little history of the car...

the car is a 1973 porsche 914, my dad purchased the car new in 73, he drove the car as a everyday driver for 7 years, got a job in atlantic city and did not want to put miles on it driving it to work so he purchased a nissan stanza to drive everyday, from 1980 to about 1986 the car was started here and there and maybe driven around the block, 1986 was the last time the car was started and it was parked in our garage never to be seen again! 5 years ago at my college graduation the title of the car was turned over to me and it was given to me as a present to do with what i please,...

that brings me to about a month ago when i finally had the gonads to pull the cover off her and she what it was all about...




so i got home from work early one day and decided to head to pep boys and buy a battery and just see if i could get any life at all....to my suprise it almost cranked over,...checked the distributor and there was no spark...replaced distributor, rotor, wires, plugs...tried again and nothing...flue lines where dry, so bad fuel pump, bought a used fuel pump for 150$, installed with two new fuel lines and she fired right up

http://media.putfile.com/Picture-29

purchaed a set of new brdigestone tires on ebay for 32$ for all 4, and it just so happened the guy lived like 10 minutes from me, so i picked them up, had them mouted for 30$ and rolled her out of the garage for the first time since 1986...




decided since she was running i would give a nice exterior detail and she how the paint looks,...after mothers three step and some clay bar and some beers this is how she turned out, and keep in mind this is original 34 year old paint!




next it was time to gut the interior and see what i find, hahaha, i found about 10 ciggerets, lighters, change, and two vacuum bags of dirt...
i also wanted to check for rust, and to my suprise there was absolutly no rust anwhere on the interior of the car, that is always a great thing wtih old cars...

before cleaning...

after cleaning...


yesterday a new carpet kit came in the mail and i had a chance to install it today...the interior looks absolutly MINT...seats and back pad and doors will all be recovered in black leather, but for now, they stay, they are in great condition and no need to redo them now...and only one single crack in the dash that is not bad at all...

next on the list was to remove the entire front end and replace it with a GT air dam and chrome front bumper with fog grills and new fog lights and some horns that work

after removing the front bumper i was upset of find a fair amount of rust and some holes, so i completly stripped the front end of paint and sanded off what rust i could and sprayed it with a undercoating...black rubber stuff...

also had a chance to test fit the gt front air dam with brake ducts...





so...i ad to replace the accelerator cable, cause when you would press the gas pedal down it was be super tough and stick and stay down some times:furious: , also the stock rubber gas pedal that was bolted to the floor was holding on by a hair, so decided to replace everything while i was down there including the pedal board...these products are from rennline

old


new

shift knob before,...


shift knob sanded down and recoated...


old door panel...



me recovering the the old door panel...




new door panel installed, goin to do drivers tomorrow, ran out of gas again, this was probably one of the hardest things i have done, it was a pain to get everything to lay right...took me three tries, but its money now...

here is the drivers side door panel done and with new porsche window cranks, no more corny plastic ones...should match the new steering wheel really well.....





also got the new horns in, and new fog lights hooked up and mounted, waiting on bumper from chrome to put everything back together....

old vs. new

its really chrome, hahaha, i started to sand down the fog covers to have them painted black and after 5 minutes of sanding i realized there was chrome under all that dirt and oxidation:furious: , here is a comparison of the two...took me almost two hours to clean one...:furious:

Car looks to be in amazing shape! Congrats! Great job on the door panels. I've been thinking about getting the same front GT air dam, but as I have a '75 I don't think it will look that great with the later style bumpers. Looking forward to seeing yours with the redone bumpers.

Keep the pictures coming!

WOW thats a beautiful car. Its hard to find them in that kind of shape after all those years with nothing done to them. Nice score

I think it's fantastic that you've kept it in the family. Personally, I wouldn't do some of those mods, like steering wheel, etc. and would try to keep it more stock.

BUT

I think what you're doing is EXACTLY what these cars are about! They mean different things to different people, they are easily modified and easily kept going. I mean, the way you got it started after all those years reminds me of Woody Allen escaping in that VW Bug he found in the movie Sleeper.

