New car and proper introduction…..

I’ve been involved in the Porsche community / hobby for over 30 years. I’ve always been attracted to 914’s but have never owned one……mostly early 911’s. The most recent early 911 that I owned was a ’67 that I sold several years ago….which I regret doing. The values of these cars have gone through the roof. The thought of purchasing another early 911 was out of the question so I decided now was the time to look for a 914 before these cars go the same route. After a long 2 year search I’ve finally found the 914 that I’ve been looking for…..a 1974 914 2.0L in silver on black with the following options…..appearance package, chrome bumpers, alloys, tinted glass, radio, etc. It’s pretty well optioned with the exception of sway bars or heated rear window. I purchased the car from Curt Johnson out of Minneapolis who owned it for 10 years. The car has had 4 owners since new and has the manuals, some documentation and other miscellaneous receipts. I’ve spoken to two of the previous owners prior to purchasing the car as well as had a thorough PPI completed by Joe Jeppesen a reputable Porsche RUF specialist in Minneapolis and everyone vouches to its overall condition and history. The car only has 13K miles from new…….(I’m sure the BS responces will start shortly) The original owner lived in Boulder, CO and owned two 914’s….a ’73 1.7L and this car. Apparently both cars were used very little during his ownership and both stored in a storage locker in downtown Boulder until the early-mid-90’s. I believe the previous owners have additional information on the car that I’m trying to obtain. The second owner, Andy Celani, purchased the car with only 6,500 miles (the ’73 had 1,800 miles on it at the time!) and had the car for roughly 5-6 years before he sold it to helicopter mechanic friend who owned it for a short time and resold it back to him. Andy kept the car until 2005 when a divorce forced him to sell the car. Curt purchased the car with 10K miles.....sight unseen based on the description and photos from Andy. The car was repainted by the original owner at some point in the mid-80’s...due to clear coat failure. Up close I would rate the paint an 8 out of 10……from 10 feet away it looks new. The car is very straight with very little (if any) rust…probably because it had Zeibert installed when new. The chrome bumpers / rubbers top pads and over riders are almost perfect. The exterior glass and chrome/rubber mouldings are all original and excellent. The interior is close to new condition with the exception of minor driver seat bolster wear. Everything is 100% original on the interior……dash, seats, carpets, radio, sill/thresholds w/rivets, etc. The only item that needs attention on the interior is the speedometers decorative silver disk needs to be reattached and glued. I’ve contacted North Hollywood Speedometer in CA and they said this is a common problem because the age of the glue. I’ll send them the speedo over the winter to perform the repair. The drivetrain is a numbers matching GA engine with the original D-Jetronic FI system intact. The car has been converted to an electronic ignition system which I might convert back. The heat exchangers have been replaced with the SSI type and the exhaust replaced with a Bursch system which I’ll replace with an original 2.0L exhaust system. The suspension is original with the factory paint markings still intact on the front strut towers. The underside of the car has the original undercoating that was installed when new which is extremely dirty and covered with cobwebs. Overall I’d rate the car in excellent / mint driver condition…..not concours by any stretch. My goal is to thoroughly go through the car and clean / detail everything back to the way it was originally. Here are some photos of the car prior to me purchasing it as well as recent photos of the ongoing interior cleaning / detailing. I'll post future photos of car and its cosmetic restoration in the coming months.

I’m very open to hear everyone’s comments and opinions as I’m new to 914’s…….

Welcome to our small part of the Porsche madness. That is one clean 914 you found there.

spare wheel/tire clean-up.....

Front trunk detailing.....

Interior cleaning......

More interior.....

Looks great! Don't forget to drive it

More front trunk....

wow so blessed with that newly acquired super clean 914!

Oh, and I hate you for having such a clean car...

Welcome, It is a beautiful car.

Are you going to drive it?

One out of the box,exceptional condition,same year as mine ,colour,options and the only difference is I have black courduroy seat covers.
Unreal to see a car this good....wow.

You missed a spot. Just kidding. Nice car. I have an early '74 2.0 too but not nearly as clean as yours. Enjoy it!
Oh yeah

I am new to this 914 community but I echo everyone's thoughts on a very clean car!
Congrats

WOW, sweet car

Clean enough to from. very nice.

Congrats on finding and buying such a nice 914.

Stunning car! Welcome to the brotherhood!

Beautiful and a nice find! Mine also came from Minneapolis. Would have never expected such clean cars to come from that area. Congrats on a successful search.

welcome to the madness and a very nice car.

I inspected the car as well and Jeff's description is spot on. This car is VERY nice. I did not see any reason the car is not a true 13,000 mile car.

Great pictures! True time capsule! Enjoy!

Wow ! beautiful car.
The re-paint was probably due to clear coat failure.... which was common in that era.
Beautiful.

W O W !

This is a MUCH better car than the one I looked at for you here in Sucramento! Enjoy!

MB

Welcome to the addiction. Beautiful car. Silver is a great color.

