Intro from long time lurker

[356911930]

Time for my long delayed introduction...ouch three years delayed.

WOW! If you do not want to read another longwinded "Intro" stop here...

My first introduction to Porsches was a Speedster that my dad bought new in 1958. We grew up with that car and knew that there were only two kinds of cars, Porsches and cars. We had that Speedster until 1977 or 78. See the pictures below. My brother painted it metal flake blue. We took the Speedster everywhere. On hunting trips my dad would usually go first with his buddies and my mom would take us up on the weekend in the Speedster. We would take out the front passenger seat and that was where our two Weimaraners would sit. My two brothers and I would sit in the back seat like sardines and rest of the car was packed with all our gear. I remember that the going price for the Speedster in about 1970 was $2,100.

My first car was a 1961 356B coupe, 1600 Super. It was silver with red leather interior and dark grey dash, I later painted it red. I bought it for $1,600 from a guy that worked with my dad at UTC in CA. I paid $900 down, my life savings, and the guy let me make payments of $50/month until the remainder was paid off. My brother blew up the motor about a year or two later. I found a used 1600 racing motor with MC high compression pistons and roller bearing crank in Palo Alto for $800. That motor was FAST! I could pull or match stock V8s of the day. Unfortunately the motor was tired and used one quart of oil for every tank full of gas. When I left for my freshman year at college I had just disassembled the car and painted it red. It needed to be reassembled and a lot of maintenance, so I could not take it to school. I hitchhiked from Idaho back to CA during Thanksgiving to put it back together. I didn't finish so by the end of Thanksgiving so I had to hitchhike back to Idaho to get to school. I came back at Christmas, “mostly” finished the assembly, and drove that car with no heat from CA to Idaho during a major winter blizzard. It started to snow before Tahoe and snowed all the way into Nevada. I "slept" in my car that night on the side of the highway with truckers driving blowing past all night long. I froze my butt off, only to find out the next day that the rest stop bathrooms were heated...I would have gladly slept on the bathroom floor! On the way I lost a front wheel bearing and the wheel basically fell off the spindle but the car fell on the wheel and trapped it, in the wheel well, in the upright position which allowed me to "safely" drive the car to a stop. I had it towed to a VW repair shop in the next town up the highway which was Winnemucca, NV. I took the Greyhound from there to school. A buddy and I hitchhiked from school, to Winnamucca, to pick up the Porsche after the wheel bearing was replaced. The speedometer cable was also ripped out when the wheel came off so we had no speedometer on the way back to school. We used the mile markers and a wrist watch to calculate our speed, about 90mph most of the way. Shortly after getting the 356 back to school the clutch started slipping. I ended dropping the engine and replacing the clutch disc in a dirt driveway using the 356 jack and the large rocks that lined the driveway as jackstands. I also had to use rocks under the jack to get the rear of the car high enough to remove the engine. One time about three or four months later I forgot to add that quart of oil with the gas tank fill-up and threw a rod through the case. Later that summer my brothers and I borrowed my dad’s Datsun pick-up and drove to Idaho to pick up the 356 and bring it home. We drove straight thru taking turns driving and sleeping in the back of the pick-up...can't do that nowadays.

My next Porsche was a 1974 911 ducktail Carrera, #(from memory) 9114400440. I owned this car from about 1982 - 1989. Anyone know where this car is today? It was brown with the three silver stripes on the front hood that morfed into 9-1-1 at the bottom of the hood. I time-trialed that car with GGR-PCA for several years. It was T-boned by an underinsured guy that ran a red light. I had just rebuilt the motor myself about two months before and could not afford to fix it, so I sold it for what I could get. The guy who bought it did a great job repairing the damage, painting and installing a new interior.

While I had my brown '74 Carrera my brother was doing a tune-up on a yellow 1976 930 turbo Carrera with black trim, for a guy he knew. One day he brought the car to where I was working and parked it next to my '74 Carrera. That '76 930 was stunning, I had seen one exactly like it at the Porsche dealership in 1976. I thought it was one of the best looking cars I had ever seen, yellow with all that black trim really made all the curves of the body stand out. Several months after my '74 Carrera was hit my brother told me that the yellow '76 turbo Carrera was for sale, I decided to buy it, this was in about 1990.

