I’m just another new guy with a new (to me) 914. I caught the 914 bug in the 70s when a buddy’s dad brought this and some other dealer posters home that my buddy didn’t have wall space for. This hung in my room until I left home and now hangs in the garage.

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Over the years I’ve looked at a few 914s but there were always competing priorities and distractions. I found and bought my 987 during one of my 914 searches.

Living in the rust belt you’ve got to be tenacious and a bit lucky to find something clean in my experience. So I set out to improve my odds of success last year and spent a ton of time on this site learning as much as I could about what I was (and wasn’t) looking for in a 914. Along the way earossi (who lives nearby) helped by letting me pour over his car and entertaining my many questions. Garold Shaffer allowed me to be a guest last summer during his fabulous barbeque where the discussion was pure 914. So when the ad for a 74 2.0 appeared in Craigslist a few weeks ago I drove up to Rockford. The rest as they say is history.

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The car was apparently redone in San Diego in the late 90s and has been in Northern Illinois for about 14 years. The previous owner garage kept the car over those 14 years and had driven it only when the weather was nice (< 10K). The car needs some minor sorting to repair some minor things.

Nice car....I also have a'74 2.0. What options does yours have? Please post additional photos.

Nice looking car,, welcome to the madness..

Enjoy the ride!

.... looks like a nice find!

Cheers!
Tom
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Thanks.

In terms of options, I don't think there are any on the car. I'm no expert but I think the '74 2.0 came with the Fuchs which were polished when the car was painted by a PO. The car has no bars, no air and no console. It does have an aftermarket radio and some accessory gauges under the dash.

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It does have the "period correct" rear reflector added between the tail lights.

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Thanks for looking.

Welcome! Great looking car...

Nice car. Take care of her and enjoy the insanity.

Man o' man, I do love them in black!
Beautiful car.

Looks like a really nice car. Well deserved for a very patient 914 fan.. Congrats!

Looking forward to seeing you and your 914 at this years BBQ. Congrats. Let us locals know if you need any help.

Beautiful 914 congrats....

Nice find.

I typically don't like the center reflector, but it works well with the black.

Great looking car. Post some photos of the engine bay and underside.

Welcome to our little corner of madness. That sure looks like a terrific car. Very nice buy.

I know a lot of people like the polished fuchs wheels, especially on black cars. I am not a fan of the polished wheels. I think the Fuchs look perfect in their stock finish. That would be a good time for some good fresh tires too. Don't forget to check and perform maintenance on the wheel bearings and steering rack.

I am not a fan of the reflector panel on the rear. Sure, period correct as a lot of people did them, but to me it was always trying to hard to convince people the car was a Porsche.

If I had that car I believe I would return that to as stock as I could make it. Maybe a little lower than stock with some minor street suspension improvements like Elephant Racing rubber bushings, Bilstein struts and shocks, turbo tie rods, have PMB rebuild all the brake components including the master cylinder and brake proportioning valve and then a new complete green brake line kit.

I would then go through all of the electrical to make sure no frayed wires or worn spots, bad connectors, grounds, etc. I would replace the fuse panel with he JWest fuse panel.

Replace the fuel lines with Tangerine's stainless steel line kit and then pull the tank and have it boiled and sealed.

If the engine is leaking oil I would pull it and depending upon the observed condition, either reseal or refresh. Take the time replace all vacuum lines, hoses, etc.

I would do the same with the transaxle if it leaked at all,
it would come apart for refreshing and resealing. New clutch package at the same time.

Then I would send the pedal cluster to Bruce Stone and have it rebuilt and also replace all of the shift rod bushings, couplings, etc., to tighten the shifter assembly up.


Well, just some of the issues I would check and address on the car, were it mine. Good luck and have fun most of all. It is a terrific car.

Great looking car! I like the polished Fuchs with the black paint. are your bumpers also gloss black?

How do you know it's a 2.0L? To my knowledge all the 2.0s came with a center console with three gauges. Does the car still have it's FI? If it's a 2.0 it would have djet, a 1.8 would have ljet. Hope I'm not raining on your parade....914s are great in any form.

Enjoy!

Great looking car, congrats!

welcome to the community and super clean looking teener

Nice Mike....best of luck with it.

The problem with being a newby is there are still a great many things I need to learn. I took a lot of time looking over the car before I bought it looking for all kinds of issues. The engine pulled strong, didn't leak, make bad noises or any of the other things I was looking for but I took the PO's word on the size. After your post I took another look for the location of the serial number which as far as I know is definitive and I'm feeling pretty foolish. Especially foolish after standing on my head and finding this.

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So much for my ability to catch the obvious. No worries on the parade, still plenty of sunshine to go around. Here are some other pictures of the engine room.

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The passenger side door handle that needs some work.

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Lastly the rear valance that has me looking for a clean replacement

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Mike

That looks like a later 2.0 to me. I haven't the foggiest on that labeling.

Black cars and their owners are way sexier than all the other colors combined, so rest assured, you are going to be fine.

Most, (maybe all) 1973 2.0L came with the appearance group, center console, chrome bumpers, etc...but 1974 2.0L to drop the price the package was dropped unless ordered. So they came with what ever was ordered by either the dealer or a customer, lots of 74 2.0Ls without extras to keep the cost down.

The emission label indicates it was originally a 1.8L EC engine in the car but the pictures are of a 2.0L intake with a 75/76 air cleaner housing.

So probably is a 2.0L engine transplanted into a 1.8L car, unless you are after originality it is a great upgrade IMHO.

Jim

Thanks again to everyone for all the information. I know the car was originally white (hopefully that doesn't cost me too many sexy points) and was apparently redone in CA sometime before coming to Illinois 14 years ago. Seems likely the engine was upgraded at that time. I've always been a bit of a hot rodder and didn't want something super original. A super original car wouldn't really fit well with the rest of the fleet.

Wow, that was a quick couple of years. I've sorted out a few of the car's issues since 2016 but mostly I've just been driving it. I hate for it to not be in a running state even for a day.

It developed a fuel leak in the garage last week so I'm finally in the process of installing Tangerine Racing SS fuel lines. After getting the tank out I noticed the blower motor hose connection was broken. Any tips on repairing the broke connector? I'm thinking epoxy.
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Beautiful car.

I think I used JB Weld on mine. I haven't put it back in the car yet, but seems like a solid repair. I think I read somewhere that someone put a sleeve in there for reinforcement. Not a bad idea.

Those types of clamps are notorious for breaking things.
1 - get a piece of steel tubing, stainless if you can find it, and inset in in the plastic pipe.
2 - use a soldering iron to tie the two pieces of plastic back together.
3 - If the tube insert is still loose, coat the outside steel tube with epoxy and put it back.
4- Make V-groove in the outside of the plastic tube where you heated them back together.
5 - Coat outside with epoxy, just enough to fill in the V-Groove.
6 - Let the epoxy dry and sand it smooth.
7 - do not re-install the same clamp. Get one of the later VAG band clamps. They install the same way, but are flat bands instead of ring clamps. Or use a screw clamp.

Greg W.

Looks clean. I like it. Welcome.