SOMEBODY with the knowhow really needs to make a quality book on this car. We all have, or have seen, the books on restoring your Porsche ( 356,911,914 ) but none of these ever go into the REAL details that came on the cars originally. I.E. the square stickers, the green " paint " marks on the wheels,the grease on the tops of shock towers, the engine tin stampings, the suspension stampings, the correct plating on each metal part ( I was unaware that the front turn signal brakets were anything other than a gold cad plating until now ) Steve's car is a true time capsule and a high quality photo documented restoration manual using this car is a necessity !!

BTW. Isn't Al's ( Johnny Blackstain ) LE an all original car ? Or has it been repainted ?

I aggee Scotty. Nice documentation of several cars of this caliber to cover certain years. Dave's 76 would be a perfect compliment, as well as Jame's 914-6. With all this info on this site, and data collected from people like Jeff Bowsby, it would be an invaluable resource to have inside one cover.

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Yeah Tod,
Sorta goes back to someone's post some time ago, that the originality features of as many 914's as can be put together needs to be in some sort of "annual" album, irrespective of, and inclusive of, the nuances of each.

Regrettably, the nailed threads that I started haven't worked to that end.

What we need is help documenting all 914's by years, with every vagary and nuance that can be supported. Of course, the early years would be most difficult.

And, I agree with Scotty. There are so many little things that make a 914 "proper" for it's year. Somehow, we need to gather these nuances into something useful for the restorers.

Any considerations?
Pat

I agree with the 'permanent record' notion. It's what I hoped this thread was going to be but . . . .

How about this. Making 'The Few, the rare' a locked documentation thread only. No extraneous comments, anecdotes etc. Steve's posts just like they are without all the extra posts by other members. When Steve has more to add, or when Dave and James (and hopefully others) are ready to post, the Mod unlocks the thread for them.

That way we have a single thread of originality for reference without having to scroll through pages of opinions. We can all makes comments, ask questions etc. in the main posting forum below.

One-offs can be added too; a member posts something worthy - a perfect, original example of some widget not yet covered - the Mod can add this to the locked thread. Kind of like the "I nominate this for the Classics" we have in the garage.

The key to any good book is editing.

just an idea

Michael, exactly, a cliff notes version of these threads with just the facts and a standardized outline for each. Alot of work for sure. Pat you are doing a fantastic job. Alot of this info would of remained undercovers without your dedication towards our cars.

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As I suggested.

No questions, comments, stories of the good old days, anecdotes about how 'my car actually had' . . . etc., etc., . . . ad nauseum . . . get posted to The Few and the Rare thread. Steve, Dave, James et al will see the same questions and answer them if they go into the main forum - a PM would work too. I would anticipate those threads would become some of the most viewed. This leaves The Few and the Rare for reference only with comments by the owners themselves and free of open discussions like this very one.

m.

How about 2 nailed threads for the same topic. One which documents the car, and another for responces & comments directly under it?

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Before we continue to take thid thread to places that weren't meant for thid thread (like we haven't already), let's stop the posts for our wishes and take them to the main Orig forum.

I ask that further comments concerning nailed originality threads be taken to the thread that I'll start tonight for that purpose.

In this current thread, we have the foundation for something special - let's leave it alone, except for comments pertinent to Steve's car. Other cars "may" have there own threads, but let's discuss that in the open, OK?
Pat

For now, please leave this thread isolated to Steve's 914.

QUESTIONS ON: Sahara's OE Shocks & Brakes:

Steve, I thought that Boge shocks ® & front strut housings were black?? ... yours are grey or silver??

... & where is the R caliper brake dust cover? - is it just out of the pic in front of the frame?? ... is it black or CAD plated (per comments on that part in the parts bin)

I don't know why it didn't include the pix on the quote above, but this was on pg. 3 of the thread I think.

Please clarify - Thanx

Again, no pix in quote, but also on pg. 3 of thread ...

Important note on the OE satin grey (greenish/blueish grey) on Sahara's 2.0 EFI Runners are the original & correct colors ....

... unless Steve touched them up??

Please confirm OE color, as this subject came up before on another O&H post.

Tom,

There were some early sixes that had "cad" plated dust covers (and only sixes). All the rest were satin black finished......to my knowledge. Anyone feel free to correct me, but that's my understanding.
Pat

Tom,

In answer to your questions:

The grey shocks on the Sahara Beige car are the original shocks that were on the car when it was new. So it can be documented that 914's were delivered with grey painted Boge's in 1973. My friend Ray that owns an original low mileage LE, the rear shocks on his car are also original grey Boge's. In my opinion, 914's at least up through 1974 were delivered with grey Boge's. Years later, the replacement Boge's were black or orange.

