I saw the 914 sins topic, an it got me thinking: What crappy thing(s) did a previous owner do to your 914 that you had to unf&%#?


Picked mine up in the high desert of CA from some guy who had been "improving" it.

It's a 73 2.0, but he had a crappy aftermarket steering wheel, and the guy had taken the center console apart: no kidding, he gave me the pieces (WTF??)

The car also had indoor/outdoor carpet fastened down with liquid nails, and had $200 owed on the CA registration.

The guy told me that it had been a desert car up in the high desert of CA it's whole existence-yeah right! I was disassembling the interior and found an old registration from the Bay Area from another PO. Nice--explains the swiss cheese appearance of the firewall though, and rust in the trunk from all the rain up there.

Other than that, the car was straight, except for tweaked back hood that had apparently been closed on an incorrectly stowed top multiple times. It had a pretty torn up LE style airdam too. It also still had D-jet, and additionally, the thing had Rivierias with three different brands of tires and a horrible color change (from Light Ivory), done long before the guy I bought it from though. Door panels also cut for speakers, but they need help anyway.


It's back to light ivory now with original front valence, and I have 2.0 fuchs, correct steering wheel, a couple of correct period blaupunkts (one with Cassette and one just AM/FM), nice luggage rack, and good console ready to put in. I also put dual Webber 40s on it, but kept all the D jet pieces in a box in the garage.

Now. . .if I could only get it finished. . . .

I think my reply would be way to long if I went into this one. Let's just say I rescued the car from a bad home;)

This should say enough

How about the PO of my 73 gluing the front trunk seal in upside down plus assorted other weirdness. Oh yes one tablespoon of oil in the transmission true!!!

How about left in a field since 1992, I recovered it in March 07-a tank cleaning, points, oils and four new tires I have been driving it since. I ask my wife "I wonder why they parked it in a field? " she say " I am sure we will find out one day on the side of the road"

My '75 was one owner. Probably elderly as it was purchased at Sierra Porsche Audi in Riverside new and then registered in Oregon in '80... I bought it in his estate sale. That was the last sticker. The car had a rusty battery tray but was otherwise unmolested. Everything was in place. The smog pump, the original strangulation exhaust, even the recall for the seat belt lock out had not been performed.
The only PO molestation I can report is that if you leave something sit for years it will need to be pretty much mechanically rebuilt. Everything that can leak did.
Now of course, it is a 2270 Raby kit with a rebuilt 901 with billet intermediate and TBD. Brakes are Eric's work. Shocks are Koni Adjustables, 140# rear springs, Turbo Tie Rods. Rennshift and soon to be Rennshift kit. Tangerine header and tangerine ss fuel line. The list goes on but I would hardly call it molestation because it is an exciting time to own a 914. All the problems have been revealed and solutions are being presented! The next owner is now 9 years old but he will have to wait a few years...

A picture is worth a thousand words!!!!!!

The PO of my car added bug wheels, installed an after market stereo (badly), cut up the door panels for crappy speakers, shut the front hood with something too large in the trunk so that there's an inverted dent in it now, installed a rear reflector (from a 911 of course) and had the engine rebuilt with hydraulic lifters. The hydraulic lifters didn't mean anything to me when I bought it, but I know better now At least he left the original FI in tact.

Speaking of hydraulic lifters, I have to do a search here on how to adjust them as they are knocking like crazy. Good thing they never need adjusting...

PO of my '76 ( a cop, and therefore of utmost morals and integrity ) put thick gunk in the oil to conceal bad cam bearings. Hey, can I borrow your service revolver?

well, that was 20 years and 200k miles ago.

Lets see....

First owner ran the piss out of it for three years and racked up 57K on the car in 3 years. Second owner drove it up to a total of 70k miles in the next 15 years and somewhere along the way ran it through through at least one salty Ohio winter. He then parked the car in a dark garage without a bath.

Sin? ruining a good low mileage car body.

Ken

one of the PO (somehow) got the front trunk floor dented up, cut up door panels for speakers, and covered them with some flappy vinyl, really wavey and not adhered at all...It also appeared as if a large animal, possibly a bear used the drivers seat as a chew toy, as there was almost no vinyl left on it

Otherwise, he/she did everything else right, no rust/rot anywhere

put one of those ugly Porche badges on the hood

My statement about this topic in relations to my last purchse would be, "We love what WV folks done dose. Some one has to eat the road kill." You know who you are and I have forgiven you. Now we are even.

