914 Conversions dot com

When having an interest in classic cars, it is a frequent experience to see color changes that were not finalized. To me, there is nothing worse than opening a trunk or to an engine compartment only to be met with the previous and often tired color of the vehicle.

Since I had already decided I did not want to take Silver completely apart some tinkering would be necessary not to fall into the category of poorly executed color changes.

The Porsche 914 is a relatively easy car to access both for the trunks and the interior. There is not much trim or padding anywhere and we decided to take out all but the dash board from the interior.

Here, the door jamb and firewall has undergone the transformation to the new color.

The rear trunk. Of course, we do take the car apart as much as needed. In this pictures you can see the tail light assemblies has been removed as well as all wiring.

It would be VERY hard to tell that this 914 has not been completely taken apart for the respray. Note the gas shocks for the lid that has replaced the original spring-loaded lifters. Such a nice upgrade – has the sound of a modern car as opposed to the original clunky sound.

I am very pleased with the quality of the paint job. You are looking at the underside of the rear trunk lid, reflecting the bottom of the trunk. Richard Fischer has done an awesome job – huge thanks!

The front end, just back from the painter. We took out the gas tank to allow access to the area behind and under all the ventilation housings. The gas tank is very easy to lift out, which is in stark contrast to all the vent houses. Anyone who has tried this will tell you “don’t do it!” and we didn’t.

Here you can see the area where the gas tank normally sits. Again, a really great job by the painter.

The area just below in the wind screen is where all the vent housing is and this is a typical area left undone. But not here – it would be very hard to tell this area has not been taken apart. We decided not to paint over the glued area as it will be carpeted again once the car goes together.

Had the trunk continued to look like this it would have been an unfortunate contrast to the car’s exterior. I am happy we went the extra miles and did this right!

The targa top was actually untouched and in an okay shape. To complete the look of the car, the top was sanded down and smoothed , and finally coated in the same body color as the car.

Those were the finishing touches of my painter. The car now needs to go back together, have the engine installed and possibly see some upgrades in the interior department.

I am thinking original seats, leather covered as well as leather covered back pad. A tan or even biscuit color is tempting but I sense I will be happier with a black interior. We’ll see. Until next time, thanks for reading!

The time leading up to the holidays provided a chance to run my completed 2.0L 4-cyl engine. Originally, this engine came about as the future power plant for my 1971 4-cyl car which remains un-restored to date.
The engine had been sitting for a while and per advice of several of my 914 mentors it was [...]

When I purchased Silver, some rather large Brembo calipers used on the Porsche 911 993-model were installed in the front. They can be seen through the wheel in the below image:

This is surely a great brake setup. The caliper mounts to the 914-6 strut with the aid of an aluminum adapter. The rotor also needs [...]

I am not looking to create a show car – I want to create a 914-6 which is sorted and easy to use, with very respectable performance and with no higher maintenance needs than, say, a 911 Carrera 3.2L from the eighties.
As such, we will not go into underside painting but rather invest in a [...]

Well – I took the plunge. Silver is coming apart for a respray. it started with a desire to redo the engine compartment, not least to fix the firewall which had been cut by the PO. As part of that work, the engine came out for some detalling work and some upgrades.

Some piece of machinery! [...]

If you’ve ever fancied the looks of early 911 wheels you are probably aware they are called Fuchs wheels. Fuchs is a German metalware company that stems back as early as 1910. Fuchs has been supplying parts to several car companies, including Porsche. Visit Fuchs here
Now, all 914 4-cylinder cars use a bolt pattern for [...]

Prior to purchasing the car, it was determined that after the conversion was completed by the PO an alternater failure had occured. Instead of dropping the engine to replace it the firewall was cut from the inside after removing the backbad, allowing the change. It was not something I cared for but you take the [...]

Sometimes things just work out. It certainly did just after I had bought the 914-6 which should become known as “Silver” to us. After the deal was completed in California, I had the car transported with a car moving company to Texas. That all went completely well and after the car arrived it could be [...]

Meet Ole Yeller, a trusted companion of my friend, 914′eener Rich Johnson since (I believe) 1976. Rich bought the car as a very young man in Little Rock, AR with only 35.000 miles on it from the original owner.
Like most, Yeller has gone through phases in her life. For instance, from ‘83 to ‘89 the [...]

Naturally, I could not leave my new car “as is”. My need to have influence was almost immediately guided towards changing the muffler to a Dansk 911 exhaust. What you see below is a so-called Triad exhaust which I did not much care for. I am sure it’s a fine muffler, but aesthetically it’s not [...]