So, I applaud you for getting the car on the road and making it your very own. Update this thread frequently, please!

Paul

I hate you!!!





Lemme know if I can help...

first off, thank you for the comments guys...i dont want to "mod" the car to much, and tryig to keep it as "porsche" as possible, but i want to bring it up to date a bit, without destroying the car....i am a 26 year old kid coming from 04 wrx/sti...that i have completely built myself...





















old interior shot


i am one for the clean look, you will not see another subaru or any 26 year olds car that is modded as clean as this...there is over 35k$ invested into the car and it is hard to tell...and that is what i like...

Kids got talent

After seeing what you did with the Suby, I wouldn't feel too bad handing over the keys to the family heirloom



(do somethin bout them Riviera's!)

hahah, they are on the way out man, dont worry,....

got new 180# springs, 21mm torsions, and bilsteins on the way along with new rotrs, pads, lines, and full fluid flush, so after that i will start looking for a new tire/wheels combo, ooo and also have porsche rasied letter rockers i need to paint and install sitting in my basement...

Great story! Sounds a lot like mine. Dad purchased in 1974, drove it around, bought a Volvo, put the 914 away in 1986. We brought it back to life in Dec. 2004. New battery - started right up! New tires, washed, Mothers clay bar and wax. Way to go Tweeter!

Click to view attachment

...another angle.

Click to view attachment

...and after 8 hours of hand washing, polishing, and waxing.

Click to view attachment

dude that is so freakin awesome, your car was one of the many pics i saved when i started researchin this car, i absolutly love the way it looks man, its goo to put a name with a car now...thank you

Big ups Tweeter! There's a good contingent of folks in Northern Jersey - not sure where you are in relation to the city... Car looks great - enjoy it! Hopefully you can keep the desire to add more power at bay for a while - once that bug bites you...

Great color! Great story. Your Dad loves you dude... You better give him his props!

How many miles are on the car?

Eddy

Nice! the 4 lug fuchs are the way to go!
Konrad

Didn't you guys know this was a West Coast organization?

Wow!!!!!!!! Better than a barn find!!

Very nice Tweeter, great job of "freshening"! After I started reading your post I wondered if Erik had seen it yet and sure enuf he did!

Great story. And a nice 914!

Hi Tom! I upgraded to an SRT8.

nice score!


now that everybody kissed your butt, let's ask some of the tuff questions ...

in the pic below, are those round things stamped holes with palstic plugs in them or are they solid?
Andy

I love reading about finds like this one...beautiful car! You obviously have some talents, but most important you are already discovering how easy it is to spend a few bucks on these cars.

Good luck....keep the photos coming

uhh that is not tough, they are a soft rubber plug that goes into the hole...already pulled them out and cleaned around them sprayed the whole front end with under body coating...that panel is eventually goin to be replaced when the car is resprayed...

guys thank you for the comments,and more pics after new parts are installed this weekend hopefully...

Nice job on both cars.

I guess I'm the only one that's not familiar with that 914 center console. Where did that come from?

i believe AMCO was the company that made it, and i think it was a aftermarket option of some sort, i dont know everything about it but it was in the car

Where's Brer? He was looking for original owner stories...

Very cool!!!

beautiful, looks really good!

good!

in the pic it looked like they were not stamped out, which would have been bad ...
Andy

I can tell. Those wheels and brakes alone cost a bundle. Anyways, enough about money. Great looking teener. If you ever get tired of it, PM me! And if you ever get tired of the STI, sell it without the motor. I think you know where I'm going with this.
Mark D.

i was thinking about a suby motor swap, but will only consider it when the day comes that you can use the subaru tranny....without major work...

