I recently acquired my first 914. A 1972 with a 74 2.0 and a side shift conversion with 97K on the speedo. The car looks and drives great, my wife and I fell in love with it immediately.

It was a 300 mile drive to get the car home. On the way, the stereo shorted out, no big deal it needed a new one anyway. As it started to get dark I turned on the lights and tried to adjust the dash lights. The dash lights barely flickered when I turned the headlight knob and the fuel gauge popped hard over past full. Ok, I got a little electrical work to do. When I got the car home I noticed the rear passenger side suspension was about 1 – 1 ½ inches lower than the driver side and the fuel pressure sensor was laying on the engine resting on the badly cracked hoses. All of this and I still need to install the heater blower and the A/C components that were never replaced after the 2.0 was installed.

There is no way I’m giving this car up (my wife already acts like she gave birth to the thing) so it looks like I have some work to do. Now I’m not a mechanic, but a short conversation with the local Porsche dealership and I realize that I already know more about just the A/C system than they do. All confidence lost.

I already know that I have to rewire most of the electrical system, based on the amount of electrical tape under the dash and the fact that I can’t pull the instrument panel out far enough to see the wiring. The electrical system I have no problem with, but the most advanced mechanical work I have ever done is replace a water pump or alternator.

I guess my big question is, can a novice mechanic safely strip down this car and replace/repair all of the things that need to be done to bring it up to snuff?? I have the time, the shop manuals, DerWhite Productions Exploded-View Part Diagram Manual and soon an empty wallet.

QUOTE (Creptice @ Sep 28 2005, 09:50 PM)

When I got the car home I noticed the rear passenger side suspension was about 1 – 1 ½ inches lower than the driver side

i fear a cracked suspension console/ear!

do a search on this topic here on the board, this has been discussed in detail before (with lots of pictures) ...

if it is indeed a broken suspension ear, *DO NOT* drive the car until it gets fixed!

oh, and welcome to the club!
Andy

take pics of the suspension ear Andy mentioned and post them here......

As to the question, yes almost anyone can learn what to do when it comes to cars......

let it be, let it be,
let it be, let it be,
speaking words of wisdom, let it be.

Oh welcome to the club!

My best,
Mike D.

You will need a good supply of weed

Oh... and jack stands

You will get a lot of Help and support from this Board you can do it yourself.
These cars are not that complicated. Just Takes lots of Time and Money$$.

Posting pictures will allow people to help you better... Welcome and good luck...

Yep, take lots of pics and we will try to help sort out things out.

Geoff

welcome to the club... worst case is what Andy said... but pics will help... if you can't tell,we like pictures here...

My only words of wisdom are: look over the car very carefully. Make sure it is safe to drive. Don't take any shortcuts at the expense of your personal safety. Once you have the car up and running, you will enjoy it tremendously. But take the time to fix things right the first time around.

It might be a little too late, but you may want to ask one of the club members who lives close to you to help you take a look at your car. Many of the guys around here really know their stuff, and they could help you decide what is the most important order of business to get your car in road-worthy conditions.

Be safe, and enjoy your 914!!!

Carlos

There is a great group of guys in your general area. Their group goes by SMOG Southeast Michigan Owners Group. They host our Midwest classic event. If anything seems to be over your head they should be able to help you find local guys / shops that can help you. Click HERE for their website

There is alot on knowledge on this site. Take pictures (we like pictures) and ask questions we will get you through it.

Oh and welcome to the insanity of the 914 world

Sure you can do it! It mostly takes persistance (and band-aids). My opinion is that my 914 is a hobby that doubles as transportation, not transportation that doubles as a hobby. Hope you have AT (alternate transportation). After the fear of breakdown is aleviated through repair or personal confidence in how to fix what may break, you will find that there is NO OTHER car available that provides the simple satisfaction of a 914's driving behaviour.

Welcome to the club. Lot's of resources here. i'm pretty sure Dr. Evil had an electrical diagram of the car. I don't remember if he posted it or not. you can always PM Dr Evil

I'm new to the 914 world myself, although I've worked on other cars before. My take on getting started is to work on the safety-critical stuff first : brakes, suspension, steering. Once the car is safe, you can have a lot of fun driving it, even if it looks like cr*p (now how would I know that ?), and still has reliability problems. The most frustrating thing is getting parts : your local parts store won't have anything for a 914, so you're stuck w/ FedEx-ing everything. Oh, and try to do your work in small manageable jobs that leave the car in a driveable state. Once you tear into a car to do a full restoration, it can be years before you get to drive it again.

Oh, and don't be too intimidated to work on it. After all, it's really just a Volkswagon...

Run for your life!

Seriously, welcome to the madness. And the "club," too.

The 914 is a GREAT car and there are a lot of people on this board with all the answers you'll need. I learn something new about a car I've owned for 15+ years al the time here.

Cheers!

pete

yup.... I have some words of advice, if you take things apart....put the parts in ziplocks with a peice of paper in in the bag and a discription so that when you come back a week or more later it is all labled! and i mean every part.....

