Adventures of an old 914-6, Keeping it in the family and making memories Options

[vintage914racer]

As a regular lurker, and occasional forum participant (primarily when I find myself in a pickle and need to "phone a friend") I've always enjoyed ongoing build and "keeping them on the road and running" threads. So in an effort to do the same for myself, and perhaps prevent haphazardly ad hoc and disjointed threads for projects and updates, I figured I'd try to pull things together into my own, ongoing thread.

This thread is about "Speedy," my 1970 factory 914-6. The car has spent more time off the road than on, but as of late I've proclaimed it's the year of Speedy and started tackling a long list of updates. Before we get into those details, here's a bit about Speedy...

My memories with Speedy go back the the mid-80's when I was a pudgy four or five year old. Back when safety was more of a suggestion than a requirement, I'd often tag along in the front seat between my mom and dad on backroad blasts and the occasional trip up to Brainerd International Raceway when IMSA used to run up there.

Why the name "Speedy?" Well I suppose because as a kid I saw the 180mph speedy, felt my dad's right foot initiate some speedy acceleration, and perhaps because I distinctly remember my mom, in the passenger seat look up from what she was reading, glance at the speedo and shriek upon the realization that we were doing 120mph. By 1980s perspective, particularly that of a 6 year old, the car was Speedy. By today's standards? I'm not sure. But it sure is fun. And for the record, I'm not typically one to name a car, but apparently I was as a youth. And its stuck.

Here's she is, for reference...



It's worth noting that my Dad bought Speedy after he overcame a horrible battle with blood cancer (where they initially gave him 60 days to live). After paying off some truly excessive hospital bills that piled up during his better part of a year spent in the hospital, Speedy was his "I kicked Cancer's ass" celebratory purchase. He bought it at Carousel Porsche Audi in Golden Valley, MN, and perhaps not by coincidence, when I was a teenager I kicked off 10 years of employment at that very same dealership.

Stay tuned for more about our early years with Speedy and my journey as caretaker...

[vintage914racer]

I don't remember the particulars at all, given dad's no longer around, but Speedy wasn't his first Porsche. Sometime before I was born, and until I was a few years old, he had a lovely (from I can tell from pictures) Gemini blue early-seventies 911. Presumably he sold it to pay some hospital bills.

Regardless, the 914 was the German car of the household for my early-elementary years. Then dad's financial advisor planted a crazy seed in his head. He suggested that since my dad would likely never qualify for life insurance (he had overcome three difference cancers...I left a few details out for brevity), that perhaps he invest in his car passion and serve as assets that could be old to raise funds should anything happen in the future. So that's just what he did. And thus accelerate my interest in German, aircooled cars.

Now I've quickly learned that more than one car project is one too many, but it was not a deterrent for my dad. He was very successful at what he did and fortunate enough to be able to pay others to fix his cars. The thought of being able to pay someone else to bust their knuckles on 70's era non-galvanized sheetmetal is truly joyous. As this thread will soon illustrate, though, I am not in that boat. Hence I've slowly amassed some rarely-admired, and oft obscenity inducing, mechanical skills. But I digress. The point is, soon Speedy wasn't the only horse in the shed. And she wasn't driven nearly as much as she probably should've.

Fast forward a dozen or so years. Dad passed away unexpectedly, at just 46, and in very abbreviated terms, I became the new caretaker of the car.





For 10-15 years I didn't spend a lot of time driving the car. A lot of it was due to me being young, navigating college and the early years of becoming a responsible young adult. And of course I didn't have the money to maintain the car, although working at the local Porsche dealership did have its benefits.

As I moved about through career life, entered married life and kicked off life with small kids, I found myself in a place where I could start getting Speedy back on the road. There was a few year run where I probably put 2-3k miles on the car per year, which is a lot considering Minneapolis is covered in snow half of the year. Following a few good years of 914 adventures I learned that my car was not immune to tinworm. And my chassis was in far worse shape than I thought...

