Republished with permission from the October 2015 issue of Fourteener Motoring Magazine.

Karl Manderbach bought his 1971 914 in September of 2012, “kind of on a whim,” as he dscribes it. He had restored a number of air-cooled Volkswagens, and had always wanted a 914. One day he came across an ad for the 914, and decided to go take a look. A few days later the deal was done.

He “coasted it” (literally) down Highway 34 to Loveland from Estes Park, Colorado. Within a couple days, he had the car stripped down to the bare shell and on a trailer to be sent off for body and paint. Karl originally intended to do a 6-cylinder conversion using an engine out of an 1986 911. However, as he talked to people about the car, he became convinced to restore it to stock.

Karl says that every time he spoke to someone about the car, their first question was always: What color is it? When he told them that it was yellow, but, originally metallic gold, every one of them told him: Paint it Gold! Without a color already in his mind, he did a little research and found only three other gold 914s on the internet. Gold it would be, he decided.

Between two shops, it took close to two and a half years to complete metal repairs and paint and body. During media blasting, it was determined that the car had been painted seven times, with several iterations of reds and yellows. While the body was away, Karl devoted his time to hunting down parts, and prepping them for installation. “Chasing parts was quite the adventure due to the fact that I had an “early” car which made finding the correct parts even harder,” says Karl.

Throughout the restoration, Karl found that one of the hardest aspects of the process was to try to stick to his plan of returning the car to as close to stock as possible. With a few exceptions, he says he was able to accomplish that goal. And the few things that are not stock, can be changed fairly easily. For example, for the door panels. he chose high-quality, after-market panels, similar to what is found in a 911.

Most importantly, Karl says that he learned a lot and met a lot of great Porsche enthusiasts through the restoration. “Each and every one of them provided some kind of guidance and have been a pleasure to get to know,” he says. “The experience of the restoration of the car, has provided me with the knowledge and skills to make the next one even better.”

We think Karl is going to be hard-pressed to improve on the masterpiece this 914 turned out to be. Congratulations.