Okay, so I had my 914. The first order of business was to address that disappointing oil leak. But before dropping the engine like we did last time, I decided to do some research first. Now there's a revelation! So, I signed up with the online forum 914World, which turned out to be a great resource. After posting a thread about the leak, a few people started mentioning the thermostat pulley. Sometimes they get removed if they don't work anymore, but if you don't plug the hole in the engine block, oil can leak out. I jacked up the car and took a look, and sure enough, there was a threaded hole where the pulley used to be. A quick search in the shop for a correct bolt saw the hole plugged up. I couldn't get the car off the jack stands fast enough to give it a test drive to see if this really was the problem. Worried driving, check for oil, optimistic driving, check for oil, thrilled driving, no oil leak! I almost didn't want to tell my brother how easy it was to fix...but of course, I did!
Now that the car was running and driving, I really wanted to address some of the cosmetic issues, because it was ugly! The paint was an orangey-red, faded from years in the New Mexico sun. There were also some areas with actual orange paint, so that had to be wet-sanded off. Then I started buffing off the dead paint to see what it would look like underneath. I went pretty aggressive with this, using a variable speed sander/polisher with heavy cut Meguire's Machine Glaze. It came out surprisingly good, in a comforting patina kind of way.
The hood was hopeless though, so after some body work and sanding, I applied 3M vinyl wrap in matte black to the pop-up headlights and hood. After more buffing on the rest of the body, it was starting to look pretty good.
One of the cosmetic issues that was really driving me crazy was the chipped and faded white Porsche script running along both sides of the car. Despite my best effort with a heat gun, razor blade, eraser wheel, and mean looks, I just couldn't remove it without destroying the old paint underneath. So I finally decided on a desperate but ultimately effective method, using a swath of matching (sort of) gloss red vinyl to cover the old script. This was followed up by new black Porsche script. It's a pretty good solution and no one has noticed until I point it out.
In a fit of misguided inspiration I also painted the wheels (lovely and light factory Mahles) black. I sort of miss the silver wheels, but it gave the car a bit of outlaw menace that I think suits the project so far.
The 914 has always been missing the trim piece below the front bumper, so I finally bought a front air dam. With the addition of a generic rubber spoiler lip, the front of the car is looking much more complete, and visually sits a bit lower now.
