Intro: got my dad's 80 SC

[paulgtr]

nice job. great tribute. enjoy the memories!

[NOLAsc]

Very nice tribute Tim.

You mentioned Albuquerque. Was that Balloon Fiesta? And one shot with the stucco walls reminded me of the Land of Enchantment. (Never been to the northwest, but I sure miss the southwest.)

Any way like you and many others here, I miss my dad too. He didn't have as good of taste in cars as yours, but he was very good at keeping his cars running -- and teaching me to do the same. He helped me rebuild my first 914 engine too long ago for me to admit. Sometimes I wish I could ask him how to do something, how to fix something. Alas, as far as my 911 goes, I'm relegated to posing questions to people who.... who really know what they're talking about: the countless experts here on the Pelican forums.

Enjoy your car and all the memories.

[imcarthur]

Welcome, Tim. Very, very nice tribute to your Dad. And nicer still that you are keeping the car.

Ian

[TimBer]

Thank you all for the warm welcome and your condolences. I have gathered all the receipts I could find. A quick tally revealed $16K in parts and labor over the last 6 years. I'm still looking through his books. I found the Haynes (65-89) book so far. I plan to purchase 101 projects soon unless I find it in his stuff.
You were right about the picture from the balloon fiesta and stucco wall.
One correction, the total trip from CA to WA was 1400 miles. 1100 of it on I-5, San Fernando, CA to Burlington, WA.

Tim

[KarlCarrera]

Tremendous.

Although beautiful, The 911 is the least important item your father left you.

He must have been incredible, I wish more were like him. Strong as a bear, gentle as a lamb

Thought's and prayers to you and your family.

Karl
88 Targa

[crater64]

Beautiful tribute to your father, beautiful car, now in a beautiful part of the country. Welcome to the board and best of luck to you in maintaining and enjoying this honor to his memory.

Ed

[GaryR]

Welcome Tim, really enjoyed the tribute video. Was that a Bultaco you and your father were crossing the stream on? I had several in the early 70's, best dirt bike there was..

[TimBer]

Gary,
I'm not sure what kind of bike that was. It actually belonged to a friend we were visiting in Kernville or somewhere like that. The only bike I remember him owning is the one in the black and white photo.

Tim

[Doug&Julie]

*manly tears*

Nice tribute and welcome to the board. Porsches are special enough on their own, but to have one owned and loved by your father is extra special. Enjoy that car!

[rnln]

Sorry about your dad. Sounds like the 911 is the memory of him. Keep it the way he kept it. If you search about maintenance, this board has almost everything is not everything. First thing I would read about is engine oil, I am using brad penn. Then tranny fuild, and how to shift correctly, to save headache later on. other people can add more, i am sure. Welcome aboard.

[72T]

I inherited my 72 from my Dad when he passed in 1997. Had been in our family since '75. I grew up in that car. From the tribute, it looks like your Dad went way too young, mine too. You have my thoughts and prayers. And it looks like you spent some time at the track together. Us too. My advice? Don't be sad when you drive it, it's a great connection to all your memories. When the top is out of my targa and I'm ripping through an S curve, I can almost see my Dad beside me pushing his foot through the floorboard, looking for the brakes! Hang on Dad, we're still in this together!

[TimBer]

This place is awesome. Thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers. And for watching the video I made. I took my 2 year old for a drive after work today. He's been asking all week, "ride in the blue car?" It was a pretty tame drive, but we had a lot of fun.
72T, You got it right exactly. My dad taught me to drive in his 1977 Ford F-150. He was hanging on for dear life and stomping the imaginary brake the whole time. He was a nervous wreck the whole time and I wanted to give up. He told me, "If you learn to drive this truck you will be able to drive anything." He was right and it was worth it to him for me to learn to drive in a real automobile.
I actually wanted the truck because it had been so much a part of our lives for so long. My older brother has the truck now. I know he is smiling down as his boys drive his truck and Porsche. The people at the cemetery let us take him to the funeral reception in the back of his Ford. My brother and I in front with my dad's flag-draped casket in the back of his truck listening to "I get around." I will always cherish that memory. I will try to upload a pic, but I'm still figuring that out.
Like I said, you guys are awesome and I look forward to many years on this thread and the adventures to come. Thank you again.

Tim

[ZAMIRZ]

Great stories Tim, and welcome to the forum.

That truck looks like a nice ride too, and that photo with flag-draped coffin in the back is very moving.

Thanks for sharing.

[TimBer]

Well, its been ten years now since my dad passed. This forum is one of the places I come to feel closer to him. And, I still drive the 1980 Targa regularly. Its hard to believe its been ten years, I cried as much today as I did that day, and many days in between. Anyway, I thought I would share one of his stories:

I got beat a few times in the GTO. It was very fast for the cars that were on the street in the San Fernando Valley then. The early ’60’s was the prime that American Grafitti was based on. The car didn’t have any options on it really. It was light weight for what it was and it was very fast. Of course, I was a real good street racer. But, I did get beat a few times. The two I remember, one I remember the most was a red 1963 Chevy Super Sport Impala with a 409. You reminded me of another one, a Buick that raced me, in fact he beat me pretty good. He had real low gears. While I was accelerating along in second gear he was shifting a couple of times. He had a lower rear axle gear ratio and you could reach your top speed a lot faster. Yeah, he beat me too.

