Learning about Porsche 914s

Today I've been looking through bkrantz's build on 914world.  Some very detailed documentation as he is bringing back a rusty and neglected 914.  He goes way beyond anything that I have the skill or desire to do at this point, but anything that I could hope to do is shown in detail.

I also just bought a top on eBay. Both of my tops have some minor cracking and bad trim. This one looks pretty good and for $150 shipped, I decided to grab it.

At home, I am really eager to pull apart the rest of the yellow car so I can start building the black one, but life goes in many different directions. I find myself 'grazing' around these cars poking at little bits of interest rather than diving in deep. It could take me a few days or a month to get it back out of the garage. Will it roll, or will it come out in cut pieces? There's still a lot on both of these cars that I haven't even really looked at.

I always wondered what you can repaint the tops with that makes them look original again. My 914 top needs a repaint. 

In reply to Snowdoggie :

I'm going to try this on one of the old damaged tops: http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?s=&showtopic=314810&view=findpost&p=2516787

Sand it smooth.
Use reinforced body filler (kitty hair) to repair any broken corners.
Add additional 'normal' body filler to smooth out any prominent bumps or gouges.
Clean, clean, clean.
Shoot diluted black gel coat from a HVLP gun.

The big trick there though is getting the correct mix of gel coat, hardener, thinning agent, and flattening agent (you don't want too much shine). And the second trick is getting the gun set up correctly for air pressure, air flow, nozzle size, etc.

But after playing with a few test pieces (don't shoot your top on the first batch) you can get a very original looking refinish.

All told, plan on at least 20 hours.

Most of the repaints I have seen are either too glossy or not quite the right texture. They can look good and be well done but not quite original. The original was flat black with a rough texture but not quite as rough as bedliner. I have seen some painted with truck bedliner. Actually the one on 914 World looks pretty close. 

Come to think of it, you could spend a week and waste a whole stack of old metal pieces just trying to get the mix right. 

Popular mod is to fill the top smooth and paint the color of the car.

Not my car unfortunately 

AAZCD (Forum Supporter) said:

Today I've been looking through bkrantz's build on 914world.  Some very detailed documentation as he is bringing back a rusty and neglected 914. 

After going down the rabbit hole of 48 impressively epic pages of build documentation later.... I don't know if I should compliment you or swear at you for posting that link.

bbrock's build 80 pages of awesomeness 2.0 build.

tygaboy's build 140 pages of mad fabrication V8 build.

There are so many over there displaying some great skill.

I work in Air EMS. It's a slow day at work. We have had three standbys for trauma patients, but they were all canceled - either too healthy or too dead to need our help. On a day like this, minutes take hours to pass. All the 'get ready to go', then 'stand-down' is a lot harder than an actual busy day. I decided to take apart the carburetor from the yellow car...

It is ugly inside. I will not be rebuilding this one. I soaked it with penetrating oil a few days ago and all of the choke plate screws still snapped in half before coming out. I'm still taking it completely apart. Why not? At least I'm doing something. Maybe some of the parts will be useful for the carb from the black car.

No work on the cars or garage for a couple days. My hour or two after work has been spent on keeping up with the lawn - it's amazing how fast the yard weeds have been growing this summer. At work in between flights (it got busy again) I have been watching some good YouTube videos. I really enjoy Ian Karr's Channel.  His videos are informative, organized, and to the point. Many YouTubers are figuring out a job as they do it and have minute long segments of turning a bolt while they mutter unintelligibly. I don't have patience for those. CT's videos have some good info scattered in them, but the cost to watch them in time and ad interruptions is too high. If your going to make YouTube videos, keep them under 10 minutes unless it's a feature film.

In Ian's Bumblebee video, I really like the way he sorted  the parts into uniform containers as he stripped it. I plan to do the same thing with the same containers.

Today is my last work day before a week off. Tomorrow's big task is dropping off a pallet of Audi A8 parts at a freight depot. I sold them about three years ago and the buyer paid me $10 a month to store them. She had always told me that she was going to pick them up within a few months, then a thing would happen to the truck or timing would be bad. Sold THREE YEARS ago. It will be nice to have the garage space back.

In reply to AAZCD (Forum Supporter) :

When i did the garage i bought 20 of those containers.  It's the only good way to go

  Normally you don't remove choke or throttle plates, unless they are damaged.   You should be able to get it to run on that carb, but it's not the best option.   It would be interesting to see if either engine will actually work.   Just have to get everything on that carb unclogged, I have never seen one so clogged up.

I had to stop work on the 914s for a while. My garage was too cluttered and I had to find new homes for a few cars. My two Silver 1999 Boxsters are now gone along with an 89 VW Cabriolet project car. The garage and driveway are still pretty full, but there's enough room to work and it feels a lot better.

I have the yellow parts car mostly stripped out now. Most of what's left in the body now is just wiring and suspension. I decided that I'm going to keep the body intact with wheels on it. The front half of the car looks like its very solid and I have seen builds done on cars that were a lot worse. Next I'll set it aside and wait until I am deeper into the black car before making any irreversible choices.

Today I drove to Springfield MO to pick up another 914 engine. This one was pulled apart and gone through pretty well and I'm not very optimistic that the engines I have are going to be in good shape. I plan to rebuild one, but having a good engine ready makes it so I can focus on other aspects.

Here's some of the ad from Craigslist:

“EA Code Volkswagen Type 4 engine, 1800cc.
Fits bus, 411/412, and 914. Originally from a 411 with an automatic transmission. It has top oil filler and dipstick. I bought this a few months ago. It was very clean outside but I always check them out inside. Crankshaft measures standard on the rods and main journals. I removed the rods and checked them, they are good on both ends and all weigh within 3 grams. I installed new rod bearings. The main bearings showed very little wear., so I left them in place. The cam and lifters are in good condition, I bought a lightly used set of 1800 AA pistons/cylinders. I had a set of 1700 heads opened up to fit the larger cylinders. The heads are in great shape, both intake and exhaust guides are good. All valves were refaced and the seats were freshened. New front and rear main seals, new gaskets on valve covers and o rings on pushrod tubes. It will come assembled through the heads, cash and carry.
This could be used in a 914, has a 215mm 914 flywheel.”

