Importance of matching numbers?, Chassis, engine, and transaxle zerial numbers Options

[rtmchale2]

I'm curious to get the 914 communities thoughts on how important to resell value it is to keep chassis, engine, and transaxle numbers matching as the car rolled off the factory line. I purchased a project 1973 914, back story suggests all numbers are matching. Current engine is a 1.7L, if I had a chance I would consider putting in a 2.0L, but only if that does decrease value on factory restoration project.

I gather from going through the forums that in doing a factory restoration project, that the project will have better value at the end in sticking with factory options for the car as close as possible. Or is that all just made up and at the end of the day the quality of the restoration will have a bigger impact to future value?

Curious to get the communities thoughts on this.

[Pat Garvey]

I'm curious to get the 914 communities thoughts on how important to resell value it is to keep chassis, engine, and transaxle numbers matching as the car rolled off the factory line. I purchased a project 1973 914, back story suggests all numbers are matching. Current engine is a 1.7L, if I had a chance I would consider putting in a 2.0L, but only if that does decrease value on factory restoration project.

I gather from going through the forums that in doing a factory restoration project, that the project will have better value at the end in sticking with factory options for the car as close as possible. Or is that all just made up and at the end of the day the quality of the restoration will have a bigger impact to future value?

Curious to get the communities thoughts on this.

I've never seen a 914 COA list te engine number or transaxle numbers. Chassis, yes. Equipment, vague. If it says a 1.7 motor, it came with a 1.7.

When I say "vague" equipment it's up to the reader. My COA says I have Norwegian Equipment. It was delivered to Cincinnati.

They didn't much effort into the lowly 914.

[wonkipop]

I'm curious to get the 914 communities thoughts on how important to resell value it is to keep chassis, engine, and transaxle numbers matching as the car rolled off the factory line. I purchased a project 1973 914, back story suggests all numbers are matching. Current engine is a 1.7L, if I had a chance I would consider putting in a 2.0L, but only if that does decrease value on factory restoration project.

I gather from going through the forums that in doing a factory restoration project, that the project will have better value at the end in sticking with factory options for the car as close as possible. Or is that all just made up and at the end of the day the quality of the restoration will have a bigger impact to future value?

Curious to get the communities thoughts on this.

I've never seen a 914 COA list te engine number or transaxle numbers. Chassis, yes. Equipment, vague. If it says a 1.7 motor, it came with a 1.7.

When I say "vague" equipment it's up to the reader. My COA says I have Norwegian Equipment. It was delivered to Cincinnati.

They didn't much effort into the lowly 914.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif)

likely reason is that the more detailed records are with VW in their archives.
with the caveat this would apply to the 4 cylinder models.
the 4s were entirely produced under VW at the karmann factory using VW production protocols (same as applied to all VW models).
its very likely that 914/4s used build sheets that were VW format.
photos i have looked at of the 914 production line seem to show this prpduction sheet may have been on the cars as they came down the line. usually it was taped to the outside of one of the doors on the side of the body. but that build sheet would have only had the production number (sometimes called the karmann number) on it and the build details. the Vin, engine and gearbox numbers would not have been recorded until the end of the line when the car was complete and assigned its vin number.
somewhere in their archives would be the final data entries with engine numbers and gearbox numbers.

i think COAs from porsche access porsche data held in the porshe archives which would contain all the data from the final 914/6 build at the end of the stuttgart production line.

porsche supplied COAs for 914/4s are likely drawn up with access to some other filing system that VW holds but does not contain the engine numbers.

some cars had their owners manuals filled in diligently by the dealers when the car was sold new. this had provision for filling in the engine number for the warranty page.
but not all dealers properly filled in that section of the manual. if they did you could trust that information in terms of "numbers matching".


regarding the question of value.
i think when it comes to the question of the humble 4s, so called numbers matching would really only matter in rare examples of excellent original condition survivor cars,
and by that i mean original everything. paint etc. unrestored. low miles. those cars have it seems been of interest to serious collectors. few and far between.
i don't think it matters when it comes to restoring a 914 whether its faithful to how it came out the factory door, its more about the quality of the restoration and the car itself generally speaking.

6s of course are an entirely different matter. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

drive em and enjoy em. neither gasoline or us are going to be here forever. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)