I'm just curious.........

The parts manual lists parts 914.501.003.11 & 914.501.004.11 as "blank body, primed, sound-proofed & sealed".

I recognize that these parts would long ago be NLA, but has anyone every hears of such a part being ordered? Maybe to build a racer?

Yes, there were real. I know of one such being ordered to rebody a six way back when. The numbers on it are truely different, both the fender 'VIN' and the trunk 'Chassis #' make no sense compared to every other number I know of.

What complicates things for that particular car is that the original body was not destroyed as it was supposed to be. Years later it was resurrected as a /4, then reconverted to a six. So now there are two bodies around with the 'same VIN'.

Is that the Dave O car?

No, Dave F.

sometimes known as a "body in white"...just a chassis painted in basic white, an option for the race teams to build up a car without having to purchase a complete car just to tear it apart....

whether or not anyone did this with the 914 I do not know...common with 911s

ok, this begs the question ...


anyone tried to order one lately? i'm serious ...

i have always been amazed about the amount of stuff you still can get from the factory if you just simply ask ...
Andy

I hope you post a picture when yours arrives, Andy.

There were 2 left as of around... 5 years ago? (according to AA @ the time)


M

My dad looked into a blank body back in 1984, but was told that they were NLA back then by Stoddard.

This was after I wrecked that car. The car got straightened, a new firewall, trunk floor and a new rear panel. It is still our track car today.

I don't believe half the crap that comes from AA.

Porsche says that they are unavailable. The E code before part number means part no longer available

I just searched Stoddard's site using both part numbers and came up empty...

The part numbers are still listed in the dealer price guide with list pricing at $7091.41 and $9284.75

Maybe it's time for the factory to produce a few so dealers can have one or two on their "shelves". How fast would they be snapped up?

I, personally would pay dearly for one! I'd love to have a non-Vin'd 914 to whatever I want with. If I really needed a VIN, I know a guy down south(& most of you know him too) who has cut the VIN plates out of a bunch of 914's he's cut up for parts. Wouldn't it be great start with a frsh palate?

Yep, find me one & I'm in - hang the price!

Gimmee, gimmee!

In the Brit car world, there's an outfit called British Motor Heritage that bought up the tooling for the MGB, the MG Midget, and the Mini bodyshells. They produce them in reasonable numbers, and pretty good prices. Last time I looked, a complete Mini bodyshell was around $7K. However, all of these cars were produced in far greater numbers than the 914, so there's likely to be more demand for replacement shells.

If Karmann were willing to give up the tooling, and a supply of steel could be obtained, I'm sure new shells could be produced. Given the relative complexity, I'd guess they'd be quite a bit more expensive than the Mini shells, which are very simple and very easy to manufacture. Wild guess is they'd be at least $15K apiece. Seeing as you can't even GIVE away a fairly rust-free bare tub, I'd wonder at the size of the market.

You can GIVE me all the rust free tubs you can come up with!

I don't know where the "fairly rust-free bare tubs" would come from. There are enough parts to go onto these tubs that there is no need to strip a good tub for the parts attached. Perhaps 20 years ago some of the tubs I stripped could have been repaired, but not today. Mostly what we find today are piles of rust, in a vaugely familiar shape, covering the remains of suspension and drive train.

Even so, a free tub in California would cost a lot to deliver to our 'neck of the woods'. I carefully considered Kelly's /6 tub for $500. To just get it home would have cost a week or 10 days of travel expenses.

Reproduced bare tubs are getting alot more traction these days.

Several years ago,I thought it was kinda cool that you could buy a "Brand New"

MGB tub for $3995.00 fron Victoria British.

Then,along comes Dynacorn reproducing the '69 Camaro body,complete shell for
$10,000.00.

Now Dynacorn is gonna reproduce the '68 Mustang body.

I'm not holding my breath,but it could happen if there is enough interest to justify
the tooling and costs,just look at the 914 steel repo flares.



Ron

I've been thinking about this before, and I think it's possible.
There were a lot of 914's made, but think of how many are left today.

Too bad the swapping of VINs is as illegal as hell.

Based on my experience as a licensed dealer....you would have to get a State assigned VIN #. Depending on the State you would have to comply with the in use smog laws unless there was an exemption.

CA exempts 500 a year....I have one in my 356 Speedster clone.

Carrol Shelby tired to resurrect some old Cobra frames that had previously assigned CA VIN # and sell them as true 65s....somehow he got away with it. He claimed that they were in a lost wharehouse that burned or some such crap....they went for 500K+.....

