Hello - I have a new (to me) 914 race car that was made from at least 3 parts cars - and Now I am trying to buy parts and need help..... The body - no a- pillars no windshield ---- front pass fender has a welded plate for the cage over the vin --- no bumpers and holes drilled all over the front area --- I destroyed a firewall shift bushing that I bought (did the hot water and all) and now I think it could be for the wrong car year.

-- How to ID the body year ???? pass side floor has seat hinges , if that helps.

I also need help with front end id, how to tell if the front susp is early or late ??? and calipers ??? ------ the rear trailing arms, how to Id early from late --- I have the calipers off the car --
I got 4 trailing arms and 2 complete front susp -- with the car , but need to id them to buy spare parts....


is there a good place to see pixs??? I have searched sites and googled but never come up with what I need -----
__________________

post pics, 5 lug or 4?? If five lug and 3" spacing early...3.5 later..

There are two firewall bushing depend on early or late,, if that one didnt work...maybe the other??

Swing arms??? early vs late??

Post some pics here and give us something to work with.. Im sure some of the experts will show up later or on sunday.

adjustable passenger seat came in with MY 72 I believe. MY 73 was sideshifter for difference in bushing.

Are the holes in front the factory holes (about 7-9 3" holes with rubber plugs)?

I dont have the newer pix on this computer ---- It was a shell + lots o parts --- some 72 some 73 some 75

'75 or '76 front end. Looks like there is a lip on the front seam to hold the later rubber bumpers, there are big holes for the impact shock absorbers and it looks like the holes for the dog bones are missing.

It looks like there are remnants of a vin tag on the second picture in the door. Is there any stock metal bracing inside the doors? or cut away? This would indicate a later (73.5 on) as well. The VIN in the front trunk on the pass side wheel well is gone? That's not ideal...

check for data at these locations

With "Perfection Plus" on the rear fender I think that's Jay Jackson's old autox car. He is now on the world but not that often. PM jjackson and he can tell you all about the car. Or pm me and I can find out more about the car for you.....You can also pm hencar. He knows the car too and I think he sold the chassis.
A pic of Jay's new autox car....same number and perfection plus on hood.....Check out the last two pages of the thread "914's at solo nats" in the paddock....

Click to view attachment

73-74, there are obvious dog bone holes and no large holes where the bumper shox would be. The bushing you destroyed trying to place was likely for a 70-72 as it will be larger ID and OD than the later style. It will not fit. The ID should be way to big for your shift shaft, and this is an easy check for you. Hinged seats started in 73.

Click to view attachment

1) Looks like the holes for the shocks
2) Looks like the lip for the late bumpers
3) I zoomed in, and it sure didn't look like the dog-bone holes were there.

Those holes you circled on the far right of the front are the two holes for the dog bones. Are the bumper shox under the head light? Not that I recall.

$.02

The shape of headlight bucket , and the lower wheel well reinforcements are long 75-76 style.

Late firewall has different seabelt holes. Is'nt there a number on the rear inner wheelwell or trunk floor?

There should be a VIN stamped into the top, inner right front fender.

why did the original owner strip it to use the parts on a new chassis.

One guess would be to have a race car an an earlier/lighter chassis. That theory would suppor that this yellow car might be 75-76

just a theory.

Hinged seats are in mid 72.

There are three bushings out there.
Two sized holes in the tub.
Early cars up to 73 had tail shifters and the hole in the tub was large.
Tail shifter linkage rod is larger than the side shifter.
That bushing is large outer diameter, large inner diameter.

Second simple bushing is from 73 an up for the side shifter.
Smaller hole in the tub
Smaller shift rod.
That bushing has a smaller diameter inner hold and smaller diamter outer hole.

third bushing is to allow you to put a side shifter tranny into the early tub.
That one has a large outer diameter outside, and the smaler diameter inside for the side shifter rod.

Take a picture straight down into the front trunk.
This will show you the floor supports at the front of the trunk floor.
Those change in late 72

Take a picture of the rear lower firewall that the shifter rod comes out from below and outside the passenger compartment.

With those two pics, you can identify the tub year.
If its all welded together from two or three tubs...all bets are off.

Rich

'75/'76 chassis for sure.

Dead giveaway is the support under the headlight bucket to hold the larger late model bumper shocks ...



PS: It looks like the VIN could still be found on the pass. front fender top.

