### EDIT - for the purposes of not filling this forum with multiple posts about the same car, I'm going to continue the recomissioning of this car in this thread. Details begin on page two. ###

Checking in as the new owner of a 1971 914.



Dragged out of the desert yesterday. Basically a shell, a steering rack, one wheel and a title.

Appears to be in decent shape. Probably needs a floor (rust penetration), definitely needs a front pan (cut up, no idea why) and some repair to the hellhole (small rust hole, but unsure what lies beneath). Rockers, doors and rear trunk appear to be very nice. There is light crash damage to the front left which has been hammered-out. I can't find bondo on it anywhere.

Kind of hesitant to post this as I've always wanted a 914, but unsure if this is the one. Long-time Porsche fan - owned a '72 911T when I was in my mid-20s, and now have a twin-plugged 912 which I restored (from a shell which wasn't a whole lot nicer than this).

Anyway, I have a rough idea of what I want to do with it. In the time being, I need to start hunting down some parts. Lots of parts.

I think that if you give us an idea of what your plan is, we'd know if we have parts for you. I'm putting 911 suspension / brake parts on mine. I'm doing a side shift conversion, and a friend gave me the appropriate engine support bar. So I will, when my old one comes off, give it to you if you need it. I' will have 914 suspension / brake parts for sale coming up. There are a bunch of sellers here, I've have had the pleasure of dealing with some of them. But even here it is buyer beware. Some great vendors here too. Season's here, time to work.

Great find. Since you have been down this road before, I am confident you will make this 914 very nice. Have fun.

Thanks guys. Nice to meet you.



OK, here's my thoughts. Bit long-winded, apologies...

I have the 912 which is a great little road car (1945lbs, 1883cc Porsche 616 motor with EFI with twin-spark - goes along nicely).

There's a whole resto thread on it here, if you are interested to see: https://www.ddk-online.com/phpBB2/viewtopic...t=back+in+beige



I bought the 912 in Fresno and restored it in the UK. In 2017 I moved to Los Angeles, bringing the car back over. My son had just been born, and from day one we were ripping around the Santa Monica mountains together on a weekend morning. He's four now and the best time I spend with him is in that car. He loves it.

All this said, I'm not really into 'going out for drives' in it. There's a fantastic road near here, but even at 5am it's filled with SUVs and trucks and, with nowhere to pass, and I find the whole thing just too frustrating. So we mostly use the 912 to rip around town and do stuff, and that's, oddly, much more enjoyable.

Since moving out to the desert four years ago, I discovered the joy of driving in the thousands of square miles of open desert around us. I've wanted a Baja Bug for a while, but then this 914 came up and...

So I'd like to do that. I think the current fanboy terminology is 'Safari' spec, but whatever the semantics, I just want to be able to thrash around in the dirt with my boy, then drive it home.

Spec-wise, I supose it needs a cage (to stop the chassis bending in half), a Subaru motor (so I can go nutso without concern for blowing it up), 31" knobbly tires a la Baja Bug, and a roof to keep the sun off.

With regards to sourcing parts, the car has basically nothing, so I need... everything.

I’m in Palm Desert, happy there’s another 914 out here! Waiting for the body shop for mine to be done restoring, yours looks relatively good compared to mine so good luck and can’t wait to see it on the road!

Welcome to 914world and Congratulations on your new project!
For sure you can get all the parts you will need on this site and various vendors that are also members here.

2015 Route 66 Event at Palm Spring.

https://youtu.be/EgXDAPSzMkA

Something like this

Click to view attachment

Easy now, that's a bit intense

Nice RV in the background.

914 looks pretty straight, be nice to see another one saved!

Thanks, it was another rescue puppy. Assembled in the early 90s by a professional builder, then wired and finished by a feckless maniac. I understand it flew for a bit then was sold in a divorce settlement. It caught fire in flight on the second owner, who immediately sold it on.

I bought it from the third owner (who never flew it) with only 114 hours TTAFE, stripped out all the garbage wiring and did a proper job on it.

Also re-did all the fiberglass, which was simlarly bad. Fitted GRT glass panel with two-axis autopilot. Engine is a 180hp O-360 with a Hartzell CS and it trues out right at 200mph (when the wheel pants are on). The build quality is pretty nice. I absolutely love it.

Just needs better paint, but I have decision paralysis.

There was a nice Safari build at SEMA ...
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=356602

Best of luck on your new project.

Do you know of a body shop in Palm Desert, CA that can weld in part of floor pan?

Thank you.

Not sure I understand . . . aircooled motor in plane but aircooled not trusted in a 914?

I'll text my buddy later, he grew up here, he knows more people here than I.

lots of teeners in SoCal. Bruce Stone in Riverside is a wealth of info and parts.

Is that your RV6?

Enjoy, you are at the right place for 914 cars and people that know them

Bob B

Love the 912!

