I had a nice conversation with Mike Moorman over the weekend. We discussed the project and his work gathering parts. Things are progressing nicely. Mike and I discussed money. He informed me that their was very little life insurance and those funds have been spent on the car. Considering this is a private forum I will mention that the money on Mary's end is not as free flowing as one would need for a project of the magnitude. Please everyone, Do not use this as a method of soliciting parts or money. This reinforces the need for our involvement but is not for public disclosure.

So, I asked Mike to contact Mary first and mention " we " the people of the 914 world want to help assemble the car after the paint is on. (not the Angels group. This should remain private if at all possible)

If Mary is up for the offer I asked Mike to approch the bodyshop owner and ask him if we will allow us to take over his shop for a weekend.

Mike thought our help would be welcome. If this is a go we need to discuss the next step.

Here's my thought on the next step.

Rob mentioned he is a banker and would be able to handle and account for fund donations. I thought if the group agreed we would:

1) Rob could set up a pay pal account for money to help get a few key people a round trip plane ticket.

2) We would nominate World members with the "time to get away for a weekend"
and the "skills to build a 914 from the chassis up"

The nominees may or may not be given access to the Angel forum. That is to be decided later.

Lets see what response we get from Mary and the bodyshop.

sounds good. I think the help assembling is a great idea! if I can do anything to help, lmk.


FWIW, I set up a email address that can be used as the paypal, if you like:

914angels at gmail
if you want to use it, PM me for the PW I just wanted to secure the name if we needed it.

Rick,

FYI - I have a message into Mary and I should no more later today (Monday 9-28). Hey I just realized - Happy 9/28 Rick.....

To reinforce your thoughts: Mary is not destitute - but she and her body shop guy really need guidance. Garden City is hardly a hot bed of 914 parts or knowledge - I feel her pain living in Wichita to a lesser degree.

I know for a fact (and she may not want this shared to the world) that the very little life insurance money her father gave her is gone. She owns a 1966 Piper Cherokee airplane and is robbing that account to finish the car. The cool thing is that she is 100% dedicated to completing the car - that is paramount in my book.

Not that anyone has asked - but here is a little back story on Mary:

Her brother moved out of his house (hand built by his grandfather in the 30's) 3 years ago to help her father take care of her Mom. He left the 914 sitting at his old house (hence the condition). Mary has never spoken about her Mom or why Lee had to help out - but she speaks of her Dad often. Lee's car accident happened while he was still at his Dad's house from what I can gather.

Mary is a good soul - she visits old people in retirement homes and I know she takes one of them to see the project on occasion.

All,

I just spoke to Mary - again she is humbled and overwhelmed by 914World.

I learned a lot more about Lee and her Mom and her husband that makes me know that what we are doing is the right thing... call me for details

I asked her about the engine and she expects it to be done before Chistmas and the engine mechanic will do the install. Her body guy has threatened him with severe beatings if he scrathces the paint.

Second: She and Dan (body guy) would very much welcome an "Overhaulin'" session at the shop. Further her husbands company has offered the company plane to fly 4 people from Wichita to Garden City and back to help reduce the 3.5 hour drive travel time to GC. My house is available for a layover if needed.

So to recap - we have a green light to take the next step - let me know if you need anything further.

This is good news Mike. Rob and I had a conversation today. He will post this evening I think. We discussed money and will ask some questions as they come to bear, or is it bare...

Wayne, Rob is a banker and will set up a bank account for collections. He plans on providing a report of all transactions from collections to disbursements. We will need you to assist as the pieces start to fall into place.

As soon as we have the behind the scenes work completed there will be more than the four of us can handle.

Wayne,

Can you create a Google Calendar at that account? It might come in handy so we can stay in sync.

My personal (and best) email is mike@prosalesreps.com (Blackberry)

I also have:
914@cox.net (I check this once a day)
Kansas914@gmail.com (I check this once a month)

sure can.

I created the calendar and added your contact info, and mine.

my cell is 469-371-3712
and my email is wafry1975@gmail.com

I'll send a PM to you 3 with the email PW

Here's my info:

Rick Ollah
2328 Woodland Ave.
Duluth, MN. 55803

C) 218-428-3538
F) 218-728-4702
E) cyfied@gmail.com

Or send me a pm or post here on thisw forum.

How much money is needed to complete the parts needed list? Would you like me to put together a budget? Can I get it in an excel file?

Would AA or another single source vendor be able to set up a registry for the parts that need to be bought? if we direct purchases to a single vendor perhaps they can give us 20%-30% off for the + PR....

I'll bet Pelican could do that and might even offer a discount, AA might too, I hate asking George for anything tho, just personal experience... I would say one of the smaller ones like GPR or HPH would be better, to support the little guy, esp. since markb is also a respected member here, but I don't know if they have the inventory to provide everything, or the margins to offer a discount. but it would certainly be worth asking, imo.

mark being a member I would think he should be at least given the opportunity to step in front of the big boys if he can. I'll be happy to approach him with this if you want me to. or email Wayne at Pelican, too.

