potential newbie-some questions
 

I have been considering the addition of a 914 to my garage. I've always liked the 914-6GT looks and that's what I'm considering to build as a project car. But as I look at metal flares at $800.00 for a set of 4 or engine sheet metal at $800.00 for the set and the 6 cylinder conversion parts I'm wondering is it possible to build one of these as a DIYer on a "lunch pale" type budget?The chassis I'm looking at is clean and almost rust free so I don't anticipate any major body work other than the flares and any chassis stiffening I may want to do.Just want to hear what others with more knowledge have to say. Thanks in advance.SmileWavy

If you're a good bargain hunter, deals can be found. There are occasionally used flares available, and I know a number of people who have done their own non-GT flares. Fiberglass ones are also available, but they usually take more work to fit.

It is also possible to fabricate workable replacements for many of the expensive conversion parts.

I know of a number of Sixes that have been done on a shoe-string budget. There is one I know that cost a total of $5K to convert. IIRC, half of that was the cost of the car!

It depends on your patience, your deal-finding skills (and luck!) and your fabrication skills. It also depends on how "right" or "nice" you want the end product to be.

--DD

Dave thanks for the response, this will be helpful because I pulled the trigger tonight on a 1975 rolling chassis that I hope to do a 6 conversion on. I have owned two 911's including the one I have now that I will keep, a 944S and now a 914. There's just something about the 914 that peaked my curiosity and now I'm on another slippery slope!!! The car is being delivered this Friday so I hope to post a pic this weekend.I'm sure my "post" count will really climb over the next year or so.

Congrats! There are many ways to do a six conversion that can really reduce your expense. For me, I found a donor 84 911 and took off all the parts I needed for the conversion (engine, dme, tranny, front end, fuel pump, tach etc.). Then, I parted the rest of the car out...ended up getting all those parts for free plus some. I then had to buy the parts that you cannot get off a donor like the motor mount, oil tank, oil lines, exhaust etc. My conversion will end up (just ready to now do the engine install) costing me about 1k. If I hadn't bought the donor car and just sourced the engine and all the parts...it would have been about 8k. So, it just depends on the amount of time and work you want to put into it. The 8k range is about average if you have to source the engine and all other necessary parts directly.