I have started working on a car a purchased last year. Its low mileage and is cleaning up very nicely. I thought I would take some pictures as I work thru this project.

I did not need another car but a 73 came up for sale last year and when I went and looked at it and it was rust free so purchased it on the spot. When went to picked it up and drive home the next day I got the full story. Two owner car, documented 83K miles (Porsche dealer stamps in maintenance book) it had only been driven about 1K miles in the last 20 years. It has a issue where it will not stay in 4th gear and that apparently limited driving. Because of many oil leaks and the engine is very well marinated with oil and will need a full reseal. Fuel injection works great and the car is very original. Its too nice to cut up and do a -6 conversion so I will fix the tranny and reseal the engine drive it a little and probably sell it to fund other projects.
Pics before cleaning.

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This is after washing and buffing. You can see quite a color difference.


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When I pulled the rockers off all the screws, washers and spacers looked like they were factory and had not been touched.

john

Great find. Any idea on pricing?

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Manuals and maintenance records.


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California car

Cool find! Congrats.

Early '73 VIN...looks like a diamond in the rough! There MIGHT have been one of those vinyl bras on the front at some point . Just a hunch.

Agreed, that is a great find! Hopefully some elbow grease on the front end will lessen the damage from the bra. Won't take much to bring it up to snuff!

Unfortunately the car has been repainted at some point. Not sure why. They also painted the bumpers and rockers with something like under coating. I am going to have to strip and repaint.
Pulled the bumper to add some chrome ones I have as spares.

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Cleaned up nice

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With bumpers. Hood cleaned up good after buffing.

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john

Good looking car.

Charlie

Great find.

From PAULFV8
Great find. Any idea on pricing?

I will probably give BAT a try. Survivor cars seem to bring very good money there.

The Bra guess is correct.

It had a black slide over the hood bra that was left on the car for years. The area that was under the Bra is slightly darker, stained by the Bra.

john

This car has been really cool to clean up. I cant believe how nice the condition of some of the areas are. Hard to believe this is almost 50years of grime.

Standard dirty front fender well.

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Cleaning supplies

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Work in progress

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Finished product. I cant believe how few rock chips there are. One season in Colorado and the entire fender well would be sand blasted. Even the black paint on struts and brake backing plates looks nice.


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john

Looks really clean, great job! We had to scrap the undercoating and repaint to get it looking like yours

WOW!!

Great find! Even if not the original paint, great condition car. I would keep it, and enjoy it

Great find, the number of these "clean" cars is small. Will you be keeping for your own use or turn around?

Love it! 73 light Ivory 1.7 is my favorite. Keep having a great time with it.

Congratulations on a terrific find... subscribed. Remarkable condition underneath the dirt!

Proof there are still discoveries to be made.

930Cabman asked:
Great find, the number of these "clean" cars is small. Will you be keeping for your own use or turn around?

My current plan is to sell it. I will probably list it on BAT once I get the engine resealed and tranny rebuilt.

I have been a 911 guy for years. I purchased my 1st 914 about 4 years ago to do a -6 conversion. Did not know much about 914's and got lucky that I found a 73. I liked the finished product and started looking for another 914 to convert to -6. The plan is for next 914 to be what I want (still not 100% sure what that is). Pics of first 914 as it sits now. 2.4 with E cams and carbs. 5 lug conversion. Short gearbox.

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I purchased a 70 roller that had only minor rust to be next -6 conversion. Decided I really wanted a later car to start with. 70 914 now for sale in classifieds.

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=352498

Purchased this 73 white car thinking it might be a better starting point for my -6 conversion. Decided it is too nice and original to start modifying, so keep looking.

Purchased another rust free 75 roller (also Ivory) that was someones abandoned project. I will build to be "my car".

Will end up selling all the other 914's to fund the build.

john

Sounds as though you have the sickness but good. Keep us up to speed with your projects. What 911 models are in the stable?

Moved on to cleaning rear. Normal grimy wheel well.

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Cleaning in progress.

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Lots of oil and grease from engine

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I assume these markings on trailing arm are factory.

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Not quite as clean as font but still nice.

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john

Moving on to longitudinals.

