914-6/904 project begins Options

[ThePaintedMan]

I haven't lurked in a while so I'm late to the show. Still have to put in my 2 cents, and they are, "Man, I wish you would have picked a different car to do your Frankenstein build on." You say you care about the car being a Porsche, which is the seemingly only reason you didn't build a frame ground up. Yet you don't give a rat's behind about it being a Porsche. Porsche is more than a name to most of us and the donor car you selected has history. You're not honoring Porsche heritage by building a fake 904 on a perfectly good 914 chassis.

You're going to do what you're going to do, but bleh. You could have selected a different car. No excuses for that.

Have fun.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif) I'm not bashing you, but I think what you're planning to do could have easily been done on a roller, or something without history. There are a ton of people who show up on this forum with pipe dreams of what they want, start cutting a car up, then abandon it... so I'm a little biased. I rarely believe anyone until I see the car actually done. You have a nice graveyard, but like many of them I have seen, it looks like most of those cars are destined to rust away out there because of lack of time.

[rgalla9146]

The OP is not in the restoration business.
He buys and sell cars and parts.
This project is most likely being done because the car and parts were available for the right price.
Glenn knows the right and wrong here.
A race car with documented participation and performance has value and will always be significant. And should be preserved. The better the job and the documentation the greater the likelihood of wider recognition.
Others seem to agree.
Also, to me it's a goofy mashup.
A 904 with 10 " wide tires in front and 14" in rear ?
Or a 914 race car with 6" wides all around ?

[Mike Bellis]

Lots of bickering here. As much as I empathize with saving a (possibly) historic car... It's his car! Chop it up. Grind it up. Part it out. Do what you want with it. I want to see the finished 904. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/happy11.gif)

[Dave_Darling]

This reminds me of all the grief us Left Coasters used to get from folks in the Rust Belt for cutting up so-so condition cars. We would practically hear screaming on the boards here--"that could be saved", and "that car is better than my driver!" But when the cars were offered for sale, the same Rust Belt folks were nowhere to be found.

To most who are complaining, I say: Put up or shut up.

To Dug, I say: Way to put up! I hope he takes you up on your offer, so a car with race history can be preserved.

--DD

[bigkensteele]

Lots of bickering here. As much as I empathize with saving a (possibly) historic car... It's his car! Chop it up. Grind it up. Part it out. Do what you want with it. I want to see the finished 904. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/happy11.gif)

I agree. This isn't the car that Michael Schumacher won his 7th world championship in. It is an old race car that was put out to pasture and subsequently bought by the current owner. Every one of the folks bitching about it being cut up had the same chance to buy it that he did. If it was that important, they would have bought it then, or they would be making offers now.

I was in Rome a few years ago and actually got a tour from the daughter of a previous mayor to the city. They find history to be a complete pain in the ass when it comes to development.

The eye of the beholder ain't always the owner.

[gms]

...As far as preserving history, I am also restoring the 58 A Coupe that won at Daytona in 66, I pulled this one out of the mud, where it was dumped in 69.

if that is Dave McClain's #19 car from the 1966 24 hrs of Daytona, it DNF 80 laps in with a gearbox problem.
I hope we will see this 356 on the track again some day!

[Cracker]

Don't even pay a moments notice to the naysayers. I'd just start ignoring the ridiculous posts telling you what to do, what not to do and why. Enjoy whatever you do: the process, the designing, the details and the driving. I just hope you can "sit up straight" - at 6'5" tall, I believe I'd be a little cramped!

[rhodyguy]

put him in the comphy chair. nobody expects the comphy chair.

[Unobtanium-inc]

Ok, I am actually offering to save this car. This deal will only cost you the time for the chassis' to get transported. I have a very highly built 914-6 race chassis (conversion but so is this car) that I am offering in trade. As I posted earlier, I already have the original Garretson's body work and rare early Gotti wheels. I was going to use it on the MetalCraft car, but it can still be used for molds. It belongs on this car, and this car belongs in vintage racing. The Garretson team was an IMSA championship and Le Mans winning team. This car was the car they built after Walt Maas won the 1976 IMSA GTU championship. It deserves to be preserved. So what if the last guy didn't care about it? So what if it might change your build timeline a little? Is that worth ruining a 40 year old piece of history that doesn't have far to go to be as raced?

D-
Since you decided to post publicly what we had been talking about privately I tell you again what I told you. I really wish you or someone had made this offer before my 904 body was finished and before I had dropped thousands into the car. Your original offer to trade chassis wasn't going to work because I have spent a lot of money getting this car sorted, so I would have to do that all over again. Not to mention it would put me months behind on the build.
Like I said before, this car sat on ebay for 6 months with no one wanting it, everyone of you guys could have bought it, but you didn't. Had I not bought it the car would still be sitting under a tarp in a FL backyard sinking into the earth. So it's easy to throw rocks now about what I should do with MY CAR, but I didn't dig this car out of some obscure location under the noses of all the true believers, it was on EBAY, for the world to see or buy, but no one bought it but me. And now that I have sunk thousands into the car and am ready to begin my build the peanut gallery wants to poke sticks.
Concerning a couple of points.
1. About my "graveyard", anyone who knows Unobtanium knows if you stop here from year to year the cars are different cars, they get sold to people who are restoring them.
2. In terms of me not finishing cars, you may be right, the Spoodster sold before I could even finish it, because a guy loved the build I had done, he is finishing it in Australia. But believe you me, I spent 5 years working on that car, when everyone said it couldn't be done or that I didn't have the skills to do it. Well, I built that car and had guys fighting over who was going to buy it.
3. Concerning whether or not I am a restoration shop, I'm not, I make my living buying and selling Porsches, mostly 356's, but I got into this because of my love of the cars, and when I'm not pumping cars across the world I work on my own projects, this 904 is the latest one. After that is the aluminum 550 Spyder, after that will be the A Coupe Daytona car, and after that I have a one owner painted dash 65 912 that needs some love. Luckily, I'm only 40 and have time on my side.

