I have been "working" the owner ever since she told me she had a 914 in her garage six years ago. She bought it from Dave Shepard (RIP) in 1996, and she autocrossed throughout the Central Coast in the late 1990s and early 2000s until she moved on to a BMW. It hasn't moved since 2004.

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After the WCR earlier this month, I called her up to make another pitch and she agreed! After pouring over it inside her cramped garage space for a couple of hours, we agreed on a price with the caveat that she'll allow me to do some further checking to make sure the engine is sound (it turns over when moving the car in gear). I just ordered a complete SS fuel kit from Tangerine and will do a full once-over in the next two weeks. She said (tearfully) that it was her "baby" and she'd only sell it to me

It is a 15-footer respray (repainted to match her former 318is in the late 1990s) over the factory Malaga Red. The car sits on a set of old-ass Kumho V700 Victoracers tires, and it comes with a set of Mahle gas burners. One of craziest mods to the car is a set of Albins 6/29 ring-n-pinion gears, along with the stock 7/31 gears in a box. The 1.8 has been upgraded to 2056, and it still runs the L-Jet injection, catalytic converter and the stock muffler. It has Bilsteins in the front and Konis/140 lb springs in the rear, a harness bar with Deist harnesses, reupholstered seats (to "hold me in when cornering!"). Also has an adjustable front sway bar, and "upgraded" BMW 320i front calipers.

It is one of the most rust-free cars I have seen. There was some slight rust in the frunk weather stripping channels that appears to have been stunted when repainted, the battery box is perforated, and there is some slight rust in the rear trunk. The hellhole appears amazingly good, but I'll remove the ECU to get a closer look. A magnet check shows no bondo in the sails or around the windshield. Peering through the jackhole covers and from behind the rocker covers shows no rust.

The passenger side headlight bucket weather stripping channel is strangely bent at the top, but there is no other evidence of a frontal collision; maybe something heavy fell on it when the hood was open? The hood is straight as an arrow.

My plan is to empty the nasty ass fuel (varnish) and pull the tank to really clean it while waiting for Chris to send me the fuel system rebuild kit. I'll also replace all fluids before attempting to start it and do a compression test before completing the sale. Then I'll put new tires on the gas burners, rebuild the brakes (they're hanging up), and do a full engine-out reseal (amazingly dry/leak-free) and tune-up.

Long-term plans include possible respray back to factory color and possibly back-date the bumpers. It will complement my Suby-powered beast perfectly!

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+1, great acquisition, it only took 14 years, but rust free!!

Great looking car, congrats on the purchase and save.

Congrats - actually would have been a nice oem metallic color. . .today it's probably 1 of 1!

I don't think I have time to put your fuel line order together this week Geoff. But I should be able to ship it early the following week via USPS Priority. I'll email a receipt on Monday.

Lookin good there, Geoff

Congrats @930cabman !

What size are those "old-ass Kumho V700 Victoracers tires" ? They got a good look on those steelies, and I have a set that needs tires.


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Congratulations. We know you will delight the lady when you bring her baby back to life.



Victoracers and a Deist harness were the hot ticket back in the '90's
What are the dates on the belts? I will bet they have a sternum strap?

very cool story

Welcome to (or welcome back to) the '75 club! Malaga Red is an awesome color. It even looks great with the fat bumpers. There was a low mileage one around here for a while I tried to buy unsuccessfully. The paint kept luring me in.

Congratulations

No problem Chris. I've got plenty to do in prep for the arrival of those parts!


Thanks Marty (from a fellow Fightin' Irish alum!). We missed you at the WCR in Petaluma this year. I hope to see you soon.


I raced V700 and then V710 tires on my old RX7, until I made the move to Hoosiers in the early 2000s. These tires on my 914 are WAAAY past being safe. I'll use 'em as rollers for the time being, but they'll need to go to the junkyard for sure!


