The first car I ever bought was a 71 914. I bought it a few weeks after I turned 18. It was red with a 916 style front bumper, American Racing wheels, and a VW bus engine. I should have taken pictures.
I started disassembling it right before I went off to college. I never drove it again and sold it as a basket case three years later.

My second 914 was a project when I bought it. No transmission or engine because the PO had pulled the Buick grand National engine out of it a couple years before I bought it. It had a Chalon kit and the targa bar had been cut off. At some point the PO had added and then removed Testarossa style side bars on it and had not cleaned up the mess. It appeared to be in good shape but as I started to work on it I found the PO was really good at covering rust with fiberglass. I dumped it for a loss soon after.

Here is my third attempt at 914 ownership. The transmission for my 1990 922 S2 Cab is in the process of being rebuilt and I was checking Craigslist for a cheap transmission to throw in while I wait for my good trans to be finished. I didn't find any cheap 944 transmissions but I did find a VERY cheap 914. It looked/looks ugly but it has almost no structural rust. The battery tray is gone but the hell hole has just one smallish hole. I will have a patch panel made to replace any weak metal in the area. On the outside of the car, the PO went nuts with black spray paint over grey primer.

I've cleaned up most of the black spray paint and some of the primer.
The wheels are off and will be media blasted and repainted and I'll throw some basic tires on them for moving the car around during the rebuild.

The car is going to be stripped of paint, bondo, and rust by a dustless media blasting company before I decide what direction to go with the bodywork. The options are stock, steel flares, Sheridan kit, or slight flaring of the stock fenders.
There are some issues with the existing stock fenders so making major changes won't be messing up a pristine original example.
Here are the pics of how it looked the night it came off the truck from the PO. Years of grime and neglect hid a decent set of bones.

Here it is after it's first bath in years. It's still ugly.
You can see some of the bondo/bodywork issues I have to fix.

Here are some pictures after I removed most of the nasty black spray paint.
It's has gone from ugly to project potential.

hiding in plain sight. nice save. good. luck.

Can't wait to see it after you have it blasted. I am hoping the 3rd time is a charm for you.

This looks interesting. Although I am sad that you removed catwoman from the passenger sail.

Hey Arizona;
Nice find especially 'cause you had enough sense to look under her dirty skirt.
Don't forget to register the VIN and chassis number under the 914 Info members section, (tab on the upper right) to give her a proper pedigree.
Good luck and

Opps , I mean Welcome Back !!

I got a little more cleanup done.
I had the old, flat, rotted tires dismounted so I could clean up the wheels a little before mounting temporary tires to roll it around on during the rebuild. A little work with a wire wheel and some silver spray paint does wonders for a short term solution.

It has 3 original steel wheels and one replacement that is wider than the other three.

Now I'm looking for a place to buy 4 cheap temporary tires.
Anyone got a set of cheap tires or cheap tires and rims they want to sell?

I like where this is going. Good Luck!

I am pretty sure that car was an extra in movie "Escape From LA"

Could be.
It started life in Cali, escaped to Nevada and ended up in Phoenix.
Nothing like work on a project outside when it is 105 to 115.
On the bright side, the spots I sanded last week have no rust. It really is a dry heat.

Slow progress.

That is the way nature intended a 914 to be stored.

Got tires mounted and put some primer on to keep surface rust down until I can get it to the media blaster.

I love those steelies.

Thanks! I like them more than I thought I would.


Three are original and one is a wider aftermarket replacement. One of the originals is bent quite a bit in the center. It does not mount flush.

The steel wheels were made in both 4 1/2" and 5 1/2" widths. Size is stamped on them (4 1/2J or 5 1/2J)

Love your car

A little more clean up. The floor pan rust looks bad in these pictures but is just surface rust. The hell hole is a little worse than I though but should be an easy fix. The longs are SOLID! Although it does look like the passenger side jack mount has had a little welding done on it.

More pics

Picked up a side shift trans off craigslist tonight.