All 4 brake dust covers (front and rear) are on the car. The angle of the photo on page 3 doesn't really show the cover although if you look closely, you can see a small piece of the right rear cover. Oh and Pat is correct; they are all painted black from the factory on 914-4s.

On the intake runners, the shade of grey in the photo isn't exactly the way it looks in person. My camera seems to play tricks with colors. They show their age a little but in person they look similar to a satin grey look (not a greenish/blueish grey).

The Sahara Beige car is currently tucked away in my garage with the cover on it waiting on its next scheduled exercise. I won't be able to take anymore photos until the next time I drive it which will be sometime before January 25th.

Thanx for clarifying Steve.

For others out there, 73 914's did also come with black Boge front strut housings at least, since my early-73 914-2.0 4732901954 built 8/72 still has them, but I can't recall if the rear Boge shocks were black or grey, as I replaced them with Koni reds back in 80-83.

I think the EFI Runners' color from the R/passenger/battery side of the 2 pix shows the color pretty correctly, & I thought that yours were ever refinished (glad to know some grey cells still work).

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Now that is funny. (I got your PM Tom).

The 914-6 that I owned for 28 years and sold after I purchased the M471 car was never driven in the rain or rained on for the entire 28 years I owned it. By the way, I put 20,000 miles on the car during that period. Who said I never drive my cars?

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I took it out for an exercise on the 19th and I took a few photos. I crawled under the car and took a few shots but to be honest with you I wasn't too impressed with the photos. First of all, I really need to do some cleaning under there. Like I've said before, I haven't cleaned this car since the 2003 Parade. It's amazing how dirty/dusty everything gets just from the road and it all shows up with the camera flash.

Here is an example of the dusty engine sheet metal showing the original painted on number code. First photo is of the driver's side and the second photo is of the passenger side which shows the dealer cut out for the AC compressor belt.

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Tom,
I "unnailed" this thread because we already have too many nailed threads (in my opinion) concerning 914's of the masses. Though I have a sweat spot for these cars, there were less than a dozen produced....and they weren't production 914's.

Our goal here (and I sincerely hope that it's "our" goal) is to produce data for the masses to use in restoring or maintaining original 914's - four or six. I say "our" because I am only the moderator here. You guys can have what you wish, if that is what you wish. I am NOT a dominator.

Until such time as the currently nailed threads can be more model-direct, I think we need fewer distractions from the goal.

However, if the masses would like this thread re-nailed, I'm OK with it because it's your Forum.

So...how about it masses? Should this topic be re-nailed or set adrift & easily reached by search?
Pat

What am I missing here? Only 16 produced? Are you talking 916's? This formerly nailed thread contains details of extremely original production 914's (primarily Steve's Sahara Beige so far). There are some extraneous posts, like this one, that should be deleted, then nail the thread.

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Beautiful vehicle. Just a quick question. Could you post a shot of the front end with the headlamps raised when you get a chance? I'd like to get a look at the headlamp surround color. Thanks

Geez,

See what happens when let a geezer have a little control?

Yeppir Tom, I fuched up & unnailed the wrong thread.

Mea Culpa!
AND....I am NOT writing a book!
Pat

I was so looking forward to that book.

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The Sahara Beige car is a fairly late 73 car (July 1973) which is why it has the "Black" headlight surrounds. Earlier 73 914's had "White" headlight surrounds.

Black Plastic Threshold Rails were also used on the late 73 cars.

Steve are the rivets along the top of the steel rockers metal or plastic?
... & are they still original?

The rivets along the top of the steel rockers are not the originals. I removed the side rockers back when I first got the car to clean the area behind them. They are currently held in place by black plastic rivets. However, the black plastic threshold rails have never been removed and they have their original black plastic rivets.

Steve, were the originals black plastic or metal?? .... if you recall !

They were metal and so were the ones on the 914 I purchased new. For this very reason I've always thought the side rockers came from the factory with metal rivets. However, George is positive I'm wrong about this. He said they have always been black plastic.

with you - not George!

Steve, I'm looking at original metal on mine too, plus my buddy's 70 he had since new was metal along the rocker tops, plus your 2 914s - I think that George, Pat & the other "riveting wanks" here are just wrong!

I believe that metal rivets were used on the rocker tops from the factory, with plastic above at the thresholds - white with early aluminum & black with late black plastic thresholds, & now the clear rivets as Porsche's superseded part now.