Since this thread is private I can say things here I might could not otherwise - thanks for that.

The parts needed list was made by Carrie and her Dad (awesome folks by the way) and I feel perhpas the list was made without thought to how the car would ultimately end up being used. I didn't completely agree with the list but it is difficult to squash someones kindness when their good intentions were evident. There in lies the precarious situation of too many "angels".

This car will never be a concours vehicle - it was never meant to be. There are a lot of parts that can be used today and then freshened up over time. The big stuff is being done right - body and paint - as you only get one chance at that. Mary is having the interior done by an upholstery shop. I think the single biggest purchase left on the car (not counting the motor - we have to assume her guy can do it) are the seals. We have been through bad dry rotted rubber on the car. Mark Whitesell has always been good to me and makes good stuff - but he may not be in a position to donate or discount much. I sometimes wonder if he recoups his investment a lot of times.

I have a conference bridge where we can all get on a call if we need to discuss this further before we head down a road not needed. Let me know if that would help.

Cheers!

Thanks for your comments Mike. I'm sure the list isn't perfect and that's OK. None of us are perfect either.

The protected forum helps keep wheels and tires from spinning vs going forward.

It sounds like the motor and body are taken care of. Lots of parts have been donated to get you there. Great. I can't say enough good things about how you, Carrie and her Dad have handled things.

Can you, Carrie, or her Dad just highlight the obvious holes then? I agree with Rick that some things will just need to be bought. Its easy to get stuck on a part, or have a part break while you reassemble it.

Rick asked me to set up Paypal and it is set up if needed. You know Mary's budget better than all us. Rick also suggests getting a Porsche mechanic to safety check the entire car. This may take some money, but I highly recommend it. If its decided to raise funds, having a budget / goal is critical. It will help you make decisions.

Conference call is a great idea.

The fact that it is a driver is perfect. Thanks again!

I agree a budget needs to be done ASAP - otherwise it is easy to lose the scope of the project and it will never get done. For me the difficult part is how to approach it. A call might help there as there are infinite interpretations of a "Proper" rebuild/restore.

What is the best time for a call? I think we are all in Central Time Zone except for Rob. Once we nail down a time I can send invites to the call to your personal email or post it here.

I prefer after 6pm CST, but I can probably take a 15-30 minute break or so in the (any) afternoon and take the call on my cell outside. it's too noisy here to do it at my desk.

I love the idea of getting mike's seals, this helps support the member vendors as well as the members. and I agree, I don't think Mikey is making much on his products. he may not be able to offer a discount, but even with a discount from Pelican, Mikey will be cheaper, I'm sure of that. I would think member vendors who are in a position to help might be more willing and more deserving of support. guys like mikey put a lot of time and effort into making products that I doubt they make much off of, and probably take a long time to recoup their costs. guys like George hussey, make tons of parts too, but they have the funds to farm it out to china and then charge us plenty to recoup the costs fast. maybe I'm biased against george, ok, no "maybe" about it... if there's a part available anywhere besides AA I get it from there, if AA is the only one who has it, I probably don't need it...

but I still like the idea of supporting member vendors first if we can. and if Mary needs a part from AA and george will offer a discount... then so be it, we have to do what makes sense for Mary.


I do think a good mechanic needs to check the car out. I know Clay Perrine also offered to help, and if I was going to trust anyone to check a car, it's Clay. we could probably get him for the price of a plane ticket. a local mechanic may or may not have a lot of 914 experience, unless we know someone that does.

I may have said way more than my .02

After 6PM is good for me too and may work well for Rob since he is 2 hours before us.

I can be available at 6pm CST or later. Friday? Saturday?

408 888 7757 cell

friday will be fine, I can even do it earlier, no one pays attention to 'work' on fridays

Hi Guys,

Here is the call in information.

Let's shoot for 6PM today Friday (I will aslo PM everyone).

Time: 6:00PM Central Time (4PM Pacific)
Please Call Dial-in Number: 1 (218) 486-1600
(The Participant Access Code is: 124424#)

Mike

I just caught up on the thread. I've been on the road all week. I will check in on hte conference call today.

I apologize for missing the meeting. I worked late and then missed my reminder because I was working on the car, bead blasting the cooling tin.

I feel bad for missing it.

is there any action Items I can take on?

Hi Wayne, I'm sorry, I was going to give you a reminder call but work was kicking my ass.

I think Mike is in the lead position for now. He is working on getting time lines established for the completion of the engine and chassis. Mike is also in charge of compiling a punch list for a final parts list. (sorry Mike but you have most of the info sewed up)

When we have the parts list and completion date for the engine we can set a date for a "Overhauling" style build.

Once we have the engine completion date and final parts list we plan Make a grand announcment and post a NPR style fund raiser. This will involve a weekend push to raise cash for several things. When this happens we will need your help to bump the post and be a cheerleader. That's my best asset. I'm a real good cheerleader.