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Came out nice and clean. I little surface rust on front edge I will need to clean up.

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When rockers are not cleaned out even nice cars rust at jack point. I will have to fix this as well.

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One side all clean.

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john

70 911 T restoration mod project
78 SC longhood backdate project Should end up with 3.5 and ITB's
91 964 coupe, 5 speed RWD. Coilovers, big brake upgrade, rebuilt 3.6 with 993SS cams and headers
2001 Turbo Coilovers, 16/16G turbos, GT2RS intercoolers, 3" exhaust custom tune

john

Had some time yesterday and started on drivers side.

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Cleaned up well

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Similar stamp and writing on drivers trailing arm. This time a K and 35. other side was R and 0. Thought maybe the numbers were shim thickness needed for alignment, any other thoughts.

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Driver side cleaned. No rust in jack post on this side.

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john

incredible.

they are still out there.
factory markings on the suspension arms!
that car deserves to keep on being coddled.

nice job getting hold of it.

Wow, how'd I miss this thread, nice work!

Great stuff - congrats!

I also have an early '73 1.7L - Ivory White . . .it has white headlight surrounds . . .your car is earlier - does it also retain white headlight surrounds?

A friend of mine thought they were supposed to be black in '73 - but I've read that early to mid-'73 cars had white - not black.

I heard it somewhere before:

some guys have all the luck

Great project, but the other P-cars also sound great.

Ever dabble in anything Italian?

My white car is a very early 73 built in 8/72. It has white surrounds.

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My blue car built in 5/73 has black

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john

no doubt some luck was involved. I live in a dry climate so rust is not quite the problem as other areas. Part of the luck is I looked at every 914 that came up for sale locally for about 4 years. I saw lots of turds, met a lot of interesting people but most important got better at knowing what I was looking at. When the diamonds in the rough popped up I knew what I was looking at, I also know where some other gems are at that the owners are not quite ready to get rid of.
I agreed to buy this what car before I knew it ran, a quick look over indicated it was that nice. I also ended up buying 4 cars over the 5 yea time.
I have been told that when you are searching for a car and find the one, you should keep looking because a better one l might be around the corner.
The last 914 I purchased is a 75 almost rust free (I don't know that any are rust free until restored) that will need a little trunk work.
It is car that like the 73 is from southern California and was brought to Colorado 20+ years ago and not driven, it was on jack stands and stored indoors. It was a abandoned project that had been stripped to the bare chassis (all the rest was in boxes) so I could see what i was getting.

Italian lust yes, but not acquired, I had a Fiat 124 spider for a short time is college if that counts. I lusted after Alpha Rome spiders back in the day, thought about Ferrari's and Lamborghini (or More likely R8 equivalent) but have mostly had German cars. Rented a Alpha 4C about 3 years ago, and if it had a manual transmission I would have one in my garage (automatic it comes with is so bad).
I did have a Lotus Esprit turbo for a while (not Italian but on the exotic side) before I purchased the 996 Turbo, looked cool in the driveway but not that great to drive. Most of my daily drivers have been BMW coupes for the last 12years (their turbo 6 at altitude is awesome). I currently have a BMW M2 Competition on order as my daily driver as its one of the last manual transmissions available (its going to have to sit outside if I don't sell off some of my Porsche's!!) and wife drives the last year manual transmission Audi Avant available. As manual transmissions become non existent i figure my next new car will likely be some types of hybrid, plenty of old ICE engined cars to keep me intertained.

John

Had some time to do some more clean up. Door jambs were not repainted.

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Did a little more deep cleaning in the front of the fender

Before

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after

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Hard to get up into the very front.

john

Thanks, John

Did some work on the frunk. Looked worse than it was and cleaned up nice.

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Not sure what the OE tires would have been. Spare does not look to be used.

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Plating inside still pretty nice

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Parts that got touched and outside not as nice

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From looking at other post I believe these little square pieces of paper that are on hood and trunk are original inspection stickers.


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Misc pics
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john

it must be giving you pleasure - it doesn't seem to disappoint does it.

spare looks suspiciously like it might be origi diggy (or close).
right down to blade runner eye make up.