OK, you asked for it
You can see what I started with,
1) She was built Signal Orange
2) Those bumpers were once chrome, now they are all scratched up so he could paint 'em(poorly)
3) front trunk floor both dented and torn?
4) The stereo was those 4x6 kenwoods in a box sheetmetal screwed to the trim
5) the amp was mounted just as badly under dash
6) I payed for a carbed big bore 2litre car and got a tired 66x93(1.8) with an advanceless dizzy. Oh, and he can't find the old F.I.
7) the ignition was cut at the switch and replaced by a button and rocker switch
8) The battery was held on by a bungee cord so I expected that
9) The right trunk pivot was broken off and hel in place by some scrap lumber wedged in place near it
10) Big surprise but the interior is trashed this was also not news
Otherwise I got a relatively clean body once i stripped 100 lbs of old paint and filler off, welded fender cowlings, and a 1inchdeep dent in the right rear quarter

Current state, fresh 1971 9.5 comp, 9530 cam, 40 IDF's, and Mallory in the mail
5 lug, 16x6/7 fuches, metal fixed and soft flares

all told, busy year and learned alot got a great car in process.

Lovin' the side graphics, got the Pink Floyd thing going on

Thanks thats why I kept 'em
The layers of paint beneath them was like 6 layers deep and impervious to aviation stripper...same for the "aluminum" filler throughout

What did the P.O. do to my 914, he had a nice car that a collage student couldn't afford to fix so he sold it to me .

1. He tryed to correct poor shifting witha shifter bushing kit, possibly to cover
up that the transaxle was eating it self up. But I forgive!!!!!

2. He left an old title from his P.O.,in the pocket of the center console deposit
box,along with a itemized list of with prices of the over 10,000.00 wonth of
restoration done 4 yrs before. This led to calling the shop that did the work,
BTW on the last day they were in business, and ask if I would be interested
in a copy of the pic. they took of the restoration ,before and after.

The story goes on and on, The young man lived in Madison, Wiss , his name is

Brian Essenmacker (sp) .As i said before he had the good sence to sell it to me.

If by chance anyone knows him in Wiss. show this post ,i think he might be

interested. Dave

Which reminds me. I accidentally left my picture ID from 1985 in mine. Two owners later and the car is for sale on club914. I call the seller and say "that's my car!" and he says "yeah, I know the name. I have your ID on my desk--do you want it back? Oh, and I thought of calling you before I listed it."

Anyway, he had JUST sold the car two days before my call!!!! Forgiveness can be SO hard...

Paul

Fiberglass repair was done under the rear suspension. Placed the car on jackstands and they went right into the longs.

On my first 914 the PO replaced the blown engine with one from a bus, but didn't put a pilot bearing in the flywheel. Needless to say the trans was beyond repair.

Current one, they cut out a huge hole in the firewall to access water lines for the V8 conv. They also hacked of the main harness and removed the relay board, then just tapped the wires they needed and left the rest exposed.

change oil and filter and run til hot- then adjust the valve first to zero lash and the 1.5 turns in. Should be good to go....
fresh oil to pump up the lifters really helps.

PO only rebuilt the top end with 2.0L bus heads and installed 40 Dells...ran like crap.

Green 74:
No complaints at all. Koni adjustables on all 4 corners, 2L w/original FI in great working order. Tranny in good shape, nice shifting and smooth. Brakes all rebuilt within last 2 years.

Red 71:
This car had issues when I bought it:

Engine carbed with single progressive POS carb. Ran like shit. Found electric choke not connected; carb always choked. Fixed choke, ran like more shit; massive vacuum leaks intake runner to heads. Fixed vacuum leaks; now car runs better but won't rev. Took carb apart; found accelerator pump missing return spring. Put in new accel pump spring engine ran better.

Had fuel pickup issue. Traced it to major rust crunchies in gas tank. Made 10x worse by using the return fuel line to feed the carb. Return line doesn't have pickup screen. POR15'ed the tank and used the feed fuel line for the carb; problem solved.

Battery relocated in trunk after hell hole repair. Held in place with a bungee cord. First I secured the battery in the trunk with an aftermarket battery tray, then later moved the battery back to its original position in the engine compartment.

Car came with 5 wheels, 4 on the car with matching tires and 5th for the spare with a different tire. Found out that 3 road wheels and spare are 5.5 inch wide, 4th wheel on car is 4.5 inch wide. Replaced wheels with 2L Fuch replicas, my first ebay 914 purchase.

I was a 914 newby; PO explained how center red handle is for heat. Didn't bother to tell me that the car had no flappers or flexible tubing from booster fan to heat exchangers; thus no heat.

I would Love to find out what happened to my old car. I sold it three years to a guy in Florida. I never heard from him again. It is a 72 silver car. It was in fantactic shape when I sold it. Anybody have any friends in Florida that might have info. I know it's a long shot I was just thinking about what a great car that was and I wish I still had the old girl.

I'm done thanks...