Wow - great info guys ----- I will shoot lots of pixs ---- The car is J Jacksons old race car -He wanted a better chassis for his 300 hp autocross car --- this car was losing it right rear alignment with the huge 6 - 12 inch sticky tires and 1:20 min blasts --- It will be my www.chumpcar.com racer for this year ----- I have (2) 2.0 liter motors with side shifters of unknown condition --100 hp maybe --- 205/50/15 -300 treadwear tires- great cage --- good seat ---- 15 gal fuel cell ---- and parts of 3 cars ---- the body is all one car ---- the upper pass fender vin is under a cage plate ---- I forgot the easiest one in the world -Door Jam !!! Dooh ------ but the shift bushing was hard as a rock ,even after I damn near boiled it ----- I hope it was wrong size --- I changed one 15 years ago on a street car (all one model year parts) that was not too bad....... this one and I had a fight to the death --- I won , but ...... now I need another bushing ---its FUBAR...... the rod seemed to fit pretty well slid nicely..... now on to the front susp ---- how do I tell early uprights from late ---- I think I put the early frontend in ..... because I wanted to do the 320i change - but the other 2 914's in crapcan racing were both running stock calipers and low cost pads and did well on brakes ---- SO i will run stock calipers and porterfield R4S's on the front and rear --- what do you guys think of front calipers on the front and rear with an adjustable proportional valve on the dash.. the car has a "T" in the rear brake lines .... the stock valve is gone ......

the dog bone holes were drilled after factory ----- to run early bumpers --------- you guys rock --

It's a 76 that I bought from a guy in Cary, North Carolina in 2000.It was already stripped ,bent, and never raced.We autocrossed it for afew years as a 2.0l four and then converted it to a six.The car trophied at nationals in FP once due to the efforts of Perfection Plus.We tressed and later broke the rear longtitudinal on the passenger side.It looks like somebody is doing a lot of cage and structure work.We decided that we needed a better chasis to chase FP with.Gave the car to a local enthusiast-who sold it.I'll look to see if I can find some paperwork.J

I just went back and read all posts-that was pretty impressive ID in a short period of time.porsche4me-I did not know that you had already posted-when I posted.It looks like you are on the right track with your cage work-Good luck-the car needs to be fast again.There is a good chance that the front suspension pieces are some work that was done by racer chris.We had to take everything off this chasis-could not possibly start all over.All my cool fast parts are either on current car or wooore out.J

Thank you Mr. Jackson - great to text with you - - What part did you break on it ---- Harry was a very nice man --- I understood that there was flex in the right rear --but I did not think that it was busted -- any help would be great --- I did not want to pester you about this old body that you were done with ----- Someone from Perfection Plus and I had a short conversation one time -nice dude - and your racing sounds fun ,, but not in my budget ---- I have tracked down a bunch of pictures of you racing that car and theyt are great --- inspires me to go out in the cold garage to work on it.... I am trying to make it look less like an ex-race car - and more old street beater with gt flairs..... the idea of the series is to run 12 to 24 hours in a $500 race car ---- Plus all the safety stuff, fuel stuff, brake stuff and wheel/tires are not included in the $500..... I hope to race the car proud as a 914 freak ( I have had 8 so far, all rusty Southeast cars) it will have a Beatles yellow submarine theme.... 4 periscopes - Secretly functional - one to each carb- one for the driver and one to the externial oil cooler in the trunk

You are correct about it being stripped out --- that thing did not have a nut-bolt or wire in it.....but I love her ---- I had a 73 parts car a 75 parts car and harry included a 70 parts car ----- I stripped all of them out and now are confussed about what I put on the car.......

Any information you need-Do not hesitate.When you apply force at passenger side rear-upwards you can see a lot of flex happening-also side to side on this side.We ran that way a while-New the car had quit handling and did not find this easily.The car seems soli d in all other locations-Never had hell hole issues or jack point issues.Funny to me how that car was a 76 that we ended up with dog bones and fiberglass early bumpers and now those bumpers are coming off the new car and being converted to late bumpers.Life sure is ironic.If you ended up with the coilover front setup-we ran 944 turbo front calipers and with the spindles done by Racer Chris, the 15 X 7 fuchs from a 944 would clear everything.There was a set of boxed trailing arms that were on car the last time I saw it.J

Thanks --- it will be all 4 bolt stuff ---- I found 8" wide steel 4 bolt (4x130) that will be my wheels ----- heavy - holly crap heavy ----- and I found a place that mounted the DZ101 205/50/15's on them ---- nothing legal treadware in the 225/50/15 I wanted ---- at a good price....

To read some excellent posts on brakes and early vs. late struts, use the search function and find stuff written by Eric Shea.

I just autocross, but read lots here about all racin, and most 914s with less than 150 HP and TIV power do fine with stock brakes and Porterfield pads AND great ducting to get as much cool air to them as possible.

The "car of the month" thread has some awesome pics of Racer Chris' prepped SCCA track car w his custom duct work all over. Inspiring!

More pics!

I stand corrected

It's how the ball joint is attached to the bottom of the strut.

If the bottom of the upright has a slit in it with a thru bolt (pinch bolt), it is early.

Later cars do not have the slit and use a "double taper pin" with a nut to hold it in place.