And welcome, please keep us posted.

@jamlip

I am in Riverside and have lots of parts.
Bruce

I have a body shop that’s doing my car right now, they don’t do rust repair but they do a great job of straightening the body out and getting it looking nice and paint for a very reasonable price, cheapest I could find anywhere with great work when you’re at that part of the process

I've had a few weeks away on work, which gave me time to consider how I want to do this car.

In a dream world I'd have the shell restored to perfection, and ask Jeff Gamroth to build me a 2.5 short-stroke MFI motor to propel it down the road. Back in reality, I realised I'm going to be using an engine from something less exotic than a 911ST.

I initially wanted to do a Chevy V8 swap, but after reading through most of the swap threads on here, it's clear that Subaru power is a decent, tried-and-tested route to take. And so I decided that was what I'd do.

My 912 dyno'd at about 100hp at the wheels, and it clips along OK. A normally-aspirated Subary 4cyl is around 150-165hp and, given that the 914 is around the same weight as the '12, this power would probably be more than sufficient.

But then I learned about this engine called an 'EZ30D', from the early 2000s Legacy, which makes 215hp, and critically has six cylinders. This is important to me because I then have a six-cylinder in a car that was intened to have four, and a four cylinder in a car that was intended to have six. And that's a good in-joke.

So yesterday I swung-by a place in LA that sells used JDM motors, and picked one up. I realize I should have bought a whole donor car, but manual six-cylinder Legacys are all either rodded, or have 250,000 miles on them. Plus, I don't much want one sitting in my garden or hangar - I already have this god-awful 914 shell to look at.





I also picked up a five-speed 5MT manual transmission for it, before stopping in at Ikea and loading several closet casings on top of the whole thing and driving 100 miles back to the desert.





Earlier in the week, whilst working down near San Diego, I also bought a hood, engine grille, rear brakes (which I forgot I already had) and front struts (which I also forgot I already had - what is wrong with me?). I also picked up this lovely old Racemark / Raid steering wheel.



So... the plan.

Fix the rust in the rear of the floors and the top of the hellhole, and the big hole in the front pan from the (long gone) dealer-installed AC. Then I'd like to clean-up the cabin area, paint it black, fit some seats and possibly a carpet set, and replace the cracked windshield.

Then I'd like to rebuild the pedal cluster, master cylinder and brakes so that's all totally kosher.

Then I'd like to put the Subaru motor and gearbox in the car, get it running on Megasquirt and just drive it as is - ugly as all hell. I'm a bit too OCD with making stuff neat and tidy, and I think this will be an interested psycological exercise to try and just let go a bit.

Once it's a functioning vehicle, I'll try to work out what to do with it - off-roadize it, or whatever else.

That's all I got for now.

So this evening I unloaded the engine from my car...



Then dragged this over and tried it for size...



And then stood back and wondered, for quite some time, why I create these projects for myself.



Anyway, if you look carefully you'll see the streering wheel is flopped away from the dash. Next I need to hunt-down the whole upper steering column assembly - mine has been pilfered.

Since you live here in the dez, you may consider using this to fix the hole up front.

https://patrickmotorsports.com/products/oil914207m491pms

Jamie - I just spent a couple hours reading your 912 thread on DDK. Great build and story. If I can help you with anything, let me know. Mark

Hi Jamie - sounds like you're having fun across the Pond! Had it not been for the pandemic, I'd have been back across a couple of times and tried to look you up in PS. Welcome to the world of fourteeners - they're addictive, as you're already discovering!

Jamie
I reposted a link at DDK - so expect more of us to drop by!
Every 911/2 owner needs a 914 too…C

Congratulations Jamie. I'm sure it's going to be an interesting project. I love mine and they are a joy to drive compared to a 912. However, they are a pain to work on. You will be wishing for an engine in the back soon!

Hello Keith, Clive and Neil! Great to hear from you guys

Few more hours on the car this evening. I'm taking it right down to the shell - I just find things way easier to work on when they're pared to their most basic form.

My friend Logan gave me a set of wheels so I can at least get the car rolling. They're just cheapo steelies from JBugs, but when I put them on the car I actually kind of dig the look, and it got me thinking.



When I started restoring my 912 all those years ago I had all these ideas about what I wanted to do with it. One of them was to make the most base-model 912 imagineable, and that is kind of how it ended-up. At least in terms of appearance - underneath there's a twin-plugged injected motor and lots of covert chassis lightweighting (it stands, ready to drive with half a tank of gas, at 1945lbs).

Anyway, I still love the 'all-go, no show' concept, and I think it'd be fun to do it to the 914, although go even more hardcore - just a tub and an engine. No heat, no dash, no trim pieces anywhere. I'm aiming for somethign I can thrash off-road, so I'm thinking just spray the whole thing black and vinyl wrap the sides whatever colour I fancy at the time.

