Hey everybody! I'm kind of a newbie here to this forum & I was hoping to get some opinions from you. I have owned mostly watercooled VW's but I have owned a 68 Beetle & a 74 914 2.0L. Out of all the VW's I've owned, I miss the Beetle & the 914 the most, especially the 914. So, I'm finally fed up with the watercooled scene, too many opinionated dumbass kids who refuse to admit where their VW roots are. In the past 2 years, my wife has begun to notice that we spend more time checking out the aircooled cars at the VW shows & not much time looking at the watercooled. I suppose one eventually grows up & starts a different childhood.
After an informative visit to Airspeed last week (many thanks to both Jim & Geoff!) I came away with the decision that I am going to start sourcing engine parts in the next 2 months & I hopefully will get somewhat of a start to building my engine. The basic plan is to start building the engine (hopefully with some good suggestions from the people here) & at the same time keep an eye out for a half decent car or shell, preferably a late type 1, early would be nice, but what ever comes up within budget.
Now comes the complication: last Saturday while passing through downtown Vancouver I came across a place that had a few older Porsche 911 bodies & a couple half decent 914's too. The one 914 that caught my eye was a faded yellow one, had no engine, but had the Porsche 5 bolt conversion done, front end I find out from the owner was converted to 911 style, complete with 911 brakes front & rear. Now, having owned a 914 before, I'm fairly well versed in what to look for in terms of body damage, rust etc. The battery tray area was fairly clean just little bits of surface rust, the targa top lined up perfectly. Here's the problem: the rear fenders are aftermarket fiberglass flared units (they look good) but I don't think that I'm going to be able to really see what's going in terms of rust underneath. The passenger's door seems to be nestled in with the door jam, a tell tale \"uh oh\" sign. Normally when I see 914's they're pretty much on their way to being \"terminal\". This car seems to be in much better shape than most. The thing is I keep hearing the voice of a bodyman I knew from years ago when I had my 914 \"once the cancer sets in, it's very difficult & very expensive to treat it.\" My friend who was with me has even offered to store the car at his place for a while (underground parking) I wasn't really planning on purchasing a car initially, (much less a 914), just start with an engine build & go from there. As you guys have probably figured out, my old 914 was the favorite out of all the cars I've owned. Maybe I'm being blinded by too much nostalgia, I dunno. My wife (voice of practicality..damn her
) thinks I should stay the course & go with a Beetle, probably much cheaper in the long run.
Sorry for the long post...any ideas? Opinions?
Thanks, Leo
