Just picked up my new 914 in its Ravenna Green livery. I'm not sure if my wife's more bummed out that the new car is lime green or that I still have my old 914.

Spoke

This was the first time that I've towed a car on a trailor. My buddy's 1500 Silverado pulled the 914 very easily. I kept the speed low, between 55 and 65. The ride from my house to the car in Connecticut was about 180 miles.

At 55-65 MPH, I was a moving chicane on rt 287, rt 78 in NY and NJ. I could see semi trucks 1/2 mile behind me start to make moves when they saw me turtling along up ahead.

QUOTE (Spoke @ Feb 17 2006, 06:05 AM)

I could see semi trucks 1/2 mile behind me start to make moves when they saw me turtling along up ahead.

Knowing the area well....I could safely say, your a very brave man....or a skilled defensive driver.

The first order of business with the green car is to get a new clutch in it, and get it on the road. This car will be converted to 5-lug, wheels will be Aaron Cox's 7/8 inch Fuchs (now in transit).

I want to do something with the engine, but not right now. Engine is a 2.0 with original FI. Eventially, I want to get some big HP, maybe between 150-200 HP, hopefully staying with a T4.

The car seems to be in really good shape, rust wise. Haven't popped the rocker panels yet but all other rust indicators look good (front trunk, no rust; rear trunk, just some minor surface rust in one area. Battery tray is original, seems to be very solid.

The paint for the most part appears to be original. The hood looks like it was painted once, but fenders, doors, and jams still have original paint on them.

The red car is starting to look like it did a month ago before the accident. Taking my time on pounding out the damage. I'll get the red one back on the road then decide whether to sell it or keep it.

The wrinkles are slowly disappearing. The car still runs good. Can't drive it anywhere except in the neighborhood. No insurance, no registration.

The trunk has a cable release for the lock. Would like to change this to electric.

Front trunk is very clean. Don't like the electric window washer. I have the original washer bottle. Maybe I'll retro-fit the electric washer motor into the original bottle.

Door jams have original paint. The car was undercoated. I think this is why the car is in such good shape. One of the negative points of '70s undercoating can be seen in the plug near the door sill. The drilled hole allowed surface rust to begin. The positive point of undercoating is that the structure of the car is in excellent shape with very little rust. The car alledgedly has 137K miles.

Congrats on the purchase!

Where in CT did u find the car? I'm in Stamford.

When I got my car I borrowed my friend's trailer. Drove it from Rockaway to upper westchester to meadowlands and back to upper westchester. then next day from upper westchester to nassau collosium and back to upper westchester. left the car and returned the rig to rockaway. and of course had to drive home back to upper westchester, hehe.

That was all for an AutoX and a autox clinic. Same crappy roads, plus a few more. Route 80, 287, Tappan Zee, 684, 87, LIE, etc...

Nice score!

Maybe next time I am home, I can "borrow" it for a litte while

Jerry,

Good to see that you made it home in one piece. I found two extra sets of keys for the car when we were packing up the house. I'll send them off to you when I get a chance. It may be a few days though. We're a little busy with the move plus I spent the night in the hospital. I'll get back up to speed eventually.

Hopefully getting it off of the trailer was easier than getting it on.

The car will be 5-lug. These 7-inch and 8-inch wheels will add some bling to the car. I'll strip, polish, and paint the wheels. Need to get some center caps.

I polished up one spoke and part of the rim on the the top left wheel just to see it shine. Looks nice.

Spoke

Just scored this set up from ebay. Picked it up in Long Island today.

911 Carrera front end includes a-arms, torsion bars, aluminum crossmember (with horn attached), sway bar, struts, rotors, calipers, tie rods, and steering rack. Seller thought it was from a mid to late 80's 911.

Rear end includes swing arms, complete axles w/inner/outer CVs, 4-to-5 lug converted hub and rotor, 914-4 caliper.

These braided brake lines were also included.

Here's the numbers on the struts. Boge shocks? duh. Will the adjustable Koni's on my stock 914 fit in these?

Cool Color. Looks solid

The far bellows on the rack has been chewed by mice. Should I consider using this rack or stay with the one on my 914? Would this one be better?

The calipers have 3.5 inch spacing between mounting bolts. The body of the calipers are metallic. A magnet sticks to the body of the caliper so I don't think it's aluminum. Does this mean that it's an "A"?

The brake pads have wear sensors on them and its wires are secured to the strut. Hmm, can I use these for wear detection? I guess I need an idiot light somewhere.

You bought this car off Criagslist right? I saw it too late....glad to see it went to a good home

I saw it on ebay.

ahh....i think it was on CL too. Looked a a good deal.

Well, I got closer to road ready with a new clutch.

Then on further inspection, I found the driver side rear swing arm has a bad bushing. The shiny part of the suspension ear shows how the trailing arm has been moving around. The blue screwdriver is in a hole in the metal caused by the movement of the arm at the pickup point.

This puts me in a real predicament since I have a 5-lug suspension to put on the car but have at least a month or more of work (at my pace) on the wheels (strip, polish, paint), install suspension, flare fenders, and I want to get the car on the road ASAP.

