Sure, everyone knows of the /6 owners that have spent all the money, but what about the /4's? I vaguely remember a few folks that have restored 4 cylinder 914's. Have some pics to share? Success/failure stories? I wanted to start a completely new thread for the subject.

I recently sold a CAMP 914 recovered dash pad to a fellow in Ohio who is having Stoddard Porsche restore a 914-4.

I'm doing the 74 back to stock...all that's diff is the Getty dash and five lug conversion.....for me that's damn near Concour Weenie level.....

I don't know if it counts, cause it's not my car, but there was this one...

I have lots of photos of my 74 restoration that I have since sold. What kind of photos are you looking for?

i'm not sure there are many PURELY stock and clean 914's left. IMHO it's the perfect car to upgrade. our 73 is stock EXCEPT repaint with blacked out rockers and valances matched to origanal body color, front & rear color keyed spoiler, koni's, s/s and monza exhaust and shortly a 2056 (origanal low mile 1.7 shelved), stock interior. some upgrades i think what SHOULD be added is an electronic ignition, steel fuel lines even a front sway bar and the fatest tire you can fit.

mike
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I'll just throw out an ugly pix of mine from my paint shop visit yesterday and one when it waved goodby when it went down.

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can you say parking lot dings?

Click to view attachmentClick to view attachmentDid all of the weather stripping rubber to this '74, sorted the suspension, purpose interior and purpose built 2.0 drivetrain. It's a weekend competition car and a solid daily driver. We will sort out the paint last...too many rock chips from track use for now

Click to view attachmentType 4- 2.0 fresh rebuild with very non OE red engine sheet metal. Basically a stock rebuild with euro pistons / cyls.

Click to view attachmentdetailing the engine compartment is easy with a lift

Click to view attachmentAnd the 2.0 back in its place.
Type 4s are already coming into their own>> restorations commanding decent resale prices. There are simply more of them than the sixes, and there are lots of OE and good repro restoration goodies available . After all, 356s and 911s have been restored for as long as I can remember... now it's the 914s turn !
Marty

I recieved my 73 2.0 for free. Originally the owner said "Take it I don't want it, it hasn't run for 4 years".

I found all the cracked and frayed vacuum lines were handily fixed with electrical tape. And he said it didn't run, should have run like a hot damn.

Anyhow, thinking I dont need another project lying around the yard I go by his house to have a look. Coming up the road I see 4 bolt Fuchs. have a closer look, they're real Fuchs.

Oooo, a 2.0 perhaps? Look under, yup 2.0 with SS exchangers! Ok, swaybars in place? Yes. Console intact? Affirmative. Spare tire with Fuchs

This is starting to look attractive. Open the door 2 or 3 inches of water in the car. Hmmm, if the water hasnt leaked out the floors are intact.

I took the car home. Took out the interior and started to clean. You can see the high tide mark on the mats. And how clean the windsheild was.

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Well there is a little rust in the firewall and some in the longs and battery tray. The car was free after all. That jutifies a liitle rust repair and engine rebuild.

The engine rebuild was the easy part....

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I have a few more..

The car had been in an accident, you can see how the rollbar lines up with the windsheild frame.

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I had about the same amount of repair done to both sides of the car

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Fenders off, undercoat stripped, sandblasted, repaired, primed, rewelded, re-undercoated, and painted. I just threw a 20 footer on it to make all it the same color

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I have more detailed pics of reassembly, will post later....

This is interesting. There are some very nice 4's here. It will be fun to see how this will progress.

OK, Who has done the bare shell resto on a 4? Every part new or the best used you could get? All the Marbles in the circle.

There has got to be some examples out there.

I once had a 73 1.7 that somone else spent the $$$ on to restore. It was so nice I replaced all the vacumm hoses and made sure they were the correct cloth braided and color coded ones. No one had ever messed with the car. It was silver too, one I shouldn't have sold.

My progress thread is on going.
Last night I shimmed the cylinders to my 2056, and got the deck height even at .039 on the 1/2 bank, and .040 on the 3/4 bank. I'll ring the pistons and slap it back together this weekend.

Zach

I darn near completed the 1.7L restore before I sold it... just needed a few little tweeks and some buttoning up... did not overhaul the engine but did put quite a few new part into it. Basically a stock resto with a few small modifications.

Link is below Sig.

Everything you could ever want to see is here. This is the car Craig's dash pad is on. The car started out as one of the nicest arround. Then the rust appeared. I shudder to think of the dent this restoration will make in the bank account. But it is beautiful to behold.
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=65016er

From start to finish, including the $4,700 I paid for the car. I spent $31,640.00 at the body shop and $41,304.39 on parts for total of $72,944.39 to restore mine. That amount is free maintenance or repair bills.
Here's what mine looked like after the stripping Click to view attachment
This one's from last years P2OClick to view attachment

That's some SERIOUS committment! Beautiful car too.

