After working out a deal with Craig at Camp914 I borrowed a trailer and drove down to Portland and back yesterday with this 75 1.8. I think this is going to be a more solid foundation for my project than the last one I looked at.

Craig was excellent to work with and a wealth of information, I also bought some chrome bumpers that will eventually replace those rubber impact items. Figured I should just pick them up now and save myself the shipping hastles from somewhere later.

I should have one of the other cars out of my garage in a week or so and then I will get this car up in the air and post some questions, although the car is in pretty good shape there are a couple of areas that need attention but it is a 30 year old car.

Engine needs attention but that is on the list of things I had planned on doing anyway.

Just let you guys know this forum has been great for gaining knowledge for a newbie.

Cheers

Chris

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Cool.

Nice work.

Amen on Craig. That would be the P-mystique.

Welcome! Nice ride. I love the color.

Looks like a cool project.

Looks nice, looks like a solid car. Not too crazy about the wheels, at least not in gold. I used to run those wheels, but I painted them silver, they looked so much better. I like the color of the car though...just in time for Halloween!

Great looking ride you got there. Well I should say great looking RIDES! What years are the 928s?

My 87 5spd which was my project is next to the 914, the red one is a 90GT which I have been working on for a local owner. Waiting for the rebuilt gearbox to come back.

Chris

Some observations and questions

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Anyone guess what the black button does?? I worked at it for a while, turned on ignition and then it started the engine !!

Presume the red LED is for an alarm or something aftermarket? There is a toggle switch on the fuse box also.

Where is the odometer reset?

Is there a dimmer for the instrument cluster?

Chris

What is this connector for in the trunk?

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Chris

The passenger door is stiff to open, the first picture shows the bottom of the door sitting proud of the rear fender at the bottom. The second picture shows the panel gap getting tighter towards the top of the door, the gap between the front fender and the door looks good. Any ideas?

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Thanks

Chris

Hey Chris,
When I got my car it also had the "starter" button. It basically bypasses the start position on the key. If you look under the car back where the starter is located (up behind rear left wheel, under the rear trunk ) you might also see a little relay intercepting the solonoid. That is a "hot start" switch system. Basically what someone did to your car (the same as a PO did to mine) is they decided to bypass the whole starter electrical circuit. In my case it was because some of the wires were hooked up wrong and fried.

Congrats! I was secretly pining for that very same car, always thought it looked sharp on camp914. Good choice in my book!

The same setup was is on my car too. It's a system that is always hot and will always move the starter even though the ignition is off (on mine at least) the small LED on mine was a 'fake system' it just sat there and blinked. I was surprised how many people it fooled because everyone at work was asking if my car had an alarm!

Does that door being tight at the top and loose at the bottom imply you have some chassis sag? did you look behind the rockers? Is it rusty back there?

The dimmer for the instrument cluster should be the light switch(twist it) although i've never had an occasion to think the guage lighting was SO bright that it affected my night vision, and I doubt you will either. I leave it full bright.

on my car, the odo reset is under the dash, right in front of where your right knee sits when you're driving the car. should be a twisty knob. if you find it and twisting it makes miles appear on your odometer, you'll be taking it apart soon

Seems a hot starter is a common feature, key works just fine so a little weird.

I drove it at night briefly when I got home as the kids wanted a ride and the instrument cluster was barely legible, thanks for the tip.

The odometer and mileage appear to be dead, looked under the dash but did not see anything but will check again. Speedo seems woefully optimistic too.

As for the rust the car is pretty clean, but there is some rust at the right rear although the longitudinal looks good. When I get it up in the air I will take some pics and post.

Previous owner had $1200 of work completed last year, one of which was to replace the fuel lines but I have a feeling something need tightening. Inside smells a little of gas maybe from near the gas tank. No drips.

Chris

Chris

Your speedometer IS woefully optimistic. That car has 50 series tires, and that means that the rollout is at least 9 percent off. That's the problem with sidewalls that small on this car. The good part about that is that you have essentially a short-ratio gearbox now because of those, great for AX, as I'm told.

Go to pelican parts for their tech articles for how to rebuild your odometer. It's actually quite easy, i've done it myself and then you can roll that puppy back to 0, which is what i did

The gas smell could be an evap line loose. Once you get the car on the lift you can take the belly pan off and look up into the hole under the gas tank and see if your fittings are leaking. Mine are, but at a rate so slow that it's not worth pulling the tank to fix. I'll just deal with the smell

Awesome info thanks !

Close ratio gearbox is cool but the weak 2nd gear synchros make it tough to make the most of that feature.

Chris

I would appreciate some input on these photos, these were taken from the passenger side and may explain why the door is sagging. I prodded around in the hell hole are below the battery and managed to create a small hole towards the bulkhead.

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There was just a hairline crack and I helped it with a screwdriver.

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uh-oh, we've all seen that. Have you taken off the rocker covers? you may find some more surprises there.

Just got back in from the garage, took both rocker covers off, removed the battery and for some lighter entertainment I removed the nasty impact bumpers. If anyone wants anything from those let me know otherwise they are heading to the dump/recycling.

