cbracerx

Greetings,

After a horrible experience at Pelican trying to share my experiences with a barn find (see http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showthread.php?t=466928) I would like to continue the subject here, hopefully with less drama.

I had heard things had gotten out of hand there, but good grief!

So - if you do not want to read the Pelican thread, here is a synopsis:

Well, I never thought it would happen to me. But it appears that it is starting to occur. Yes, the Barn Find experience. Our tale starts Thursday last week when my wife went to pick up some free firewood from an online recycling listing. The firewood was from a fresh Maple tree that had been cut down and was stacked up in front of a seemingly innocent barnlike garage.

Well my wife is a curious sort, and the door was half open. She peeked in and saw two cars, under covers, among the gardening tools. One was an early Mustang, and the other a 911. They looked like they had been there for quite a while.

So she came home with the first load of firewood and mentioned that there were 'some cars' in the barn, and maybe I should go with her and take a look?

Well work got in the way, so my wife went again today for another load and came back telling me again that 'you will like what is in the barn'.

So I took a long and late lunch break and went over to see what all the fuss was about. And I saw what she saw.

The barn door was still open, but it was dark in there

But as my eyes adjusted, I was drawn to the curves under the tattered car cover to my right. It certainly looked like a 911. I had asked my wife if the car was a "long hood or short hood" and she said "long hood, like ours". We have an 87. So my first thought was that there would be a 74-77 2.7 under the cover, rusting away...

I drew back the cover from the front hood - and it was not a short hood after all. It was a long hood early 911 with some interesting thru the grills lights installed. The grills were chrome, so I knew this was not a 73.5 like I used to own. There was no obvious rust, in fact the paint looked really very good!

Since this was more than I was expecting, I perked up a bit. I drew back the cover somemore, and found that the last time it was officially on the road was 1995.

Took a peek at the wheels, and the fuchs that should be there - were. Tires flat but the car held up with jacks here and there...

So I made my way around to the rear, and held my breath as the cover came away from the engine lid...

My next stop was the right side of the car, and as the cover was draped up on the rear window I saw it.

Helios59

'72, right? The one where people kept putting gas in the wrong hole?

That's some pretty nice Porsche pr0n right there! I was transfixed...

Amber Gramps

Happy ending?

cbracerx

I guess it was time to talk to the owner, since I felt like I was peeking inside the medicine cabinet. I spoke with the homeowner and got permission to take a more detailed look. So I opened up the driver's door.

Interesting. Everything was still there, but it was moldy and dusty - I guess no suprise given the storage conditions! The good news was that the stock seats were still intact. That trim hangin' down is from the sunroof. The headliner is complete as you will see, except on the sunroof panel. Trouble likely awaits there.

Looking at the speedo revealed 35K miles - but who knows really!~





I gave the engine release a tenative pull, and the lid popped right up. As I walked back to open 'er up. I noticed that the exhaust outlet had duct tape over the end. Maybe some care was put into the pickling after all!!

The lid came up smoothly and revealed a pretty clean engine compartment. 2.4 with mechanical injection, as expected. Other than a "blue coil" update it looked pretty darn stock. Still had the pre-heater assembly.

So, only one more stop on this cursory inspection - the trunk. I went for the trunk release and found it was broken off - but the trunk was already popped up to the safety catch. I opened it all the way and found a mess of spare parts (not much), and no batteries! Yessss - the boxes looked good and shock towers still had paint, of the same color as the rest of the car. Did not get any very good pics of this.





The homeowner said she just wanted these cars out of her barn, and she was tired of tripping over them...

cbracerx

Still in progress - this all started on Friday last week. Getting to the real owner is taking a bit of time, and I am trying to establish a fair offer for the car - which is the "purpose" of my post aside from sharing.

ontario

Wow, this kind of stuff only happens in my dreams. If my wife saw a car in a barn, the last thing she would do is tell me about it.

I hope this turns out well for you. Keep us posted.

cbracerx

So now you know about as much as I know on the condition and equipment of this 72 911. My first serious question to the collective is:

How much is a fair offer for this 911?

Presume I want to restore it myself and keep it for a long time. I can rebuild engines and transmissions, restore brake systems and weld and replace the pans as needed. Can do the glasswork but do not have a perfect record on front windshield seals! Electrical work is not a problem, and I have all the factory manuals for this period. My restoration would be to produce a nice driver, with as stock a result as possible. I don't have the equipment to do the injection pump or rebuild the stacks, nor would I be good at hanging the headliner or redoing the upholstery.

Before I open negotiations I want to have as much knowledge as possible about FMV, and (if possible) some facts to back this up.

It is moldy, no doubt about it. Could the seats be saved? Maybe, I am not a expert on this sort of thing. You can see that water (condensation) has had its way with the interior. The bottoms of the gauges are rusted, which seems a pretty good indication of many cycles of wetting. The cover on this car was not a high tech one, and did not really breathe. When I looked at it for the first time on Friday, it had been raining heavily a few hours before. The entire car was wet under the cover...

Maybe is it easier to ask this:

What is a nicely restored 1972 911T coupe worth in today's market?

A pretty nice E (for Even better) Targe recently sold on ebay for $17,500 (Item 230330857702). Another a bit less original (as in the car had the entire front half of the body replaced!!) T got $19,400 (190295199814)

I got this feedback from JasonF at Pelican that was helpful

You can also go over to www.early911sregistry.org. The sales section has posts listing recent ebay and other sales

http://www.early911sregistry.org

It appears that your barn car's interior is factory.

Be careful, the economy fell off a cliff in late '08 and a lot of the earlier reported sale prices are IMHO overstated in the current climate.

One part of me would love to totally rescue the car and do a 100% nuts and bolt job on it (Danger Will Robinson! Danger!). No doubt I would be inside out going that route. Another wants to do the minimum to get it safe and on the road to enjoy, which is still a potentally scary prospect financially.

Norske

People would pay an arm & leg for original thru grill fog lights. Looks like a nice 72 and fairly complete.

theiceman

So where did all the drama come from ! .. the idea of the original B and E ?

cbracerx

A few very vocal pinheads who made a mockery of the story sharing process and generally acted like children and bullies. It was ridiculous.

theiceman

Well that's Pelican for ya

BTW stop beating up on your girlfriend Rihanna ...oh the OTHER Chris Brown ...

cbracerx

Now if I could only get some of those other CB royalites - I know just what to spend them on...

rusnak

oh wow, that is a very enticing 911, mostly because all the stuff is still there. However, it would not be an inexpensive project in my opinion. It would take some money and a lot of determination to get it all back to pristine condition. Still, if you can get it running, it would be a fun car.

I do not envy your Pelican experience. I do not believe it is helpful to bash people. It gets you nowhere. Having said that, I agree there are a few people over there who are not positive people, and it might be more healthy to avoid them when you are taking on anything remotely challenging or unique.

1stgear

Love your last picture of the rear of the car. Very artsy!

rusnak

Oh, and it looks like someone was in the process of adding AC? What's up with that, and is there an ac console somewhere in the barn close by? Is that a sunroof? Is it mechanical or electric?