So I've recently looked at another 914 for sale. It's a very nice car on the outside, but when the owner told me its completely rust free of course I was suspicious. I found two small holes in the hell hole area. Generally, the underbody of the car is solid and the door gaps are good.

Attached are some pictures of the hell hole area which is the only rust I could find. I have not seen the longs with the rockers off, but I did get under the car on a lift.

Image 1 - the hell hole from the top
Image 2 - looking at another spot, below the hell hole from under the car.
Image 3 - Not sure if this helps, but it is a shot behind the rocker on the passenger side.

Assuming there isn't any more, is this rust a minimal repair? Would cutting out around the two holes and welding a small patch be a good repair or would it take more work? Note, this is not meant to be a project car, but some repairs are OK.

Well, depending on how long that hole has been there, you can imaging all the acid laced water that went trough that hole right inside the backbone of the car.
Judging from this, i'd say there's some more rust in the long below.

Hard to say how much, but simply patching the hole is not going to fix the rust inside the long ...

The surrounding area that is pitted is bad metal also.

If you don't see bumps on the rocker under that spot where the water would be sitting, you're in decent shape.

Looks pretty typical. I would say you could patch it pretty easily once you found the extent of the thin metal. Expect to have to patch the right side vertical piece as well.

I suppose that means removing the rear quarter panel to access it from the outside?

No. He meant the part behind the pump and filter.

I actually meant the part behind th battery, its always patchy.

But the piece behind the filter and pump are bad as well and need to be replaced. Its technically part of the engine shelf and not that structural.

I've seen fully repaired and painted hell holes cut up for other reasons and rust sitting inside the longs. There's rust in there, I guarantee it. Its more a matter of how much, and what you have left if you can stop it. Go deeper and find all of it and just ask if you can live with it.

Yes I agree. The vertical section behind the fuel pump would need to be patched. Besides that and the small hole on top (and maybe the screwed in battery tray), everything else looks pretty solid.

Is it safe to say this car could be driven for a few years without much concern?

Should be, but rust spreads. Grab some kind of rust spray to seal the areas currently until you have time to address it.

The rust should really be treated if you wouldn't fix it right away.

The engine shelf is not my "vertical" part

I'd buy and drive that car if everything else fit my liking. I'd put the value of the repairs at $500 for my time and new sheet metal, and I would start with a good cleaning...

Way worse than that. The second layer of metal is intact. I agree there needs to be some work done to clean and neutralize the acid inside the long but not too bad.

Thanks for everyone's input, but I got outbid by a good amount. The car ended up selling on eBay for just over $12k. That's ok with me. If anything this just helps me learn more about what to look for. I wonder though how many bid on it without knowing about the rust since the seller wasn't exactly straight forward about it. I was lucky to be local and see it first hand.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/301966219889?redirect=mobile

good for you for doing your homework and not rushing to bid on the car. It does look very nice from the available photos, but pretty sure it wasn't a "bare metal" restoration as he claims.