Hello everyone, new member here from Southwest Virginia. I just purchased a low-mileage (46k), 2-owner 1973 914. It has the 1.7 litre engine and a dealer installed A/C system. This car spent all of it's life in my local area and has been sitting in a garage for the last 25 years of it's life, rarely driven during that time. I'd been looking for a nice, clean 914 to buy and modify for a long time and when this one popped-up on Facebook marketplace I knew I had to grab it. I've been a big 914 fan ever since I drove one daily for two years after I graduated high school 30 years ago. I wanted one while I was in high school but my dad was completely against it - he was a die-hard American-made car fan and thought I was crazy to want a Porsche. So, I settled for a somewhat dad-approved 1977 Camaro (which I knew would be way, way better on my social life than the 4 door Falcon he tried to get me to agree to). As *soon* as I graduated high school and paid off the Camaro, I immediately went and traded it for a bright yellow '72 914 2.0 which had been modified with motor upgrades, flares and fat wheels/tires. Dad was not happy (to say the least) but boy did my social life improve. Most of the girls in my area hadn't even seen or paid attention to a 914, all they saw was me driving a flashy yellow Porsche haha. I'll never forget pulling up to the red light in town with the targa top off and two (2!!) beautiful blondes riding with me and thank JESUS one of the most popular guys in high school pulled up beside me and looked over - I'll never forget the look of shock on his face (thanks God and Porsche!) . Unfortunately in the spring of the next year I was driving home from work and was about 1/2 mile from home when the car stalled-out on me. When I started cranking on it there was a rather large backfire and the entire engine bay went up in flames. Total loss to the car but thankfully I made it out unscathed. No more 914's for the last 30 years but I knew that I'd eventually get another one and build it. But I digress and back to the issue at hand...
So I just purchased this clean little '73, obviously fitted out in the last owners vision of what he wanted. Even though the car has been sitting around for the last couple of decades, it actually still runs pretty good (after some fresh gas) and I've driven it around the block a few times, but it's going to need some brake work. The original color is L96D silver metallic but the previous owner had it painted in vintage 356 aquamarine blue metallic and then striped and badged it to hell and back, which is neat looking and flashy but not really my cup of tea. I would really like to install a set of steel flares and take the car back to it's original silver. But the flares would require cutting the body. The question is, in this day and time, with how these cars are starting to skyrocket in interest and value, should I cut the body or leave it alone? I'm just thinking that in 20 more years, I(or someone) will be regretting the cutting of the car for the flares. Believe it or not, I got very lucky with this car as the last owner had the forethought to buy a basically rust-free early black 914 and completely disassemble it to have as extra spares. When I purchased this car I got basically all the pieces to another 914 (except the engine/trans). I've got extra doors, slick quarter panels and front fenders (all cut off correctly, thankfully), etc, etc. So even if I decided to cut the silver car I would still have a nice set of uncut quarters to fall back on, but I'm not sure that's enough of a justification to go ahead and cut it. So the question stands: should I cut this car or leave it original? Click to view attachment Click to view attachmentClick to view attachment

Kind of cool in a '70s sort of way. Bottom line: It's your car and your vision.

The values are climbing, but the real value in these cars is driving them! I would get it running/driving, and then put some miles on it while you decide.

Are the stripes painted or stickers?

The question ones up a lot. My feeling is you should do what makes you happy. Build the car for you, not the next guy.

The stripes are just stickers so they could be removed. I think it's a good idea to drive it a while as I decide.

Thanks for the welcome!

I love the wide look that flares give these cars but I'm not sure that I want it in the back of my mind about how I went and cut a low mileage, basically unmolested 914

Flares are cool but have a plan and budget. Flares with a five lug conversion with wheels and wheels and tires can easily run $5k.
Nice car.

Nice car to start with. I agree with you on all the stripes, badges, etc. I would clean it up, service it and drive it. Then you can decide what mods, if any, to do.

The first thing I would do is install stainless steel fuel lines.

Looks like a nice car. unless you are planning major motor work you really don't need the flares or huge tires.

Will probably be worth more down the road unmolested.

Even the stripes don't look bad.

JMHO

Congrats on the purchase

and

Just drive it for now and have some fun and think about it.
I've seen too many projects started with good intentions and never finished.

you have a heavily modified car with a color change (significantly impacts collector value)

my 2 cents... you could put a ton of money into making it stock and be upside down on the cars value as long as you own it.

or you could put a ton of money making it what you want and still be upside down on it for as long as you own it.

I don't think a modified 4 is going to become a hugely collectible car unless its very stock and very low miles, and basically not driven

which one do you want to own?
my decision has been to do what you want... drive what you want to drive.

I agree about the fuel lines. Get ahold of Chris Foley at Tangerine.

Obviously, I am also in the camp "make it the way you want it." You don't need to be a slave to OEM. I cut & flared a factory six. But it was heavily modified already. I never looked back and I love the car.

