DWA Project Car Porsche 914 / Buying A Car Sight Unsceen

Car flippers do it all the time, because you have to jump on good deal when it comes along...right?

I recently bought a 1970 Porsche 914 sight unsceen from Utah, and...it's not good. A listener of the DWA! Podcast sent me a message on Instagram about the car and said he drove it and it looked like a good buy. I have been wanting another 914 since the day I got rid of mine 15 years ago, so I jumped on it. I talked to the owner on the phone, made a deal and had the car shipped out to California. I had a lot of confidence that I was buying a good car. The owner took it autocrossing the weekend before I bought it and he said it was a good car in need of a few little things. 

The car arrived at my office and it at a glance it looked great. Tje paint is nice, it sits nice and low and the interior is fairly clean. I fired it up and drove it a block, but something didn't feel right. The seat was bouncing up and down and didn't feel secure. I layed on the ground to check the underside of the car. I found a couple small rust holes and one giant ​one. The driver's seat had ripped through the rusty floor and was hanging about 3 inches from the ground. Uh oh, what did I do? Upon further inspection, I found the the longitudinals had rusted out at some point and been poorly repaired by welding thick sheets of metal along the sides eliminating the jacking points. Now the panic was really setting in. I had bought a car that was undriveable and a way bigger project than I could handle. 

I've had enough project cars in the past to know that this was not the 914 for me, so I put a plan into action. I decided to sell it, but first I had to fix the floor so the seat could attach and do a few other little things that cost little or no money.​..to be continued 

check back next week for update #2​