I need to start gathering parts. My son turns 15 in May and we hope to have this running by the time he turns 16. We will be sharing the work load of getting it restored. I'll be keeping detailed records on all expenses and the car remains mine unless/until he buys me out(no free lunch for my kids).

My (dad)priorities for this build are good brakes(so he can stop(no accidents)), good suspension(so he can turn and avoid things(no accidents)), good interior(safe and comfortable place to focus on driving), good looking exterior(high school is more fun with a cool car), and I'm thinking a 1.7 liter engine with two cylinders disabled(hard to get in trouble when it is slower than a schwinn).


I may have to enter it in the next build off challenge and I will be doing my part to help fund Mike's retirement at 914rubber. I foresee a substantial amount of $$ passing from me to him in the next 1.5 years.

I am starting to look for a seriously low powered engine for this project. Once my son has had time time drive it for a while with low power we will start looking for something with more.

Anyone around the southwest have an old, gutless 1.7 they want to part with cheap?

I found the answer to my engine question. Someone had a 1.8 they were willing to part with cheap.

I picked up a 1.8 liter engine off craigslist that was taken out of a running car. The price was amazing for a running engine. It got better when I went to pick it up. It included everything but the transmission. Engine, tins, complete injection system with ecu and harness, complete exhaust with stainless heat exchangers were all part of the deal.

I would normally question the truth of a claim that it came out of a running car but I trust the word of the guy(s) who sold it to me. I bought it from Patrick Motorsports. It was pulled out of a car that got one of their 6 conversions.

It is a good day.
I want to throw out a huge thank you to the guys at PMS for helping me get it loaded in my vehicle.

I'll take pics next week, I gotta get packed for end of season ski weekend.

BTW, How do I get put on the list for the 2018 build-off challenge? Things are starting to come together but I have no chance of finishing by 9/14 of this year. The goal is to finish a little before that next year so my son can drive it to high school the first day of his sophomore year.

Rented an 1800 sq/ft warehouse/industrial space today.

I got the car moved into the new space today. I still have a lot to do to the space before I get serious about the car but I am happy to have made progress.

I've also attached pictures of the 1.8 I picked up from PMS. I'll get it mounted on an engine stand in the next few days and start tearing it down for cleanup/rebuild.

Those look like SS heat exchangers to me. Do they look like SS to you?

The work crew.

Temporary home/rehabilitation center.

Another shot of the crew.
Nathan is in the back. We are building this for him to drive. He turns 15 in a few days so we have just over a year to bring it to life. 2018 Build-off challenge, here we come.

Once it is done, I have about 2 years to build the next one. That one may not be a 914 but he wants to keep it in the family. He is leaning more toward a Boxster or preferably a Cayman. He loves anything to do with reptiles so a Cayman would be perfect. I then have 3 years to build something with the last of my crew(not shown, he is at home doing homework that he should have finished yesterday ).

Unfortunately, no. Those are stock '75/'76 exchangers and they are the least desirable ones out of all of them.


PS: Your engine appears to be a '75 1.8L with at least some of the smog equipment still intact. If you don't need any of that for your car, you might be able to sell that stuff, those parts are hard to come by.

Looks like two different color injectors in the pic. What's on the other side

Nice project.....I will donate my good spare side shift if you can pick up in so cal.

Let me know.

That is a really nice offer. I will take it.

Although as with most things in life, nothing is ever "Free". Your "Free" offer is costing me a bunch of money.
As soon as a mentioned, "Drive to LA", my wife suggests spending a day at Universal Studios so now I have hotel and admission tickets to buy.



In all seriousness, I truly appreciate your offer and I will send you a PM to work out the details.



I haven't had a chance to check the engine in detail. I will check the other injectors when I get back to the shop later this week.

I have been on other forums and it is the people/members that make 914world such a great place.

After meeting Oscar and spending a little time with him, that belief in the people of 914world is even stronger. If any of you are in the So. Cal. area and get a chance to hang out with him, don't pass it up.


