About a week ago my 1975 914 caught fire in the engine bay. Nothing is salvageable in the engine bay. The rear window is shattered and the trunk is warped. The firewall however did its job and held it from getting into the actual interior. Is it worth restoring? If not what should I salvage and sell.

Yeah, I know, it's a hell of a welcome.

Post some pictures as the description leaves a lot to the imagination. It would depend on what the rest of the car looks like.

Ugh - so sorry to hear about this.

Pics would be helpful but until then, it sorta depends. Do you love the car? If so, assess the chassis to ensure it's straight, then fix it.

Or, sell and get a different one. You could always post a For Sale ad here to see what it might bring as is. There are folks like me who are looking for cars to modify and something like this would be of interest.

Best of luck with everything as you move forward.

I would love to save it. Been working on this car since I was 16 (I'm 19 now) but money is the thing. I don't want to put more money into it that I cant get out later.

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Everything else is fine. It was only the back end that got damaged. I can post pics of the car before it got this way

It's gotta be horrible to deal with this situation but I think it comes down to some basic math:
1. what you have in it already
2. what it'll take to fix it
Against it's worth when it's done

versus

1. what you have in it already
2. what can you get for it
Against what it'll cost to replace it

Maybe most importantly: is it insured? If so, what about what they can do for you?
Don't immediately let them total it. A salvage titled car isn't worth as much, even if it is burnt...

Can you give us more details as to the fire? What is the probable cause? I see it was carbureted, was it related to the carbs? Anything you can tell us might avert a fire in some member's car in the future- a good thing.

Ansbacher

From what I can guess I believe it to be the gas line. I believe it ruptured by the left carburetor. Which sprayed onto my engine and lit it up

Sad. All of our worst nightmares
but at least you didn't get burned up

Sorry to hear this happened to you. Me and noel was trouble shooting my 914 couple of days ago and saw that one end of my fuel line was squirting fuel. I will definitely replace with high grade fuel lines soon.

Is suspension, brakes and transmission ok?

Damage on engine, carbs and electrical only?

I'd fix it.

Get a pressure washer and get all the soot cleaned off
Remove all the melted stuff (you'll be surprised how much the tin protects the motor)
Air cleaners are still intact so there shouldn't be any debris in there.

A bunch of cosmetic cleanup and refinishing but nothing crazy there.

If you don't want to let me know, I'm interested.

It looks like what happened is the fire wall collapsed on top of my engine. Which protected some more of the tin on the outside.

Glad everyone is ok and it doesn't look overly bad to me.

Curious - how did you put it out?

Insured? A settlement, or buy back can go a long way.

Very possible one of the carb passageway plugs popped out. Like an open hose under pressure. Happened to me. The engine compartment was a puddle of fuel. I stood by waiting for the flames. Lucked out. Found the plug, tapped it in with a rock and drove home. Then replaced ALL of the 40 something year old plugs. Other ones were working their way out.

Fire department. I just moved a bunch of stuff in and out of my car and I didnt put my extinguisher back In.

Insurance won't cover because it was only under collision.

A mess to clean up but really it's only a few hundred $$ in parts and whatever you spend on paint.

I'd fix it. Plus it would be a good learning experience.

Yeah, pull the engine and transmission.
Powerwash everything.

You will need to replace the electrical harnesses for the entire car (better then just splicing the connections that got burned, and you can find good used harnesses here or on ebay). The engine harness will obviously need to be replaced.

Get rid of the battery and CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN everything to get all the battery acid up. In fact do that first, as that is whats going to eat at your sheet metal.

The trunk lids are replaceable.
The fire was not hot enough to burn your air cleaners or melt the aluminum bodied carbs, so the engine is likely just fine once it is cleaned up. It will need all the extra stuff, but I bet after cleaning it up it will spin by hand no problems.

Very salvageable car.

Zach

Having been there, done that, it is definitely salvageable. Pull the engine and trans, clean up the engine bay, and assess what you have to fix. Probably the wiring harness (which is a bitch to replace), new decklid, new engine lid, and lots of little bits and pieces.

And this, my friends, is why you don't cut holes in something called a "Firewall".

God that's painful to look at. Glad no one was hurt. This is a great opportunity to make the engine compartment perfect and do anything you need to do to the engine to get it running again and cure any leaks. Valve adjustment, tune, clutch, etc. Good luck and take your time.

Clean it up. Buy a running motor for $1000. Get cheap replacement insurance like Haggerty. You won't get much like it is now to sell.

Yeah, get collector insurance for that thing! There are driving restrictions, but most people don't daily these cars any more, and they have a LOT more value then you will get through traditional insurance (and usually at a cheaper price).

Zach

definately fix it, with the dual carbs it will not be very expensive nor time consuming to repair, the key is to the the car cleaned up as soon as possible and get the metal treated, THEN you can take your time planning the repair and sourcing parts

Exactly! When my car burned about 15 years or so ago it burned from the engine compartment all the way through the passenger compartment such that the windshield melted and fell in.

My car just drove all the way to and from Okteenerfest this year (2, 577 miles total) - so you bet your butt, it can be fixed!

If you want it bad enough - you've got this! We're all here to help however we can.

I found a bunch of parts I can throw into it. Now my next question is what ecu system. I found a whole ecu system that used to be in the car. And i have two ecu computers. They have the same numbers but different letters at the end. And I have two jet systems. What jet system should I use and what ecu works with that?