Hi guys, only just signed up here. Not new to cars but very new to Porsches.
I'm in the process of buying this 911S from California
I found the car on eBay advertised by this seller:
eBay Feedback Profile for allclassicspartsc
His name is Nickolas Micheli and he has good positive feedback. I've spoken to him on the phone a couple of times and he seems helpful and positive
The car is at a workshop in Campbell, CA called "C.T. Automotive". The feedback of this business on the internet seems quite positive and they have been good to deal with. I have had them do a pre-purchase inspection, with some e-mailed photos and so on, no hidden surprises so far.
It's a '75 911S with an '81 3.0L engine installed, SSIs and a standard twin inlet muffler, no cat, no smog pump, no air con. Early gearbox/transaxle ratio, fairly freshly done brakes, bigger swaybars, strut brace etc.
All sounds really good. The guys at the workshop and the seller Nickolas have given me no reason to doubt them, but while I'm 12,000km away you can understand I'm a little scared. If there's anything I should know about these guys, good or bad, please PM me.
If everything goes smoothly, the car will be on its way to Stanton, CA before mid next week and it will be stored there for a while before it gets loaded onto a boat. I'm going to be able to pick up some bits and pieces and have them chucked in the car to save on international postage, so I'm trying to quickly figure out what I should buy in the next few days.
I don't want to spend big dollars but if there are some worthwhile upgrades I can do cheaply, I'd love to hear about them. The car is apparently known for running hot in traffic/hot weather and it has been suggested to get a thermo fan for the oil cooler. I think it already has a later model oil cooler fitted ('the radiator type'/Carrera one in the fender). Are there kits to fit fans to these oil coolers? Something with a thermostatic switch so that it doesn't run all the time.
The SSIs will stay but I've had a quote on a locally made stainless "Monty" muffler, I've heard good things about these, and the price is competitive when I don't have to pay for international shipping because they're only half an hour from home.
The car has a red MSD box fitted and supposedly has a bit of a clumsy misfire which can be a pain, one person has suggested a black MSD box to remedy the problem, another has suggested reverting to the standard ignition system, not sure what the best thing to do there is, the MSD box might not even be creating the problem and I may just need to replace the leads or similar.
I've seen ads for Porsches mentioning those plastic airboxes with the big panel filters in them, however many blade fan upgrades, that kinda thing. Are these changes worth doing? I'm not sure what's good value for money but I will have a bit of change left over to invest in upgrades.
I'm trying to figure out whether the car has had the 'Carrera' chain tensioners retrofitted or not. If not, I've seen the figure of $1200 mentioned, and a figure of $400 mentioned, what should I expect to pay for the 'kit' and where should I look to find the bits for sale? I would probably install them myself as I'm fairly handy with mechanicals.
I will also need to change the headlights for lights that dip the other way (to suit our Right Hand Drive roads). I can't see myself being lucky enough to find someone wanting to swap the other way haha. Should I be looking for original lights? 3rd party reproductions? OEM lights? What is the best value for money? And perhaps even place to go? Although I guess this is primarily an American forum so you guys may not know any suppliers of RHD headlights.
Any feedback would be much appreciated. I've got a tonne of questions to ask but I thought I'd start somewhere. Sorry if a lot of this stuff gets asked every day. I haven't looked through the whole forum yet and it's a bit faster flowing than what I'm used to!
Cheers,
Heath