Ok, It is not a tragic mess like your roof and front floorboard had made me believe. Hard to tell from your photos. You may want to hit a few areas with a wire wheel to show what you have underneath the paint. Front floor pan corners look popping and breaking but hard to tell from photos, Keep going. The area to the left of the smuggles box looked distorted but may be undercoating lumps. Pull off a fender and look at where the cowl/door/body meet next. Try to really decipher deep rust form surface rust. Last front panel shot looks like surface rust, hit it with a wire wheel on a grinder…you're going to need one if you don't have one.

Eff me. I'm no expert but that is going to be an awful lot of work for a car that will never be worth a whole lot.

II'm going to try to make enough time to pull one, if not both fenders tomorrow. I've got a lot of air tools and a 60 gallon upright compressor along with a mig welder etc.

I realize it won't be worth a ton of money but at the same time ill be happy to break even if and when I sell. I like to work on cars and I don't see anything wrong with trying to save this one. My Mustang spent it's life in SoCal, unfortunately this car didn't. My break even so far is around $7k not counting any labor which involves taking off the front bumper thus far...

Some people spend that per year on golf memberships.
You'll have a car when you are done ;)

I like how you put things into perspective. This car was never meant to be a source of income. To me, it's just a hobby. I'm on active duty in the US Navy so I work on it when I can. In my real life I am currently working with MH-53E helicopters which, believe me, make working on these 911s fun.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/01/29/ena5umam.jpg

I'd fix it. Jump right in and give it hell.

If you have the skills/time/inclination then jump on it....bringing a dead one back to life can really be rewarding.

there are so many threads/rebuild stories here in the forum.
what one needs to know by himself is:
- do I want to do this really!?
- do I have the skills and means (tools)?
- do I have the time?
- will I have the money in the long run?
- do I fear to abort the project?

this for example is a great story of passion, stamina and reward!
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/660560-saving-rat-restoring-69t.html

Got to add my 2 cents being a Chevy gearhead myself- I cannot imagine why someone would want to put a chevy motor into a 911 and hack up a 911. My opinion is instead buy an old Chevelle or Nova and put a small block in that and leave the porsche motor for the porsche- With the amount of energy, and fabricating, the car would have little value. Invest in the porsche 911 engine book by Wayne at Pelican, being a mechanic, you'd enjoy working on a 911 motor. The pics of the rot don't seem too bad to me (so far), but I do my own welding. With pedal box's, front suspension mounts, front pans etc being common. There are patch panels for sale by various companies.
Need pics of the rest of the floors and rear suspension mounts before a good judgement is made. True also on removing the fenders etc. is needed to see whats under. Too bad that a 74 is not worth a ton, but a sunroof car is always more valuable on the market than a non sunroof car. If the rest of the car is not too bad, AND you do the work yourself, this could be a good practice car to learn the in's and outs of restoring a 911. If you are able to rebuild the motor and tranny- you have options.

Break even? That will NEVER happen with this car. The longer you keep it and the more work you do to it, the further away from breakeven you will get.

It is always cheaper in the long run to buy a finished, running car. This one is so far gone that a pro restorer would have second thoughts about restoring it, and that's before considering the value question. It's a lot of work, it takes a lot of skill to do it right and it's not a job for a hobbyist.

I'm also of the opinion that a Chevy motor should never be put into one of these cars. If that sort of thing appeals to you, you should probably look for another car, as that motor in this chassis sort of misses the whole point of driving one of these cars.

Good luck to you,
JR

First of all, thank you for your service to our country. I'm not sure where you are located, but maybe having someone from here that is knowledgeable about these cars stop by and give you a hand would be a good idea? We are located everywhere, should be someone fairly close that could help you know/learn exactly what you are looking at and more importantly, what to be looking for. The front pan "looks" ok, but i've seen paint and undercoating hide paper thin metal, cardboard with undercoating, and chicken wire with bondo. Don't be afraid to stab a screwdriver into bubbled areas or seams. Use a magnet to look for bondo covering up rot. If the bottom of the car is solid you have a good base to start with and a loooong road ahead with the upper body. Those A-pillars w/ rain gutter are multiple layers of steel, never quite liked the idea of cutting and welding just the outside shell myself.. though you may be better off replacing the roof well down into the front door frame.

You won't know what you have till you remove the paint but I say go for it. If you restore this car you will have bragging rights and a great feeling inside you. Once you start working on it you won't want to stop. I got one last May and started to work on it
And it has been eating at me all winter that I can't. No room in the garage and way to cold to work outside. Oh and PLEASE DON'T put a chevy motor in it. But in the end do what makes you the happiest it is your car. Have fun and best of luck, I lost mine

Where did you lose it?
:confused:

This looks like the cars I was considering when looking for a 911 as the price is in my range but I got lucky and my 911 found me and it is in good shape. I was going to get one like yours and RAT rod it out. Heck I am a vw guy and I wanted a 911/912 so bad I would have put a vw motor in it just to go down the road. IF you want to go the cheap route, make it solid and safe with some welding. Might be a good time to learn on this one. Doesn't have to be pretty but it can be if you want. This will never be a show winner so go crazy and make it work and look like you want. ;)

https://www.google.com/search?q=rat+rod+911&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&rlz=1I7NDKB_enUS570&tbm=isch&tbo=u&sourc e=univ&sa=X&ei=liPpUtz-A6mysASthoHgCw&ved=0CCYQsAQ&biw=993&bih=533&dpr=1
Check out the Rat rod 911, warning not for the purist :)

I say eff it dude. Mine is no gem either but I enjoy working on it and she will be solid someday. You can check out what I'm doing to my 75 here. I was lucky and got mine as a gift so I am not into it too deep. It has a few rust areas that were repaired badly with fiberglass and an awful respray in red. No, my 75 will never be worth that of the early cars, but so what. I have a welder and a lot of tools, I see guys here that fix way worse, so why can't I do it. I think you can do it too.

Strip her down and see whats what and how bad she really is. Then go from there. Oh, and I am with the others, please don't put anything but a Porsche motor in her. :)

One more thing off topic. I served in the Navy too from 1995-2006 as an FC. Got out as a 1st class and miss it everyday. Thank you for doing your part.

One more thing to add, two years into my first car, i really wish I would have just repaired as I went along. I realized that if I didn't rip the whole thing apart into milk crates, I could have fixed the pedal cluster area, and front battery area and got her on the road. I then would have been able to create projects along the way but still have a drivable car. Too many stories of first timers, stripping the car and losing the interest or time only to end up selling the project off.

I bought three other cars in the meantime and am still working on the first mess but I can't give it up….yet.

Excellent point and without thinking that is kind of what I am doing with mine.

I don't know but the only good thing to happen to me in many years was getting my 911 after Being told someone was already looking at it. All I need is some nice weather this spring/summer/fall to turn things around.:rolleyes:

In the short time I have been here I have learned a lot about these cars and someone
Usually is willing to steer you in the right direction.

Found time today to remove the front fenders which to my relief and surprise things look okay. I know there are some things lurking underneath the car but I will accept any victory no matter how small. During the time spent working on the car today I came to the conclusion that if this car turns out to be unfixable for whatever reason structurally then I will just part it out. Nice that it's a small car though; it makes it a little easier to deal with working in a small garage. I'm not in a rush right now so time is on my side as well. Anyway, here are a few more pics from today.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1391046767.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1391046788.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1391046813.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1391046841.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1391046873.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1391046895.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1391046920.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1391046943.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1391046976.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1391046994.jpg