What do I need to look out for?

[jbhowat]

I was on vacation recently to a beach-area near my parent's vacation home. I'm not going to disclose exactly what city because I haven't bought the car yet and the last time I made a post like this a local went and bought the car from under me.

Anyway, I have 2003 Golf GTI VR6 as my daily driver. Its nice, pretty fast, somewhat sporty, etc. This thanksgiving I bought a 1973 VW Fastback (Type III) for $300 to mess around with when I was bored at this beach house. I've messed around a bit, she runs good but needs a LOT of rust repair. More of a long-term project and I can't even drive it a lot and have fun with it because its so rusty its dangerous IMO (floorboards, chassis, its bad).

I was in a parking garage on vacation and I pulled up to the 2nd empty floor in my Golf. I saw an older 911 sitting all by itself in a corner so I went over and parked near it. I thought it was just a picky Porsche owner who didn't want to get dinged, but as I got out my girlfriend pointed out it had a thick layer of dust on it. The car's registration expired in 2001. Judging my the amount of dust on this car I would say it has been sitting there since 2001 (probably because it is a low ceiling parking garage and I doubt the owner of the garage wanted to deal with removing it, a truck would not fit and the parking garage is rarely full anyway).

I walked around the back of the car and realised the car was probably a 60s 911. Turns out it is a 1968 911. There is a bunch of stuff written on the window dust, including lots of obscene stuff, a swastika, and a for-sale price or 49.99, and a phone #. For all I know somebody could have added in the period. BUT! I was able to trick the DMV into giving me the name the car was registered under. It was a woman and the number didn't match the one on the window. Also, there was a for-sale sign on the inside of the car that said $2400. There is only a little bit of surface rust under the doors. THe interior is excellent except there are no front head rests. It even has all the hubcaps. The bad news is that the hood is dented. Some dork stood on it.

I found the ladies address and walked there (it was nearby) but she wasn't home. I called and left a message. She called back and said she would be willing to sell it to me for very very cheap, much less than the 2400 she tried to sell it for 3 years ago... If I buy it, how much should I spend, what shoudl I look for and what will it take to get it running?

As of right now I've listed I would need to do or get:

-Drain tank of old gas
-Replace (at least) the fuel filter)
-New hood
-New battery (these are 12v cars, right? and the batt. is under the back seat?)
-New brake pads/rotors? They are kind of rusty, but I know my Golfs rotors rust after light washing.
-Air Filter (it has a sticker on the inside of the engine cover for K&N filtercharger)
-Oil and filter (I checked the dipstick and it was dry, but I woudl expect that all the oil sludged down to the bottom)
-Spark plugs (in the event they are fouled up)
-Spark plug wires (It was an MSD dist and coil, but the covering on the outside of the wires is loose and papery).



Anything else you can think of? Which of these thing would be required for me to drive it (slowly) the 50-60miles back to my house, or in reality will it have to be towed from the garage to my house to do any of these things?

Please help me save this beauty, she is slowly dying at the hands of cruel vandals and the elements!

[rzepko6194]

If you could get it for under $2K (way under) it's a pretty good deal, but I wouldn't even attempt to drive it home.

I would worry about the rust you don't see; there's probably lots of it. Unless you're handy with a welder, it could cost thousands to repair the rust damage.

The engine and/or tranny may need a full rebuild. Big bucks, even if you do it yourself. Same for the brakes and suspension.

Unless you're extremely lucky, you should prepare yourself for many, many hours of work and lots of $$!!!

This car may be at a point where it would be better to (shudder) part it out.

Just my .02.

[porschenut]

The car is worth more than $2k in parts alone. I would buy it without hesitation.

[DavidI]

I would take a floor jack and lift the car to check out the pan. Places to look for rust that I know of are:
1. suspension area where it bolts to the pan
2. passenger compartment area of the pan
3. rocker panels
4. under the rear seats

Who knows, you may get lucky and not have to replace any of these pieces. I bought the pieces from our host and had them installed in SoCal for about $1000.

Good luck, David

One question though, you wrote that you previously asked about a car on this board and the car was bought out from under you. However, it shows that this is your first post. Did you use another name or something? Just curious......

[Jack Olsen]

The car might be worth more than 2K in parts, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't cost 15K (or more) to turn it into a 6-8K car. If you're gonig to buy it, even for less than $2,000, I'd make a pre-purchase inspection part of the deal. Then take it to a good independent shop and get their opinion on whether it's worth parting out or restoring, and approximately what the restoration would cost.

I wouldn't attempt starting it. Flatbed it to the shop for the PPI, and let someone who knows these cars go over it before you do any damage.

You cannot check the oil on a 911 when the engine is not running (or even if it is running, but has not warmed up to operating temperature). If you try to get the oil level up to the marks on the dipstick as it sits, you will massively overfill the oil tank.

[jbhowat]

Okay, sounds good. I'll check those areas and find a place to have it checked out...

BTW, the other car someone bought out from under me was a *mint* split window Beetle for "$3000 obo". The person obviously didn't know what they had and was under the impression that the older it is the more of a piece of junk it is I guess and they really wanted to get rid of it. It was a mistake on my part to post that on The Samba, this isn't THAT great of a deal, but I don't want somebody snatching another car from me.

[Hoffman912]

suspension pan? this is what mine looked like before my mechanic cut it out and replaced it this week.... (and mine was 'rust free' 6 years ago.. isnt it odd how the rust you dont see or feel, comes back to bite you in the ass?)






sorry.. food for thought, as well as showing where to look...