Bottom line, it's my car, and it's my car because no one wanted it. Still no one has offered to buy it from me for any real money, the only offer is Dug's trade which would put me thousands down the toilet to get back to what might be square one. Even Dug said he can't throw any money at the deal.
So I should lose thousands of dollars to make a few of you guys happy? Really?

[scotty b]

You eat puppies for breakfast don't you ? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)


BLASPHEMER !!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mad.gif)

[Unobtanium-inc]

You eat puppies for breakfast don't you ? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)


BLASPHEMER !!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mad.gif)

Sometimes, but my favorite pastime is kidnapping pretty boys from VA.
"Hey pretty man, want to see some shiny wheels in the back of big daddy's window-less van..."
Works every time, look at this cutey!

[Dave_Darling]

Like I said before, this car sat on ebay for 6 months with no one wanting it, everyone of you guys could have bought it, but you didn't.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif)

--DD

[dug]

You started this thread to tell the world you'd be cuttin up a historic race car for your project. I'm surprised that you're surprised people actually care. I didn't have the money to save the car when it was on ebay. You keep using that as justification for your decision to cut it up.

The car hsan't been cut yet. And you haven't spent any money modifying the chassis yet. In fact you got money back out of it by selling parts. What I'm offering won't take months to accomplish. And it sounds like you have four other projects and plenty of car related work to do in the mean time.

So what it sounds like you're saying to all of us that care is simply, you don't care about the history and you're going to cut it up anyway. The rest is just justification to ease your conclscience.

And just in case it was unclear. I'm offering to pay shipping both ways, and swap the engine over. That's not costing you anything. Where do you lose thousands?

cheers,
dug

[EdwardBlume]

I've met Bob G. Great guy, a true Porsche enthusiast. I'd love to see a happy ending here.

Porsche is about the people.

That said the man with the title and the man with the gold makes the call.

Good luck

[Larmo63]

Gawd, let the guy build HIS car and go away. You may not agree with what he is doing, but enough with the naysaying. I see so many iterations of the 914 here that look like crap to me, but I keep my opinions to myself. Heck, people probably think my build is stupid, so what?

On with the build!!!!!

I don't see this guy as someone who is going to cut up a car and let it sit.

[gms]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif)
Adam, you seem like a reasonable guy
can't something be done to make this happen???
a couple more minutes with Scott in the van??
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/huh.gif)

[gms]

I didn't want to do this but if you don't do this deal I have a 540 in the yard I am going to (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sawzall-smiley.gif)



Just sayin

[dug]

I just wanted to say, I think putting a 904 body on a 914 is a very cool idea. I even contacted the guy in Canada that makes the 904 body myself to find out what it would cost when I heard about his work last year.

I think everyone here thinks it could end up being an amazing car. Some of us just think it's a shame that another equally amazing car has to die in the process.

If it was only about the money for us, then Glenn and I would be cheering you on. There are only around 36 914s that ever ran an IMSA race, and I own one and Glenn owns more than one. So you're really doing us a favor. Now I have 1 of 35:)

All of my arguing is just an effort to sway you toward wanting to save it. If you perceived it any other way, as an attack or an insult, that is a byproduct of my poor political skills and was not my intent.

And for everyone who says "stop telling him not to do it," I say, that is exactly what a public forum is for. Everyone gets to have an opinion. Adam's is just as valid as mine. If you don't have a strong enough ego to handle people disagreeing with you, then stay in your garage and stay off the internet. If you want to show off your project, be prepared for some criticism to come with the congratulations. If you do something controversial, get ready for some more.

I wanted a real 914-6 GT, or as real as I could afford. So I started by finding a 914-6 that had been previously flared. I didn't want to cut a pristine car to make the modification because they are so rare. It took me more time, but my conscience is satisfied enough to air it publicly. It won't bother me at all if someone tells me I should have restored it to original.

So Adam has every right to say the same thing. The way I see it, he opened the door to saving the car when he asked for an alternate chassis. Now I am just trying my hardest to keep that door open.

cheers,
dug

[Bruce Hinds]

Holy Crap - make the deal or don't . . .

I've often though of cutting up my rust bucket and putting a Beck body on it . . . this is an awesome idea. . . can we please get back to the build?

How cool would it be to make the 904 body just a little larger for us taller guys, that could fit the teener a whole lot better.

[Old Yella]

I'll stay out of the argument but can I have those dirty old tan seats in the back of ya van for 50 bucks.