IIRC subaru bellhousings are like chevy's if you've seen one you've seen em all. you could use a fwd suby tranny and figure out a shifter setup. the side shifter 901 is a very good tranny tho, just keep the bushings in good condition and get the shifter adjusted right and they shift great, and I've heard the rennshift kits make em even better

nice car.

i bet the concours guys would freak if they saw this...

maybe before you do all the body mod stuff you could put in new fuel lines and flush the brake system/fluid. i think you were lucky starting the car with 20 year old gas (maybe you drained the old gas, you didn't say). don't mean to rain on your parade, but old fuel lines leak and gas drips on hot exhaust and ignites and burns up nice cars... you have a very, very nice car.

(insert pix of 914 on fire here)

not sure why you are wishing the bad luck...i have changed the oil three times within three weeks...draining whatever decides to let loose in there...oil has been super clean all three times...so i am leaving it now

changed fuel filer 3 times also

checked all fuel lines and non are leaking as of yet...

pulled gas tank and cleaned and re installed with new gas before starting

waiting for new rotors, pads, and lines to come in so i can do a full fluid flush, i see no reason to do things twice

waiting for a new seal and bushing for the tranny and goin to do a tranny flush also...

All VERY cool stuff. Congrats and welcome.

I'm sure no ill will meant on the fuel lines. 914s have a unique and funky set of plastic fuel lines that don't age well if left dry.

famous last words...

be safe change em anyways, if they aren't now they will. guaranteed.

the creamsicle's were only about 10 years old when we finally got most of the bugs out and drove it for a few days when they finally gave out, luckily it was in the driveway and I saw it dripping while my wife was starting the car. she shut it off in time luckily. if she had driven with it that way I might not have a wife now (yes that would be a bad thing)

I would never drive another teener thats been sitting without changing the fuel lines first

...like sitting for how long??? --JON

haha, several years.

Why would that be bad? What am I missing on this? Possible front end damage if they weren't stamped out? Not even sure if mine are or not... something applicable to all years?

you got it!
the factory replacement front-end didn't have the actual holes stamped out.

whenever you see a car where those things are solid, it was hit in the front!

and a long time ago at that, as that piece has been NLA from porsche for quite a few years now ...
Andy

wow...don't find too many 914s in that condition in the NE. Great find.


don't gamble on the fuel lines for long. Replace them ASAP or your car could end up being an even brighter shade of orange.

can i replace these with goodyear rubber lines? i have rolls of this stuff available...

most of the goodyear is gonna be the wrong size, it's metric sized which means 1/4 is too small and 3/8 is a hair too big. I tried with both, 1/4 will tear your hands apart trying to get it on, and 3/8 will blow right off no matter how much you crank down on the clamp

Edit: make sure it's high pressure injection line too, carb line will blow out after a few drives

My FLAPS had 5/16 fuel injection hose. Was a tight but not to bad.

sorry for the slow updates guys, but funds got a bit depleated and work has consumed most of my time lately...

here are the new front 21mm torsion bars installed up front with adjusters

165 pound rear springs

bilstein sport shocks with adjustable spring perches

rocker panels with porsche lettering will be here tomorrow so ill have to paint them and install them, but decided to take the stockers off and check for rust, and to my suprise THERE WAS NONE!:banana: behind the rockers is one of the WORST places for rust on these cars...so i hear





oo and painted front end but not taking any pics till sides are on and painted...

rockers with raised letters and flared ends...

needed more fiberglass work then i was hoping for, there was about half inch away from lining up with the door sill, so had to fiberglass the gap, sand, bondo, sand, paint, also thinking about filling in the jack hole, since the jack hole has actually been removed





well, got my hands dirty with some electrical stuff, rewired the headlights, installed new motors and relays, now the headlights work and go up and down...also wired up the fogs, chrome fog grills, and painted front end

http://media.putfile.com/Picture-050-27

figured now was a good time to scrub down the front trunk and clean out all the Fing dirt, i have never seen so much dirt in my life...also recarpeted the trunk so its nice and neat now, you can see where i cleaned and where i didnt...ill wait to do that section till i pull the gas tank to install new lines...