Howdy,

I've done a couple of posts, but wanted to introduce myself. My son Milo, 14, has been saving every penny since he was 10 in order to purchase his first car. For the past few summers he's hustled birdhouses at the local farmer's market, pet-sat, mowed lawns and worked odd jobs. In December he purchased the car below with his own money.

Pretty proud of the little man and we're currently working to sort out all of the fiddly issues.

So far we've:
-Replaced motor mounts
-Replaced transmission mounts
-Replaced push rod tubes and gaskets
-Replaced tie-rods
-Replaced steering rack torn boot
-Valve adjustment, tune-up
-Sourced Fuchs to replace original 'steeleys'
-Chased down, some put not all,electrical gremlins
-Emblems, cosmetic work, etc.

Much to be done still, but we're having fun. Engine still has good compression and is starting to purr.

I had a 1974 914 when I was 16, but can say that I didn't influence his decision of car.

Pic below was taken on Sunday. His first solo drive and learning how to drive a stick.
He'll be driving the family Volvo around when he turns 16 (hey I remember what I was doing in my car at that age!) with the agreement being this is not a commuting car in Seattle traffic.

The 914World Community is really amazing. I recall having the Haynes manual 25 years ago scratching my head trying to make heads or tails of what was being stated. Really awesome to dive back into the teener world.

Cheers!

Greg and Milo!

Click to view attachment

Excellent! How wonderful that your son gets to enjoy a 914 that he worked hard to purchase. He will no doubt respect the car and drive accordingly.

Great story! Nice to hear of a kid these days saving up to buy his own car

wow! what a great back story and project.

welcome (back) to the madness!

That's great! What an incredible sense of pride and respect he will build as he builds his car.

What parts do you still need?

I just built a 914 racecar, so I have tons of extra "cosmetic" parts.
Depending on what you need, they might even be free!

Good to see a motivated teenager.
Mine is out in the garage working on setting the valve train geometry right now ;-)

Stu

I wish my teenager was like this

Great story, nice looking car.

Good luck

Jeff

me 3...she wants the 911S

Welcome!! Enjoy the madness we all know and love!

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone!

@stugray I was just in Ft. Collins. Shoot! Thanks for the kind offer.
Famous last words, but I think we're down to the big items needed. Reupholstered seats (his are roached), dashpad, and passenger backpad bolster.

There's a bunch of rubber that's needed, but I think we'll cross that bridge after getting all the oddball dents knocked out and resprayed.

Would be interested if anyone has thoughts on Seattle area body work and paint and if I should be requesting a particular paint brand. We would still spray it Laguna Blue.

Milo is committed to keeping it stock or in the spirit of stock which has been fun (a lot more sensible than I was at the age -- I wanted my car low, loud and branded everyplace imaginable with "PORSCHE"). He's been lurking on the originality section and came across the elusive 'ski-blue' plaid! I think that's impossible to source, but now we're considering doing a houndstooth. He's gotten the green-light from mom that she can do the fabric insert (Again thanks to the 914world community and posted tutorial).


It came with a megasquirt (and laptop with software) on it and seems to be working really well. Only problem is I know very little about that set-up and get boggled when I go to their site to learn more. If someone knows of a good indexed topic on megasquirt, I'd be grateful. (I'm still learning in/outs of the sites search features)


Cheers,

I ended up reupholstering the seats myself. It ends up being a lot of fun once you get the hang of it, plus you can get creative with some of the reconstruction! I made my inserts out of a more breathable fabric to avoid the sweaty back on hot days.

BTW, I bought my first 914 at 16 too, rebuilding it was a great experience.

That is a really cool story! I'm sure Milo will love driving that car for years. You're a way cool dad too to allow him to own one. My dad talked me out of 914s in high school, citing that they "were all just rust buckets." Somewhat true, but when he rode in my car a few months ago, I had never seen him smile so much in a car!

and our mania. This story sounds familiar. My dad bought a 56 Ford w/ a cracked piston when I was 13. He bought a Chilton (hard cover) repair manual, handed it to me and said, "If you can get this thing running it's yours"! He knew what he was doing because I literally saved 10's of thousands of dollars over the years. By now, I think I've spent most of that on my 914's.

Konrad