[vintage914racer]

As eluded to in my last post, the rust was strong in the longs, hellhole, part of the floor pan and firewall. Fortunately there are amazing folks like Rick (Rick918-S) who are a wealth of knowledge and equally skilled. Off the car went to northern MN (on the coldest day I ever remember experiencing) and he got to work making the chassis as good as new.

You can checkout the entire long/pan/hellhole/etc rust elimination work on the thread below. I've included a few mugshot and glamour shots below as teasers.

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=226585

[Cairo94507]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/popcorn[1].gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif) We love build threads- I am sure your father is smiling as he looks down at your care of his 914-6.

[vintage914racer]

With 99.72% of the car's structural integrity restored I could enjoy the cars. And I did. Sometimes. But not nearly and much as I should have.

Adult life, kids and other distractions (including my other, temperamental four wheeled German mistresses) kept my but from the seat. Probably the biggest detractor was the fact that I had young kids and, despite my parents three across the seat approach, I couldn't enjoy the car with my family. The kid also love the van. So that got a fair amount of drive time, except when the engine went kaput. Twice. At least VW parts are still cheap. And that's exactly why I always say more than one vintage car project is one too many.

My other German mistresses...



Fortunately now my kids are old enough to ride in the front seat of Speedy and schedules are such as there's marginally more time to get out for drives when the sun is shining.

So, this past January, with great fanfare and enthusiasm, I declared 2023 the year of Speedy. Trumpets blared. Confetti shot from the sky. Banners proclaimed, "It's a 914!"

I had amassed a long list of repairs, spanning the necessary, nagging and good to do while I'm in there. Then I set about checking the repairs off my list with a target of getting Speedy back on the road in July.

The list of 2023 maintenance items included:

-Replace all three rubber oil lines that run from the oil tank. Each was seeping or more
-Update to 930 valve covers and gaskets. Again to tackle another set of leaks

-Replace the rear main seal. There's a common theme here. Yep, you guessed right, more oil leaks.

-Replace the clutch, pressure plate and flywheel. There was a bit of collateral damage, and slipping clutch, from years, if not decades, of oil penetration

-Replace the master cylinder. Yep, that was leaking too. And unfortunately spewed a bunch of fluid in the driver's floor pan. Say goodbye to the beautifully painted floor pans.

-Replace a rear wheel bearing. Or two.

-Replace the speedo cable.

-Replace the rear window seal that apparently wasn't sealing despite replacement a few years back. Water seeped in, mixed with the aforementioned brake fluid and created some nice flash rust.

-Plus anything else I found while I was in there. And a bunch I'm probably forgetting and will remember when I go through my photo updates.

[mlindner]

That's very cool, both your story and Speedy. Keep it coming. Mark

[vintage914racer]

That's very cool, both your story and Speedy. Keep it coming. Mark

Thanks, the initial list of projects is nearly done. I even managed to add ~50 miles to the odd on the maiden voyage last weekend, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

On of the first items of business was to remove the rear bump and send it off for chrome. I know this process can take a long time and I wanted to get ahead of it. For as long as I can remember the chrome was flaking off to the right of the license plate and it was the first thing I saw every time I looked at the rear profile.

So off came the bumper and I shipped it off to beautiful sunny CA so ValcoOscar on these boards could work his magic.





The next order of business was to tackle what I assumed was a very leaky RMS bearing. The clutch had recently been slipping and I was pretty sure an unexpected hot oil bath was the culprit.

So I drained the oil, dropped the tranny, removed the PP, clutch and flywheel. And would you believe it, the RMS looked decades old, bungled up, and clearly leaking oil all over the clutch and adjacent parts.

Here's a picture after I cleaned up decades of caked on oil - at least most of it.



