OK, lets assume you buy a nicely restored chassis for $5000. Then you take all of the parts off your "worst for wear" driver and put them on that new chassis. Magically you now have a factory 914-6 in pretty good condition. Is it worth it?

What if you paid $5000 for your "worst for wear" driver; now you have $10k in this pretty good factory 914-6. Is it worth it?

What if you had put a whole bunch of money into your "worst for wear" driver and add it to the pretty good 914-6 total. Is it worth it?

Seriously though, I'm contemplating this sinerio right now. Is a VIN number really worth it?

From your questions, I take it you have a 914/6 in rusty condition, and your considering switching the whole car over to a restored 914/4 chassis. Fix the rust situation on your six. It's worth it. Your idea's end result would have no more value than a good conversion. They made too many fours and not enough sixes to say your VIN is not worth it. I wish porsche had used 9144 and 9146 instead of 473 and 914.

I'd personally want a "real" /6 VIN chassis than your current /4 chassis with a /6 motor.

Even if the engine numbers don't match a /6 in a /6 chassis, it has more "appeal" to it for some reason.

I'd have to say he wants to take the parts off his "fake" six and put them onto a real six chassis after restoring it.
A bit better scenario than the other way around.

He is rather vague about the situation. If that were the case, sure why not? As long as all the parts are correct. Another six back on the road is a good thing. Maybe he should give us a clearer description of what he is contemplating.

Yup, fix the six. The VIN is worth it.

I paid alot of money for my real -6. Because I wanted a REAL 6. I got the numbers and alot of work, but end the end it will be worth it.
Joe

I think it depends on the rationale. If it is just due to sheetmetal, then swap what you can and keep as much of the original as you can. I mean isnt this the place where the main goal is to save the 914

Racer Chris is on the mark (as usual). Dave's "6" is a conversion and has serious rust issues. Not being a snob or a purist, and of course everything depends on the depth of the wallet, I see nothing wrong with Dave finding a solid 4 chassis and morphing the "6" into a new body. However, if money is no object, there is certainly an advantage to the "real 6" route. I for one don't really take offense at a well done 6 conversion, V-8 conversion like the alien, or what have you (Subaru turbo, etc.) Keep em on the road and enjoy them. Dave, if you need help turning wrenches and moving parts, give me a call.

forget real 6 or not. Is a $10,000 investment good to get a nice driving -6 914 real or not. Yes....Alot of us have that in a non- running 4.

Why do you care?

Are you going to sell it?

Is it for you or for your ego?

Personally, and I bet Root would agree with me... Who cares? Build a cool car to play with and play with it.

It took me 40 years to learn a basic fact of happiness...

If I feel good about me on the inside I don't care what everyone else thinks or says.

Besides if my kids really love cars then one of them or one of my grandkids would end up loving the car the way I do, otherwise when the greedy goblins go to sell it they will be disappointed, and at the time I will be dead and won't care.

Why do you care so much about "status".

Sorry for the confusions. I posted the message then went to bed.

For those that don't know, my 914 is a -6 conversion. The original 914-6 was severly crunched so the PO traded the crunched chassis for a "straight" 4cyl chassis. I'm looking at the 914-6 chassis listed in the classifieds. It needs a lot of work, more than my -4 chassis actually.

My debate is to scrape, beg, borrow and steal the money to buy the chassis then sit on it for a time until I can afford to pay a nice east coast welder to fix it. I can do all the finish work myself (with help from a few others). Basically I'll drive my real fake 914-6 until the chassis is complete then swap parts. I know I can buy another -4 chassis with little to no rust for the same money as the badly rusted chassis.

I've moved from the make it fast no mater what to a "concours racer". I want a racecar look on a concours body. The depth of my wallet is a very major concern. It's deep enough IMO, but there's a lot of hands in there.

More thoughts?

5K is a lot for a chassis that needs work, even if it is a sixer. If it comes with some original parts, go for it. When you finish it will be worth 12-16K. So, yes, it's worth it. Right now your conversion is probably worth 8-10K. You're kind of at the break even point. But, there is something to be said for the prestige of a much more limited production car. I like the thought of even ONE more 914/6 being saved and put back on the road. I think most of us have romantic feelings about our 914/4s, and only dream of owning a real 914/6. Consider yourself blessed and enjoy it, we'll all be envious.

No, no, I believe the total for the chassis and fixing it up will be near the $5k line if I do a lot of the work myself. I hear there's a good welder in CT that knows a little bit about 914s (Hi Chris ). He would be a good candidate do put this thing back in order. Steel flares, vintage cage, stripped interior, all '70s inspired decos.

Hmmm, what to do; what to do?

I guess the desciding factor is if I can come up with the cash just to buy the chassis. Then I'd need a place to store it until I can afford the repair work.

If it's meant to be things will fall into place, if not then another /6 goes to the great rust bin in the sky.

