Daily Drive Project

It's a Creamsicle

Found it in Boone area of NC in spring 2010. Previous owner bought it as a teenager nearly 20 yrs ago but parked it because it was too small for him and all his buddies.
Somewhere in its past, it was painted all white (bumpers, bumper tops, rockers, wheels, trim, etc) and a "turbo" sticker placed on the engine lid OH... and the rear wing is a custom piece made from a Trans Am wing

All I had to go by was the VIN but it was in the range of the LE cars. So... a friend and I borrowed a trailer and tow vehicle and took a 4 hr drive. When I saw the Phoenix Orange poking thru the chipped white paint on the wheels and bumpers, all reason left me and negotiations began
A deal was made, the 914 was maneuvered onto the trailer, and we headed home (which was an adventure in its own right)

Took me a year to get it road worthy - replaced mismatched FI components with correct items for a 2.0 D-jet, unstuck one of the brake calipers, and cleaned it up a bit. The original tan interior had been dyed black (DAPO) so I spent quite a bit of time tracking down decent tan pieces to replace the dyed stuff. What I ended up with isn't perfect but is good for a daily driver.

Drove the original 2.0 for 1000 miles before it spun a rod bearing
A few months later, I found a short block and eventually got it installed and running. Still runs great nearly 2 years later though it does leak oil quite a bit
A Raby 2056 is on the way - should have it sometime this summer

Last fall I refurbished/upgraded the front suspension by blasting and painting or powder coating all the parts. Installed 21mm torsion bars and turbo tie rods along with new front disks, a rebuilt pedal cluster, and 140# rear springs. At the same time, cleaned up the engine tin (powder coated) and had some minor welding done around the pedal area and in the engine bay.

It is an ongoing project but I drive it every day

[Steve]

That is an awesome story. Being from North Carolina myself, I'm disappointed that I didn't find that car!
It's a shame that everything got painted white. I have some extra Targa tops if you want one in good, original condition. I'll give one to you if you want to pick it up.

Looking at your picture, it appears that your antenna is on the passenger's side (retracted at the moment). Am I seeing that correctly? Did a PO actually go to the effort to move the antenna to the other side of the car? I've never heard of anyone doing that before.

Anyway, nice find! Gotta love a daily driver LE... and what's the story with the red teener hiding in the background?

Uh... guess I should check this thread more often

The red 914 in the background is a ROW (rest of world) car that, unfortunately, is in extremely poor condition - rust, incorrect fasteners, mismatched parts, rust, poor body repair, rust, hail damage, and did I mention rust? I did manage to salvage quite a few bits and pieces - most notably a KM/H speedo, euro driving lights in place of the fogs, a very nice steering wheel, and a set of stainless heat exchangers.
It also has the GB case 2.0 so should have the higher compression pistons. Can't really count on it, though, since one of the heads has been replaced with a '75-76 version with the air tubes

LE Update: last fall had bodywork and paint done. Unfortunately, it was not very well done. Found out there was a LOT of bondo on the car. So, basically, the body was smoothed out and proper single-stage urethane Light Ivory was applied. After less than half a year, issues are already popping up. The whole job was more cosmetic without much attention to detail. It does look better than it did before, but I will pretty much have to do it all over again (and then some) in the future.

Over the summer I will be slowly getting it into much better shape. Currently working on the orange panels and should have those installed in the next couple weeks. Will paint the interior with a rustproofing white paint and install carpet - scored an original set of the tan carpet that came out of a friend's 914 when he swapped out for black.

Raby engine is still on hold. I need to get a few parts to Jake before he can finish up.

I was going to post some current pics but don't have any