Purchased my dream 911, Now what?

[DBDP]

I spent many years of my childhood watching and helping my dad tinker on 911s, throughout my younger years when I didn't have the means to dive into the Porsche owners club I owned, rebuilt and tinkered with vw's, saab's, bmw's and so on. I love working in the garage and bringing old dead POS back to life. But now I dove in head first and got my dream 911. See link to an ad from the dealer the previous owner purchased it from.

1989 Porsche 911 Carrera Targa

It is perfect, amazing, gorgeous and everything I could ever want! But I have a HUGE issue. It doesn't need anything. I know, boo hoo must be hard... But really I want to wrench on it, but it currently only has just over 8000mi, no issues and the only time it's seen the rain was a couple days ago when I took it out around the block and it started sprinkling.

I don't have the garage space to get a second 911 for a project, so I want some input. Would you keep it stock and barely drive it to keep the miles low? Drive it like I stole it, then slowly add tasteful mods or? My biggest personal struggle is do I treat it like a trailer queen, which I hate, because of its condition or have fun?

[saxen]

its a Porsche. it was made to be driven: often, hard, tracked....ect
enjoy it how you want- work on it when it needs it

[Josh D]

First off, welcome!
Secondly we need pics.
Third, really? You bought a perfect 911 and you don't know what to do with it? Really?
Maybe you bought the wrong 911? Maybe something less perfect would have served your needs better.

[DBDP]

Originally Posted by Josh D

First off, welcome!
Secondly we need pics.
Third, really? You bought a perfect 911 and you don't know what to do with it? Really?
Maybe you bought the wrong 911? Maybe something less perfect would have served your needs better.

Personal pics coming soon, waiting for the rains to subside. The pics in the link make it look purple anyway.

It is my perfect 911, I'm just working myself into disregarding the previous owners museum storage so I can justify putting it to work. I just need to look at it differently, the previous owners kept it this way so I could have a new 89 911 in 2013!

[Tcrate]

I agree with Saxen. DRIVE IT. What fun is it to have it sit in the garage. I have 73 Mach 1 that barely sees 1000 miles in a year. Car is fast and looks cool but isn't much fun having it just sit around looking good.

[DBDP]

Crappy garage pics from last week

[Nathans_Dad]

Dee-rive it. That poor car has been sitting for too long. Honestly an 89 Targa is not a 73 RS, having 20k miles on it vs 8k isn't going to devalue it.

I'd keep it stock if you like it though, if you do mods I would stay with ones that a subsequent owner can reverse.

[Josh D]

Whoops! Missed the link to pics due to reading on iPhone. Eyesight's going to hell. Nice car!

[irobertson]

Originally Posted by DBDP

It is perfect, amazing, gorgeous and everything I could ever want! But I have a HUGE issue. It doesn't need anything.

Well my '88 has a motor that is 80% back together, a G50 that needs new gaskets & seals, and a bunch of other little things.
Since I understand your predicament and can sympathize, I'm willing to offer a fellow Pelicanite an even trade. No charge for the wrenching opportunity that I would be giving up in the deal.
Seriously though, congrats on a fantastic example of the last torsion bar car. Get out there and enjoy it!!

[timmy2]

Replace the tires if they are original, check/replace all the rubber parts like brake and fuel lines as they deteriorate with age.

Lower it to euro height and have it corner balanced.

Drive it.

[rw229]

Congratulations! I'm a big fan of Targas and I own a coupe.

Regardless of low mileage, unless you have recent records of these things being done, they need to be inspected and/or done...

Valve adjustment - gets your oil changed too

Inspect cap/rotor/wires/plugs

Replace rubber brake hoses - buy an extra quart of fluid and flush the old stuff

Inspect fuel lines - fire hazard if dried and cracked

Replace the trans fluid

Inspect and pack wheel bearings

Check the alternator / charging voltage

Add headlight relays and dash fuses - saves your turn signal switch and reduces a fire hazard

Replace battery with an Optima or other sealed unit - clean up the corrosion caused by the old acid battery

Inspect and if needed, replace f/r torsion bar and sway bushings - opportunity to lower the car if you like

Replace the tires if old and hard

Full exterior/interior detail

Drive it as much as you can... even if you do 5k/yr you'll have a low mileage car in 10-20 years

Don't modify anything that is not easily reversible. Unmodified cars are/will be the most valuable as these continue to appreciate.

