new owner, restoring a 1969 911T

[wreckah]

hi guys,

just wanted to introduce myself, and show the project i'll be working on together with a good buddy.

I'm almost 30yrs old, from Belgium, biker, and 911-enthousiast.

After a motorcycle-trip from Belgium to Tanzania at the beginning of this year, i got the taste for more adventure, and i decided to make a big trip once more.

Together with my buddy, we're going to drive our freshly acquired porsche 1969 911T from Belgium to Beijing (China), somewhere in 2007.

Here's the car we're working on:









the car is mechanically pretty good, not too much rust, and still rides very well! Interior is quite original too. we've got the fuchs rims, but we will probably be driving on plain steel wheels to China (higher, and stronger)

work done at the moment:

- rebuilt carbs
- rebuilt brakes
- took out interior for rust-searching
- lots of small things

work to be done:

- complete de-rust and paint of bodywork
- replacement of front fueltank-carrier (rusted through)
- odometer repair
- engine fine-tuning
- bolting up some reinforcements: rollcage, front strut, and some protection underneath the car
- lots of small things

i have bought the 101 projects book from wayne, which is absolutely great, and i think i will find much more info yet from this board!

cheers,
Jan

[islandflyer]

Nice color !! WELCOME

[Grady Clay]

Jan,

WELCOME to the Forum. Great looking 911T, I like the non-appearance group with the Fuchs.

Your B-to-B tour sounds exciting! What route?

You will find lots of suggestions here on the subtle things to prepare a almost 40 year old 911 for the adventure. Two very important things come to my mind; add the reinforcements between the rear torsion bar tube and the chassis at the tunnel and up-date the front ball joints and struts to the wedge pin connection.

Why don’t you guys approach a big Antwerp or Brussels Porsche dealer for sponsorship (to buy Pelican parts) and have a team ’69-’09 “Forty Years of Trans-continental Tours” or some such thing. Have the team in the 997 be mid-east princes. The cost of logistics, fuel, lodging, etc. isn’t small change. I looked into this 25 years ago. It is much easier today, just more expensive. This will be a fun adventure.

A prepared ‘69T is a desirable car to take on such a tour. It is simple – it followed the KISS Principal. Your mission is to make all those simple things new again and apply the appropriate updates.


E-mail me your snail-mail address and I will send you your first US$1 of sponsor money for the tour.

Best,
Grady

[dan79brooklyn]

Sounds cool,

Check out the Motorcycle Documentary with Ewan McGregor, The Long Way Around:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0403778/

They made it across Asia on their BMW GS motorcyles...No way a Porsche could do the roads they were on though.

[Jim Richards]

Great looking T, Jan. Enjoy the restoration and your planned epic drive to the Far East.

[livi]

That car is sooo beautiful and the color is sublime. I wish I had the time, money and courage to do such a trip - in a vehicle like that.

Good luck!

[bigchillcar]

nah...that doesn't sound like any fun at all..

[Wickd89]

Great car. Especially in Europe......

[limble]

Very cool. Put me down for 10 US and a 911T Registry sticker.

[wreckah]

thanks for the warm welcome guys i think i'm gonna fit right in

Grady: we're going to take one of the 'silk' routes: through eastern europe, over ukrain, georgia, iran, pakistan, india, tibet, burma, thailand, vietnam, cambodia, and china

About the costs:
- we bought the car for 11.000 EUR, which isn't alot over here for a car in this reasonable condition! We are planning to put around 3.000 EUR in it for restoration, and another 3.000 for paint (we'd like to do as much as possible ourselves, but painting isn't my cuppa tea)
- we're looking at about 4.000 EUR to get the car all across these countries, and ship it back (border crossings are expensive), and then another 7.500 EUR travel money for each person (6 months planned)

so yeah, it's going to be expensive and yep, we will be looking for sponsors when our complete 'dossier' and website is ready (another thing on my to do list...)

Dan: ewan's trip was fantastic, makes me wanna leave right now. We're planning to travel out of the rainy seasons, so that we don't get too much muddy conditions. Otherwise, offroad riding should be quite OK (i met some crazy italians in Sudan in a Citroen mehari, and they managed the worst offroad imaginable with that little car, so anything is possible )

Marcus: we love the color too, we will repaint it in the same color (bahama yellow, sounds great too )

And for the private sponsoring offers: thanks a whole lot! I was thinking already about some sort of private sponsorship, but i don't know what i could give in return? Thought about a sponsor-corner on the website, but i'd like to keep it completely open to everyone...For the locals, i could throw a big porsche-party, but all you overseas guys would miss out on that...if you got suggestions, please feel free

i will post up with the modifications and restorations as i go along.

cheers,
Jan

[wreckah]

our pics are here for the time being:
http://www.postwhore.biz/thumbnails.php?album=316

i'm working on the odometer right now, trying to get the face plate off the metal body...it's tough! (and i have to work in the car, because i cannot disconnect the wires at this point)

[Zef]

Welcome to the board...And congrats for this beautiful 911.

