1974 Porsche 914 For Sale $6,800 obo in Washington, DC area
September 2010
Why:
I've had the car for more than 10 years. I have new toy and can only have
one space in the garage.
Quick specs:
Located in a western suburb of
Washington, DC
1974
1.8
Light Ivory Porsche paint color
(originally red)
Not sure if those wheels were stock.
They are 15” (I think)
The tires have a lot of life left,
they still have bobbles on them.
Odometer says 37K but it stopped working shortly after
Ibought the car. I put on about 5000 miles on it and looks to be a low mileage car.
I updated the seats with a nylon
black/white checkerboard pattern. I have original seats.
The radio is updated with a CD
player but I have the original.
Pictures show the upgraded Momo
steering wheel (I’m keeping it) but car will be sold with OEM steering wheel. It is back on the car now.
Updated shift knob but I have the
original, it could be used but it is in poor condition and should be
refurbished
There is an alarm that works but I
don’t know if it’s really hooked up to anything.
Everything else pretty much
original.
I also have steel fender flares new in boxes but they would add to the price.
I think I originally paid $900 for the flares.
What:
It's a 1974 1.8 liter engine with a
single carb. It was on the car when I
bought it. When I bought the car
about (2005ish) from a guy in northern NJ he said that he got it from a dealership
near Atlanta where the car was originally purchased new and they serviced it
for the first owner for several years. I think the second owner (the guy from
NJ) bought it in the late 1990s or early 2000s. This is all hearsay.
Having been the owner for a while
and done the maintenance myself with the help of friends, here’s what I can
tell from the car. It was at one time red. The previous owner claimed the
original owner was getting too much attention with a red car and had it painted
white. This is again hearsay. I can tell that the car had something happen in
the passenger front fender area of the car. There is body work there along with
the typical rust repair under the battery tray. I give the body work a 95 out
of 100 as well as the paint work. The coverage is well done and the paint is
glossy. You’ll see my reflection when taking some of the pictures and there’s
something to be said for that on a white car. Keep in mind I’m an engineer by
trade and a perfectionist telling you this. The previous owner advertised this
car as having “no rust”. There is no more rust on the car than when I bought
it. There are some small pockets of surface rust in some hard to reach/see
places that have always been there. I have seen many other 914s at events and this
is definitely in the 98th percentile for having no rust.
It loves this
weather. The carb is tuned to “like it” between about 75 and 92 degrees so it
really likes the spring and fall. It’s registered like a normal car so I can
drive it whenever I want. I’ve taken it on several 100 mile+ trips to southern
Virginia and up into Maryland and it does great. It can cruise at 80 or 90
miles an hour with no weird vibrations or shimmies. It’s very stable, solid,
and smooth with that “go-kart” feel. The rubber seals are in good condition and
many have been replaced. I have been caught in the rain a few times and the
targa top and trunks don’t leak.
As a person who has sold a few cars
out of their driveway I’d rather just disclose everything than have you come
here and see something that was a surprise. I generally try to make things
sound worse than they are so when you come here to look you’re pleasantly
surprised.
The following pics taken September 2010 in the middle of my
court (It looks the same today.):
(those oil marks in the road are not from this car)
The top is in good condition and would
look better had I polished it before taking pictures.
I should have vacuumed before taking
pictures. The car interior shows better than this. There are two cracks in the
dashboard that are not wide open and not really apparent unless you look
closely. One is above the ash tray and one is above the gage cluster cover.
The rust under the battery tray is
just surface rust. It is solid.
I entered the car in the Deutsche
Marque Classic car show in 2008 just to park in the corral. It’s a big show for
German makes in the mid-Atlantic region sponsored by the local German car clubs
and is held at Nottoway Park in Vienna, VA. I didn’t enter the Concours
competition but was pleasantly surprised to win a People’s Choice Award.
There are three or four cosmetic things I want you to see.
These are the only things worst things (in my opinion) with the appearance.
When we were working on the engine
(shown below) we were pushing the car around in my buddy’s shop and we scraped
it against an engine hoist. This scratch is about 4 inches long and pretty
deep. It is the worst looking thing on the car.
There is a star scratch probably
made from something too big to fit in the rear trunk. You don’t see this unless
someone points it out to you.
Going around the DC beltway, a small
stone flew up and impacted the driver headlight eye-lid (when the headlights
were down).
The passenger door has never
hung right. It does work but the gap is not uniform. It’s tight at the top.
Tight enough to be metal on metal and wear away a small amount of paint. It has
always been like this and never changes, doesn’t get any worse.
I drive it around. The outer long looks solid
and you can see the metal plate welded into place in the pictures below.
View of “the longs”
The first two are of the passenger
side. You can see where there is steel riveted and welded into the longs here
from the rust repair done for under the battery tray. The jack point is bent
up. It’s solid; I don’t know why they didn’t put it down. The driver long looks
beautiful.
Pulling the engine and sealing all the leaks with new seals:
In August 2008 my friend helped me
pull the engine to fix some leaks and give it a tune up and it quickly became
an exercise of “while I’m in here”.
Before we started
You can see from this picture where I
had previously replaced all the shift bushings including firewall. Shifting on
this car is as tight as it gets with the preferred side shift transmission.
Here’s the dirty, oily exhaust tin.
This was sprayed with some oil dissolving stuff (like oil eater) along with all
balance of the engine and the exhaust tin. After letting that sit I sprayed it
again and scrubbed all the pieces with a bristle brush at one of those spray it
yourself car washes. I then pressure sprayed off all the tin and let it air dry.
Needless to say that bristle brush had to be thrown out after that. You can see
here I had a loose exhaust gasket which was allowing outside air to enter the
exhaust at the head (the bright white one). All new exhaust gaskets where used
on both sides and some new exhaust header bolts were purchased where needed.
Engine out of the car. A little
better view of the area below the battery tray.
This is when we first got the engine
out.
New Clutch just because we were in
there.
This reman flywheel came with the
clutch kit but we did not use it because my flywheel was 100% better.
New front and rear engine seal.
Look at what someone did here. They
put little “bulges” around the seal to try and hold it in. We made this uniform
again before installing the new seal.
Of course new plugs, points,
distrib. Cap, rotor. Any oil or fluid seal you can think of including speedo
cable and shift rod seals for transmission. Changed trans fluid. Oil cooler AND
oil filter gaskets. Valve seals too!
Final scrub down before going back
in. New fan belt too.
Going back in, engine first and then
transmission.
Here’s one more just because it’s
cool. We broke the clutch cable retainer which is vinyl from the factory. My
friend fabricated one on the spot made out of brass so you never have to worry
about the vinyl one breaking.
After replacing all those seals and gaskets the underside of the car stays pretty clean and it doesn't
leave oil spots. Everything was covered with oil all the time before the work shown above.
I haven't driven the car 3000 miles since that work was completed.
Thanks for looking, Jason
When the car is sold I will remove
this webpage. Enjoy the videos of the car driving below.