[Scott S]

Hi All –
I am trying to help a pal with a dilemma. His dad was the original owner of a 1968 912 soft window targa. He actually ordered it the way he wanted it, and it is my understanding that he picked it up himself at the factory. He was a Porsche guy under the premise that he liked the way the car looked and drove – but he did not do any maintenance. The car was a New Jersey daily driver, then a Colorado daily driver up until the early 80’s. In the mid 70’s it had a Maaco quality respray to “fix” some rust issues (bondo and a poor respray). The car had a carb fire, thankfully the damage was contained to the drivers side solex and some paint damage to the deck lid – nothing else. Carbs were replaced with webers. A “new” motor was installed (so non-numbers matching) and life moved on. In the early 80’s his dad bought a new daily driver and stored the 912 in their garage. This lasted about two years. The car was then placed outside under a tarp for close to 10 years.
His dad passed a few years back, and my pal got the car. As you can imagine, it is a mess. Floors, sills, front fenders, suspension pan, outer rear torsion bar mounts, cowel are all just rusted away – and that is just what can be seen. I cant imagine what is under the 40 year old bondo. If you can believe it, the car still fires right up (smokes like hell) and he has taken many recent trips around the neighborhood (very very dangerous in my opinion).

My pal is not a man of means. More troubling is that he also is known for really cutting corners (ie –“ why weld, when an L bracket and some drywall screws will work…” ). Other than selling some parts here and there, the car is a write off in my opinion. But, it is his dads car, with piles of memories. Big time attachments.

Anyone been involved in a similar situation?

I don’t want to be rude to my buddy, I dont want him to waste money and I also don’t want to lie to him when he asks me if I can do some “quick welding to fix a few things” (this has already come up). He thinks he can fix the car and make it a “decent driver” for $2500 – 5k. There is simply no way.

Ugh. Not sure what to tell him.