I had a 72 for awhile (Blue car I found localy) it had no pillar post vin #(tag missing) the province of Manitoba assigned a vin # to the car even tho it still had the vin # in the front trunk. I asked about the assigned vin # and was told it was issued under special circumstances. I.E. if the windshield hoop was replaced. I couldn't figure out why they didn't poprivit the old vin tag on to the new windshield hoop if that was the case.

But would you pay$750 for one with all the parts to build a car including a 1.7L and tail shifter?

Experience tells me 1 in 5000 would pay the cost to buy a repro 914 body. It is the nature of the beast.
CCLINCLONEME

This is exactly WHY you can't give away a tub. People offer them for free if you pick them up, but people won't take them "because transport is too expensive". Never mind that transport from CA to NJ is only $1500 door to door with zero time off required on the part of the buyer, and you can't buy a rust-free car in NJ for anything like $1500...

Believe me, Dave, there are PLENTY of cars here you would consider completely rust-free available for under US$1000. I'll bet you could manage to find one or two PER MONTH.

In any case, my point is proven. If someone isn't willing to pay a $2K for a good tub dropped off at their door, they're not going to make $15K for a perfect tub.

I'm not getting this If this "tub" is so "rust-free" (and I'd presume, straight), why are we stripping it? Why not restore it? Because the parts individually are worth more than they are collectively as a car? If someone wants a "tub", why not buy the whole car intact and add/remove/swap the parts you need for your restoration/trackcar/project car as needed. If we, collectively, are in need of these parts so desparately that we strip what I'm hearing is a perfectly suitable platform, something(parts prices,914 values,parts availability) must be out of wack!

One comes across engineless chassis from time to time here, and the cars are frequently without much rust. Anyone in the Midwest or the East Coast would consider them "rust-free", though there's usually some surface rust. I've seen deals where someone has two cars, one drivable, the other not, and they want to do a package deal for both cars. More than once, the non-drivable car was in fine shape, it just needed a small amount of body work, paint, and an engine to be a decent car. These package deals are often so cheap that the second car could be considered "free". There was such a deal on offer in Santa Cruz just last month: $1500 for a running 2.0 and 1.7 roller, which had no engine, and basically no interior, but had a clean hell hole and longs.

People from east of here often don't seem to believe the number of perfectly good cars (of all kinds, I see nice VW Bugs driving around every day) available here, but seem to be put off by the hassle of transporting them to where they are. So, rather than pay that price so they can start a restoration with a relatively clean chassis, they end up spending several times the transport costs in money, hassle, and time trying to replace a set of shot longs and patch up the hellhole.

In the meantime, the "rust-free" car ends up cut up and going to the scrapyard because the seller can't find a buyer, and HAS to get the car out of his garage/driveway/side yard/etc. When the East Coast people hear this, they cry foul about yet another car getting cut up and being "lost forever". They had their chance...

See the problem? It's really a pet peeve of mine.

I gave away a '74. The new owner gave it back.
I gave it away again and now it is a Hyundai.

Some people are having trouble giving them a way.

KT

i have seen it many, many times ... you can't give away a rust free roller/shell for free over here in CA ...

and the mid/east guys won't pay $1k for shipping, so we
Andy

PS: remember when jenny wrecked her orange car? we got the silver tub/roller for *free* as the guy couldn't give it away ...

PPS: see attached picture. that one used to be a "rust free" CA car. we tried but couldn't give it away for free either ...

Was the inside of that pan........as really clean as I'm seeing it in that pic?

as i said, rust free ... tried to give it away ... lots of talk, no takers ...

Andy

Yep.

At a certain point we give up. NOBODY wants to pay. Lots of pissing and moning about rusted cars.. but no money.

I personally beleive north/east people would rather do all the welding/body work than pay to start with a better tub. Spend 6k on rust repair and body work and pass on the 1k dollar decent/straight roller that would require less work.

Makes sense to me

I'll say it here in this thread:

The San Jose/San Fran bay area has the BEST tubs in the world.

They dont get 100 degree heat (interiors are typically still decent)

They only get rain for a few months out of the year..

They dont "Hot Rod" their cars (the area is full of engineers)

I was blown away when I moved there and noticed all these dead nuts original 67 Camaro's/Mustangs and early Porsches running around un molested.

Another good thing about 914's in CA: at one point not too long ago the cars had to pass CA smog.. this means they ALL had to run decent at one point on STOCK injection.

Or they sat in someone's garage not running for years until they could fit carbs and get away with it...

Ahhh, this old debate.

My only comment, if you want a Body-In-White, just PM me, and wait six months.

I saw a show earlier this week on Discover , I think, that showed a w'house in the States full of Delorian parts bought from the plant in Ireland. They will refurbish you old car for $20000 or sell you a NEW one for $40000. I saw the pictures ... Racks 40 feet high with engines and SS panels.