The first 914 I had was a white '76 2.0L. I didn't know a lot about 914s back then (mid 80's) but I came to love that car, despite our ups and downs. Eventually I had to sell it and buy something more practical (I was buying a house and could only afford one car) but I remember reading an article in VW & Porsche magazine about a 914 conversion to a -6. That one was white as well and I started dreaming about one day having a -6.

Well, about a month ago, I was surfing another Porsche site that I don't visit much at all and just on a lark, typed in 914-6 just to see what would come up. To my surprise, I found a silver 1970 for sale near San Francisco. I finally reached the seller and started a conversation. I then reached out to the board here for a PPI and Matthepcat responded and very graciously offered to take a look for me. Well, things progressed with the seller and not wanting to let it get away, I made arrangement to skip the step 1 visual PPI that Matt offered to do and jump straight to step 2, a professional PPI with a compression check and the whole bit. A few more conversations and it was mine. There was money to wire and forms to FedEx back and forth but on my drive up to the Hershey swap meet a little over a week ago, it all came together. My wonderful wife was working out the transfer at the bank while I was driving up through Virginia. To cut to the chase, it got delivered yesterday.

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I know you guys especially can understand the excitement about this....I'm not bragging at all just very thankful that it has all worked out this way after dreaming about this for 30 years.

Congratulations! !


More pictures, please!

Very nice, indeed. Congrats. Enjoy.

So here she is, my silver surfer. A numbers matching 1970 -6.

She lived with the previous owner for 32 years. Hope she'll be with me that long.

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Matt, (Matthepcat), thanks again for the offer of the PPI help.

I took the day off Friday and spent it cleaning up the garage and moving the '72 parts car around. Saturday, the driver delivered it during a break in the showers that were supposed to go on all day. When I got it in the shop, I removed this from the passenger side,
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removed the 5 point harnesses, and pulled some retractable belts from the '72. Going to clean them up this week. I then spent several hours buffing and polishing the paint. It was repainted the original color about 15 years ago but there are some scratches I was trying to address.

I'm going to run it with the existing latter model seats for a while but while I was headed to Hershey a couple of weeks ago, I spoke with Garold and he hooked me up with a nice '70 backpad and pass. seat bottom that I've cleaned up and am going to store, until I decide to put it back 100%.

The car came with 205/55/16s on the front on 6" Fuchs and 225/50/16s on 7" Fuchs on the rear. The rear tires looked a little ballooned so this afternoon, I pulled out a set of 7s and 8s with the same size tires and swapped them on. The 8's in the rears flatten out the sidewalls and move the tires out a little to fill out the flares better. The 7s on the front look better than the 6s and move the tires out enough that they don't rub on the back inside of the passenger fender well.

Also adjusted the clutch a little. I'll tell you, the tailshifter has GOT to go. It is awful. I've got to figure out if there is anything I can do to adjust the linkage because the 2-3 and 4-3 shifts are hard to get right.

Congrats! Looks like a nice solid car. I'd probably change the muffler and side skirts back to stock-ish. My car had the same skirts, spoiler and rear reflector when I first bought it, and I found them a bit over the top and borderline cheesy. Obviously that's subjective and to each his own. Enjoy her in good health!

Very nice

Congratulations! That is a sweet ride

Nice!

Congratulations! Looks like you found a nice car. How exciting to finally have your dream in your garage. Please post tons of pictures to make us all jealous - we love it.
Michael

Wow! She is a beauty!

Congrats Dee! Glad to hear all worked out smoothly.


Never let this one go.


Matt

Stunning find...love the rear quarters pulled out !
Marty

"Honey, do you think these flares make my butt look too big?"

Nah......just right!!

Really gorgeous. Best of luck !

Very nice Dee! Will be great to see it in person.

Steve

Congrats.

Super cool!

Schweet! Congrats

great car . Have fun with

Awesome Score!

Silver looks so awesome on a 914.

I live up here in Clayton. If you drive up here one weekend, one love to see it in person. What part of Atlanta do you live?

I bought my 914 new and I still have it. Here is link to my 914:

http://www.terrytuck.com/914.htm

Glad your dreams came true!

Terry

Great-looking car.... congrats!!

Looks great! Any pics with the newer wheels and tires on? It's always nice to have perspective when eyeballing these things to see which setup will look "just right" when it comes to our own

Here is a pic of it before it was delivered.

