BUILD-OFF CHALLENGE: New 914 owner...what have I gone and done! Options

[Darren C]

Hi everyone,

I have been looking for a 914 on and off for a couple of years now and late one evening I bid on ebay for a car in Desert Hot Springs CA. A real leap of faith for me as I live in Chichester UK!
My first car was a VW Beetle and I’ve owned quite a few air cooled VWs and always wanted a 914, so now almost 25 years later I finally took the plunge and with sweat on my brow placed a last minute bid on ebay on a car I’d only seen in 4 small photo’s on line.
To my surprise I won the 914.
Problem was it lay 8000 miles away from me here in UK. I got hold of the sellers phone number and gave them a call. The car is a 1974 2.0L one owner from new sold in Palm Springs 914. The seller was the owners daughter. The gentleman passed away several years ago and she’d had it parked up on her driveway for 5 or 6 years. From the description in the listing it had a Salvage title due to sand storm damage on the paintwork. It looked reasonably solid in the few pictures I saw, but very sorry for itself with flat tires and bad paint. It was a gamble, but sometimes these things pay off.
I got the car picked up by a shipping agent and taken to Long Beach for shipping.

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2 months later it arrived in Southampton UK

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Last week I went down to Southampton and collected my new project just in time for Christmas.
I was recommended this site from another 914 owner and it's a great relief to find such a large active community. 914's were never sold in the UK, so all are personal imports and a rare thing to see on our roads.
I’m pleased to now join you guy’s and post my restoration progress in getting this little car back on the road.

Regards
Darren

[Darren C]

Thanks for the advice guy's.

So much talk of keeping the FI system? Are carbs that bad? I'm a hardened VW aircooled man and I've had may cars with twin carbs (mostly type 1 & 3's but I did convert a type 4 years ago) granted they take a lot of setting up and maintenance, but run just fine when you know what you're doing.
Don't panic, I'm not jumping in just yet with carbs, but I have to say the FI does look in a real sorry state.

Today I spent another 12 hours in the engine bay. Finally got the top tinware off. The cooling flaps are completely missing as suspected.

I got the rear tin over the gearbox off and the two side tins over the cylinders off, but can't see how to get the front tin off. The motor is in the car still as I have no easy way of getting it out of the car where its currently stored.
Can the front tinware come off while the motor is in the car? I'd like to get them cleaned up and re-painted while I sort out the cooling flaps.

I also drilled out the spot welds on the battery tray this afternoon and took it out. It has a small hole in the corner so I plan on replacing it. The metal below was fine and I got yet another bucket of sand out of it when the tray was out!

When I was under the car for the first time; I took a good look around. There's plenty of dirt underneath but with a rub of the hand, blue factory paint is revealed. It's going to need a very good clean, possibly getting it on an outside ramp with a steam cleaner, but I need to get it running first.
Unfortunately I found another previous owner patch up job, on the starter motor. There's a second solenoid (non standard) screwed up under the trunk floor. Looks like the original failed and this was a cheap fix compared to replacing it properly.
Hey-ho, that parts wanted list gets a little longer.

Getting the tinware out was interesting. There are so many cables and stuff passing through it that caused me trouble. Particularly the reverse/back up light switch. It looks like the loom is fitted permanently into the switch with no plug, just a rubber boot? This cant be right can it?

Over to you guys.......

[SirAndy]

Particularly the reverse/back up light switch. It looks like the loom is fitted permanently into the switch with no plug, just a rubber boot? This cant be right can it?

The two wires have bullet connectors and should come out of the switch with a bit of persuasion.

Did you drop the engine? It's easy and quick and makes working on the engine and inside the engine bay much easier.
Here's a link to McMark's excellent tech article:
http://www.914world.com/specs/tech_engdrop1.php

As far as FI goes, for a stock engine (and even a slightly modified engine) the stock FI (if in good working order) is by far the best choice in terms of power and fuel mileage.

Also, regarding the cooling flaps, completely removing them was a bad idea by the PO because without them you get very limited air flow over the engine oil cooler.
You really want those back in there ...

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