Anyway first pic is from the rear floorpan, I removed the passenger side interior to see what was hiding.

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A couple of areas of rust penetration on the inner longs.

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Another nasty shot of the inside

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OK, to the outer long. This is the only hole I could find and there was a LOT of earth debris in there. I removed the passenger long in the garage, the drivers side I did outside.

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A hole at the front too

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The hell hole

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And for good luck more aeration in the wheel well, can this be repaired from the inside? Otherwise that rear panel is going have to come of to get access.

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Also removed the engine insulation, yuck and good riddance.

Drivers side looks good though

I used the hose to get rid of a bunch of crud in all the wheel wells and that is why the last photo looks like it does.

If these photos are too big let me know.

oh boy..
there´s a nice bunch of work waiting for you.

Best wishes for the project.

Well this just gets better and better, I was aiming for a solid foundation for my project ..... god that seems bloody hilarious, looking for the icon where you shoot yourself in the head. OK found this one, will do.

Here is the lighter side of stuff.

Amazed at the quality of this speaker install, you should all go out and perform this mod on your cars.

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There was a bunch of glass behind the rear pad so I presume someone broke into the car, looking at the seal of the rear window I think this thing leaked pretty good and no doubt contributed to the rot.

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Ok now for the oh S*** stuff, if there was not enough of it already.

The inner long is rotter all along the bottom edge, you can push the side in, tough to get a good shot of this with the camera.

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Another larger hold at the front.

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I do not have a but if it was not for the wife and her encouragement I would have one by now.

the red light on the dash is for the emissions setup on your 75.

the red light might be the least of his problems..... -JON

Isn't that the truth.

With time , money and a good welder that can be fixed. The Ques. Is do you have all three. Most inportant is the time.I.M.O. I think this would be a good winter project. I would go for it,
if I were 30 yrs yonger. Save them all!!!! Dave

oh damn... makes mine look cherry almost
you might be my inspiration on my project!

*awaiting further progress*

I would keep your eyes out for a good "rust free roller"... That rust looks fairly extensive. It's not that it can't be fixed, but I think a swap would be less work.

That thought has crossed my mind a lot and I may end up there, this purchase has definately been a learning experience in a number of ways. Certainly wiser about 914's for sure.

Yep everything is fixable, is it worth it? Now that is a personal thing and am still pondering, this is way beyond what I envisaged getting involved in. I am also aware of the fact if I get into it, fix the welding, get it rolling I could end up with something not being true in the chassis.

Well I had planned some other things today but decided I would see what the floors are really made of. Set about with a heat gun and a wood chisel.

Pic of before

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Some holes in the rear drivers side pan, I was browsing some older threads and someone mentioned their car must have been used as a swimming pool. Not sure it is quite that bad but there have definately been some 'moisture events' over the years.

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Spotted this crack in the drivers side long.

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Here it is all done for the day, not much else I can do till I get it up in the air maybe late next weekend.

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That car is very nice looking on the outside, and it looks like there are a lot of nice parts there, but I hope you didn't pay premo price for that car, at least not more that the sum of the parts. If you are not emotionally attached to it, it may be worthwile looking for a good roller. I would fix that car if it was mine, and the paint was perfect (it looks perfect in the photos), meaning that it doesn't need to go into the autobody shop anyways, and been in the family a long time. In other words, compare the price of a roller+paint/body to fixin your car. But 914's are cheap and plentiful, at least rollers. Does anyone know if "rocker clamshells" could be a solution here?

In Phillyspeak - Yo! Or is it Yow! MAJOR BUCKOS to bring that bad boy back. You'd better love that 914!

That crack is a flex crack in the longs, I never noticed it in mine till McMark pointed it out, he tells me that they commonly flex and crack in this area.

The paint is not perfect, it is not bad though a couple bubbling spots etc ... and I had anticipated a new paint job down the road. I am in no way emotionally tied to this car, just the fact I bought it and want to get it the way I want it. As for top dollar no, but had I known what I know now (bet there are a lot of people on this list who have been in the same situaion) you would not have seen me for dust. In the end I only have myself to blame, lesson learned.

Back to the problem at hand, I am concerned about getting the car in the air and taking of the outer rocker as with the inner so bad it is the only thing holding it together on that side. Is the arrowed item the inner part of the clambshell?

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Thanks Kelly, one less thing not to worry about.

Make sure you check the rear console ears for rust/cracking too...

I lifted this photo from a thread posted by Racer Chris.
Yikes...

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Really can't see why you'd go through the tremendous time and expense to save that '75 1.8. It's too far gone to make any sense to try to fix.

Don't dump another penny into it, get rid of it for whatever you can get for it, hit the "reset" button in your mind and start over.

Changed the title as is obvious from the pictures, went back to Camp 914 to pick up a roller, coincidently the same year and color but minus the rot.

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Did not take me long to strip of all the tar, plenty or practice I guess. There is rust on the pans but no holes. Front passenger pan was the best of the bunch, need to get busy with the power tools and then the chemicals.

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Look no holes !!

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The first 'parts' car is going to a friends garage for the Winter, decide what to do with it next year some time.

Glad to see this story going in a better direction now!