GothingNC

Hey everyone.
1st thread posting here.
I'm going to check out 71 911T.
It had a fresh motor & trans rebuild.
Has a recent yellow paint job and the interior is in excellent condition.

The place where it is located is a Porsche specialty shop.

The asking price is $11,500.

Price sound about right??

JCP911S

Look back over alot of similar threads ... lots of good info. Real issue here is rust... who did the paint? A quality shop that thoroughly checked the car for rust and fixed everything correctly, or some quickie bondo job to cover the horror. They can both look pretty good for a short time... Older paint can't hide the truth. IF there is rust in the car.... especially one with "new" paint, I would probably shy away.

Ditto motor rebuild. Was it a quality shop or a cheapo done to flip the car?.... A good motor rebuld can top $7K.

I would double check the reputations of the shops that did the work and even talk to them if you can... if they are proud of their work, they will probably be happy to tell you the details. Do you have the detailed bills for the work.... that tells alot. If the seller did the work, make sure they have a top notch rep.

IF everything checks out, that would be a very good price for a fully refurbished car ... if anything is fishy, you can buy alot of really nice Ts for that money.... keep looking. .. the car shouldn't need any work ... you can get a 95% T for that money.

GothingNC

I plan on throughly going through the car before making any type of offer. I hope it was repainted using the original color code.

The nice part about it is that it's local.

I have a small collection of aircooled VW's (2 bugs and a Thing) and I know that rust is usually the most costly and time consuming repair and with the Porsche, the motor is more than 50% the value of the car.

I'm in no hurry but this one caught my eye.

Thanks !

Volney

GothingNC,

JCP911S pretty much said it all. The trick is to assume the car is "guilty until proven innocent". It's so easy to fall for the siren song of a pretty old car, but be sure to remain as objective as possible. If there's no records, it's an immediate red flag. OTOH, no rust is the most important thing.

As a slight counterpoint:

The first car I looked more than 10 years ago, actually was the best of the bunch and would have been a better overall car than the one I ended up buying. The lack of records made me nervous, and I kept looking. That and a few other things I didn't think were optimal. But the best thing it had going was no rust. In hindsight that would have been the best for me.

Good luck and let us know what happens!

Vol

GothingNC

I spoke to the seller today and they are not aware of any rust repair that was done to the car but mentioned there is some bubbling through one of the fenders. He said I could borrow the car for a day to try it out.

The car has fresh rebuilt webers.

Did the 71 come with carb for Fuel Injection?
I am in no hurry but if I do take it for a spin, I plan to bring it over to my friends shop to put it on a lift and perform a PPI.

I wonder if I could swap the motor with a Turbo Diesel? Hmmmm....

Thanks everyone !

Volney

A 71T came originally with Zeniths. Webers, if truly rebuilt, would be an "upgrade" but they do not make the car any faster.

So "rust bubbling through one of the fenders" is definately not a good sign. And generally where there's some rust there's more. Does your friend have experience inspecting Porsche's? It definately helps. It could be isolated to that fender, but, you should assume the worst until you can prove otherwise!

Ya a turbo desiel would make it kind of like a vintage Carrera GT... speaking of those, I saw my first on on the road the other day.

Vol

JCP911S

Personally I would not pay anything near $11K for a car that had any rust whatsoever... Assuming it is "just" the fender and the suructure is perfect... (.. and thats drawing into an inside straight for sure...) you are looking at $1500-2000 of repairs minimum.... a new fender in a box costs about $700 or so...

Again the fact that it has recent paint and is already bubbling would set off a red light... I may be over-reacting... haven't seen the car....just playing the odds.....

GothingNC

I decided to pass on this one.
The Yellow Paint job was not an orignal color and the interior seats were swaped with a differnet set with tweed fabric.

Also, the small rust bubble concersn me on a 6 month old paint job. I wouldn't mine if it ocured after 4 or 5 years.

I think I'm going to aim for the 76 & newer to avoid the body shell rust issues.

The ballpark price for me is in the 12 to 14K range. Is this realistic or should I expect to pay 16 to 20 for a decent one?

I don't mine if the A/C is non-operational, I end up sneezing too much and I will not be driving it in the summer months.

Thanks everyone !!

Volney

Well, I thing you made a good move. As for which years to focus on, you should drive some 74-77 cars and some 78-83 SC's to see how different they feel. You can read about the pros and cons of each era if you search on the topic as this is discussed a lot. You should be able to get a good car for that 12-14k range, whether it's a early car (up to 73) or a later car. Only when you have driven several of each range do I think you'll be able to know what you want. It can be a fun journey and you seem willing to take your time so enjoy it!

Vol

GothingNC

Thanks !
At least test drives are free if theye are local.
I'll just try to stay clear of doing doughnuts in front of the owner

GothingNC

Found an 83 SC near by I'm going to check out.
The owner is selling it to upgrade to a Turbo.
It has 95,000 miles and he has almost every piece of Maint. record.
Car is White and the motor & Trans have not been rebuilt.

He's owned it for 4 years and drove irt mainly on weekedns and had it parked in the garage and still had the oil changed on a regular basis.

He had all service & maintenance performed at Porsche Performance in Chapel hill and recently had an alignment and the tir rods replaced.

He admits the paint is not perfect. The clear coat is peeling on one of the doors by the door handle and some other spots. The prior owner had the sunroof motor replaced and spent $1,000 on A/C service. He is asking 13,000 but I noticed he's been trying to sell it for a while (more than 3 months)

Does this model have any valve guide or chain tensioner issues?
He said the mechanic has not noticed any "Chain Slap" noises.


Thanks !

JCP911S

Goth... one thing... what do you plan to use the car for? Is it a collectable sunday driver, or do you plan to use it as a daily driver.

If it is more on the "collectable" side, i would not give up on the 70-73 cars... they probably have more upside in terms of value, and IMHO are still the nicest looking 911. If they are in well maintained mechanical shape they are actually pretty dependable cars. You can find a very clean pretty origional 911T for the $10-12K range... you just have to be patient.

For a daily driver, stick with the 78 on SC or Carrara. THis will probably be about $13-17K for a clean one and over that for a really super perfect car.

The 74-77 2.7 cars are kind of tweeners.... there are issues that depress prices... justifiably or not.... they are a potential under $10K "bargain". but need to be careful.... lots of threads on the issues with these cars

GothingNC

I plan on using it as a daily driver.

Probably 120 miles a week cruising down windy 2 lane country roads.

One item I have to factor in the cost is shipping and personal travel expenses if the car is not local.

I will have to try my best to be patient.

JCP911S

IMHO, hte SC is the way to go. If the integrety of the galvanizing has not been disturbed these cars simply will not rust.... worth piece of mind when you have it out in the rain or the winter.

I would guess $13K is a car with some real-world wear, but should not have any major issues and should not look scruffy.... the paint you described sounds like it should push the price down.... good paint job will probably be $5-6K before the dust settles. 95K is actually a bit low for this car.... should not need engine or gearbox work unless the sychros are noticably noisy.

Also, I would guess that at 95K the tensioners should have been replaced at least once.. or upgraded. PPI should catch this as well as any failed studs.

GothingNC

The owner said that there has been no service performed on the tensioners since they were not making any noise. nor have they been upgraded.

I think I might offer him 10 to 11K due to the paint issue if everything else looks OK and after I have a PPI done if the car survives my test drive treatment.

The last time I took a car for a drive a long time ago with a salesman, he dropped the price when I wanted to take it for another spin. I was real real glad the brakes worked real well that time.

Am I lowballing too much?