I'd like to get some feedback from anyone that has been hit from behind in a 914 with chrome or rubber bumpers. How did a 25mph hit or greater translate into the car?

The design plan on my '75 is to replace the fugly rubber bumpers with the early style chrome. This car was rear ended years ago and the plate behind the bumper was bent in about two inches. It looks to have been a hard impact. As I run through the car to understand how this impact was translated into the car, I am finding the '75 stock set-up absorbed and distributed most of the impact.

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I really hate the look of the '75 bumper and I generally build what I want. But....this is one of the few cars I'll let my kid drive because she is helping me with the rebuild. I can't bubble wrap my kid and IMO it's better to teach her defensive driving and how to handle cars in bad weather/traction loss. Before I lock down the design, I'd like to know the real world difference from owners who have experienced getting rear ended. I clearly understand the '75 bumper set-up is safer, but I'd like to know from folks on their experiences, especially in solid/chrome bumpers getting rear ended, before I decide what I want to do.



DaveB

Mine is a 72' and mine are not bumpers, they're crushers. They are body panels made from sheet metal a little thicker than the rest of the body. The ones with tits may be better. 74' had them front and rear

I don't think the BUBs are as frowned upon as they once were.

I have seen some very nice cars fitted with the impact bumpers.

And with everyone else taking them off, they become more unique.

This hit totaled my 914.

Betty's 914. Hit while sitting at a light. The KIA was doing close to triple digits.

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This is how far I was pushed into the intersection.

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The ash tray and radio popped out of the dash. The seat frame was bent from the impact.

I walked away with a bump on my head and bruised thighs (I hit the steering wheel with my legs).


The 914 is a very crash worthy car, if it from the front or rear.

Not so much from the side.

That is so hard to look at. Slightly worse than what happened to my first teener that totaled it. Same thing, complete idiot drove into the back of it, but, probably only at 50 mph. The impact drove the engine under the car. Everyone walked away. Like you said, very crashworthy front & rear due to early versions of crumple zones.

On a more positive note, at least they had Kitty Litter on site to aid the clean up.

I think you were working to bet Betty's car fixed? What's the latest word on it?

The kitty litter was in the trunk. We just bought it to use at home with our cats. It is fairly expensive kitty litter, and both bags were lost.

As for her car, we just went to the body shop today. It is a hour and 10 minutes to get there from here. But the owner of the shop is a long time 914 owner.

It is still on the rotisserie. It is in primer, and they are finishing up the installation of all the chassis stiffening. We went over so Betty could approve the color.

No, I don't have pictures. I will take them when it arrives back at my house for re-assembly.

Clay

Once it is back home, I will start a resurrection thread with pictures.

glad it's coming along.

So back to OP's problem. Yeah, easily fixable.

I have a '76, I was rear ended in High School by a 69' Camaro. I was dead stopped waiting in line to leave school and another student hit me doing around 20 mph.

The damage to my car was about a quarter sized area of paint on the rear trunk was chipped off where the shark nose tip of his Camaro hood scraped it, there was no dent in my trunk from that.

His entire front end was bent at his front fenders, and the fenders punctured his front tires. His radiator was sliced in two by the area on the 914's bumper where the license plate is. His coolant was everywhere.

We were both ok. I had some soreness in my neck a couple days later but that was it.

His car couldn't be moved without a wrecker. I drove off in mine.

As far as looks go, I like both styles. As mentioned above there are some very nice examples of both. The black "BUB's" accent & look quite good with L80E (white) 914's.

Has anyone thought about fabricating a bracket to mount a chrome bumper on the late model shock mounts?

I think the shock mounts stick out too far.

Clay

Yes they do, would be like the bmw 2002 look when they went to later bumpers….

As far as first pic of the blue car, that’s not a very hard impact, doesn’t take much to bend rear like that… with chrome bumpers I had similar damage at 5-10 mph.

But the red cars ugh, those were hard hits!

that is one hell of a hit.
very sad to see a phoenix red 74 in that state.
good to hear its going back together.

did the gearbox and engine take any damage?

pleased to know you walked away with no serious physical injuries.


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@DaveB

there is a way you can lighten the weight of the impact bumpers.
i saw a guy do it with a 75 here years and years ago.
the euro cars never had the heavy pistons. they used an extended folded metal mount.
not sure if they also had a slightly different inner bumper, might have.
he fabricated the mounts for his car copying a 76 car than was from germany that a mechanic here owned and got rid of the pistons.

i don't mind the look of the late bumpers but i can understand preference to back date.

911s from the same period here in aus used the euro set up for bumpers too.
looked externally very similar to USA crash bumpers.
but they mounted on single use crush tubes instead of heavier pistons.

its a way to keep the original external appearance but to lose a bit of the weight that came with those crash bumpers.

@Krieger - Andy, didn't you lighten your BUBs? Any advice you can offer here?

It took the ears off the transmission. Destroyed the muffler and mount. Took the mounting loops off the heat exchangers on the left side. Bent two pushrod tubes and pushrods. Damaged some engine tin. I had to cut the shift rod in half to get it out of gear.

