nota_troll

This is going to be a long and expensive project. It's been sitting in the garage idle for a long time. I emailed Callas (http://www.rennsportporscheworks.com/) in Sealy, Texas which isn't too far from my house. Hans who normally works on my 911 can't take on such an extensive project yet. I'm reasonably handy but this is going to be too much with family and work obligations. I wish I had a larger garage so I could do some of the work myself.

Since my father is the original owner I'd like to keep it in original shape with no rust but considering upgrading parts. I've ordered Kevin's book to educate myself too. The goal is to have it for the weekend.

Phase 1 is to get the thing in good running order. Then work on the body. But since they'll pull the motor and transmission I may get the body painted. Trying to keep a decent budget.

I have NEVER taken on a project like this so it's a little intimidating. Any suggestions/sage tips? Any ideas on budget?

User 4221

No specific advice other than making the project akin to eating an elephant...... One bite at a time.

race911

I faced similar with a 100% rust free 73 1/2 CIS Targa that belonged to a friend, and his father, dating back to 1978. Was the first 911 I was ever exposed to in person. (No, didn't get the the dad-taking-the-teenagers-for-a-thrill-ride to get me hooked on 911s. Already had it in my mind from the IROC cars, and a couple of years later the introduction of the 930.)

So this car needed to be painted, but had no need for bodywork. All chrome was in excellent shape. (Car was garaged locally its whole life.) Interior was average for the age. Targa top needed attention. Suspension needed 100% refurbishment. Transaxle needed to be gone through + clutch. Engine needed a reseal + servicing.

What's that all run when *I* am doing the labor free? $10K? $15K? Some places around here won't even paint a 911 for that price. What's it worth on the back end? Low 20s? Ultimately, it got sold to a flipper for $15K and off it went out of the country.

I get that there's nostalgia on these one owner cars. Unless you're doing this from the petty cash fund it's a tough call to pay retail to have it done.

rusnak

Hmm. I normally encourage owners to jump in and take it on themselves. Their skills usually grow to meet the challenge. But you have to be willing to work on it. I too say "one step at a time".

nota_troll

Yep. nostalgia is a motivator. If it wasn't I'd buy a G50 911.

If I need more space to work on the car myself. I am considering getting a warehouse with my brother but my free time is with the family.

chrismorse

I just finished working with my mechanic to reinstall the engine/trans in my recently deceased dad's 74. He bought it new and it ws his baby. I was a service writer/manager and did my own mechanical work. I am not skilled enough to be a real mechanic but i enjoy cars.

Shortly after receiving the car in july, i , (with my friends help) installed a badly needed front oil cooler. It was running 240-250 oil temps in a relative cool environment without the ac running, so, new flex lines, used brass lines, dumped the ac, new carrera cooler and fan, repaired a rusty spot under the outter rocker, replaced two bad axles, factory short shift kit and new cup bushing, cleaned and resealed the injectors and it was on the road for a few weeks.

With cooler oil, i had real oil pressure, 10 psi at idle and 45-50 at freeway speeds - then one day, while warmed up, the thermostat studs finished pulling out of the block and at 6k rpm, pumped three gallons of synthetic all over the top of the engine. Out with the engine and trans, we used a lot of degreaser and heavily power washed the back of the car, the engine and transaxle, stripped it to the long block, resealed the trans, including the shift shaft seal, cleaned or repainted all of the air duct works, new front and rear seal, clutch disc, rebuilt the alt & starter, new solenoid, cam oillines temp and pressure senders, flywheel bolts, blasted and painted the fan and housing, pulled and cleaned alll of the electrics in the engine compartment, making many, many repairs with solder and heat shrink tube to the existing wiring and a used engine harness. New engine bay sealing rubber gaskets, sound insulating pad, all vacuum,evaporative and breather hoses, fuel hoses, intake manifold rubber sleeves, hot air heater hoses.
We installed "Stratoflex", an aircraft grade heat shielding on the supply, return and evaporative hoses under the left hot air dump from the left exhaust heat exchanger. The old supply hose was leaking on my first drive home with dad's car and the return hose looked like it was partially melted and brittle.

One of my few criticisms of the 911 design was putting those critical fuel hoses inches fromthe hot air dump.

The cause of most of this grief was that during the last engine overhaul or leak repair, "someone" over-tightened the little 6mm studs securing the thermostat into the magnesium case, so with "real" oil pressure, it just popped up out of the block. We also fixed a few other stripped/pulled threads.

My dad, back in 2000, had the car repainted the original Sepia brown, some upholstery work done, repaired the rusty front pan, caused by the ac drain hose not exiting the body, and paid almost $12k to have the engine gone through. He put about 1k miles per year on the car just driving around town, so the engine internals were "fresh".

My dad was an engineer by training, not a mechanic, so he trusted the cars mechanicals to the shop and kept the rest of the car very original.

So, I guess what can be taken away from this tale of woe, is that there are hundreds of little things to keep up on with a car of this age, even if the car was," well looked after".

This was not a restoration but a replacement of a lot of external parts that were appraoching the end of their usefull life and it was a lot more cost effective to do them at one time.

To your original question about budget, I would suggest that you get all of the service receipts you can, put them in order, have a knowledgeable, trusted mechanic do a thorough PPI, review the receipts and make up a prioritized list of the work that needs doing. At that point, you can get estimates of labor, for the things you don't want to do and prices for the materials. From this you can add a substantial margine for surprises and "while you are in there" expenses.

As part of this initial inspection, it might be good to do a compression/leak down, so you don't put a lot of sweat and money into it just find that the engine has a weak hole.

I wish you enjoyment and luck with the project,
chris

HkPlinker

My mechanic, Howard Freeman, just restored the same car, a 1973 911T Targa. I know he will have a ton of advice and part supply ideas. Check out this post http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsc...ars-later.html

nota_troll

Thanks for that!

Brads911sc

Mike Callas and his son are hands down the best in Houston. They are spendy. They did my machine work for my 3.2SS build. Other than M Crawley in Spring there isnt anyone else Id take my car to...