Just Bought A 69 912 And Have A Few Questions!

[JuiceMan]

Ok guys I bought myself a 1969 912 today. THere is pretty much no history on the car that I could find. It looks to be an
Ex-Autox car. I have a few questions:

1) The car has what looks to be an entire fiberglass skid plate under it. It's like someone has just built an entire fiberglass sheet over everything. It looks like it's mad to either give better aerodynamics or to protect the bottom of the car. I don't know which reason but I don't think it's stock. Am I right or wrong? Where these stock?

2) How can i tell if the engine is original? I only found one set of numbers on the engine and they are 4094216. Is this a number for a 69 912 engine? If I can't tell by the number then is there any way of just looking at the motor in which I can tell?

Thanks guys. I will try to get some pics up soon!

[This message has been edited by 69-912 (edited 04-05-2000).]

[Rich Franco]

I have an Porsche Restoration Guide that lists VINs and engine serial numbers for each given year. You could email me off list with your data and I'd be happy to see how they match up.

I don't think that the bottom of the car should be covered in fiberglass. Are you able to lift the carpets and mats in the floor wells to check the condition of the floor pan? Is it intact?

Rich Franco
Burke, VA
67 912

[ClayMcguill]

I don't have much help to give on the engine numbers, but the fiberglass under the pan sounds like a band-aid fix to a common problem on early Porsches--RUST! The early cars don't have the benefit of being built from galvanized steel, and the chances of finding an old one that was driven a lot that doesn't have some major rust somewhere are slim to none. Pull the seats and carpeting and take a good, hard look at the pan--heck, put the whole car on a hoist and check out the chassis thoroughly-the area near the pedals, the seat belt mounting points, the battery box and the front a-arm mounting points are all areas to check well for rust-my '66 912 had holes in all these areas (plus a few others), and it took me months to cut out all the bad metal and form patch panels to make it whole again--but what the heck, I always wanted to learn welding and didn't have anything better to do. Welcome to the wonderful world of auto restoration! (Our motto is, "If it doesn't work, throw the checkbook at it!") Lol.