I'll apologize in advance for the long story!

I was in San Diego on business and was talking with some guys about cars at the bar one night. I mentioned that my favorite car was the Porsche 914 and one of the guys said that he had just seen a barn-find on eBay. I checked it out and it looked great, and it was in Portland. So I change my plane tickets and went to Portland to see it.

Some guy had started to restore it for his son in 2001, but in about 2006 his son decided he wanted a 911, so the guy just let it sit until he sold the farm, and the buyer found that in addition to the farm, he now owned a 914.

The guy had replaced all brake rotors, springs, shocks, torsion bars, rebuilt all calipers, replaced bushings in front swing arms and rear trailing arms with the bronze bushings with grease fittings, and replaced the gas lines with stainless. He also rebuilt the transmission and replaced the original 1.7 with a 2.0.

It's a 1973 and there is virtually no rust. I had bought a 73 in 1978, and in those 5 years both jack posts were gone, the battery tray was gone and you could see the road at the bottom of the hell hole. But that was Scranton PA with tons of salt on the road. This is 44 years old and no rust - just amazing!

When I got there it did not run since he had no fuel injection or carbs, and the new owner had no idea what the background of the engine was. Based upon the looks of the heads and other components, it obviously was not rebuilt.

He also had the original 1.7 with FI and exhaust system, 2 transmissions, extra muffler for the 2.0, many many boxes of parts, and a set of shop manuals on CD.

So I bought it, rented a U-Haul with a trailer, loaded up the car and all the spare parts and drove it home to South Carolina, through a treacherous blizzard in Wyoming and Nebraska. What a ride!

When I got it home, I clean it up, replaced the oil, adjusted the valves, check the compression, threw on the fuel injection andf ignition system and it started right up.

So I took it out for a ride and the first time I hit the brakes I heard grinding. He apparently stopped working while he was working on the left rear brakes, because there were no pads installed. Never thought to check something like that. Luckily I caught in time so I did not damage the pistons or the rotors.

With the brakes fixed, it runs absolutely great. However, there is a whine in the transission while cruising which I will discuss in another thread.

There are a few disappointments. Heat exchangers are not stainless, mirrors were replaced with after market with additional holes drilled in the doors, and positioned so poorly that they do not cover the original holes, rear valance and skid plate covering steering rack are missing.

Enough of the story, here's some pictures: http://914.dolimpios.com/

Congrats on your buy! Looks like a very nice ride. The nice thing about these cars is (as I am finding out), if you are willing to do some work on it, you can get it put in pretty nice shape in no time. It's the first day of spring, go out and drive it and

Very clean and nice car indeed! Looks well sorted now.

Marathon blue is a great color! Nice find.

Great find! Marathon Blue is a really cool color. BTW The pieces you are missing are not hard to find. I saw both a rear valance and a skid plate/MC cover at Garold Shaffer's when I was there that were removed from a parts car. He has tons of stuff.

BTW the stock steel heat exchangers are just fine. Pressure test the pipes for holes though...easy to do.

I found a valance and I'll check with Garold about the skid plate. Thanks.

That looks like a nice solid car!!

I'd get the black paint off of the wheels, but that's my taste. They look much better all silver.

You'll get the fever sooner or later, and do a five lug conversion.

I agree, and those mirrors gotta go too.

Wow, what a great story and an even better find. Stumbling across a 914 barn find and driving it back across the country is the stuff some of us daydream about. Congrats!

Way to go! Great find!

How long did your return tow trip from Portland to South Carolina take?

That's a great find!

Konrad

I agree, nice care.
Congrats!

Check the transmission fluid may fix the problem

Nice car! Great color too!

I've owned 3, and just by chance all 3 where the same color.

Great find and another good excuse for going to the bar!

Great find and another good excuse for going to the bar!
[/quote]
Do you rally need an excuse?