Saving the "Rat" - Restoring a 69T

[kkinzli]

I have been on this forum for quite some time and have learned a lot from everyone. Specifically, I would like to thank Grady for his amazing advice on my posts. I grew up living just down the street from him but tragically never met him until I moved to Florida I figured it was time to post the restoration of the "Rat", a moniker given to my car by my good friend in Albuquerque who has helped me through the restoration process. To begin I found the "Rat" sitting in a farmer's field near Costilla New Mexico in early October of 2008 . I was headed up that direction to do some Ph.D. related water research on the Rio Grande - I have since graduated and am a water engineering professor in Southwest Florida. Driving along I glanced ahead and thought to myself that looks like it might be a 911. In the back of my head I figured it had to be a 912 or be a rust bucket that was beyond saving. As I got closer there were several other cars next to the "Rat" including an El Camino with a for sale sign on it. I immediately thought to myself that this was too good to be true and that nobody finds a 911 in a farm field out in the middle of nowhere anymore. During the research trip I could not stop thinking about the car but always ended the thought process with; God you are being stupid! You are a Ph.D. student, you have no money (ok maybe you have $100 bucks which will see you through the next two weeks), you have no garage or place to store the car, you know absolutely nothing about Porsches, you have enough trouble keeping your A4 on the road (currently it has 249,000) and you have a dissertation to write. Stop being an idiot and don't complicate your life both logistically and financially.

[kkinzli]

On the drive back to Albuquerque I saw the car again and started daydreaming - stupid irrational ideas again;. A few hours later as I was approaching Albuquerque I got a call from my father that I had gotten a letter from the Colorado State University Engineering Department and that they were awarding me a significant scholarship. During the next week I could think of nothing else than heading up to Costilla to see the car, talk to the owner and see if I could take it off his hands. That was a really long week! Come the weekend I headed back up to Costilla to check out the car and do some camping and fishing in the Sangre de Christos. I made it up to Costilla near sunset, pulled into the ranch and went and knocked on the door. A nice lady answered and she told me that all of the cars in the field were for sale but that her husband was not home at the time but that I could check out the car and call him later. So I immediately grabbed my camera and went and took a ton of pictures of the car

[kkinzli]

The "Rat" says please adopt me!

[kkinzli]

[kkinzli]

[kkinzli]

[kkinzli]

[kkinzli]

[kkinzli]

Once I took all the above pictures I headed further north and pitched my tent next to Costilla Creek and had a great time fishing for the rest of the weekend. On Sunday during my drive back to Albuquerque I gave the rancher a call and he told me that the "Rat" was indeed for sale and that he had been storing it in his barn along with a 57Chevy he was restoring. He told me that he had gotten the "Rat" from a friend that owed him some money in real estate deal 2 years earlier. He told me that the car was not running and that the brakes were shot because they made a horrible squeaking and metal grinding noise but he did assure me that he had it running a year earlier but just didn't have the time to work on it and that he liked American cars better anyway. I told him that I was really interested in the car and that I would get back in touch with him in a few days after talking the matter over with my friend the "Porsche Nut" in Albuquerque. For future reference I will refer to my friend the "Porsche Nut" as Obi Wan as he quickly became my Porsche master and I his Padawan learner when I purchased the car a week later after much deliberation - my logical engineering side lost the battle to my impulsive car nut side. Obi Wan lent me his truck and trailer to go and pick up the car (He also lent me the money as the scholarship check had not arrived yet!) and the rancher helped me get the car onto the trailer using his ATV. Obi Wan had also offered to let me store and work on the car at his house so I brought the "Rat" (which was named by Obi Wan) back to Albuquerque with much trepidation as I had no idea if it would run. Once back at the Obi Wan Porsche Paradise (he has 4 of them in various stages of restoration) we replaced the fouled Champion spark plugs with NGKs and messed with the timing and had the car running (badly) in about 10 minutes. I was so ecstatic!!

[callard]

Sweet. Has had some engine updates - go make the deal!

Edit: Okay, looks like you have. Congrats.

[Josh D]

Looks like a pretty good starting point!

[kkinzli]

Indeed it was. I am going to cronicle repairs and improvements during the last three years over the next several weeks to bring things up to now!

Originally Posted by Josh D

Looks like a pretty good starting point!

[kkinzli]

After getting the engine fired up Obi Wan and I decided to take the "Rat" for her maiden voyage down a dirt road near his house. Getting the car into gear was quite challenging as the bushings in the shift linkage were shot. The bushings in the throttle linkage and the pedal cluster were shot as well. Braking revealed a horrible grinding metal on metal sound that resulted in no stopping so stopping was accomplished with the e brake. The car was smoking and sputtering and popping quite a bit as the carbs despartely needed a rebuild. Upon turning there were horrible clanking and popping sounds coming from the front suspension. Overall, my first drive in a Porsche was far from awe inspiring but fantastic nonetheless.

[kkinzli]

Upon closer inspection of the car after the first drive the following repairs were in order:

Ball joints,
tie rod ends
flexible brake lines
new rear rotors
shifter bushings
pedal cluster bushings
throttle linkage bushings
a new side and rearview mirror
new crome around headlight
a general cleaning (multiple nests were found either mouse or rat - hence the name "Rat". The name also came from the general ratty appearance of the car.)

[kkinzli]

Pictures from the first "Rat" improvement projects

[kkinzli]

More early improvement project pictures: Turns out the ball joints had been upgraded to wedge pin type

[kkinzli]

Instead of rebuilding the carbs right away Obi Wan let me borrow a set of Webers he had laying around from his 68. After the above mentioned repairs (the right rear rotor was ground down by nearly 1/4 of an inch due to metal rubbing on metal) with new brake pads the car was now driveable and I started driving in to work. These repairs took me several months with a haitus back in Colorado for 3 months during the winter from the second week in November 2008 to the middle of February 2009. During the winter I was itching to get back and work on the car.

[kkinzli]

When I finally arrived in Albuquerque mid February 2009 one of the first things I did was go out to Obi Wan's Porsche Paradise and check on the "Rat". Obi Wan had been driving it to work to give it exercise and it was running fairly well except that the brakes needed to be rebuilt. It also looked terrible so one of the first things I did was give it a good cleaning and buffing!

[kkinzli]

[kkinzli]