[Johan123m]

Sorry guys, some Dutch conversation...

Dag Jan,

Welkom aan boord! Prachtige wagen! Mooie kleur! Heb je hem in België gekocht of ingevoerd? Wel 'n koopje voor €11000!!!
Ikzelf heb sinds een klein jaar een '73 911T., vorig jaar ingevoerd uit USA. Daarvoor hield ik me voornamelijk bezig met kevers.
Ik probeer er ook zoveel mogelijk zelf aan te doen.

Hij is mechanisch al tamelijk in orde. Nieuwe lak is iets voor volgend jaar... Qua roest valt het allemaal wel mee, enkel een lekkende achterruitrubber met de nodige roest aan achterwand... (niet structureel)
Waar woon je. Wellicht kunnen we wat advies/onderdelen uitwisselen!
Groeten
Johan uit Landen

[wreckah]

more dutch

dag johan,

merci voor het compliment! We hebben de wagen gekocht van een wagenhandelaar in Melle (bij Gent). De auto komt oorspronkelijk van california, heeft ca. 10j in nederland rondgereden, en staat dus nu bij ons (in centrum Gent dus).

ik denk dat we een gelijkaardige wagen hebben hee, mechanisch redelijk in orde, doch uiterlijk wel wat werk aan. heb je foto's? is het een 2.4L eerste model? of is het al de ge-update versie?

further in english:
- we have a tiny bit of rust near the pedal area (on both sides, interior), and more serious rust on the front fueltank-carrier.

looking forward to meet you (hopefully with the car ) pretty soon!
jan

[Johan123m]

Hey Jan,

I bought the car last year in california as a 'driver'. Not in mind condition, but driveable and paid $12000 for it. Maybe I paid a bit too much as the color (gold) isn't that loved...
Also I still had to pay the shipping and customs... The only good thing was that the dollar was cheap at that point. So the total bill inclusing everything was about €12000

It is a '73 2.4MFI with 140hp, not the later cis-model

The attached picture is of last year (I'll try to get out my digital camera and make some more detailed ones by this evening)
What I did so far:
-Cosmetic upgrades, new rubbers, new chrome trim here and there, H4, european bumpers, etc..
-Turbo tie rods
-new wheel bearings front and back
-Big tune-up: adjusting valves, new oil, air and fuelfilter, new plugs, cap,rotor, sparkwires, new transmission-oil, brake-oil, new brakepads, etc...
-factory short shift, new shift bushings, new coupler
-new suspensionbushings, news sway-barbushings, reindexing torsionbars so the car sits a bit higher in the back.
-Rust prevention and treatment
-deleting AC with new kneepads
-Nardi steering wheel
-deleting drivers side battery
-1001 small things

Still to do (long term because of the $$$ and the fact that I won't be able to drive the car for a long time):

-New bare metal paintjob and some welding
-Convert the original engine to S-specs

and short term:
-refinish gas-tank
-install new ball-joints (next week)
-pedal cluster rebuilt (the week after)
-some vdo repairs



See ya in Gent!
Johan

[wreckah]

that's a great looking car!

you've done some serious work already! i for sure will be coming over to you for tips and hints

(i dunno nothing about suspension and bushings and stuff, and i also want to remove one battery...oh, and i also want the short shift kit )

what are turbo tie rods?

cheers, jan

[Johan123m]

Hey Jan,

Sorry I didn't reply any sooner, but the weather was so nice yesterday that I didn't spend my time behind my pc. Instead I spend it in my garage working on the car, hehe

I don't know how the tie rods are called in Dutch...! (I'm spending WAY to much time on this site!)
You can find them on Pelican in the parts catalog under suspension. There's also an article on how to install them in '101 projects'. Besides, the suspension-wizard on Pelican is ideal to get some basic knowledge of wich parts you need to renew on your suspension.
The turbo-tie rods give the car a tighter and better handling. Be sure to also install the bump steer kit!
I don't know were you will order your parts from, but if you order in usa, be prepared to pay some 30% handling and import taxes at Belgian customs (sometimes more!) too bad for our host! And I didn't even mention the high shipping-costs...
I know a few good adresses, mail me and I'll give them to you.

The removal of the battery is pretty straightforward. Disconnect both batteries. Remove the earth (-) on the drivers side of the car. Use some tape (or a piece of a bicycle tyre-binnenband) to wrap around the positive cable-end so that it is protected (on drivers side). Just hook the passenger-side battery back on and you're in bussiness.


Bey Bey
Johan