New 911SC project

[Eric 951]

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself and my new project to the 911 board. Although not new to Porsches, all of my previous experiences have been with front-engine water pumpers, so I envision a lot of time being spent here researching threads and gaining knowledge on this new-to-me 83 911SC. I didn't have any plans on re-visiting Porsche ownership(especially a 911), but an opportunity presented itself, and here I am.
A family friend passed and his heirs contacted me regarding his Porsche. He was the second owner, having purchased the car in 94 with 54,000 miles. He proceeded to put 2,000 miles on it and then parked it in his garage in '04. When the heirs contacted me, they mentioned that a dealer had offered them $5,000 as the car sat-- there were no running issues with the car when he parked it, he just lost interest.
I told them to NOT accept I would take a look, take some pics, and help give them an actual value from the Pelican community.
When I arrived at the house, I saw that the garage was a *bit* damp, and the car had suffered as a result.



However, it was complete, a nice color brown/over black with black Fuchs, original(56,000 miles), and only had a dime sized spot of rust near the driver's front wheel well.

I started a thread in the Marketplace discussion forum with the info and pics I had to determine a value. I received some great information(and a couple of purchase offers via PM), and shared all of this with the heirs along with classified ads from our host. After reviewing this, they asked if I would be interested in making an offer.
I thought about it for a few days--no open garage, several motorcycles and project bikes, classic trucks to keep on the road, no experience with 911s, and a non-running mold filled car.....of course I will make an offer. We came up with a figure agreeable to both and suddenly I was the new owner of an old 911. Now I just had to get a non-running 911 with the ignition and steering wheel locked out of a small 2-car garage which also had a downward sloping driveway--how long could this take?(To be continued)

[Eric 951]

911 project part II. I had a few days prior to picking the car up to start some research--The car was parked nose-in the garage, I couldn't get the ignition freed up to unlock the steering wheel, and also couldn't get the windows down since the ignition was locked. I hit the ignition with some WD-40 and went home to think about what I had done.
I returned on Saturday with my father, a box trailer--fortunately this had been purchased used years prior, and the PO had it rigged as some type of race toy-hauler --it has an electric winch, ramp, D-rings in the floor and snazzy "Terlingua race team" graphics. No, we do not use it to haul Mustangs/Shelbys or other cars n' coffee menaces.

I also loaded some tow straps, shackles, tie-downs, compressor, tools, and wheel dollies(thank you Harbor Freight)
When we arrived at the house, the ignition was still frozen--some more WD-40 while I maneuvered the trailer and pick-em-up (8' bed, extended cab) up the driveway in the narrow-street residential neighborhood. Now the hard part begins.
I will go to my grave insisting that one of the riskiest activities one can do with any type of motorized vehicle--be it dirt bike, motorcycle, lawnmower, or car is to load and unload it when the conditions are less than ideal. The ignition would not free-up, the emergency brake worked, as did the brakes themselves---that's good. We got the front wheels up in the air using the dollies and now could steer the car. My research indicated that there are no factory rear tow points for an 83 SC...hmm so, we rigged a tow strap to the (2) front tow points, ran the winch cable beneath the car taking care to not snag on anything, and got started.


my nice professional-level photo.
Did I mention that the driveway had a decent slope to it? Once we got the car on the ramps, we used the Jeep in the garage as a fixed point, rigging a snatch block which we reeved the winch cable through so we could control the speed of the car is it was lowered into the trailer and had the tow strap rigged to the Jeep in case the cable let go.

Once the car was slooowly winched into the trailer--a high tech parking brake was employed while I set the actual parking brake



Total time to load car incident-free 3 hrs. 300 curse words.
(To be continued)

[Eric 951]

911SC project part 3.
Once the car was in the trailer--we proceeded to strap it down--unfortunately the PO had obviously not hauled Porsche 911s, as the D-rings were set in the floor in an irregular pattern. Much crawling and cursing later car was secured, parking brake set, transmission in neutral and car was on its way home.
I cleared a bay in our warehouse and rolled the car out to get a good look in the daylight and it ...wasn't bad at all.

There is non-original black rock chip type coating on the front spoiler and rockers, but this is a light coat over the original paint--I was pleased to confirm that the only rust was the tiny dime spot near the front wheel.

Passenger headlight bucket is cracked

Retro Miami-Vice era car phone with added cat prints

But--some interior work was looming

I spoke to a buddy who is an abatement contractor and he suggested trying white vinegar on the mold/mildew. So I masked up and got to work pulling carpets, trunk carpets, seats, etc. etc.

