The Porsche 914


Work documented before I got the car.
Fixing a few things after I got the car
Back dating the bumpers and some body work

Fixing a few things after I got the car.
Once the 914 was mine, it was time to fix a few things which were either broken, or not working correct.

The Tach was not working and I found one for replacement. So, out with the old and in with the working one.

This was a good opportunity to replace the BA7s instrument lights with LED vintage white.

Here is the before and after LED install.

The next is the headlights, I cannot believe that people can still drive in the dark with those sealed beams.

There you go. Now I can see at night.

The backup light was not working, and I ended up to install a new wire from the backup switch at the tranny to the housing. I didn't want to dig into the electr. panel at this time. It it is not possible to hide that the car was painted with everything on it.

Also the wire harness had no chance to hide or escape from the painter.

After opening the rear trunk a few times, it didn't looked right on the left hinge. Here already removed for repair. The sleeve was broken out from the mounting point

This is how it was installed.

This is how it should be.

OK, lets fix it. Drilling all the way true, and cut the thread.

I welded on an additional nut from the backside.

Ready to weld back in.

Hinge back in, and ready to install the lid.

After I did this repair, I learned that it's not complete correct how I fixed it. O well, it will do for now, and one day, when I complete retore the car I will do it so it's as original. So below is a picture of the correct mounting for the hinge for later reference.

Next on the list was the Exhaust. Looks like that muffler doesn't do anything. So I took it out and found that the pre muffler is in good shape, just a lot of surface rust. So I cleaned it up and gave it a coat of hi heat black paint.

Instead of the additional muffler, I just installed a pipe, and it still is not that loud. LOL.

An other thing that needed some attention was the cover plate under the steering rack.

Here is the cover cleaned up.

Here is the steering rack panel back in. It's funny this was the thing what looked worse, now the rest looks crappy.

Now, there were some issues that the windshield wiper would not stop, and if, it would stop anywhere, but not in parking position. So I started with the easy part, the switch.

I removed it, and gave it a good cleaning with electronic cleaner and air, and gave it a try. Well, now it was working, but the wiper stopped to park position in the middle of the windshield.

OK the motor seam to work and park, but in the wrong position. To get to the wiper motor you have to remove the air blower housing. To remove the air blower housing you have to remove the gas tank. OK, tank out.

It's always interesting what can be found. The fuel pump was a little to close to the brake fluid supply line for me, almost rubbing.

So I removed it and modified the holder i bit. Here top picture before, bottom picture after.

Here the pump mounted, and has now more clearance to the lines.

OK, back to the wiper. Blower out. There was really nothing left without yellow paint.

OK, finally I had access to the wiper motor.

There is also a nut from the dash board. The best is tor remove the speedo to access it, unless you have 1 inch thin arms with 25 joints, LOL.

I took the opportunity to clean out 40 years of collected dirt.

After the adjustment of the linkage, so that the wiper stops at the bottom of the driver side, motor goes back in.

Next to clean out the blower.

The motor looked good, the brushes were still good, and the motor bearings looked like sealed bearings and should be OK for another 40 year of dust.

Ready to back in.

I could not get the yellow paint of the grill, and I had to paint it black. Back to Black.

So now that the wiper works correct, I can go back the LED's for the external marker. I was wondering why the turning signal does that hyper blinking. When I pulled out the fuse box to replace the flasher relay.... Tadaaa. The original relay must have gone bad, and somebody installed a replacement relay. LOL. That thing hanging on the 3 wires with electrical tape.

Since this section was in need of some cleaning, I also pulled the Light, Hazard, and Fog light switch, to give them a good scrub, with oileater and electronic cleaner.

Here is the new flasher relay installed , it's # 3 from right. They all look so happy now nice and clean. The new flasher work correct with the LED's, so all can go back in. .

Next I checked all the brakes, since I want to go to get the car inspected. The rear looked all good, but the front brakes needed some overhauln. That one pad had less than a mm left. New pads and the caliper rebuild.

Here are they ready to get back on.

Next is the front spoiler, there were some cracks and on the right side it was broken out where it mounts to the fender.

I took it off and re-enforced it from the inside. That spoiler is paper thin.

After that I gave it a quick Rustolium satin black paint job, and put it back on. Not sure what I going to do with that later, because I plan to backdate to metal bumpers, not sure yet.

When I was working on the Tail lights, I noticed that the yellow paint in the trunk was sticky and full of dust. The same on the wires for the tail lights. I started to see if that sticky stuff comes off. I first used some goof off and the paint came right off. Well, it's still a PITA. I switched then to acetone, since it solved the paint quicker. Once the yellow comes off, the primer shows up, which holds up much better than the pain(t). However, when I keep rubbing the primer also comes off and the original yellow paint shows. I continued until all that sticky paint was gone. Maybe they should have added the hardener before painting, or better, just left it alone, there was no reason to make such a mess.

The Porsche 914


Work documented before I got the car.
Fixing a few things after I got the car
Back dating the bumpers and some body work