As part of our fund raising effort we discussed raising cash to fly in at least one guy like Ed Morrow (EJM on world) Ed is a former VW Porsche Dealer Mechanic. He retired (early) to work for Chris Foley because he wanted to work on 914's.

Ed (or if Ed cant' do it) or someone like him would be an invaluable asset during the build.

Also I think we decided when the donated parts start to fade our fund raising efforts will go twords purchasing parts from guys like Mike at GPR, Mark's rubber parts and Eric Shea's caliper rebuild service. We discussed asking these guys for donations but thought better of it. We think as part of our support for Mary it would be doublely good to help our small vendors.

Anyone else have anything to add or correct me if I mis-posted?

Great meeting guys!

excellent. Ed sounds like a perfect Candidate!
if Ed can't then I'm sure Clay would. he expressed interest and has worked at Zim's Autoteknik for quite some time as both full and part time mechanic. someone like Ed or CLay will go a long way to making this project happen.

I wish I still knew of someone with real friends in the travel industry, that could provide a discounted airfare... but maybe a memeber who travels for sales would want to donate some of his/her frequent flyer miles. I have an engineer friend who does this, he can't possibly use all the airline miles so he gives them to friends and charities. I can see if maybe he has a few he could donate, or sell cheaply. in tough economic times people may want to hold onto their cash, but things like airline rewards may be expendable.



I can't agree more. I think it's good karma or whatever to at least give the "little" guys, our devoted member vendors a chance to run with the big dogs to help the 914 family. they put so much into the community already, I look at it as the right thing to do. I'm sure Pelican or AA would give a discount, and not think of it, but the members may not be able to give as much of a discount, but it would give them something to be proud of, and really show that this organization can further unify the community to accomplish great things like helping Mary. maybe I'm just an idealist tho

Rick,

Great recap - thanks!

My action items:

1. Contact Mary and make her aware of our proposed "Overhaul" weekend
2. Get a more complete list of parts to be purchased to Rob in Excel so he can create a budget

There exists the possibility that Mary wants this completed before we can get to it. Now that the car has some color on it and suspension is getting bolted up the anticipation builds and may move forward quickly. Whether it gets done properly is another story. What I think works to our timeline is the fact that Mary was told the motor would not be ready until Christmas. I will know more after I talk to her. I also think any fundraising should be started/finished before the Holidays as we all know things do get tight.

This car HAS TO BE SAFE - for a few reasons.

1. 914World's name is on it
2. Her brother died in a car accident
3. Her 20 year old daughter will drive this car at times
4. And someone told her 914's are not safe

If the car gets put back together before we can get our crew there I still think a sanctioned safety check by someone is in order.

At a minimum I would like to see Eric's rebuilt calipers and new pads. Wheel bearings replaced at all locations. I would normally reccommend Chris Foley gas lines but her body guy ran his own new stainless front to rear already.

Your thoughts?

Thanks again for your time Friday evening. I will not talk to Mary until probably Tuesday as she is out of town with her husband on some medical follow up stuff.

I totally agree, and would add tie rod ends and ball joints. I had a wreck from a ball joint breaking at 50mph. not in a 914, but still..

everything sounds great guys, again, I'm sorry I missed the call.

Hey Fellas, as the unofficial ambassador of the 914world (I have met most of the folks on this site now) I think I have some info you can use.

1- Mikey914 (Mark Whitesides?), I call him Mark. He LOVES to give his stuff away. He is ALWAYS giving freebies to the PNW guys. Having met him and knowing his generous nature, he would be down with hooking Mary up. I have also been working with him on ideas for our cars and he is like the rest of the good vendors, low cost + high quality = longevity.

2- Eric Shea is another one that I have worked with for a loooooong time. He is a very wonderful and HUMBLE human being. He would be glad to hook Mary up as well. Ask and ye shall receive.

3- AA. Having spent the whole day there now and being around George, I think I get it. George may actually have Aspurgers in a mild form. He is very flat, hard to read, always looks annoyed and has trouble understanding emotion and conveying it. Interesting from a psychological/medical back ground. This being said, he is now learned in the comradery that we share on World. This seems new to him. His bay was fool of over 20 members that were giving parts to other members in help and helping members with work. These members had not met one another ever in real life and they were so close nit. It perplexed George enough that he mentioned so in the Atl clinic thread. I bring this up because he may be more amenable to hooking us up. He hooked this clinic up with space, time, tools, 4 meals and discounted parts and no one asked him to. He is also not asking for anything in return. Just an idea. As charity workers we can not look a gift horse in the mouth so long as it is ethical.

Mt $.29

Thanks Mike. All good points. I agree 100%, especially with utilizing vendors willing to help. We should have another conference call so that we can fully bring everyone up to speed on Mary's position, action items, timeline and deliverables.

Thanks again.