PO had the engine rebuilt to 2056 with cam, valve springs, 009, and 40 IDF's. Unfortunately the builder didn't Loctite or stake the cam gear bolts. They walked out and ate the oil pump. Apparently he also lost the main bearing indexing dowels and made do with short sections of hex key.

Harvey

My "Black Bastard" is a '75 ... at least that's what the VIN indicates

How it came:

FI had been replaced with 40IDFs, improperly cam'd & jetted and a 009 dizzy
Leaking rear struts
Leaking rear calipers
Gas tank leaking at return fitting
Axle flange seals leaking

'Hee Haw' angle iron battery tray (complete with bungee cord to secure the battery)
Rusty hell-hole
Earlier style bumpers (without dog-bones), front one bondo'd to hell, were chrome at one time, peeling black paint
Improperly replaced front right fender ... fender/cowl seal won't fit (clearance issue)
Car had AC at one time, condenser in front trunk, the other parts came in a box
Left headlight 'flops' around
Tail light & turn signal sockets heavily corroded (lights didn't work)
Speakers in the door panels
Front & rear trunk seals shot
Door seals too ...

... and the clincher ... a tail-shifter transaxle


But I lover her anyway, and working to get her straightened out somewhat

absolutey nothing! Left it sitting outside from 1986 till 2002 then moved in in the garage and still did nothing to it except let everything corrode... Lost the airfilter assembly. And Im pretty sure it had the stock 1972 oil in it still...
Since the pic she has assumed the position in my garage.(jackstands)


Click to view attachment

lets see, the guy we got it from did nothing, he had it for 6 months prior to trading it to my father in law. it didn't run, a PO farther down the line has raced it with a clogged oil cooler (inside and out) and grenaded the engine. had to have had a nice off road trip at some point at the track cause the drivers rocker was Filled with dirt and debris which held water nicely and rotted out the outer long, jack hole and rocker panel. someone repainted the rockers white at one point, then painted them back to the phoenix red several times (lotta paint on the rockers) installed AC and cut big holes in the front trunk, cut down the center console as well for the vents.

I think that's it

MY "STUPID" PO used foam in a can,in the rocker longs, BEFORE putting
those cheesy ABS plastic rockers, OVER the original steel rockers.
Needless to say, Can you say,"Rust?"


SAME SPO,sanded, scratched ALL of the chrome trims, (Hubcaps too)

and painted 'em all Flat Black!

My Green Machine was a little more than "Fugly"
when I first got her.

Now she's a Lean, Green, flying machine! (track car)

my wireharness under the dash and in the front trunk was hacked up so badly that after trying to fix it for months i finally decided to replace it with a complete new and unmolested (well, used, but good as new) wireharness ...



never had any electrical gremlins since ...
Andy

I am the second owner of my car. The PO (Wyoming native) drilled a huge hole in the middle of the trunk lid to mount an 8 foot CB whip, yeah it was um interesting... He also used about ten tubes of clear silicone to seal both trunks, he then left it to sit in a cow pasture in 1986 until I saved it 20 years later.

My first had a rebuilt engine in it........well, he took it apart and put it back together using the old seals and some silicone. I found this out on the down slope of the Grape vine in CA near Buttonwillow when the smoke started to poor out. I needed 1qt of oil every hour to get back to the bay area.
That is not all, but it was about the worst.

P.O. lost screws everywhere....dash, horn button........he put wood screws back in!
I dont like the rear spoiler and the 'Porsche' reflector......bad installs, drilled holes into the trunk lid, (wood screws again) bent the area around trunk key, so it will cost a bit of body work to fix.

My PO had a VW motor installed where the subbie Belongs... No idea why. Car was WAY down in horsepower, and wouldn't even do a smokey 2nd gear burnout
BJH

My PO loved electrical devices. The 14 had a monster Audi radio with cassette player, aux amp, and 6 speakers. Elec side mirrors, elec antenna, Air conditioning, second set of horns, elec windshield washer pump, mallory ignition and monster Hella road lights in place of the stock fog lights. All of which was jammed through the original fuse panel. And when the devices were taken out most of the wires were just cut, including the battery cables.

Only the A/c and pump were left when I bought it. I have wires running all over the place, lots of jumpers, extra relays and fuses. most of which aren't connected to anything anymore. Little by little I'm stripping them out to get back to the original setup. So far so good. It looks like he didn't bastardize the original system, just layered all the other stuff on top.

Mine too! What is going on here? Does anyone else have this problem with their car?

Picked up my 36,000 mile 74 1.8 car with original coco mats, carpets, radio. Most everything was all original with exception of fake Fuch wheels. Even VW window stickers were like new! I even have all the repair bills dating back to 1974 and like new tool kit and owners manual.

