Installed.

My lid was missing the trunk safety bumper. Here is the new rubber piece, but I did not have the metal retaining brace.

So I made a substitute from 1/16" aluminum.

Installed.

I had time to play with the layout of PORSCHE on the grille. It might not be stock, but I made room for the 914World badge on the right side. Now I need the postal service to deliver the retaining speed nuts I ordered.

Your quite welcome. I'm actually disappointed the nights you don't post.
Kevin

OK, today is the day. Time to put the car on its own feet, er, wheels.

One last look at the car up in the air. It has been on jack stands or a rotisserie since September of 2019. I think that means almost 3 years.

All 4 wheels went on easy. I take that as a good sign.

I lowered each side a bit at a time, and finally the wheels touched down. I was a bit worried that it might settle too low, but I think I have the opposite problem.

But anyway, excuse me if I celebrate this milestone.

Front wheel clearance. Pretty even on both sides but about 25 1/2 inches from the fender lip to the ground.

Rear clearance. Fender lip about 23 1/2 inches high.

Front rocker seam height, about 7 1/2 inches.

Rear rocker seam height, almost 8 inches.

My first guess is that the car is about 2.5 inches too high. This might be good for a safari style 914, but not what I have in mind.

I also measured the angle of the front A-arms, and got 10° on both sides. My guess is that this should be more like 2 or 3°.

Tomorrow I can start trying to lower both ends.

Too soon for real measurements, but I dug out my camber gauge. This dates from my racing days in the 80s and 90s, but was useful back then.

Trying to remember how to use the gauge, just long enough for 15" wheels. Anyway, I got something like +0.2° camber in the front on both sides, and -0.25° and +1.25° in the rear. Of course, the camber will change as the car gets lowered, so these numbers are not quite real. But I am happy that I did not see anything like 5°!

I think you should roll the car back and forth so it will seat well and get the proper height.

Agreed, even better take her around the block to settle the suspension

Congrats! Huge milestone. Here’s the “official” factory diagram for the front ride height in case you don’t have it. Keep in mind that this is for stock tires…and rumors are that the DOT mandated a slightly higher rake in front to optimize bumper positioning. I think having the front about an inch lower still looks stock and handles great…but I’m sure the suspension safety gurus will chime in. Small changes in the adjuster have a bigger effect than you might expect. But as others have said, the car needs to bounce/settle between every adjustment to really see the difference.

Again…super impressive work and thanks so much for detailing every step so well. This thread will be useful forever.

EDIT: revised pic (replaces the one I mistakenly uploaded for 911)
Click to view attachment

@bkrantz - Bob, absolutely a milestone to get her back on her own feet.
I am sure you will get the height sorted to your liking in no time.

Yes, but that will have to wait until I actually attach the windshield.

Thanks, Ian. I do want the front to be level or just a bit lower. See my other posts today about following the factory method.

To get the car lower, I removed the rear springs/shocks. Step 1 is disconnecting the sway bar links.

Shock and spring on the bench.

And all apart.

The perch was set on the 4th groove from the bottom.

Just to see how low the car can get, I moved the perch to the lowest groove.

Of course, when reassembled, the spring is now shorter than the full shock length. I will think about tying the spring to the upper and lower perches.

The rear sits lower now, by about 1.5". I think I was able to get the springs on bot sides to seat properly in the upper perches.

Tire clearance inside the right fender is tight--maybe a bit less than 1/8". The left side clears by about 1/4".

Then I worked to lower the front. I remembered to empty the weight I had in the frunk (that helped keep the weight balance forward).

I then jacked up each side and unscrewed the torsion bar adjusters two full turns.

Front A-arm angles both dropped from 10° to 8°.

I also measured the height of the torsion bar centers about 7.4" on both sides. Subtracting this from the hub center height (11.8") gives 4.4". The factory spec is 3.5".

But to get the front lower, I will need to reset the caps on the torsion bars since the adjuster screws are almost bottomed out.

The car is lower than yesterday, but now the nose is high.

Is 1/8" enough clearance on the rear fender well lip? I am not sure how much these wheels move outward at the top when driving. I can slip my pinky finger between my tires and the rear lips. I was very concerned about tires rubbing anything painted when selecting tires.

Here is mine sitting in the driveway Friday after a little drive. I do like the 914 low, but I do not want to be dragging over speed bumps. But they look so much better, in my mind, when lowered. BTW, I am running deep 6 wheels with 195x55x15 Yokohama tires. If I could have got 205x60x15 tires I would have.

Click to view attachment

That looks good.

I agree that 1/8" is not enough. I started working on that today.

Ride height fun day 3. To lower the front more, I had to reset the torsion bar caps. Here is the right side the way I first installed it (with the adjusting screw removed).

New position, to maximize the amount I can lower it.

Same on the left side.

After another round of bouncing and rolling, I first checked the A-arm angles. 5° on the left.

And 5° on the right. This might be as low as I want to go.

Torsion bar centers are now both at 6.8" above the floor, about 3/4" lower than yesterday. Front fender lips are now 24.4 (L) and 24.5 ®.

The car now sits about level, with the rocker seam about 6.3" above the floor F and R on both sides.

Since I had to pull the rear shocks again anyway, I decided to raise the rear just a bit.

I moved the spring perch up 1 groove.

To tie the spring to the upper perch, I drilled a pair of holes, and then smoothed the edges.

I got out my trusty safety wire and pliers. I used to wire up all kinds of stuff on race cars in the 90s and 2000s.

Upper perch wired to the spring.