The old seal came out quite easily. Getting the new one in wasn't as simple. The countless threads and videos I referenced online showed folks gently tapping it in with a rubber mallet and a block of wood. That wasn't working here, and believe me, I was using the finest piece of leftover scrap wood I could find in my garage (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I learned online for a mere few hundred dollars I could purchase the "official" RMS installation tool. I'm all for buying new tools, but not one I'm going to use once this decade. So, I made a trip to Lowe's and scavenged the aisles to see what I could repurpose to build my own tool. I crossed my fingers that an employee didn't ask me what I was looking for, as 9 times out of 10 they don't understand what I'm trying to do or why I'd use a (insert unrelated product) to work on an old car. After 10 minutes searching the aisles I struck gold. In the electrical section I believe.

Armed with my makeshift install tool, the seal went in relatively easy.



From here I reminded myself that the clutch was heavily oil soaked and needed replacement. The pressure plate wasn't looking great either. It also appeared that the flywheel had been penetrated with oil and was pretty worn. Out came the CC and I placed an order for parts. A week or so later they arrived and I made quick work of installing them.

In went the flywheel.



Then the clutch.



Then the pressure plate.



I reinstalled the transmission and checked the first block of work off of my list. Only 47 other projects to go....

[vintage914racer]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/popcorn[1].gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif) We love build threads- I am sure your father is smiling as he looks down at your care of his 914-6.

Thanks, Michael. I strangely like process of writing and documenting my work. Maybe it’s therapy for the busted knuckles and broken spirit from spending 3 hours on a job that should take 1 hour. On the other hand, it is very fulfilling, at least for me, stepping back and taking pride in a job well done.

[vintage914racer]

So, picking up where I left off...

With the RMS replaced, and new flywheel, clutch and pressure plate swapped in it was time to move on to my next project - oil tank oil line replacement. My old lines appeared original and had a healthy weep going at each hose connection. Fortunately, Patrick Motorsports was offering a pretty good sale price on the three lines I needed, so I whipped out the AMEX and waited a few days for them to arrive. I then put off the job for a good three weeks or so.

At some point during my procrastination window I fell into "get the 914 vintage race car ready for Road America mode" and quickly learned that I had some pretty serious chassis issues on the other 914 in my stable. Fortunately Rick (Rick918-S) came to the rescue there. You read all about that adventure here via this link:

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...=366018&hl=

And here's a teaser photo of the work...



...and an on-track shot confirming Rick's repairs did the trick. See that vinyl face on the site of the car? No, that's not me, I'm not that vain, rather it's a tribute to my Dad. He raced this car long before I took it over. For better or worse as I've progressed into my 40s I look more and more like him.




But back to repairs on Speedy, as that's what this thread is all about. Not the orange race car (that hasn't been named to my children's dismay)

To do the job right I had to remove the oil tank. I'd done it before prior to shipping the car up to Rick in Duluth for the longitudinal/pan repairs, but it had been years. I remembered there was a trick to doing it, but that's all I remembered. So, after removing the LR wheel, rocker cover and other miscellany, I spent an hours or so wrestling the oil tank trying to get it out. It wasn't happening.

In my frustration I didn't snap any photos, but in a nutshell, when I installed the tank last time I had the lower line attached in such a way that it could sneak the tank in, however the fitting would not clear the chassis coming back out. After some thinking I broke out the dremel and cut the the darn hose fitting off. I somehow managed to do so without damaging the tank or the adjacent chassis area. I'd call that a win. Then, with the finesse of a freshman at his first homecoming dance, I spun the tank around and out of the darkest confines of the inner fender.

I reveled in my win, got distract with other life things, maybe s squirrel in the yard, or perhaps a combination for the next week or two until I resumed work on oil tank. I made quick work of installing the new lines and wrangling the tank back into it's home.

Here's a few upshots to prove I'd done my job.





And going through my photos I ran across this one I forgot to share leading up to the RMS repair. Here you'll see I'm not afraid to employ child labor, you know, in the spirit of teaching them a thing or two about auto mechanics.

[vintage914racer]

But now as I look at the image, I've realized this is the orange car, not the blue one. At any rate, occasionally my kids can be convinced to help me. At least for a few minutes before they get bored.

