How did you get here to PPOT?
 

Me?

Back around Fall 2002 I got laid off and with that, I lost my company car. Which, was my ONLY car (wife had a car but she needed that for her stuff). I ended up buying a 325is which was a cool little ride if you don't need torque in your life. As things happened, I needed to do some maintenance and repairs on that car.

Which brought me to Pelican. I recall being slightly overwhelmed by the insane brand mania that the P car guys had. It certainly got my attention. Being someone who likes fun cars and had owned a few, I had always known about 911's. Funny thing, the floor hinge on the clutch put me off. I had driven a few and didn't really get it. And that goofy clutch sort of sealed the deal. I passed on a 68L and a 70 something Carrera. Oops, both big misses. I know. Well, I have no idea what my original log in was, it is long gone.

But my Uncle was a HUGE Porsche nut. I think he owned well over 40 of them. Including a first year 930. It was bright green and he showed up having driven from S. Oregon to Portland with the biggest grin I have ever seen. "what's so special about this car?" I asked. "It's got a turbo." he says. "It makes it go fast."

Of course I bought a Porsche. Or three. A 1980 SC coupe around 2008 and daily drove it for a long while. Wow. It was nothing short of awesome. Then I bought a 930. Which my young daughter named "The Millenium Whale." A combination of Millenium Falcon, which could go into hyperspace just like the 930 and a nod to the whale tail. She LOVED that car.

Now I am fully water cooled with a 2001 Boxster S and no regrets. Been on Pelican as LWJ since just around when I got the SC. It is a daily habit more or less. A fraternity of gear heads who think mostly similar to myself, which I greatly appreciate. Its been fun and gratifying.

So enough about me. How did you get here?

Started off buying 944 parts.

I bought my 911 back in 1995. I bought most of my parts from a local repair shop that has a decent parts inventory. When they closed, I went to another repair shop, but they had less inventory.

I searched for a how to on some repair, and found Pelican Tech forum. Then eventually the OT forum.

Bought a 914 that needed a lot of stuff

I actually got a warning from Wayne on a PJ O'Rourke quote, like 20 years ago here

1999, I got a new job making a lot more money than I'd previously been making including a sign-on bonus. I was starting to think about a new car while traveling for that job. I was in LAX and bought a magazine that I'd never heard of before, Excellence, to read on the flight home. That particular issue had the Bruce Anderson buyers guide for SCs and 3.2L cars in it. I was sold and had a 911 a few months later. I started out on the Rennlist email list for the first year or two, but then moved to the 911 tech board. After I sold my 911, I eventually found my way over to PPOT. I went through a couple of miatas after the 911 and now I'm in an '08 Boxster S.

On the tech section for years. Finished the car to where I wanted it, got bored, and migrated to OT.

I'm an interloper. I started on the other side with the BMW R1100S page.

Started off on porschephiles back in 1993-94 timeframe and then got disillusioned when it morphed to porschefans and then rennlist so dropped off for a while. I swapped a 3.2 into my car around 2002 and needed some wiring diagram help and found it on pelican, so I joined. Been here ever since...

About 10 years ago I was looking to buy a Cayman and came to PP for info. Not much activity in the 987 forums so I came to OT and lurked for about a year before registering. I lurk a lot more than I post but this is my favorite forum.

My 944 was vandalized in 2006. I'm the original owner and was at a crossroads: fix it or sell it (part it out). I joined Pelican in search of parts and wisdom. Met allot of owners on the 944/94/968 board and after a year, it was road worthy again.

The off-topic board is both informative and entertaining.

Bought my SC in 2002 over EBay then showed it to a co-worker...after about 2 months of hearing recommendations (and needing parts and repair advice), I found PP and joined. The rest is history. Hmmm, 1200 posts over 22 years...not bad! :)

I was on the 911 tech board a lot after I bought my Carrera. Obviously got here from that, but I don’t remember how.

I bought a 3.2 Carrera and drove/tinkered with it for a few years while learning what I could from the tech forum. Then one day, while I was in there, well, you know how that goes. One thing lead to another and soon the car was a bare chassis. I guess I needed some garage therapy, lol.

