Overall - Not interested in a full show car.  Will look great with all of this work and I want to drive it to car shows, festivals, events, weekender trips, breakfast, brunch, etc..  Building it to be reliable and fun with some attention paid to preserving it (seal panels, grease fittings, soldered joints, electrical and relay board, etc., safety enhancements, new rubber, etc.).

 

Bodywork:

▪Hell-Hole - Rebuilt internal area below battery box and the lower corner of the passenger interior.  Took a lot of time to make pieces and weld them in.

▪Passenger seat floor-pan - It was from the back of the seat brackets to the firewall.  Removed all spot-welds and replaced that partial panel from underneath.  Mild refurbishment of the flanged sheet-metal that holds the floor-pan, but came out tight and pinhole free.

▪Driver's Side Engine Release knob area - Minor patch of a hole just under the deck-lid release pull handle area.

▪Brake Line Retainers - Little tabs that hold the brake lines were welded-in as needed.

▪Engine-Bay - Battery Support Area - Replaced part of the panel to do battery tray and hinge repair.

▪Engine-Bay - Battery Support Bottom - My modded tray has the support welded-in.

▪Engine Shelf (L&R) - I got the Restoration Design panels and they were welded in.

▪Rear Trunk Floor - Tough one.  Restoration Design does NOT have a trunk panel with the bump for the 5mph bumper shocks.  Decided to back-date the bumpers to chrome 1974 style and remove the shock from the bumper.  That allows the older pre-75' patch panel to be used.  Had to modify the heat shield height to make it work.  Had to cut holes in the underside shock mounts to gain access for the lower bumper bolt location.

▪Rear Trunk Hinges - Replaced both sides.  Measure the distances, height, etc. first before removing the old.

▪Bumper Deletes - Removed the 4 brackets from the larger BUBS bumpers. drilled for new pre-75' bumpers and reinforced the front bumper area with Tangerine Racing replicas.  Rear center pad fork support welded in from 1974 donor car.  Minor body-shop filler work on sides that had the brackets, but not much more than spot-weld cleanup work.

▪Front Bumper Back Date - Some fill of the spot-welds from removing the metal between the headlights.

▪Front Bumper Reinforcements - Weld-in the supports provided by Tangerine Racing

▪Front Trunk Weather Sealing Channels - Need U Channels to be repaired here and there.  Probably several different approaches to this. Repaired with metal.

▪Front Driver's Side Headlight Bucket - Rust holes - To be replaced with the donor piece from the 1974 car.  Cut out old bucket center and match the donor piece to the cutout.  Slow and careful but-welds were not done, used a bit of overlap and structural epoxy adhesive.  Will never be seen, but it is now solid.

▪Doors - 1974 doors were solid and the 1975 doors had rusted door-seal channels front and bottom.  Very minor pinhole repairs in the bottom of the doors.  

▪Driver's door - The 1974 door has two holes drilled to fit a non-standard mirror.  Those were welded over and the original 914 side-view mirror holes restored with new nuts welded-in.

 

Paint:

▪Body Shop - Prep, seal, fill and prime.  Just about zero Bondo on small dings and scratches.

▪Doors - Take them down for repaint

▪Door Insides - Seal bottoms, coat with POR-15 and add MLV deadening.

▪Color - Guards Red

▪Gas Tank, front cowl, rear valance - Sand, hammer-out dents, resprayed gloss black 2K

▪Rocker Panels - Got the plastic 914 panels at a swap-meet.  Way too many pinholes in the bottom edge of the metal ones.

 

Trim:

▪Bumpers - Stainless back-dated

▪Trim - Most of my trim was OK.  Replaced one lower sail-panel trim piece and the targa top stainless sides and back piece.

▪Rubber - All new everywhere.  The 914 Rubber front trunk gas tank firewall part is too thick it bowed the hood and I sourced an original Porsche part from Pelican Parts.  Then used "too thick" gas tank firewall trim for the under-body steering rack / gas tank line access panel seals since it is the same design.

▪Side-View Mirrors - I have a few of these, will use what I can and sell the remainder on eBay.

 

Brakes

▪Rear - PMB rebuilds of my originals.  Venting properly set.

▪Front - BMW 320i brakes with the mounting plate machined-down 1/8" to fit.  About 40% more pad, but maybe 10% more stopping power.

