I thought I'd formally introduce my 914 project, now that I've been lurking on this great forum for a while.

A little back story: my younger brother and I are car fanatics, especially those of the German variety. He owns multiple BMWs, an early 911 with RS bodywork, and a manual 928, and I own an early Boxster, a 944 Turbo, and now the 914.

Last summer, my brother went to check out an E36 parts car for his M3 in rural New Mexico. Sitting under some trees was this solid but rather forlorn looking 914:


$1800 later, we towed home a mouse infested ran-when-parked 75 914. The 1.8 FI engine had been swapped out for a 1.7 with 1.8 heads and a single Weber carb, and the impact bumpers had been backdated to chrome bumpers. Mars Red with Mahle gas burners!

It had been parked because the previous owner thought it had developed a serious front main seal leak. We got it running with a minimum of effort and saw the significant oil leak. We impulsively dropped the motor and resealed the oil pump, suspecting that might solve the problem.

Motor back in, along with a dual Weber setup we came across, it seemed like the leak was fixed. But it was running so badly, we couldn't really drive it. Since my brother was working part time at a Ferrari shop that primarily builds vintage motors, we were able to get the carbs rebuilt for cheap by the excellent Ferrari mechanic.

Now with the car running much better, two thing were apparent, 914s are fun and we didn't fix the oil leak.

About this time, my growing love for this 914 was finally too much to resist. So my brother and I made a trade on his half of the purchase price for a ran-when-parked manual 928 that I had picked up. Still not sure who ended up with the better half of that deal, but we're both happy!

With the car mine now, I started in on some of the needed projects. Thanks to 914World, I solved the major oil leak with a bolt in thermostat pulley hole (quite a bit easier than dropping the motor). With that dealt with, I could see a decent driver on the horizon. More soon!

Cheers,
Jeremy

Go Go Go!

As mentioned above, I have two other Porsches and really the last thing I needed was another. But there it is, an addiction I suppose. But for as long as I can, I want to try to keep this "build" on a tight budget while making something fun and cool.

The interior really wasn't bad, thanks to some reupholstered seats in black vinyl with corduroy centers. The carpet was nice, but because of the mouse problem, it had to be trashed. Out came the interior, a bunch of scrubbing and deodorizing (not entirely effective), and a new carpet kit went in.


It will get a molded dash cover soon to cover up that cracked dash. A leather wrap with thicken up the factory wheel.

The nose of the car is a paint mess, but with pretty straight metal. The hood was painted orange at some point and looks awful. It will be smoothed out and I will wrap it in 3M 1080 Matte Black.

The popup headlights had been poorly painted in gloss black. They got smoothed and wrapped in the Matte Black.


There was some orange paint overspray on the front fenders. A little wet sanding with 2000 grit removed it pretty well, followed up with some Meguires machine glaze.


I picked up some Mars Red touchup paint and will gradually work on the chips and scratches.

Old white Porsche script is a major eyesore, so using an eraser wheel in a drill, I went to work to prepare the area for new black Porsche script.



There'll be more!

Great project and good start ! It is actually a nice basis to get things going, it looks rather solid. Have fun in this project !

Looks like the car is in good hands.

Looks like a good start. You seem realistic in your approach and attitude too.

Thanks for the encouragement! The car that is serving as an inspiration right now is the Magnus Walker 914. My car will end up looking a bit like this, but all chrome, vinyl sail panels, and stock targa top will remain intact.

I just have to keep my sights on that, rather than my long-term dream build inspiration: Black Beauty built by Patrick Motorsports. If I ever get to that, it'll need a different thread, and a couple extra jobs!


Back to the real world. When I got the car, it had Vitaloni mirrors which are okay but don't really suit the car. But that's fine for now. Since there was no mirror glass on the drivers side, I removed them both to see if they could be swapped. With a little wrangling, I managed it, so now I could at least change lanes without trying to look out that joke of a rear window. I'll see if can get a mirror cut for the other one and reinstall it.


A coating of Plasti-Dip helped freshen up the chaulky plastic housing.