Yes, the harness belts (with sternum!) are past their prime. I'll remove 'em and install some reproduction stock belts. I might put the Weltmeister harness bar and Diest belts into my '73, since the car is primarily used only used for autocross... bad idea?



Yeah, I plan to repaint it someday back to the stock color. Below is the plate showing Malaga Red L-30C:

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I haven't yet fully chronicled the car's condition, but I wanted to get that nasty ass fuel out of it. So I put it up on my lift, removed the belly pan, set up some buckets and cut the first fuel line... only a few drops come out. Then I cut the other, and it is dry. So I lower the car, remove the expansion tank/inlet, and see there is at least a half tank of brownish stanky liquid in it. After siphoning out over 6 gallons, I remove the tank and this is what clogged up the outlets:

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I also discovered that the stock right rear and both front calipers are dragging. So I ordered two kits from PMB to rebuild the rear calipers; need to check if the parking brake cables are part of the cause (I was able to nudge the parking lever at the caliper with a brass drift, which freed up the wheel).

Rather than scramble to clean out this fuel tank and hope that it doesn't have any pinholes, I bought a repop Dansk tank from Pelican Parts -- along with a ton of other parts to get this 914 back on the road. My order includes all four rubber brake lines, front caliper seal kits (BMW 320i), full tune-up and oil change kits, gaskets for the fuel tank, and a valve adjuster feeler gauge. According to the FedEx website, the boxes should be here by Friday.

Other immediate issues:

1. Need to mount new tires onto the extra Mahle gas burner wheels. Any suggestions on brand/model/size for a fair weather street car that will occasionally see canyon carving here on the CA Central Coast?

2. Battery is obviously kaput. I plan on buying a Napa battery, since I get a good discount through my work.

3. The heat exchanger "shells" are loose at the rear -- I can move the rear up/down about 3/8". So I expect them to clang when driving over bumps, and to provide very little heat.

4. Ignition needs to be rekeyed to match the doors/trunk.

5. I should probably plan to have the injectors cleaned. Should I do anything to the front-mounted fuel pump or other electronic/vacuum controlled fuel system components prior to starting the car, since it has sat for so long?

Most importantly, I need to get it running and registered so that I can drive it! I've only driven one other air-cooled 914 (thanks Martin Baker in ~2009), since my Suby-powered '73 914 beast was a basket case when I got it in 2008. Cheers!

I had no choice. First Kumho then Toyo were spec tires in my class.

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Enjoyed the story. Best of luck with her.

Quick update: I have been working on the car as time and other projects permit. So far, I have:

- Installed the Tangerine Racing SS fuel lines kit, which I highly recommend. One of the stock plastic lines was pinched at some point, and I am surprised it didn't leak fuel. Glad to toss that potential fire hazard into the landfill...

- Rebuilt all of the brake calipers and replaced the rubber lines with Troutman SS lines. Also replaced the parking brake cables since they were dodgy, along with new clutch and throttle cables.

- When doing the SS fuel line install, I noticed brake fluid on the pedal cluster and the surrounding floor area. So I ordered a new 19mm master cylinder kit, bronze pedal bushings, and a host of other parts from 914Rubber. Two bummers: the master cylinder is currently backordered, and the pedal cluster has already been rebuilt with bronze bushings sometime in the past!

- Picked up a pair of good condition Mahle gas-burners from @Driver174 . Jim sent me videos of the wheels spinning on a balancing machine to show no bends, and then he quickly packed/shipped them to me. Thanks Jim

- I've ordered a set of Vredestein 195/65-R15 tires from TireRack that should be here next week. I realize that the rest of the car is set up for performance driving, and these tires are pretty tame in comparison. But I might tone down this car over time for "pleasure driving" since I already have another 914 that's a bit over the top. In any case, I'll finally get a chance to use my new-to-me used Chinesium tire machine.

