I looked at 4 914's this weekend. All were priced over $3,500.00. Most had rust in some areas, small to large. Most had oil leaks. Most had ok to shabby interior with cracks in the dash. Most had some sort of electrical glitches.

The first one I looked at seems the best priced. Factory Orange Paint, very small paint chips, 1.7L, needs a new battery and tires. Body is in almost perfect cond. Tiny amount of rust. Interior and dash is perfect. Not been started in 15 years. Only two owners with all papers. 93k original miles. Owner is asking $3k firm. He's an older guy who collects cars and had this one stored in his garage in the back.

If I buy it, I need to send it to a local shop here in SF. Pay to get the motor going, replace the tires and buy a new battery. Maybe $600 to $700 total for this. Anyone know of a good mechanic in SF?

Judging by Ebay, Craigslist, Classic Autotrader and local shops selling 914's in my area, this seems fairly priced to get a starter Porsche that has a nice body.

I know I could keep looking at these for months, but from what everyone seems to say here is go with the decent one and build it from there.

Any comments? Idea's?

Buy the best one you can afford.

A little rust... Hmm, some cars here appeared to have a "little rust"... but then they just accumulated rust over bondo or whatnot.


Spend more time and look at more of them. 3.5k I'd expect a running car, with a decent body, not perfect.

Buy the best one you can afford, and keep looking.

Andrew

I do like the fact that this one is only a second owner. It seems like a lot of these cars out there change hands so many times in their life, run down, rebuilt, raced and repainted.

The fact that it sat for so long could be concerning as far as the motor, but at least it was off the road and stayed only with two owners so far. The second of which barely drove it.

O, I forgot to ask, if I want to convert it to a sideshift, what am I looking at as fas as price and labor? Are there different approaches to doing this?

if you want to stick to SF instead of going to someplace like HPH in RWC then you could try a place I know. it's in the tenderloin on eddy st. forgot the name of the place but the old german guy roelph has been there 35+ years in the same spot working on vw's and porsches. he is a one man shop. he answers the phone and works on the cars. I always found it best to just stop by and talk to him. on the phone he is usually somewhat short. he did work on my 914 before and I was always happy. his hourly is less than other shops. he even fixed my 914 and did some minor machine shop work for free before.

Sounds good. I will look him up. Thank you...

You will spend upwards of 3k to make that car run/drive safely. I see it weekly. Brakes/shocks/engine stuff will add up quickly. I can count 4-5 club members right now that bought low mileage "sat for XX years" cars that all appeared to be VERY nice. Every one of them has over 3k in parts/repairs from bad injectors to failed brake lines to pedal assmeblies with deterioated bushings. The worst thing you can do to any car is let it sit.

Pay 5-6k for a known driver with no surprises.

I did a PPI on a 72 914 that was pretty damn nice. It had a broken clutch tube and needed shocks. Otherwise it was a VERY clean car for something like 5500$


B

What exactly is a PPI?
Pre
Purchase
Inspection?

Yes and if you don't know anything about these (or any) cars GET A PPI DONE!!!

Brad's right about a car sitting

My teen needed air, gas and oil fiters, oil change, gas tank cleaned, brake fluid, 3 injectors, FI hoses, seals and shocks. Plus the new looking tires went bad in the first couple of months.

I'm a wrench and the PO brought me the car to get running, it was almost a $1500 bill and he still need shocks. That's when he told me it was for sale. A deal was made and it was mine.

Hey at least I got to do a month long PPI

You might want to up your budget a bit and try to find a sorted out car, may save you coin in the long run and you can drive it now.

SurferJoe, I'll just gleam that you do not find satisfaction in life by the taking apart and restoration of a 30 year old car. If I am wrong, that 914 you have found just became your next 3 year project. If however, you do not, let a restorer know where he/she can obtian the car and have them help you find a running model so you can get on the road.
Brad and Mike are not just giving opinions, they are giving advice others pay for.
L. McC

Thank you. I do appreciate the advice. Ya, the car will for sure need many things to get the motor going after so long of sitting in the garage. I was just happy about the body shape and rust.

Perhaps I need to save another $3k, get my total to around $6k and buy one ready to go?

That is a very good plan! It will save you alot of heartakes..

Good luck!

Andrew

Yes, one of the first lessons anyone doing a restoration learns is that you never see that money again. Except for extremely rare cars (one-off Ferraris, that kind of thing), the restoration costs are always higher than the final selling price. So, it's nearly always cheaper to buy a car someone else has restored. The only exceptions are when someone has really botched the restoration, and you don't discover that until after the money has changed hands.

My first 914 was 73 that looked "Good" but after a few weeks became a rolling $4k parts car That I drove for 3 yrs, $2k in parts & labor and sold for $3,200.

My current car is a very solid 70 with a 74 2.0L & side shift, blah, blah, blah.... The paint is ok, has small dents & dings but a very good driver. Nice interior also, Oh, came with a binder full of records of all the current work done on it. For me cosmetics wasn't a big issue, I wanted documented solid driver. Maybe I paid a little more than I should have but knowing that I can drive it anywhere was a big plus with me after having all the BS with my POS 73.