Worth it or not ???????, Rust pics..... Options

[914momo]

About a year ago I seen a 914 sitting on the corner for sale and it was like love at first sight.So I ran to the bank as fast as i could, pulled out 2000 smackers,and bought the car before anybody else could buy it (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)


Well a few months later I found this website called 914world.com,an noticed lots of people talking about rust in the battery tray area, so I went outside and took a look at my own car....Holy F*&%in shit my car was rusted all the way through to the suspension (IMG:style_emoticons/default/headbang.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/headbang.gif) .........It looks like the right trailing arm mount busted at sometime or another, because the PO (IMG:style_emoticons/default/finger.gif) welded some 1/4 in steel to hold it together....



I started to look a little farther and found rust everywhere,the longs,under pass seat,everywhere.........I guess my question is would this be worth fixing myself or would it be cheaper to buy a rust free tub? Here are some pics..............

[TonyAKAVW]

I went through the very same adventure. I bought a 914 in 2001 and I even had my experienced friend take a look at it before buying. So I bought it and discovered a lot of the same rust you have. The whole seam of the firewall and floorpan was rotted away, the longitudinals had those big holes, etc. etc. I feel your pain.

Here's what I did. I drove it as long as I could, and eventually I had to drop the engine to replace the oil cooler. During this process I decided to patch up some of the rust and keep driving a bit longer. Overwhelmed by the amount of rust to fix, I decided to start over. I stripped the car of all its parts (which actually doesn't take a REALLY long time to do) and chopped up the remaining carcass and hauled it to the dump. Several months later I found an ad for a free roller. I now have this roller in my garage and I'm working on the body. It has virtually no rust, and although it needs a couple of fenders, the structural part of the body is very solid. If there's one thing having a rusted out 914 teaches you, its where to look for rust on a new car.

So a few weeks ago, the same friend from above points me to an ad for a 1970 1.7 for $1200. Turns out the guy works across the street from me and $1000 later I'm driving again. While this car isn't perfect and does have some rust, its not in bad places.

So my advice is wait a bit, look at 914 ads daily, and when you see a good deal, jump on it immediately and go look at the car. Look at a few cars before buying one, but buy the least rusty car you can find, and as complete as you can find. You really should part out this car, and trash the body. Its unsafe to drive. Imagine what would happen in an accident!

-Tony