opinions wanted

Interior nice color and looks brand new - not 8 years old. Must be low mileage. 

he says reason price is reasonably low because of two stress cracks /body flex  on drives side wheel well and a few on the trunk rates paint 8 out of 10 otherwise..bought it like this in 2013 only drove it 500 miles(second owner) has a 914 he's restoring but has loved the speedster says does 75 easily on freeway and has no problems everything works.

new black stay fast top but no side curtains 

Looks like a good buy just from the ad.  I would wager it is about 3k under market value as long as it's mechanically sound.

-=theron

just noticed spedo has 00317 miles..strange.....turn signal stalk rusty

rust on steering wheel too.... where else ...???

just saw some on the t/s stalk

What's with the engine deck lid hinges?  They look authentic, but not exactly.  You can see a locking pin hanging down on the right hand hinge.

Hmm didn't notice that

Engine bay appears unsealed small gap am I wrong?

And the dreaded "wait for it to explode" 59 cent plastic fuel filter in engine bay.  Easy fix but a real time bomb!  Does need a $40 H bus engine seal.  They do look like the original 356 hinges (they have a click latch but I couldn't figure it out enough to use on mine).  Inland empire is completely surrounded by water - so surface rust is probably expected after 8 years especially with no side curtains or car cover. My chrome Mangels rusted in VA garage from sitting same # years.  It looks like the fender was kicked or kneed - not wrecked or just from fatigue. Not a hard fix. Where's the VS landmark trait - the curly cue red alternator wire.  Engine was probably out so it and H seal are missing.

I bet this was a roller from VS.

Rusty S posted:

I bet this was a roller from VS.

I'm with Rusty on this because that doesn't look like a VS engine at all.

he said when he bought it from the original owner in 2013 he had the motor sorted at "the wright gearbox"  here

http://www.wrightgearbox.com/

he said he had it to VS for the gauges to be replaced after he bought but other than that the wrightgearbox did any work on it and knows the car inside and out.  Going to contact them to discuss.  good points guys wouldn't have detected it wasn't a VS motor

So... he had the motor "sorted" by a transmission shop?

Ditto on what Rusty and Robert M said. 

he said they sorted the motor and upgraded the carbs at wright gearbox yes they do mechanicals as well.

Wolf:

Inland empire in SoCal isn't surrounded by water. Pacific ocean is to the west 20 or 30 miles, thus "inland empire". If the car resided right along the coast for a number of years, that would make sense for rust.

 6 inch stress crack on drivers front wheel well and a few near engine lid owner states were there when he bought it former owner say he's told "the bodies don't hold up well on CA roads"  truth or fiction ???

Wright builds motors too. I've seen him sell them on The Samba. Kirk will put any motor and trans combo you want in it. What made me look twice was the location of the ignition switch and the mirrors not to mention the stress cracks. The ignition switch is right up against the gauge - whups! Also, the windshield wiper switch sits too far left - that's not where Kirk's body guys drill the holes. Kirk likes to mount his mirrors on the body just forward of the windshield not on the doors. The stress cracks are most likely from mounting the body incorrectly. I have never seen a VS with stress cracks or ill fitting doors, hood, or deck lid.

Wolfgang,

good call on the fuel filter you'd think the shop would of covered this..wishful thinking I guess but you're right super cheap fix, and good to know about the hinges didn't even notice.  you guy are true aficionados!! by the way he's selling it because he just had the 914 built and doesn't have the room for both.  

Ha- the map I pulled up had blue all around it --- turns out it was blue for a 40 minute drive time, LoL!  It's not far from Huntington Beach and Long Beach though.

OK Rusty,

wasn't sure why you said a "roller" but now I see I too noticed the placement of mirrors and passenger side doesn't even look like the right mirror at least  the base looks to me like  an old american car maybe I'm wrong  and I see what you mean about the ignition switch, well I think now these things explain the stress cracks which makes more sense frankly than the CA roads theory.  comes down to differences in quality of assembly.  I was wondering too why it's been on Craigslist for a month at this price, the kind of things that can only be seen in person or well luckily for me through the eyes of soc  r's !!

