Thanks, Mepstein!... I figured it was a puller of some sort.

Today's project:

Replaced the outer door seal, the adjacent carpet strips, and put on the re-covered visors. Parts all from 914rubber.com. Great stuff, thanks Mark... much appreciated!!!

Nice job!

Probably Porsche hub caps, too. I know that tool fits Karmann Ghia Hub caps, as well.

Actually, it's those HUBCAPS that make the car!

Paul

^^^^

Yep, I love the wheels and center caps, thanks, guys!! I think I have parts from maybe 10 other 914world members on my car now.

Interesting to see side-by-side pix of the car from the day I bought it vs now. Almost looks like two different cars:

.

Today I replaced the dash bulbs with LEDs, since it is so hard to read the gauges at night.

The bulbs, designation BA7s-W, can be obtained from superbrightleds.com http://www.superbrightleds.com/cat/ba9s-ba7s/


A few tips for other newbies:

1. Take out the screws that hold the cluster face plate and pull out the plate. But, you won't be able to pull it out far enough because of the speedometer cable. So, lift the cable off of the clip in the footwell. This will give enough "play" in the cable to let you pull out the face plate far enough to access the back of the gauges.

2. Push each gauge out of the faceplate from behind.

3. OK, a total newbie error, but might as well pass it on... to get the old bulb out, push in and turn. Sheesh, busted the first bulb trying to pull it straight out. Duh!

4. The metal bulb housings ground to the gauge cases, so once you replace a bulb you need to hold the bulb housing against the gauge case to test it.

5. Do not drop a bulb into the housing by accident, or you will have to disconnect everything to get it back out. (Ask how I know)

6. Those spade connectors are brittle. One of them broke, so I had to splice in a new female side.

7. DO NOT Replace the alternator bulb with LED!!!. Your alternator will quit charging. Has something to do with how the current goes through the bulb.


Went for a drive tonight to see what difference it made. For the speedometer, makes a very significant improvement. Definitely worth it. For the tachometer, the left side is much brighter. Right side is still pretty dark. I'm wondering if one of the LEDs isn't working, so will take it apart again and check. Left gauge... parking brake warning light is much brighter. Fuel guage is still nearly unreadable at night (I think that has one of the tiny bulbs that is not the type that can be replaced with LED... I forgot..

Here's some pics and two videos. The first shows the OEM turn signal bulb, and the second shows it replaced with an LED.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSvEb_r7BXo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IphOdeOVTc

My new cocomats from Cocomats.com showed up today. Very pleased with them. Excellent quality mats, and their customer service has been phenomenal.

They offer a zillion color combos, and I have a terrible time choosing colors. but, I think the red works very well for my car.

Mike,
I like your selection of cars to drive, all porsche. New and now old. Your teener looks great.

Dave

Mats look great.

You might want to think about lowering your front end a bit. Unless every picture is taken on a hill pointing up, it looks a little high.

Thanks, Arkitect. Yeah, I really like the Porsche line, in all of its forms.

Big Len, I guess the camera was tilted... dashed outside to take a few pix to post. Car is level.

One of the brake was making an intermittent humming sound while driving. Turns out that the brake pistons were rather crudded up, so the outside left pad wasn't retracting back all the way. They cleaned up very nicely, and work perfectly now.

Last week something went kaflooie when starting the car. There was a backfire, then the car wouldn't run well at all. The armchair pundits here guessed that it was the air flow meter.

I took the car over to Mulligan Racing Development to see what was up. They found two issues. The air flow meter did, in fact, have a warped flap. He also found that some of the vacuum hoses were incorrectly routed. As usual, the guys at MRD (Mike and Gary) got everything back in great working order. So lucky to have such a talented crew a few miles from here!.

I hate throwing things away. Anyone got a use for my old air flow meter? All the electronics in it are in great shape, it's just the slightly warped flap as far as I'm aware.

Mr. Bruce Stone was helpful in sourcing a replacement air flow meter... thanks, Bruce!

Also, they installed the driving lights that I purchased. 100watts each, so a heavy duty Bosch relay was added. Also, Larmo63 recommended the JWest flasher module, which was installed. This allows the driving lights to be on along with the main headlights, and also allows the turn stalk to be used to flash the driving lights. Pretty cool.

They also dispelled a 914 myth: I was told my many that all of the wiring for driving lights was behind the grills, and that it was a simple matter to add driving lights. Turns out that there was no driving light wiring at all back there, not even holes for the wiring harness!

Acquiring the lights and misc. items was the result of a great group effort from the guys here. Craig at Camp914 sold me the passenger side light grill, Sergio (PCA7GGR) sold me the lights, Steve Martin sold me the dash switch, and the other stuff I got from Fleabay.

I painted the grills black, will put them on tomorrow.

Also, from a combination of misc. Fleabay sellers, swap meets, and Bruce Stone, I've finally managed to assemble most of a tool kit. The first time I used the tow hook (this past Monday) the threaded part bent a bit, so I guess they didn't use hardened steel for this item.

Thanks for all the help, everyone!

914 Myth?

My '73 was a "no frills" non-equipped model (other than a rear window defroster) and it had all of the wiring pre-staged in the front and under the dash.

It's weird that yours didn't? Mine is an 11/72 build, maybe by the time your car was built, the "bean counters" were already at work trying to make the cars more economically?

Yep, 914 myth. Seems like there are many of these minor items that vary part way through production years, so perhaps you are right about the bean counters wanting to keep one more bean in the Porsche pot.

I've seen lots of changes through a model year. My '71 is an early build, 9-70 and my dad got a later '71, built in 3-71. Side by side, looking at interior and other things, they were two completely different cars. He traded his in on a 944 in the 80's. Kinda wanted some creature comforts as he was in his 70's at the time! Wish we'd just kept his 914 though...