I learned how to do everything from re-dyeing seats (color change), welding, to painting. I soon met a bunch of great local people from the forum including you LWJ! I don't have that 911 anymore but couldn't give up Pelican so here I am.

Every once in a while I still get the urge to tinker on something in the garage and look back on my build thread but unfortunately, prices have gone beyond my means.

I was finally back to work after having been laid off for a year and a half, when a co-worker I'd known at my previous employer found me wandering the high bay one day. He'd jumped companies some years before so knew his way around. Anyway, he told me he knew of a young guy that was into Porsches and was starting a business selling parts for them out of his garage. We toured the high bay and eventually ran into the fella he wanted me to meet.
Turned out to be Wayne.
I joined Pelican sometime later, but since I had a 912 I spent more time over on the bbs than here.
When I traded my 912 to my brother for his SC I started hanging out here more.
Once that car left the fold I gravitated to off topics.
Been here 'n there ever since.

I used the transporter.

_

1970-1975: Drew 911s on my notebooks in high school. Used motorcycles for transportation, loved to wrench.

1978-1998: Drove the automotive equivalent of feces. Cars I could get for free or a couple hundred dollars. Got repair parts at junkyards. Drove them for free until I got tired of them. Drove them to the junkyard and handed them the keys. Got something else. Rinse repeat. My transportation expenses were literally limited to gas and oil.

Noticing I can repair my own vehicles and finally having a little money to spend I decided to get something I wanted. Budget: Around $10K or so. I was looking for a muscle car or a boat from the '50s like Buick or Cadillac when a friend told me my budget could allow a 911. Dang! He was right! Paid $13.5K for a great condition '83 SC. The rest is history. Came here to feed my immense hunger for 911 technical information and was not disappointed. Learned everything there is to know about SCs, then found PPOT where I learned everything else I know today.

Not a car guy ... thought I might want a 928.... discovered Rennlist then Pelican... wow ... these guys will help me ... a 911 is possible ....

$uckered ... I wuz a chump :D

Don't know how I found PPOT ....

Lookin' for loose wimmins mebbe ....

Suckered again :)

At the time ai had a '67 912 and a '72 911E and was looking at the tech forum for a year or so. I became a member some time after that and happened to be looking at the different forums, of which PPOT was one. I would look in on PPOT once in a while. Now I don't have much use for the tech forum, but still enjoy PPOT. I check in for short times once or twice a day, and appreciate everyone here.

Supe wins the thread so far with this: “ Drove the automotive equivalent of feces.”

was just experimenting and can quit anytime I want...then I bought a Mustang.

Did a Google search looking for dating tips.......;)

When I owned my 930, I looked at Rennlist and Pelican Turbo forums. When I sold the car, I didn’t want to be one of those guys that tells everybody, I used to have one! So, I started venturing to PPOT and haven’t looked back.

There was alcohol involved...

.

That's how I ended up everywhere too :D

Don't know why, but cars and airplanes were my Pokemon when I was a young kid (before there was Pokemon). My dad and uncle were into big-block Mopars. My uncle had a body shop and specialized in repairing what was "exotic" at the time (Jaguars, Mercedes, older cars...). A relative in California took me for a ride in his 356 when I was 5 years old and that was a very different experience. We were cornering around the back streets of Moraga at 60+ mph and that car didn't care. Big Mopars won't do that. Then we stopped at a Porsche dealership to see his buddy and the brand-new 930 in the showroom was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. That was ~1975.

I can't tell you how many 911's I built in LEGO from then on.

Life and reality set in and I thought I'd never own one. Things aligned and I started casually looking for a coupe in 2008. I didn't find what I wanted and stopped looking in early 2010. One June Saturday morning I sat down at my PC with a cup of coffee, opened Craigslist, got the car/truck section, and what is now my Targa was at the top of the list. Sometimes cars find you.

So I found myself with a non-running '75 911s Targa that I had flat-bedded home in big pieces and I needed parts and advice. Google brought me to Pelican and I lived in the tech section for several months.