It's been awesome to take a few short drives in the industrial area by our little shop. Here's a few pics of the 914 and my brother's 911.


It's very cool being around these old road warriors! Hopefully soon we'll be able to get them out onto some winding mountain roads for a real drive.

I'm a school teacher on Spring Break and my wife is out of town so I better get my butt down to the shop!

Looking good Zach!

Thanks Eric. The 914 is mine and the 911 is Zach's. Sometimes I forget my little brother is a minor celebrity in the car world. For context, you can check out his articles in many issues of Excellence, Panorama, Forza, and Bimmer. Plus his online magazine, Retromod Magazine

Cheers,
Jeremy

What the paint code on this 914? It looks like it could be Tangerine.

... or Nepal Orange

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Color code is L31B, Mars Red. It looks like the car had a good quality respray at some point, but the matching wasn't perfect compared to the trunk areas. But the orange on the front fenders and hood is not factory color.

Please post a photo of the chassis plate with the paint code for us to drool over. L31B is not 914 color.

Further...not convinced you have a 1975 car from the info made available. You have early (1970-74) bumpers, granted they may be backdated, but if original you could actually have a 1974 MY car, built in 1975. Your VIN will tell you the MY, does it start with 474 (1974) or 475 (1975)? This is all to suggest that the paint could be Tangerine if its a 1974, or Nepal if its a 1975.

L31B?

Zach writes articles? I had no idea!

Sorry Jeremy. I was speed reading and I thought it read the "911" was "his" brother (him being the 914).

Enjoy... Bring that thing up here and we'll turn it into a "little brother beater"

[/quote]

Zach writes articles? I had no idea!

Sorry Jeremy. I was speed reading and I thought it read the "911" was "his" brother (him being the 914).

Enjoy... Bring that thing up here and we'll turn it into a "little brother beater"
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Haha, yeah the context was for everyone else.

Thanks for the offer to turn it into a 911 beater. For now I'll just have to live with a beater. Besides, if Zach gets too cocky in his 911, I'll just bring out the 951.

As for the paint code, I was wrong, it's L 31 M.


When I went to a paint store to get the touch up, they couldn't find it under Porsche colors, but did find it as a Volkswagen code for Mars Red.

L31M is Scarlet Red

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?act=colors

Well that's just great. Now my cheeky thread title makes even less sense.
Oh well, back to stripping the hood. My matte black wrap arrives today!

Jeremy, not at all. Mars is red - so it still works. Plus you're about as likely as any of us to actually finish a 914 - which makes them feel as distant as Mars.

Scarlet Red is extremely rare color for 914s. Hopefully you can repaint this to the original color someday. Nice find.

Wow, it sure has been a while since I updated this thread. But the 914 is still around and I've been making steady (well, periodic) progress. Here's some of work that has happened over the last year and a half.

Previously, I had started removing the baked on Porsche script, but I gave up for fear of destroying the paint (not that it's very good, but the goal is to preserve it for now). So in a fit of cleverness, I order multiple samples of red vinyl wrap. Once I found one that was a reasonable match, I laid a swath of it over the old script and installed new black script. Not a bad result, I think:
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Woops, got ahead of myself with the pics of the hood. Anyway, that bodywork was in preparation of wrapping the hood with matte black vinyl. Again, a solid improvement IMO:
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In the time I've owned the car, it's never had a front valance, leaving it looking pretty bare and unfinished. A front airdam/spoiler from 914Rubber solved that, and a universal rubber lip from eBay visually lowered things a bit more:
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More to come...

Looking better and better Jeremy!

Nice hot rod look! It's turning out great!

Thanks!

The car came with Mahles, which I like quite a lot. But they tuck under the arches so much, it's anti-stance! One inch bolt on wheel spacers at all four corners to the rescue. Fronts were easy, the rears took some fender rolling. That's with 205/60s. No rubbing now.
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As you can see in some previous photos, I also painted the wheels black, against my better judgement! They actually look pretty good, but I think I might try plastidip Vintage Gold and see how that looks.