First off, it's your car do what makes you happy.

If you want opinions, here's mine: ditch all the stickers and stripes as well as the black paint on the wheels, keep it stock except for maybe upgrading an stock injected engine; unless you truly want to re-live your high school days. I'll 2nd the retro 80's "hey this is a Porsche too" excessive stickering.

Unmolested cars will always carry value. Removing flares and going back to stock fenders will cost three times more than putting flares on.

Please remove the rubber antenna.

I think your instincts are good. "but not my cup of tea"

1st - fuel lines, take care of making it stop and run.
2nd- drive it !
I know with the winter approaching you may be tempted to do the flares and more, don't
If you can get done by spring, the paint to original is an "easier" project. Flairs can be added later and blended, besides a lot of folks prefer sleepers if you go bigger on the HP later you can adjust the amount of rubber on the road for your set up.

Get a full season on the car, you will find where you want to put your money.

Remove all the nonsense and drive it until you figure it out. There are a few ways you can go, some very involved and expensive and some easy and practical. My opinion is to do as little as possible to make it drive-able and reliable. Enjoy what you have and then make a plan. All the info you need is here, so soak up as much as you can and enjoy the ride.

Easy solution, own 2. Will give you the piece of mind.

Or,

Realize that yours will not be the last stock 914 in existence!, or even close.
(Even though many of us would like to think so)

Enjoy building your car the way you want it. Starting with a well working 914 is a great build start itself. So get it reliable and completely road worthy. You'll learn what you need to know to make any changes, and have a few years, or so, experience under your belt, getting it to that point.

if the car has never been wrecked, I certainly would not cut it for steel flares! maybe remove some of the excess sticker and decal material

Drive it. If the stripes are vinyl, go after them with a heat gun and make them gone. Other than that? Brakes, tune, and go to 914Rubber.com and drool on your keyboard.

It's worth more unmolested. A car with fenders replaced isn't a high value original.

Plus, flares on a 1.7 is the ultimate poser.

If you really want a flared car buy this 1974 with Raby 2270 as it could use a paint job anyways and fatter rear tires.

Yes ...

Enjoy it as it is. Modified 914s are very common. Originals are not. If you must work out a fantasy about what your 914 could be, find another car to molest. Please.

Keep it stock and think about removing the stickers. Drive it alot. Very nice looking car!

Nice looking car, just a bit much on the decals. In your quest for a tougher looking 914, don’t underestimate the look of a well-stanced narrow body car. My plan with mine is to do a five-lug conversion first with cookie cutters and focus on suspension and ride height. Then down the road, I may take the plunge for steel flares and bigger wheels or spacers. Regardless I don’t want the widebody until my 1.7 can go at least as fast as my daughter’s Camry!

Great advice from all and it's given me a lot to think about. I've just always had a healthy dose of respect and admiration for these cars; along with their interesting history and killer body lines, they're a blast to drive and the styling is like nothing else on the road - which automatically makes them a machine to be proud of. I still remember the feeling of rolling into a parking lot and getting the looks and stares from curious onlookers. Of course every now and then I'd get the "well, it's not really a Porsche, it's just a glorified Volkswagen", which always used to p*ss me off to no end...so what if Volkswagen had a hand in these cars - they did a hell of a job! The fact that those days of flippant, haughty indignation appear to be quickly coming to an end gives me a lot of satisfaction; a big part of my job is to study trends and watch for signs of movement (I have to be good at this - it's what pays the bills) and from what I'm seeing with the trajectory of upward movement with these 914's, they're (most likely) on their way to becoming more desirable and more sought-after than any of us can fathom right now. This is where my apprehension about slicing-up this basically unmolested (yet striped to death) example is originating from.

The advice about the steel fuel lines is very much appreciated and I'll be on that for sure. I *really* like the suggestion of finding another 914 to 'scratch my itch', if you will, of a modified wide-body. I'd really like to find someone's unfinished project that's been sitting in the garage for a while, with the steel flares already added; I could take it from there. One bright spot is that bringing this '73 back to originality shouldn't be too much of an undertaking: Freshening up all the soft seals, updating and upgrading some of the mechanicals along with a correct OEM paint job will go a long way toward that end.

I think for this car, the best advice of all is to just get it back in service then drive and enjoy it. Hey, that's what they were made for, right?

Oh, and yes, the rubber antenna will be headed into file 13

Take the stickers off. Take the black off of the wheels .

Drive it and don't make any rash decisions. Flares and wide wheels are cool, but more power is even cooler and you can keep the narrow body as you get the horsepower UP.

A five lug conversion with Fuchs is a very nice upgrade, and can work along with flares if you decide later to do that.

And......

To those that commented about not being a real Porsche, I always pointed that that's why VW had to stop making the 6's, they would have killed the flagship 911. Better performance, less cost. They tend to get real quiet.