- I will send the injectors to Mr. Injector tomorrow for cleaning, since the rest of the fuel system was so nasty. I plan to use the spring-equipped hoses he supplies unless someone tells me emphatically to buy a set of formed elbow injector hoses.

- I "fogged" the cylinders using STA-BIL Fogging Oil several times over the past few weeks. I had some stiff vinyl tubing left over from my 914 Suby boost gauge install that fit perfectly over the STA-BIL nozzle hose and allowed me to focus the spray through the spark plug hole.

- Venmo'd money to my daughter so that she could buy heat exchangers & an unused Bursch muffler from a Facebook Marketplace listing near to her in Ramona, CA. My wife and I hope to drive our motorhome down to Oceanside in the coming weeks to (socially distance) visit her and her husband, and to pick up these parts.

- When dumping the engine oil, I noticed that the engine didn't have a stock strainer screen. Some say it is not needed, so I will forego it (unless someone emphatically tells me to buy one and install it). On a related matter, I'm tempted to order a 914Werke tuna can... but I really don't believe I'll push this car very hard and my bank account could use a brief reprieve. Thoughts?

- I installed a new battery, as well as standard tune-up/maintenance stuff (cap, rotor, plugs, wires, gear oil, brake fluid flush, etc.). No ignition points are necessary, since it was already upgraded to a Petronix unit. I plan to run the new oil to "clean things out" and then to replace it and the oil filter within a couple hundred miles.

Once the injectors are back and the master cylinder is installed, I'll install the new fuel tank so that I can fire it up for the first time in 16 years! Then

You have been busy, keep us updated and how she runs

its always great to see a car thats been sitting for so long get new life with a new owner and back on the road! i know people get new interests and move on but its a shame to be neglected but not let someone else take it and breathe new lift into it, so good for her for letting go and passing it on. Looks like she give it to the right person!! congratulations.
I like the color btw, i vote for keeping it!!

I would certainly fit the strainer...I've never heard anyone say you don't need them ,they do an essential job off preventing larger particles of crap in the oil going into the oil pump, filter and oil galleries.
I bought one a while back from Autohaus AZ ,think it was about $25.

Thanks for your suggestion. I should have been clearer; it seems like none of the "Tuna Can" setups use the stock strainer screen so I conflated the two. Also, some of the postings I've read here on 914World and on the Bird site suggest that the screen won't save an engine that's chunking off debris/parts anyway. Paying $25 (including shipping) is one-quarter the way toward buying the 914Werke billet full assembly that doesn't appear to use the strainer. I still need to mull this over some more...

What could be issues are random nuts bolts and lumps of silicone sealer,I have found this in 2 of my motors after removing the strainer,why remove something that VW put there way back because it was needed,they never added parts that weren't needed,much to the folks that said you don't need a thermostat .
I don't know about the tuna can fitment ….do you really need one ?,its your motor do what you please,cheers.

Good point, I just ordered one. Should be here by the middle of next week. Cheers yourself!

they are only $14 at LN Engineering, Old Type 4 Store.

Have you known any assembly line workers? ask them how any of this crap could possibly be inside their motors

Finally, some updates. I ended up buying the two other Mahle wheels from Jim @Driver174 , since I discovered when mounting the Vredestein tires that three of the four wheels that came with the car were bent

I had a wonderful discovery that first started as woe. The lady I bought the car from said it has a 2.0 liter engine. I identified the fuel injection system as L-Jetronic, so I assumed the 1.8 engine was rebarreled to 1911cc or 2056cc. But when I finally scraped off the accumulated muck from the engine case and realized it is a VW Bus GE case, I assumed that it was truly a 2.0 bus engine running L-Jet. Not a little forlorn, I ordered a new intake boot, the four manifold connector hoses, vacuum hoses, and intake-to-head gaskets for the 1.8 since I have read that L-Jet is susceptible to vacuum leaks. But when I removed the first intake runner, I realized the 4-bolt intake gaskets I bought wouldn't fit the 3-bolt head. Not being a Type IV guy, I ran to 914World to look up differences in Type IV heads and then realized my tins are indeed 2.0 on top of 914 2.0 heads.

