1974 Carrera Restoration - Family owned since 75

Curt, I'd love to read your white paper. I've been racing and restoring Porsche 914-6, 930's and other cars since the late 70's and I had these cars sort of figured as SC's with sticker kits. I've been surprised to see how many things were put on these cars as early as they were. As I stated previously, I've seen a lot of long hood cars get turned into short hood race cars, 930's stolen and recovered and then turned into narrow body race cars and Carrera's recovered to be quickly made into race cars. There are supposed to be 500+ coupes made but between wrecks, rust and racing, I would bet there are less than 250 of them left.

As to the duck tail, it was a long road. I purchased a really badly smashed 74 US duck from Parts Heaven (Hayward, CA) to try to revive it, then I found an aluminum deck ducktail in England that came from a 73 RS and had it shipped here, then I found a cherry 74 US duck through a contact here in CA. I sold the smashed one and the RS ducks to free up cash for the greater project. I also bought a reproduction duck from a guy in England and had it shipped here because it looks exactly like a real one inside and out. I was considering painting it with the real one and running it on the car (hedge for bad bay area drivers) but I decided against that. I'm planning to sell it. If you are interested in that one, message me and I'll send pics.

The sheel seats have been sold to a BMW guy here in CA.

I assure you.

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Originally Posted by oemexp

There are supposed to be 500+ sunroof delete coupes made but between wrecks, rust and racing, I would bet there are less than 250 of them left.

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There were 528 coupes built. Most of the coupes I've seen have sunroofs, so I am assuming that non-sunroof coupes are only a small % of the 528???

Good point about the sunroof delete rarity! I sent Bruce Andersen pictures of the car car when I purchased it and that was the first thing he said also. He pointed out that dealer orders for coupes got the sunroof automatically and the delete option was rare and mainly to make competition cars. The 7's and 8's option was also not well known and the dealer had to have pull to get that also.

Here are pictures of the suspension and brake rebuild. I didn't really take many pictures of the rear but it was done at the same time the fronts were.

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I used Bilstein sport inserts to preserve the straight sided front boge strut look but with superior valving. I used yelow bilstein sport rear shocks also. I feel that koni valving is under dampened in the rear particularly and the boge's are in the middle.

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I didn't powder coat the suspension parts since the original paint was still very good. However, I replaced the ball joints, used braided brake hoses, dropped the rack to replace the master cylinder and brake balance switch, installed rack spacers so I could lower the car to Euro ride height, installed turbo tie rods, replaced the sway bar bushings etc.

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New tie rods, ball joints etc.

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I rebuilt the 4 brake calipers with new seals, stainless steel pistons and pads

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All back together with turned rotors, new front/rear wheel bearings and races. Ready to rumble.

Could you post some good underside photos of the repo. ducktail you mention. I'm curious to see how close to OEM the construction is. For one , I have not seen anyone ever bending the support into a curve.

Just left you a PM. As I am also in the middle of a US 74 Carrera resto (#63), I would love to swap stories with you. I can be reached at (650) 483-3673. PS I also live in the Bay Area

Steve

I'm restoring a U.S. car too. Will be original Bitter Chocolate with gold script and Fuchs.

:)

Maybe it's time to restore our '75 US Carrera. :D

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Originally Posted by peekaboo

Could you post some good underside photos of the repo. ducktail you mention. I'm curious to see how close to OEM the construction is. For one , I have not seen anyone ever bending the support into a curve.

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Here is the ducktail copy I'm selling. The top and bottom shape is exact as per the 73/74 carrera duck. It's all fiberglass. Somebody drilled 3 sets of holes where the striker bolts on. I filled the back side of the holes and the openings for the lights with fiberglass to convert it to a 74 duck. The holes need to be filled from the top side and redrilled for the striker. The hinges mount with studs. I planned to knock them out and make up nut plates to go inside the deck to make it totally show correctly with bolts holding it to the hinges.

I plan to post it on ebay for $700 plus shipping. I know it's a little pricy but I have that into it due to shipping from the UK to get an OE looking part. Let me know if anybody has interest in it before I do that.

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I collected all the parts and started to build a short stroke (98mm bore) 3.2L RS MFI motor for this car. I got it half way built and then decided to rebuild the smaller CIS motor to keep the car original. However, I am going to keep the 3.2L motor and parts in case I get bored and want to have it in the car at some point in the future.

The following pictures show the build to the cylinders at the point that I stopped. I searched all over the world for a 019 pump. Those are getting hard to find these days. after going to a factory Bosch service center in Germany that does Porsche AG stuff and a few other sources, Gus at Pacific FI here in Northern CA scored me a proper pump, rebuilt it and calibrated it for a 3.2L motor using modified Dougherty DC40 cams and 10.5:1 compression. This is a race preped motor that has all the usual stuff I do for my SCCA race engines.

Here is the 019 pump after rebuild and calibration for 3.2L displacement.

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Here are mag stacks that have been opened up to 41mm at the head and they taper to 52mm at the top of the stack. Henry Schmidt at Supetec Performance did a great job building these up!

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Here is the 3.0L crankshaft ready for assembly. I get them magnaflux crack checked and polished. I chamfer the oil holes then I pull the plugs for cleaning and reassemble. The 930 in the background is another project I need to finish at some point.

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I reconditioned (rebushed and resized both ends) the rods using a Sunnen honing machine I had to get to be able to refurbish titanium rods I use in GT3 RSR race motors I run in my 914-6 race car (material for a whole other thread). I don't know any engine machine shop that I trust doing the Ti rods so I do them myself. We also installed Raceware bolts. My kid (Trevor) lubed up the main bearings while I applied sealer to the case halves.

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