[Dion]

Loving this! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/popcorn[1].gif)

[vintage914racer]

Loving this! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/popcorn[1].gif)

Thanks. More to come, but not until I return home from a trip to Road America for IMSA races there this weekend. I’ll be riding shotgun out in my buddy’s 1987 911 Carrera. Inevitably I’ll post a few pictures of our adventures…because his 911 is a gem and Road America is Motorsports Nirvana.

Here’s a sneak peek of the 911 a few years ago when we had our cars out for a nice late summer cruise.

[TRS63]

What a cool car and so great it being a family car since new !
Thanks for sharing,

Antoine

[vintage914racer]

Following the replacement of the RMS, and associated components replaced "when I was in there," the next project to check off the list was the LR wheel bearing.

First order of business was removing the axle nut cotter pin...



Then remove the brake disc and move the caliber out of the way...



I proceeded to get the hub, bearing cover plate and wheel bearing removed in short order. Based on my investigation, the wheel bearing didn't look too bad. I knew, however, it had been a long time since they had been replaced so I planned on replacing both. (TEASER: when I removed the passenger side bearing last night it became evident immediately that this was the one making noise, but more on that later).



After cleaning the hub a bit, and giving the bearing plate a refurb (In black opposed to gold...the horror) I scavenged in the freezer to find the last of my bearing stash that I put in there at least 18-months ago...



I'll have you know, I did not grab an ice cream sandwich, even though I really wanted to. I proceeded to pop the new bearing in and install the bearing cover plate.

[vintage914racer]

The gasket on the outboard axle flange looked a bit gnarly, so I replaced it with a new one while I had it out.



I pressed in the hub and then struggled to get the axle back in place. I've done this job many times without issue, but it seems that the effects of working in my sweat lodge of a garage (It was low to mid-nineties and very humid at the time, and surely a lot hotter in my garage) I failed to get the hub pressed in completely. As such the splines wouldn't slide in appropriately and a lot of cursing ensued.

I even removed the output shaft from the transmission to give myself more room and angle to work with, but it was fruitless. Alas, once I realized the hub needed to go in a bit further everything went together quickly.



I broke out my handy dandy five foot cheater bar, tightened the axle bolt to good and tight, installed a new cotter pin and dropped the car back on the ground.

Up next, adventures in master cylinder replacement and, with the help of my 11 year old shop apprentice, I tackle the RR wheel bearing (which after removing clearly needed replacing).

[Cairo94507]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/popcorn[1].gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[vintage914racer]

Bad news. I failed to get pictures of the new master cylinder installation. Good news. It went a lot easier than I expected.

I replaced the master cylinder once before on this car, a good twenty years ago. On my back, on the dirty floor of the storage garage where I kept the car. This time around I replaced it in relative luxury with the car perched in the top bunk of my 914 bunk bed (aka my lift).



I made quick work of removing the old master cylinder (MC). Prior to lifting the car I loosened the gas tank, unmounted the brake fluid reservoir and dropped the fluid lines down. This provided enough slack to pop the pesky lines into the top of the MC. By some miracle I had everything buttoned up in 15 minutes. Maybe less.

The hardest part of the job? Sourcing the copper washers for the MC banjo bolt. For some reason I was missing one and the three FLAPS near me had nothing close. I was able to source some and get them in a couple of days.

Then it was on to brake bleeding circuit training. I went around the car bleeding the brakes so many times that I might've gotten dizzy. Or maybe it was from the brake fluid vapor. At any rate, I got the system bled, dropped the car to the ground, and took it for a good 40 minute spin.

[rick 918-S]

Had to bump this one. Great story of family and cars. Don't forget to add the bus story.

[vintage914racer]

Had to bump this one. Great story of family and cars. Don't forget to add the bus story.

Thanks for the bump, Rick. Just saw your update to your thread for Jeurgen's car. Amazing work!


As for my blue 914, I've knocked a couple more projects off the list and even took it for a 25-mile spin last night. Update post to follow. For better or worse as soon as I check a proejct off the list, another item gets added to the list.

[Luke M]

You may want to check your shock spring cups. They are upside down.