[Eric 951]

continued
Once I got the carpets out, I saw that sometime during the car's life it had been improperly jacked on both the passenger rear and the drivers' front..




And why would a 911 use the same size battery as a 928


I got started on the vinegar--spray, let soak in, wipe down. I was skeptical, but impressed with the preliminary results.

[Eric 951]

This car phone looks complicated..and then there is this Blaupunkt thing? When I found this under the floorboard I kept thinking of Nuke LaLoosh in Bull Durham..."but I've got a Blaupunkt"



I still need to complete removing the interior, but wanted to wait until Wayne's "101 projects book" arrives so I don't do any harm.

So, may as well wash the car since it finally stopped raining(it turned briefly to snow--no kidding)

[Steve F]

Dang, that is cleaning rather nice!!

[Eric 951]

Once washed, I found a few more nits to pick.

mostly minor chips in the paint and a dent on the engine lid...






I also was able to free up the ignition, so that brings me to the current progress so far. I will be updating when I make progress and will be spending many hours researching the forums here--I may even re-join Rennlist and the PCA because soon I will need to get into this

[mikl911]

Looking nice already! Welcome to the slippery slope.

[TheSt|G]

Hard to tell from the photos, but it looks like it is really cleaning up pretty well.

Given the two rust spots found thus far, I would consider pulling up the door trim along the bottom of the frame to check for more cancer there, as well as the battery tray. Also, check all the drains(like the gas filler area) to confirm that they aren't plugged with age.

[joe payne]

It's like uncovering a jewel. That's FUN work!

[SCadaddle]

Interesting trick with the white vinegar. Did you dilute it with water or something else, and at what ratio? What was the procedure and follow up treatment?

[75 911s]

Wow she did clean up nicely! Amazing what some TLC can do.

[Eric 951]

Originally Posted by SCadaddle

Interesting trick with the white vinegar. Did you dilute it with water or something else, and at what ratio? What was the procedure and follow up treatment?

I was told just use undiluted distilled white vinegar--I didn't cut it, just spray, let soak for 5-10 minutes, and wipe. So far it is going well--I really need to get the components into the sun as well, but the weather hasn't been cooperating at all. I need to check back to make certain it is truly gone prior to moving onto more aggressive methods.

I also shampooed the carpet's/mats with baking soda/water. My abatement guy mentioned the natural solutions are the best(vinegar, baking said and sunlight) and exhaust them first before trying harsher treatments.

Thanks for the kind words--to answer some other questions--the battery box is fine, no rust, just some light surface--there are no holes anywhere in the body, and surprisingly, all of the electrical wiring I inspected to date is clean as well--I was expecting massive corrosion from its damp storage. The rear bumper pad did suffer some damage at one time










and there a oil leaks....

[SCadaddle]

Thanks! Keep up the good work!

SC

[3.0schotrod]

Looks great. For the rear bumper pad I would recommend repairing with black Sikaflex. If you make sure that any parts that are stuck out above the surface, are pushed in and glued in somehow so they dont come back out again, then fill over with sikaflex after de greasing the surface (use one of those things you use to fill holes in walls with filler), you can sand sikaflex down to shape again after it has set, and it sets flexible. Wont be perfect but if you apply show and shine or your preferred brand of plastic treatment, it usually looks acceptable. I did it on my front spoiler that had chunks missing and on an old BMW E12 M535i rear spoiler that was almost chopped in half, both times I made it look acceptable. Just a thought.

[billydeakins]

Congrats on a beautiful car Eric.....it really cleaned up very nicely and I love the color.

There's often bumper pads on the parts classifieds here too for very reasonable cost....just an option.

Looking forward to seeing the progress!

[Bleedsblue]

Incredibly satisfying save, this. And well done rescuing the heirs from an insulting offer from a dealer.

[bbturbo]

Looks great! Thanks for saving it!

[Luccia at Pelican Parts]

Definitely looks like a good project. That's crazy what the vinegar did. Hopefully our articles will come in handy while you continue to work on it, but Wayne's book will definitely be a gold mine of great info. Let me know if you need anything and looking forward to watching this project. Good luck!

Porsche 911 (1965-1989) Technical Articles - Pelican Parts
http://101projects.com/

[Discseven]

Beautiful turnaround!