Ok, As a preface, I have part of the 914world site for about a year and a half, but had owned my porsche for 5 years or so before I found this amazing resource. I figured that It was about time I started to document my work like everyone else on here seems to do. I'm not doing anything especially spectacular, but it will be nice to look back on this in a few years and have the whole journey in one spot! So enough of that, Hrere goes!

I bought the car in 2003 at the ripe old age of 14 for 900$. It didnt go, didn't stop, no electricals worked, the paint was peeling, and it had just been hit in the quarter panel by a forklift. But what can I Say, I was in love!
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After a few years of polishing contacts to get the electricals to work I went to work stripping the car down for paint in 2005
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I was able to get a great deal on the paint job, the only caveat was that it ended up being in the paint shop for around a year!
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While the car was at paint I went to work rebuilding the engine:
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While the car was off at apint I had some more time to do more research on my 914. I had somehow ended up with a 1973 914 2.0L with frond and rear anti-sway bars, koni classics on the rears, foglights, and the appearance package interior. I also had some fun 5-lug fuchs look alikes and an aftermatket grant steering wheel.
When I finally got the car back from paint in 2006 I was very happy with how it looked!
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I immediately went to work putting the car back together:
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Test Drive 2006:
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Some images after It was cleaned two years after paint:
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in 2009 I sent my rear koni's off to TSM Enchanced in AZ to have them rebuilt. After I recieved them back I primered and painted them. During this time I also bought new Koni adjustables for the front.
Before:
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After:
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Installed:
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in winter 2009 I decided to take some artsy night photos back in NM:
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That's the money shot right there.

As someone who loves the 70's colors (Orange, Yellow, Green) on these things, that looks gorgeous in black.

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Thanks!

In the spring of 2010 I joined in on one of the good Dr.'s transmission clinics in denver to rebuild my flagging 5 speed. What an experience! On site I discoved the tranny I brought was essentially useless as a core and had to buy a new core on the spot. made that cost back however by selling parts off my old transmission!
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I just had to take it for a spin up in the mountains after I put the new transmission in. It ran like a dream!
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In the summer of 2010 I bought a 500$ parts car and found that theough the body was rusted rotten, nearly every piece of rubber on the car was in perfect condition! Score!

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After the summer I brought my 914 back up to school in colorado with me and was able to take it our for a couple of laps at one of the local tracks:
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I also found some time to make a few more custom shift knobs
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I also did a bit of engine dress up.
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The past few months it has been too cold to want to do much driving without heat exchangers, so I started working on some of my small pet peeves. I installed the engine bay light, the liscence plate lights, fixed my odometer, fixed my console clock and made a custorm horn.
I had a spare butterfly center lying around so I bought a porsche insignia on ebay, cut a hole to fit and fitted a small momentary pushbutton from radio shack behind it.
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it works great and at a fraction of the cost of all the correct horn equipment. I also dont have to worry about accidentally hitting the horn button during turns.

and the finished product:
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I had a few leftover shift knobs lying around so I built a coat rack too.
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some new re-upholstry:
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And the seat in the car:
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Now I'm into wheel refinishing!
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After:
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And now, Thank God, I'm all caught up. New posts to come as work progresses. New trunk mount and 140 # springs are on the list, as well as perhaps pblasted and painted trailing arms!
-Ross

Nice work! You rock! Time to make that Olympic blue a driver!

unfortunately, this is what happened to the olympic blue car...
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Nice! I Love black 914s

Nice thread and great pictures.

Great idea with the horn.

It is fun when you can keep tweaking while being able to drive your car.

John

nice work.

I totally agree. I don't want jackstands to become a part of my car!

Nice Car! thanks for posting the pics. Keep driving while you improve it, my 73 has been on jackstands for years.....


Jim

Mine was on jackstands for the first four years of it's time with me. My goal is not to have it out of commission for mOre than a month for the next three years. Next project: elephant racing bushings for the rear.