That is a great find. I've also got a '74 2.0 and when I was looking 10 years ago I wanted a silver one; great Porsche color. I had to 'settle' for Marathon Blue.

Interesting quirk: your car has the silver button gauges which were intended to be discontinued after MY '73 but they kept putting them in til the inventory ran out. With your production number of 4290 I would have thought the supply would have been exhausted; my # is 700 and it also has silver buttons. Note that the button has fallen off the speedo and is sitting at the bottom of the gauge.

Good luck with your car, it's a keeper!

Thanks!

Silver dot gauge cars were produced up until the end of Sept. / Oct. in '73. Here's a car within 100 of mine that has the same gauges. I'm sending the speedo out to NHS to have the dot reattached.....the glue has dried out and failed.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/171414678689?rmvSB=true

Very Nice.........I'll look forward to hearing you opinion of the 914. I think you'll find it very different in a good way.

One suggestion comes to mind....if the Fuel lines are plastic original, replace them ASAP with Stainless Steel Fuel Lines. The original fuel lines have most likely hardened and can crack causing fire and total destruction of your 914. Even if they are not hardened yet the Ethanol will destroy them eventually.

Bring it to the Hershey Porsche Swap Meet. We gather and do a 914 World cruse and dinner on Friday, then hook up at the Swap Field Saturday. Look forward to meeting you.

Doug in Shrewsbury /New Freedom, Pa.

Beautiful. Bring it to Hershey.

Wow! Hard to believe that car was in MN...

Update.....I was able to remove the speedo today.....now it's off to NHS. Hopefully the turn around time is fast.

WOW! Great find... Beautiful car!!!

half the fun of the 914 is fixing it up. must be boring to buy one that doesn't need any work....

This one is missing all the rust that seems to have been standard equipment on 914's. Fortunately I have lots of rust on my project, and can spare some for you if you want to be 'authentic'.......

No kidding. I guess it may actually be possible to find a nice 914 locally after all. It will just take time, and I have plenty of that. Unfortunately for me as a buyer, the prices go up almost daily...

My new (to me) black '73 is nice, but that car you found is incredible.

Great score!!!!!

Very clean car, congrats on your purchase.
It looks great

Cheers

Dale

The mild weather temps (55 F) in the northeast gave me a chance to clean up the rear end of the car as well as the trunk area today. The original chrome bumpers were cleaned / treated with simichrome with 0000 steelwool.....then waxed. The bumper tops and guards were cleaned than treated with Griots vinyl & rubber dressing. The trunk was fully detailed....it still has its original paint with the dealer installed Ziebert rust proofing plugs still intact. Everything is cleaning up nicely......I just wish the weather would stay this warm so I could get more done.

Gotta love that metallic silver . Absolutely beautiful spare wheel.

nice looking car.

Very beautiful car.

[quote name='struckn' date='Jan 14 2016, 09:54 AM' post='2289239']



Very Nice.........I'll look forward to hearing you opinion of the 914. I think you'll find it very different in a good way.

One suggestion comes to mind....if the Fuel lines are plastic original, replace them ASAP with Stainless Steel Fuel Lines. The original fuel lines have most likely hardened and can crack causing fire and total destruction of your 914. Even if they are not hardened yet the Ethanol will destroy them eventually.

any real proof of that,maybe some pics or links to a burnt out car caused by that ,mine were in fine condition after 41 yrs.

That car is amazing!

Konrad

Welcome! Beautiful car!!

Be sure to update your VIN in the Members VIN Database (I checked, yours is not in there yet)

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?act...amp;byYear=1974

[quote name='porschetub' date='Feb 1 2016, 01:36 AM' post='2296888']
[quote name='struckn' date='Jan 14 2016, 09:54 AM' post='2289239']



Very Nice.........I'll look forward to hearing you opinion of the 914. I think you'll find it very different in a good way.

One suggestion comes to mind....if the Fuel lines are plastic original, replace them ASAP with Stainless Steel Fuel Lines. The original fuel lines have most likely hardened and can crack causing fire and total destruction of your 914. Even if they are not hardened yet the Ethanol will destroy them eventually.
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any real proof of that,maybe some pics or links to a burnt out car caused by that ,mine were in fine condition after 41 yrs.
[/quote]

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Fuel lines, try looking here at the address given below. It's a string of posts pertaining to this often discussed topic.

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...251558&st=0

Gotta bring it to Hershey.

great looking 914. Congrats! Enjoy!

Update....I just had the original plastic fuel lines and rubber brake lines replaced. I'm glad I didn't wait too long to replace the fuel lines.....they were as hard as a rock and snapped easily.

We've also just started to replace the original (unglued) vinyl sail panels with new German vinyl material that was purchased from Mark at 914rubber along with new OEM roll bar moulding trim pieces. The new vinyl pattern and texture is spot on to the original material.

The original paint and metal work under the old vinyl was in remarkably good condition. I just need to touch up several paint chips before the new vinyl goes on.

Dude you let it get wet ? What is that...RAIN????

Looking good Cal. That one was worth the wait.