Hi everybody. I was referred to 914 world from the guys over at Pelican Parts for information about restoring my first 'project car' a '71 1.7. Here are the pictures:

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How about a bunch of pic's. Some of the Hell Hole, longs, etc?

Give it a bath,,,,,,please.

She has been sitting for a very long time and I'm certain that the entire fuel system will need to be looked at and replaced. I am excited for the weather to warm up and I can get it out of the barn that its in and get to work.

Any pointers?

I'm looking forward to researching this forum and bringing this car back to life.

Regards,
DC Josh

I will have to get back into the barn to get pics of the 'longs' (I just learned what those are yesterday) What is considered the 'hell hole'?

Once it is out of storage.

you find the right place, lots of helpful folks here to steer you in the right direction

Start reading restoration threads
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showforum=78
And classic threads
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showforum=5
Everything you need to know is there.

Is that metallic gold? What a nice color. Have fun with the restoration and welcome!

Welcome to the insanity. Hell hole = under the battery and surrounding areas. Pull off the rockers and check the Long's. Also check behind the seats and around the windshield for rust. Biggest issue with these cars is rust and cost to fix it.

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Looks to be all original which is great.
Some helpful hints before you begin:

assess the extent of the rust
take pictures of everything before and during dis-assembly; videos are even better
label, tag and bag everything, because you will forget where it goes
don't throw anything away until you are 100% done

-Dan

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Love that color!

You have your work cut out for you (literally). There will be a LOT of rust on that passenger side, what you see on the surface is only 10% of what's actually there.

Read some of the restoration threads here to get an idea of the work needed. You have to strip the chassis to bare metal and get it on a rotisserie.


PS:

Metallic gold is the paint. It was so shiny still in the trunk that I almost swore that there was standing water in the trunk from the reflection from my phone flashlight.

The rocker panels are in bad shape, but there does not seem to be any rust that goes through any of the panels. The floors are rock solid as is everything by the pedals and under the seats. The battery tray is toasted. All other rust seems to be surface only, but again, this was first glance in an poorly lit barn with hardly any room to maneuver. I did not know what longs were until yesterday, so I will need to see those when I go to see the car next. The real issue with the body is the front passenger fender was crushed in and the front turn signals were damaged. I will have to drill out the spot welds and replace with another fender.

I am looking to get it running and driving and then work out the cosmetic issues as I go.

I will be looking through the restoration threads and taking notes as I go.

All the best.

DC Josh

Actually, that will probably be the least of your worries. Fenders can be had for cheap and the turn signal assemblies aren't expensive either.

Like i said above, there will be a lot of rust hiding.

I'd be surprised if the floors are as solid as you think.
The factory painted over the sound deadening tar on the floors which tends to hide the rust underneath.

Just trying to get you prepared, we've all been exactly where you are right now ...

Yikes. Well. I guess I'll let you know when I can get it out of the barn. I'm not holding my breath, I am in MN...

(fingers are crossed though)

Get your self a HAYNES MANUEL for the 914 PORSCHE Automotive Repair Manual.
It will help you alot to see what you need to see.

It starts with the dream of driving one.....

Is that the same car still listed on craigslist as "Sale Pending?"

Like the Gold Metallic Paint!

I knew you would make your way over here. This is hands down the world's best 914 site. No other site compares for our cars. Tons of knowledgable people here who will eagerly help out and offer good, solid, well thought out advice.

Look for rust, rust and more rust. You need to know that is what kills these cars and these projects. Better to know up front the extent of the rust you will have to address so you can budget for it.

I believe, as do most of the people here, that you correct rust the right way so it is done once and you never have to deal with it again. After that, it is all cake.

We see the occasional hack repair job on these cars from previous owners and it is always sad to see. Have a plan and work the plan. That will keep you from getting overwhelmed and lost.

Wow, that thing finally sold? It had been for sale locally for a long long time. Good luck with the project!

Yes, it is knee deep in a pole barn southeast of the cities. Surrounded by a graveyard of MG's and Austins. Not a bad collection, but the guy will never get to them all. I can't even get mine out until the snow melts and he can move some cars out of the way.

You certainly have a lot of work ahead of you! Take your time and do it right.

Nice car. What is typed on the old school labels stuck on the firewall? Haven't seen those in quite a while.



Brett

A previous owner labeled the correct oil type and spark plug size and other various information about maintenance items. I always like seeing things like that.

since you are in mankato, can i ask, was the pole barn on the way from Mankato to New Ulm?? if so i might know the property owners (our family farm is about 20 miles from Mankato. I knew a guy that had 2 barns full of MG's , VW's And Austins out that way. He had a shop there and guys would bring stuff from all over to get worked on by him. ( worked on my '69 austin healey).

I couldn't agree more. It's way better to imagine what you want your car to be and then work backwards from that, than to buy a load of parts and realize later that you wanted to take things in a different direction. By that time, the parts won't be returnable. Also, having a plan will let you track your progress and keep you honest about getting the car back on the road.

One other piece of advice...if, when you completely tear down the car, you realize that you're in over your head, or it will cost too much to repair, it's WAY better to part it out and use the dough to look for another car in better shape. You'll be on the road much sooner. The peeps on this forum can help you make that call.

Not saying that will happen. I like to see as may 914s saved as possible...just that it's really important to be objective. Hard to do when you have the 914 obsession.

No, it is south of the cities in Shakopee.

I will hopefully get into it with more detail this weekend. I want to put it on jackstands and take the wheels off and put tires on it that can at least hold air and I can roll it out of the barn.