Mainly, the 409 and a big engine 427 Corvette beat me pretty good. But all the other GTO’s and Chevelle’s I don’t recall ever losing to. The later 390 Mustang GT’s were pretty quick, but some cars are just faster than others. Some GTO’s are faster than others. I just ended up with a good one that was fast for what it was I guess. Even guys that had done some work on their cars; my car was still faster than theirs. I used to consistently beat Plymouth Road Runners and Dodge Super Bees and stuff. Of course, they had some real big engine ones – some Hemi ones – that I never ran up against, I’m sure those would have beat me.

This sort of thing has happened to me a couple times. I was on my way to work and at a stop light. It had to be across from Birmingham High School. Sitting at the stop light and a ’65 Mustang GT was next to me. I was aware of it being there, but wasn’t planning on racing it or anything. He revved his motor at me a couple times to get my attention. He was planning on racing, but I was ignoring him. I was probably thinking about something else, but I wasn’t even concerned. The light turned green and he took off and burned rubber. I left too, but I wasn’t racing him. It might have even looked like he was beating me, which couldn’t have ever happened. We got a couple hundred yards and the lights came on behind me. We both got pulled over by the traffic cops. They pulled us over and I wanted to know why. I guess I didn’t get a ticket, but he wanted to give me a ticket for exhibition of speed, which was burning rubber or driving aggressively. He accused us of racing. I told him that if I had been racing I would have been way ahead of him. So I couldn’t possibly have been racing him. I didn’t burn any rubber or anything. And it was all him. I was ignoring him. I’m pretty sure I didn’t get a ticket for that. I learned real early that Mustangs were no challenge so why take a chance.

I remember the night I got the [GTO] I filled it up with gas. All this time I had been trying to burn rubber in my old Ford and breaking things. The next car I had was the Chevy convertible and it had an automatic. The only time it would burn rubber was if you drove through water with it. But it would then because it had a lot of power. It had the hot V8 motor. Anyway, I got this GTO and I took it out and started dumping the clutch and burning rubber with it. It would just do it at will. I had so much fun with it that night. That’s all I did was drive and rev it up and pop the clutch out and fry those back tires. I left black strips everywhere I went. I looked for my friends all night long. For hours I looked for them. I’d drive around, then I’d go back and check their houses. I couldn’t find any of my friends any place. I was just so willing to show the car. I’m pretty sure they didn’t even know I had decided to get it. The next day my friend Dave Cox – his parents had told him I’d been looking for him all night in my new GTO – he was there at like 7 o’clock the next morning waking me up. “That’s your GTO! You got that GTO! Why didn’t you come tell me.” We had a lot of fun with it. I used to loan it to him too.

I loaned it to Dave one time, when he brought it back it wasn’t running very good. He had missed a shift probably and over revved the motor. It turned out he’d bent a push rod. I didn’t know what was wrong with it so I called Uncle Vic who was very good at diagnosing my problems. He knew what I was doing with the car so he could safely assume that it had been driven real hard or something that had caused the problem. That narrowed it down a little bit. I told him my friend had borrowed it and brought it back and it was not running right. He said, “I bet he missed a shift and it has a bent push rod.” The technical term was the valves float and the piston actually hits a valve and the shock goes back and hits the weakest part which is the push rod and it will actually bend it. It turned out that was right.

[J-Gel]

Hey Tim. As a new Pelican, I just read this thread from the start tonight. What a tribute, and what great stories and memories you have of your dad. It's really really special.

I introduced myself here a couple weeks back with a story about inheriting my dads 83' Targa. Being a high schooler when I lost him, I may have "inherited" the car way back then, but for all intents and purposes it was a garage fixture from then until a few months back when I finally decided to pick up where he left off and begin to work on getting it running.

Anyhow, seeing your post now 10 years later, I can't tell you how special it is to me to hear you're still driving the Targa. Almost all of my memories of my dad with our Targa aren't of us cruising but rather of me hanging with him while he worked on it in the garage. Now that I'm finally working towards getting it road worthy, I dream of the day when I'm running around with it, open air, and picturing him riding shotgun with me, just as it sounds you still do today.

These anniversary days and other significant dates will always get to you. Some hit you stronger than others, even as time goes on, and for reasons that aren't always so apparent, as I'm sure you know by now. Next year will mark 20 years that my dad passed. Your post inspired me even more than ever that the time is now to finally finish his project so I can be remembering him out on the open road next year, and 10 years after that..

Take care man. Keep making your dad proud by continuing to enjoy the car. Inbox is open if you ever feel like dropping me a message. Cheers!