The car is nearly down to nothing now. I pulled off the right rocker cover and discovered the bottom of the A-pillar had rotted out where the AC lines entered from the wheel well / cabin. I guess it was condensation from the lines that did it. Bummer. Found a repair section on Restoration Design, so not too much of an issue.



Still trying to work out if I buy a front trunk repair panel at $250 (to replace the current one which has been cut for A/C) or just patch in some sheet steel. If I take this thing out in the desert that pan is going to get eat a lot of rocks.

Another thing I'm trying to work out is whether I have the shell sand/media/vapor blasted or just leave as is. It's really nice to work on a clean shell but it's perhaps $1000-1200 I don't need to spend on something I plan to ultimately be thrashing the balls off.

I think I know what I'm going to end up doing, I just haven't admitted it to myself yet.

Oops, double post!

Shoulda left the 914 and taken the RV-6 instead!

That's my RV-6!

This is where I picked up the 914. If you see anything there worth having, I'll go back for it!

Been doing a bit of research and it looks like the 914 axles won't hold up to 230 Subaru horses.

Does anyone have 911 hubs and stubs they'd be willing to sell?

I have a source for 911 front end parts.

If anyone wants to buy some original struts and brake calipers, I have a few.

They last if you center the axels correctly. I'm still running the OEM 914 CV's after 25K+. The first year I thrashed it. I used to slam it into 2nd and break the tires loose just for S&G's. On the other hand, if you go five lug you'll have a greater selection of rims & tires.

Hi Kent,

That's interesting. Thanks for the FB message, by the way. Would love to come check out your cars, seeing as I'm fairly local.

My feeling is that I'd like to just get this thing up and running on steels and skinny tires and work out how I feel about it from there on in. If I run a narrow tire and keep the weight out of it, the lack of traction should keep the strain out of the axles. I'm a maginal grip afficionado anyway - my 912 is on 185 Vredestein Sprint Classics, and my LS3-swapped Roadmaster burnout machine is on whatever-the-hell offbrand whitewall 225s that I bought it on (when it was powered by its original 180hp 350 TBI). Not a single aftermarket wheel or wide tire anywhere to be seen.

Usual science fair / lack of planning vibe to this whole thing

James

... this all said, if anyone has a 911 rear stubs & hubs setup they're willing to sell, give me a shout.

(I have a source for a 911 front end).

I dig the five-stud steel wheel look on these cars.

Pelican is usually a good source for 911 parts.

Thanks. Intimately familiar!

Going in. Car has been moved from the hangar to my house. I've almost stripped it bare - just the harness and a few odds and sods to remove now.

I welded on a new A-pillar base, then ran out of argon. Need to do passenger floor and a small patch in the trunk.

Then a bit more welding to stiffen it up, jet wash it, bond on the roof and hit it with some farm implement satin black. I may do the outer panels in a separate color when I'm done.





Straight to hell for this one. Also, If I spot a seam, I'm going to weld it. I plan to bounce this car over the desert and want to do everything I can to stop it snapping in half.

Good thread, nice work so far. Just seeing the first photo in the low desert dawn makes me jealous. Love that area! nice 912!

Little update. Obviously not much happened with the car after my last post. It sat in the yard and I just couldn't find my mojo with it. It's a great shell, but that's it, and it's missing a lot of stuff that would make it a driver.



A few months ago I decided to sell my '68 912. I had owned it for 13 years after restoring it from bare metal (build thread here, if you're interested). It was an absolutely stunning car but I'd scratched the itch and was looking for a new challenge.

The 912 went to its new owner in Santa Monica few weeks ago, and 12 hours later I was the new owner of a 914 with a blown engine, bought from the brother of a friend in San Diego.



It's a 73, black with appearance pack. It's a SoCal car and is "rust free" (of course there is no such thing, and I was about to find out this one was hiding a dark secret).

I'd had the Subaru EZ30 sat on a JWK cradle in my garage for months and had even tried to sell it on FB Marketplace with zero success.



Once the car was home, I set to work with degreaser and a jet wash.





... also the engine.



Digging around the car, I was pleased to see the front trunk was un-cut and the front slam is in good shape. The floors, longs and A-pillars are perfect. The hell-hole needs sorting (find me one that doesn't).

When I bought the car, the rear trunk was filled with engine tinware. On removing it, I found some spooky filler work. Being British, I'm aware of what this means. Filler should be a skim-coat at most. If there's more, it's hiding something, and that something is always Not Good.



1.7 tinware - this will sit in my yard for a year till I take it to the metal recycler...



Well, here's me cutting out the rear trunk after whiz-wheeling out the filler and discovering the jiggery-pokery that had been going on - the rear trunk had been replaced with a section cut from another car, but instead of doing a nice job of it, this Master Craftsman had tacked the rear slam panel of the donor over the slam panel of the car, then added filler to restore the shape of the sheet metal pressings. Arghhh! So much fucking time and effort to do a totally shitty job. I will never understand it.