I'm in the same position as Dave, I'd like a nice /6 and don't have deep pockets.
My take on it is, find a restorable original /6 chassis and restore it as money permits. Take the bits off of the current driver to complete the restoration. The leftover converted /4 tub could be sold to someone else wanting a project at that time.
A slight aside here. In many cases the "restorable" 914/6 tub will be in poor shape. However, the VIN does command a premium. Since we are not worrying about a pristine original chassis, why not go the GT route during the restoration. This adds significant value, as well as costs, but perhaps the benefit/cost ratio is a better choice as opposed to just restoring to an original plain jane 914/6. Since the original GT's came in many degrees of conversion, you have your choice as to how far to proceed according to the available money. GT flares make the car. A front oil cooler is also a good idea. A 100 liter fuel tank is useless except for endurance racing, so only the few cars that needed it were converted.

Dang, read me like a book.

A lot of hands dig into my wallet as well. If I could swing a cherry $20k factory 914-6, I would, but I can't. So I build mine for what I can afford.

Family, house, job, happiness all come long before a car ever will.

first off, let me set some of the record straight here. I own the 914-6 chassis in question. I am a bit remiss at whayt you guys are calling a bad chassis. I can tell you that this chassis is more solid than 90% of the cars i have ever seen. it has little rust in the "hell hole " as you guys call it and less rust on the inner rockers than my car that i just trucked out from California. I would love to see your version of a good chassis. I have been into 914 since the early 80's and have parted out over 100, i can say i have a good handle on what is a good chassis and what is not. I emailed a bunch of you guys pictures, waste of my time as i figured. i took a picture of every bad spot on the car. the floors are solid(driver foot well is surface rusty as it has no paint. the front and rear trunk floors are perfect, the battery area is nicer than almost any driver around the north east. I bought the car for the drive train to put it in my 76. i already looked the chassis over very detailed and figured i can fix the rust for less than 1000. anyway, i am listing it on ebay this weekend to get it out of my yard, if it does not sell i am cutting it up and scrapping it next weekend(i have no place to store it) oh well, the last 1970 914-6 .......

nick,

I don't think anyone was really bashing your /6 chassis...some are just making assumtions

there is a fellow member here who bought an original /6 chassis that is going to need a couple grand to get the body "straight"...I wouldn't touch it since I don't like to do bodywork and I don't have the funds to pay someone else, but my hat is off to him for buying it and putting it back together...(way to go Steve )

Entry: remiss
Function: verb
Definition: careless
Synonyms: behindhand, culpable, daydreaming, defaultant, delinquent, derelict, dilatory, disregardful, fainéant, forgetful, heedless, inattentive, indifferent, indolent, lackadaisical, lax, lazy, neglectful, negligent, regardless, slack, slapdash, slipshod, sloppy, slothful, slow, tardy, thoughtless, uninterested, unmindful, woolgathering

Soooo your saying that the chassis is a POS

Lighten up

Um nickg, I'm sorry you have taken offence. I was just looking for others opinions. The chassis does need a lot of work. I was figuring at least $3k just to get it in some order. The longs are gone. The floor is gone. Some think it way even be two chassis welded together. IMHO it's far worse off than my car and my car is the worst I've seen except one. I've seen lots of 914s. I'm sorry to have "wasted your time" but I was seriously thinking of buying.

Try to save all sixs. There arnt enough of them left.
Nick if you don't sell on evil-bay PM me and maybe we can work something out instead of cutting up another one.
Joe

what are you talking about? the longitudes are in very good shape! the floor is only surface rusted!(and that is where it has no paint only!) it needs the jack posts repaired, they are strong enought to use still, just the lower plate was rusted, the car has less rust on it than the one that Rob ways is selling!, i will take a new set of pictures, the problem is that i only took shots of where there was any rust, i did not take any of where there wasn't ....whatever. as far as 2 chassis weled together, i thought that too. but here is the deal, show me the seam, you can't. it has had the dash and cowl clip replaced. this is the crap i get for trying to save a 6.....whatever

here is the right jack point

here is the sill directly above it

here is the battery area

another of the hell hole

here is the driver side inner rail...i can't see any bad rust

the firewall rust....most every northeast 914 has this from a loose window

here is the only spot on the floor with any rust, it is about the size of a quarter....this is not even in a place they rot, so this is easy to get a panel from another junker

this is the driver footwell, it is surface rustee, thuis is because it was never repainted....no holes and it is not thin....the car was not left out in the mud or anything. it was stored inside till i got it

look carefully at the welding seams in the next few pictures, they clearly show the sectioned in part of the cowl/post clip.(there is a little hole in this clip....it is not rust, it was drilled.....poorly

another closer

the hole

another of the seam

i have seen worse come back to life. much worse in fact.

if i had the parts to finish the car, that would be a good shell to start.
acid-dip it, repair it and off you go.
as for the front clip, you'll always be able to tell if the whole clip was replaced, especially since the tub is stripped.
another easy to spot clue, on a original /6, the wall between the front trunk and the gas tank did *NOT* have a hole for the washer hose in the lower left corner!

