75 1.7L 914 Build, for my own learning and project tracking Options

[Vicious]

I've always wanted to own a 914. My dad had a few before I came along and talked about it often. In high school we looked for one to build together but it never happened. In July of 2022, I was visiting my goddaughter at her grandfather's house when the grandfather and I got to talking about cars. He was talking about Karmann Ghias and I said something along the lines of "I'd much rather have a Porsche 914" to which he responded "I've got one. Its been sitting for 20 years" I jokingly told him to let me know if he wanted to sell it. When he came back and said for $1000.00 I could have it I agreed sight unseen.

August of 2022, still never having seen the car, I made the 4 hour drive back with my trailer to pick up my new to me 914. I had no idea what to expect and honestly expected the worst. It had been sitting for 20 years after all. This is the backstory I was given, as best I can remember:

In the early 2000s, he took his rusted out 1973 (i think) 914 to a shop in Des Moines, IA to be restored. They ultimately decided to pick up a shell in I believe Arkansas and frankenstein a car together. Thus why my 1975 has a 1.7L in it. Car got a fresh coat of paint and a rebuild and he drove it home. He was then unable to title the vehicle due to the body swap, stashed it in the back of his shed and never touched it again. Unfortunately, after all this time, he was unable to find any of his paperwork or keys to the vehicle.

Here's how the vehicle looked after getting it out of the shed.

[914sgofast2]

Those heads are very crusty. Looks like they have more than just 200 miles on them since they last received a valve job, unless the car was buried in the mud or something to cause all that external corrosion. I would get the heads cleaned up and then just hand lap the vales if you think it only has 200 miles since it last had a valve job and the heads were fly cut to fit the 96mm cylinders into them. When cleaning the heads, do not glass bead blast the internal surfaces of the heads where the valve train sits or the combustion chambers. Only bead blast the external areas. Glass beads will get stuck in the soft pores of the aluminum and then slowly released as the heads heat up and cool down during engine operation. You don't want stray glass beads being released into the engine's internal areas, as they will destroy the bearing surfaces and other moving parts. Only the cylinder heads' external areas can be glass bead blasted to clean them up. I also note that one of the heads has a big chunk of cooling fin missing from it. That will cause a loss of cooling ability on that head. You can probably still use it for a while, but don't expect a long life out that damaged head (which is already over 50 years old!)