1968 Bucket List Rust Bucket

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Hello, my name is Ward. I’ve been lurking in the forums for several years now learning what I can about SWB/LWB Porsches. I’ve been tinkering on cars most of my life, and I’ve always wanted to try my hand at resurrecting a rusted out early 911/912. I finally decided that I wanted a 1968 911/912 for my project, and I set a personal goal to have it completed before the car and I both turn 50 in 2018.

Thanks to the following for giving me inspiration and the courage to try…

Cool5: 911R project

Speedo: SWB 911R...the beginning

Scotiagreg: 1968 912 junker reincarnation

Emptyo: Check out the new project 69'er

Leichtbauer: Hot Rod Projekt

Darryl’s Garage: www.darrylsgarage.com

Here’s my lonely Miller welder buried behind the minivan and other garage junk…



This 1968 912 came up on ebay. No motor or interior, but a there’s a transmission. When I saw it, I called my wife and she gave me the green light.



Lesson (I) learned #1: When your wife says “yes” to you buying a Porsche, buy it before she changes her mind.

I “won” the auction and paid $3,050.00. Probably too much, but it seems like even rusty early shells are skyrocketing up in price lately.

Since the car was in Texas and I live in California, I had to have it shipped out to me. I used uShip and got a bid from SemperFiServices. He did a great job and it cost me $709.29.

Lesson (I) learned #2: When you buy a car on ebay, don’t forget to include the cost of shipping!

I didn’t get any pictures of the car on the trailer, but here she is in her new home.



I’ll post my trials and tribulations as I go along…Thanks, Ward

[porschetub]

Wait till you open that "can of worms'?,with you on this one and good luck,you most likely have a good base of parts to sell from what i can see if it turns upside down.
Scotiagreg had the most extreme case I have seen ever seen and raised the bar on rustbuckets and he and his welder friend did great work but there was no cost mentioned in the build and thats the kicker it really costs.
You did well with this buy so go for it.

[mcaterino]

Ward,

Looks like a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. You going to keep the flares and hot rod it, or take it back to its original narrow bodied state? Motor plans?

Take/Post lots of pictures and take it one rusty bolt at a time.

Good luck,
Mike

[fanaudical]

Welcome to the forums! There is lots of help here.

Regardless of whether or not this "makes sense" as a project, it's your project. Have fun and enjoy! Please post what your vision is for the car once you get that sorted.

[bgyglfr]

Looks like a good project. I'm about to start on two swb cars to be finished over the winter. I'm looking forward to seeing the progress.

[draw]

Thanks for the encouragement…I’m going to need it.

I love Porsches because of the “connectedness” between the car and the driver. My vision is to build something light and tight with the most “pure” driving feel (as I see it). Basically, this will be my interpretation of a 911 R.

I’m not sure about the motor yet, but I know that I want everything to be analog.

I debated keeping the flares, but they are fiberglass and will have to go.

Here are the pics before tear down. There can never be too many, right?









The firewood came with the car...





Got some foam insulation with the deal, too...

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And a few more pics...







Great, no rust here! No metal either...

[draw]

Time for an update…

After I “imported” the car from Texas, I went about getting it titled in California. That’s when I discovered that I needed a “Verification of Vehicle” form to be completed. This wouldn’t be a big deal if I could drive the car down to the DMV and have them sign off on it. Instead, I had a friendly CHP run the VIN and fill out everything for me.

Paperwork in hand, I head down to the DMV office and wait for two hours. My lucky number gets called and, after checking with her supervisor, the lovely lady sends me away because the car is missing its engine and isn’t "complete.” Shoot…

Lesson (I) learned #3: Make sure you know how to get the car titled before buying it.

Great, now I have to get motor…After looking around, debating with myself what I want, I see a tired 2.7 on ebay and make an offer of $2,500. Filip accepts, and within a few days I’m on my way to Alhambra to pick it up.

Here’s the motor in the back of my old Isuzu Rodeo.



That’s it for now…

[boxer246]

Draw.....I really had a good laugh at your sarcastic description of your trunk floor.....er, lack thereof At some point, the rust in these early cars is downright comical ! My '70 looked virtually the same as yours in terms of rust, and now that I have the front suspension pan finished, I've been driving the car, despite huge gaping holes in my floorboards Of course the FLinstone jokes are flying at work! I've just been having so much fun driving it I cant bring myself to put it up to start cutting out the floors.....but that day is fast approaching.

Have fun with it, they really are easy to work on, the rust repair is just nasty dirty work, and I dont see a rotisserie anywhere in your shop so you'll have just a grand old time underneath that car Feel free to PM my anytime I learned alot doing my front suspension pan that I didn't see while doing research on the internet. I've got lots of pics.

[weseeeee]

Congrats, looks like you have some work ahead of you but that's half the fun. Enjoy!

[TheSt|G]

Always nice when you find a rust free spot.

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So now that I have an engine, I need to get it in the car. I didn’t have an engine support crossmember/console so I picked one up off ebay from seller dporschepartsman for $190.00.

I got the tranny out and bolted it up to the motor and attached the engine crossmember. Now, since I don’t have 911 motor mounts yet, I needed to figure out how to temporarily bolt the motor in the car. I drilled a hole in some flat stock I had lying around and mitered the ends to span the frame.





After getting the motor in without much fuss, I call Michael at vinverifiers.com to come out to my house to do the VIN verification so I don’t have to trailer the rust bucket down to the DMV. A couple of days later Michael is in my garage looking at the car. $300 and the DMV paperwork is complete and in my hands. The best part of Michael’s visit is his story about the time he verified the VINs on two 911Rs in a warehouse in Long Beach. I got goosebumps…

The next day I visit the DMV and all is good. Plates, tags, and the title is in the mail. Now I can really start digging into things…

[pors1968]

Good luck with your built .68 Tricking to restore.

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My updates here are way behind...

After getting the car titled, I started in on stripping what was left to get down to the bare shell.

Hmm, this is curious...a drywall screw.



Hmm, I pulled out about 15 more drywall screws including this one going into the fiberglass bumper...



Got the dashboard off to find lots of duct tape...



I can see some pink fiberglass insulation stuffed under there. I started wondering if the previous owner worked in construction. Ample supply of drywall screws, R 30 insulation, clear silicon caulking sealing up holes and crevices. Then, I see in the defroster vent...



Bingo! When I started this project I didn't anticipate the fun of being a "carcheologist".

Enough insulation to keep you warm in the coldest of Texas winters...



Hope to do another update sooner rather than later...I'm getting close to a major (early) milestone.

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After a year of working on the car 15 minutes here and an hour there, the nuts, bolts, wires, drywall screws, and R30 insulation has been removed from the car. She emerges from the garage...















Off to Strip Clean in Santa Ana...

[Rich Lambert]

I'm in for this one...sub'd.

[tdw28210]

Sub'd. Those glass or metal flares? Guessing glass based on the cracking paint.

[Last911]

NOW the real fun begins. Hopefully it's not too pin 'holy' when you get'er back!

Are you doing the welding yourself? (Didn't catch that part).

[scotiagreg]

Subscribed

Your headed on a great journey! I absolutely love my 68. The car exceeds my expectations in every way. Incredibly drivable and now on it's way to 6000 Km's since build. Ironically, like your stated goal, I was 50 last year for it's maiden voyage.

Best of luck!
Greg

[Lapkritis]

Keep at it - one step at a time. Looks like you're headed in the right direction.