I am new to the forum, and in the one post i have made i got several requests for images and details on my car.

so first a quick history....i purchased the car nearly two years ago, love porsche but was actually looking for a ghia. saw a 914 on craigslist, went and test drove it, and while it was not the car for me me search for a ghia was over, and it was on to the 914.

i purchased my 1970 914/4 from a kid who got it from his father who had it "restored". i was told the original 1.7L engine had been rebuilt about 20k miles ago. i did a compression test and saw that there was a big problem, ranges were all over from 100 to 145. but the car was pretty, no rust, nice interior, gorgeous new paint in that 914 off white color. so i elected to buy the car, and got a really good deal on it because of the state of the engine. i drove it on and off and fiddled with the engine a bit over the next 6 months or so, before i lost all compression on one cylinder. this was all the plan, and when that went i ordered a 2.0L engine from motor importers (1.7 block with 2L heads). I know people have mixed feelings about them, but i had a wonderful experience and have had no complaints about the engine.

the 1.7, and now the 2.0 engine has dual weber IDF 40s and the 4 tip exhaust. I also replaced the fuel gauge with a later model gauge that included a heat gauge, and added a heat sender to the engine, but have not gotten around to getting the wiring right in the dash (the wiring is a nightmare under there, shotty restoration. I also added a new stereo using all blapunkt and some of those custom fiberglass replacement speaker boxes and sub box its a little modern for the look but it sounds great. the thing sounds and runs great, and has about 1000 miles on the new engine now. I did loose a CV joint over the weekend, so its grounded in front of my garage until i get the new CV joint hopefully mid week.

a couple people asked about VIN and the various badges so i have included pics of those. if there is any reason i should not post those please let me know so i can kill em.

so here are the pics....

some classic beauty shots with the roof on






and the roof comes off


you can see my lovely crutches there




interior shot








(you can see my other boxer, a 1972 BMW r60/5 toaster motorcycle int he background, its a little banged up right now and the reason why im on crutches with titanium from my knee to ankle, i cant wait to be more mobile so i can pull
the engine and start fixing / restoring that bike)


interior shot. interior is pretty good, has a few tears, but not enough to warrent a new interior quite yet. the dash is in amazing shape, i have one small crack to the left of the steering wheel, but you have to really look for it to see it. i keep that ugly carpet thing on to protect the dash. you can also see the not so suble sub on the floor. you can also see where i broke one of the fiberglass speaker cases when installing it (doh). i really need to clean up the speaker wiring.


engine



here is one of the few places you can see the original color.


here is the door badge


the other door badge


the vin



so my current todo list in order of importance is:
- CV joint obviously
- valves, carb sync, and timing....its running well, but havent had it done since the engine had about 250 miles on it, it currently has around 1000
- getting the fuel gauge and temperature gauge working...i think i need a new fuel sender
- dealing with some recently discovered rust inside that center channel where the transmission linking runs through. havent seen any rust on this car except itty bitty surface rust spots, usually near trim. if anyone has tips on this it would be great. there are no holes, but that area obviously had some moisture in it for a while.
- fixing the transmission linkage alignment. i can drive it fine, but sometimes its tricky to get into 4th gear, and bites on 2nd if your not at just the right RPM
- removing trim and cleaning up some small surface rust spots as well as some small nicks here and there in the paint
- replacing the major door and roof seals, they are ok, but not perfect especially the big expensive one that goes between the roof and windshield
- maybe re installing the heating system, but living in socal, its really not that necessary. its just sitting in the trunk now, all powder coated and pretty.
- fixing the fog lights, and getting the interior light to function when door is open. the switch is there, but obviously has a problem...since its not working
- getting the 5 rims polished. when the car was "restored" they painted them chrome. they look pretty good considering, but i see others with polished rims and they look sooooo good.
- more...im sure....that im forgetting.

so i hope you enjoy the pics, im pretty proud of the car, and what i have done with it so far. sure is pretty.

and thanks again for the advice i have already received on here!

Sweet, sweet car!!! I especially love the placement of the sub-woofer facing the passenger's seat. I can jsut imagine hearing you saying "DIck with me and the sub-woofer blows you through the roof...".

HA!

hah, let me just say im an audiophile but def not big into bass or whatever, just wanted it to sound good with only three speakers, so i installed a two channel amp and mono amp in the front trunk (boot?). i would really like to do something stealthier with that sub, maybe pull the extra (flat) wheel in the front and build something that will allow me to house both amps and the sub there, while still keeping some storage.