▪Master Cylinder - Prior owner had swapped-in a 19mm already.

 

Wheels and   Tires:

▪Wheels - 4-Bolt Mahle Gas Burners.  Refinished with silver powder coat

▪Lug Nuts - Chrome

▪Tires - For speedometer accuracy you would want something like 195/65R15 (all season options galore).  But for performance I went with 205/55/R15 using Yokohama Fleva tires (a 300 TW tire).  The Vredstein Sprint + tires were another choice at 195/60R15, but they were almost $250.00 more for a set of 4 and the speedometer error was only a bit better than what I get from the 205/55R15 Yokohama Fleva tires.  Sidewall height difference is nominal on that comparison.  Some inner fender rub if turned lock-to-lock, but might add a 10mm spacer to the front to remove that with almost no handling change.

 

Suspension:

▪All Bolts - All new Grade 10.9 yellow zinc for suspension.  New yellow zinc for the dust shields and sway bar mounts.

▪Sway Bars - New pivot and link bushings. NOTE:  Replacing and lubing the front sway-bar bushings removed a ton of cowl shake from a tough to move sway bar.

▪Front Wheel Bearings - I did the passenger side when I got the 75' car and then did the driver's side when I rebuilt the suspension in 2026

▪Rear Trailing arms and mounts - Powder-coated and new bearings and pivot axle and 914 Rubber bushings and nuts.  Built an H-Beam press out of 4x4 posts and 1/2" threaded rods.

▪Front A-Arms, brackets, caps - Powder-coated and new 914 Rubber bushings, new Koni Yellow adjustable struts, new Ball Joints.  I used 1/2" drive sockets and tape as centering spacers and then lots of dish soap and they went on without much angst.

▪Turbo Tie-Rods - I had a new set to install with new Ball Joints too.  This was not hard with the entire suspension out of the car and I had the Park wrench from my bicycle mechanic's toolbox.

 

Electrical:

▪Fuel Injection Harness - Fuel injection harness was patched-up with new sheathing where possible and new boots.  All wires were tested for resistance and continuity (BEEP).  The only wire replaced was due to shorter than desired ends from prior patches.

▪Horns - I have two horns.  The 1975 is a different style than the 1974.  The wiring needed to be in place before the bumper.  It took two panel rivets (M10) for the mounting bolts.

▪Wiring Harness - The stock harness was looking OK and I didn't see hacked splices.  Removed and then 100% cleaned, inspected and re-wrapped.  That took about 2-days to complete.  The engine bay and related engine bay to trunk wiring was also re-sheathed with new black vinyl housings.  Some of the ground wires were poor and those wires were replaced with soldered splices or new wires.  The Ground location end loops were enhanced with new ends.

▪Engine Ground -  The stock woven / braided strap was retained, but enhanced with anti-corrosive gel and an additional wire running from the transmission ground location to the engine to transmission starter bolt for a very conductive ground using the original battery to starter wire.

▪Starter Relay - New-School relay was added at the starter to take the load off of the ignition switch wiring.

▪Red Wires From Battery - The gang of battery to dash wires were all replaced with modern wire and one additional wire to feed the fuse block a solid current.  Might help the Blaupunkt amp, but overall use of all LED bulbs greatly reduces harness wire stress.

▪Gauge Lighting - With the 1974 car, I had replaced all bulbs and it made a massive difference to just replace them.  The fuel gauge lighting in these things is bad design and it is the one dark spot that annoys people the most.  Replaced ALL bulbs in the car with LED except for the alternator warning (it must draw enough to let the FI work).  Drilled and added another light-port to the fuel gauge for one extra bulb in there. Brighter in most ways and not complaining when I do night drives.

 

Gauges:

▪Oil Temp - I had the original factory oil temp gauge combo, but the oil temp was not working.  Sourced a new sender from Automobile Atlanta and still no go.  Tried a gauge from ebay and it was DOA and returned.  But then it hit me, those center console small gauges use the same internals and those are dirt-cheap.  Swapped the gauge and positioned the needle forward (hotter than parked) to more accurately see trouble coming and those gauges are known to be off from Gene Berg's original article about VDO gauges. That worked.  

▪Next was the missing blue light for the high beam and that was melted packing tape that holds that lens in place (razor blade and alcohol to clean that up and new 3M packing tape to replace the lens).  