I started attending a local Cars & Coffee gathering to look at other 911's and ran across a couple of guys standing around a yellow backdated car telling jokes. One was really funny - I asked where they heard that. The guy smoking a cigar said he read it on the Pelican Off-Topic forum.

(And incidentally that's also how I met Eric and Harry and Dennis and a few others here on Pelican...)

And so I went home and looked for that forum and here I am. I visit here about 3x more than the tech forum now...

Aw heck. Now I am one of those guys who tells people I used to have a 930...

I will confess it was the achievement of my childhood automotive fantasy.

Much more reading threads than posting, PPOT has always been my source of news, mostly expert advice and humor. Saves me a great deal of time, no need for TV or newspapers. Porsche content is a bonus!

Bought an old 911 in 2015 and used this site for info. Then discovered the random pics thread on the OT and that was that

My join date says 2002, but that's not right because of the computer update at that time.
I joined about 3 years earlier and used the tech forum knowledge for a pulled head stud project.

After that, I wandered over here.

I went crazy and bought a 914. I found Pelican in 2000...

Bought my first P-car in 2010. Then I went down a dark, dirty and ultimately beautiful rabbit hole with my Mexico Blue 911 project. I LIVED on the tech and parts forums during those 5 years. When that project wrapped up and I needed less parts (and tech) I found myself meandering over here. Still visit the parts and tech forums, but it is now more like 25/25/50 PPOT these days. That ratio may change again as just I bought a '72 "garage find" coupe this past weekend. :)

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1724066382.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1724066397.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1724066413.jpg

Sweet looking '72

Man, those were fun days! Miss those Saturday morning get togethers with the guys.

Bought my `87 in October 2003. Had tons to learn, needed parts, found Pelican. Back then the big controversies were tuning the chip for your air cooled and what brand of oil (and the whole ZDDP thing.

One day I had some extra time and noticed PPOT. Read a few threads and never left.
IIRC there wasn't PARF back then. As PPOT got wilder, PARF was started. Eventually the "Chest" thread was axed and photos were pulled if they were too revealing.

My first car was a beat up 67' bug I bought for $300 from my big brother in 1978.
After dropping the motor, repairing/replacing body bits and putting a new interior in and driving it for about 10 years I moved on to more mundane auto's.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1724171803.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1724171803.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1724171803.JPG

I've always admired Porsche's and thought they were out of reach- then the opportunity to buy this one popped up, late in 2002 I had it delivered to me via flatbed since it wasn't running.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1724171529.JPG

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1724171529.jpg

After lots of parts and good advice from our host and the 911 forums I had a good running 72 and started venturing off into PPOT.

So many funny and sometimes touching posts, I kinda got hooked and post probably too much on the Random Photos you have taken thread.

20 years ago, I was driving my brand-new-to-me 1987 924S when I ran over a wheel chock that fell of a county dump truck. Following a little too close, so no time to react and bam, there goes the power steering pump bracket.
I found a local Porsche Mechanic (Momentum Motorworks, Birmingham AL) who also convinced me that I desperately need a front-of-engine service. I wanted to do it myself, but he first directed me to the Pelican Parts Bulletin Board and assigned homework: Start from the beginning of the Porsche 924/944/968 Technical Forum, and read everything. I called him back the next day and had him do the front end service.

Since then, I have performed all the 924S maintenance myself; thanks to these Pelican Parts Forums. I only decided to see what PPOT was all about around 3-4 years ago. Interesting community we have here!

Here she is on her 30th birthday:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1724174308.jpg

Thanks. Going to the dry ice/laser cleaning shop this afternoon for some clean up and further research. Hopefully no huge hidden flaws.

I was a network administrator/computer tech. So if I was on the computer I was working. I spent a lot of time on forums and my Porsche stuff was with the PCA Potomac group. Then I came across Pelican Parts and thought it was much more my style. And have been here ever since.

^^^^ I got paid a lot read the Tech Forum for several years too Bill :)

LOL it's always fun to be paid while you follow your passion.