Nice... my other boxers are a 1971 911RS Clone and a 1972 R75/5 Toaster Tank.

Interesting flares on the rear...

i remembered another question while looking at the pic of the trunk...can anyone guess? obviously there was some kinda rack on the rear trunk at some point. was there a factory rack or any common racks used back there. i would love to find the same model that was originally on there. i would never drill extra holes in the trunk lid, but if they are already there why not?

tnx

Luggage rack. Check with Tom Bliznick here on the board. He has one on his car. He could probably measure his and you could compare.

Also, find a post by Jeff Bowlsby. In his signature he will have a link to an accessory page that has the rack listed.

yeah, i have always been tempted to offload that bike (which i love) and get a SWB R75/5 with toaster tank, even if not for the extra displacement, just those biger mean bings and a choke would be great. since i have gotten into an accident with it i feel obligated to do a full restoration, and i dont know if im going to be able let it go after that. me and the old girl have been through a lot together.

just in case your wondering the bike faired way better then me in the accident, some scratches here and there, and blinkers / mirrors / valve covers / headers / exhaust and rear fender are trashed (the rear fender hurts me the worst, since it was a really nice example of an original survivor with the factory hand painted pin stripes). otherwise the bike is ok. im going to replace all the little broken stuff, pull the engine, do the clutch and rings, replace the rear hub (which its needed for a while) powder coat the frame, and get a nice black paint job for the tank light housing and fenders, sand blast the engine case, tune her up and show her off again.

here are a couple pics of her pre accident....





and yeah 914 guys always comment on the flairs. i dont know why they are there, but i dig em, kinda unique.

diggin the monza! (partial to them)


nice car though

Nice car ! and

Beautiful car!
Be super careful grinding/welding the center tunnel... the plastic fuel lines are in there.

Nice Car and

Nice looking 914.

Purdy

Is that a Gunfighter? How'd you end up with a toaster tank?

Great post!!

Instant Integrity = Lots of pics of 914 + Classic Motorcycle pics.

It's as if many of the thread participants are saying:

" Where ya been, sailor

thanks everyone for the warm welcome! like i said i have been reading these forums for a long time, and all the advice is great.

re: center channel - i would really like to figure out a solution that either did not require welding (is there a chemical solution of some sort? is that a dream). its just minimal surface rust, nothing that i think requires anything super dramatic. alternatly im thinking maybe cutton the top section off, sand blasting the whole area, painting, and welding it back together. i do not weld, but luckily my best friend is a professional welder...maybe this would be a good excuse to learn a bit.

that is indeed the corbin gunfighter seat on the bike. i added that seat, and the clubman bars. love the way it feels with em both. i still have the original seat in really good shape, and original US bars, and some repo euro bars.

how did i end up with the toaster tank? i am pretty sure the bike was originally a toaster. as far as i understand there is no real way to tell, especially since they were so unpopular when first introduced. i have read that many that were originally toasters were swapped out at the dealerships because they were so unpopular. small capacity, and blatant honda knock off.

my dad was always fond of the toasters, and i guess that made me fond of em. im kinda a sucker for chrome. i love the old honda black bombers, and nothing beats german engineering, so its the best of both worlds in my opinion.

as far as actual acquisition, right when i decided to but a bike this one came up for sale, ended up buying it from some older hippy lesbian biker women in Pasadena.

here is the post accident sad pic....



like i said earlier it really faired pretty well. the gas tank and seat survived pretty much fine, a few scratches but nothing terrible. oddly no dents.

Nice bike

914...whatever they're a dime a dozen

Hmmmmmmmm...

Nada in my book. That was a 72 only feature. I'm guessing it was put on there for the reasons you mention later. Someone probably had one laying around and put it on your bike. Very cool though.

edit: i see that i said 70, yeah its a 72, i would not buy a 70 thinking it was an original tank...im pretty hardcore about my research...as im sure most of you are. that is, after all, half the fun


bike is in fact a 72. the toaster tanks were actually offered for 72 and 73, the most desirable being the 73 1/2 LWB (Long wheel base). half way through 73 they extended the length of the bike by literally adding a section to the swing arm / drive shaft. you can see the welds on em. i have driven both and personally prefer the SWB (short wheel base).

I read that exact same thing somewhere!

72 it is... I don't think you'll find any 73 toaster tanks here in the states. Mine's "Curry"