Hey All,
I saved this car, I am sure, from pending doom as it was sitting in a Coparts yard in the SF Bay area, not to mention it was donated to charity........
I thought it had potential so I scooped it up. My last 914 was a 1.7 (72) and I always wanted the 73-74 2.0l, so here we are.
Anyways, you can see from the attached photos she is a little long in the tooth!!!
BTW, this car is a true California car and appears to have spent it's entire life in NorCal. Who said Cal cars have little rust??? It also appeared to have a trans change-out around 30k miles, interesting.
I have gone through 80% so far, got the car up and running, fixed a majority of the oil leaks, and now getting the brakes sorted out so I can road test it.
Interior is in very good shape, minus the carpet, dashboard is a solid A grade for 40 years old and the seats and back pad are still quality as well. I am debating the AC system, which I will remove for now, but it might go back in in the future.
The motor starts right-up without any problems and after I get the brakes back on I am going to check for vacuum leaks, it has a high idle but I think maybe the AAR maybe stuck.
Debating the next step, starting from the front of the car and possibly working my way to the back, doing the body work. I am trying to gather pieces now for the sheet metal clean-up.
Enjoy the photos!
I did add it to the VIN database as well.

Click to view attachment Click to view attachment Click to view attachmentClick to view attachmentClick to view attachment[attachmentid=457
680]Click to view attachmentClick to view attachmentClick to view attachment Click to view attachment Click to view attachmentClick to view attachmentClick to view attachment[attachmentid=457
688]

It has potential. It has AC too!

Looks like a lot of good parts on that one.....my opinion is if you are going to do rust repair, strip it all down and see what you have afterwards. Lots of rust likes to hide in the lower firewall/floor area on passenger side. You have structural rust in the hellhole and longs that needs to be assessed. That rust in the front cowl is not a good sign and can be a tricky repair. It definitely has cancer.....dig deeper and see if it's something you want to tackle as a long term project or you can always look for a better tub to use some of the good parts on.

Put it on ebay Europe and it's a $5000 car. There are threads here where European rusted cars like yours are saved.

Nope ...



.

Those are some odd places for rust (well, besides the long under the hell hole) ...

Yep. that's a parts car. Not worth the amount of metal word required.

But I see lots of good parts.

Yes, I would agree on the odd rust locations.
Same hell hole issues that I have seen in many of these cars.
Fire wall, floors, and trunks in good shape though.
I have a sheet metal piece for the lower window thanks to Bruce.

Wanna sell the fuel pump?

If you part it, I want the interior.

N. CA Pacific coast it rust-land. Seems this one comes from there...

TONS of good parts there!
Zach

SF Bay area is where it is from.

Interior is in great shape but it does have a smokey odor from the PO. Carpet is coming out this weekend which should eliminate some of the issues.

I wont be parting it out. There is some rust but nothing that cant be fixed with a little sweat equity!

Get the ECU hanger piece so the the ECU hangs off the battery tray instead of tucked in the sound mat. The Decel valve mounts above the MPS under the battery too.

Car needs some welding love but lots of metal parts are out there to fix this car if you have the time.

I have noticed that on other cars as well but I don't remember where my 72 ECU was located.
I believe the current location is due to the AC compressor, does that sound right? Maybe not enough room.
Is there a problem with the current spot other than something flying off the fan and taking it out!!!
A lot of welding to come!!!!

Where to start!

I was gonna say that looks a lot like what happens to a car in the midwest when you park it for several years without washing the road salt off beforehand. Weird rust patterns in odd places due to the salt that just happened to land/collect there. Looks fixable. Definitely a lot of work, but go for it.

And I agree you should move the ECU back...just not a great place for it. The stress on the wires is also not good. It goes here....looks like there's room. As Rick said get the bracket or make one.

Click to view attachment

I had an AC equipped car a while back. If I remember correctly I tried to mount the ECU with the correct bracket and it interfered with the AC compressor. Maybe I did it wrong, but I'm 90% certain it's not going to work. Mine was attached further up on the firewall with two little L brackets.

Maybe the battery tray can be moved back?

Thanks for the info.
Even if the AC stays in the car I need to change out the compressor to another model. That may allow for an easier relocation effort.
There is going to be a lot of work in the hole to do so I will work on a better solution then.

Paint is in really good shape. I am sorry the car was left to rot.
Kinda looking forward to cutting into the funk! I am weird that way.
Going to start in the front and work my way to the back....at least that is the plan for now.

Couple new photos.
Removed the back pad.
Not good...obviously but could be worse.

Passenger side.
Click to view attachment
No wonder I was having issues getting the trunk open.
Click to view attachment
Right at the seam will need some attention.
Click to view attachment
Tunnel is rusted as well but does not look bad from under the car. Fairly solid while poking with the screw driver.
Click to view attachment

This car makes my 914 worth $1,000,000...errr...$1,000,000,000!!!!!

Yeah that's the key. Dig in and get that rust cut out. You'll be glad you did. At some point you MIGHT decide it's too much but that's OK too.

I found a '73 2.0 back in 2000 that only had 59k on it. I was the 3rd owner, and the first owner only drove it for one year. It had been sitting for 15 years and was parked during the winter without being rinsed off. There were weird holes in the front fenders from where salt collected and ate completely through as well as other random odd rust spots that were pretty nasty. Both longs were rusty but it wasn't quite structural yet. At the time no one was saving rusty tubs and the replacement panels were pricey so I parted it. Still wish I saved it. GO FOR IT.

Save the Porsche!

It has rust in all the places my 74 has. However my rust holes were huge compared to the one you have.

The lower corners of the windshield are difficult. Remove one fender at a time.

Claus


Click to view attachment

I have held on to this car for a long time!
Each time I think I am going to let it go I end up hanging on to it......
So 6 years later we are going to get into it and see what we can do over the next couple months.