▪Finally, the tachometer needle bounce common in 356, 911 and 914s was addressed with a 24v capacitor between the + and - terminals of that gauge. is now Shmoooooooothe.

▪Ashtray replaced with gauges - Got a NLA VDO rubber gauge mount on eBay and modded it to replace the ashtray:

•Volt Meter - Wired to the fuel pump wire at the fuel pump?  Why?  First, while you can hear the fuel pump whirl on ignition turn, a dead pump can be dead or lacking power and the volt meter tells me if it is getting 14V or not and immediately.   I cleaned and rewound the harness anyway and while I was doing that, it was the right time to modify it for this wiring (in the harness)

•Oil Pressure - The added Porsche 928 brake line to a double ended gauge receiver let me run the oil pressure gauge from a sender (Idiot light and pressure sender combos are noted to be flawed).  This wire was added to the harness during the cleaning and re-wrap phase.

 

Engine:

▪Cylinder Heads - Original 914 2.0 with Sodium Valves.  Had a local cylinder head shop go over both and they TIG welded two stripped exhaust studs and cleaned up everything.  Pushrod tube bores were polished with wet-dry 600, 800 and 1000 paper and also did the same for the engine-side so that those new Viton seals don't get scratched into leaking.

▪ Intake Runners - Cleaned and repainted

▪Seals - All new seals installed with Hylomar or Curil

▪Oil Pump - Checked and it was 100% clearanced and dead-on form the rebuild.  Of course, a new gasket there.

▪Oil Galley Plugs - All capped with NPT plugs (blue ones).  Where possible, the bores were deburred and the oil pump to oil filter area was indeed over-cast and rough, but it is now smoothe and open.  Not that start up oil pressure is about 60PSI and it once warmed, it gets near 10psi at idle and moves up with RPM's, just like it should.

▪Starter / Alternator - High torque and uses a relay.  Also covered it all with reflective wrap. All new cables and new Alternator harness too.

▪Flywheel - End play set, new flywheel, new clutch, new pilot bearing, new seals, etc.

▪Fan - Disassembled, painted black areas for belt and marked the TDC and timing marks with paint.

▪Push Rod Tubes - All new with Viton seals and installed with white Teflon plumbers putty.  Zero leaks.

▪Valve train - Porsche 911 Swivel feet (genuine).  Used 1.7 rockers that were clearanced about 1/4" to allow the swivel feet to move.  Adjusted geometry with spacer shims and an adjustable pushrod to find the medium stroke sweet spot and then had 8 stainless pushrods cut and recapped.  Set to zero lash for zero maintenance.

▪Pistons and Cylinders - Torque-Plate bored at RIMCO to 2056 specs with KB flat-top pistons.  Rod play was perfect on inspection.

▪Distributor - I had taken apart the 1974 distributor 100% and it is in a can with drawings.  I have several of these as spares and the engine has a decent one on it, but still, the original was in great shape.  Got one in good condition at the old Hershey Swap Meet (probably April of 2014).  Found a distributor rebuild kit on line and needed to file-down the diameter of the fiber bushings, but it was dead-on correct play and it runs fine with a PerTronix II module.

▪Oil Pressure Sender and Gauge - Used a brake hose from a Porsche 928.  The stock setup is for just an idiot light switch.  The notes out on the Web say DO NOT use the duel Warning + Pressure sender because the warning light in those is at 8psi or less and at idle you can get very low pressures that trigger it too often.  The hose let me put in a splitter for two senders (old one and then an oil pressure sender).  The oil pressure gauge is a more modern VDO "Vision" series with the matching voltage gauge.  

 

Little Projects:

▪Reassembly - Assume that the bulk of reassembly is a given.  The parts should be freshened.

▪N-B-S-W - Nuts, bolts screws and washers to be updated where possible.  I have a huge set new of yellow zinc replacements to use here and there. I don't plan to plate every single part, but I will repaint things to preserve them.

▪Seals - All new rubber for hoods, doors, etc.

▪Passenger Door - Drill-out holes for side-view mirror.  The nuts are welded in at the factory, but are hidden and the door skin just needs to be drilled for this.

▪Front Air-Intake Box - Replaced fresh-air box flap seals and use a gasket to seal the blower to air-box interface

▪Rekey to match to one key - The 75' had matching locks.  Lucky me!  The front trunk pull-handle lock is a PIA to get out, but that was done to install a new cable.  The 1975 ignition key is harder to get to and harder to work on (a TOTAL PIA) and that key cover is not the same as pre-75 cars.  Found one on eBay.

