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So here is my story...and I'm stickin' to it.
Like many of you, I have always wanted a 914, in my case since high school, when they came out. Didn't happen then, but I had plenty of aircooled vw's to play with.
I have always been in to vw's, but now it is water cooled and diesel. I buy/sell vw TDI's and decided several years ago this is what I'd swap into a 914. The search was on.
I looked at several teens and all had more rust than I wanted to deal with. You know when you don't even have to get out of your truck, it ain't worth messin with.
Finally went to look at one, looked pretty good from the top side, but due to rattle snakes on the property I was real nervous about crawling around underneath. I drug it on the trailer and towed it home. This thing looked ugly underneath, and had some questionable repairs. Now I'm looking for a new victim.
One of my customers had a teen I decided to buy, less than a thousand feet from my house...running and registered....sweet.
I get home that night and my wife asks me if I was buying another car (she gets pissed every time I do) It turns out while I was making the deal, my phone butt dialed her, she heard the whole conversation. I can't let this happen again. I had to go with my hat in hand and ask to be let out of the deal. He was understanding.
So her actions made it clear. If I buy another she can't know.
Hunting around, I found a viable candidate from a member here on the world. Only problem was he was 600+ miles away. I am in northern California, He in northern Oregon. I already had a planned a trip to work on my brother in laws body shop in southern Washington....perfect.
My son planned to go on the trip, we decided to take his new to him Superduty....6.0
Ok, we need to take the car trailer. Put a big extension ladder on it to justify the trailer to our wives. (no rack on the truck).
Went to Washington, worked for several days, went to pick up the teen...60 miles away. Back to Washington to finish up for a day or so, and back to California.
The plan was to drop the car and trailer at our friends body shop before going to his house...and they will never know. Nice if it would have worked like that.
On the way home, his truck started loosing power and check engine light came on. He felt it was best to just to make it to his house. Great...now his wife will rat me out.
We pulled up to his house and it was worse than I thought. My wife was there and I was busted. She didn't talk to me for a week, and then only to inform me NO MORE CARS. I broke her, she has given up, I've bought 6 or 7 since then.


so a few days later the car and trailer make it to the body shop. The 914 had been bumped in the right rear, and I was going to have my buddy put it on the frame
machine and do a pull. I would take care of the rest after that,
When I bought the car, he had an extra rear quarter and rear panel. Damage wasn't bad enough to need it, but it was included in the deal so it came along for the ride.
My 914 sat at the shop for a solid year...waiting to see it on the rack. Finally one day I walk in and he tells me he has the car on the rack and did the pull. I walk into the shop and to my shock, he cut the quarter and back panel off the car. Guess you get what you pay for.....Click to view attachment

After getting other projects out of the way, I planned on picking up the teen to take to my shop on Sunday September 13. On the 12th we were evacuated out due to the valley fire in northern California. We went a week not knowing if the body shop,
or my house survived, living in my shop for two weeks. Luckily both the shop and my house made it through. My rear panels for the teen did suffer some heat damage. it will just be that much easier to get the paint off.

So there is the back story, now on to the build

She is a 73, phoenix red, and I guess this is an appearance group car.

Rust repairs. Back half of the floor pan, bottom of the firewall, seal channels under the front hood, and the sections under the trim on the sail panels.

Engine. I am doing something unconventional here....I'm going diesel.....VW TDI.
The motor I am using (from one of my horse trades) was dynode at the wheels at 168 hp and 325 tq.

No flares, nutin' fancy, going for completely stock looking 914

It is either a great way to end the old year OR to begin the new year. At least you did not get burnt out in that fire; looks like Middletown/Lower Lake East maybe even to Lake Berryessa.

Glad to see you are ok from both events. Looks good.

Glad to hear you made it out of the fire ok! That sure was a scary one...


Great looking project! Your going with tbe transverse transmission? Can you share some more details on your build like what exact engine/trans, what will you be using for a computer, shifter, fueling, how are you mounting it, ect.

I saw your post in the monthly updates thread that your trying to determine what to do for axles, I will be getting axle shafts from the link below and using bus CVs on my Audi 1.8t conversion. Mike Bellis pointed me to these guys as they custom made him some axles
http://www.pacificcustoms.com/mm5/merchant...p;Store_Code=PC

Pacific customs was my first source when I started planning this project a couple of years ago. Unfortunatly if I remember right they don't have one short enough for the driver's side.

The motor I am using is a 2003 VW ALH Tdi. This would normally be mounted to an o2j trans, but I am using an o2a CTN trans for a final of 3:15 (o2j is 3:36). I'll be pushing a car that is 1000 lbs lighter than this motor is used to so the taller gears will work fine. This is basically the same combo in my daily driver, but the 914 will have almost twice the power.
Engine management will be tuned VW ecu that is native to this motor, with larger injectors and larger vnt turbo.
Air con is planed for this car. I will be moving fuel storage into the spare tire well leaving the area where the tank was for HVAC box.
Radiator and ac condenser will be located in the rear ahead of the motor....Still working out air flow for them.

I guess it's been a while since I updated my thread. My busy season should be over, but work haunts me....and some can't find a job.

Anyway, I've had a fair amount of progress since my last update. 914 rubber came through with the seal kit and new door panels, stored safely til I need them.

Axle shafts finally arrived. Had custom shavts made by the drive shaft shop...think they were in North Carolina. Shafts are 300m with some strange looking cv joints.Click to view attachment

Subframe built for motor/trans/coolingClick to view attachment Click to view attachment

Wiring is sorted out for the most part. I'm mating a 2003 engine/ecu harness to a 98 fuse and relay panel. Wiring forward of the dash will be mated to the 98 fuse panelClick to view attachment

Gas pedal has been converted to drive by wire, clutch converted to hydraulic. Shifter has been sorted out. Using late Mk4 vw cable shifter with everything reversed.

Most of the rusty spots have been cut out, time to do some sand blasting and weld everything up. Found more rust in the bottom of the doors that I want to deal with in this project, will be changing to another set I have.

I sized these pics. After looking at the post they seem too big. You guys let me know and I'll try to make them smaller

Interesting project....I like it.

Where in NorCal are you?

VW/Porsche car show in Concord 1st weekend of August that I hope to attend with my 914...we'll see!

Cobb Ca....just over the hill from Calistoga. Was in your area on friday on my home from Mexico