I joined and posted a thread here last week with a couple of question and now its time to start my own custom build thread. Love it or hate it (I hope more love it lol) but here it goes.

About 12 years ago I was looking for a fun kit car project and ended up being GIVEN a 73 Porsche 914 project someone had started and abandoned.....guess either they ran out of money, time or got in over their head, but either way it ended up with me getting a free car

I ended up storing it at my parents house under a tarp behind the shed and then it sat in the same spot til a few weeks ago when I put it on a trailer and brought it to my house.

This is what it looked like when I loaded it up on the trailer

I first started by dropping out the engine/ tranny, tore the motor down, cleaned, honed and reassembled then painted

After the drivetrain was finished I bolted it back in and moved on to the rear decklid and engine cover and fabricated the tail light section, welded the trunk and decklid together to make them one peice. To add strength to the two prices so they didn't tear themselves apart......and get a completely new look I made an intake scoop and air foils.



http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk300/m.../IMAG0280-1.jpg

Next step was a new windsheild line and look.....I did some searching and lots of measuring to come up with a 98 Ford escort windshield


I used 1/2" angle iron to make the new windsheild lip.....lots of cut/ bend/ weld lol

After a number of re fittings I added 1" round tube to give the frame some rigidity

The frontend before I started getting "cut happy"



After a lot of cutting and bracing....still need to tie a support from the lower windsheild brace to the front supports



This is where I finished last night and it is sitting now





With the new windsheild sitting so low into the front section I'm going to need to go fuel cell or other gas tank, and extend the dash panel.....I can't wait to get back in the garage and back to work

This will be a good one to watch come together.

I wasn't really sure of my overall goal, and then I ordered 4 to 5 lug adapters and put my factory 04 GTO wheels on the Porsche.....they look perfect for this car and got the wheels turning in my head.....now I know exactly what I want lol

I just can't wait to cut the front clip into 20 prices and start redesigning it to fit the rest of the car....its going to be shortened as much as possible, and between the wheelwells be as low as possible

What part of PA are you in?

Just out of Chambersburg pa, off I 81 north of MD

cool project. Im excited to see more

I love custom builds! Subscribed! Looking forward to the long painstaking progress that will unfold in the next few years

someone has been busy...you must not be married and you had a lot of free time this weekend...lol

Looks cool.

RIch

Lol might as well be married with kids lol. Long weekend and not much sleep....she gives me lots of play time as long as I spend some time with her and the kids
A few more weeks like this past one and this might just be a quick project! I was very happy with how its gone so far, even though it did take two days just to fab and get the windsheild lip tweaked to where I needed it.

cool stuff...bring it to Hershey this year...

THis looks interesting.

Nice work so far

What's going on in Hershey and when is it happening?

Dude, you have many good neighbors in that area. I moved from Hershey in 2010. Hershey has the largest, Porsche only swap meet every April

This is an interesting project. I will be watching the progress and hopefully get to see this one live at hershey next year.
Good luck. Don't know about the fabs , but lots of help here with the engine and trans.

Well during the work week with the kids running around the house when I get home the progress has slowed lol. I welded in all the front braces and the windsheild braces and sat the front clip back on. Today I sat here looking at the front clip trying to figure out exactly where to make my cuts, broke out the Sharpie and drew some lines.....a few more measurements and lines and I'll be ready to start cutting again

I'm pretty sure I saw that car in its original state. I was driving by, and I recognized it as a 914, although it was barely visible through the trees etc. If your parents live on Leiter Street, they are less than 1/4 mile up the street from my house (corner of Leiter and Ringgold).

I know where 21742 is

Yup, that's where my parents are! I got this one, and also was given a complete stock one that was a rust out by my brother in law.

You might not have seen this one, but I also had a couple of Saab Sonett's stashed back there for a while lol
Are you in the house on the up hill corner? I've admired a couple of your cars too....its a small world!

I got to do some cutting on the front clip today! Did some grinding and laid some fiberglass on the fender lips. After the glass sets up over night I'll start working and forming the center of the hood and glass the front edge.

Here are a few more pics, going with new VW Bug headlight lenses and building a double projector light set to fit behind them.











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Ok, now that I see what you are doing with the front, and re-curving it, I am hooked

Yup, the lines of the flatnose kit just didn't flow with the rest of the car.....so I'm gonna cut and hack til it does lol

Mark, with all do respect (and you have mine for whatever it may be worth) you are committing a sin in many teener eyes. With that said, I'm impressed.

You're surprising me every update you post. Keep it up.

No, the sin I commited was dropping a 66 Mustang body down around a 96 Honda Civic for my mom, so she could have her classic with fuel injection, great mpg, and front wheel drive so she can drive it all year around......now that was a love or hate build with no middle of the road lol

haha, you're killing me. Where did you come from?!?

I agree that was a sin.. any pics of that project?