Click to view attachment

Engine out in a couple hours with the help from my boys and a friend in town from Texas.

Click to view attachment

You have all seen this before. Lot to do in here.

Click to view attachment

Injectors are rough looking but sending these out to Mr Injector. These were all working up to the time I started pulling the car apart.

Click to view attachment


My son cleaning things up. Luke is no stranger to engine to working on engines.

Click to view attachment

No wonder why I could not get the triple square into these. Obviously will need to replace.

Click to view attachment Click to view attachmentClick to view attachmentClick to view attachment

The clutch appears to be nearly new but the flywheel looks like garbage. Throw out bearing is clean as well. Anything to be concerned about here?

Working on bracing the car today and cleaning up the engine bay.

My the force be with you !

Smart! You waited til your boys were old enough to help. Good luc!

I just rebuilt one that was much worse - NOT a parts car, looks great!

Great father & son project. Cheers to you for working to save it!.

It's a twofer, Save them all and get the kids involved! I salute you sir!

The cowl/windshield frame rust is unusual.
The parts necessary to do this repair are not often removed from scrapped cars, so
should be fairly easy to locate.
You'll be in uncharted territory but I'd consider replacing the cowl w/shield frame as a unit.
Good access for that task will be available with the front fender/cowl joint open.
I love the brown interior....actually the whole car....and the project...Good Luck !

can see why you'd be torn about that car.
it looks unmolested and original, apart from the atmospheric molestation.

the brown interior is great. the carpets look original if faded.

takes me back to 89 in chicago. i used to see the same thing. cars that were still intact original, with perfect interiors etc but rust holes you could put your fist through.
even the bumpers had rust holes through the chrome. most were still not 20 years old at that point. as a naive aus i could not believe the severity of the rust in some north american snow belt cars. we don't have snow (except at the alpine ski resorts)...... or salt (except if you drive your 4x4 on the beach).

but like cali cars ours get burned to a crisp by the sun if they sit outside.
australia invented cracked dashboards.
back in the 80s, 1960s ford falcons were a popular youth vehicle of choice because they had metal dashboards and you did not have to stare at all the cracks like you got with a holden (gm product).

Good for you for diving in!

If you can DIY and it's a labor of love, it is absolutely worth saving. Looking forward to watching the progress on this one.

Abel’s (rocket) first car came in 20 boxes.
He loved 914s from that project forward.

We rebuilt it from the ground up.
Welding and basic simple car skills are invaluable to teach the next generation!

Enjoy the time together, it’s a great memory.

Great decision to go for it, keep us updated and have fun with the boys. Nothing a little elbow grease, $$ and time cannot fix

Cant believe it has been two years here and have been a bit tardy on posting.
I will get some new pics up soon...

We have amassed a bunch of RD metal and begun cutting out the bad, braced the doors, and considering out next move. We are going to jump into removing the suspension console and misc bits so we can start on the long repairs, etc. Need to get a good jig going for measurements and the reinstall but we are struggling trying to decide on whether or not to remove the quarter panel completely or just cut out what we need to make the repair to the area. I have seen everyone do it a bit different but if you had to do it again would you remove the entire QP or just cut out a section and spend the time welding it back in? Either way there is a lot of work and part of me just wants to remove the complete panel and clean it up real good.

Thoughts and experiences are appreciated!

Thanks

@PlantMan Was this car sitting by the OC airport last year by Haus of Performance?

I have never removed a QP so don't have a fair comparison for "if I had to do it again," but what I will say is that the metal work to get those QPs straight and pretty after welding back together was probably the single most time consuming part of my project. I'd at least look hard at threads with complete QP replacements before tackling another. It seemed too daunting at the time.

What a cool story! Can't wait to see some progress pictures.

Me too, great story. Are the boys candidates for having ownership?

Well being a bit crazy and on the advice of a fellow 914 restorer, I’d remove the quarter panel again. It allowed so much access to address my cars issues.
Granted it took a day to remove all the spot welds. But glad I did.

The rust makes me think that car used to live in the SF Sunset District or Marin County where there is lots of fog and salt air.

No, I have owned this car since 2014. I got it off EBAY back in the day.

It did come from the Bay Area and from what I can find out it was originally purchased up there....dealership I am not sure.
Car was donated sometime in 2014.

Sure they are but more than likely the car is going to my wife.
I would like to get another for a 6 conversion someday!

One of those things......
We are spending sooooo much time cuttin rust out and cleaning the car up what is a day to pull off the QP and another week putting it back on.

Appreciate your insight!

Some of this work happened a couple months back, especially within the area of the drivers side. Driver side was almost as bad as the passenger side!!!!
Also, deleted the entire lower fire wall. Thought it to be easier just to remove the lower section and weld in new.
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Looking down.
Click to view attachment
Outside jack post. Not too bad.
Click to view attachment
Passenger side. Trying not to remove the suspension console, most of the metal looks good behind too.
Going to remove everything between the green lines of the inner and outer.
Click to view attachment

Going to add a lower door brace as the car started to sag a bit once we started cutting out metal. Looks like it moved about a 1/16". My son said he heard a few cracks once he cut through the inner long. We do have it braced at the doors...just wondering if it will pull in once we start welding. I would prefer to get the measurements back into spec prior to welding though.

Looking at getting it onto a rotisserie, the RD version. Looks like I can fabricate one for about $300 and will make it a lot easier to get to the hard to reach locations.
But will a rotisserie really help with bracing at the longs when doing this work????

The longs are double thickness, staggering your lap seams is best, but tricky. Some of the metal is available, but some must be fabricated as you go. All the while make sure the chassis is straight and true. Quite the project, keep the faith and "soon" she will surrender.