1971 Restoration Porn... 3 Years in the making with many thanks.

[whackit]

Hi All.

I finished my three year restoration of my '71 911 today. I can't tell you how many thousands of hours I spent in the shop and how many hundreds on this board. I couldn't have done it without all of the members of this board's help. You have all been a truly invaluable resource and I can't say thank you enough. Extra special thanks go out to Kevin Mentzer of Automotive Innovations & Restorations and Walt Watson of Competition engineering. Both of these guys are meticulous, honest, and all around fantastic people to deal with. They both helped me beyond the call of duty and are largely responsible for my cars good looks and strong heart. Others who have been a great help are Dave and Jeremy at TRE for the tuning, of course Wayne for his invaluable books, Brite plating in LA, Chuck Moreland at Elephant Racing for my suspension advice and beautiful products, Richard Parr at PMO for his fantastic carbs and political discourse, Henry Schmidt at Supertec for fantastic advice and beautiful hardware, Kevin at North Hollywood Speedo, Stefan Schleissing for the beautiful GTS seats, and of course my wife for letting me be in the shop day and night.

Now onto the car. It started out as a long in the tooth 911T and has been meticulously restored to my dream car. I originally got the car from my oldest best friend, traded a BMW R90 (a sweet bike BTW) and a little cash. I think he expected me to tire of the car quickly and sell it back.. Sorry. It started life in Burbank CA, made a trip through Idaho where he bought it, then spent several Years in NY before myself and the car moved back to Los Angeles. It needed some TLC and i figured why not go all the way. As my wife tells me, I have very productive obsessive compulsive disorder.

I took it down to the tub and every single bolt and screw has been replated, polished, painted, coated, cleaned, or replaced. It's sort of my super E interpretation. All you originality guys might not like it but I love it! You will like that I kept every single thing to keep the car original, if I ever want, I have it all. I have always liked things that look old but perform like new and that is basically what this car is. It has a 2.7RS motor that is carbureted with E cams. It has coated pistons and valves and all the bells and whistles. Carrera cooler, SSIs, sport exhaust. I got a great deal on the used motor and had a great time putting it together. 600 miles in... no leaks. It pulls incredibly strong and is a super fun street motor that sounds incredible. The suspension is completely re done with Bilsteins, Tarrett Bars, Poly Bronze bushings, and new plated and plugged hollow torsion bars. Everything has been powder coated or plated. It is the perfect amount of stiffness and handles like it is on rails. Fully rebuilt S calipers bring it to a stop. I did most of the interior except for the seats which came out perfectly. I added power locks and windows and remote entry (overkill I know) which all work great. The stereo is truly something unique and I'll address that in another post.

I'll try to get the additional pictures people have requested later today.

Read about my ultimate hidden stereo here.

Many thanks to all! I hope to see you all on the road soon. Thanks again for all the help. Please ask me any questions as I now have a big time hole to fill.

Kevin's epic paint.







Motor.




Interior.

[Scooter]

Very nice. Congratulations on a job well done!

[cbush]

Wow- that is really nice. Looks like a new car! Very well done. Congratulations, and hope you enjoy driving it! Thanks for sharing the pictures and story.

[Canada Kev]

Wow, looks awesome. Now you're going to have to find something else to do or your wife will.

One question: what's with the little window in your tach that looks like an LCD display or something?

[whackit]

she already has...

[James Brown]

very nice kinda "singer" ish, and I like that one!!

[cjmurph]

Beautiful. These type of results keep me greasy.

[MrPerkles]

stunning in every respect

[ZAMIRZ]

Wow, I love all of it. That stereo system is awesome, the tach integration is freakin sweet. You should bring it out to one of the sunday morning C&Cs in Woodland Hills, I'd love to hear it bumpin!

[Geronimo '74]

I am in love with your car!

Great work man! you can be proud!


(got sideviews as well? I'd love to see them.)

[twistoffat]

Simply breathtaking

[NY65912]

Very sweet. Nice work!

[ruby911]

very very cool

[austin552]

Very nice!

[GothingNC]

Wow, I mean WOW

Great job !

[kiwiokie]

Stunning. One of the nicest I have seen on this forum. Your attention to detail really paid off.

[berettafan]

Confused...T or E?

Beautiful car, i can imagine you are one proud owner!

[pud]

congratulations on a super job , a lot of time and money has gone into that but looks like its been well worth it , pud

[marcos1]

Hey Man,

Great Job! I think our fellow Pelicanites would appreciate a little more on the history of the car (hence the title of my post) and how you kept all of the original bits and pieces for authenticity.

See you soon and don't forget my ROFR is still in effect!.

M

[tangerine911S]

Congratulations, you must feel great. It turned out amazing!

Is that a JL w7 in the trunk? How is the bass in the cabin? Do you get a lot of trunk flex?