Hi All,

First time posting so hope it's OK to post this here.

So, my new purchase has had a wide arch conversion in the 80s (i believe). The conversion is all metal so not fibreglass. It's also had a colour change, original colour was canary yellow L11E.

Firstly, I do like the wide arches at the rear as they can house some big original ATS wheels, but would it be worth reinstating the original arches?

Secondly, I prefer the car in red, but, as I'm fully restoring the car something is telling me that I should return it back to the factory colour. Would it be more desirable to go back to Canary yellow?

Finally, has anybody seen a wide arch conversion like this before?

Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Vin

Yellow vs red.

Hi, nice new project (and nice beetle in the back as well ) and welcome !
It is your car, but if the arches are done properly, I would leave them.
But....you mention " fully restoring the car" so that would mean to get rid of them.
I would however (if a paintjob is required) go back to original color for sure !

PS Yellow ones go faster, did you know that ?

Is it just the rears? Post some better pictures but from where I’m sitting, I’d say go GT or back to stock and Yellow ones are definitely faster.

I'll throw in my US $.03... If they're done right, I'd consider fairing out the tops to eliminate the sharp angle creating that "shelf" and take advantage of the extra width with some extra rubber

Welcome Vin,

My two penneth....

If you're spending money and time on a repaint, definitely go back to yellow, makes a better job on door, trunk, boot and engine bay miss matched colours and will add value back to the car in the long term.

Those rear arches look like someone horizontally slit the quarter, pulled it out and welded in a shelf !!!
The fronts wings look original

If it were mine I'd put it back to stock, as at the moment is not one thing or another (neither narrow body or all round flared) which will effect value and in my opinion just looks odd.

Plus financially it'd be better to fix the rear quarters than have to do all 4 arches.

At the end of the day its your car, so do what pleases you.

This.

That shelf is a crime against all car loving humanity. If you were considering removing the flares then you have the welding and body skill to fix them up proper.

Zach

Cut out those flares and install proper 914 GT steel flares all around.

Easy for me to say since it's not my money...

The flares aren't too terrible but agree the crease is unusual. If it were my car I'd definitely paint it the original code.

I say leave the bodywork as is and paint it whatever color pleases you. The car will never be original again, so don't waste money trying to make it look original. Its already been personalized, so make it reflect your personality. Yellow and red strips sounds good to me

I'd leave it or smooth the top of the flare to better flow into the stock body lines....that would be very cool!

You're at the beginning of a great journey and the final destination is up to you. Keep in mind that there's a difference between "original" and "stock". Since the car won't be "original", the pressure to keep it "stock" isn't as great.

Personally, I'd get the metal back to stock and repaint the Canary Yellow. Just because I like the factory look. But it also depends on what else you have planned for the car, and what your budget is. If you'd like a more powerful engine, carbs, a roll cage, transmission upgrades, etc, then the car won't be stock anyway...so I say do what makes you smile.

I'd get the car driving without restoring anything, drive it around, enjoy it for a year or so, figure out what would enhance your ownership then do that. It's hard to know what you want when you haven't been driving the car. Plus there are just too many cars on jack stands around here.

That's great point. If she's a runner, get out there and put some miles on her. Get to know her and enjoy her before putting it up on jack stands. Once they are up on jack stands they tend to not want to come down.

Cheers Frank, yep, I'm.leaning towards going back to yellow, my OCD would flare up if it didn't match the stamped paint code! I'll have to race a red one to test your theory.

Thanks all and thanks for the welcome. Some interesting views on the arches. Hadn't really thought of them looking like shelves! Think I'll go back to Canary yellow. Re the arches I'll see what's lurking under the paint and then do some soul searching.......... As long as I can get the thought of it looking like a subaru wrx out of my mind........Although a scooby engine is going into another vw beetle project. I'll post some pics when I've painted it. Cheers!

You said you like the red and you like the flares, so what's the point in doing a full resto? Unless you flip cars for the income, build the car you will enjoy the most.

Stock is over-rated. Driving isn't.

The flares remind me of one of my favorite rides, the Audi Coupe Quattro Turbo, world rally champion for several consequitive years in the 80s. Lancia's rally car also had similar flares - Delta. I owned an 85 Ur Quattro and it was quite the ride. Like this, with those great flares... So keep the flares, be unique and don't bow to the stuffy purists.Click to view attachment

The Quattro is one of my all time favourites too and I believe that the arch butchering was done in the 80s too so probably en vogue at the time. I'm leaning towards smoothing out the shelf, but I guess if it ain't broke, why fix it.

Some great valid points here, especially the fact that it isn't going to ever be original, so being unique definitely has its merits. The car is to be flipped so it's a balancing act between work done to get it mint whilst bearing in mind a niche market. Car has been in storage since the 90s and the red respray is awful and was done in acrylic so eitherway it has to go and redone in 2k. I was always brought up with the adage that red cars go faster, but clearly I was ignorant of the latent speed of yellow ones!

Next week it's engine time. Going to see if I can resurrect the injectors otherwise it may be dual webbers...... Or is that considered a crime against 914s?

why do you say that,very random reply,to me it is a fresh new way of pumping the rear out

It is. Specially if it's the only hickup. FI is worth the $100 to fix.

You seem to be confusing restoration with refresh. The latter is making a nice driver, the former is a detailed process of making the car as it left the factory.

My conditional opinion.
If you take the flairs out and go stock there, then you should go back to yellow. If you leave them, does the color really matter?

Point taken, we'll after much head scratcing and cursing I got her fired up on the injectors so they are here to stay. Hopefully tracked down some heat exchangers so next week she won't sound so shouty.
My bad, refresh it is. Going to go yellow as the more I stare at it the 80s guards red is more 944 than 914.