The pushrods are definitely solid lifter types, so that means it does not have hydraulic lifters. The 1.8 plenum is modified (welded-on/lengthened runners) so that the stock length intake manifold hoses could be used, and the EGR pieces are there but connect to nothing aft of the engine tins... I believe so that it would "look the part" and pass CA smog before the 1975 and earlier cars were subsequently exempted. Long term, I'll pick up a 1.8 plenum and run longer connector hoses instead, since the runner-extension welds are sorta farmer-blow "snotty." I'll also probably replace the stock 1.8 throttle body with a 52mm GoWesty (located within walking distance of my house!) billet unit to better match the 2.0 engine instead of the stock 1.8 liter's 45mm throttle body.

I also bought new injectors designed for a Nissan 280ZX (thanks @ClayPerrine for that advice) from my local NAPA store, rather than sending the old ones out for a rebuild/cleaning. I started the car for the first time about four weeks ago and, after running rough for a few minutes, it smoothed out pretty nicely and with great oil pressure on the aftermarket VDO gauge. When I took it for its first drive in 14 years, I quickly realized the shifting system suuuucccks. I limped it back home and removed the covers to discover that the bushings were essentially non-existent. A quick trip to the 914Rubber and Pelican Parts websites, and the replacement parts were here in a few days. It now shifts pretty well, although I'm still tinkering with it using advice from this community.

I moved the harness bar from it to my Suby-914 (and tossed the old 5-point harnesses that expired in 1998!), and moved the reproduction stock belts from the Suby-914 to it so that it is more street-friendly. The car is definitely sprightly with the lower Albins ring-n-pinion. Nancy drove it about two weeks ago, and she approves -- although one of her first questions was "when are you going to replace that old tape deck?" Sheesh, I gotta learn her some new priorities!!!

Below is a pic in front of my shop, prior to removing the harness bar.

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Things still to fix:

1. Finalize shifter adjustments.

2. Replace exhaust system with parts I had my daughter pick up from a Facebook ad near San Diego. Besides the less damaged heat exchangers (I still need to leak-test 'em), I can either install the full Bursch system or the brand new muffler (with Cat delete pipe). Thoughts?

3. Registration finally arrived today, so I need to install the new tags. Although it is fun driving around on 10+ year old expired tags hoping to get pulled over by our small town sheriff (embarrassingly, something only a gray-haired white guy like me would say...).

4. Rebuild suspension. The tie-rods are a little sloppy, and the front control arm bushings are squished; I presume the rear trailing arm bushings are hashed, too.

5. Interior is tired (carpets faded/worn, plastic thresholds cracked, etc.). The fabric-recovered seats look kinda cool, but the workmanship is not very good.

6. Stereo. Duh (happy wife, happy life).

7. Cold start requires more cranking than I believe is appropriate.

Excellent update.



Keeping the Blue Plates or getting something modern / fancy / vanity ?



What's up with the Grill Letters.

Tell her you felling nostalgic, so you'll replace the "tape deck" when you can find a functioning 8-track . . .then find a modern unit that looks like an 8-track and really surprise her. . .make sure you have a "Loggins & Messina" 8-track in there . . .then please send me a link - I want one!

Looking good! Some pretty neat discoveries on the engine. Sounds like it's probably a solid 110-120hp?

@VegasRacer -- definitely keeping the CA blue plates. The gold grille lettering came with the car... and I found a bagful of spare gold letters in the trunk!

@MM1 -- that'd be kick to find a faux 8-track. Something tells me I'm going down a rabbit hole tonight along with Dr. Google. Nancy just wants a way to listen to tunes from her iPhone.

@Root_Werks -- not sure what sort of power this thing puts out, but it's not fair to compare it to my 300whp Suby-powered 914!

Good man!

Thanks for the updates.