The antenna was on the driver's side on the early SC's. The underside and engine appears to be steamed cleaned or pressure washed. Lots of surface rust on the exchangers and heater flappers and suspension. Lots of chipped paint down under on the black parts. Oil return tubes have been replaced. I'm sure it leaks oil and the cleaning was to hide that. I doubt the mileage is correct even with the last owner's certification. My guess is he can account for his mileage but who knows what happened before he got the car. I've never seen that color interior, my feeling it is custom job. Is that black carpet on the rear deck? The passenger side mirror was an option, as were the foglights and power windows. The leather covering on the steering seems odd. Notice the surface stitching at 9 and 3 o'clock. The body looks great, pre-blackout but the clearcoating on the silver metalic paints had a problem with going bad leaving a spider -web cracking or crazing of the clearcoat. Looks to me to be a re-paint.

looks like overspray. or it could be dust.

Headlights are stock. You could get chrome trim rings. Or just replace them, but the headlighs are stock.

The antenna is correct if it's manual. Only power antennas were on passenger side.

That's a stock York AC compressor. Correct for that year.

15" or 16" were available - most US cars had 16's but you could get 15's. I think 15's were standard. Fuchs.

The front valence looks like a non-foglight valence, pics aren't great.

I've seen a blue interior on a white SC coupe; looked nice.

Looks like a nice SC. Don't see anything that doesn't match up for that year. Looks good.

Over all it looks like a decent car. The idle looks a little high unless it's normal for an SC to idle at 1800rpm cold. Other than that I'd say it's a decent looking car.

It's a bit hard to tell from the pic, but that doesn't look like a stock '78 SC headlight. The lens is too flat. Looks like a later, US legal (3 adjustment bumps on it) H4 replacement.

The housing is stock, but the headlight itself isn't.

http://carad.ebayimg.com/i5/04/a/000/77/d0/ab24_4.JPG

Man that under carriage looks ruff,I see a lot of new parts in this cars furture ??????? FM

The heat exchangers are actually rusted through where they meet the primary pipes on the passenger side. Hot air will escape and heating will suffer. Also, judging by the S hose there is an oil leak(s). The interior looks well worn.

It's a bit of an oddball in that the chrome trim give it a more retro look reminiscent of earlier 911s, but it has that bright, possibly loud interior that screams 80's excess.

It's a stock sealed beam headlight. Look closely. You can see the adjusting teats. The H4 lamps that fit into sugar scoops don't have those.

I see the adjusters. Those are just 7 inch headlights. H4 lamps that can fit in there can have the adjusters.

[IMG]http://www.*****************.com/photos/Hella-70477-2.jpg[/IMG]

http://www.*****************.com/product_p/hella-70477.htm

A targa from the midwest, you must be kidding? Rust never sleeps and this baby has indications that the tinworm is at work (as in not sleeping). Look at the open front hood area, along the rubber seal on the right side and door rocker show rubber distortion. The underside shows plenty of evidence of winter driving in rust belt. Good luck removing those heat exchangers for a backdated exhaust upgrade. As a beater $8K 911 sure but not much more. YMMV

As others have mentioned, the underside of the car/engine/transaxle does not present like a low-mileage 911 should (how does a sump plate rust?). That's a negotiating point in your favor, but you should also look for the presence of rust under the fenders and headlight buckets, etc.

The engine appears to be delightfully stock right down to, yes, the air pump. The interior with that weird blue color is either a special order from the factory or a special order from a generic discount reupholstery shop. I would want to see documentation proving its pedigree.

The brightwork on the car (targa bar, windshield and rear window trim and headlights) could be stock, since on the early SC's Porsche was transitioning from bright trim to the painted or blacked out look. Again, look for documentation proving the car was originally that way. If there's nothing backing it up, use the unknown status as a negotiating point.

As others have said, the car seems to be sitting too low.

Can you verify the factory paint code and color?

Brian

Okay here is my story, and thanks for the comments. About 10 months ago I bought a 79 targa with good intentions. My wife got me hooked on the targas when we bought that 87, I had owned everything but a targa before that. I started accumulating parts for what I wanted the car to become. By the way the car I bought was a ROW targa. Anyway, I once offered to teach anyone options skills for welding skills here and got no takers, which is what I expected, so I went to plan B. One of my Fathers retired partners is a collector of old American iron from the 40’s he has the skills I need for the small projects I wanted to do. The targa was a nice car, in a beautiful sort of robin’s egg blue, don’t ask me the paint code. Anyway I never titled the car or registered it and I ended up selling it, the flipper in me was too much to over come.

Parts I have accumulated... rear valance, all 4 bumper bellows, chrome sugar scoops, 2 16x7 and 2 16x8 Fuchs (poorly finished ), all new rubber targa seals, lots of individual pieces of bright work none of it black, windscreen from 1987 targa w/ internal antenna, dozens of small pieces for the interior, 4 calipers from a 1988 Carrera, 4 brand new rotors, 2 rear bumpers 1 of them ROW with ROW pads, I am sure there are some things which I have forgotten too. Oh right, 2 different front rubber lips w/ hardware and an assortment of chrome mirrors for both sides, not sure if any of them are correct.

We took the used rear valance I bought, and stripped it, straightened it and welded up the gaps from the exhaust. Then he cut a 10 inch gap in the center for my idea of twin center exhaust. We had it primed up and that’s about where my story ends.

My vision is targa I can use not as a daily driver but one I can use to fly back and forth to the rink 3 or 4 days a week spring, summer, and fall. Plus have it for a weekender on hockey road trips in those same seasons. I am going after the retro look with the stainless targa bar and the chrome sugar scoops and bright work.


My thought is that this car is a bit too original to really shake up. I really like the Silver/Blue. I am not a fan of red and each time I say never again to black I end up with a back something or other. I have poked around at a bunch of pre g/50 Carrera targas and some SC targas. This one caught my eye and I thought if it PPI’d well and I could get it closer to my price it would be a good starting point. I now think it may be too original.

Thoughts?

Thanks for all the feedback on some of the threads I have started. Thanks to those who I have contacted individually for technical advice on some aspects of this small project. The reference material on the windscreen swap especially.

The bright trim was standard on a '78 SC, and is almost certainly stock on that car. The black trim did not become standard until 1980.

Correct, but I think most cars were shipping with the blackout option, which was offered as an option during the later run of the predecessor mid-year 911 S.

It all gets down to knowing what you're buying when it comes to older 911s, and using the standard references (such as the "red book") to evaluate a car.

Brian

+1 My thoughts exactly.

My apologies.

My H4's in sugar scoops don't have the adjuster teats. I see "now US legal" on the box, so that must have changed at some point.

Thanks for the education.

The first Porsche I ever drove was a Blue Metallic 911S w/the exact same blue interior, except EVERYTHING was blue. Must have used every Smurf in France to do the leather.
I though, wow, what a car and it only has a 4 speed. Then I mentioned that to the owner and he said, "No, it's a 5 speed. 1st is a dog leg left." I said a what?? and he explained it to me. But the interior was awesome!
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1196814781.jpg

No prob. At one time, certainly when that car was new, there were no "US legal" H4s. You either ran crappy sealed US sealed beams, or put on illegal Euro H4s. That did change at some point, I think in the '90s, when the US legal H4 replacement headlights came out.