I purchased my 72 914 from the owner of a body shop back in February of 2016. This is what it looked like when I paid for it:



The car is a 1.7 L with dual carbs. Prior to my purchase, owner had already acquired factory AC parts and started to install fiberglass body kit including fender flares.

I opted to pay owner to finish the body and paint work prior to delivery.

I decided to paint it black as that was the base color in door jams and trunk already.

Here are some shots of the progress during body work:

more during body work and paint

After paint and buffing:



Brought it home to start work on my side. Next step on the car would be interior.

From this:


To this:

After interior, got the car back in my workshop. My son's Bradley GT II in the shot as well.




Once I got the car running again, discovered I had a bad cylinder. Busted valve spring/valve/pushrod. Can't remove the head with the engine in the car so a couple of friends came over and helped me drop the powerplant.




Now that the engine is out, decision time. WRX Conversion is what I'm thinking. Will be searching the site for info on how to approach the conversion.

Very nice! Liking that interior too!!

While still planning to go the Subaru WRX route, I would like to start driving the car now as the weather in Phoenix starts to improve. I need to repair the damage caused by busted valve spring and intend to put the stock 1.7 back in the car as I accumulate the parts for the Subie conversion.

Yesterday, I tore down the motor to the point I could pull the bad head. Looks like I only need to replace the head, broken valve and spring. I'm surprised at how difficult it is to find a pushrod for this car. I expected them to be more common and available.

Here are some shots of the current progress.

Nice work on the car. If you're still looking for a pushrod, check with Stuttgart Southwest or Competition Engineering. They will have one.

Thanks. I tried BAP (Parts Authority) and no go. Dougs Bugs and Bunnies first, then Dan at Competition Engineering, then on to Jack at Stuttgart SW.

Great looking car, love the interior.

That car screams for something more fun than a 1.7 for sure, I'm betting those rims/tires weigh a good amount for that little motor

Yep. Plan is to drive it with the 1.7 over this fall/winter here in Phoenix as I accumulate the parts for the Subaru conversion. I'm planning on doing a turbo EJ20.

I picked up the replacement push tube last night from Doug's Bugs and Bunnies. Need to clean up the head, and get it all back together. Will do my best to keep this thread current.

Very nice. Looks great! When you get to the conversion maybe you can fab some mounts so that the radiator hangs outside of the front trunk just behind the big front air dam. Looks like there's a lot of room up there. That way you keep the whole front trunk space. Enjoy it for now though!

Your car looks really great. Did you do the upholstery yourself? It's a nice, modern upgrade.

Thanks Chris. When I do the conversion, I'm adding AC. Need to find a place for the AC condenser as well so I've got some puzzle pieces to work out.



Thanks. I got a guy for that He is amazing. He has done a couple projects for me.

I wanted something custom, but not outrageous. He made the door panels from scratch and took a POS dash and converted it to what you see.

edit. I'm working 2 914 Projects at the same time. I want to get the 72 roadworthy and enjoy it while I focus on my 71 with subie conversion. Therefore, keeping the 1.7 in the 72 (for now).

Been a while since I had time to work on the 72 so I figured I would update the build thread.

Over the holidays, I rebuilt the motor, got it running, and put it back in the car. Couple videos:

Test running engine before install

Running engine after install

Moved on to the brakes and had to replace the master cylinder as well as the front brake lines. Was able to use a Rock Auto master cylinder but had to reuse my brake light switch.

Moved on to the inside of the car and replaced the gas pedal. That was a nighmare. Had to drill out the 2 bolts that held it down and redrill holes. But pedal works good.

Now I'm on to electrical. Need to get the gauges working.

Progress:

Got all the gauges working including the tach. I've got a blinking red light on one of the gauges (see my thread on this one here: http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=304675

Had to replace the turn signal switch and ignition switch. Was able to follow the very good instructions from Pelican Parts forum for both.

More to follow.

Brief update on the project. I've had a few other threads to address some of the electrical problems I've been fighting. Thanks to help from this forum and some of my local friends and resources, I was able to solve the biggest of the electrical issues:

Blinking red light on the dash issue resolved by pulling the bulb.
Other electrical issues related to flasher relay resolved by removing a bad bulb socket.
Headlight relay replaced.
Tail light wiring addressed.
Learned that it is important to not screw through the main harness running through the center of the car when mounting the arm rest.

Once the electrical was repaired, I put the car back together. Some upgrades included new window cranks, a new steering wheel and repairing the exterior door handles so they work.

Fired up the car and took it for a drive last weekend. Was happy until I stopped and got out and saw the oil leak.

Turns out one of the push tube seals was leaking. So I pulled the motor and trans to address.




As long as I had the motor out a second time, I decided to do some serious cleaning and detailing. Yesterday was clean and paint day.

In order to replace the push tube seals, I removed the valve cover and knew that I could push the tubes out through the head once the rocker arm assembly had been removed.

Unfortunately, as I was removing one of the assemblies, this piece broke:



I can't finish the job without replacing it. I've got a friend in Seattle that has a nice supply of used parts and he is sending me a new rocker assembly. Should be here Tuesday. Meanwhile, today was spent finish spraying the paint and starting to put the tins back on.






As I'm running dual carbs, I also separated carbs from intakes and and soaking the intakes to get them clean. I've got new air cleaners on order as well.

I'm sorry ....that 914 needs a V8

It definitely needs more HP to match the look of the car. But I'm going to finish this one, sell it, and then focus on my 71 with the Subaru drive train. So next owner of this car gets to decide what power plant they want.

Finished getting the tins on and mounted the carbs. Spark plug wires and coils hooked back up.

Next is air cleaners and replace the rocker assembly that I broke. Parts showed up last night.

The new air cleaners that I received did not fit on the carbs. So I cleaned and painted the old housings. Will need to get new filter elements, but bolted back on.

Also finished rest of wiring. Just need to adjust valves before I put it back in the car.

Motor back in

Car is back together and on the road. Compared to my subaru powered 71 914, this 1.7L motor is a dog. Really needs more HP. I've got the car for sale so that I can focus on the 71, but if no one grabs it, I may sell the 71 instead and move forward with subaru coversion on this car. I've already got an engine and trans for it...

I've also started to do some of the detail work on this 72. I installed wiper blades, stereo, and now working on window seals. 914Rubber provided the product and Mikey has a good write up on how to do it. But what a PITA some of these pieces (like the triangle seals) are.

Driver side window seals replaced. Still need to do the passenger side as well as the seal at the base of the windshield in the car. Needs main targa seal as well.

Had the car polished and waxed today. Looks fantastic.