Life would be tolerable were it not for its amusements -- Sir George Cornewall Lewis, 1806-1863

Notes from the Front
by Arthur Leland Cunningham, PCA member since 1987

Though I have opined with self-righteous positing that the State of Wisconsin could save a lot of money by just upfixin the old curving scenic roads porschefiles so dearly love, (well, there is that three mile straight over by Milton which I most enjoy for a….but won’t get into that). And when the first good rainstorm of Spring comes along, I am on the phone with the insurance agent for the eventualities of uncovering the Midnight Blu ‘73 911 and cranking down another summer of paved country roads.

This time Blu wouldn’t idle as usual. I got my little record book out of the glove compartment and read the notes/maintenance history I keep for this particular 911. Aha, last year rather than send off and get the warm-up regulator rebuilt I apparently went cheap, took it off and apart and did just a simple compressed air blow thro. Voila! Der Rumbler engine ran better at warm up than it had for, say, 5 years! Then, off to the storage barn to get out the black ‘74 914 which I had straightened up some 10 years ago. Bingo, no low tires, and, no sign of mice.

A Steinlifters pal asked if I going to join in our PCA region’s first member event (I think) of the new driving season at the Veterans Administration Hospital near Miller Park. It was a glorious Saturday with lots of really cool people and a few interested veterans. In meeting other club members (see a couple of photos) and doing our car stories, I found that I was explaining that after doing the 914 body work, I had it painted all black—though I had found some traces of (strange?) yellow on the back of the bumpers. Ostensibly, I obtained the 914 for passing on to our youngest son in the future (My wife says, "BS! to that! You just needed a car project and another Porsche!"). But one day a year or two later I decided I would put it up for sale in the Steinlifters classifieds.

Then, some Californian named Bowlsby contacts me wanting photos and vin # and other minutia regarding the 914. Somewhere in there he says, "Do you know that you have a Bumblebee?" Uh, sure, sure…just what are you talking about? He said I ought to get a PCA birth certificate for it as if it were rare and a special car. So Jeff Bowlsby, who has a website devoted to a one year, 1974, Can Am (in honor of the venerable 917 win in that unlimited racing series) Limited Edition of Porsche 914’s called affectionately Bumblebees and Creamsicles for their strange color schemes; basically black with yellow bumpers and rockers with a Porsche script on the side, and, basically cream white with orangish (ugh!) bumpers and rockers. They were fitted with a larger 2 ltr. engine, factory installed sway bars and a center instrument console. On top of that, he claims they are rarer than the 914-6 as only 500 were built—with by his exhausting-believe me-count, only 220 survive. So, the questions, "Why don’t you do the yellow on it (like your wife has been hammering you)?!" By the way, there were three or four offers to buy it from all over the country but my wife, who is the consummate "Lay Out Sun Worshipper" forbid that I would even think of a sale (I hadn’t consulted her to my chagrin)-- as she just loves kicking back and taking on El Sol when we are cruising about!

On or about 3 May--and my wife’s birthday-- we were out about Waukesha looking for rubber body bumper buttons for her 1961 Renault 4CV (last winter’s resto). We were referred to a Auto Paint business there as, "They have a lot of that stuff (they didn’t)." I looked over at bright yellow Mustang in the parking and said, "We got game, Baby Cakes! We are going to do the Bumblebee!" I went back in had them make up the spray cans. Amazingly, that Mustang’s "Chrome" yellow was the deadon same color. On 14 May, we rejoiced in receiving email notification of "Welcome to "Bumblebee-dum" by Emperor Jeff Bowlsby!

Every project requires some hand-drawn schematics.

A side note: When I finished the paint job: I put it on the ground and found that the brake warning light was on and the turnsignal flasher unit was buzzing , (ominous there; don’t want to leave that going too long). I had a couple of other units from other old German cars and plugged them in and to no positive result. I pried the cover off of the flasher unit and all looked good. I did run an exacto knife blade between the electromagnetic contacts to see if there was any pitting and a need to file them down. I decided to sprayed it with contact cleaner. Still, the same rattling and red light showing it ugliness. I checked the wiring diagrams, but they are always like Greek govt. finances to me—obfuscating and difficult to discern needing reorientation of the left side of the brain.

Taking a break from the electrics hoping the 914 warning light would heal itself as secretly as it came about, I decided to upfix/implant a stainless steel faceplate for the instrument console. An old friend who owns a Tool and Die company had just made it up and with some minor adjustments (it is easier to just say it that way) to a specifications sketch measured from the old cheap (can’t believe Porsche, well, Volkswagon would ever do anything that poorly!) one installed only on the "Limited Edition" series. I spent some time opening up the non-working clock (cheap plastic inner workings!) and tried juryrig repairs to no avail. I found a P914 website which essentially said that it’s a dead end on replacing the clock or parts. (I will figure something out!)

Back to the still existent Warning light. I decided to do the easiest thing and called the Great 914 guru, Brad Mayeur, down in Peoria at his 914 Ltd. shop. "The best thing to do is to take the wires off the emergency flasher switch one at a time to see and trace where the short is coming from, then check steering column wiring." I consulted the 1973 map of the wires in the Haynes manual and pulled the instrument with the offending warning light out of the dash, (Porsche really did something right in those days by just having them set in with a rubber ring to secure them!). I pulled off the ground wires of the light and noted the color codes—being black, white and green- and then checked the 1973 schematic and saw that they went to the hand brake and What(?), the brake master cylinder! THAT WAS IT! I had forgotten that after renewing/bleeding 914 brakes, (which I had done while it was up in the air), one has to take off the driver side front wheel and get into a tiny space and reset a rubber covered button on the side of the brakes master cylinder!!! It's hell growing old!

Have a nice season with that conveyance which speaks something of you!

The cares that infest the day,
Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs,
And silently steal away… H. W. Longfellow 

These photos show various stages of the transformation work of A. L. Cunningham.