fenixv8

Hello Gentlemen,

Its been a couple years since I sold the 964 and I want to get back into another 911. Does anyone know of a sorted 70-73 911 T that someone would be ready to part with.

Cheers,

Chris

CamsPorsche

I know someone selling a 76 T...it came from an original owner.

Christien

How familiar are you with the older cars? How do you define "sorted", because that can be really broad, and as I'm sure you know, prices can go through the roof with these cars. Driver quality (which my 72T was) are still expensive ($50-70k). I'd have called mine, but far from perfect. There are ALWAYS things cropping up, sometimes minor, sometimes very major. I must've fixed dozens of oil leaks, and new ones were always cropping up - it's a whack-a-mole game. I could never get the carburetors tuned just right (even with professional help). No matter how much I tried I could never get the windshield to completely seal and not have a whistle at high speeds. The fuel gauge always fogged up in damp weather. The garage always had to be left open for a few minutes after arriving home to let the fumes air out, or else the house smelled. Some would chalk this up to the character of an old car (I did), whereas some would find a lot of this unacceptable. That said, I drove the hell out of it, on the street and on the track, and it rarely let me down. We drove it down the New Orleans the year before we sold it, and it was flawless, save for a bad tank of gasoline that had it running rough for a day.

I'm just saying, be aware of what you're getting into. Even a top-dollar longhood will feel rough and rugged compared to your 964.

fenixv8

Thanks Christien. I appreciate this type of post. I think I understand what its going to mean to own one but also I've never owned one. With the 964 things kept popping up. The budget is $70ish give or take but that also the part im worried about. The $50K car needing the same amount of work as the $70-80K car.

I dont mind dumping money into repairs. But I also dont want something that is never running and always braking down. I want something I can enjoy. It most likey wont get driven that much as it will be my 4th vehicle at home but I want something i can just hope in and go but is also special. I do like the charm of older cars.

DRPM

The look is not the same however in staying with air cooled the 993 is the most reliable in my experience
good luck with your search, it is the fun part

Christien

With a 70k budget I can't imagine you won't be able to find something that you'll be able to use every day, instead of it spending most of its time on a hoist for repairs. For perspective, I sold mine for 65 a year and a half ago, and as I said, it was more or less sorted, at least to the point where it was usable almost every day. It was pretty rare that something came up that required immediate attention, though that did happen once in a while. For example, I had a leaking oil return tube that dripped a fair bit of oil into one of the heat exchangers while the engine was running. After several minutes of this it would ignite in flames - not an inferno, more like a Bic lighter, but still, actual flames! So there was a week or so of down-time while I waited for oil return tubes to be shipped, then a day of work in the garage swapping them out. I think I got towed home maybe 3 times over the course of 12 years of ownership, and each time it was a result of my lackluster repair skills (poorly-wired and -plumbed fuel pump, poorly-wired ignition switch and poorly-wired ignition box/coil). Actually there was a 4th time, when I blew a tire on the QEW and the spare wouldn't hold air.

I figure I spent about $1500-2000 annually on maintenance, doing almost everything myself in the garage. Once in a while there were larger repairs (transmission rebuild was a couple thousand, but was a planned project during winter storage - it was still drivable, I just had to be gentle with shifting), carburetor rebuild (same, winter project), some weekend-long projects (gas tank R&R, engine swaps), but I'd say there were less than 30 days of forced non-driving during the driving season during my ownership.

As always, a PPI is absolutely essential. Find a car with an engine with healthy compression/leakdown #s (will likely have had a rebuild some time in the last 15-20 years) or plan for an engine swap - that's what I did. I put a 3.0L from an 1982 SC in there, very easy swap, did it in a weekend, including intake and exhaust. 3.0 cost me about $3000 (though that was 7 or 8 years ago, it'd be at least double that now) and I kept the original numbers-matching engine (sold both with the car when I sold it). This was a nice choice as well because of the additional power - while the longhoods are light, the engines aren't very powerful, even the 2.4, which is generally considered the beginning of the more powerful era of 911s.

I haven't been following the market much lately since I sold it, so I don't know how quickly these are changing hands. Back at the peak of the frenzy in 2013/14, you couldn't PPI one, because someone else would pop up and offer full ask with no PPI, within hours. Hopefully now that the market has cooled, that's not the case anymore, because I couldn't possibly imagine spending that kind of money on something without a thorough inspection. Hell, my cutoff for buying without a PPI is $3000.

Anyway, it does sound like you've got a reasonable approach, so good luck! Looking forward to seeing what you find!

fenixv8

Thanks for all the helpful information Christien. I have a line on a couple but the more expensive one I think is the one I'm looking at. Engine was freshly rebuilt. I just need to figure out where is the best place to get the PPI done as the car is in the US. Thanks again for putting some numbers down from your experience.

Christien

My pleasure. Where's the car? Are you familiar with the Pelican Parts forums? Lots of early 911 folks there, and you might ask one to give it a look over before proceeding to full-on PPI. Pretty common for a long-distance transaction, as it helps to weed out scams, or just poorly-represented cars.