Great work--you've done terrific things with that 914.

I finished re-finishing the spare and am really happy with the results, it just took forever. steady as she goes I guess.
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Centers:
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wow... not the right order. Some more pictures though
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I am also getting ready to re-work the rear suspension. Here are some prep shots
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Also on the to-do list is welding in a new trunk hinge mount:
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Go, Doc, Go! Nice shirt!

I just finished pulling the engine so I can weld in that new trunk mount and swap the clutch. The pull went well, but much to my dismay I discovered to messy PO repairs I had thought I avoided until tonight. The Passenger trailing arm, as well as some of the sheet metal in the hell hole seems to have been replaced. I also found some evidence of a separate fender being welded on in parts. To add insult to injust I also found a hairline crack in the paint at the edge of the door. upon closer inspection I found that there was a layer of bondo underneath. I went and did the magnet test and found that even my strongest magnet could barely hold. I knew it had damage ther, but had hoped the paint shop did a good job of pulling it out. Ok. Rant over. Back to work!

Here are some more pictures of the the engine and transmission apart, along with a shot of the clutch that came out as compared to the brand new clutch.
Some of the clutch dragging I had before I pulled out the tranny I think I can attribute to the absence of shims on the throwout arm pivot ball. The clutch seemed to be in prety good shape.
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I removed the rockers to get better access to the trailing arms. As I did I noticed something strange on the longs. Ten minutes later after pulling what felt like 2 pounds of caulk off the car I ended up with this. a 10" crack up the long. Nothing serious by 914World standards, but caulk? really?
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So I pulled out my trusty MIG and welded up the cracks. Not a permanent solution, but it sould buy me some time before I can dig into it for real. I would really appreciate it if those with more knowledge could chime in on the strength of such repairs. I also am getting hookied up with a weld on clamshell long from a friend here that should allow me to strengthen it further.
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The welds dont look half bad after some grinding!
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To cheer myself up I went over to senor O'sheas to grab some goodies. Check out this haul!!!
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I also Spent some time today grounding down the old trunk mount in preparation for the replacement.
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Hey Man,
I am very proud to have been able to help you with this in my own little way It looks great!

Don't weld in the trunk mounts!

Get James West's trunk mount kit instead-
It is some work to install, but you have a lot of adjustment compared to the weld in mounts! And all it takes is a drill and common hand tools...

I've heard that they are great, but honestly I feel more comfortable welding than drilling. And there is the cost factor too. I guess if the weld in doesn't work I can go for the j west system.

Dude this is a great thread.
I'm glad to be of some help with the goodies

but you're doing what I suggest is scary!
I better stop BS'ing you

Well Kev, I'll be by this week to grab some more hopefully. We still need to figure out the Zert situation. This weekend was pretty frustrating, It was good and long, but I didnt get much work done. Today I finished cleaning off the trailinag arms to prep them for paint. I got the first coat of primer on before the sun went down and it got too cold to paint. The good news is that I did maneage to install a stereo system in my 72' pontiac project. Anyways. The pictures from today:
cleaned:
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Primered:
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Trunk Mount Prep:
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I want to see pictures of that.

It aint pretty Gint. DAPO cut enourmous holes in the kicker panels and my speakers are only 6x6's. I hot the deck for 10$ and the speakers for 30$ so I did the best with what I had. It looks nasty, but at least I have tunes now. More pictures to follow...

OMG... you fell for that? Oldest trick in his "house call" bag. He does that at every clinic. He uses the dough on cheap hookers.

Looking good

Great build thread. I followed someone's suggestion on this board to put a few small tackwelds on the backside of the threaded collar flanges to ensure it won't break free. YMMV.
Geoff

Yeah, I figured that out the hard way, it takes forever to screw it in otherwise . Here are some pictures of my ROUGH 72' Pontiac. Its a solid driver, and fun to cruise in, especially in the summer. but its not much of a looker...
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