The targa top was in pretty solid shape, but faded and discolored from the New Mexico sun (like everything else on the car!). I tried some Duplicolor Rocker Guard, which I think worked pretty well. I also re-glued the sagging headliner.
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The targa storage clips were in rough shape, with the white plastic ones to the front broken and the rubber ones to rear torn. I rummaged around through the spare parts that came with the car and found some good white clips. I had to drilled out the rivets on the old ones. Then I ordered a few new rubber clips. Now the good looking top can be securely stowed. Having lived through the "charm" of other vintage convertibles, I love the 914 targa design!
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Overall, the car has very little rust (I know, if has some, it has more!). But one of the areas that had to be dealt with was the rear trunk floor. It is rusted through at the low point near the tailight panel. At some point, someone had drilled the trunk lid for a luggage rack and I believe that rain was getting through the holes during the years of outdoor storage. At any rate, it rusted through. I have done a fair amount of proper rust repair in the past, but I needed something quicker and cheaper for now. I cleaned up the rust, coated it in POR-15, and patched it up with fiberglass. It's not great looking but it serves its purpose!
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Another issue was in the front trunk where a substantial portion of the floor was cut out for AC, I guess. Some weatherstripping and a sheet metal panel (painted with some automotive paint I had mixed up at a paint supplier) made the trunk serviceable and protected from the elements.
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I never even noticed Scarlet Red in the paint codes. It looks great! I understand the need to keep the budget down. Drive it now, and make it perfect later.

When we found the car in the field, the owner had put in a new windshield. While we were looking over the, car and the various parts he had, he place the extra tach he was showing us on the front cowl near the windshield. Meanwhile, the cable to the front trunk was stuck so we spent a bit of time getting it to open. Finally victorious, we opened the trunk. Well, we forgot the tach was there, so it got squished against the windshield and sent an impressive crack across the glass.

So, I had to have another one installed. Which was actually kind of helpful, since I wanted to deal with the dash. It made it a little easier to install the new dash cover (from 914Rubber) that goes between the dash and windshield, as well as a new rubber gasket.
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I also did a little repair work on the actual dash.
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And the steering wheel, which was missing parts for the bowtie horn pad to stay in place, was refurbished. I actually ended up sending the center piece to Rich Bontempi and he sourced the necessary hardware to get it working again. Then I resprayed the rubber pad in low gloss vinyl paint and the metal part in satin enamel.
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Thanks. I admit it's been a challenge to keep things from getting out of hand. I want very much to do a full restoration/build on the car, but it's just not the right time.

So, the story goes on, of course. I had gotten the car to the point we see above. There were still plenty more things to sort out, but I was feeling pretty happy with the progress. Then, one day while trying to sync up the carbs, I found a wire that had come disconnected near the coil. It was sparking every time it hit metal. I messed around trying to figure out where it should go, but everything I tried resulted in a no-start.

It was about this time that I had pulled the motor from my 87 944 Turbo for a complete reseal, clutch, rod bearings, and turbo upgrade. Feeling frustrated with the 914, I tucked it out of the way in garage. That was about six months ago. Now the 944 motor is almost ready to go back in the car. Gratuitous photo, because you know, "pics, or it didn't happen":
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But recently, I had been thinking about why the 914 wouldn't start, and I decided that maybe I fried the electronic ignition module in the distributor. So a couple of weeks ago, I ordered a new one just to see. Last weekend, I got it in the mail, charged up the battery, installed it, and what do you know, it fired right up. I had to take it for a little drive to surprise my brother down at his shop. Here it is with his recently slate grey painted 69 911:
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Jeremy...the top repaint came out nice....looks good!

Thanks!

Managed to make it to Cars and Coffee on 9/14:
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Shifting into first and reverse was just driving me crazy. This morning I adjusted the clutch cable this morning, moving the release point higher for the pedal. I will adjust it back a touch, but it's much improved.