Oscar, thank you so much for your generosity and your hospitality. My family and I had a great time meeting you and seeing your cars and garage. We will keep in touch and make sure you see our project in person after it is finished. I don't know if it will be done in time for Fontana next year but definitely the following year.

I order to keep my name out of the slacker thread, I gathered up all the parts here at the house and dropped them off the shop.

Excited to see the progress, love to see full projects like this built from cars in that shape, bringing the life out of a car is what I like most from these.

Not a lot of progress.
I got most of the parts and some tools taken down to the shop.

The body has more issues than I thought. The fenders and quarters all have "issues", heavy bondo, etc, so we are going a different direction.

I picked up a complete NIB Chalon kit from a member here for a great price. I figured it would be much easier and cheaper to remove the messed up quarters and fenders than it would be to fix them.

My son wants to paint it Mexico blue and do the interior in Porsche's current color Bordeaux. I think Mexico blue will look great but I'm not so sure on the Bordeaux interior. We have some time to go over interior color options so we may come up with something totally different.

Work is going slow.
I have the first fender off.

Running up to SLC next week to pick up a 911 front suspension from a 914world member, a 75 parts car and a trailer to bring them all home in.

Salt Lake City trip was a success. picked up a parts car from Steve who is not on 914World and and a 911 front suspension from Ric Birks who is.

Both are great guys. I wish Steve was here to post pics of the 914 he is building. I can't wait to see Ric's 914 when he gets it done.

For now, here is a picture of the suspension, parts car and my middle son who tagged along to help lift, push, and whatever was required to get things on the trailer.
He got to have some fun on the trip in addition to the work. He got to check a few items off his bucket list. 50 BMG, 500 S&W, and an MP5.


I'll be stripping several parts off the car and then parting the rest.
The fenders are fiberglass.
There is a lot of rust but there are some good body sections as well.
Let me know if anyone needs any specific sections and I can take pictures.

Step by step!

My 16 year old son, "The Stripper"







Car stripper.
We started stripping the parts we need off the parts car.
Started with the front trunk lid and moved on to the headlights.

This is where we stopped for the night.




I forgot to take pictures of the 911 suspension we got from Ric.

I need to find out what kind of brakes we got so we can send them back up to SLC so PMB can do a rebuild.



Nathan and I will be picking up the pace so he can drive it to school this fall.
I was hoping to have it 100% complete this year but now we are looking at getting it 100% mechanical/drivable this summer and we will worry about finishing bodywork and paint next summer.

Great to see you getting your son out there to help!

Looks like he is enjoying himself.

He is enjoying it and I'm loving the time we spend together. I've got two years before he heads out to college and they are going to go by way too fast.
I remember the very first time I held him the day he was born like it was yesterday and today I rode shotgun with him driving on the freeway for the very first time.
Excuse my french but, how the hell did he go from a newborn to driving in the blink of an eye????



This went from my car to our father/son project and the plan is that it will be his car in the end.

He just finished drivers ed yesterday and did great. Now he needs to learn to drive a manual so I will be taking him out in my 944 while we get the 914 running.

Looking for some advice/information.

I am trying to clean up the engine a bit before installing it.
It looks like the intake plenum is attached to the engine case by bolts that hold the case together.
Is that correct?
If I remove those bolts will I risk causing an oil leak? I know they are on the top of the case so any leak/seep should be small but I don't want to go down that road if I can help it.

The engine came from a good running car. It was pulled out by PMS for one of their 3.8 6 conversions.

No problem, just unbolt it and take it off. Re-torque all the case bolts when you put everything back together and you'll be fine.

Thanks for the info Mark.

On to my next question.

Does anyone know which version of 911 M-caliper brakes are these? The 69 model year or the non-69 model year?

another brake pic

last brake pic

Pulled the rear hubs and sent them off to Bruce to set up as 5 lug hubs.