More power to you if you get & save that car. If it's your first 914 I would seriously consider looking for a better tub. Having said all that if your not putting much out for it. Use it as a learning experience. In a year when you figure out it is to much damn work & you don't have the time. You'll know what to look for in your next 914

It's hard to pass on a car once the excitement of owning it builds.

There are much nicer cars in California to choose from. Buy the best car you can afford. It will be far cheaper in the long run, by thousands of dollars...

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Went and saw the car again with my trusty screwdriver, but forgot my camera. Poked at the jack points and the longs pretty hard and it looks like the rust is isolated to the jack points themselves. Also looked at the hell hole and poked at that and nothing went through. I think the pics make it seem a lot worse than it actually is. The spot by the ebrake I was able to poke a hole, but the firewall was perfect. Overall, Im not too worried about this car, BUT the "buyer" for my 77 Rabbit backed out so Im still without a spot for this car. Im going to sit on the sidelines and work on the rabbit some more before I shell out money for another project. :/

TLDR: Car wasnt bad, but cant buy it yet...

I will turn this into a "blog" of sorts... rather than make a million threads about cars I am interested in, I will just make this my journey towards actually owning a 914.

ok, so with the "disclaimer" out of the way. Here is one of the cars thats NOT in the world classifieds that Ive been considering.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1590877

Don't mean to be another downer but hoping and crossing your fingers never works. Rust is ALWAYS worse than it appears. It's like rats or roaches. What you see is just the tip of the iceberg.

You'll also need to replace the quarter panels or at least redo the rear flairs. They're cracked and it looks like the bondo is coming off. Maybe you should consider a Sheridon kit.

I decided against buying Noels, car. I'm still 914-less. I have been looking at other peoples threads, and read through ALL of Jim Halls "Bringing out the dead" thread and I want a car that has ZERO rust showing. At least that way, I know its not bad enough that I need to start tearing a car apart before I start to enjoy it, or better yet, something that someone else already went through and fixed "all" of the rust. Im stubborn, but Im not a complete idiot. Once I stepped back and thought about it, that car was going to be a TON of work and the more rust I cut away,the more I was going to find.

Look at Mikes post #52. Read that over and over until it sinks in. Truer words could not be spoken. Except that Mike's estimate is light by a couple of 1,000. You don't have to settle for a rusty one in our area. Any time spent shopping now is a drop in the bucket compared to the time and $$$ you would spend on repair. IMHO