75 914 Laguna Blue Project Options

[Graydingo]

Hello everyone, my name is Duane and I love me a Porsche project. So much so that I've had five air cooled cars (mostly projects mind you) in the last few years. I've pared that down to a mere 2 911s (one massive RSR project and a pretty good little driver 75.) By fate, every single one of them was a 75, or a 77 model year.
I guess I love an underdog and a project! Any-who, here's me latest acquisition...



A 1975 Porsche 914 2.0 in Laguna Blue L50C. What a color!



It all started when I found a 76 2.7 911 motor on craigslist. I inquired and got a snappy text back from a known number. Turns out, it was a friend and the owner of the local Porsche specialty shop. I went over to check out the motor and ended up buying it. A pretty clean 2.7 core, missing a few parts, but had a set of Italian 40 IDTP carbs on it.

While there, I was shown the 914 which the 2.7 was actually destined to go into at one point but then the owner decided to go nuts and planned to put a 3.6 in it.



He had acquired thousands in parts but lost motivation in the project. He had flares, elephant suspension and all kinds of stuff. Sadly (or perhaps fortuitously,) he had sold a lot of the new parts to another 914 enthusiast, so what was left was just the original car.

Already having a big project in my 74 RSR tribute, I passed on the 914 and headed home with my new 2.7. My 75 911 has a similar motor and It's ready to rebuild. I thought I would take the best parts off both motors and make a 2.8 twin plug beast for my 75. Ya never know what condition the crank or heads are in, so I figured it was a good plan to have more parts at the ready for cheap, and then sell everything left over later.

One thing that struck me about the 914 on that first visit, was that the car was extremely dry. Here's the ....ahem... heck hole.



Though the car was taken apart, the previous owner seemed to have all the original parts (though many of them were in his storage facility and not with the car.) Another cool factoid was that the car was actually purchased in a nearby Audi/VW dealership right here in Las Vegas. Vegas in '74 was very, very small, so to have a survivor 914 in the same town that it was 46 years ago is pretty cool in my opinion.



The car was more or less stripped in preparation for a GT conversion. I remarked in my mind about how solid the car was and went home that day thinking it was a good deal but that I'm a snobby 911 guy who doesn't buy anything but 911s :-P The car was definitely marinating in the back of my mind...

Fast forward a few months later and a younger friend was talking to me about project cars, and it got me excited about the 914. On a whim I reached out to see if it was still there and bought it the next day. I think I just really liked it and I fell in love with the color. It feels like a mix between Gulf Blue and Miami Blue. I'm actually painting my RSR Gulf, so I absolutely love all the cool blue colors.

The shop had a bunch of waterpumper parts stored in the back:



PO had the original Fuchs 4 lug wheels, but no tires. the 914 was also on a pretty sweet dolly, but unfortunately that wasn't part of the sale.



I took the wheels to a discount tire and got the cheapest tires I could buy, just so I could make it a roller for the impending flatbed trailer pickup appointment.



I had to scrounge around and find some lugs to mount them. Luckily I had some open 911 lugs as well as some 996 studs to complete the temporary fix.

After getting it back to the shop I thought: "I've got a complete project build going already, wouldn't it be fun to try to build a total survivor driver with original paint, dings, dents, damage and all, but have a bit of a sleeper engine and nice interior. So mostly original, but everything works and is nice in terms of get in, turn the key, take it to the grocery and not worry about parking it. "



Stay tuned for the paint correction...

[Graydingo]

Well a lot has transpired in the last few weeks. Mainly parts acquisition and some door work.

I bought the door rubber kits from 914Rubber as well as the full trunk kits. I figured I wanted everything that opens and closes to work and seal properly.



I made this little wood tool by cutting off the end of a brass wire welding brush:



The doors were all goofed up, but I've got them opening and closing much better now.

I've also been struggling with the passenger quarter window. I've had it in and out maybe 7 or 8 times. When the door is closed it doesn't want to fit as good as I want. The glass seems to slip and move around in the seal a bit. I tried Ian's packing wrap trick and that helped a bit. I was getting frustrated with this little corner too:



Though I think I have it better now. 14th times the charm.

There's still a pretty good gap at the top where cap piece reaches the A frame. I also have the car on a lift, that might be part of my problem.

Moving on, over the Labor day weekend, I saw that Maddogsmotorsports was having a labor day sale, so I bought the engine mount system he has:



Now I'm wondering if I need the swing arm reinforcement kit and the frame reinforcements like the 6 apparently had.


I also purchased a 6 tank kit from Ben Mcfarland:



I did a little more de-boogering of the ignition system. PO had put a push start ignition setup in as the original ignition switch died. Since the ignition was all boogered up and the keys missing, I decided I would take out all the locks and send them Curt for a re-key.

I don't have the original keys, though the owner says he has them somewhere. The PO is a local friend who has a lot of the parts in a container and as part of the deal of buying the car I promised to be patient in getting the rest of the parts since they were not in the same spot as the car when I bought it. I'd rather have a new set of keys anyway as my expectations for the originals is that they are all worn out.

Last week I went over to the local Porsche shop here in town "Carl's place, the 900 series" to have them blast my register guides. The originals were completely rusty and crusty, though everything else in the door was in really good shape.



I had also bought reproduction interior door handles and the drivers latch was an epic piece of trash.



The housing was squeezed tight making the latch bind up. I tried fixing it but the overall quality is really poor from the entire construction to the terrible paint the covered it in.



While at Carl's place I asked the owner Tony if he had any door parts. Tony found a drivers door with a good latch and pulled it out for me. Tony also had a pile of original back bumpers. So I found the straightest one for the bumper backdate. If anyone has a core front bumper let me know. I'll probably ship it to Ben to do the cooler opening mod.



Since the door job is now stalled (waiting for the exterior handles to be re-keyed) I started to dive into the ignition so I could pull that for Curt as well. I found that the steering shaft has play and that will need to be rebuilt. I also have a Mitch Leeland bushing that I bought years ago and never needed it for my 911. I wonder if they are the same shaft as a 911.

Lastly I picked up a better Yoke. I had a flat 5 arm, but this one fits with the oil cooler on:

Ebay China special. I asked for the Red one and got the white one....