I'm

Tom I partially agree with you. I haven't seen enough pre 1973 original cars to comment on their rocker panel rivets. So, I'd have to agree with Pat, that at least on the 1.7's they were plastic. All of the unmolested 1973 on forward cars I seen, have the metal rivets in the rocker panels. Is there a likelyhood that they came from the factory with plastic rivets? And, the dealships removed the rockers to clean off the cosmoline, then replaced them with metal rivets? Doubt it, but I think that would be the only explanation. Maybe George can verify what is on his 1976, 1974 1.8 and his Motor Trend car. They all seem to be untouched. Sorry to get off topic Thanks for opening the discussion, and thanks again for more pictures Steve.

I have a very original '70. One rocker appears untouched and has white plastic rivets. One side came with metal. That rocker had some previous damage and clearly had been removed. I replaced the rocker and used Tod914's whitel plastic replacements.

Steve, I'm looking at original metal on mine too, plus my buddy's 70 he had since new was metal along the rocker tops, plus your 2 914s - I think that George, Pat & the other "riveting wanks" here are just wrong!

I believe that metal rivets were used on the rocker tops from the factory, with plastic above at the thresholds - white with early aluminum & black with late black plastic thresholds, & now the clear rivets as Porsche's superseded part now.


"riveting wanks"?

Look, I can only attest to what type of rivets my 914 was equipped with - from the Factory. I can only attest to my 914 because I know IT for 38 years, and haven't had a science of 914 rivets.

I can tell you that when I was stripping my 914 for its repaint in 1979, I had hoped to be able to remove & reuse the white plastic rivets. Had to take the rocker covers off first (before the threshold plates) and the rivets just shattered. Remember cursing Porsche for not using self-tapping screws! Which would have just made for additional rust issues.

Nope, that it from a "wank" to a "crank" - they were white plastic. I couldn't get enough to replace all of them so I got what I could from Stoddard to use on the threshold plates & replaced the rocker cover rivets with steel until Tod went the extra mile.

One thing I think I should mention, "wank" that I am, is that anyone with aluminum threshold plates should never use anything but plactic. Put a steel or aluminum rivet in those and you have the beginnings of the dreaded "dissimilar metals" crisis.

Wank rant complete. Return to your original channel.

I'm with George....well, only figuratively.
Pat

p.s. Tom - before you apologize for calling me a "wank" - DON'T. I am rarely offended, dish enough crap out myself, and understand "tongue in cheek". No harm, no foul. Just even or better.

It's beginning to sound like the threshold rivets - as with many things 914 - could've varied by model, year & even who attached the rockers!?

As to the rivets at the aluminum threshold plates to the steel rocker flange - those are white plastic on mine - not metal rivets. I was simply referring to the top of rocker to body sill plate underneath being metal (7 or 8 per side IIRC). I'd posted that pic of mine at the rockers/thresholds rivets topic in O&H a while back.

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Hey Steve - I just sent you a PM on this perfect color match for your coco mats (vs. the black/tan-dot ones in there now), cuz the terra cotta dots match your upholstery & carpet colors better. Just trying to improve on perfection a little bit!


Click to view attachment

Nice cover who makes it?

I made arrangements to have the annual maintenance done to our home AC system today. The air handler is in the attic right above the sahara beige 914. I had to back the 914 out of the garage to give them adequate access. I decided this was the perfect time to remove the wheels and wash them. While inspecting the front wheel wells I noticed the shock covers had dates painted on them. The car still has its original shock installed so these dates are factory original and this thread is the perfect place to document it.

Steve - great find - but wouldn't that be the date of the Strut Housing - not the strut insert/shock - or am I thinking about that wrong?

I say that because I thought that the top overriding cover/cap was part of the full strut housing assembly & not changed with the inserts.

You are correct Tom. My comment was based on the fact that the struts have never been removed from the car (see the photo's below) which means the strut housing covers are original to the car and the photos document that the car was delivered from the factory with dates painted on the housings.
Click to view attachment

Thanx for clarifying Steve, as it will be helpful to others looking here for references.

The paint "seal" on the strut top nut is the best indication/proof that both your strut housings & inserts are OE, but now we can all try to figure out how to recreate the strut date stamp on our resto's!

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I was cleaning the head lamp buckets on my 74 and noticed this build stamp looks like a number "8".

Looks like it was put on during the build.

Steve,

There seems to be some "gray area" discussion concerning the intake runner color. Yours is the most original out there.

Is it possible to get some detailed pics of the runners?

Some of us are perplexed about the shade and patina of the runners. I have two sets that I want to restore. When I redid mine in '88 I put the wrong finish on them - too glossy & clearcoated. Don't want to make that mistake again!
Pat

any chance of getting a high resolution pdf file of your window sticker? I think it would be a nice touch at a car show even if doesn't match my car...
Tom