So the car had two rear panels. The donor panel was actually poling out an inch below the existing one - I missed this because I bought it from a friend who I love and trust dearly. He hadn't noticed it because it was his brother's car. And his brother hadn't noticed it because he never really got deep into the car... ugh.





So I've ordered new rear trunk panel.

Back to the fun stuff. Here's the EZ30 aligned in the engine compartment. It sits reassuringly low on the cradle and it looks like I have lots of space to play with.





My 912 was running MicroSquirt fuel and spark. I love programmable EFI, and my plan with this engine is to put it on MegaSquirt. I'm also going to try not to use the original intake plenum since it's quite large and wickedly heavy, and would require me to cut the air intake into the rear trunk, which I just don't want. I would like to look into the engine bay and see something akin to the format of a Porsche flat six, if you get my gist.

Here's a quick shot to show what I have in mind...

Someone is having fun now! Hopefully your garage has AC Jamie.

Jamie - nice progress so far. Keen to see how the manifold design goes.

Interestingly, when I picked up my 1970 for conversion, the rear trunk seemed solid but was hiding similar sins. The filler used was 12mm thick in places, and (I'm guessing) was put on all at once; the material in the middle had not cured! After opening it up with the grinder that distinct smell of curing Bondo pervaded the garage.... fun times.

Keep the posts coming. As a fellow Brit, completely get the fear / loathing of rust on older cars.

- Tony

Hi Tony. It's nice to live in a place where the only rust is limited to the bits that exposed to the rain. I suspect my car was parked for year with the trunk sticking out of a car port.

As you know, in Britain, things rust inside sealed garages.

Looking forward to following this build. I too just picked up my next 914 project. Well, I was purchased back in Jan, but after a lengthy shipping process, it finally arrived. Since its a rolling shell, Im also doing an EZ30 out of an 03 Outback.

Little update on the home-made manifolds, which are now on the engine.

Many years ago I did a Megasquirt EFI conversion on my 1972 911T (imagine doing that now!) using a single throttle body plenum from a 2.7 engine. During the project, an acquaintance in the UK mentioned how Triumph throttle bodies would make excellent EFI intakes for a flat six motor and that kinda stuck in my mind as something I'd like to try.

I later Megasquirted my 912's 616 engine, using Weber IDF-style throttle bodies and two VW Golf could packs to run a crank-fired twin-plug ignition system. It worked great.

When I got my hands on this Subaru EZ30 engine, there was no question that it was going on Megasquirt, but I assumed I would use the single-throttle body intake. Two other things bothered me about that idea - although the engine fits beautifully in the car, the intake doesn't and I'd have to cut the trunk sheet metal, and the intake is also -really- heavy. Then I remembered the Triumph throttle body idea.

I ordered a pair of throttle bodies from eBay. They're from a Daytona 955i. They have no injector ports (the EZ30 has injector ports in the heads) and the bell cranks are configured for push and pull throttle cables. I'm not sure why you'd need this on a three-cylinder motorcycle, but it's great for me because I can link the two ITBs together for my six-cylinder application.

For the manifolds, I investigated various ideas (3D printing etc), but in the end two $36 blocks of 6061 T-6 alu from eBay won out.



I scored out the intake port spacing on each side...



Then I chain-drilled the middle sections of the ports...



... and got to work with a die grinder.

Then I needed to shape the billet blocks to allow clearance for the injectors. My friend Jim did the cutting on his mill.



After that, I had to do a little additional shaping for various engine components that were in the way.



I seated everything with Blue Hylomar, because the Triumph intake boots are kinda old and I'm a pessimist when it comes to intake leaks.



Here's how they fit. Not the most beautiful job, but stout, cheap and maybe 20lbs lighter overall than the stock manifold. They should flow nice - I managed to match the ports from the ITBs through to the head.



Here's a YouTube video that served as inspiration during the many hours of grinding. It's a Beetle, with an EZ30 on ITBs, making 280hp on a dyno.Sound up!

https://youtu.be/-t-h6-lS3Ww?si=uoQasbnADhYwKwA7

That works out really nicely! Liking the "carved from the solid" approach. I'm looking at something similar for My Next Project, so may have questions later on.

Everybody needs a friend with a milling machine sometimes.

- Tony

You are selling yourself short. That is great craftsmanship.

(Jiggery-pokery lol..)

It’s fine. Better craftsmanship would be to get some more weight out of them - the manifolds are down to 3.2lbs each, but I could probably pull another pound out by removing more material.

Obviously it is a tiny proportion of the total weight of the car, but if you keep doing it over and over it ends up making a difference. Similarly, if you don’t, you end up with a car that’s 100lbs heavier than it needs to be.

But for now, I want to get the engine running!