"Freddy," my '77 911S

[dreebs]

Hey y'all, long time Porsche/Pelican enthusiast here, always lurking but never posting and figured it was time to put together my first build thread. I'll try to keep the tangents to a minimum...

I always grew up in a "Porsche family," riding in the back seat of my dad's '98 993 C2S Widebody bouncing my head off of the hardback seats when he would smash on the brakes on our way to Sunday morning breakfast. Man I wish he kept that car...

He and my Uncle Freddy always had cool cars and used to have a race team together, and long story short, my Uncle Freddy unexpectedly passed away a year and a half ago.

I had just finished putting together and had sold my 1962 VW Beetle hot rod project, and was just dipping my toe into the market for another air cooled 911 when we lost him. A friend of mine sent me a Facebook listing for this car, and I ended up sending a deposit over to the seller while I was on my way to my Uncle's funeral, and then re-arranged my flights to stop and pick up the car in Denver on my way back home to Montana where I was living at the time.

Uncle Freddy sent this one my way, so whether you choose to "name" your cars or not, I felt that it was only fitting for this one given the timing.

Anyway, that's enough of the sad part of the back story with this car, on to the fun stuff - I've been working on this car for the past year and a half with my girlfriend and have a lot to share...I'll throw in a few pictures of my previous projects also here just for fun.

Thanks to the Pelican community for being such a great resource throughout the years here...

Here are the first photos I saw of the car, from the Facebook listing that the seller had posted. Originally a silver car, he bought it four years before me from an estate and had his buddy do a pretty decent glass-out respray color change to Ice Green Metallic, one of my absolute favorite mid-year colors.






(These seats were eventually sold on BaT to fund more parts of this project)

The car looked pretty great in person - mostly a survivor, save for the respray. Interior and engine looked to be original, the front tub is relatively untouched with the factory black paint spots still visible, and the car is straight with no floor or rust issues at all. A perfect candidate for a refresh
AND it came with H1's - my absolute favorite headlight for these 911's. Score.

It also seemed to run great; if it wasn't for the MANY extra parts and THREE(!) sets of wheels the seller included with the car, I would have just driven it back to Montana. But, everything happens for a reason...more on that later. SO - this was the next 12 hours of my life:



Once I got it back, I drove it about 8 miles before I heard a clunking from the rear wheel and the car wouldn't move. Fortunately I was already coasting into my work parking lot, so I was able to get it to a safe place to see what was going on and get it fixed. The engine still ran great, so I took a peek underneath and found this...



Remember when I said everything happens for a reason?
Also fortunately, I worked (at the time) at the airport, so this was the nearest "garage" that I had access to pop the car in and continue my repair once it started raining...



Rough life, I know.

Anyway, drama finally aside, after sourcing the correct bolts, realizing my axles and hardware aren't the right size for those little half moon connecting double lock washer things, and finding the right one-directional single bolt lock washers, I got it back together and on the road before delivering the bug to it's new owner.




Then the garage was a two-Porsche garage, for a quick moment...



That's a good start, and gets me through the first month of ownership of Freddy - June, 2023. More to come, thank you guys for following along!

-Andrew

[AFB24911S]

Thanks for posting, great story in all aspects Andrew. Sorry for your loss, glad you're embracing a car that seems primed to be a great experience!

[Winter]

I love the color despite it being a non-original respray, And it looks great with the duck and the cookies.

Have fun with it!

[75 911s]

Best possible color for a respray / color change imho. Love the cookies too!

[dreebs]

Thanks all - I definitely agree, I'm not one to really care about originality unless the car has some special history - mostly, I just want to assemble a car in a way that makes me excited about it. I usually do my best to avoid any body work/paint on my projects, so this really was the best scenario and candidate for me to update some things and not feel too bad about messing with the originality.

The story continues...

Not long after getting the car back on the road after the rear axle situation, I was offered a really great opportunity that would require me to relocate to the Boston area. With 5 cars and 4 motorcycles in tow, the first keyword on my search for housing was "Garage," as I'm sure you could imagine...

