What a great step, congrats!!

Antoine

Well done Dion...just something about a yellow fan shroud !

Where did you get that horn from? What type of mods did you need to do to mount it??

@pete-stevers I made a small bracket that went into the original horn mount. I purchased that particular horn from a fellow in Sweden. The GT cars ran them. I wanted a piece of the action it’s loud.

https://pbase.com/9146gt/factory_oem_9146gt..._fanfaren_horns

Are you bringing it to Carlisle swap this year??

Looks like it will be ready.

Just want to say thanks for the compliments. Michael your cars an inspiration. Thank you: @ndfrigi , @9146C , @Cairo94507 , @TRS63 ,@Maltese Falcon.
Marty that #40 is looking so amazing. I want to see that in person one day!

@Olympic 914 Tom that is very much my intention this spring.

I want to thank you guys for getting me through this endeavor and all the help with obtaining parts. Wealth of knowledge here. Very much appreciated. Still have a bit more to add before it’s wrapped up. @914dave , @mepstein @tygaboy @rgalla9146 , @Keith Von-Laws, @bbrock , @mb911 , @Eric Shea, @porschetub

More to come.

Keep the pic's rolling. . . . it's been a few pages Want to see video when this rolls!

I am so happy your wrapping this up. Very cool.

Well, it isn't the sweet clackety-clack of a /4 now is it? But I guess it will do

Seriously though - how AWESOME!!!!! What a truly huge milestone. You are the MAN!

Fantastic ! Persistance pays.
Great work Dion.
Beautiful job. Great to see.

Rock On!!!! Do you remember how do drive a stick? It's been a while

Hahahahaha I missed these the first time. I've got the compact version, where the trumpet is circular. And mine are LOUD. Hahahaha, I can't imagine how loud yours will be. And the fact that you got those to fit. They'll know you are there. Beautiful car dude.

Took my first “official” run in the six. Picked it up from my mechanics shop yesterday evening. He went and tuned the carbs, set timing, cured a uncooperative valve cover leak. Warped cover. Plus a 4 wheel alignment.
Wow can’t be more pleased. Love the low end torque. Brakes are awesome (Thanks @Eric_Shea ) Looking forward to taking her on the long run out to the Carlisle Swap meet.

https://youtu.be/nFRTbrAZldg


Ben @mb911 muffler does the job!

Cheers

Love the video! Sounds perfect, good exhaust note.

Awesome.

amazing sound Dion! congratulations!

How cool, congrats!!
Antoine

Congratulations on the milestone!

She sounds great!

There is absolutely nothing like the "first drive". That can only happen once. Awesomely great that yours went so well. BIG congrats. You earned the right to be very proud, my friend. So cool...

YES !!!!!
I'm so happy for you.
Sounds great a runs beautifully !
What a great accomplishment.
Beautiful. Enjoy it.

Wow Dion, congratulations. I left off right before you got the engine running, I am so happy to see that not only does it run but you are driving your car now. What a great accomplishment. Best to you.

That shroud is sort of special.

Your car sounds as great as it looks - congrats!

I look forward to seeing it tomorrow at Carlisle.

Thanks for the kind words and compliments fellas, I truly appreciate it.

Spent the day today sorting a fuel feed leak. I believe it is now ok. Also was getting a few backfires. Might be too rich. Also temps were cold past days. Today being a bit warmer it calmed down. It’ll be a long test tomorrow heading to Carlisle.
It’s first Turnpike cruise in 7 years. Spiffed er up a little today as well. Mark & Bob see ya tomorrow all things being equal.

Dion- your car is looking terrific; are you planning to run a rear valance?

Saw it in person today. Pictures don’t do it justice.

Had to replace the previous fuel gauge with a new one. Found one that works very closely per VDO with the 914 sender. I’m not needing exact parameters. I’ll rely on the yellow warning lamp for when we hit the 1
gallon area. The gauge part # was VDO-301-020 if interested.
I never saw a fuel pointer go down as you put more fuel in maybe was reading the amount of cash in my wallet. Anyway it stopped working altogether after that so purchased the new one.

In addition to the bumper mounted trumpet ( say that 3 times fast), horn. I believe you can’t have too many horns in a small car. So… I added some Italian trumpets under the bonnet. Loud as hell. Plenty of decibels when the lid is shut.

Bet this will make people get out of the way

Uggh, might be lagging and limping going to the NE gathering. The old cast iron distributor is complaining. It’s out of advance. It’s tired.
Thinking about that 123 Distributor.
Sent them an email to see which one is suitable for my set up.
Also have cylinder #4 showing signs of poor performance. Leak down showed all cylinders healthy at 7-10% except #4 was showing near 60%!
Stuck or broken ring?, Valve too tight or stuck in guide? Oh well, find out over coming week. Have to open up that valve cover and see.
I guess the honeymoon is over
It was running so well. Maybe i expected too much from the motor, it was sleeping for nearly 7 years.