Ha- the map I pulled up had blue all around it --- turns out it was blue for a 40 minute drive time, LoL!  It's not far from Huntington Beach and Long Beach though.

Maybe PO hit a road cone or Armadillo to cause fender cracks?

no defrost or heater vents

I sent the owner a txt message three weeks ago. Back then there were no photos of the car on Craigslist. The owner txt me back a number of photos. The owner only "deals" in txt messages  

Some things did "add up" when reviewing the pics, but I couldn't put my finger on it. You gentlemen summed it all up in this posting. 

Wolfgang..You must have never been to SoCal. It is a 40 minute drive to go 2 miles on The 405. You might be able to make it from The Inland Empire to the beach in 40 minutes at 4:00AM. Most of the day that is 2 hours +

majorkahuna posted:

Wolfgang..You must have never been to SoCal. It is a 40 minute drive to go 2 miles on The 405. You might be able to make it from The Inland Empire to the beach in 40 minutes at 4:00AM. Most of the day that is 2 hours +

 

Spoken like a true Southern Californian

I bet if you go look at it, other than some of the things listed, it may be a solid car. I'd also be willing to bet you could pick it up for 16K with cash in hand.

Rusty you are referring to the treatment of Freeway #s as nouns. UK is the only other place I know that does that. Never lived in SoCal, but it was part of my patch for many years. I had a lot of really great customers there. 

WOLFGANG posted:

Ha- the map I pulled up had blue all around it --- turns out it was blue for a 40 minute drive time, LoL!  It's not far from Huntington Beach and Long Beach though.

Not far in miles but far in drive time. I do not miss the SoCal traffic I spent 40 years in. 

pom posted:

OK Rusty,

 

wasn't sure why you said a "roller" but now I see I too noticed the placement of mirrors and passenger side doesn't even look like the right mirror at least  the base looks to me like  an old american car maybe I'm wrong  and I see what you mean about the ignition switch, well I think now these things explain the stress cracks which makes more sense frankly than the CA roads theory.  comes down to differences in quality of assembly.  I was wondering too why it's been on Craigslist for a month at this price, the kind of things that can only be seen in person or well luckily for me through the eyes of soc  r's !!

My VS was built in 2001, has over 20,000 miles on it, and has spent its entire life in SoCal, Bakersfield, and Fresno. The roads don't get much worse than that and there isn't a crack anywhere on the car. Stress cracks don't come from poor roads. Hitting things, stuff falling on the car, and getting hit might cause stress cracks.

If you look at the passenger door on the inside you'll notice the placement of the interior door handle is up quite high and way forward of where Kirk puts them.

The passenger side mirror does not match the driver's side mirror. The driver side mirror is the standard Aero mirror used on VS builds. Not sure where that passenger mirror came from.

Stress cracks can be fixed! Worth looking at and negotiating appropriately if needed.

It appears to have drop spindles installed. Probably got banged up a lot on those CA roads. 

majorkahuna posted:

It appears to have drop spindles installed. Probably got banged up a lot on those CA roads. 

 

Drop spindles don't change the ride, over stock spindles. 

Dropping the front down using adjusters on the beam will increase ride harshness, though.

They don't change the road but my car with drop spindles had the front beam hit the road at times. I took them off.

Wrong drop spindle breath.......I had the same issue as Michael. The car is too low and I had multiple hits, including one that punched a hole in the pan. I replaced the drop spindles and also installed a new beam. My car handles much better into a hard corner. 

Seems the optimum solution would be dropped spindles along with dual beam adjusters.  You could really fine tune height then.

No, the Optimum Solution is don't use drop spindles.

i hit the road even with the adjusters all the way up.