My "new" 1971 914-6

[Cairo94507]

Hello everyone. I am new to this forum but I am a long time Porsche owner. I bought my first 914, a '73 2.0 appearance group, brand new in 1973. Following that one I had two '70 914-6's; the first was Signal Orange with a 2.7 with CIS and the second was Irish Green and ended up with a 3.0 with CIS.

I just bought an original California 1971 914-6, VIN 9141430372, from the 3rd owner who has had it since 1976. This purchase would not have happened without the "go ahead" from my lovely wife and I have to acknowledge that since she is going to see the six every time she pulls in or out of the garage. The six now has 89,651 miles on it and I believe that to be the true mileage after finding a detailed gasoline/mileage/date log in the glovebox. Back in the eighties had the original 2.0 changed to a 3.0 SC with webers. No idea where the 2.0 is now. The second owner, apparently in about 1974 did a color change from Gold (I personally dislike gold too) to Black.

The car runs and I actually went for a ride in it. The car has essentially sat covered in a garage for the last several years and was only driven once in the past year. During the ride the right front brake started to drag so I did not drive the car the 70 miles home. I had it flat-bedded to my house and then drove it into my garage.

Amazingly, (to me) all of the electrical, with the exception of the blower/defroster motor works. Even the reverse lights and interior light work.

The car has a couple of small rust spots in the typical spot near the antenna and on the bottom of the passenger door and one spot near the sail panel.

Otherwise the car is in pretty decent shape. I look forward to playing with this car and getting it in good mechanical condition. I am excited to have finally been able to find and buy a '71 six.

Take a look:

Here it is getting a ride home:


Now in its new home:

[TRE Cup]

914 photos! Random or Personal

Great ! another black six. Check out my '70 parked next to the yellow GT this past august. Hopefully you can join us on the targa california back roads rally tour april 8-10th this year. Several other sixes, fours, and all sort of other 75 and older machinery will be joining in.

e mail me if you are interested tremotorsports@gmail.com

have fun!

[Cairo94507]

That is a very nice looking black six. I don't think mine will be going anywhere this year, there are several things that need to be done before I would be comfortable taking it on the road. But I am looking forward to future events to enjoy these wonderful cars. Thank you.

[racer]

Looks nice.. Congrats!

[Jagshund]

Whoa! You mean people sell 914s with PAINT on them? When did this happen? That's a good looking car!

[Cairo94507]

Thank you all. I love the car.

[confused]

Cool car, good thing you bought a running one. I bought a 1970 914-6 from the Pelican classifieds 4 years ago that was 100% original and in storage since 77. I am just getting to work on it now. I bought the car I have cheap but its taking a while before I can drive it. Maybe next year.

[Cairo94507]

Please post up some pictures. Storage since 1977, if stored properly, will be one heck of a car. Pictures....

[Cairo94507]

I got my car a set of skates....(my wife's description when she saw them under the car) makes it much easier to play with and then put away.

By the way, anyone interested I got these from car_dolly.com, made in the USA, standard 3.0" wheels with a 3.5" wheel upgrade for easier rolling. Very nice people, good price, quick shipping and excellent quality product. I am pleased. (Yes, that is 914 blood under my car.)

[Griffinroydonal]

Your car is beautiful . I always wondered what a 914-6 was supposed to look like !

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by Cairo94507

How cute! It has already marked it's territory!

I miss my 6

[Cairo94507]

That car is not going to have to worry about losing its space in the garage. I plan on keeping it until I go into an assisted living facility or die.

Seriously, I could have bought what I wanted for a project/toy. The 914-6 has been "the car" for me and I have owned an F-car, multiple 911's, MBZ, BMW, an Acura NSX (very nice car) and the likes. My wife laughs at me because I love the 914-6 more than all of those.

I have decided to change direction on this project. I was going to do some work to get it running so I could drive it now for a year or two. I have elected instead to just do the restoration/build. I will likely just sell the current 3.0 SC engine/ and early transaxle out of this as they are not the original units. Car runs and drive BTW but has a sticking rotor/caliper on the R/F. I am planning (at this point) to put a 3.2 Motronic in it with a 915 transaxle.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by Cairo94507

That car is not going to have to worry about losing its space in the garage. I plan on keeping it until I go into an assisted living facility or die.

Seriously, I could have bought what I wanted for a project/toy. The 914-6 has been "the car" for me and I have owned an F-car, multiple 911's, MBZ, BMW, an Acura NSX (very nice car) and the likes. My wife laughs at me because I love the 914-6 more than all of those.

I have decided to change direction on this project. I was going to do some work to get it running so I could drive it now for a year or two. I have elected instead to just do the restoration/build. I will likely just sell the current 3.0 SC engine/ and early transaxle out of this as they are not the original units. Car runs and drive BTW but has a sticking rotor/caliper on the R/F. I am planning (at this point) to put a 3.2 Motronic in it with a 915 transaxle.