Andy

aside from that, i doubt you will find a 914-6 chassis in any condition for what i am asking...heck i offered it for 1000 to him

I don't know what he's complaining about. Looks damn decent for 1K. Where did he get the idea that it would cost another 4K to fix? He should buy a welder, some sheet metal, some stiffeners and go to town on it. Shouldn't cost more than 3k to make it real tight.

I saw the pictures in an email David sent me, and suggested the chassis might be welded from two because the front was red and the rear yellow. It could be that ALL the yellow was stripped off the front and that is red oxide primer. In any case, it appears the problems are more extensive than Nick is suggesting from my limited perspective.
The jack post with the holes is heavily sand blasted, but it still appears that the surrounding metal is heavily corroded and the long. has a hole at the lower front edge of the jack post.
There is a sizable area of rust perf in the channel where the front trunk seal goes, along the inner edge of the fender. There is no right front fender.
It is always worse than it looks in low res pictures.
It is worth restoring, but to pay a professional to fix all the problems nicely would take at least 3K. The entire chassis needs to be stripped and repainted after the metal repair. There's another $2K or more. William Harris can tell us the cost of that since he is in the middle of it right now.
I have worked on quite a few northeast chassis', some worse and some not so bad. I have customers with genuine rust free chassis' under their unrestored well maintained cars, so you can't tell me this is a GOOD example of a northeast teener.
This -6 chassis is, at best, a typical example of a Northeast car that was marginally maintained over the years. The only thing redeeming about it is the VIN IMO.
You can certainly find a nice, driveable six for less than this car will cost to restore to similar condition.
If I had the cash I would consider buying it to restore, but I don't have to pay for the metal repair.

Media blasting (baking soda) the entire (I mean every piece, panel, interior, exterior, doors (inside doors) lids, etc - you know every damn part) and then priming with Dupont Variprime (zinc rich acid etch primer) is gonna run about $2,000. Then I plan on painting the little darling with the newest 2004-2005 Porsche Lapis Blue (paint code M5W)(hell Eric Sanders/Partsman to you - even supplied a new trim tag we will punch the "right" paint code on just to drive the concours wienners nuts). The media blasting removed all the body filler (not much) and my body guy is gonna shrink the metal back to avoid using body filler except to the smallest degree possible. Figure $5,000 for paint. Then Racer Chris and Jake Raby and Kit Carlson gonna have a rendevous with the 2.0, build the 2056, mix with the Tangerine Racing headers and maybe get me 125 hp of motivation. Just never, ever add up the receipts. I didn't even mention replacing all the rubber seals, having Auto International do the seats and door panels in leather, etc. etc.

There is a welding shop in Albany NY which will take this on. If you have the right materials sent in for the floor pans and the upper longs The total cost will be $3000 including the labor.

What is the difference between an original 6 and a conversion.

An excellent 914/6 conversion will go in the $13K-14K region. A similar Factory 6 will go for $18K-$22K

Govel Welding on Central Ave.

i guess you did not see the nos fender in the pictures that he sent did you? i guess you did not see the sand and residue from the blasting...i guess you can't add up the front was blasted and the rear was primed. i work in the automotive buisness, i have never seen you shop in ct. (and i have been to every shop in ct, its my job) in the last 4 years i heve seen 3 914's in ct......i know there are lots but i think your idea of a "marginally maintained north east car" are weak....they had rust worse than this with 5 years of new. as i have sais i have parted over 100 of them i think i know what i am talking abouyt. i may not be an acknowledged internet expert such as yourself, but i do know a solid car when i see it. I figured that it would best be a racecar chassis....we'll see on ebay later today

Good luck and best wishes to you Nick. I sincearly hope you sell it for what you're asking on ebay.

I didn't mean to show any disrespect nor question your integrity. I descided not to buy purely because I can not afford to do the work right now. Maybe it is a good buy for the price; it's just not a good buy for me at this point. Shoot, just a few months ago I was seriously thinking of selling my car and would have if someone came by with some cash. Someday I hope to find a factory six chassis that I can put my parts onto. Until then I'll just "Mickey Mouse" mine to get by. If it doesn't sell on ebay, maybe we can still work out a deal. I'm not opposed to the price, I just can't do it all right now. If you want to hear more, email me. I'll keep further comments on this subject off the board.

It's too bad people can't have a discussion without getting upset. Even people not directly involved seem to be fueling the fire. FWIW, I wasn't complaining, just trying to figure out what to do. The way I figure it, with my parts and a fixed chassis it would be a nice car again.

Peace to you all,

Can't we all just get along?