Just a guess but I reckon he means the silver button gauges that carried over to the very earliest of the '74 model year cars ... another model year change that didn't happen at the start of the model year.

What a great 914! Your pictures make me want to do an original restoration!

All the best!

Got it. Thanks.

Thanks. In my view it's even more impressive in person. I plan to focus on the underside thsi winter. Will then provide pics of that well-preserved area also.

in complete and total awe about this one...

Thanks, Cool. If you are ever in ATL let me know. Happy to meet and show you the 914.

Steve

I will definitely give you a shout if I'm down that way!

Steve, that is a fantastic and stunning 914. What a history lesson and preservation.
Many happy years of motoring wished for you & Sara. Just beautiful!

Thanks, Dion. Appreciate the comments. You also have a beautiful car! Love the diversity of skills and interests on this forum. There is no way I could build a a car like yours. Which, I guess makes me a good fit for the caring and preservation of survivors role. Enjoy....

I know I'm late to this thread, but just read through it and must say - what a car! I am about to jump into my 73 2.0 and head home from work; these are great fun cars !

Thanks for the nice comments, Last. I admire those of you who are driving them regularly. I love my survivor but once in a while would love to have one just to do exactly what you're doing!

The trade off between maintaining a car in pristine original condition and using it as it was meant to be used is a tough one, especially when you have an original car as nice as yours. I just finished having a major mechanical restoration done on my '73 2.0; the cosmetic part will commence in the next 6-8 weeks. My goal is to drive it when it's finished; not sure how I'll actually feel about stone chips, door dings etc once it's completely finished.
Regardless, that is a incredible car you have. I hope you drive it some, at least on those nice sunny days!

Yes, I do drive it....just drove it today in fact. Beautiful day here in ATL. I probably drive a bit under 1,000 miles per year. A nice balance of preserving and enjoying.

I see you live in IL. what part? I used to live in Wisconsin and the northern burbs of Chicago. Just moved here six years ago and love it. Heading to WI today...Door County to visit my wife's parents.

Steve

I'm in the western suburbs; born and raised. Went to school in Wisconsin up north on Lake Superior- pretty darn cold!! Door County is a really cool place. Good you're driving the 914 some - you have some other cool cars!

Took the front bumper off and did a bit of cleaning. Before and after pics. Was pretty clean in the before pics considering I'm sure the bumper had never been off the car.

Before:

Click to view attachment

After:

Click to view attachment

Couple more of cleaning behind the bumper

Click to view attachment


Click to view attachment

Great car!!!!! I am like you,an originality person. I/we have 2 other unrestored cars,a 1969 Olds 442 convertible in black/gold trim and interior and the other is a 1970 Torino fastback with very rare factory NASCAR engine ( only made 400 ). Both are near perfect 99% untouched. I have the Mayan Green 1975 unrestored 914 posted here. I have done some more cleaning and will update my posting. Cheers to an amazing car!

Thanks truckie. I have been following your thread also and have been looking forward to updated and additional pics on your progress. Really look forward to seeing more of that car. Love the color!

Steve

Recently Cal (Jeff) had a question about original headlights so while I was out checking mine out I decided to do a bit of cleaning. Doubt the headlight buckets had ever been cleaned but they were really not very dirty at all. Also took a magic eraser to the white headlight surrounds also. Did a nice job of taking most of the light staining off.

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Notice the black marking in the bucket on the driver side? Looks like a number "5" that was then written over and made a "6". Has anyone ever seen this before?


Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Somebody screwing around at Karmman? How many beers with lunch?

Had a couple of hours this weekend to do some cleaning/detailing on the underside of the "73. It was liberally undercoated which means that everything is fairly well covered including the belly pan, wheel wells, cable, lines, etc. I'd prefer that the undercoating was not there although the car was a Minneapolis car. The original owner never drove it in the winter though, and hardly ever in the rain so it would have probably survived fairly well even without the undercoating.

Decided to take off the air deflectors and removed the undercoating on them. They cleaned up very well and the bolts even had most of the original cad plating on them.

Click to view attachment

That looks great. The underside of my car is also covered in undercoating. What did you use to clean the deflectors?

I used a plastic tool that is used to pry door panel cards off of doors. You can buy these tools in several shapes and sizes and they actually come in very handy when you want to use a lever or scraper that is not metal but still has some "bite". These tools work well for scraping the heavy stuff off and then the mineral spirits or paint thinner do the clean-up. I'm going to tackle cables and misc other lines next. Not sure I'll ever tackle the huge job of removing all of the undercoating like Steve did on his Sahara Beige car.