Gint,
Mine is a restored 4. (Want to see my trophy shelf? )
You have seen my 914 many times. It's as stock as it gets. Even has the original windshield and stereo speakers.

Ask SLITS for all the details. He restored it.

Oh man! I saw this car. It was sweet! Never met the guy who owned it but it is wearing a set of 2 liter exchangers I sold him... When I dropped them off, the guy was at the Wiener dog races in Davis, CA
The car looked like it had just escaped the showroom floor...

I don't know if you'd consider mine restored, but I did work on it for three years....

Here's the link to my website....

Here's how it looks now...

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-- Rob

Im in process One of these days Ill get around to posting the numerous progress pics.
I see a lot modded cars but few "restorations"

here is mine before during and as it sits now wishing I had the MONEY to finish it!

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more details in the lack of progress thread in my signature line!

Restoration is not strickly defined to mean restored to original condition, nor does concours mean the showing of "only" oem restored cars. If someone takes the time and money to bring a car back to better than new, I think it qualifies as restored.

From start to finish. I have hundreds of pics of in between. I've started making a picture CD, but not done yet.

Doug's car is so clean, it makes mine look dirty!

Bought the car for $400 - spent 5 years of labor, and had to buy a few things here and there.

Hello:

It's been a long time between posts for me. I just logged in tonight on a whim. This seems like a real nice thread to start back in...

There's some beautiful cars here. It's helping to inspire me. It further helps that there's a couple of signal orange '73's since that's what I've got. I aspire to have it as nice as the one that Ferg recently parted with. Though I do go back and forth what I want to do with it. I think it's getting some flares (rear only) but staying 4 bolt. I just love the 4 bolt Fuchs. I'll be sure to come back and bump this thread with pics once there's something worth showing.

Does Rex post here? He once told me he'd spent well over $30k in his attempts to make his '73 2.0l the nicest most perfect and correct one in the country. He was so obsessed with the mission that when he rebuilt the engine he got US P's & C's because while the power bump would be nice, he would personally know that it wasn't correct! I've never gotten to see the car, but if there's pictures of that one floating around here I'd love someone to post them up for review...

Here is a really nice thread on the restoration of a '72

There are some great before and after pics

One thing that I did not plan or anticipate at the start of the rebuild was the level of detail that I got into. I had a plan to build a good, presentable daily driver. I had bought a near complete 73 that was stripped down to a bare shell, and boxes and boxes of parts. The car was originally an Arizona car, had been off the road for 15 years and was near completely rust free. Nearly all of the parts were present to rebuild the car and most were in good shape.

My plan was to get a good paint job, clean up a few parts before install, replace the required mechanicals and transplant a 1.7 from the 72 914 that I was driving. It seemed like a pretty good, medium budget ( $5,000 - $7,000) plan. That plan only lasted to the point when the tub got painted. After I saw the beautiful signal orange paint on the tub, I started questioning whether or not the parts that I had for the car were in good enough condition to bolt back onto the freshly painted tub. It didn't take long for me to buy a few new parts. Exterior parts came first, then the interior parts that I had didn't measure up, so new and reconditioned interior parts were accumulated. Then the mechanicals didn't seem to meet the need of such a nice looking car. And as luck would have it there were group buys being set up on Tarett sway bars and Koni shocks and with those parts the Mueller bearings would be just right and then ... Powder coating threads started popping up and touting how cool powder coating parts were.... And then threads about re-chroming bumpers and replating hardware and .... The parts desire just grew and grew, and the club members kept developing more and more improved parts. And then, of course new seals were needed....

Finally after about 3 years of building, buying and upgrading, I had a 73 914 back on the road. She's turned out pretty nice, and what a "ride" the build had been! By the end of the build it turned out to be a complete nut and bolt, no part left untouched, build. I thoroughly enjoyed the build and now have have great times with the car. Going to car shows is just flat out fun!!! especially the hot rod car shows. I was surprized at first at how much attention that a nice 914 can get. At times I took a 57 corvette and the 914 to some local shows and I would get just as many, well almost as many, comments/questions on the 914 as the 57 vette. The last car show that I attended last year I ended up parking the 914 next to a beautiful, freshly rebuilt red 63 corvette coupe. This spot actually made me feel right at home . I cleaned up the car a little that went through the show for about an hour. When I got back to the car the guy with the vette asked me to please stick around awhile. He said that nearly everyone walking by was asking him questions about the orange car and he wanted me to start fielding them.

My caution to each of you considering a rebuild/restoration of a 914, be it a 6 or a 4, be careful. It is easy to get a little carried away with upgrading "while your in there". My encouragement to each of you considering rebuilding/restoring an 914 is "Do It"! It's a tremendous amount of effort, reward and fun!!!

Gint, I'll be your poster boy for the failure/failing story...

