Safari 914 project, “Sufari” Options

[East coaster]

I’ve been out of the 914 game for quite some time. The last 914 I built was back in 2006 and was quite a build. I’ve had about a dozen 914s over the years and my 2006 build was to be my ultimate 914 (for me at least). It was a GT flared 3.6 six conversion and was a great car. I sold it in 2015 and moved to other things. I’ve been getting the itch to build another teener for a while, but to go in a different direction. I’ve seen a couple Safari builds and that seemed interesting.

I picked up pretty well worn ‘72 914 for the base of my project. My plan is to build a budget conscious (it’s all relative) Subaru powered Safari mod. I plan to go with a normally aspirated 2.5 Subaru from a 1998 Forrester along with the Subaru tranny.

I’ve been working on removing rust and getting the tub suitable for my plans. This will by no means be a concours resto type build, but should prove interesting.

Here’s the base car being picked up for the project start



I stripped it down and sold the engine and tranny (it was a partially completed V8 conversion). Then started cutting out rusted areas a welding in new metal.

Some Radom rust repair pics in no special order….

[East coaster]

Decided a little while back to go with 911 struts. I was originally going to use my stock 4 bolt struts and convert the rotors to 5 lug and started modifying them for the Safari lift.

Fast forward…..thanks to @mepstein , I have 911 struts to mod.

I lowered the axles 1.670” and added a steering arm brace to allow for heim joints (vs ball joints). Welded them up today and now they’re ready for prime and paint.