That's true. A proper 2.7 with a nice exhaust and maybe a home port job would probably be plenty enough to get into trouble anyway. :)

What He Said
 

I must say that its nice to see how much enthusiasm, enjoyment, and pride my fellow middies have for their 74-77 Porsches. While its still just a fraction of the appreciation our Porsche brothers and sisters across the pond have for the bumper car middies, there is a lot of truth that supports the qualities of this important run of 911's. There are good reasons for concern, but that is true when buying any 911. I take the concerns for the negative qualities associated with the 74-77 cars with great respect as its that type of candid perspective that makes this forum a trusted advisor for all things 911. The issues outlined are spot on and can be real, and allow a buyer keen insight on what to focus on when buying a middie to avoid costly mistakes.

That being said, I am the proud owner of a 1974 911 and have looked for the right 74 for several years. I am the second owner, the original owner was a mechanical engineer who truly loved his Porsche, did maintenance on schedule, and addressed items referenced by others in advance like replacing the 1st and 2nd gear syncros, Pop Off Valve, 11 Blade Fan, Carrera Chain Tensioners, SSI, etc. He was a great caretaker, and I inherited his methodical care of this original owner 911.

Those who are nay sayers of the middies are RIGHT, so are the Middie owners who love their 911's. If the car is in the condition you state, and the price is $6K, sounds like a great opportunity to enter the 911 world. Heed the advice on this board and do your best to address the concerns, then HAVE FUN!

I attend early 911 coffee events and regardless of what you may hear, they do speak with me, as long as I park my 74 on the other side of the lot HA! HA! HA

By the way, you may want to pickup the December issue of OCTANE MAGAZINE . . . . . FEATURE ARTICLE IS "BUMPER CAR 911's.


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Hi Ashevan, mine is Sienna Metallic /Diamond Sahara # 436-9-3

Chocolate Brown



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Beautiful car. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for kind words. I think all Porsches are beautiful, but my favorites are clean drivers that show some patina from use, as Dr Porsche intended.

Did your $7000 driver need a full engine rebuild?

Hey guys…. Looking for help on determining the value on this 911. I know the owner well, so there’s some leeway here, but he was thinking $6-7000. He was also assuming it was just the valve covers that were leaking… but in reality, it’s leaking from basically every mating surface. Since it needs basically a full engine rebuild and brand new exhaust, $700 in weatherstripping is it worth 6k? I mean, without any engine whatsoever, what would it be worth in today’s market?

1977 Porsche 911S
CHASSIS: No rust. Straight. Lots of door dings. Torn off rear swaybar mounts. Rear foam bumpers cracked. One ding in hood from slamming hood down on something too tall.

ENGINE: Supposedly a 2.9 liter conversion (no documentation), supposedly about 50k on it (no documentation). Starts fine. Runs fine. Creates TONS of smoke, from all the leaking oil. Smoke does NOT really come out the exhaust, but is the oil dripping from every mating surface. Leaks from valve covers, from case to cylinders, cylinders to head, all of it. Many of the heater hoses are disintegrating, need to be replaced.

EXHAUST: Shot. Heat exchangers are dead. Rusty, holes, covered with tin foil?! $500-1200). Muffler also dead, full of holes ($150?)

TRANSMISSION: Shifter bushings disintegrated, fell out. Seems like it works fine. Clutch has good engagement. $20 for new bushings

SUSPENSION: Shocks seem okay. Little sloppy. Needs new bushings ($?)

INTERIOR: Dash pad is good. Seams on seats are coming apart. Center dash vent broken. Door cards need to have vinyl reglued. Speedometer reads about 10-15 over what it’s actually doing. ?

WEATHERSTRIPPING: Exterior trim has shrunk around rear window about 2”. All weatherstripping around side windows and targa seal is shot. Targa Seals: Left Top: $148.50 Right Top: $151.75 Main Rear Targa Bar Seal: $220 Windshield Targa Seal: $131.25 rear window seals :$50ish= $700ish for new seals

PAINT: Burned through with a buffer in many places. Needs respray.

BRAKES: Work great. Rear wheels lock up under hard braking, front ones don’t. ?

WHEELS/TIRES: 15” fuchs, decent shape. Tires have good tread, but 20+ years old.

TARGA: Headliner disintegrating. Needs to be redone. Top looks nice, but starting to shrink, has upturned lip in front, near windshield. $?

I mean, on one hand, it’s a running driving 911. But when it smokes, A LOT. When you park, you create a decent sized smoke screen due to all the oil cooking all over the engine. When I think about all the things that need to be replaced to make it a nice driver, not even to make it a GREAT car… it adds up to about $5,000, without even beginning to fix the paint/dings.

What are your thoughts?

Plan to have 25K invested in that car before your are done. There are mid years in better Shape than that for the same money.

Re: Considering a 77 911S Targa, input appreciated!
 