In about 1995 the starter ring gear on the 930 started to go out so I pulled out the engine and transmission to replace it. The paint was looking dull and the rubber pieces were starting to look old so I decided to keep on stripping the car down. Everything ended up coming off. The plan was to clean it up, paint and re-assemble over the next three to six months. As life would have it priorities started to change. I got a Weimaraner pup from our family’s 40 year old blood line and started training and hunting again. The 930 sat, in pieces, in my garage for 17 years.

About two years ago my brother decided to paint his 1978 911 SC so he built a spray paint booth in his shop. He said "If you are ever going to get that car painted you had better do it now!.” We towed the yellow 930 turbo Carrera to his shop and started to remove all the paint down to the metal. I used paint stripper because I did not want to remove the galvanized coating ( I know there is controversy about when the galvanized coating started. I think it was 1976). What started out as a three month, $10,000 project lasted about one and a half years and cost about $25,000. This included paint, new dash, leather interior and carpets, headliner, all new rubber. No major work was done to the engine or transmission except changing the oil, new engine wiring harness (my dog ate the original) and Swepco gear oil in the tranny along with new throw-out bearing and Carrera chain tensioners. Some of that cost was due to the acquisition of updated parts; RUF front valance, RUF front oil cooler, RUF short shifter. I have many additional 930 go-fast parts I purchased that seemed like a good idea at the time but now due to the increased value of these cars I'm not sure how many mods to do. While we were working on the two Porsches I would joke with one of the guys helping us, telling him that he needed to be extra careful working on the 930 as compared to my brother’s 911SC because the SC was worth $10,000 and the 930 was worth $50,000(actually about $25,000 at the time). Little did I know that a year later the 930 would be worth even more than I had joked.
Finally the moment came to start the yellow 1976 930. After draining the gas tank,( the gas came out like pure clean drinking water), it was so clean I wanted to put it back in to see if the car could run on 18 year old gas but decided not to chance it. I did have to have the front fuel pump rebuilt and replace the fuel lines from the front pump thru the tunnel to the front of the engine. The car fired right up after 18 years of sitting, we were all amazed and greatly relieved at bringing this classic back to life.

The pictures below show us hunting with the Porsche Speedster in background, rebuilding one of our 356 engines, my brother and I with one of the 356s and rebuilding a 911 engine. Also shown is our family cars getting a bath; from left to right my mom's ice green 911SC targa, my yellow 1976 930 coupe, older brother's pearl slope nose 1978 911SC targa and my younger brother's bronze 1980 911 SC targa. The only car that was sold was my mom's 911 SC. The other Porsches are still in the family to this day!

[billybek]

I see you have been hanging around here a while!
Great story and welcome to the forum.

[Oh Haha]

Welcome to Pelican and that is great story. Those pics are very cool as well. Diggin the pants in the pic next to the Speedster.

[wayner]

It is cool to see cars that have been in one family so long.

[GH85Carrera]

Welcome to the madness!

[356911930]

Thanks for the warm welcome! This is an amazing site with extremely helpful and friendly members. I visit here almost every day.

In the picture of the Speedster and the "pants" you can see my 1961 356 Super in the carport. In the second picture, the hunting trip, that is my dad's VW pick-up with the canvas top loaded with hunting gear.

Very fond memories of those days,

Rahl

[puddy]

Great stories and cool cars, so glad you were able to keep most of those cars in the family!

[porwolf]

Welcome from a long time Porsche addict. I also started with a 1962 356, way back in 1968:

[evan9eleven]

What a great story! Welcome!

[Derek911]

Anyone remember the movie Airplane when the guy was telling his story to the passenger sitting next to him? Lol

[356911930]

Well Derk,

Maybe you missed the second sentence in your rush to get your 5th post. ; )

[CCM911]

What a fantastick story! Good stuff.

And LOL, you slapped Derek down like an old pro...

Originally Posted by 356911930

Well Derk,

Maybe you missed the second sentence in your rush to get your 5th post. ; )

[TheSt|G]

Nice back story and even better pants.

[356911930]

Porwolf,

My 356B looks exactly the same a your 356 in the picture. I had the same ski rack and my skis were mounted on it when I left for school. Are those Fischer Presidents on your ski rack? My dad had a pair...210s

Rahl