Car is really bad, no budget, but big emotional ties. What to do....

[Scott S]

Hi All –
I am trying to help a pal with a dilemma. His dad was the original owner of a 1968 912 soft window targa. He actually ordered it the way he wanted it, and it is my understanding that he picked it up himself at the factory. He was a Porsche guy under the premise that he liked the way the car looked and drove – but he did not do any maintenance. The car was a New Jersey daily driver, then a Colorado daily driver up until the early 80’s. In the mid 70’s it had a Maaco quality respray to “fix” some rust issues (bondo and a poor respray). The car had a carb fire, thankfully the damage was contained to the drivers side solex and some paint damage to the deck lid – nothing else. Carbs were replaced with webers. A “new” motor was installed (so non-numbers matching) and life moved on. In the early 80’s his dad bought a new daily driver and stored the 912 in their garage. This lasted about two years. The car was then placed outside under a tarp for close to 10 years.
His dad passed a few years back, and my pal got the car. As you can imagine, it is a mess. Floors, sills, front fenders, suspension pan, outer rear torsion bar mounts, cowel are all just rusted away – and that is just what can be seen. I cant imagine what is under the 40 year old bondo. If you can believe it, the car still fires right up (smokes like hell) and he has taken many recent trips around the neighborhood (very very dangerous in my opinion).

My pal is not a man of means. More troubling is that he also is known for really cutting corners (ie –“ why weld, when an L bracket and some drywall screws will work…” ). Other than selling some parts here and there, the car is a write off in my opinion. But, it is his dads car, with piles of memories. Big time attachments.

Anyone been involved in a similar situation?

I don’t want to be rude to my buddy, I dont want him to waste money and I also don’t want to lie to him when he asks me if I can do some “quick welding to fix a few things” (this has already come up). He thinks he can fix the car and make it a “decent driver” for $2500 – 5k. There is simply no way.

Ugh. Not sure what to tell him.

[GH85Carrera]

Be honest with him. To fix it will cost 25 grand or more. Likely way more.

Show him this site. Have him look around and learn.

[hesmart]

that is a tough situation to be in. I would suggest that he does the slowly but correctly over a long period of time. If there is a will there is a way. I personally would try to restore it.

I'd be honest with him, but even if he does a lot of the work on his own it will still cost much more than 5k. Likely 5 times more.

[NYNick]

Why burst his bubble?
If he wants to patch it up and bomb around town in a POS that was his father's car, why not?
Sometimes you just have to let the kids fall on their face, even though you told them not to try walking the tightrope. He'll either find the slippery slope, or he'll ignore it. All the Porsches in the world can't be saved.
Let him go for it.

[Ayles]

I wouldn't leave a restoration to him, his propensity to cut corners will be a huge problem. It's a personality issue and will never go away.

I used to do projects with this buddy of mine and he was always cutting corners to the detriment of whatever we were working on. Needless to say we don't partner on projects anymore... Doing things right takes more time and costs more than some personality types can handle.

[hesmart]

He could probably get it into safe running condition for his price range. If the chassis is safe enough for public use. That might be a good place to start.

[Flojo]

if I were him I'd ask myself:
- what can I do (welding, etc.)?
- do I have the space?
- do I have the long run money?
- is a restored 912-softwindow a requested car on the market?

[tharbert]

What Nick said... If he's a good friend, just roll with it.

[Robey5]

Very tough situation to be in.

With an emotional attachment like that I would suggest that he chip away at it slowly and correctly. These cars can really chip away at the wallet, and I am familiar with the emotional attachment he has with this car.

As a warning for this guy - you (as his friend) can inform him that P-cars know when a repair is done half aced - and when they break the things around that sloppy repair job will cost between 2-5X to make right (when doing the fix of the fix; you get the point, correct?).

Oh yeah: let's see some pictures!

[wayner]

Scott

What would your advice be to him if it was an old clapped out Honda that he wanted to get some years out of?

Used in non critical places, maybe drywall screws would be fine?

If it is a high value collectable car that will be ruined, advise him of that,
but at the end of the day if he does't want to unlock that value, maybe some new brake lines and a few fiberglass patches will help him have some fun with it for a little while.

Not all cars are destined to be restored.
(and not all hack jobs are undoable)

[19-911-65]

At the end of the day it is his car, from his dad and he holds the sentimental attachment to it. The biggest thing you can do for him is help him...help himself by passing on your knowledge and letting him make his own decisions.

Grab a six-pack and offer to go over the car with him and make a list of what is needed...let him do the homework on what it will cost and he will very soon find out the 5K will only be the down payment to just keep the car from rusting away into infinity.

It won't take long for him to figure out he is well over his own head...just make sure you have a few dollars in your pocket when he asks you the best way to sell the car...;-)

[Lapkritis]

If it's safe for the road then maybe as-is condition is just fine for this case. I've driven ugly cars when I was younger and instead of making it perfect I accepted it for what it was: ugly but fun.

[irl]

Life is short and it will take him a lifetime to do this with his current situation. It will never happen. If his Dad is looking down on him, he would love to see him make some money off it to make him happy in my opinion. Remind him that his Dad didn't restore it, he moved on with a new car also.

[porwolf]

I think we all also have strong emotional ties to Porsches, especially the older models. That is why we would like to give advice to go for as much restoration as possible. But, remembering the olden days, I had Porsches and other cars that were nothing else than just daily drivers, used as regular cars, with regular every day issues like bumps, dents, scratches and rust. I did what was necessary to keep the cars on the road. I had crude steel parts welded and brazed to fix structural problems. I used extensive fiber glass, epoxy and bondo to fix body appearances before paint jobs. And the paint jobs were no different than for any other car of their age. Tha last paint job I did was on my '72 Targa in 1976 and it cost $600.-. So, I could see that your friend's car could be treated the same way, the same as his father would have done it.

[porsche930dude]

restoration and fixing up are two completly different things. Its not hard to fix a car up and get it looking alright. especially if its already running and driving. get it safe and driving. let the next guy deal with the restoration. at least it will be around for the next guy and not parted out and scrapped

[intheshop]

Share with him your opening post. Then offer what you are willing to do... the first help is to get him over that "$5,000 fix up" price. Or at least sit down and go over what $5,000 will get him on the car -- and what would be left undone. The worst case is he spends $5,000 and the car is still not in safe drivable condition. As suggested, it could be a long process to improve car -- as in 15 years.

I made that decision with my 1971 911T. It takes about 3 years or so to save up money and then I spend $4,000+ on some part of it. Last year it was a suspension rebuild. But the interior, body / paint and rims still are worn but I don't have the $15,000+ it would take to do them, so I wait another few years. The important thing is I get to drive my car while I wait to fix it up. While it's a drag that everything is not done at once, the good news is I don't worry too much about door dings

[snbush67]

Make a "Big Chill" Targa replica.

[Bill Jennings]

Scott S,

My biggest concern is your comment that the car is dangerous to drive as is and it appears that is what your friend is doing. Perhaps you can suggest to him to get the car inspected to determine if the car really is dangerous and if so what needs to be done to rectify that.

Best friend or not that's what I would do!

Cheers
Bill

[PushingMyLuck]

What model 911 was the Big Chill car?
In the movie, it was almost presented as a clunker.
He had to fix something on it at one point in the weekend.

[NYNick]

Just as an aside, one of the best cars I ever saw recently was a beat to hell 66 Mustang 350GT. The guy knew what he had, drove the piss out of it, kept it safe and mechanically sound, and had a ball. There's something to be said for this concept...