It looked pretty good strapped down in the back of the Element.

On the way home I took the opportunity to stop in Branson and do some quick checks and clear a check engine light on one of the Boxsters I sold. I wouldn't normally drive three hours away from home to check on a car that I had sold. I didn't do it because I felt bad or because the buyer asked me to. I did it because I thought I had fixed the problem and it really bothered me that it came back. ...it was personal between me and the car. I think its good now.

If you can spare one of these, I need one

Patrick (Forum Supporter) said:

If you can spare one of these, I need one

I'm pretty sure I'll have an extra.

AAZCD (Forum Supporter) said:

Patrick (Forum Supporter) said:

If you can spare one of these, I need one

I'm pretty sure I'll have an extra.

914 Oel fillers by Jon Russell, on Flickr

914 Oel fillers by Jon Russell, on Flickr

Verified that I have three engines and all of them have that. One engine is 'extra', to be parted out. So figure out how much they cost then make me a low-ball offer with an address to mail it to. Or I'll trade you for a passenger side outside door handle or other odd parts for a 914.

I uncovered the black car today and started poking at it. I really hadn't even looked at it since mid-July. Pics and maybe a video later, but I am even more impressed with the condition after getting a better look at it today. The car has some rust, but is generally solid. Most of it could easily be repaired rather than replacing large pieces of metal. It looks like much of the fuel line has already been replaced with metal that's in good condition. In the next few days, I may take some waste fuel and see if it will pump through the system. Before I do that, I'll look at swapping the relay board from the yellow car into the black one. The one in the black car is filthy and has some spots of corrosion.

For now, my plan is to get this car running and streetable before doing a major restoration. The engine is going to come out before I make any attempts to start it and will probably be set aside for a slow rebuild while I use the newly bought engine in the car. I may use the 32/36 single carb set-up just to get it running, but the current plan is to go with a dual 40mm carb set-up.

I'll message you when i'm not balls deep in tiling a shower 

Patrick, there's no rush. Do whatever you want with your balls in the shower. I'll set it aside.

The black car is in the garage now and I'm figuring out where to get started. It's a ~50 year old car that probably died after a few years of neglect and then was left outside for a few decades (I was given no history on them.). I have never seriously considered rebuilding a car like this before. Looking it over, I am actually impressed with how good the condition is... this might work.

I planned to remove the engine from the black 914 today. The AC compressor was stubborn and slowed me down enough that I decided to finish the job another day.

The muffler came of easily and that was nice. The surface of the muffler is a little rough and the chrome tip has some rust, but I still think it has some sexy curves and probably a good sound. I'm going to see what I can do to clean it up and reuse it.

As I cleaned the car, I found some more spots with metal (foil) tape. I've been hoping that it isn't covering major problems. Overall I have been impressed with how solid the car is for a Barn-yard find. I went all around in and out of the car with compressed air, hitting spots where I found the tape or cracked paint. The air at about 65 psi caught the edges and peeled it off pretty well. It looks like the tape was mostly used in areas where there were small pinholes in the floor. The floor itself is still solid, but if I do restore this car (I plan to) I've realized the floor should be replaced.

In other news, it seems that I've bought another 986. It has a nice uninstalled weld-in rollcage included with it and that's what I really wanted from the deal. No idea what I'm going to do with that car yet, but I'm sure it will be fun. The engine comes with it, but is out of the car and condition unknown. Math: (Cost of deal) - (Value of rollcage) = $200. How could I not?

I bet that exhaust is loud, but I know it is far lighter than the original muffler, so good performance gain from mass reduction at least.

Ok... I got some more little stuff done. Sold the hearse. Brought a 986 parts car home from Houston with a TDI Touareg I just got.

Fixed my son's chimney mortar and leaky window....

Now I'm about to head home from Joplin with a third 914.

Why did I get another 914..? Because once I start buying 914s, I compulsively look for more-better ones when I go online. This was the first one within about 200 miles that was for sale and affordable.

It has a Title. The interior does not look like opossums have been living in it. He said that the 'longs' look great. "Great rebuilder" he said. "Turns over, but I didn't work on it yet." I had messaged him with a few questions and all the answers looked good. Then it was marked as SOLD before I had a chance to reply. I messaged back that if the buyer didn't follow through, I'd be interested.

Buyer #1 got sketchy. Seller told him to get lost. I said I'll be there with cash and a trailer today. A nice road trip with Mrs AAZCD.

It is better, worse, and not the same as the other two 914s. It does have a title and the others don't. The interior is not bad for 48 years old. With a battery installed, lights and wipers work, and the engine cranks. It has some extra parts - door handles, seals, and decals that I have wanted. But... it has rust. Lots of rust. More rust than a "Great rebuilder". I have not pulled the outer rockers off, but I'm pretty sure it's going to be ugly under there when I do.

The good news is that I have more than enough cars and parts now to keep me busy for a long time. I have enough 914 residue to complete a driveable car with some air-coolness. I have seen plenty of builds on 914World now where people tinker away at a project for 4 - 5 years before driving the car. Meticulous restorations . I don't think that's me. All three of these cars were depreciated, beat up, and left for dead long ago. They are not special models in need of saving. They are my toys and I am at liberty to play with them as I see fit - nothing owed to history.

Some pics.

I think you have an amazing lifestyle and spouse-well done all around.