So, I took one of the longest drives I've done so far in the car, heading out to the foothills east of Albuquerque on a tight canyon road, then up part of the Crest road in the Sandia Mountains. The old 914 was doing well and loved the cool mountain morning air. It was lovely threading it through all the turns on a nice smooth road with that raucous type 4 bellowing away!
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I also got an awesome 50th anniversary key fob. Thanks Oscar!
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And I know many delete the side marker light "warts", but I added some used ones I picked up on eBay. Better than holes in the fenders!
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Continuing with my yearly update of my 914 project thread! I continue to make small bits of progress on the car, despite it not looking too different. The main thing I'm trying to do is get it to where it can be driven regularly with some reasonable reliability. In the words of Captain Ron:

"The best way to find out, Kitty, is to get her out on the ocean. If anything is going to happen, it's going to happen out there."

So with that in mind, I drive it, it breaks, I fix it, etc.
Waiting for my daughter to bring me a new battery:
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Broken clutch cable:
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Lost taper screw at firewall shift linkage:
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On one drive, I suddenly lost the ability to shift into 4th and 5th. Could this be the culprit?
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Better:
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Also got a radio blank-off plate from 914Rubber:
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Best wishes to all!

lol i had the same thing happen to my 75 back in february , the original shift bushing gave out leaving me with 2&3 only , i also did the brass bushings and now shifting again like new. - btw i like the gold color on the wheels!!!

Nice job on bringing back this car into the world again. Love the color!

The only thing that I wish you'd done differently is fix the floor correctly instead of using fiberglass. Welding in a new patch would be a fairly easy thing to do.

Looking great Jeremy on your car.
That will definitely improved a lot on your shifting after replacing the coupler bushing. Maybe much as well replace the firewall bushing if it was not replaced yet or check if no much play on it.

Congratulations!

Jeremy I like your car and that you keep working away as you are driving and enjoying it. I too wish you would address the front and rear trunk repairs properly. I get it is a time consuming thing and may cost a couple dollars. I would bet you could find the panels for almost nothing on here from a car getting parted out. Aside from that, it is looking nice.

Drive, enjoy and keep improving over time. It's part of the fun of the project. Looks good, another 914 saved!

Yeah the brass bushings made a big difference, until the linkage came apart! Wheels are done in Plastidip Vintage Gold.



I understand! It kind of made me cringe to do these half-assed fixes. I did a lot of rust repair on my old Datsun Roadster, so I know how satisfying it is to do it right.
70 Datsun Roadster inner fender repair:
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On the 914, they were temporary stop-gaps so I could use the car some and I didn't want to rush a welding job. I want those repairs to be high quality when I get to them. Thanks for the comments and encouraging words!

A shot from my most recent drive. The car didn't break on this one!
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Time for my Friday beer!

Here are a few updates of some work I've been doing on the teener. The center armrest has bugged me since I've owned the car, with it's torn and funky looking vinyl, especially now because the interior is looking pretty decent. I found this upholstery kit on eBay for like $30. It took forever to get, so much so that I pretty much gave up on getting it. Then one day, mystery package at the door!
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Then my brother Zach gave me an extra Porsche badge that he had blacked out for his dark grey 911. He didn't like it, but I though maybe it'd look cool on the matte black hood. I don't intend to run one when the car gets painted, but for now I like it. I cut off the pins on the back and stuck it on with 3M tape.
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I also found a 19mm Weltmeister front sway bar on eBay. I was pretty excited about that and then when I had a chance to get some 165# Weltmeister rear springs from a forum member, that pushed it over the top. New rear Bilsteins followed for a nice little suspension upgrade.
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And, a little preview of coming attractions?
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Cheers!

PMB five lug conversion complete!

The specs are as follow: PMB five lug kit, which includes new redrilled front rotors, new front wheel bearings, new redrilled rear rotors, redrilled rear 914 hubs, new rear wheel bearings. Also, 72mm bullet nose studs, 15x7 cookie cutters, 195/55-15 Sumitomos (I wanted 205/50 but my brother had these new tires that he donated to the project). The tires look pretty nice and I certainly don't need any more rubber for the street with the 1.7.

I thought I took more pics of the rear but I guess not. There will be a video in a couple of days.

Here are a few random photos from the conversion:
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My rear calipers were frozen solid so they're out at PMB right now. Hopefully I can get those on in another week or so, then get it aligned and see how it feels.

Cheers!