Hello! Newb, Brad here
While searching for a Miata project, a neighbor of my parents called up and offered to sell me his 914 that he had aspirations of restoring, but obviously never got around to. I'm a sucker for neglected classics and couldn't let it continue to rot away. A couple texts of pictures later, and we struck a deal on this crusty 1970 914.
Managed to drag the car home a couple weeks later. It's a little rustier than I had originally thought, but it's complete. Being an Alabama car, how bad could it be? Haha. Haven't really had any free time to get started on it, but here's what I'm working with. I know the FI has been replaced with a carb and I couldn't find any of the ID numbers on the engine case. It did turn over with the starter and the fuel pump came to life, but no spark.
Before I start tearing into this thing, what have I gotten myself into?

Pull the side valances to check the condition of the longs. One of those pics has some rust around the bottom bolt that attaches the two together. Also. look beneath the battery and check the condition of the steel beneath it. Then pull the carpet and check the floor pans. More especially the area where the pedal assm bolts to the floor. That will get you started. There are a few more areas to check later.

There are several things to look out for when buying a 914.

I'm going to list them in order:

- Rust you see (about 10% of what's actually there)
- Rust you can infer
- Rust you haven't found yet
- More rust you haven't found yet
- And just when you thought you were done finding rust, you'll find some more



PS:

Welcome to the madness. As stated previously:
The longs, battery tray and below (hell hole). For starters.
As Andy said rust & more rust. No galvanized metal on these cars!
I thought my car was sound.... um not so much, I've owned it over
20 years.
Looks like you have a decent challenge ahead of you.
Good luck. You won't find a better place for info, advice (good & bad ),
& a good time for all things 914.

Ah,

Andy is just a glass half empty kind of guy.

But when you empty the glass, look underneath, there will probably be some rust.....

Happy St. Paddy's.

Welcome to the World and the madness. No matter what you think, it will require 3x the work you expect, but that work will be 4x as much fun as on any other car except maybe a VW Bus...IMO. And they're easy to play with.

Start from the bottom up looking for rust, if you see rust try the screwdriver trick. But regardless, if you see rust you can count on it being on both sides of whatever piece you're looking at. By the time you've fixed what the body needs you will either have given up or be so obsessed that 914World is your homepage and will just know what to do next by then. So just start surveying the rust and don't plan tooooooo far ahead just yet.

On a side note of no importance, I'm wanting a white 1970 for my next project, so if you give up on it and I'm back in KY...

It does not look too bad. Clean it up and get it running. You can decide how much you want to fix it up from there. Lots of help here. Best car forum on the web!

Looks like a lot of fun and a bit of work

Easy to work on and a joy to drive. Pretty much sums it up for me.

Be systematic in your approach to the car and stay organized and you will be OK.

...of madness really,I bought a car with no work to do on the body,really hoped you paid little for it cause bodywork sucks away money and interest real quick.
Go for it and make it go that's what folks do on here,you will spend too much but you will enjoy the car.

Before you go nuts getting it running and driving, survey the gas lines. Its common for the original brittle lines to be toast by now, wouldn't want to see your project go up in smoke

I missed it: Which direction did the $$$$$$ change hands??
And what's your ultimate goal, just something you can drive around safely and reliably in??

That air cleaner is awesome.

Great color combo! Really like the white steelies.

Thanks for the welcomes guys!
I bought the car with a Subie swap in mind, but I'm still trying to decide what I want to do with it. Time is my enemy with stuff like this. My work schedule is entirely random. Corporate pilot life doesn't really mesh well with this hobby. The car is also 3.5hrs away at my dad's shop and I'm juggling two other project cars too. I may just survey the rust, get it running as-is, and pass it on to someone that can care for it more than myself.

Holy Crap!. Don't tell me all this talk about rust has you thinking you'll sell the car! Don't let them spook you. It might be fine! Figure out if the rust makes the car unsafe. If the car is still safe, maybe spray some rust converter on it, get it running and bond with the car for a while before tearing it apart. If you spray the right stuff on it and keep it in the garage, you've got a few years to play with the car. I've seen it so many times...people buy a car and ambitiously tear it apart only to lose patience then give up on it and sell it as a project. Don't do that. I counsel people to bond with their "new-to-them" classic car for a while. If you need to weld splints to the longs to make that possible, then do that. Give yourself a chance to enjoy the car before doing anything rash.

Here's the plan:

1. Inspect the car for safety.
2. Get it running and stopping. If you can't do that yourself because you're too busy, pay someone to do it.
3. Use paint restoring polish and upholstery cleaner to make it nice on the cheap
4. Drive the car plenty.
5. Worry about what comes next later.

I am going against the grain here, I think your making a wise choice. Personally I wouldn't even take the time to get it runnng. Just flip it. Even if your 914 was relativity rust free your still looking at a complete resto with just about everything needing replacement. My advise would be to buy a close to perfect 914 then make your motor/brake upgrade as needed.