Fortunately, I found a place very close to my new office almost immediately that is run by a father-son duo and is more or less a car club and storage facility. A quick phone call confirmed that it would be a great fit, and I'm pleased to say that almost a year and a half later, it has been fantastic.

With that, everything got loaded up into a trailer and shipped to my new life in Boston. Huge shoutout to Paul J from Goodspeed Logistics in Chicago for getting it all hauled out to me safely and quickly!



Now the project can really begin...

But first, I took advantage of the last nice fall weekend last year and drove out to North Salem, NY to visit my nephew for the weekend, and took him to his neighborhood cars and coffee in the car at Hayfields. Always a good stop if you're in the area on a Sunday.



And, of course, have to stop by and see the guys at 1600Veloce...



Okay, now back to Boston to start digging into the car for real!
And it's a good thing that was the plan, because on arrival back at the car club I noticed a sizable oil leak from the Carrera cooler in the front fender. I guess those finned Elephant Racing oil lines are going to have to come sooner than my wallet anticipated...



When I moved to Boston, I quickly (and unexpectedly) met a great gal named Kristen. I remember one of the first weekends we knew each other she asked me what my Friday night plans were, and I told her I had this car project I was going to work on and it's at this garage by my work and she could come if she wanted to, but told her to bring a folding chair and a book or something to keep her busy while I tore into the oil system (and ripped the AC that was left half-installed out while I was at it).

"I'm not just going to sit there, you're going to teach me how to work on cars with you!"

That's when I knew...haha.

So, she ordered us matching coveralls, because you can't work on cars together if you don't look the part, and we were off to the races with project Freddy.





Seriously, how lucky am I?!

While she was getting the AC lines out, I popped the windshield out, as I knew I was going to put a new dash in. Upon doing so, I found that this car is in fact a 911...classic.



So, a quick mask-off, sand-down, and epoxy primer job was in order. Fortunately in a spot that the new windshield seal would completely cover, so I wasn't worried about the body shop this time around.







Now that I have space to keep the car and really start disassembling, that also means that I have the space to start collecting parts for the re-assembly...that's to come with the next update!

[ToySnakePMC]

What a good story and a wonderful young lady! She's a keeper! My wife will occasionally give the shop a sweeping glance - but NEVER pick up a wrench, lol! Love the middie. Keep this build thread going. Glad to see that your windshield cowl rust was pretty much non-existent.
Congrats!

[Phil1980]

Great find on the car, new (job?) opportunity and you meet a girl that wants to work on a cool but rusty and dirty old car with you?

Well done sir, just don't go gambling now because you used up all your luck for a while now!!

[bbturbo]

Wow, what a great story. Threads like this are always uplifting. And the nod to your uncle is wonderful.

Good luck with the 911, and Kristen. Having a partner in crime makes these projects, and life, so much better. In fact, I’m about to go for a cold drive with the wife in my SC! Cheers.

[Frog76S]

Uplifting thread……….kudos to Kristen for her support and hands on involvement…….it makes the the project and car more meaningful.

Thanks for sharing and Merry Christmas

[Frog76S]

Uplifting thread……….kudos to Kristen for her support and hands on involvement…….it makes the the project and car more meaningful.

Thanks for sharing and Merry Christmas

[BEGNAT996]

Nice 911!!!

[dreebs]

Originally Posted by AFB24911S

Thanks for posting, great story in all aspects Andrew. Sorry for your loss, glad you're embracing a car that seems primed to be a great experience!

Thank you AFB, it was a tough time but I really do feel that I am able to stay close to him through this project, which has been a ton of fun. Kristen even had this awesome sweatshirt made for me to wear last winter while wrenching in the shop, which was such a perfect gift. Freddy was known for saying, "I'll see ya later," and had SEYALTR as his license plate my whole life.