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Its hard to tell but this is a 225 on a 7x16, the sidewalls are ballooned out pretty good.

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Here the same size tire on an 8" - the sidewalls are straighter and the offset pushing them a little further out (about 1/2 inch front and rear).

The tires are the same size (205s front, 225s rear) and the wheels are the same (all 16" Fuchs) but it came with 6s and 7s and I pulled from storage a set of 7s and 8s I had with tires the same size.

Sorry I don't have better pictures for comparison.

Its the first 914 I've had with a tailshifter transmission and I hate the shifting. I've got to figure out how to adjust it.

Fantastic story and great car! Congrats on a VERY nice purchase. I love the rear flares!

I been working on a number of projects on it since I got it....trying to get it ready now for Okteenerfest. Some things I've done:

- detailed wash, polish, and wax,
- cleaned the underside of the engine and transmission
- replaced rubber fuel lines, filter and electric fuel pump (old one was really noisy)
- replaced ss braided brake lines that had frayed on both side in the front with stock rubber lines and completely bleed the brakes (much better now, found out it has mid-'80s Carrera calipers on the front, all calipers recently rebuilt by PMB, and a 19MM Master)
- moved up from 6s and 7s x 16 to 7s and 8s x 16 and installed new Continental ExtremeContact DWs
- replaced the rear KYBs and springs with Koni yellow sport coil overs with 10" QA1 140-250lb progressive springs (really helped the ride)
- removed the rear swaybar (it was really binding up - bent one of the mounting bolts)
- backed off one adjustment on the front swaybar
- replaced all of the shifter and shifter rod bushings and adjusted the linkage
- rebuilt the pedals with new bronze bushings
- replaced some bushings in the throttle linkage
- balanced the carbs and adjusted the idle
- installed a new Momo steering wheel and shift knob
- replaced the front spoiler
- replaced the exhaust with a 2 in / 2 out sport muffler
- installed front and rear euro LED turn and brake lights.

I still want to rebuild the front suspension and replace the trailing arm bushings before the trip along with a few other items.

Nice! I am a sucker for the subtle fender pull with 8's hiding under them! :-)

Hi,

I think your new wheels are also 7"..
Could it be?

My Best
Harald

Too much fun. Owning a piece of history and getting to drive it too

Nice work......how is the linkage and shifting since your adjustment?

If it is improved, what did you do?

Enjoy!

Thanks for the positive comments on the flares. There was a little metal added to make them "right", so more than just pulling them. The rears do give it a more muscular look.



When I got it, the PO had 6x16s on the front with 205s and 7x16s on the rear with 225s but the tires needed to be replaced and they looked a little like donuts with the sidewalls ballooned out a little too much for my tastes so I pulled another set of wheels I had and put 7x16s on the front with new 205s and 8x16s on the rear with new 225s. If I had 10MM longer studs, I'd put some 7MM spacers on the rear to move them out a touch more with the flares.

As far as the shifting, I replaced all of the bushings and springs in the shifter console and the firewall and linkage housing bushings, then spent a good bit of time adjusting, driving, adjusting, driving - until I could get it into 1st consistently w/o nicking anything and make a gentle shift into 2nd so I don't nick reverse. 3rd, 4th, and 5th are okay. I think its as good as its going to get for now until I either rebuild the trans or swap to a sideshifter. My plan is to rebuild a sideshifter I have and install it with a JWest shifter that has the baseplate modified for the hand throttle of the -6. But this will be after Okteenerfest.

Ditto post #27! Nice lookin 6. Jealous. ...

So with the Okteenerfest coming up, it has prompted me to get it in gear and refresh the suspension under the -6. The last time that the previous owner paid it much attention is probably back in the '80s when teflon bushings were added along with a 21mm H&H swaybar.

I started with the front looking like this
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After a lot of cleaning, bead blasting, powder-coating, more cleaning, and basically a lot of work, its looking like this
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- cleaned and powder-coated the 911 A-Arms
- installed Elephant Racing Sphericals
- replaced the steel crossmember support with an aluminum one
- installed a set of NOS RSR front struts I squirreled away more than 25 years ago
- added new Bilstein sport inserts
- Eibach springs
- turbo tie rod ends
- new 19.4mm hollow GPR/Tarett swaybar
- new ball joints and hardware
- new wheel seals, inner and outer wheel bearings
- new brake lines
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The brake calipers where restored in December by our good friend and resident brake expert, Eric.