This is going to be awesome I think what I dislike about the slant nose look is it is very boring when these cars have so much character. With what you are doing this car will certainly have character. Can't wait to see more

Body/ drivetrain stripped out of the Honda


Stripped down 66 Mustang shell (left the rearend under till the end so I could roll it around like a wheel barrow)


Believe it or not the Honda and the Mustang had the exact same wheel track and only had to stretch the Honda chassis 3" to get the right wheel base....once I cut the outer rockers off the Honda the Mustang inner rockers slid down tight over them and just had to weld the two together






Had to play with the adjustable Honda suspension to see what the Mustang looked like slammed, but my mother made me raise it back for her lol

I agree with you on the slantnose being boring.....the more I look at all these restored stock 914's in here the more I like the front fins

wow! is all I can say and bow ndown to you.. Keep up the great work.

Ok back on the Porsche again lol.

I didn't get as much done yesterday as I wanted to, but managed to get alittle more glass laid and one peice welded back into the hood..... Still need to weld the drivers side peice in, trim and glass the front lip and re shape the windsheild edge of the hood

Thought I saw a Sonnett back there too.

Yup, that would be me. Orange Vette, Mexico Blue 911, Nocturne Blue Ninja, and 1970 John Deere 140. Green.

I wanna see you take that Mustang to Carlisle. You'll probably get a lot of puzzled looks, like the guy who stuffed a Ford 460 into a C3 Corvette.

I could take it to import Carlisle lol

The wifey is off work tonight, so I hope to get dome work done on it tonight after I cut grass and fix a leak in the house roof

As far as sins go - That thing was way beyond coming back into the fold when you got your hands on it. Have at it. Very cool thread...

Well I didn't get as much done this weekend as I wanted, but slightly adjusted a 1970 Saab Sonett3 fuel tank to work with the new front clip, and I have plenty of room for a radiator depending on what direction I go with for a drivetrain in the end. I still have a lot more cutting and bracing to do, but getting a little closer.

Ok with lots of talk and thought going into my Honda engine thread I think I've decided on power plant for the car!

Turbo charged Honda 1.6L with the Honda transmission mounted transverse just like the stock Civic, but up under the rear of the Porsche where the stock engine was.

I'm going to mount the small inner cooler up in one hump behind the seats and the radiator up in the other side so I won't need any pipes running front to rear through the car.

I'll be using the stock Honda pedals, wiring, computer ( with fuel managment upgrades) and all Honda sensors. I'll need to have the Honda CV joints re splined to fit the stock Porsche rear hubs.

Cool! One thing I never liked about conversions was giving up the front trunk space. Although in your case, that wouldn't seem to be a big issue.

I've always been form, then make it function lol

I think the honda engine would be a perfect option for this Frankenstein project! Especially since your familiar with them from the mustang project.

Which honda engine will you be looking for? Obviously the cheapest option would be a D16 and throw on a Z6 head for the Vtech and added compression. However i've read that the D15 has a better rod to stroke ratio so when you want to rev it out like in a turbo application its a better choice, you can still throw on a vtech head and make really good power.

Or will you be going with the almighty B16?

I like the fact that you can pick up a running engine and trani from craigslist for $400 every now and then


You should run the radiator set back in the hump so that its not that high, Water doesnt like to travel up that much, However your radiator fill should be the highest point on the car. Are you going to use the drivers side hole for the intake?

Any idea on the turbo or desired HP yet? You going to get it running N/A first then put the turbo on later?

B16 I already have the entire drivetrain, computer, harness, everything from when I got a deal that was too hard to pass up lol one of my friends had a civic that was a rust out.....then he got rearended and that finished it off.....but as bad as the rest of the car was he always took great care off the motor ( commuted from Hagerstown to D.C. every day in it). And I'd have to look at the turbo I have laying in the garage ( can't remember what I got it off of) but its in great shape too

Good stuff! Which B16 is it?

BTW, Go cast exhaust manifold, Big problems with the cheap "ram horn" manifolds. The cheap cast manifolds last longer.

You going to go with OBD 2 or OBD 1 for tuneability?

www.homemadeturbo.com
These guys would like your project, but they can be dicks (and they are typically kids..). Good for scrolling through and learning way to much about turbo's and how to do things cheap.

Thanks for the link! Yes, I hate to say it, but I know about the cheap turbo headers.....I swear there for awhile one of my friends was stopping by for me to re weld every joint on his lol. For now probably going OBD 1 because that's what I have, with seperate fuel control, but in the end finish (or refine) with a stand alone system like the Mega squirt....I'm not too familiar with Honda tuning yet, but know GM with Hptuners inside and out, so I hope to fall right into Honda tuning pretty easily.

Standard old 8 valve since I'm going turbo....I'll keep the 16 valve head for my mom's Mustang..... Lol we dubbed it "project Ho-stang"

Need to come up with a good name for this one, we currantly have project Ho-stang, and the Che-Hell (my 69 Chevelle body wrapped around a stretched 87 Nissan Pulsar pan)

Rice-14

I work tomorrow too, so I'm not going to have that much of a weekend, but I'm hoping to get the auto swapped out for a 5 speed, and all the glass put back in CheHell this weekend so I can move it out and free up a BUNCH of space in the garage