Once it is in daylight and I can clean it off, the plan is to asses the fuel system and address the bodywork which includes the front fender and any rust that may be present (rockers and battery tray). This will not be a full on concourse restoration, but I would like to get it to a point where it can safely be driven on the road. Get it to a Cars and Coffee event in Minneapolis by next spring (2017).

first.... Welcome!
and second, I hope I don't come across as negative
thrilled to have you here

usually the rockers looking like that will be an indicator of major rust through the longitudinal and thousands of dollars (or hours if you do it yourself) worth of work

its doable
but it may also indicate that its cheaper to buy a different car
get the rockers off and a screw driver in the longs and hell hole.
the metal patch panels add up quick $$$
but its all doable if you have the time

again, sorry if this comes off as negative
not trying to be... only trying to be informative
brant

Welcome!

Glad to see someone finally bought that 914.

Give Rick Ollah in Duluth a call. He'll help you repair the rust or at least point you in the right direction if you need. He is on the forum here as well. Evil 914 is his handle IIRC.

This car has popped up on my local searches for what seems like the last year or more. I always thought it was yellow, I had no idea it was gold metallic. It's a great color. I honestly hope this can be saved. Even getting it to a "driver" level I can't believe will be cheap or quick.

It's good that you have a goal to get it to a CnC in 2017. That should keep you motivated. There are a few here that attend, Chappy and his turbo beast comes to mind.

Anyone from Minnesota who has posted, have you seen the car in person as well?

Were any of you looking to buy it? Did anything turn you away?

In any case, I'm going up to see it this weekend and pull the injectors so that I can service them and put it on some jack stands while I put some new tires on so I can roll it out of the barn. I'll bring a screwdriver and a better camera and really take a look at the longs then.

Hoping for the best but preparing for the worst. I have seen other cars in the build threads which started off in much worse condition, so my fingers are crossed at least.

DC Josh

I never saw it in person. Nothing in the ad or pictures made me curious about it. The fact that it's a Minnesota car with salt in the winter and humidity in the summer made me think it was a rusted out junker destined for the crusher. After looking at the pictures you posted, it is in fact better than I assumed, but still a long road ahead to make it a driver. With time and money, anything can be fixed. Metallic gold is a plus, great color!

Not the same place that I knew but not far away either.
About the car, if it runs that's a start, I bought a non running car 6 years ago, 75 copper metallic 75. It's a fun project just know you have a lot a head of you but if you can wrench and weld it's worth saving. Values are going up enough to save cars like this. Good luck. Hope you keep us updated on your progress!

Hey Josh, from one Newbie to another I looked at it twice, months ago....It was very difficult to look at because of all the cars packed around it and the lighting, that's why I went back the second time.

The second time I brought a spotlight and looked at everything much closer than the first time. My observations were the car had been painted before, with the Jambs and inside both the trunks being original. Really liked the color though. While laying on my back on the dirt floor looking at the front suspension it appears that something with the torsion bars or struts is messed up, the front has no spring or rebound in it and the front beam is only about 2 inches off the floor.

Progressing towards the back of the car, the Longs under the rocker panels were in various stages of solid to rotten, some of the jack points (Doughnuts) were there and some were not. Arriving at the back it seemed about the same as the rest of the car, some solid some holes, the exhaust was loose and was tied up by wire of some sort.

The Interior, Seats were the smooth(Not the Basket weave) vinyl, sort of cracked when they were sat on. Pedal cluster felt loose not mechanically, rather mounting wise. The pressure plate may be stuck to the flywheel, or something else causing the pedal to feel like it did.

The CL pictures that were taken outside show the car to have uniform gaps between the doors, fenders (Except where the front right fender was hit) and hoods. But looking at it closer in the barn that Uniformity had gone away, especially from doors to fenders. It had a "droop" most noticeably on the passenger side, but the driver side also had some as well.

With the inability to actually put a battery in the car and "Juice" things up, and the info shared above I was reluctant to make an offer and went on to other things.

Hope this helps, by the way did I say how much I liked the color.

Good luck and keep us informed!

Click to view attachment Pretty sure this is the same color code.

Great information! Thanks! I am going up to it this Saturday (Yay, 50 degree weather!) and will take more pictures. I am still buying the car and I am doing the work to get it on the road. compared to the other 914's I've seen here in MN, this is at least at starting point about where I can reasonably handle. Looking forward to the challenge. Thanks for your thoughts gun!

That's great news.

Its been waiting for a long time for someone to come along and take care of it.

This one may be an even better starting point for less money. Also has some fender damage...

http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/hnp/cto/5463663750.html

Must have been a new ad. I dont like that is is converted to duel carbs. There is no way to tell if the cam was replaced in order correctly accommodate.

Still might be worth looking at as an additional car...

I got a craigslist notification this morning when it was posted, so yeah, it's a new listing.

It seems that 75% or more of 914s have either been converted to carbs or completely swapped out motors for something other than original. This won't last long if it's as solid as the seller seems to think.

The orange one looks like a much better option. Choose a car that has the most solid body. Engine work is easier than rust repair. Hell, buy them both and have parts to sell if you don't need them

I agree about buying both with one being a parts car. Use what you need and sell the rest to fund your project.

I wrote the seller. Waiting on reply.

This exactly.

Never trust that just because a motor was running at some point that it ran well before it was parked, that the PO is being honest about it running in the first place and that it wasn't perhaps just 100 miles away from blowing up before it was parked.

I've had many 914s over the years. I've come across some where the ad says, "runs great, drive today!" only to take it for a spin fearing I wouldn't make it back to the owner's house due to BAD noises coming from the valve train, or plumes of smoke on decel, etc. Assume everyone is a liar if you aren't provided documentation to go along with the car showing the work that was claimed to be done. "Recent motor rebuild" might mean a top-end job ten years ago on a motor that has a nearly flat cam.

Absolutely get the best body your money can buy and don't worry too much about the motor at this point.

Good luck!