My Introduction Options

[Ron914]

Hello all ,
This is my long awaited introduction. Since I was challenged by posting photos this should have happened three years ago. My name is Ron or on this site as ron914 .When I retired my girlfriends son asked me if I wanted to invest in one of his flips , he knew I always talked about wanting a 914 , so I agreed to put up the initial money to purchase what he told was a great survivor car or mostly a California car in great shape . I rented a trailer and off to Otay Mesa to pick it with him .The motor had been disassembled already and was in boxes . Once we got its back to Huntington Beach he wanted me to drop it off on the street infront of a German repair shop in Sunset Beach for the weekend until the shop opened Monday morning ,at this point I already had $13K invested and felt someone might just come along and steal it so I said no and I brought it home . I hadn't planned on getting involved but I couldn't resist breaking out some cleaning products and went to town on it. He had me purchase some needed parts to complete the rebuild and we took the motor to Hector at the garage .Well Hector had some issues and had to close his shop so I went down and picked up the parts and block and that's when the project became mine . I fell in love with this car and liking a challenge decided to tackle this project on my own with no experience restoring a car . I cleaned ,sanded and replaced any and everything I could .I wish I had explored the classifieds before I started as I could have save a few bucks . Live and learn. The guy we bought it from said he had a guy who he was going to have rebuild the motor by and gave us his information.The shop was Brothers Machine Shop in Ontario,CA. Renato the mechanic said he would honor the price he had given to the guy we bought it from . I took him the block with the new parts I purchased (new 96 mm pistons/jugs,Flywheel and clutch) Nato @ Brothers said I needed some additional work to the heads and rebuilt them and talked me into swapping out the new rods I had for titanium rods . All in he only charged me about $1700 to but the motor together .He did not do fuel injection ( only carbs) so he bench tested /broke in the motor with a carb set up on it and gave it back to me .Now the fun trying to put the rest of the motor together . I looked at photos on BAT and used photos to identify what was missing that I needed to assemble the complete motor ( what a challenge ) . There was so much more I wanted to do as I now had the 914 obsession .My girlfriends son said I was doing to much so I said since all my money and time invested was mine I decided I was going to keep the car .I kind of snagged his find and made it mine but he was ok with that . It's been a three year journey and I think I am finally ready to get this 49 state 1976 Non-Catylitic 914 back on the road in California and lsoon I ook forward to meeting the local group here in So.Cal. On a side note I had went on a waiting list to purchase my retirement car and need something to keep me busy and the 914 fit the bill .It has been a fun sometimes frustrating project but I am almost there .Here's a photo of the car when I brought it home and my other car also a red mid engine targa.

[fiacra]

Ron, welcome out from "lurking" status! A great story, and now that you are in the final stages of getting your car back on the road you are about to reap the rewards of your work -- more work (IMG:style_emoticons/default/evilgrin.gif) . It never ends with a ~50 year old car, but they never fail to put an ear-to-ear grin on my face as I stare over the steering wheel and down the front hood. Occasionally I even get to do that when it is not on jack stands (or now on the lift because like me you likely will not be able to resist the temptation to upgrade to fancy jack stands). Don't forget that you will now need to buy a vehicle to be able to tow it home from your road trips. I recommend buying an old PG&E vehicle from US Auctions in Southern California as their pick-ups are generally well set up to tow. That was my old set-up, but I now tow it behind a Toyota Sienna with a tow package because nothing exudes "toxic masculinity" like a Porsche 914 being towed by a minivan. You are far enough along in your project to have already discovered how to assign Power of Attorney over your retirement accounts to our vendors. If not, I can walk you through how to do it on the Schwab website.

On a serious note, they are great cars, generally reliable, fun to work on (mostly), and many World members are generous with their time, fund of knowledge, and parts. Post WTB ads in the classified and you'll be surprised what you might find at a reasonable price (like any FI parts you may need). I do want to commend you for putting another one back on the road. Kudos to you!