I agree with Mayne....take a look at his build thread. He's made some cool modifications to his car without doing anything that can't be "undone". Personally, I also like Rolinkhaus' car....again, a car with a great stance, but elegant in it's simplicity. I would definitely lose all those stickers, stripes, emblems, etc.

...or, you could add even more graphics and $&*! and maybe you'd have a SEMA car. Perhaps the PO was a misunderstood genius?

First, you have a pretty clean stock car with low miles, so congratulation! I would take off the stripes, replace the fuel lines, ( stainless steel one from Tangerine), get the brake lines replaced and all brakes refreshed, change out the fuel lines in the engine comp, ( a known cause of engine bay fires), get a proper tube up. Then have the shifter upgrades to make this car an even more joyful car to drive. Think of changes you may want to do, keeping in mind how easy it would be to return to stock later if you desired. The drive and enjoy it as often as you can.
I've had 3 914's:
a 70 1.7 with front and rear glass flares and bigger rubber. 215's front 225's rear. That car was a blast to drive and I enjoyed it so much. I was 25 years old.
A 75 1'8 that was completely stock and a great car to drive.
A 76 2.0 that I never finished to what I wanted it to be. I did work out the shifter so it would shift so sweet. All new bushings and some custom fitting to make them smooth and a renn shifter. The renn shifter made a huge difference.
If I wanted to go back to a 914 today and had to choose between the three I've owned, it would be the 75 1.8. I am 71 now so I don't need speed and sticky tires to go down canyon roads at crazy speeds and come out laughing like a crazy man.

Bottom line, it is yours, make it like you want it and enjoy it.
Tom

Consensus is clear to me: Remove the dumb stickers. Fix the wheels (black between the paddles says fake and looks hotwheel cheap.) Then spend a lot of time behind the wheel and appreciating what these cars are about before doing any mods.

Ditch the stickers on the car and windshield.
I'd keep the wheels as is....they are not "that" bad in my opinion.
Yes, about getting rid of the rubber antenna.
Do the stainless steel fuel lines, go through the braking system, tune up, etc.
The color is OK...don't feel like you need to change it unless it's really in poor shape.

Do the above and you'll have a completely different and new car.
Best of luck.
And enjoy the car whatever you do.

You could just leave all the stripes and stickers on and get a full length fur coat, wide brim hat with a peacock feather and a couple of rental blondes for a whole new profession.

I guess this will always be a debate. To me it instantly screams fake on 4 lugs because real Fuchs were never painted. It's one of the most cheapening things you see instantly at a glance and are disappointed about. How to devalue real 4 lug Fuchs: apply paint so everyone can assume they are fakes. Perhaps the counter applies if you have fakes.

I would take the stickers off .........IF.......... the paint would still look great and leave it as it is and ENJOY.

I like the 1000 MPH antenna

surprised nobody has mentioned the quad exhaust!

So...consensus is that I remove the stickers, freshen-up and drive - I can get on board with that! (lots of helpful info here, my God this forum is the bomb when it comes to everything 914)

BUT...I've been thinking (uh oh, right? )...what if after the stickers are removed, there's still "ghost" striping all over the car that won't compound out? If so then I may have a solution to that...one which is quick and easy, gets me on the road much quicker and and one that I've not seen before...

What if I simply ditch the chrome front and rear bumpers, install a set of nice-looking 914-6 fiberglass bumpers from Auto Atlanta (I predict I'm gonna be doing a lot of business with them, plus I'm only about 4 hrs away) then get the entire body wrapped in a mirror silver wrap? Leaving the sail panels, rockers and targa black. This would be a rather quick and easy change and is easily reversible, lending itself to a quick reversal when I get ready to go back all stock at some point down the road. I've checked and the liquid silver body wrap is only going to cost me around 800 bucks, whereas an nice, quality (to my standards) paint job is going to cost me 5 times as much and take way longer. I have decided to go back all original with this car at some point (I'll be doing a lot of business with 914rubber.com as well...wow! ) but I know me, when I get started it will be done right and take a while. I think for now, if those stripes come off and the paint looks like crap, a mirror silver wrap would be rather flashy and draw a lot of attention...what do you guys think? or

Stop worrying about cost, drive it like you stole it. This car was made to have fun with. All my childhood memories were of my Dad driving it hard through curvy roads, now I'm doing the same.


Take all the sticks off except for the Porsche emblems down the middle, try that. The most important upgrade is wheels. Every time you get out of the car you will look back several times at these beauties.

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Sell it to me . we like blue and will return it to stock configuration

de-sticker and drive it. you'll figure it out as you go....

Do as you like, but Im a 10000% original guy. If I wanted a modded car, I would fine one "done". I would totally not cut up an original car. If its really good, clean it up (loose the stickers), take it to the next level or originality, get to know the car, sell it, get another modded to your desire.