And a little help from my shop mutt.
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Looking good !!!

I found a new friend when it came to stripping the paint on the a-arms before powder-coating.....HD Easy Off

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Then measured and taped off the bearing area on each end of the a-arms during powder-coating, roughed up the bare metal surface, epoxied the races in place, and after letting them cure, the installation was very easy.

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And speaking of "easy", the arms now move smooth as glass.

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Now for the rear!

I removed the trailing arms and stripped them - I found two different types of delrin bushings on the pivot shafts, white on one side and black on the other.

Literally, I stripped them using EasyOff and then ground the welds where the swingarm stiffening pieces had been added.

Before:

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After:

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Then bead blasted them to get them clean, wiped them down, and powder coated them. Then installed a Mueller needle-roller bearing kit, zerk fittings, fresh hub bearings and cleaned up the wheelwells and the mounting points.

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And now:

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And the ride is SO MUCH BETTER!!!

You promised you would not modify it.....hahahahaha

What? I'm "improving" it.

Very nice!
What spring rate and tender are you using?
Congrats on a fantastic build

Actually, I'm starting off softer than when I bought it and working my way from there if needed. It had 21MM torsion bars, a worn out 21MM sway bar, and Boges with teflon bushings on the a-arms. In the rear, it had teflon bushings, KYBs, and unmarked stick springs. It rode like a buck board.....with a couple of square wagon wheels.

FRONT
200 in/lbs main spring (the helper spring is just to keep it seated properly, no effective rate)
Bilstein Sport inserts
19.4mm hollow GPR/Tarett sway bar (set about 30% off full soft to start)

REAR
140-250 progressive springs
Koni Sport 1050 shocks (a couple of clicks off full soft)

New Michelin Pilot Sport AS3 tires

I'm looking for good handling on the street and if I get a chance to autocross it, I'll have enough adjustibility to make some changes. Switching springs, adjusting ride height, stiffening the sway bar are all pretty easy. Just got to find a good set of specs for the alignment.

Anybody got a recommendation?

Time for a few more updates.....

My 18y.o. son and I took it to Okteenerfest ... it ran great and handled really well in the corners. It was a really good trip and my son and I had some wonderful time together.

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Since getting back from Okteenerfest, I've turned my attention to the interior of the car and have sorted out a number of issues.

The PO had installed power windows back in the late '80s I think. Over the years, they had gotten slower and slower. While it is convenient to have power for the passenger side at times, I decided that its really not worth it so I pulled the motors out and converted back to the stock winders.

Then I started in on the wiring mess, removing the 30y.o. alarm system, the awful aftermarket stereo, amp, graphic eq, and speakers, the dash-mounted voltage meter (mounted in the stock radio location with a 2-hole meter pod - and one hole left open!) and the associated rats nest of wiring. (separate post Premo PO wiring ...nightmare!)

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And lastly installed the proper Blaupunkt AM/FM stereo (refurbished and some new knobs) with some vintage ADS 200i speakers in some repurposed and refinished metal enclosures and a 3.5mm jack for iPhone (Pandora) input.

You claimed you would not touch this one......but it's liked a drug that cannot be resisted.

Hope you can drive it up to Hershey this year.

Rich

But Rich, you don't understand....I'm fixing it!


Seriously, I am putting the interior back closer to stock.

"Fixing" is another word you can use.....

Hey Rich, here's some proof. When I got it, the interior looked like this:

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It was pretty ugly and really looked like a top notch hack job! A white steering wheel, a butchered center deposit, gauges where the radio is supposed to be, and a Sheel Mann seat in the passenger location!


After some time and elbow grease, the interior now looks like this: Click to view attachment Click to view attachmentClick to view attachment


with one small 944-esque modification. As I was putting in the new black carpet and new black Lloyds mats, I reworked the emergency brake handle like so

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I'm much happier with the interior now......still have some things on the list.

Today it was a beautiful 70 degree day so I got out all the toys (almost, Ravenna green 2.0 is non-op at present) and washed them all and took each one out for a ride.....great way to enjoy the day.

2016 Okteenerfest coming up.....thinking up options for this year's "improvements".