What do you think of this flared 914?

[zmayne]

Hey all,
I found this car for sale down the street from my house. Its a 73 1.7-liter. The interior is in great shape except for the dash. I believe it has 119,000 miles.
It has GT fiberglass flares that are cracking a little but look like they were put on in the right positions. It has 7 and 8-inch Fuchs and the 911 five-lug conversion. New tires. I don't think the owner knew the rears were wider than the fronts, since he had both 8s on one side! Its missing the front spoiler and the proper GT side skirts.
Its been sitting for a while, so the owner charged the battery and we drove it around the block. It feels like it might have a short shift kit, since it felt tighter than I was expecting. The brakes are VERY mushy and need to be gone through. It didn't smoke at all, and revved cleanly, though it needed a lot of gas to get off the line.
There is rust in the battery area, but zero exterior rust and the front trunk and floor look good.
I was thinking of buying it to convert to a six and use it as my new track day car.
What do you think this things worth?
Zach

[URY914]

What part of the US of A are you?

In Caly its about $2500.

In NJ its about $5000.

[hardflex]

It looks like the only body issue might be a bad rear trunk hinge on the right side. seems like a good base to build from if there's no rust.

I'm wondering if it was 1 center carbed by the way you described it running.....

In Tx, i'd say 2500+.

[zmayne]

Good call! Yes it does have one carb in the center of the motor. Doesn't look like the most efficient setup. So that's how a car setup like that drives? Thats good to know, I wasn't sure if there was a problem with the clutch or something.
Also, the throttle was VERY stiff and tended to stick a little. Could that be from the fact that is hasn't been used too much?

[zmayne]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by URY914
[B]What part of the US of A are you?

The car is in New Mexico. Not too much interest in cars like this around here. probably why it sat for so long for sale.

[URY914]

Originally posted by zmayne
Good call! Yes it does have one carb in the center of the motor. Doesn't look like the most efficient setup. So that's how a car setup like that drives? Thats good to know, I wasn't sure if there was a problem with the clutch or something.
Also, the throttle was VERY stiff and tended to stick a little. Could that be from the fact that is hasn't been used too much?

Offer the guy $1,200 and see if he takes it, but don't go over $2,000.

You never know until you ask.
Paul

[RandyLok]

A single carb setup is the least desirable of all intake systems on these motors. That would be a big deal to me because I wouldn't keep it, and it can get to be a real spendy headache to go back to FI.

The passenger side trunk hinge will need to be rewelded (not a big deal) or replaced with something like JWest's hinge replacement kit. Good eye hardflex.

Also, the headlights will need some adjustments to line up with the sheet metal.

Look carefully for rust. If there is visible rust under the battery, it's worse than it looks. Look underneath too, poke around everywhere between the jack point under the rocker panel back to the suspension console all along the bottom of the frame rails with an ice pick or screwdriver.

I would also note the gap at the top of the driver's side door for reference, then take the top off, roll the window down on the passenger side, step over the passenger door and bounce the car with all your weight while looking at the door gap at the top. If it's closer than the other side, or flexes, beware you'll have a major project at hand.

All of that said, the photos look good!

[zmayne]

Originally posted by RandyLok
A single carb setup is the least desirable of all intake systems on these motors. That would be a big deal to me because I wouldn't keep it, and it can get to be a real spendy headache to go back to FI.

The carb setup isn't that big of a deal for now. I have a '69 911T that is an RS replica. It currently has the 2.0-liter. When I get a bigger motor for the 911 I'm planning on swapping the 2.0-liter to the 914. That's why I want this 914. My next project was going to build a GT replica, and this one has the right wheels and flares and looks relatively unmolested otherwise. Is it possible to convert that single carb to a better carb setup, or is that very costly? What's the engine worth on its own? Anything at all.
Thanks to everyone for all the 914 education! You guys know your stuff.

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

Dual carbs can be had for a few hundred bucks. You still need a linkage and manifolds; you may be lucky enough to get those with the carbs. If they're used, they'll probably need a rebuild. If they're new, they'll probably need re-jetting. Budget some time and money for those.

A stock running 1.7 motor, by itself, can be worth anything from zero to about $500. The Bug guys seem to like them more than we do--they like to convert 'em to upright cooling and stuff them into Beetles and other VW Type I cars. I would probably ask $250 over on the Samba and see if anyone bit at the motor.

--DD

[zmayne]

Originally posted by Dave at Pelican Parts
Dual carbs can be had for a few hundred bucks.

--DD

Thanks Dave. In the meantime before I did my six conversion, would it be worth it to do the carbs and some other bolt ons to the 1.7 to get a little more power?

[peter carroll]

Please take off the rockers and look at the outside of the longs, so you won't have to join the "I F 'd up club" Pete

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

Second what Peter said.

"Worth it" is a very personal question... How long are you going to drive it with a four-banger; what is having better response worth to you (and over how long a period), and so on.

Bolt-ons are pretty limited, though. In the case of a stock 1.7 motor with a single-carb setup, the only effective bolt-ons I know of would be a set of dual carbs (or the stock fuel injection), possibly a recurved distributor (not with stock FI), and a tuned header exhaust system. The cheapest of the tuned headers that I know works starts at about $500, and you lose all semblance of heat or defrost...

So you have to figure out how much power you need, how much you can live with, and how much $$ and effort it's worth to you.

Oh--the "few hundred bucks" generally means used off Evil-bay. New carbs will likely cost somewhat more.

--DD

[hardflex]

Updates? What did you decide on it?

[zmayne]

still haven't moved on it yet. I'm selling my Alfa racer, so its a little contingent on how much and how soon I sell that whether I can move on to another project. The cars been for sale in the guys driveway for 6 months so hopefully won't go anywhere in the meantime.
If I do get it, I'm going to paint it Conda Green, sort of a Max Moritz 914 GT replica.
I'll keep you updated...

[M. Hendrix]

I dunno, I see more rust than you.

Look at the color of the carpets. The dust on the backpad/driver rear floor looks very... oreish.

You mention battery tray.. the hinge is obvious, but the hell hole looks alot worse than what we see, doesn't it?




M

[zmayne]

Originally posted by M. Hendrix
I dunno, I see more rust than you.

Look at the color of the carpets. The dust on the backpad/driver rear floor looks very... oreish.

You mention battery tray.. the hinge is obvious, but the hell hole looks alot worse than what we see, doesn't it?




M

You may well be right. Are the rockers panels easy to remove to check for rust on the longitutidinals? Keep in mind though that NM is hot and dry, so rust generally isnt as much of an issue as in other areas, esp. ones close to a coast.

[M. Hendrix]

Open the door, and you see rivets on the top edge of the rocker.. drill those out, they are usually replaced with screws.

When you go shopping for teeners, take an ice pick, and poke in the places rust lives... don't just look.




M

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

Or you can just remove the three (four?) screws along the bottom of the rocker cover, and swing the bottom of the cover out. If a ton of dirt falls out, that's a bad sign. If you can poke a screwdriver through the rocker panel, that's a very very bad sign...

--DD

[devadv]

Originally posted by zmayne
You may well be right. Are the rockers panels easy to remove to check for rust on the longitutidinals? Keep in mind though that NM is hot and dry, so rust generally isnt as much of an issue as in other areas, esp. ones close to a coast.

are rivets a bad sign? mine has rivets on one side and screws on the other.

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

Rivets (on top) are what were originally holding the rocker cover onto the car. Screws (on the top side) are a sign that the rocker was removed and replaced. Perhaps just to clean things up, perhaps because someone banged it on a curb--perhaps to fix rust on the longs...

--DD