Check the brake line. A lot of these brake lines, the rubber on the inside has a problem and it atcs like a check valve.

A 3.2 and a 915? Why? I had my 2.0l engine rebuilt into a 2.7l of about 200-200 hp and it was plenty fast. The 901 will handle the power just fine, as long as you don't try 1st gear burn outs.

[Cairo94507]

I have never had a 915 gearbox and want to do the Wevo shifting system. I also heard you can get a better selection of gears so that 1st does not end up being unusable. I want to make sure that 5th is going to be a tall gear to keep the RPM's way down on the freeway at say 70-75.

At this point this is all just the process of deciding what to do and how to do it. Nothing is in concrete yet. Crap I have not decided on Light Ivory or Black. I originally wanted to do Light Ivory, but as I look at the car in Black......it sure looks purty. I swore I would not own another Black car but then again this car will not really be a daily driver so how tough could it be to keep it nice?

This is all part of the fun of doing a car. Red-Beard, any thoughts on a 3.2 vs. 3.6? I guess I should say I want it to fit like stock with no altered panels. That, in addition to the solid reputation of the 3.2's leaves me with that engine in the number one position. I also kind of want to use the stock rear valance, the full coverage one, with the exhaust finisher coming out in the stock position. I hope a 915 and the 3.2 will allow that, but i do not know.

Well time for some sleep; been up since 0415.

[Cairo94507]

Just revisiting this thread and realized I made a mistake in my original posting; I am the 3rd owner, I bought it from the 2nd owner. I guess i was kind of excited to get it posted and didn't proof read carefully before I posted.

Though the car still sits on skates, I have collected a lot of parts towards the ultimate restoration. This whole process is an evolution of ideas.

At present the car is going to remain stock-bodied, go Irish Green, stock interior with some slight changes like a 4 gauge combo and a fuel gauge tach combo., possibly a later adjustable passenger seat and retracting later seat belts.

The drive train is still looking to be a stock 3.2 Motronic with a 915.

The brakes are going to be slightly upgraded to the GT rears that are vented and drilled rotors and the fronts are early S with vented and drilled rotors.

Suspension with be mostly stock with Bilstein shocks and a later stock front sway bar.

I would also like to find a complete set of stock tinted side glass in great condition as I do not want to do aftermarket tinting on the windows.

At present this project is taking a break as my wife decided it was time (after 21 years) to sell our present home and move to the other side of town. I told her as long as the new home had at least a three car garage I was OK with that. So we will see what we end up in and how quickly.

[ein 6er]

very nice!!

AFAIK, you can't put stock retractable belts in an early body without modifying the firewall, (unless that is what you were going to do). if you know of an aftermarket retractable that will work without mods, please let us know.

back in the day, i think there was an aftermarket retractable, but i've never seen one. the belt reel was up top, not behind the seat like on later cars.

someone please correct me if i'm wrong.

good luck with the project and move!!

[jim912928]

For me it is really fun doing the restoration/build work. Not sure how valid, but I did read somewhere that 944 seat belts work in a 914...you can probably still get those new.

On the tranny conversion...you might want to check out a new kit on the market (built in germany...but I think auto atlanta re-sells them here). It is a duplicate of the Porsche 916 end pieces and, from what I've read, fits better then the wevo unit. Both are stated as being excellent products. There is a detailed writeup of the R&D work on this 916 copy on the 914world "member vendors" forum.

I just finished a 9144-6 conversion and put the stock 3.2l motronic engine in it (have a 915 tranny for later, but currently running the 901). Nice thing about that engine is you get in and just turn the key. The FI setup is fantastic. I also kept the stock 3.2l airbox and the stock 3.2l auxiliary heater fan (had to use the 914 housing as it has a smaller circumference...but it bolts right onto the 3.2l blower motor and connection tube).

[Cairo94507]

ein 6er: As for the seat belts, I believe the firewall does need to be modified to accept the new belt. Depending upon how bad and visible that is, will depend upon if I do it. I don't like seat belts flopping all over the car.

Jim912928: As for the engine, for me the 3.2 is the obvious choice at this point. I too want to just get in and turn the key once it is built. I have seen the 916 kit and when the time comes I will make that call. At this point I would just be speculating as to what will happen. I am jealous that your car has a 3.2 already....

happy motoring.

[red-beard]

On the gearing, what people say, and what is so are different.

Gear #1 is on thw wrong side of the transmission to handle significant power. Most of the V8 guys start the car in 2nd gear and use 1st gear only for trailering.

Unless you have the SPECIAL (this means uber expensive) gear shaft, 2nd gear is fixed. The rest can be swapped around, but it really won't do too much and it will be expensive to find what you want, then to properly shim the internals so that the clearance remains the same.

The Standard gearing worked just fine for me. Redline still allowed 150mph.