I guess I should start an official project thread. I've been lurking for a few months, found out about the world through Rennlist. I started a thread on Rennlist a while back but I feel its more appropriate to keep a project thread here.

I traded a Jetta for this 74 914 in March of this year. I've always wanted a 914 but never got one until now. It was a yellow 914 that got me liking Porsche's. When I was about 9 years old my dad had a co-worker with a 914. They went on a business trip in it and my brothers and I thought it was the coolest think to have TWO trunks! I had a couple hand-me down cars until college when I bought my first car - '80 924. Over the years I had a couple 944s and a bunch of water-cooled V-dubs, but always wanted an air-cooled.

I'll try to keep updates coming as I get around to doing things to it. I'll start by catching up to its current state. It was a running/driving car when I got it but never fear it has already been on jack stands. Well actually I just put it on jack stands to check out the underside and put new wheels on. I've been driving it as much as I can which is not nearly enough!

This is how it looked when I got it:

It came with a bunch of parts. The original wheels, fog lights and even air conditioning.

It seems to be pretty much rust free. There's a little surface rust here and there, but pretty clean for the most part. At some point it had the front end replace, probably due to an accident. You can see some red paint in places. The car was originally Delphi Green Metallic. It must have gotten painted after the accident. Some pics of various parts of the car.













It currently has a 1.8 on carbs. Was a 2.0 originally.

First order of business was to sort the wheels. It came with Beetle wheels that had studded snow tires on them. I had the tires swapped onto the original 914 steels. The tires on the 914 wheels were old and dry rotted. I also raised it up as it was lowered when I got it.





Looks much better with the proper wheels.

My wife made me a pillow for it using a factory shop rag.



It is missing an "O" on the grille. I scored a used grille with all the letters in gold from a friend in my VW club. Also came with a 914 badge that my car didn't have.

I've been driving it around when I can. Took it to the mountains a few times. Heat works pretty well for an air-cooled. Motor runs rich it seems but pulls strong and other than 1st and reverse the tranny seems to be fine.

Well that pretty much brings things up to date. I have purchased clutch and throttle cables that I keep in the car. I also did some searching for oil. I ended up using Valvoline 20-50 racing oil since it has zinc additive. Still on the lookout for a long term solution like a Brad Penn or something.

I ran into a little issue recently. It started backfiring and popping. Not sure if it was coming from the exhaust or the carbs. I asked a few people about what type of fuel to use and some said only premium while others said it doesn't matter. Well I tried running mid-grade and it seems the noise was happening after I switched to the lower grade fuel. So I bought a bottle of Techron and filled it with premium (we only get 91 here in Colorado unless you go to a specialty gas station). It hasn't made the backfiring or popping noise since. I am hoping that is all it was. Any insight on that would be appreciated. For reference it is a 1.8 on carbs, the original 2.0 was swapped out for this motor.

Short term To Do list:

Get a tune up (gonna take it to a local air-cooled VW shop)
New shocks/struts (current ones are no good, also need to get new rear springs
Chrome front bumper (916 bumper doesn't look right on a narrow body to me)
Repaint wheels and new tires
Clean interior

Looks good! Good luck with it.