BUILD-OFF CHALLENGE: Creamsicle, Extreme Budget Makeover of Daily Driver LE Options

[poorsche914]

HISTORY: purchased in spring 2010

Advertised on the Asheville area Craigslist, the pictures of this '74 914 were extremely low res and blurry. I emailed the seller asking for more info and clearer photos. He never responded with anything useful except for the VIN which fell in the range of Can Am production. Hard to tell any details but I could see it was a white car (more on that later) with no sail vinyl. Hmmm... could it be?



I had a '75 2.0 with an interested buyer. Better than that, he procurred both a tow vehicle AND a trailer and volunteered to drive me the 3+ hours to view the '74. The deal was... if I bought the '74, he would buy my '75.

We headed to the northwest section of North Carolina and met the seller. At this point the 914 was stored in a metal outbuilding. After removing boxes and other stuff, we rolled the dusty, dirty car out into the lawn. I did a quick check and my suspicions were correct... a possible LE! I spied bits of orange hiding behind the white on the wheels and the bumpers. A quick check under the front end showed the air dam mounting tabs. OK, time to deal!



The 914 had definitely seen better days. The engine had a mismatch of FI parts, the longs (and elsewhere) were rusty, the entire car had been painted white (bumpers, wheels, trim, etc). To top it off, a custom wing fabricated from a Trans Am unit had been mounted to the rear deck lid. All this had been done nearly 20 years earlier when the owner was 17 years old. He parked it when he and his friends realized it just wasn't big enough for everyone to cruise around in.



My offer was his absolute minimum so the deal was made. The 914 was loaded up and we headed back to Tennessee. Once home, the '74 was unloaded and the '75 loaded onto the trailer. I actually made a little money on this deal but went from a running 914 to a non-runner in need of a lot of work. But... I now owned a Creamsicle!



To be cont'd...

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PS: found THIS THREAD from when I first bought it

[JeffBowlsby]

Looks like "Extreme Budget" became "EXTREME BUDGET"

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[poorsche914]

Looks like "Extreme Budget" became "EXTREME BUDGET"
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It has taken six years plus a lot of bartering, deal making, and waiting for the right part at the right price to get to this point on a very limited budget. An EXTREME BUDGET will definitely be needed for the rust & body work and paint.

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[poorsche914]

FRIDAY: out with the old...



SATURDAY: in with the new...



SUNDAY: need to attach exhaust system and hook up fuel lines, accelerator cable, and a few other minor things then time to fire it up! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/aktion035.gif)

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[poorsche914]

After a week of working all day and then wrenching on the 914, the Raby 2056 is installed and running (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cheer.gif)

Tuesday evening I had the proprietary accelerator cable connected, fuel lines hooked up, and ignition harness in place. Everything was back together and it was time to start her up. Crank, crank, crank. Can smell fuel but no spark whatsoever. Conversation with Jake leads to a couple tests and conclusion that the unilite module popped or I have a bad coil. I didn't have a multimeter with me so couldn't do any tests.

Returned Wednesday after work to test the coil plus brought a spare coil just in case. Both showed 3.5 ohm so they are good. Tested the unilite module and... it's blown. That was a super short night. Back at home, found a replacement on Amazon and ordered it.
The replacement module arrived Friday but since it was "family night" I did not work on the 914.

Today I installed the new module after I double checked the wiring to be sure all was connected correctly. Didn't want to blow another module (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)
Rolled the car out of the garage and turned the key. It roared to life. And roared. And roared. Idling at 3000+ RPM, I figured I had the accelerator cable too tight. A text to Jake verified my suspicions. I readjusted the cable and tried again. The engine roared to life and idled at just under 1000 RPM (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

My bro-in-law and I then took it for a drive. Seemed rough at times but I later found a faulty connection to the fuel pump. With that taken care of, this engine is sm-o-o-o-o-oth (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wub.gif)
I want to thank Clark (malcolm2) for his assistance last Saturday. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)
Ended up having to pull a rear axle to replace a CV joint. He had a box of parts to make the repair super easy. That and his transmission jack made installing the engine much easier than it could have been.

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