Sorry to hear about the bad news Dion. Let me know what you find on the 123 end, I was thinking about making the switch on my 2.4. Praying that the leak down being low is something simple and not a rebuild.

Ugh. These cars... I'm working through teething problems with my E9 and have had to be towed home on two separate occasions in the month I've had it back on the road. What immediately pops into my head is "Screw this, I'll sell it." Hey, with my 914, I already have a car that always needs something!

But more than one person has reminded me by saying something to the effect of "these are the things we have to get through to get our wonderful (old!) cars dialed in..."

I get how deflating it can be, believe me. All I can offer is that once it's resolved, these sorts of things become part of the rich, historical record you have with your wonderful creation.

Hang in there, my friend. You will persevere!

@nditiz1 , @tygaboy thanks guys appreciate the encouragement. Sorry about the E9 Chris. Yes you are familiar all too well with re configuring and starting over. Perseverance for sure. Yeah will get to bottom of it whatever it will be.
Nick I will let you know what they say.
Cheers, fellas!

Dion - that sweet 914 better be at the NE Gathering. You have two weeks. Lots of time. let me know if you need someone to hold a flash light....I will send Tony.

Thanks Ralph, Hmmm Tony, He just told me creamsicle is being disagreeable. He’s gonna need a hand with his baby.

Hi Dion - Sorry about the leak down problem- hopefully it is a simple fix.

Hopefully just a temporary, and minor setback.

Right, update.
So a couple of things. All you experienced fellas know all to well a sitting engine is not happy. I knew going into this that the engine was an unknown quantity.
I spent many hours on the phone with the seller he did all he could to preserve the engine. It still sat 6 years at my home plus the 2-3 after he took it out of previous machine. Did another leak down test and compression test. All cylinders but #4 are good. Checked it out next with a scope. Found out that #4 had a lot of crusty carbon sitting on the piston top as well as the valves. Some rust in certain areas noted as well. Rings are prolly suffering for sure. The other cylinders were a little crusty too but not as bad. My daily driver mechanic with many year of experienced suggested a chemical treatment. So using some nasty rocket fuel kind of stuff, the Webers swallowed this mixture. Ha we created a fog that could rival London! No mosquitoes here now.
Did this procedure twice. Scoped it again. Low and behold, could not believe how much crap it cleaned off. Mind you it is still coated in areas but significantly cleaned up.
Today, fellow 914 enthusiast and friend Howard came by to help with the 123Ignition dizzy install.
After some minor setbacks it was in and set up. Amazing difference! Took a couple quick runs and it was night and day. Howard then wasn’t happy with the carbs. He adjusted them for me and wow. This thing does not act like it has poor compression.
The overrun throttle backfires have almost become non existent.
Just sharing the up beat news. I was already on the phone with Mepstein
getting ready to line up parts orders. I will eventually. It will need a freshening but for now going to drive the piss out of it! See ya at the gathering.
Bloody hell it better not rain! I’ll have to do my best Schumacher rainmeister at the wheel.
I still need tyres!
Cheers all.

Excellent news, Dion!

I love it when a plan comes together.

Well that is good news. Those things can get scary expensive quickly.

So I had an additional “lollipop” lite from when i ordered the yellow one for a low fuel warning indicator. Did not know what I was going to use it for. I noticed I had lost the little green lite for the parking lamps when i switched to the 911 oil gauges and had the center tach redone. It’s a bit overkill but it was another excuse to have a 910,917 lite in the car.
My ashtray had been history for a while as I had my stopwatches and Halda mounted in the car previously. So cut another small steel plate and punched a hole in it. Applied the appropriate vinyl trim and walla!
No excuse for having low battery due to lites being left on I left room toward the left of the piece in case of a needed switch or maybe run a USB port there.
Thankfully car has been running nicely.

PS: I did tack back down that flap that’s curling!

Who did your leather dash? I went back through your build back to page 40 where it went in but I don't see a mention of who did the work recovering it.

I really like the look of a leather dash.

@Superhawk996 , Thanks Phil, I purchased that from fellow member sixaddict here back in 2018.
I can’t recall who had done it for him or if he did it. It is in great shape. Well made.
Hope all is going well. Especially with your relocation.

Went back to the factory steering wheel. Did not like, not seeing all the gauges completely. May try the larger Prototipo one day, I’ll see.

Mark always has the good stuff

I've seen a few sources for them but always nice to see one that was well done rather than going it blind with an unknown vendor.

Luckily, I've got at least a year before I need to worry about it. Next year will be earmarked to build a garage. Then I can get back to getting the 914 on the road.

Keep up the nice work on yours! I don't comment here often enough but watch it and really appreciate how yours has come together and the tidbits on the /6 conversion details. Loved the video of the 1st drive - a six just sounds right to me.