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Old 2003-11-27, 12:35 AM   #1
sperry
The Doink
 
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Real Name: Scott
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Portland, OR
Posts: 20,335
 
Car: '09 OBXT, '02 WRX, '96 Miata
Class: PDX/TT-6
 
The way out is through
Default Porsche 914... to buy or not to buy?

Well folks, I saw the Porsche today. There's good news and bad news:

The good:
- Exterior looks AWESOME. Can't hardly believe it's 30 years old. Car's been painted (but it was originally white)... hopefully not to cover up body damage... but the lines are real straight! Turn signal lenses are cracked, no biggie. Both headlight motors work, both headlights work. Fogs are busted.

- The interior is in pretty good condition, the carpet's dirty but not destroyed, the seats have some tears, but they're not ruined. Tach, speedo, and fuel gauges work. It's got the cool center console which adds a clock, temp gauge, and voltmeter, and they all work.

- Motor runs real nice. Starts right up, revs smoothly all the way to the red-line.

- Tranny seems good. Clutch is at most 5 years old. There's a little grindage into 1st if you don't give it some time to spin down after pushing the clutch in, but if you shift it smoothly it doesn't complain.

- No major oil leaks... at least I couldn't see any fresh oil on the motor (I haven't scrutinized the pics I took yet, so perhaps the jury's still out on the oil)

- Tires... gotta be less than 1000 miles on 'em!

- The car is just plain cool. It really feels different than other cars I've driven... it's uber low to the ground, has push down pedals, a forign shift pattern, I dig it.

The bad:
- Rust. It doesn't really look too bad, but I'm not sure I'm qualified to make an educated call. Is this surface rust, or is the structural integrity compromised? There's rust on the battery pan, and under it in the engine compartment. There's also a spot of rust in the rear trunk where it looks like some water collected. the exhaust is rusted up (not that I care, since it's going to be pulled and straight piped eventually).

- The tranny cables are hanging down. Nothing a zip-tie won't fix for the time being, but perhaps it's an indication of the car's mantence history?

- Brakes. They need to be bled worse than any brakes evAr... I swear they're filled with 50% air. For a car as light as a 914, this thing took forever to slow down from the top of 2nd gear.

- Suspension. Totally shot. I don't think there's a saftey issue, but if I'm gonna race this thing, it needs new suspension bits. I might be willing to say it's on original or it's second set of struts. The body roll is REDICULOUS. I think I'd try to go with a decent coil-over setup on this thing, which knocks me out of CS. It also needs swaybars.... BAD.

So here's a summary: The motor, tranny, interior and exterior seem cool. The brakes, suspension, and rust could be the big issues.

Please, thumb through this gallery and tell me what you guys think: http://www.seccs.org/gallery/index.p.../Porsche%20914

Specifically, I need help on the rust issue. How much is too much? I don't know how to judge it. Here's the best picture of the notorious battery area:

[img:c795eb4d2e=600]http://www.seccs.org/gallery/Car%20Pictures/Porsche%20914/DSCF0129.JPG[/img:c795eb4d2e]
(click image for full size)

And another view between the motor and the battery:
[img:c795eb4d2e=600]http://www.seccs.org/gallery/Car%20Pictures/Porsche%20914/DSCF0127.JPG[/img:c795eb4d2e]
(click image for full size)

Here's the rust in the left rear corner of the rear trunk:
[img:c795eb4d2e=600]http://www.seccs.org/gallery/Car%20Pictures/Porsche%20914/DSCF0126.JPG[/img:c795eb4d2e]
(click image for full size)

Check out the passenger foot well:
[img:c795eb4d2e=600]http://www.seccs.org/gallery/Car%20Pictures/Porsche%20914/DSCF0120.JPG[/img:c795eb4d2e]
(click image for full size)

Now, some pictures of good stuff:

[img:c795eb4d2e=600]http://www.seccs.org/gallery/Car%20Pictures/Porsche%20914/DSCF0121.JPG[/img:c795eb4d2e]
(click image for full size)

[img:c795eb4d2e=600]http://www.seccs.org/gallery/Car%20Pictures/Porsche%20914/DSCF0117.JPG[/img:c795eb4d2e]
(click image for full size)

[img:c795eb4d2e=600]http://www.seccs.org/gallery/Car%20Pictures/Porsche%20914/DSCF0119.JPG[/img:c795eb4d2e]
(click image for full size)

What do you guys think? How much is this going to cost me to get up and running in NCS? Or should I just pass... too much rust to deal with. Maybe lowball an offer. I told the owner I'd get back to him on Friday.

Oh, since the car's in Roseville, any of you Sac guys (*cough* Sybir *cough*) wanna meet me out there on Saturday to look at the car?
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