QUOTE (Creptice @ Sep 28 2005, 08:50 PM)

I guess my big question is, can a novice mechanic safely strip down this car and replace/repair all of the things that need to be done to bring it up to snuff??

[QUOTE]



That'd be the big qustion...We're still not sure

QUOTE (pete-stevers @ Sep 29 2005, 10:01 AM)

yup.... I have some words of advice, if you take things apart....put the parts in ziplocks with a peice of paper in in the bag and a discription so that when you come back a week or more later it is all labled! and i mean every part.....

Oooooh yeah, big time!

QUOTE (Grimstead @ Sep 29 2005, 10:57 AM)

QUOTE (pete-stevers @ Sep 29 2005, 10:01 AM) yup.... I have some words of advice, if you take things apart....put the parts in ziplocks with a peice of paper in in the bag and a discription so that when you come back a week or more later it is all labled! and i mean every part..... Oooooh yeah, big time!

This I learned after tearing down the interior. Great advice... Now can anyone read my writing?



New here as well, this board is awesome!!! SOme much information and great people...

Welcome to the club!

There is a lot of help right here on this site. You can do it.

I alomost forgot:

QUOTE (pete-stevers @ Sep 29 2005, 01:01 PM)

yup.... I have some words of advice, if you take things apart....put the parts in ziplocks with a peice of paper in in the bag and a discription so that when you come back a week or more later it is all labled! and i mean every part.....

Very sage advise. I'm finishing up a restoration/project I started almost 3 years ago. Not only did I ziplock the parts, with a label on the outside describing the parts and the date I removed it, I also set up my own web site to photodocument the process.

If you do remove something and then have difficulty reinstalling it, just post a message and many members will be glad to assist you. Obviously you can also use my site for reference. I haven't done everything, YET

Good luck and welcome to the 'madness'.

QUOTE (jsteele22 @ Sep 29 2005, 08:52 AM)

I'm new to the 914 world myself, although I've worked on other cars before.  My take on getting started is to work on the safety-critical stuff first : brakes, suspension, steering.

A good fuel line inspection is high on the list also...


John

Thanks for the advise guys, especially the Ziploc bag thing. I would never have thought of that one. I’ll get some pics of the suspension and the wiring behind the dash as soon as I can. I didn’t realize that the entire dash had to come out before you could get at the wiring; it’s a pain but probably makes it easier in the long run. Even though I have put almost 500 miles on it in just a week, I’m parking it until I get the suspension question answered. Thanks for the warning Andy.
I have contacted Tom from SMOG and we have been playing phone tag for a couple of days.
Until I can get some mechanical pics of the car, here are some beauty shots.

[QUOTE]I guess my big question is, can a novice mechanic safely strip down this car and replace/repair all of the things that need to be done to bring it up to snuff?? I have the time, the shop manuals, DerWhite Productions Exploded-View Part Diagram Manual and soon an empty wallet. [QUOTE]

I think so. I'll let you know for sure in a few weeks -lol. Pretty much a novice mechanic here also. I started a complete rebuild about 2 years ago and should finish soon.

I did learn and adapt alot along the way. i quickly learned that I had to get the pro's to get some jobs completed within a reasonable amount of time and to achieve the quality that I wanted, i.e. paint, rebuilt engine.

A few of the things that I learned: Shop manuals are great reference, as are exploded view diagrams; as others have mentioned -label eveything, take pics and take notes to put in the bags too; a parts car (or cars) serves as a fantastic reference; PB Blaster is way better than any of the other "liquid wrench" type products; powder coating is great!; this club is fantastic help!!!, there are some fantastic products in the resources section!

I have had a fantastic time rebuilding my car! Restoring/rebuilding an old car is a fantastic hobby and great learning experience. As for the wallet ... just don't even add up the total costs.

Head on.

...

...

...

...

...

...

Adriatic blue...

A beauty - looks like mine, but too nice to "learn on" if you are a novice. According to the latest Excellence issue, the value of 914's has picked up. Try to find some experts out there to help you assess whether your $ + time +skills + tools + space are commensurate to the job. It would be a shame for it to be taken apart and lost. Guaranteed it will cost much more than its market value to fix, but market value doesn't matter if you enjoy it and are comfortable in the $ department and enjoy the end result. good luck

These cars are the best deal out there.

All the long term members here have delusions as to the value of these cars. They are too use to seeing great deals for low prices.

You can get a 914 for a couple thousand and put 8k into it and have one great car. To ease the pain go comparison shop afterward to see what you could get for $10k.

Oh, your sweat and hours of labor. What else were you going to do with your spare time? Sit in front of a tube and get fat and stupid?

Enjoy.

PS. You have it all sewn up, the wife loves it too! No problem with the $$ disposal. To ease the pain you can give each other 914 restoration parts for a few years for holiday gifts!

Chip

Welcome to the "Adriatic Blue" Club.

I Love that colour

I you need some inspiration, lokk here:

My Construction Site

Keep that beauy running, please!

Welcome to the club! Nice looking car, hope the suspension issue is not serious! This web site is an awesome resource for when you start working on your car.

Good Luck with the car!