I got mine for free from the uncle. He bought it new, put on a ton of miles w/o a rebuild, like 250k or something. He broke the motor down 2x and it all looked good so he put it back together and kept driving...HB to SanMo everyday for 10-15 years or so.

So it's all apart, I've rebuilt the 1.8 to 1911 and there it sits...awaiting fuel and fire.

New almost everything is ready to be put back on when it gets a fresh coat of palma green metallic.Click to view attachment

I restored my car as a 4 and always intended to do a six swap. I drove it as a four banger for 3 years and people drooled over it everywhere I went. I did the 5 lug conversion and they drooled some more. Now it has a 2.2 911 S motor in it and factory flares and people still drool over it. I am now planning on doing a track car that I may beat up on. I have built myself a car that I am terrified to drive, For fear that someone will damage it. I miss having the car I drove on dirt roads and ate fast food in. I am already shopping for my daily driver / track car. I am not interested in adding up what I have invested in this car. They will bury me in this one - I consider it my early purchase casket.

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...c=81698&hl=

Just my .02 ...

In progress. Previous PO replaced some of the sheetmetal and did a lousy job. Also, the engine was rebuilt, but wasn't done correctly.


By the way, under all that orange is a coat of Bondo on top of another coat of paint which is on top of the factory primer.

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The biggest problem that my Dad and I encountered with the 914 is knowledge and experience with this type of vehicle.

Hidden damage I found after having the car for about 1 1/2 years.
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The car will probably be complete by the end of this spring.

Here is mine. 73 1.7 that I picked up for $200.00 . It sat outside with no windshield for several years before I ended up with it. If I really put my mind to it, I could have it painted in about 2 weeks. It is going to get the 1.7 back in it until I have enough time and funds to build up the 2.0 out of my 76 parts car. I have several more "between" pics, but these should tell most of the story!

We're just about getting started on a project we picked up this past summer. Its a '74 2.0. Has hell hole rust, and a few spots on the longs are questionable. Fortunately we will have a rotisserie to put it on.

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that sounds about right.
figure it takes about 20K for a good paint job done correctly if there is minimal rust repair and no body damage.

it seems to me that some 914 owners got into 914's because they are cheaper than 911's.
but in reality it costs much more to restore a 914 vs a 911 because they were not as popular which makes it hard to find certain parts to complete a true restoral.

here are pictures of the restoration of Brian Miller's car which my dad bought about 2 years ago which has since been destroyed.

the vehicle was done at Patrick Motorsports here in Phoenix AZ where i now work.

after seeing whats all involved in a restoration or a race car when someone says they have 71K into a project its easy to believe.

ive been working there for almost 1/2 a year and have yet to see a project start to finish.

Details have been omitted to protect the owner. Over 2 years, down to bare metal and back restoration. Everything, and I mean everything, gone thru, replaced, repaired, improved: few details - all metal body work, butt welded and removed side markers and antennae, zinc enriched primer, six color coats Lapis Blue Metallic, three clear coats; Eric Shea petal cluster; larger master cylinder, rebuilt calipers, turbo tie rods, Elephant Racing Gear bearings; front and rear anti-sway bars, Ebach springs, Koni shocks; Raby cam and Hoffman Engineering Heads, Blyenseng retuned MPS, CFR stainless steel headers, and a million details I have forgot (like all new rubber when you could still get it from Germany, new dash pad, new seat belts (Auto Atlanta - NOS in boxes), etc. etc. etc. And I have driven it over 20,000 miles since it is back on the road.

It's my long lost cousin! Click to view attachmentClick to view attachment

Holy! That looks very much like Kelly's car! Dajavue!

Tell us more!

I know of 4 Lapis blue 914 now. People are going to think it's OEM color.

I got into mine because I had previous experience with a VW bus and know I could repair the motor with ease.....here is was my 4 story.......

http://www.daybydayco.com/car4web/914.html

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Started with a pretty solid car to begin with. Minor work to engine, suspension, and brake system. Most was taking apart and tracking down tons of rubber to replace the old cracked stuff. One of the hardest pieces to get was the OEM front LE valance. I found a NOS on Ebay and paid way too much. Several years later I've still not seen one for sale again. Maybe it wasn't such a bad buy after all. This restoration is almost 2 years old now and the car still looks great.

Yes, I'd do it all again.

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During
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After
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well, I have brought back from teh dead about 10 now. I did not have a digital camera for all of them. I wish I had known 914club before i got into some of them.

lets see if I can find some pics of sweetpea. there she is in teh back ground. I bought her as a basket case in concord. sight unseen, we rented a truck and drove up. ya'll know sweetpea, right? signal orange 601 .

the blue car was multi colored black. Bondo owns it up in Los Osos now.

then there was yeller

before that was this white 74. it was hit hard on teh front left. I wish I had some before shots. this is the one I wish I still had. everything was soooooo clean. even under teh trim was sweet.

dfg