Resurrected a 1981 Yamaha XJ550 Seca (Cafe' Racer Style)
-didn't run for 20 years.
-sat covered in a family friends garage.
-carbs completely shot. needed full rebuild.
-tank rusted to shit.
-Took about $400-500 to get it looking sweet.
-No cost for labor did all myself to keep costs down(except putting new tires on rims$40 bucks)
-new brake lines,
-new brake pads
-flushed brake system.
-new tires
-carb rebuild kit and rejett kit.
-intake pods
-cafe racer "club" bar.
-LED turnsignal lights update from 80s lights ..(yuck)
-new paintjob.

In trade got a 1975 Porsche 914 1.8.
-Shitty paintjob. looks great in pictures, but looks just awful in person.
-engine ran like shit and felt like low compression.
-tranny, 5th pops out of gear.
-leaks a little oil
-body needs some work was in an accident in the 80s. Was repaired but not good enough IMO.
-Exhaust needed replacement.
-Both Door Handles were busted. (needed just the plastic part replaced then both worked great)

Traded across for the 914. Got a great deal if i do say so myself.

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Posting all at once to where im at now. Documented but was hording my photos from you guys haha. No pics of paint prepwork sorry was more worried getting t all done.

Update:
-New Monza Exhaust
-In shop at High Performance House getting engine to run like a top. Has a few FI problems that i couldn't diagnose properly and wanted to stay with FI instead of going to Carbs after persuasion by Dr. 914 and a few others.
-Flex Dam with rubber in front
-Rear Fairing added
-Painted In Adriatic Blue (L50E) NOTE: Car was originally Palma Metallic Green.
-Still putting things on the car like a few bits of chrome and installing Oil Temp, Oil Pressure Sending units and gauges.
-Backdated to chrome bumpers, but kept rubbers and assembly just in case i want to go back to the 75 look someday. (bumper needs rechrome pretty bad and to be straightened in spots) College budget remember.


Damn Wont let me add more photos...reached my limit...Help?


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Did some rust repair and then primered to prevent rust coming back by flash rust. Click to view attachment

Hell hole. Will be taking care of soon. But generally from what I see its just surface rust that needs to be given attention to. Click to view attachment

cheers,
Luke

Looks great! nice paint job, did you do that yourself?

For adding multiple pictures in a single post, upload the photos to a photobucket account, then copy the img html code and paste into body. This will allow for unlimited pictures in one post!

Best!

Hi Luke,

that is a very nice teen you got from trading. I also have '75 1.8L FI. Can I have some idea what you did to replace your bumper? I read some other thread but they did some trimming on the body parts to be able to fit the chrome bumpers?

Thank you and God Bless!

Noel

Ohh okay thanks for the tip Ill do that as I add more. The paint believe it or not was prepped by me and then I took it to Maaco in Sunnyvale, Ca. Paid $475 for a Urathaine paintjob and had a coupon to cut the costs by half.

Did that coupon come from the internet!?? I know of some maacos in my area, and thats a steal of price on a paint job!

Yeah no problem, First off dont get rid of your rubbers when you convert. You may at somepoint want to go back to stock. These 914s are going to go for the most value in stock state later on when they become more rare. I wanted to make sure I drilled the holes in the right spot to I took it too a body shop that I really like called Active Autobody in Santa Clara. I paid them $100 bucks to properly drill the holes. Before that though, all i did was removed the brackets that held the heavy rubbers on and carefully removed the whole assembly and blocked up the holes with some sheet metal and a few nuts and bolts. Lastly had to take a rotary tool and cut off the side brackets that hold the rubber close to the body panels. Very easy to do. Hope that helps

Cheers,

-Luke

Yeah it was a total steal for sure. The coupon was on their website and I was notified of it in an email that they were doing a special. So figured Id jump on it.

Thanks for responding Luke! What if I don't block the holes from the original bracket? Do you think that will do? How about those side brackets you trimmed? Is it okay without those when we plan to install the late bumper? I'm jealous with your car and hoping I can also do the prep before painting with MAACO. When I got my teen Aug. 2011, after it parked for more than 8 yrs in the driveway of my neighbor, the body paint (specifically top portions) has a very thick dirt because of rain, shine and dust in 8 yrs. But I personally and spend a lot of days to hand rubbed till I was able to remove that thick dirt. But now at least looks a way better since I got it. Hoping I can have more budget to make this car 100% running. Like replace fuel lines, remove engine to clean inside tin and have it tune up from a real 914 porsche shop. Oooops this is a very long message. Keep posting more pics including engine bay and other parts of your car.

Here some pics:

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Hey , well id assume if you go back to the rubber bumpers youd need to weld on new brackets but couldnt be that difficult at all. As for blocking the holes its just to keep muck that is kicked up from the road from entering into the front trunk. Do you have a build thread? Start one, id like to see your progress as well.

Cheers,
Luke

WOW!!!! DONT CHANGE ANYTHING!!! What a gorgeous example and the color is great:) The rubbers on that car are in nice shape and it has the fog lights. Very cool 914. What a difference after buffing that paint. Congrats Interior is clean too.

Hey, that's not the first blue 914 to run around that neighborhood! I used to live around the corner a few years ago...

(That's in around Cirrus/Stratus/Cumulus, right?)

--DD

Thank you Luke! Interior is very much clean, just need shampooing on the original floor carpet and re-upholster my seat for some leather ripped. Everything works except the clock and seatbelt warning light.

more pics:

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Hey Dave,

Yeah i've only seen a few 914s in Sunnyvale area trying to keep atleast one here. Pretty close to there just a few minutes away from there im over by homestead and sunnyvale saratoga.

-Luke

WOW! Im jealous for sure.

Okay So I've been thinking of a cool way to rearrange my gauge cluster and have been wanting to add temp and oil pressure with that said I have a question. Will the 911 gauges work with the 914? This one in particular? I want to put this where my fuel gauge is on the far left and use a small VDO fuel gauge in a center console ill be installing along with the clock and battery voltage. What do you think?
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You have to have senders that will work with those gauges. The stock "idiot light" sender will not give a reading for the gauge; you will need a "dual sender". And you'll need a grease gun hose and some adaptor fittings to mount it, because the dual senders are big enough to interfere with the distributor.

If you have the oil temp sender in the "taco plate", you will get some readings on the temp gauge. They won't match the (very tiny) numbers on the gauge, but at least the needle will tell you "warmer" or "cooler". You can get a sender that will read correctly for that gauge, though.

If you don't have a sender already, you'll need to come up with a way to mount one down in the sump. See Racer Chris' group buy thread for the "taco plate" setup; it looks pretty neat.

Most of the VDO fuel gauges don't have the right range to work with our senders. Some that were intended for use in Bugs do, I think.

I'd put an extra light up in the instrument cluster for your low fuel light. The gauge you show doesn't have a light, and it might be nice to have that warning up in the dash rather than down in the console.



....Why yes, I did think a lot about this particular setup before I finally bought one of the triple-gauge kits....

--DD

Thanks Dave, that gives me a little to think about. I could utilize the "cat" light since its a 75 as a low fuel light haha since its being unused anyway.

Update:
-Installed refurbished vacuum distributor- PO had a vw bug distributor which was causing the bucking and engine dying.

-Installed Battery Voltmeter, Oil Pressure, and Oil Temp Gauges(underdash)

Pics to soon follow

-Valve Adjustment done and other work completed at HPH.