Pretty special gift, for a pretty special Uncle, from a pretty special girl in my life. Feeling very fortunate since bringing this car into my life!

[dreebs]

Originally Posted by Winter

I love the color despite it being a non-original respray, And it looks great with the duck and the cookies.

Have fun with it!

Originally Posted by 75 911s

Best possible color for a respray / color change imho. Love the cookies too!

Originally Posted by BEGNAT996

Nice 911!!!

Thanks gents - it's definitely a pretty fun combo! I love the color, and am super lucky that the owner gave me three sets of wheels with it - can change up the look anytime. I definitely do want to grab a normal decklid at some point too, but at least for now the ducky looks great on it.

Originally Posted by ToySnakePMC

What a good story and a wonderful young lady! She's a keeper! My wife will occasionally give the shop a sweeping glance - but NEVER pick up a wrench, lol! Love the middie. Keep this build thread going. Glad to see that your windshield cowl rust was pretty much non-existent.
Congrats!

A sweeping glance is better than nothing! And thank you - yes, while I was glad to see the rust repair wasn't going to be an entirely involved project, I still can't believe that's how bad it got after only 4 years since the glass-out respray! I guess these really have a reputation in that spot for a reason...hopefully the epoxy primer will help seal it a bit better for longer now. We shall see!

Originally Posted by Phil1980

Great find on the car, new (job?) opportunity and you meet a girl that wants to work on a cool but rusty and dirty old car with you?

Well done sir, just don't go gambling now because you used up all your luck for a while now!!

Yes! Definitely feeling the luck these days. I moved to the area to fly a Gulfstream for an individual, and also work at one of his space tech companies building satellites...definitely couldn't say no to that! He had visited the town I was living in in Montana and we chatted about airplanes and my previous beetle project, he found out I was a pilot and a gear head...it was a very lucky encounter indeed.

Originally Posted by bbturbo

Wow, what a great story. Threads like this are always uplifting. And the nod to your uncle is wonderful.

Good luck with the 911, and Kristen. Having a partner in crime makes these projects, and life, so much better. In fact, I’m about to go for a cold drive with the wife in my SC! Cheers.

Thank you!! Feels great to have a partner that is interested in this stuff with me. Hope you and the wife had a nice holiday drive together - awesome that she will go for a cruise with you, that's the best part about these cars!!

Originally Posted by Frog76S

Uplifting thread……….kudos to Kristen for her support and hands on involvement…….it makes the the project and car more meaningful.

Thanks for sharing and Merry Christmas

It really does, and now she is invested in the thread updates also - Merry Christmas, thank you and everyone else for following along!

[dreebs]

Whew, now that the Christmas chaos is over, I can sit back down here and keep the thread going! I hope everyone had a nice holiday spent with family, we sure did here on the east coast.

So now with the car in Boston, beginning disassembly, and winter of '23 on its way in, I began to plan the build and order parts...

First up was a small one, but one that I had known I was going to order for a while...JoshyRobots for the win! And yes, I got stuck in the rain on my way home that day. But these cars are made for driving anyway, aren't they!?



Now...my dream has been to have one of these cars with the Pasha interior, which I think would look fantastic with this cars color. I still hope to get there one day, but figured this was a close second without having to pay for a fully custom upholstery job.



And since you can't have cool fabric on just the seats, I took to Etsy to find the perfect match (and ordered a Recaro picnic blanket when I ordered the seats, because why not). The plan for the fabric is to inlay it to the pieces for a backdated dash trim kit from Carbone, but that is the last piece of my order that hasn't shown up now for 15 months so...I'm not sure if that's the route I'll end up going, we will see how things play out. I guess they're having some manufacturing struggles, hopefully they can get it sorted out soon. The rest of their parts seem great so far, installation is coming soon!



And remember when I mentioned the new dash plan? I can't believe Porsche is making these again...the best feeling to open this box and see.



