How long did it take you to complete your /6 conversion? And by complete I mean in general running daily drive-able - we all know our cars are never finished being worked on! From 2 separate starting points....

A) From making the decision of wanting to do a /6 conversion and starting to collect parts/engine - to completion.

B) Beginning the actual conversion of removing the /4 engine and installing mounts/lines/oil tanks/etc - to completion.

Feel free to add any details that might have influenced how long it took...e.g. married, 5 kids, 3 jobs, 10 other project cars, etc etc.

1.5 yr's, thus far. Another month to go. Now if it was a Porsche 6, maybe 2 weeks. Ron (aka Slits) can do one in a day or 2.

Unfortunately, I have neither time or money. I'm 6 years into it and I still need an oil tank, motor mount and exhaust. I suspect It'll be a few more years before it's complete.

Married with 2 kids. Ones about to go to college $$$$$....

In my head - 2 hours
In real time, I'm not there yet.

Which One?

2.5 years and was *this close* to being done (just needed the shift linkage sorted out) and I COMPLETELY burned out. Didnt even want to look at the car anymore.

Sold it after 20+ years of ownership.

I should have left it alone.

1. Discussion with builder began in 2010.
2. Engine rebuild/parts sourcing began shortly thereafter.
3. Life with four cylinders ceased in 2013.
4. Discussion with ignition key began in 2014. Many smiles ensued.

A lot of life—for both of us—happened in between points 1 and 4. Not quite sorted yet (mainly carb tuning), but well worth the wait.

pete

It took me about 7 1/2 months from the day I purchased the car to driving it to the WCC in Seaside!

Lennies914 and I built 2 cars durring that time! His Black one and my 6 conversion!

He helped me with the hard stuff and I helped him with his!

We spent at least 2 days a week working on one car or the other together and countless hours working on them ourselfs.

The thing that took the most time was waiting for the group buy on the oil tank. I already had the motor and most of the 5-lug conversion stuff. I hosted a Dr Evil Clinic at my house so the transmission came together just in time!

Hm.... I think about 3 months

My car runs well now so I am not even going to touch the car until all parts are collected. I am just starting the engine build and that could take over a year because of budgeting of the expense. Then saving and getting all the conversion parts will take probably another year (all I have is the engine mount). My guess is 2+ years, but I will let you know if I remember this thread or anything for that matter.........




John

That long? I thought it was two weekends

I think it took me a whole 9 days from the point in which I pulled the 4 out, and drove down the road with a -6. I had all the parts stripped off of another car, and had everything ordered before hand, so that helped. I also had some serious motivation given it is my daily..

Year 7. Way off the deep end. Full rotisserie restoration of the body. 915 Vellios conversion that I did myself. Custom made shifter, hydraulic clutch and dash. Widened Koening seats. Too much to list. What started as a six conversion turned into a full restoration. Car goes to the painter in a few weeks. Back by Xmas. On the road in the spring. I'm tires just thinking about it!

I never did a 6 conversion but based on my track record... If I had the motor, I could be driving it in about 3 months. Working weekends only. So that works out to about 24 days.

But I'm nuts!

A - About two years

B - Several months

My spare time doing the conversion - 6 months.
Paint shop for flares and paint - 18 months
Finishing details - the last 5 years!

It's never totally finished as I can always think of another modification I'd like to make.

Well 3 months from the time i picked up the motor, collected all the parts and got it running. If you are talking about time it takes from when I pulled the 4, then you are about right. Two weekends .

From what you guys are all saying I think mine will get the record for longest build...slowed by lack of funds, young family, house-moves and extension-build etc etc, I'm into year 4 with the car and expect it won't be on the road for at least another 6 years!...but I am determined to drive it one day.

My original -6 was a complete basket case from the beginning back in 1998. My time line, from the time of purchase to full tags, insurance, and driving was 12years.

Still tweeking, and now we are up to 16years

The answer lies in 1) how motivated you are, 2) how much money you are willing/able/ready to spend, 3) how handy you are doing things yourself, and 4) how 'complete' you want to make it.

Huey was a 1.8 when we started, and I had zero parts except an engine because we just swapped engines from Papa Smurf for the first few years.

It took about 8 months got get from this:

Click to view attachment

to this:

Click to view attachment

Scotty has had my Six since May of 2012 and the chassis is probably just getting ready for primer. We have a long way to go.

I bought mine in 1994 as a nearly complete conversion. The excellent PO had already installed a 2.7L engine built to Bruce Anderson 911 Performance Handbook E specs.

It came with a spare 911T engine core (good shape) and a bunch of spare body parts. All that remained was...

1. to complete the rear conversion to 5-lug stuff which, except for the 914-6 hats, came with the car (914-6 stub axles were in the parts).
2. to reconfigure the springs and torsion bars for track use, rather than an AX car.
3. Trade off the Sheel seats because, as wonderful as they were, they pinched the heck out of my underarms.
4. finish jetting the carbs.

I didn't know squat about the car when I bought it, so Rich Bontempi and Larry at High Performance House (Redwood City, Cali.) did the 5-lug conversion so I could make a Sears Point DE the next month. It took them a week.

In 1997 I traded that engine to a friend for a 993 engine he was going to put in his 911 track car. After we ran at a Potomac Region Mid-Ohio DE, he wanted the 2.7 to keep him a class he could live with.

I was traveling ~80% at the time so it took another 2 years to complete the 993 conversion. It took another 6 months to add the fuel cell, fire system, and a proper oil cooler exit in the hood.

Since then I've changed a few things, but nothing you can see externally.

1. Change first from 914-4 CV's to 108mm CV's with 911 axles and spacers. Easy when a buddy had the axles complete with proper stub axles and flanges. I've since gotten a couple more pairs of different 108mm output flanges. But then..

2. I changed to 944 CV's and converting to ventilated SC rotors to match the calipers. Easy project. Lot's lighter than the 108's.

3. Changed out the Wilwood Superlite II's to Wilwood billet differential's... much better. Not so fun a project, but useful.

4. Added Guard LSD after running a Guard TBD. Fun project

5. Modified a 915 shifter to work with the 914 transaxle side-shifter linkage. Again, big improvement. Fun project

6. Added transaxle cooling circuit. Just so all knew how much I didn't know about it...
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=161520

So, it's a process. More fun researching and doing it yourself. Lots of time learning from folks on this forum.

I'm 5+ years in, but it's my own fault as I was doing a big 4, got the /6 bug, then did a '67 bug (on the road) to use the big 4...

Engine (hot street 3.0) is almost done and most of the rest of the parts collected.

If you're rebuilding the engine then start there! It's difficult to control. Even if you're doing it yourself. the parts can be a pain in the ass. Pistons and such might take a few months.