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...

[914work]

So did AI supply the Pasha or did you source it & provide it to them?

[Graydingo]

So did AI supply the Pasha or did you source it & provide it to them?

Autos International sourced it. They didn't have it in stock, but they did have sample Pascha in the 3 colors (Blue/Black) (White/Black) (ivory/black). It was tough to choose as all three had their merits. Blue was a close second for me, as the car is blue, but in the end I just love the black/white Pascha and it's really bold which I think is fun. I was afraid the ivory/black would just look like dirty white Pascha.

It took a few weeks to get it in once I agreed, it was $500 upcharge for seats and door panels to cover the material. I think it runs about $140/yard typically if you source it yourself.

When I uses a vendor like that I don't try to goof around and supply parts. Some of the profit from the job comes from material upcharge. It's not easy running a small business so I don't try to mess with saving a few dollars and causing a bunch of headaches for the shop. I'll be saving a lot of money doing the engine build and building the car on my own, but interior and paint is probably the one area I'll pay out for.

In other news, I found an original 914-6 oil cooler. If you recall, the original 2.7 cooler was flagged as scrap metal by pacific Oil coolers.



This one's coming from Europe, I paid the guy a little more to pack it carefully and should arrive in the next few weeks.



The 6 cooler is pretty unique as it has the 90 degree turn for the oil tube. I think it will be much easier to run the oil line this way as the original 914-6 are setup this way.



I read a little from Ben M. about this issue so I'm happy to find a cooler that will hopefully help with oil line fitment.