Jim's Majik Blue 72, Progress, actual progress! Options

[jcd914]

I am resurrecting/hijacking this thread for my 914 Build Off thread.

I have made very little progress since I bought this 914 and started this thread.

My Build Off thread starts at post number 27 where I have a some background on me and my new Blue 914 and what I plan to accomplish as part of the 914 Build Off.

Thanks for following along!

Jim

I am leaving the original post in this thread so the post that follow make sense.

The original start:

So I went to Long Beach to spend Thanksgiving week with my kids, both my son and daughter now live in LB.
While I was in LB to took a trip up to Santa Clairita and bought Chris' (banger on 914world) Majik Blue Pearl 914 project. Chris has put a lot of work into this car with the engine he built and the paint & body work he had done. He has had an ad posted for awhile and had dropped his asking price too low for me to pass up.

This is going to be the beginnings of my project thread, which looks like it will mostly be reassembling the car after the body/paint work that was done. It is the body and paint work that lead me to buying this from Chris, it is an amazing color blue that changes with the light.

I did not bring a truck and trailer with me on vacation so I will be going back down (prob 2 weeks) to pick-up the car and parts. Empty truck & trailer from N. Cal to S. Cal if anyone needs something transported?

Now I need to sell off much of the 3 other 914s I have to support this project (and appease my wife). Since Chris' car was a complete runner before it came apart for paint/body work, there will soon be ads in the classified for much of my years of collecting.

Here is to new beginnings (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

Jim

[jcd914]

This is the official start of my 914 Build Off - Jim's Majik Blue 72 Thread

First an intro and a little background on me.

I'm Jim Dupree and I live Carmichael CA, just outside Sacramento.
For almost 20 years I was a full time mechanic (before we were called Technicians) and worked for 3 Porsche Audi dealerships and an independent Porsche speciality shop. Then I made a career change and moved to working at a computer in a office for a company that publishes automotive diagnostic & repair information and software. I've been working a keyboard now for 20 years and somewhere along the way I got old and gray and a bit fat.
I got my first 914 around 1989 (I think) and after taking care of some of those normal 914 issues, I started autocrossing. With my 1971 1.7L 914, I autocrossed for about 5 years including competing in the PCA Zone 7 Autocross series and even competed with a few current 914world members. Around 1996 or 1997 the engine in my 914 seized, this was about a year after I changed jobs and had no money to fix it. So it sat while I saved up to fix it, about 10 years latter I joined 914world as I set out to revive my 914. Well I read on 914world about this thing called "The Hell Hole" and found out my 914 had one, as well as other significant rust. So I bought this Blue 72 as a build project and we can all pretend I didn't buy 3 other 914s before I found this one. So having owned this new project for almost 2 years now and done almost nothing to it, the build off seemed like a great motivator and excuse to get the project moving.

About my "Majik Blue 72".

So having too many 914s (3) that all need too much work, I started looking for a project that was farther along than mine and came across this Majic Blue 72 listed in the 914world classified. When I first read the ad for the stripped to bare metal and repainted (in House of Color's, Majik Blue Pearl paint) but never reassembled 72 914, I figured it was too good a deal to last very long. It was in Southern California and I was in Northern California so I couldn't go look at and I just couldn't pull the trigger on it without inspecting it first. So I wrote it off and went back to looking closer to home. But I keep seeing the ad, there were a few people that showed interest but no buyers, a couple members were trying to buy either the engine or the roller but not both. Eventually the price dropped and my wife and I were heading to Long Beach for Thanksgiving with our 2 kids, both had moved there for school. So while on a holiday trip I arranged to go look at the car and ended up buying it. Made another trip back 2 weeks latter to pick it up.

So on the surface this looks like a simple project, its was a runner before accident repair and repaint, all it needs is reassembly.

The reality is little different.

The wiring needs a lot of work, main harness has multiple wires that have poor repairs or are just cut, there is a stereo harness poorly spliced in, the megasquirt FI harness is poorly routed/assembled and pretty much every ground point on the car has been sprayed over with paint or truck bed liner.
The body shop that did the paint was to "finish it off" after the car was assembled but they are in LA somewhere (PO never sent me the info) and I am in Sacto. The paint has several flaws that will need to be fixed.
In addition to the MS FI wiring being "funky" all the fuel & vacuum hoses need replacement and correct FI clamps. I suspect there are/were vacuum leaks but the engine has never run while I owned it.
Per the PO, the transmission pops out of gear sometimes and it is a tail shifter.
I think the biggest challenge for me is that the car was stripped down for paint but someone else, not me. I have bags and bags of hardware and boxes of parts. Some are marked, most are not. And the few things the PO reinstalled that I have looked at were istalled loose or wrong, probably just so they were inplace when he was trying to sell it and someone looked at the car.

So my plan is (not necesarily in this order):
1 - Fix the wiring and grounds front to rear, installing electrical equipment as I go.
2 - Reassemble/install the complete interior, Seats, door/window mechanizms, trim panels, carpets, etc...
3 - Install all new rubber seals, frt trunk, rear trunk, doors, traga top, etc...
4 - Prep the engine for installation, new gaskets, vacuum hoses fuel hoses, etc...
5 - Convert car & trans to side shifter, will require I fix or replace the transmission.
6 - Install engine & transmission and getit running, including fuel tanks, lines, pump, etc...
7 - Convert to 5 lug, intially I will be using Cookie cutters but would like to find some Fuchs.
I am also wanting to upgrade the brakes to some Alfa Aluminum Brembo front calipers and a set of PMB Vintage Aluminum Rear 914-6 calipers.
8 - Get the paint fixed by a proffesional.

So my project is not as big as some (many) of the others in the Build-off but it is plenty big for me and the time & money I have availible.

I did not enter the build off because I want to win (or think I can win) but instead to be part of it for motivation and a dead line.

Thanks
Jim