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]

Progress on the 914, mostly in parts acquisition.

Ollies called, crank had scoring and grooves. (I definitely felt a fingernail groove on one of the mains before sending it) So it's a 10/10. That means oversized bearings for mains and rods. I think they are like 3X more expensive, but I haven't looked lately. The trouble is that I CAN find a 2.7 crank, sure, but then I gotta send it to ollies and hope it doesn't need a regrind. I'll be 500+ into it for a guess. Unless someone has a 2.7 crank that has already been to Ollies that is STD/STD and they want to sell, I'm interested.

Case needs typical 2.7 stuff, case savers etc.

In the mean time I got 6 engine tin from Ben, really nice stuff, very well made.

I also received my locks back from Curt, and my pedal assembly from Bruce Stone. All that looks and works great.

I bought a full replacement wire harness out of a 76. And, extra switches and the gauge cluster from the same guy. My guage cluster has the EGR holes in it, so now I have an option for a smoothie.

I also dug out a oil temp/ press gauge from a 77 i parted out and sent it along with the fuel gauge to John Bell to make a 3 gauge cluster for the 6 conversion.

My idea is to keep this sort of a sleeper. Narrow body, 914 looking dash etc.

I bought a new dash, it was arrived damaged with white drip staining all over it, and a manufacturers defect right in the middle of the dash. It was also maybe 3x heavier than the original dash. Not that big of a deal in terms of the weight, but the between the weight, the defect right smack in the middle and the horrible drip stains all over it, obviously it had to go back.



I had to move the car out of the shop to swap the 911 front end. That project is taking much longer than anticipated with a bad case of "while you're in there" Follow me on IG for weekday stories on that.

I'm not sure if I mentioned I picked up the 901 side shift trans as well. I'm still waiting on the PO to get me the rest of the parts. Seats, gas tank, lights. Those are some of the big things. Oh yeah, title and keys would be nice too.

I also took advantage of Maddogs black Friday sale and have boxed reinforcements for the trailing arms incoming as well as the side frame reinforcement plates.

Lastly I acquired a set of Italian Weber 40 IDAP 3c carbs. I'm well versed in these as I run them on my 75 911. The seller advertised 34 main venturi (chokes) but it actually came with 32mm chokes. In the market for 34mm if you have some.



The carbs were serviced back in 2017 by Paul at Performance Oriented. Paul did the butterflies and shafts and some basic JB weld fixing from pitting.

They came with PMO tall manifolds, Sheridan amber rain hats, Jerry Woods throttle cable setup (Very cool!), and PMO fuel rails. Seller also threw in a fuel pump, and fuel filter.



If working on my 911 webers have taught me anything it's that you absolutely have to completely tear down any carbs you get used. All the way. I found so many issues, so of course I'm glad I did. Gaskets missing, o rings missing, wrong chokes, old fuel residue etc.

While they were packed pretty good, they failed to reinforce points that stick out with cardboard. Guys it's a must. They just poke through bubble wrap. Just take 2 minutes to make a little cardboard brace around stuff that sticks out. All the rain hat stands were bent from ping ponging off the sides of the box through the bubble wrap. Just assume the carriers are going to THROW your box. Base your packing on that.



Now I need a new shaft. I've pressed this one out already, but still, costs me so much time and energy to fix something that the seller could have easily prevented.

Also if you ship something that had gas in it at some point, either hide it with sealed plastic bags or take them apart partially and completely clear the gas out and let them dry.

My fed ex driver was livid. His whole truck was saturated in gas smell.

When I broke them down, there was probably 3-5 ounces of fuel in the fuel pump and carbs. :-/ Not to mention the danger of shipping this. I can't believe it made it to my house at all and didn't get flagged by the carrier.

Anyway, rant done. Pack stuff nicely, we all know each other. Actually, i would say go out of your way and overpack everything. And be 100% transparent in your For Sale ad. We're going to see each other at Luft, or a rally, or something right? It's a small community.

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