I have done a few of my own little improvements, but really have tried to maintain the spirit and originality of my low mileage 914.

Here are before and after shots.

I am not sure how many of these are attributable to the guy I bought the car from, but these are the ones that jump out at me...

• Changed color of car (Irish Green to some type of Bronze). But only exterior was painted.
• Switched to a really crappy carb setup and used a rubber band, chewing gum and bent paper clip throttle linkage setup.
• Solved wiring problems (burn wires) by leaving shorted out and melted wiring harness in place and just bypassed with new wire that seemed to be randomly strung around inside the car.
• Removed battery tray, but didn’t put in a new one or relocate the battery (battery was just laying in hell hole area)
• Cut second hole (on passenger side) for another antenna. I assume for CB radio. 10-4 Good Buddy!
• Rear window was held in place by white bathroom silicon caulk. And lots of it!
• Didn’t reuse existing holes for sill plates. Just drilled new ones about 3mm to the right of the existing holes.
• It seems that about ¼ of the nuts are missing for misc stuff (such as bumpers). I guess as he reassembled stuff and was missing hardware he didn’t know you could buy new nuts and bolts.
• Evidence of about 2-3 failed attempts at repairing the rear trunk hinges.
• Previous hell hole and trunk rust repair consists of wire brushing rust away and then rattle can repaint.
• Interior carpet was cut to fit (but bonus point for attempt at correct color match) carpet of some sort and was glued down with some type of contact cement.

But other than that, the car is in great shape! Really!

PO had a broken clutch tube and repaired it by running it down the wrong side (passenger side) of the center tunnel so the cable now has to diagonally cross the tunnel to the pedal cluster.

Oh MAN!

I HATE it when they do something really "STUPID!"

The previous owner ripped the car apart completely except the dash and suspension with plans to restore it. It is still sitting in my garage in parts until I get a few other projects done.

I have a whole nother thread going on about this, but my p.o. put a 2.0L with hydraulic lifters and an advanceless distributor and a weber progressive in, with a suzuki motorcycle exhaust, one muffler for each cylinder bank (that's 2 pipes) and a facet pump that failed on the highway...

Every day I have the car, the more I find

I didn't find any really horrible problems with mine, but a couple of stupid ones stand out. Ground strap from the tranny to the body was a piece of maybe 14 gauge wire with a crimp connector in the middle, making it really two pieces of wire crimped together. Wonder why they couldn't find a single piece of wire, like 12" long?!! The other thing that comes to mind was the fuel filter. They used the later model filter than what my '73 needs - and installed it backwards.

Oh, and how could I forget - the front turn signal holes were filled with a piece of steel brazed on, then covered in body filler to make them curve in the front. That has been fixed.

....the only sin the PO of my teener was, he didn't drive the car much....so he sold the car to me....sin absolved

Hmm, I think the worst thing the PO of my car did was have the ignition tuned up at a bug shop that used the wrong points, condenser, and coil. Took awhile to figure it out. And they put in a really big battery that is not secured at all to the tray. Also, all the vacuum lines were replaced with non-metric stuff, but it's working ok for the time being. So, pretty minimal as far as sin goes!

I have a 75 and bought it for the original owner in Oct. 77 with 25,000 miles on it.
Within that short time it had a ruff life. Later on when I stripped down to bare metal
every panel on that car had been damaged. I'm removing all the bondo and metal
finishing or using lead as a filler. The car only has 80,000 original miles on it.

My first car was 71 914, it was a project for me and my dad. Besides being full of bondo and other aesthetic issues, the PO had pop riveted green indoor/outdoor carpet to the floor. On the passenger side he had drilled one of the pop rivet holes into the gas tank, anything over 1/2 a tank and the passenger side began to fill with gas! This guy also welded about 200 lbs worth of 1" square tube box frame to the bottom of the floor boards to "stiffen" it.

He or someone before him had put a 73 2L in the car. Of course it smoked like a freight train. When we dropped the engine and removed the transmission we discovered some quarters ??? epoxied into the back of the case. The quarters didn't really pose a problem (we took them out) but what the heck?

Hmmm... 74k original mile car, looks like shit though.

PO left the car to sit under a tree when not being driven (6.9 days of the week). Sap, sunlight and bird shit ate through a lot of the paint and faded it out quite a bit. Did not repair broken trunk hinge consoles. Had a crappy re-spray done on the driver's side panel and rear trunk where obviously the car had been hit (hello bondo!). Had the original "sport steel" wheels that were bent to all hell.

I think I've done more damage to the car though...
Front and rear sways, insulation and sound deadening in the cab, chopped a seat headrest off, rivieras (they're not bent at least...), new door panels (with speakers) and a new stereo.