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Last summer, while my wife and I were out to dinner, I received a text from my surfing buddy with pictures of a neglected 928 and an "Are you interested?" My neighbor works a multitude of jobs, including parking cars and hired driving. Turns out he drives a group of old ladies every Thursday night and while picking one of them up, he noticed a dirty lump of neglected 928 sitting in an open-air car-port and immediately thought of me. Having my hands full between a 911 engine rebuild and the ongoing projects with my S4, I kind of dismissed the idea of buying yet another car and thanked him for thinking of me.
Fast forward to November, I'm looking through my phone and see the photos he took. Hmmm, says me, those aren't man-hole covers, they're D90s... that looks interesting. Huh, that's not rear-end damage, that's a reflection. Long story short, I need to take a look at that car. I reach out to my buddy, it takes 3 weeks to make contact with the woman's son, and 5 weeks before I can take a look at the car.
Turns out the car is a 1991 GT. Now I'm enthusiastic. When I look at the car, they can't find the key, and the son describes its complicated situation. The woman is the widow of the owner, who died in 2006. He was a prominent local attorney and politician. He purchased the car in 1993 with 37,000 miles on it and never titled it. He had an '83 and most likely drove the '91 around with the '83 paperwork before moving on to a BMW sometime around the turn of the century. The paperwork that is available, shows a clear chain of ownership (DMV forms, signed over titles, and sales receipts) for him to have been able to title it. The son (also an attorney) says that his Dad had talked to him after it was clear that he would not survive his cancer, he warned his son that trying to sort out the paperwork on the car after he was gone would be difficult. There it sat for another 10 years.
I spent a dozen or more hours researching the DMV laws of both Virginia and New York, where it was last sold. At a minimum, the Title will be a nightmare to sort out, worst-case I won't be able to obtain a title. The NYS Title Bureau is unreachable, I've tried five times at this point, holding for 15 minutes each time before being transferred to the "Downstate Call Center", then dropped to dial-tone during the subsequent manned transfer attempt.
The CarFax and AutoCheck records come back clean, the car appears to be in very nice condition under the dirt and mildew. No dash cracks, leather intact with no bolster wear, paint on intake is dirty but not flaking. The belly pan is even still there but in bad shape. The key is lost, the Title is going to be a hassle, tax on the last sale at $55,000 may be due before I can title it. In consideration of all of this, I make a parts-car offer on it and the owner accepts. I took possession on Thursday along with several sales receipts signed by the widow, and the first round of NYS DMV documents signed by the widow that will hopefully allow me to get a Title into her hands which she can then sign over to me.
Needless to say, I'm jumping out of my skin excited about this find! I'm working out a plan of attack including draining the old gas, oil, coolant, brake fluid, putting some Marvel's down the cylinders, and checking the timing belt to see if I can risk turning over the engine. All this of course after I get the ignition switch pulled!
I had a similar experience with my car. Title was in the husband's name and the widow never had it transferred over but her POA signed the title over to the auction company who transferred it to me. Washington State rejected it and I ultimately had to have her sign an affidavit of inheritance.
Cool car but now it sounds like you have 3 project cars! I've got the same affliction. There is a '79 petrol blue for $3k obo near me that I am trying my best to ignore.
I had a similar experience with my car. Title was in the husband's name and the widow never had it transferred over but her POA signed the title over to the auction company who transferred it to me. Washington State rejected it and I ultimately had to have her sign an affidavit of inheritance.
Cool car but now it sounds like you have 3 project cars! I've got the same affliction. There is a '79 petrol blue for $3k obo near me that I am trying my best to ignore.
I think the sickness has grown deep roots into my brain. My wife asked me what I wanted for Christmas this year, I told her "your continued patience".
Great find! Once you get clear title, Take the VIN to Porsche dealer and they can get a key cut for You.
Yeah, I've been reading the threads on "no keys" "rekey" etc. Talked to 928gt.com about them placing the order for me, $85 or so, pretty reasonable but as you said, Porsche requires a title in order to place the order.
Problem is I'm planning on six months or so in Title purgatory, not sure if the alarm will prevent me from starting it once the ignition cylinder is pulled? Haven't even applied a battery yet but my guess is the alarm is going to default to ignition=disabled until the door lock is operated.
Sounds as though you may well have stumbled onto a gem of a barn find.
Before you fire the thing up given the history you reported I would certainly drain and replace all fluids and replace the timing belt and all hoses. I would also do a pressure test to see if the cooling system is holding- that could be done before you drain anything assuming you can establish a level in the expansion tank. The rest of the "usual culprits" you can probably test on the fly [or test/replace pre-emptively].
01-14-2017, 11:41 PM
Barn Find 91 GT