Certainly seems to fall into survivor category!

Have not updated in a while. I pulled the engine as it was leaking everywhere and I needed to se what was up with transmission not staying in gear in 4th. I am resealing the engine with all new gaskets and seals. Transmission will be gone tru as well. This has given me the opportunity to do some underside cleaning. Underside cleans up well. I think the brown is the original cosmoline (assuming 914 were coated like 911's). Soap and water does not remove brown but brake cleaner does.

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Muffler heat shield even looks nice.

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seam sealer that fell of trunk floor has not burned off heat shield.

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Drivers side a little more grungy from tranny leak.

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Not sure what the thought process was on applying undercoating on the floor pan.

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john

Not sure why the pics below are double posted

re undercoating.

evidence of original slacker not finishing the job and knocking off for a hotdog at lunch or a beer at 5.00 pm? or the goo ran out in the gun and that was it.

fascinating car.

They used to only spray the seam areas. A full bottom cost more money. My guess is the owner was a tight wad

Pristine - great find.

did some more cleaning while engine is out.

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john

Have not posted in a while. I have made a some forward progress in cleaning up some areas and getting the interior cleaned as well. There was some mild surface rust in the front and rear. Rear was a little worse, I assume typical leaks (I am sure luggage rack doesn't help)
I decided not to leave the cleaned up areas in the front and rear trunk unpainted after wire brush.
I was able to get a paint sample scanned and matched. The paint matched really well in rear. Frunk paint was more yellowed (assume off gassing of spare over the years).

Cleaned up with wire wheel, Ospho and Por15
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Painted:
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Front wire wheel, Ospho
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Painted
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John

Pulled drivers door card after dropping screw into door (replaced window seal which had previous paint over spray) . Inside of drivers door looks very nice. Factory plastic vapor barrier still in place .

Bottom of door.

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Inside

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john

Moved up front to clean things up.

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Cleaned up pretty nice.

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john

Moved inside to floors.

Passenger front
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Passenger rear

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Center tunnel wiring

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john

you found a bit you didn't need to wipe clean!

amazing car.

Nice car and nice to see it getting cleaned up.

Mine is also an early 73. Interestingly, the rear emblems on yours look exactly like mine (silver with the 1.7 looking darker). Conventional wisdom is that all 73s had black emblems though there has been some debate about this in the past (see here: http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...6156&st=20). After seeing yours I'm thinking mine are original and either they came looking like that or they were black but wore/faded to look like that.

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Great progress with the cleanup, any news with the eng/tranny?

As you can tell from pics the engine and tranny were removed. Engine got decreased (very well marinated) and received all new gaskets , seals, engine mounts, etc.. Debated what to do with engine tin as there was some surface rust. I elected to just clean it as many of the factory markings were still in good condition.

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Transmission was also de-greased and inspected. The transmission would not stay in 4th gear, this was the reason I was told the car was not driven much for 20+years. Inspected and then replaced most of the syncros (5th was good and reused), dog teeth and shift selectors. 1st was not good and 4th was very bad (part of the reason it would no stay in gear). Resealed and re-installed and adjusted shifter, as set up it would not go fully into 4th, probably reason 4th was damaged.. So far no leaks from engine or tranny and runs and shifts good.

I had one mess up in cleaning some of the heat exchanger ducting. The parts that were painted grey were in good shape but really layered in grease. I used to aggressive a cleaner and stripped the paint. Had to repaint grey.

john

My blue car (-6 conversion) is also a 73 (late) and it had black rear badges (they are now custom) and black headlight surrounds.

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White car has white surrounds and silver badges (1.7 looking darker is just angle and lighting).

john

I love the pic of the immaculate wiring harness on the tunnel!
What a great find. Thanks for sharing the time capsule.

that engine tin stamp made me look closely at your first few posts.

last year we did some research on 74 1.8s - i noticed very early cars in the production run had the EA stamp above the engine designation number.

i noticed your car is 128th car made in 73 MY. August 72 so the EA number seems similarly to be on another very early production run car. different model year, different development order (EA number) of course since its an EB engine.

i noticed however that the car was not sold until may 73!
thats very unusual that it was made so early and sold so late?