Question: How hard is it to replace a bushing? I'm thinking of repairing just this one bad bushing. Are any special tools required?

Maybe one of my local 914 brothers has a spare swing arm that I can "borrow" for a couple of months. Perhaps we can swap some parts.

Spoke

Before and After I added a little wheel bling. Wheels from my red car.

Spoke

A-Calipers... ditch the wear sensor. I used a cut-off wheel on the spring plate to remove the extra cable holder for the set here.

QUOTE (Spoke @ Feb 17 2006, 06:28 AM)

Front trunk is very clean.

hey spoke, looks like the car was hit in the drivers front once ...
that "wrinkle" in the front fender is a default crumble zone. any dents there usually are the result of a frontal impact.

check the front for repairs and it wouldn't hurt to check the front axle geometry as well ...

ask me how i know ...
Andy

QUOTE (SirAndy @ Mar 13 2006, 11:51 PM)

hey spoke, looks like the car was hit in the drivers front once ... that "wrinkle" in the front fender is a default crumble zone. any dents there usually are the result of a frontal impact.

Thanks!. I was wondering about the dent. Also, the hood has been repainted along with the headlamp door covers and eyebrows. I'll have to check a little deeper on this. Car doesn't pull or have any other strange characteristics. I did have to adjust the hood back a little as it was hitting the metal around the hood gasket near the front bumper and not closing all the way. Hmm...

Also looking at the pic, the inside front of the trunk has been repainted but I haven't found any strange wrinkles there. The color is a bit off from the original paint of the car.

Spoke

Got a set of chrome bumpers. Front one needs some pounding, back one just needed cleaning.

Before

Click to view attachment

And After. Sorry, low light = bad pic.

Well the weather is starting to turn here in PA and time for some heat. The car came with SSHE but none of the parts shown in the pic. I sandblasted the flappers and got the stainless steel tubes from an engine that I bought.

The tubes are very nice after polishing them but I had a problem getting them off the engine since all 4 bolts had either rusted to the nuts on the tubes or rusted to the nuts and the nuts rusted off of the tubes. Either way, I had to grind the bolts off and weld new nuts on.

All hardware now installed and I'm ready for the cold weather.

Spoke

Nice Ravanna Green 914.


How's the 5 lug conversion coming? I hope you sent out the calipers for rebuilding....

I picked the car; the color came on the car. Nice classic color but not sure if I'll keep it once I start repainting..

The only thing I've done on the 5-lug is strip and polish the wheels. I spent a lot of time cleaning up the spokes of the wheels. Will paint the background black. 19mm Master Cylinder and rear Tee ordered.

For the suspension, I will inspect everything and unless something jumps out at me, I'll mount it all then replace items as needed such as ball joints, tie rod ends, bearings, rebuild calipers. The rears calipers on the green car will stay as they have been rebuilt recently and the rear is 4-to-5 lug converted 914.

SpokeClick to view attachment

Before

Painted the wheels tonight. One step closer to 5-lug.

Spoke

the racks are the same more or less...the one with the least amount of use would be my choice....

if you go with turbo tie rods (and you should, and I might have a brand new unused set for sale) they come with new boots...

I'm done cleaning and prepping the front end. Repacked the bearings, added lube to the ball joints, cleaned up the rotors.

I decided not to paint anything yet since everything cleaned up real well and with my flame-test just-bolt-it-on-and-see-what-works approach, I may be taking things apart later.

Ball joints and tie rod ends feel ok but won't know their true condition until mounted on the car.

Spoke

Tires are mounted. 205/50/15 Yoko ES100's on 7" wheels for the front, 225/50/15 Yoko's on 8" wheels for the rear.

Nice 14x5.5" Fuch for the spare from Camp914. I never leave home without a spare. Once I ran over something on RT287 in NJ in my A6 and the tire deflated immediately. Tire had 1/4" hole in the tread. Had to ride the donut for 150 miles.

BTW, the box beside the spare Fuch holds a rebuilt front driveshaft for the A6. Outside boot ripped.

Spoke

First fitment of the rear wheels on the hub assembly. Had to mount the tire to remove the spline nut to pull the driveshaft. The 8" wheels will give the back-end that lovely fat bottom look that guys like.

The red stuff on the swing arm is paint dust from painting the red car.

Spoke

Time to do the 5-lug thing. Finally...

I'll do the front end first, then the back end.

Last pic of 4-lug front end.

Dropped the old front end.

All the old front end stuff. Anybody need something? Rotors? Calipers? 17mm master cylinder is out, too.

Ken Tyrell tried 4 front wheels, how about none?

Old rack, new rack. I just can't take my eyes off a nice rack.

19mm master cylinder installed.

A-Arms, crossmember ready for install.

New rack in.

A-Arms, crossmember installed.

Nuther view

Struts and underbody swaybar installed.

Passenger side

Front is done.

Road test was good. No looseness in the ball joints, tie rod ends, or bearings.

Brakes ok, rotors true.

Big time handling improvement with the 911 torsion bars, shocks, and swaybar.

Looks good ,what year front suspension?