wasn't impressed by was the paint, interior, and couple things on the body. For $7500, I was expecting a near flawless paint job and interior. The paint was nice, but had quite a few touched up areas. There were about 3 good dings and one couldn't of been fixed without body/paint work. I liked the style of the 916 bumper but it wasn't a clean fit and had scrapes touched up. I liked the look of the side skirts too, but didn't like how they were installed. One of them had already been scraped at one time and had a little damage. Now, I'm not familiar with these cars, but it looked like the original rockers were completely removed from the car. The skirts were pop riveted along the bottom edge of the door jam. I don't know, just wasn't sure about that situation. The interior was ok, but not mint as I thought it was going to be. Seats showed some wear, dash did have one small crack, carpets probably would of been nice with a good cleaning.

To sum up the situation...

My first impression of 914's...

This was the first 914 I looked at in person. I really liked the style and feel of the car. I particularly liked how wide the car is for how small it is. I might prefer the 916 bumper style over stock, but haven't seen a stock one in person. I also like the low stance of the car, but this one sat a little lower than stock. The car definitely could use more power! I don't think I would be happy with a 1.7 or 1.8 car. I definitely will keep my eyes open for an 2.0 if any become available within a couple hour drive. So, I liked it! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/thumb3d.gif)

I would of bought this car if it were priced at $3000. I don't think it's anywhere near worth $7500. I think if he were to put the body back to original, give it a good paint job, and replace the seats, the car would then draw more than $7500, but as it is now, no thanks. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)