When I first got the car, I REALLY wanted a set of those 1552 Magnus Fuchs in the gold finish, but didn't realize that they had discontinued them. I'm glad they did, because after sending my set of Fuchs that came with the car out to Ed at Fuchs Restoration, I have no doubt that the RSR finish is going to be the way to go on this car. Can't wait to grab some tires for these this spring and get them on the car...



Now this bit is small potatoes, but on my last 911 I had sandblasted and re-sprayed my fan and it was mostly good, but definitely wasn't done carefully enough (I was young, broke, and learning) and added a bit of a vibration to the engine in doing so.
So, this time around, I figured I can start fresh. Again, such a great feeling...



2023 was a bit of a spendy year, but always fun to bring boxes to the shop, and building a worthwhile project. Spot the Pelican boxes!!





And, the Carbone and Rennline goodies began to show up...both of these guys do really great work.





Also, shoutout to Tom, Damien, Sam, and Jason at Rennline for the help with this project. Tom and I have been friends for a long time (I actually used to work there when I had my first 911, which Tom now owns) and has been an incredible resource for me. Jason was the one who originally sent me the listing for this car, so I suppose none of this would be happening without him - thank you Jason!!

[jimtweet]

I love it! I’m building a 75 now, I just love the mid year cars!

[dreebs]

Speaking of Rennline, I grabbed this really great front strut brace from them, but also have the really nice new carpet kit from Carbone for the front trunk. Thanks to McMaster, I ordered a hole punch the right size for the strut bar and voila! Measure thrice, punch once...brews (driven specially from Wisconsin, if you know you know!) with Kristen to celebrate!







Now...you know that thing that happens when all you want to do is replace a few things here and there and you end up accidentally tearing the entire car apart "while you're in there?" Well... I had zero intention of taking the windows and doors apart, but once the windshield was out we had a chat and a google image search about whether to keep the '77 black trim (which the previous owner had sandblasted and resprayed trim black) or to polish it for an earlier look. I bet you can figure out what we decided to do here...











Starting to go a bit nuts in the mask between the epoxy primer and trying to strip the paint off of the trim!! All part of the fun...



Now, here's where I owe Kristen a HUGE shoutout. She completely disassembled the majority of the door trim herself, with her phone on the Pelican forums in one hand for reference, and bagged and labeled ALL of the hardware and pieces. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of her organization, but she truly did a really nice job of keeping track of everything.

Originally, I had tried to polish these myself, but the previous sandblasting was too much to cut through by hand.

I called around to a few places (and quickly learned of Flat6 restoration in my back yard, but unfortunately have to wait for a bigger budget build to use them), and found a father-son duo in Wilmington, Mass. called MacLellan Co.

Another huge shoutout to Peter MacLellan for knocking this out of the park, and getting all of the smaller bits plated for me. These guys did an amazing job, and were super pleasant and fun to work with.



As bad as I wanted to jet to the shop and install them right when I picked them up, Kristen wouldn't let me touch them since it was her project on the car!!! Rightly so - she couldn't wait to reassemble the doors, and I can't blame her at all.

That's to come, and much more still! Thanks for following along, and Merry Happy Everything out there!

[colingreene]

Nice work it looks good. I am glad you are doing the trim in silver.

[ToySnakePMC]

We think alike in a few areas.
Added a polished fresh air grille (in cowl) and hood grille - all used items from the Pelican forum to unify with the rest of the trim on this '76.



And I did the Rennline backdate dash to give me the "longhood view" from the wheel that I craved. I replaced the glove box with a soft Herschel nylon lunch box that matches the interior and proudly rides around in rear footwell.



Your Fuchs look fantastic - like the rest of this project. That would be the icing on the cake for sure.

[75 911s]

Originally Posted by dreebs

YESSSSSSS. Love your choices! The bright trim is going to look amazing. I also just sent a set of wheels to Ed myself. Can't wait to your set on the car.

[A930Rocket]

Great project!

What model Recaro seats are these?