I drove this thing home yesterday. Horrible shifter, rusted brakes and my knuckles dragged on the instruments. And a silly grin for every minute.



I'd only driven a 914 once before when I was about 17. I'd looked at one for sale. I was driving a MG Midget at the time and was smitten with the 914's handling. But the 914 was a little out of reach for this teenager back then (mid-80s).

Now the last thing I need right now is another vehicle/project but this guy at work was in a pickle. His son's car was blocking his car, and given the car that was blocked I was more than happy to help get it out... The 914 had been sitting for a couple years and one of the wheels was stuck. I went over last Friday and took the rear wheel off and tapped the e-brake lever and got it unstuck. Disks were pretty rusty too. And the car started with two year old gas.

I went over yesterday and drove the car away. We will not speak of the price. But it was low enough that I couldn't refuse.

What I know:

It's a 1973 1.7 with an EMPI single carb (looks brand new). I was very concerned about rust and there is definitely a hole under the battery. There are a couple small bubbles here and there but looking under the fenders and towards the rocker panel it looks clean. I want to pull the rocker panels to check for sure.

I assume as a 1973 it should have a side shifter but I haven't looked under to check.









There is a big box full of new parts (rubber seals, ignition parts, gaskets, etc.)

Numbers all match (door sill, windshield, front trunk) but the engine number is throwing me off. It seems to be one digit short? From what I've seem it should be EA00… but this one is EA0… Interestingly I'm not the only person to run across this:

http://www.914club.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=154541

Tach seems to be stuck at 3k but does move above that.

There is a big binder full of paperwork that I haven't even looked at.

I need to move another car to a different garage so I can get this one inside and really take a better look at it.

Ok, so now tell me all the things I don't know.

Nice color. Replacing shifting bushings should improve shifting. Welcome to the madness.

Nice car.

What are your plans for the car? Meaning do you want to drive it or do you want to do a restoration?

If you want to drive it, make a list of all the things that need attention and attack the items one at a time starting the ones that are most important: brakes, engine, shifter.

If you open too many issues at one time you may not be driving it too much.

Wow! Nice interior! Treat the rubber seals in the parts box like they are made of gold, because they can be very expensive to replace.

Heck that looks pretty good so far. Keep us in the loop as you inspect further.

You're in the right place.

Nice!!!

That single carb is going to piss you off. Put that on your list of things to replace.


Zambezi cars are the best! I happen to have a Zambezi 73 1.7.

If you are in Portland Oregon you are in my back yard. Congrats on the purchase.
a good local mechanic is Allen over at A&P on 82nd. I have a car going to him today, as I haven't had the time to do the work that needs to get done on it.
welcome

also were trying to get a drive in event and maybe another later thiei summer

Congrats & The madness is just beginning for you & this is the place for it... we're all nuts here

Let the fun begin

I would start with safety items first. Overhaul the brake calipers. Replace (not rebuild) the master cylinder. PMB Performance can help you there. Replace the plastic fuel lines in the tunnel. Check the gas tank for krud inside. Replace tires if needed. The interior looks fantastic. You could use an arm rest on the drivers door. bdstone is a good source for parts you might need. The single carb. can be a problem. The car will run MUCH better with dual carbs or fuel injection. Try to find out if the car originally had fuel injection because the cam can be an issue if it had fuel injection and has carbs. now. Safety issues first. Brakes, fuel and tires. Then just drive the snot out of it.

I think the rotors are just rusty. I assume stainless braided brake lines are not stock. They look new.

I'd like to just get it running and drive it. The shifting is the biggest issue right now. That and finding out how much rust it really has.

Eventually I'd like to find a FI setup.

My neighbor has a later 2.0, I need to go down there and chat.

I'm just south of you in King City. Where can I find out about local events?

I'm in SE Portland.

Check 914world often for events. Just make it your new home page.

914rubber is in Hillsboro. Camp914 is in LO. Great after market parts!

I'm in Sherwood. I drive thru King City on the way home every night.

Follow Elliot's advise. It's dead on. Get it on the road.
Might want to flush out the brake fluid.

Were tail shifters at the beginning if the 1973 year or a mid year change?

Side-shifters were for the whole 1973 model year, AFAIK. There were some odd-looking combinations very early on in the 73 model year (a few tailshift parts like the tail cone) but they were still all sideshifters.

--DD

Chrome wheels, weren't the stock wheels painted with chrome centers?

Looks good form these shots. Rust is your enemy. Start poking around with a screw driver or better yet haul out the BBQ and the beer and invite the team to inspect. You've got plenty of experts in your own back yard that work for grub.

And Welcome to the family

Rust is my biggest concern. The area below the battery is gone. Are there any tricks to getting the rocker panel covers off?

Front trunk holds water. :-)

The car runs ok with the single carb so far. Of course I didn't have high expectations from a four cylinder.

There should be a drain hole in the front trunk. See if it is stopped up.

It'll run much better with FI or dual carbs (cam change). At low velocities, the fuel will drop out of suspension due to the long intake runners. Complete 1.7 FI setups aren't hard to come by or expensive.

You have other things to deal with at the moment anyhow. Check out the rust situation, get the brakes working right, the fuel system checked out and the aquarium out of your front trunk. Then drive the heck out of it. If/when the single carb bugs you, swap it out.

Well the good news is that it holds water!

Mopped the water out and wiped it down. Someone said there should be a drain hole? Where would it be at?


Shot from underneath.


KYB Struts


This was laying on the floor. What do you call this thing? Has a funny swinging door.


Glove box won't open more than this. It will lock shut.


