After 17 years, a Lot of Tough Times, I've Rediscovered My Love.....

[asphaltgambler]

Sounds crazy but it's true. Hell of a journey together. We almost sold it 4 different instances when times got really bad over the years, had neither the money or the 'want to' because so much water had passed under the bridge.

We were doing well then, I was making bank at the local exotic car shop I worked in and I also flipped 20+ BMW E30 cars over the course of a year and netted @$22K from that hard work. My wife would often help me and I decided it was time to buy a classic car for her. She initially wanted an early 70's Corvette, but I told here "Come on down to the dealership, I'll take you for a ride in one there, but also I'm going show you something different..........."

She comes to the place I was working at the time, they had a nice '74 454 / 4-speed car (that style is what she wanted) and we went for a ride. Then I showed her an '89 911 Targa, guards red of course, and we drove that. Well guess which one she wanted?

So now the search is on and I found a '85 Targa online in Georgia that was nice but needed a little love. I figured we buy that, do a little fixin, make a some more dough, buy a really nice 3.2 / G50 or 964.

So we buy it, road trip it back to Va. and fix all the little stuff, sell it. Well I made the mistake of keeping it a little too long before selling and during a spirited road test, a rod promptly exits the block

The short version is we were too far in to part it out and decided to restore this one. That was almost 17 years ago and not long after, joined PP here. Even on paper it was the right choice at the time, albeit for both of us, the toughest one.

So began a complete nut/bolt, down to the shell and rear glass resto on a rough patch of concrete in my gravel driveway. Within a few years I had made a lot of progress considering I was working outside, with no garage. I did everything myself but the long block and the trans overhaul.

Then came the housing crisis and we ended up losing about everything we had ever worked for but the shirts on our backs. So it got put away and twice in the next 4 years time; we came very close to letting it go......... unfinished. When we started to regain our footing, I would work on it periodically, put more money into it as time went by. It was then we decided together to sell off a bunch of crap, to gain traction. A small vintage motorcycle collection, including 1 bike that was hers I had restored. I still have my Road King though. We continued to work hard and in 2016 bought our (new to us) home.

Again the 911 was on the waaay back burner as I worked on our home, and other projects that made us side money........until Jan this year. My wife never complained about the money as often she would chip in, she was very patient about the whole thing really. Starting last month I took off the dusty car cover, washed it inside / out and started reviewing what was needed to complete. Surprisingly, not a lot.

Truthfully, along this rough stretch of highway, I became almost despondent about finishing it. I had lost my love and passion that drove me to spend $55K+ and untold amount of labor hours over the course of time to make it 'just right'. I mean right down to duplicating the bar code decal on the driver's door sill; exactly.

This past Sat afternoon, I was backing it out my garage for the first time under it's own power in 17 years. Just then my wife pulled up, back from shopping, could not believe what she saw, and ran over excited to see if we at least could 'just take it around the block'...............

We did and I'm happy to say we're both back in love with it again!! Possibly all the sweeter now because of our sacrifices', the money, the times we almost sold it.

It still needs more tuning on the fuel map, running lean. It needs final clean-up and detail, alignment, etc. But at least the daylight on this thing is looking very bright now

[SiberianDVM]

Beautiful.

I'm going the opposite way. With my back injuries, I'm selling my 1977 Targa and buying a Cayman with PDK.

[oldE]

Excellent! Kudos to you and the missus for hanging in there and winning through.

Best
Les

[masraum]

Fantastic! Beautiful!

I'm glad that you hung on to it. There is nothing like the air cooled cars. I'm sure the earlier you go the more character they have. I don't regret selling mine when I did because it was the right thing to do. But I definitely miss it despite how good my Boxster is.

[Seahawk]

Great story well told.

I love it...I’m a Targa man.

[gregpark]

Wow, that's pretty 👍 And I'm not even a Targa guy

[A930Rocket]

Fantastic story and great car. Thanks for sharing

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Great story, great wife and great car, thanks for sharing it!

[Reg]

Nice! I’d be glad I kept it too. Wish I never sold mine.

[Bob Kontak]

You could easily drop that a millimeter or two.

[KFC911]

Beautimous car... and story too !

[LWJ]

That is EXACTLY what a fun car is for. For joy. For desire. For goals. Congratulations!

It is a BEAUTY!

[Bugsinrugs]

Beautiful car.

[Jeff Higgins]

Congrats!!! Proof positive that sometimes the good guys do actually win, that hard work and sacrifice do actually pay off and, most of all, the value of a good woman making the journey with you. Well done, sir.

[Norm K]

The whale tail isn't my style (at least not on a naturally-aspirated Targa) but you have a beautiful car!

_

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by Norm K

The whale tail isn't my style (at least not on a naturally-aspirated Targa) but you have a beautiful car!

_

Norm. NORM. NORM.

Look up what kind of tail that is.

I'm not gonna say it's a Carrera tail.

Just do your due diligence.

Not that I have a Targa or anything.

[cabmandone]

Nice! If I get out to visit my brother in Stafford, I might PM you and see if we can meet up for a little cruise. I'm sure my brother would be up for that with his Targa.

[gsxrken]

Now drive the rims off it!

[asphaltgambler]

I would enjoy that, I'm @40 mins from Stafford.

The tail is a Carrera piece original to the car as it used to have A/C. The larger tail is a tea tray style specifically for the turbo intercooler on those cars.

[asphaltgambler]

The engine is now 3.4, 9:8-1, custom grind cams based on super cup, turbo oil pump, ported heads, 964 plastic vario-ram with the flap controlled by a MSD trigger box, Lindsey Racing MAF conversion, the DME board was double speeded with custom chip all done by Steve Wong.

The engine was by Michael Mount who does all the high-end racing Porsche engines in the mid-atlantic area, very well known