All of that is easy for me to fix. But I am not a body man, so I have to pay to have the body work done. That is the holdup. We told the body shop "No matter what, make it right. Then consider cost." Fast was the last consideration. It will be 2 years on April 30th. It may not be back by then.

When it comes home, we have a lot of work to do to put it back together. I will be spending lots of time in the garage.

Clay

There is a thread where some of us posted how we cut up our bumpers. late bumper lightening

Everyone - Thanks for all the feedback.

My take-away is the rubber bumpers and bumper shocks were good for low speed impact, which was why they were mandated. But there is no difference between chrome or rubber bumpers at higher speeds. The car crushes the same by design. So without any differences in safety, it comes down to a personal choice on the selection for chrome or rubber.


@wonkipop , I'm not that concerned with the weight, I can get lighter passengers. Seriously, as long as my CG and height are about the same with either option, it falls into an IDK category.

I should note that I've driven 911's but never a 914. I'm building this without ever having driving one.

DaveB

I have not been hit in the rubber bumper cars. The 73 was nailed when new, was a big bill but came out fine. A bit of a joke as it was on base and the car the hit me was driven by the CO's son. He figured he could get by without an insurance claim until be saw the bill. I was enlisted at the time, car was brand new, ate on him that a peon would have a good car. Ravenna green, still looking to get another one.

yep.
no way those collision bumpers make any difference to things apart from taking a nudge.
ain't gonna make a speck of difference if you get a kia up the khyber like clay copped.

i don't mind the collision bumpers on the front of 914s. its a good look and they managed to get them to integrate. but the rear collision bumpers were not so good in the looks department. they couldn't quite get those pert like the originals.

Clay, what insurance company did you use? Are they paying actual repairs? I’m a year away but want to understand who is the best to work with

Thanks
Paul

At the time of the wreck, all of our 914s were insured through State farm, on agreed value policies.
The guy that hit me was with Progressive. They consistently gave me the run around about the value of the car. State Farm stepped up and paid it off, then went after Progressive and the driver without me being involved. It was part of the agreed value policies.

Then they politely asked me if I would move off off the agreed value policies, as they were discontinuing that offering. They are soon to be partnering with Hagerty to offer agreed value policies through State Farm agents and a consolidated bill. The agreement had not been reached yet, so I went with a local independent insurance agent that offers Hagerty insurance.

The car was totaled, and we got the full amount from State Farm for it. And they didn't charge anything for the salvage value, as that was part of the agreed value contract.


I can't say that's going to help you any. We have not had a claim with Hagerty, and I hope we never do.

Clay

This was about $12k (yes really) of repairs in 2010. Was hit at about 5 mph and the other car (a new SUV) had zero damage. Chrome Bumper, muffler, both rear fenders, flares, etc, etc all got bumped a little to the point of messing up the door gaps. The reinforced trunk probably did not help things.

Then I did my big williow springs crash about a year later. My poor car has been through a lot...

-Steve

Hmmm... I'm out of file space?

> The total filespace required to upload all the attached files is greater than your per post or global limit. Please reduce the number of attachments or the size of the attachments.

-Steve

I bought my 914 in 1987. In 1993 and I was driving east into Portland on US-26. Three lane freeway leading into a tunnel just east of downtown. November. Rain (because Oregon). I was in the left hand lane. There was an accident in the tunnel and traffic was slowing. A pickup in front of me and a Lexus sedan behind me. We all had stopped in time.

Unfortunately, a retired dentist in a domestic four door came upon the backed up traffic too quickly on the wet pavement and smashed into the back of the Lexus. The impact was hard enough to cause the seatback in the Lexus to release and the driver tipped backwards. As a result, his car slammed forward and into the back of my 914. That pushed me forward into the truck. The truck had an extended trailer hitch and it hit my left hand headlight bucket. The right rear bodywork was crushed but there was fortunately no damage to the transmission or suspension.

The insurance companies (the dentist's and mine) agreed that my car was totalled. I argued that it had been a show winner in the local PCA region concours several years running. They argued that value was based on local sales examples. If I had been rich, I would have told them to get fucked and footed the whole bill myself.

I took the insurance money (and now have a "rebuilt" title) and had the repair done because I love the car so much. The work was done by Fix Auto Body in Portland ( fixautousa.com/portland-east/ ). They did a fantastic job. They even saved and re-welded in the original stamped number on the rear trunk floor. The car got a repaint in the original Light Ivory and I had the original owner's side stripes and frunk Porsche crest removed. Camille Eber is the manager (owner?) there and she was fantastic. Cannot remember the name of the tech that did the work but he was a 914 owner too as I recall.

The overall damage was ugly but, as stated, was bodywork only. The repair was so good that I won the Porsche class in the Forest Grove Concours d'Elegance in 1994. The bottom line is that I believe that the simple lines of the 914 bodywork are easily repaired regardless of bumper styles.

A side note: I still drive my car about a thousand miles a year. It is not a garage queen and sports about 190K miles and at least that many smiles.

Open the picture in paint and reduce the size by 50%. That will get you under the size limit.