Hey yall, Ive lurked a lot on this forum, but havent been a very active member in the past. College work among other responsibilities dont allow much time to spend on forums but hopefully with the semester ending this week I will be able to sit back, learn and become more active here.

The point of my post is to ask to see what your recommendations are for a project. I have been looking and thinking about a '76 yellow 914. The car is currently a roller but the body needs very little work done to make it perfect. There is not rust in the hell hole, battery tray, or in any normal places. There are pictures of the car attached. The engine was rebuilt a coupe years back (or so I am told) and has dual webars with a good amount of other modifications that to me looked more like parts to make the engine stronger and not bore it out to a point that it is unreliable. I know that some maintenance would have to be done to the engine since its been sitting for a few years but it looked good from simply an enthusiast eye (I have very little mechanical knowledge). 95% of the parts seem to be present with the car with a LOT of extras including another engine and transmission that turns over and has compression, another 2 sets of wheels, set of seat, extra trim, etc.

The only spots with rust that really needs repairing is an arm to the suspension (which there is a brand new replacement arm that just needs to be welded in) and then a mount for the deck lick that the weld came off.

My question is what is a car that is perfectly sorted, no rust and good paint worth at the end? Reason I ask is I dont particularly like the color of the car and if I am going to hang on to it for a couple years I would want to do a complete respray which would include putting a lot of protection against future rust. I think this would add another couple K to the restoration/build, but since it is almost ready to be resprayed right now it wouldn't be all that difficult.

This is a good amount of work that would be necessary to get the car finished and lot of the busy work I can do, but I know I will need some help from some local PCA and mechanic buddies in my area.

I expect after the car is put together it will be worth $7-15k... but that is a VERY large margin.

Any advice from yall would be appreciated. Also any good literature yall recommend will keep me from asking questions to you guys that making you respect my mechanical knowledge less

Link to pictures: http://s150.photobucket.com/user/dwendell0...L/914%20project

What do y'all think?

Thanks,
Dan

Seems like a return of 30-50% on every dollar is pretty common. The saratoga top is worth some $. Have fun.

If you don't have much time for this forum, then you will own this car for a loooong time on jackstands. I would not expect to get north of 10K when you or if you ever get this car back on the road. If you don't love it now, interest will quickly fade. You would be much better off finding a runner in a color you like. Starting off with a project like this is too much for the mechanical knowledge less.

I agree with the above. Unless you have tiny little 914's coursing through your veins buy one that is already running and drivable. The most important picture is missing - the hell hole and then a close up of the suspension console of which you speak.

Now, if after consideration you still decide to maintain the course then I wish you good luck. After school, the 914 should then be your next passion.

I think in my desire to not come off like I am a know it all and I am the most passionate about 914's on this site, I may have misrepresented myself slightly. I am very passionate about Porsche's among many other sports cars in general. I just know that im paying college tuition to get a degree and not restore 914's. I grew up at the race track, so I was pretty much bred to be a car fanatic. I always loved my fathers 914 when I was growing up so I bought it back like 5 years ago and drove it pretty frequently up until a year ago when I decided my money and time was better spent on my other 914 (http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=207805).

I love cars and I would love to dig deeper in learning about working on my own and such. My thoughts are that there aren't too many more simple "restorations" out there. I mean I would love to find a '73 sport bug to have as a project but this one seems like a pretty good starting place as there doesn't seem to be major areas that need to be cut and welded or a complete overhaul needed, however, there are some small aspects (some larger than others) of just about everything needed to complete it.

Maybe I should have focused more on the project itself rather than myself as I am hoping to get your opinion on the project and not my competence/ambition to complete it.

Thanks for the help Mepstein. I have heard those tops go for a couple bucks, but I have also ready that there is someone remanufacturing them and the remanufactured are actually better quality than the originals.

Kind Regards,
Dan

I guess I neglected to snap a pic of the hell hole. I could have sworn I did. But this is the best pic I could find of the suspension piece... http://s150.photobucket.com/user/dwendell0...G_0685.jpg.html


You can see very vaguely where its rusted. Luckily there is a brand new piece that I would just have to cut out and weld the new one in.

Know it all, is not what I got. It sounded like this was a project you were thinking of aquiring. If you are buying a car in boxes then it would be a much tougher road. If you already own it and want to restore it, then by all means do it. I'm just saying that a running car will have more than enough maintenance and minor fixes to give you learning experience.

A running car will be almost more than a collage guy will have time to maintain. My son is in collage and has very little spare time for anything car related. If it's a great deal you can't pass on buy it. But be real. Time in collage and money to sink into a deep hole is not usually what you have lots of. And never purchase a classic car while thinking about the bottom line as a future investment. Check it over well, be sure it's what you really want, check your pulse. If it's racing and you have the cash make your best deal and enjoy the ride.