Something is missing from this hole.


Here too.



Not sure what this is… yet.



Tiny little bit of rust in the back trunk. Not even enough to get excited about.


Need a new rubber thing to hold the top. And by new I mean used.

It looks like your 914 might had air conditioning at one time. Why, it looks like someone replaced the floor pan in the front trunk when they took it out. I don't see a hole. Just drill a small one at lowest point. See yellow arrow in picture.

914Rubber makes the drain seal: http://shop.914rubber.com/Front-trunk-drai...cation-91DT.htm

Mark makes the rubber holders. New.

What indicates there may have been AC?

- on the picture of the pocket thingy under the dash on the passenger side, that is a driver's side door pocket that someone got creative with i guess

the other picture of the rear trunk, it looks like a white knob, looks like the knobs that hold the rear tail lights in place. normal, the other thing is a rubber stop that the targa top sits on when it is in the trunk, looks like its broken off. - you can get these from Mickey at 914rubber.com -

if there is problems in the area under your battery(hell hole) then you also will have rust in your longs(you will see it at the jack points in the rear long under the outer rocker panel - that is a common point with these but repairable - do you have any experience with welding? once you get the rockers off post some more pictures.

Phil

Oh, that's the drivers side door pocket? It was loose on the floor so I stuck it under the dash to see if it fit. Then I took a picture for you guys to mock me. ;-)

If I pull the rockers and they are gone I'll probably ditch the car. I don't weld and really don't need another project.

They obviously let a junior engineer figure out how to push hot air through a cold steel tube with no rust inhibitor. Someone slept through the condensation class.

Ok, better now?

The asymmetrical armrests threw me.


While I was at work the wife unit cleaned the targa top. Shhhhsh, I think it might be growing on her…



The right side lens have been replaced. I bet the fender had been munched at some time. What is the correct direction for the side lights?

Thick side should be closest to the front of the car. The drivers side looks like its backwards on yours. Very common. They are also marked "L" and "R" so make sure you have one of each and they're on the correct sides.

looks like a decent car, probably a good occasional driver .
- unless the longs are really bad, i would say keep it and drive it for a while. my longs need work, but ive had the car 5 years and have not had the time or $$ to have it done- have not welded in years and wont. I have no sag, door gaps are good, i have done a lot of other work that i am capable of so have had fun doing it and driving it- you will too. and you may find someone who can do the welding for you, i initially thought when i found the rust i would get rid of it but have enjoyed it too much to part with it.. so i say keep it!
- inside your longs are paper tubes to transmit the hot air so there should be no condensation from that

I told the daughter if she helps me with the car she can have it when she turns 16. She was super excited. That gives me eight years. ;-)

Is that daylight showing through in the KYB struts picture? At the front of the swing arm.

Yes, big hole under battery. I understand that is very common.

Hazard Emergency Switch 411.953.235

The one in the dash works so this might be the old one or a spare.

Is there a website that you can plug these numbers in and see the parts? Or perhaps a parts book online?

There's a great one for BMW I used to use.

Ask as many questions as you can on this board. There are no dumb ones. I used all the dumb ones up years ago.

Konrad

Green is the fastest color, despite ridiculous claims of yellow, orange, red etc being fastest.
Green is the fastest!

http://www.porsche.com

Tell them you speak English, and hunt around until you find the Porsche Classic section of the site. Then look for literature, and one of the things you can download is the 914 parts catalog!

It won't have all the part numbers for old superceded parts, but it will have a good many of the numbers.

You can also google the part numbers, or type them into the search box at Pelican. More often than not, you'll find the part described on our site.

--DD

Well, in my stable currently yellow is fastest. ;-)

http://www.porsche.com/usa/accessoriesands...partscatalogue/

Got it! Thanks!

Going through some of the parts in the boxes.


Need to do some research to see what these fit.


Clock to fill the hole in the console.


At least a half dozen of these, new in the box. I guess they go bad often?


I think this is a new turn signal switch. The one in the car seems to work fine. I need to try it again to see if it's sloppy.

My son Robert and I stopped by yesterday afternoon.

Seems to be a pretty solid car. It will be interesting to see the other rocker panel when he turns the car around.

Pretty certain it has a flywheel seal leak. The hell hole has already been repaired once in its lifetime. Motor mount had been removed and rewelded.
It has that hole in the floorpan between the inner and outer firewall. Small hole under the tar behind the drivers seat. But other than that, pretty solid.

We'll try and stop by next week when he gets the car turned around. If it passes the 200lb. passenger door gap test. We'll take for a spin and she how she drives.

Hopefully I'll have my car back on the road. Need to put the center console back in after reattaching the clutch tube.

Thanks Cary for stopping by. Great to have a more informed set of eyes on it. Car is turned around. It may have taken a trip around the block to do so. :-)

Headlights don't go on but high beams do. Interesting. Not sure if they are fused separately.

I'll pull the rocker panel but this time I'll let the penetration stuff soak more this time.

Got a power buffer from HF. Hitting the heavily oxidized paint with some compound. The good news is that it would be hard to make the paint worse even if I burned through to bare metal. It's coming out ok. It's "less dull" now.

Even a cheapy paint job and this car would be pretty nice.
Wife and I were trying to figure out how chunks of paint could be missing. Some of them look like someone tried to chisel the paint off.

It looks like it has the center cushion tray for the removable pad (not the hinged kind) yet it has the triple instrument cluster under the dash.

I have a nice late style cushion if you PM me (not the one on my "for sale" thread).

Paul

So was the console added? Did the 1.7s ever have that package?