This 1970 Porsche 914 is listed at no reserve and is said to be a long-time Washington State resident. The underbody still sports factory undercoating and the seller claims rust is limited to just a few spots, including the troublesome battery box. The interior will need some work but the faded paint is mildly pleasing in a preserved beater kind of way; the no reserve auction makes this honest-appearing 914 even more appealing. Find it here on eBay with bidding currently just over $1K.
Supposedly rescued from what is described as a “barn lean-to”, the 914 has been off the road since 1992. The old-school Washington plates are a testament to this, and the sun-beaten paint lend credence to being stored outside of the barn. Overall, there’s not too much to fault the car on around the exterior aside from a sagging muffler, some warped trim and the aforementioned dead paint. The colors are great, and matches what is seen in the door jambs.
The seats are essentially toast and the dash is past the point of saving; to the seller’s point, however, the floors are quite solid and that’s really what you’re paying for here. The seller says he was “…bombarded with questions” about the integrity of the floors, so he removed the carpets to show how solid the 914 is underneath. Rust is noted on the passenger-side door jamb, bottom edge of the passenger rocker, and one quarter-sized hole in the battery tray.
Factory undercoating is said to still be applied, and the 914 wears one repaint from the 1970s/80s. The seller notes that the 1.7L mill has oil in the crankcase but he hasn’t attempted to start it. Encouragingly, he discovered “…. thousands of $$$$ in old service receipts, mostly engine and drivetrain work.” Perhaps this 914 was lovingly maintained and serviced before its long hiatus besides the barn. The solid condition and documented service history makes this an intriguing buy at no reserve.
While I never cared for these, style wise, underneath , I’m sure it’s all Porsche, I take a hankerin’ to the mid-80’s(?) K-Whopper “K100” with stretched frame in the background. For the time, nicest cabover made.
Hi Howard,
Here in Europe they were badged and sold as VW Porsche.
Most were fitted with a 1,7-liter-fourcilinder-boxerengine (VW Typ 4), 80 HP (59 kW), the 914/4.
The 914/6 however had the 110 HP (81 kW) 2,0-liter-sixcilinder-boxerengine from the Porsche 911, shy over 3,350 were made. (Wikipedia)
The 914/4 was made by Karmann and the 916/6 was made in the Porsche factory near Stuttgart Germany.
Seller needs to reupholster the seats with duck tape. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to restore one of these. I’m with Howard–I never liked them. Uglier than the orange haired guy and a dime a dozen. When these came out and some guy said he a Porsche I thought that would be cool. I would then see it was a 914 and think to myself–“very uncool. That ain’t a Porsche!”
Not all Porsche but actually a Volkswagen. Not that that’s bad exactly, but were not-so-exciting in their day – unless you happened to have one that came equipped with a Porsche spec’d 2.0 six. Now that’s a differernt story…
My oldest son will be 44 years old in September. When he was born I was working at a VW dealership and it took me way too long to realize that I wasn’t meant to sell cars, although I did like driving new cars all the time. When he was about a month old, we planned a Sunday visit to my parents, not a long drive so I talked my manager into letting me take a year old 914 for the weekend, same color as this one. We had a nice visit, the kid passed inspection with my parents and other relatives who were there. On the way home, my wife wanted an ice cream cone at the drive-in about a block from us. Baby was of course riding in her lap, no such thing as car seats back then. The car hop (is that what they were called?) brought her cone and and my wife immediately dropped the top scoop in his face, and the look on his face was kind of priceless. We both laughed and cleaned him up, went home and she cried. We used to tell the story when my son got older. He never thought it was that funny.
Is that the best thing about this car that it has factory undercoating?
I think so, Hermano…
They were nice cars to drive with the six. Given the choice of owning a 914 vs a Karmann Ghia, the latter would win, every time.
I had the loan of my friend’s 2 litre 914 when I was home, visiting L.A. back in 1990. I took it up Coldwater Canyon, across Mulholland Drive (where I used to test cars. Read: street race!) and back down Laurel Canyon…
…Let’s just say that the experience was disappointing.
From what I understand, they sold this car in Europe under the VW name. Why they branded it, or tried to, as a Porsche for the US I don’t know.
For me the only cool thing it has is the flip up headlights.
Some good faded paint patina on the trunk, but the rest not so great.
They are cool little cars. Long looked down up they have been up and coming for a few years riding the 911’s coat tails as the later reached sky high prices. I’m a 944 fan myself so I know the red headed stepchild feeling. This one will make someone happy I’m sure.
I don’t recall ever hearing of factory undercoating. Probably dealer installed.
My 74 had undercoating, but it did not protect the longitudinals very well. The floor was OK. The car was from Pennsylvania. I’m still working on it.
Factory PVC coating is not to be confused with undercoating. The factory PVC like that applied to many VWs of the era managed to hide the rust creeping under it. Often you found out that what was behind it was thin as paper or gone altogether.