[stlrj]

Originally Posted by timmy2

Replace the tires if they are original, check/replace all the rubber parts like brake and fuel lines as they deteriorate with age.

Lower it to euro height and have it corner balanced.

Drive it.

Leave it alone! It looks gorgeous the way it is. Besides, it already is at euro height (factory euro height, that is). If you lower it, steering effort will increase and degrade handling.

Please, please, please leave it alone! I wouldn't touch a thing!

If you're dying to wrench on something, then find another one that needs it like I did. I found an 87 Carrera with 200,000 miles that I am slowly restoring back to factory specs. which includes raising back to factory euro height.

Your car makes me jealous, but then, I too would be bored to tears...bitter sweet tears.


Cheers,

Joe

[911SauCy]

Originally Posted by stlrj

Leave it alone! It looks gorgeous the way it is. Besides, it already is at euro height (factory euro height, that is). If you lower it, steering effort will increase and degrade handling.

Joe

That is actually quite incorrect and it is not at euro height.

When lowered and corner balanced properly, nothing happens to the steering and handling dramatically improves.

My $.02 on the OP, lower, corner balance, gas and drive!

FORGET about the low miles/depreciation, just pretent you were able to score a new 911 like its 1989...do what you would have then. DRIVE IT

[stlrj]

Originally Posted by 911SauCy

That is actually quite incorrect and it is not at euro height.

I understand the misconception which I also shared for many years, but this is based on the Porsche Spec Book, 911 Carrera, 911 Turbo (WKD 423 020).

The factory adopted the European height for all Carreras with the introduction of the 84 model year.

Originally Posted by 911SauCy

When lowered and corner balanced properly, nothing happens to the steering and handling dramatically improves.

I just went through this issue on my project car, 87 Carrera with 200,000 miles, which I thought handled pretty good with the front end lowered to what is popularly considered euro height. But after restoring it to factory euro height, something amazing happened. Not only did the steering get lighter but the front tires no longer squeal like a rabid pig when I punch it on the freeway 180 degree onramp. The front end sticks like it never did before and I can honestly say I have power steering regardless of how my non assisted rack looks.



Cheers,

Joe

[jsveb]

Congrats!

Just DRIVE it!

You will figure out - down the road - what to modify.

[TibetanT]

Congratulations are in order!

Nice car.

You could always change the spark plugs if you need something to do. Have fun.

[KNS]

You've discovered the "problem" of buying a mint car with low miles. Packing on the miles will decrease the current value and because it is in such fine, blemish-free shape, you're nervous about parking it at Home Depot. Then, you're really just saving it for the next guy.

You can sell it and find something that needs a little love and already has a few little scars here and there. Or, grab the keys to that car and say "F" it and I'm not going to worry or stress over it - I'm just going to drive the piss out of it and do as I please to it.

As it's been said before, no one lies in their bed in their old age and says: "I shouldn't have driven that car so much".

[timmy2]

Originally Posted by stlrj

Leave it alone! It looks gorgeous the way it is. Besides, it already is at euro height (factory euro height, that is). If you lower it, steering effort will increase and degrade handling.
Joe

I think you may be right Joe. Probably just the angle of the picture I was looking at.



My '78 euro (Measured and confirmed at euro height):



Corner balancing is still a good thing to do.

[kidrock]

What do you say about a car in such pristine condition except maybe "you lucky sum*****".

Wanna wrench on it? Do a valve adjustment. It's a great intro to these cars, and a chance to build a little intimacy. Maybe install a Wong chip....get involved with breaking open the DME.

Whatever you do, please do not let this car continue to be a garage queen. Drive the damn thing. Get down to Ocean Shores while the weather is still good, and the tourons are gone.

[futurefun]

Nice find. Do enjoy driving it, lowered or not.