I've weighed before, but I'll reiterate. I paid $6k for a car that was somewhat disassembled and missing a number of small items, but it had fresh paint, perfect seats, just redone, polished, AL reed 7 & 8s with brand new tires, h4s, and it ran for 2 years before I tore into the engine for disconcerting noises.

I've spent a hair under $2k rebuilding the engine including some special tools, and my spreadsheet shows a little less than $3k otherwise I've spent on her the last 3 years.

What you describe I wouldn't pay more than $4 or $4.5k for.

Will I have $20k in it, maybe, but it will take another 10 years before I do.

sent from my Galaxy S III

My 75 runs and drives and was half of what the seller wants for the one you are looking at, plus it had the one year only factory hard top. The one you are looking at is worth no more than $3k in my mind. Our paint sounds similar, mine is pretty bad. I had to redo the interior but scored a nice carpet set used here on the classifieds for 100 bucks.

I don't know, I might keep looking.

My engine didn't need any rebuilding except for replacement of points, plugs etc., oil and filter change, valve adjustment, rebuild or replacement of all fuel components, replaced 5 blade fan with 11 blade fan and installed carrera chain tensioners. Everything else was in excellent shape, including suspension, chassis, electrics, body, paint, interior, trim, top, and zero rust. Of course I replaced the tires, battery, checked brakes which were good but replaced brake lines. I now have a great looking and excellent running car that's a blast to drive. I think your latest find isn't worth much more than a few thousand and I think you'll be working on her for a few years before you can actually enjoy driving it, unless you have $15-$20K to put into it right away.

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Thanks for the input guys. I appreciate it a lot. I told some other enthusiasts I was thinking 3k, but they thought I was insane and that it should be 7 at least. :) Here is a photo:

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What you guys would pay is pretty much irrelevant, especially comparing what you paid for your car vs. this car (you were probably lucky). Sure it is a $20K car, but I never, ever see anything less than $7k for ANY year 911 on any sale listing (with an engine) in Southern California (or make that all of California). It is in all reality a $5,500 car - I have not seen any midyears for the prices you guys are saying in the past 2 years. If the seller put it up for sale here or on craigs for $6995 it would be gone - guaranteed in one day. And the buyer would probably part it and make the money there. The world needs parts cars too.

Add my numbers to your purchase price, more like $6-7 k plus paint!
And, I'm assuming parts only with you doing the work. :)

See, this is what I don't get. Pricing it at 3-4 makes sense, given how much work it needs. But then again, like CountD said, you NEVER see a 911 for sale for under 5 grand. So what is the actual price then? I had it listed on CL for a few months for $7500 firm, and a few low ballers but nobody wanted to pay close to 7 grand for it.

I think then you proved everyone's sentiment here. An object is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. Most of us here have a very high emotional value attached to these objects, we also have in our heads just how much $ we dump into them (doesn't seem to matter when we are playing, does when we want to sell).

If you ran an ad locally and got "nothing but low ballers" at 7,500 then it proves out that you don't posses a sellable car locally to you at that price. I think you have enough evidence mounted to respectfully and reasonably go back and ask the owner of this one to sell it to you for a couple thousand less than his first thoughts. And if he says yes are you happy with it at that price knowing you are about to dump $5k in it?

Here's the question to ask yourself. Search ads, here, CL, Ebay, can you find a better car at a price you are willing to pay? Are you willing to put out $10-12k up front? and note that it would be foolish to think that ANY 30± year old 911 is not going to need some work unless you are looking at the +$20k range.

Because everyone who knows these cars knows it's not worth $7500. And it's not really even worth $5000. You *might* be able to get $4k out of it in parts. But I seriously doubt even that.

If you look at this car like an investment, you should pass and move to a longhood or a 3.2 car. If you look at this car as a long-term driver project, where you set the pace of repair/refurb, do most of the work yourself, buy used when you can to save money (and upgrade, in some cases) and then use it for a driver, for yourself, with no thought of selling, then I think it might be worth throwing $5500 at the guy - but ONLY if you want a mid-year driver. No other reason. Any other reason means you're looking for a different car.

Looks like Doug from Accumoto was right on and answered your question back in October 2012 on the pricing. Seems this is what he thought it was, and what realistically it probably is. Obviously this thing is a labor of love, and a lot depends on your wallet, your dedication, and nerves.

The 2.7 does have it's share of issues, but many problems are a function of how much heat it has endured in it's lifetime.
You'll want to be sure to run an 11 blade fan, no AC, at least an trombone oil cooler, or better yet an after market fan forced unit.
Time certs in the cases are an inevitability, but if there are no other issues (see above) and pistons and cylinders are within spec it's far cheaper to re-build the existing than do a 3.X transplant. Even an 80's era SC will be 25+ years old and will need work by now.
Properly tuned, and easily as importantly, with proper suspension set up, the 2.7's can be a very pleasurable car to drive. They may not have the acceleration of the later cars, but are light and very nimble. Another advantage, if you're inclined to work on it yourself, is they are relatively simple - meaning user friendly to the amateur mechanic.
-C