▪Wiper Mechanical's Lubed - The motor is fine, but the linkage needed to be painted and lubed.  Drilled and tapped for grease fittings to make it easy to lube these up in the future.

▪Trunk Pivots - Replaced both hinge supports and then did a drill and tap on front and rear picots with embedded grease fittings.

▪Fuel Lines - Replaced with stainless.  I have the setup available for the 1974 with two sized lines, but for the 75' I used the two port pump from the 74' and ran the same size 10mm stainless to simplify this.

▪Bumpers - NEW stainless front and rear.  Bumper tops were workable.

▪Shifter - New shift lever pivot bushing, lubed the pivots and plate in reverse lockout.  The firewall Shift rod coupling has brass bushings.  The transmission end bushing is now Bronze with a retaining clip to prevent sloppy movement.  All rods repainted.  The other bushings are new.

▪Transmission - The seal for the shift fork needs to be replaced. Also did the shaft seals too.  But that transmission had about 225,000 miles on it and the shift fork for reverse and 1st gear was toast.  Removed the engine in the winter of 2026 to correct a small oil leak and to repaint the intake runners and decided to use the transmission from the 1975 car.  It had a new tail-end gasket showing and then I just replaced the output shaft seals as a precaution.  New flywheel while I was at it.  The surprise was twofold: First, the transmission shifted without the clunks.  Second, the replacement transmission had a flipped HB gear and I now had a 5th gear overdrive for highway cruising (2850 RPM at 70 GPS-verified MPH and 2000 RPM at 60MPH).

▪Driving Lights - I have rusted out buckets with good lenses and reflectors from an old eBay buy and then another rehabbed decent ones that need to have matching lenses and a good reflector swapped in from the rusted set.  It takes at least TWO of these cars to make one.  I also need the round seal for each.  I have a switch for this somewhere (maybe).  Best to get the wiring done before the bumper goes in.  The 1975 has the wire plugs all set from the factory in the font trunk and the extension wiring needs to be in place before the bumper goes on.  Need to use a panel rivet for the mounting bolt.  The BA base bulbs are mostly under 20mm.  Hard to find a decent BA20s LED for that because the "S" stands for "single pole."  I used one dead BA20s bulb and one good BA bulb and crushed the glass and removed the guts and soldered wires to then solder and epoxy-in the correct LED.  See this post for the idea: http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=305629

▪Gas Tank - New seals for cap and fuel level meter and a new sock filter.  Tank was painted with 2K at the body shop.

▪Rear Window - I have a "rare" defrost rear window.  Traced-out the wires for that from the center tunnel harness and then installed the switch from the 74'.

▪Roof - Roof will also get more than just the inner material because even a single foil layer will reduce heat gain.

▪Sound System - I want to retrofit something that plays MP3 files and maybe Bluetooth too.  Decided to get a period correct (1977) Blaupunkt AM/FM cassette but wired it into the high-gain inputs of a Blaupunkt digital amp.  Speaker size in these cars is extremely limited.  The URO knock-off grills in the foot wells do allow for larger speakers, but I kept my original grills but used small plate speakers (not much sound from them) and augmented them with door speakers because the panels were already cut for speakers in the doors ((I know - SACRILEGE to purists!... I got it that way, I swear I didn't do it!).  The radio is useless, but the MP3 is fantastic and with the windows up the sound seems to mystically float all around me.  Speakers?  All Infinity Kappa.

▪Interior Sound Deadening - Used a layered approach with one layer on the floors and inside the doors and then two layers of foil faced mass-loaded stuff and foam on the back-pad area.  

▪Interior - New carpet (German cut), New covers with tartan centers and refinished back-pad backing and the vinyl.

▪Fire Extinguisher - Got a 2lb and charged HALON extinguisher and quick release mount from Facebook Marketplace.  Fabricated a 1/8" thick aluminum plate (12" X 12") to make my own under-seat mount.  A bit hard to bend 5000 series Aluminum (3/16" would have been easier, but could not source it).  Total investment was under $200.00 in that project.

▪Now, small stuff to do, not much more to do, but I am a tweaking person, it seems to never-end.