To restore or not to restore?

[amahatme]

Recently bought a 68 912 soft window targa with hopes of restoring. Was told that restoration of the undercarriage would cost 20000. Its a great car, but since I do not do any welding or large body work, was wondering what you thought of doing it? I am attaching some pictures of the bottom to get your opinions. It appears that the bottom would need quite an overhaul.

[WFBowen]

Depending on how much you're into the car ($$ and any emotional attachment) I'd forget a restoration. I was going to say that you could patch it up, get it halfway safe, and drive it until it dies, but it looks like someone already did that a while back.
The problems (IMO) are:
1. The car probably has rust in just about every critical area. Even if you spend $$$ to restore it, you'll never have one of those $40k SWTs since it's had major sheetmetal/structural transplants.
2. I've been around these cars since they were new and, even if the undercarriage is restored, you'll be living with a car with "universal" rust; i.e. it'll eventually pop-up just about everywhere.
Depending on the mechanicals, you can always transplant the good stuff into a low/no rust coupe or throw it up on Ebay with an honest description & salvage some of your investment. Even if it happened to be a 67 9llS SWT, I'd think twice on restoring it.
JMO,
Bill.

[Rick Becker]

You might want to consider

1) right now about 160 912 SWTs have been registered at the 912 Registry, including about 90 SWT from 1968. ( See http://www.912registry.org/hometown.htm )

2) The VIN table shows 1217 1968 912s Targas were manufactured, but some were hard window Targas (right now 1968 Targas registered with the 912 Registry are about 2/3rds SWT )

3) If you decide to use it as a donor car, you could transplant the good stuff into a low/no rust SWT

4) if parted out, some of the SWT components are extremely rare and have been NLA for decades. Some past SWT owners got the bright idea to convert theirs to HWTs, and the current owners of those cars are looking for parts you may have.

[racer]

If you plan on using the car, i'd say you need to fix the structural rust issues.. suspension mounting points, floors, front pan are pretty critical. After that, then its up to you, imho, to contine the work or just drive it.

[Jerry1]

A few Questions

1. Is the car complete windows, interior,dash good wheels and tires, motor and trans all work.

2. Are you rich or good with a welder and body work.

If you said no to any one of these questions I would get rid of it. Part it out or sale it to someone else.

Just the metal for the
floor pan
suspension pan , latch panel
rockers inner and outer
repair panel for the torsion bars.
Easy 3 grand
Motor rebuild 10 grand

I know I am at the tail end of my restore and I have loved every second I spend on my 67 912. You got to love it or let it go.

Good luck would love to see another 912 saved from death.

[Jerry1]

Here is a picture of my 67

[bfunke]

Yup. This car could be restored but it's a labor of love for a skilled person. I you can't do the work yourself, you'll easily spend several times what the car is worth. Unless you know someone very skilled who is willing to spend a lot of time and teach you or you've just decided the emotional/sentimental value is worth paying a lot, your best bet is to do as recommended above.

I did have one thought. A friend of mine has a really sweet Karmann Ghia convertible that started life as a rust bucket. He had it restored by inmates at prison. The body work and paint job is spectacular and the labor was essentially zero just cost of parts and supplies. I don't recall which facility did this but I think it was in the southwest US.

When I was in high school, our shop teacher was a bug fanatic. He did some incredible restos also. I think high school auto shops went the way of dinosaurs in many school districts but you may be lucky if you live in a car crazed area like SoCal.

Good luck.

Bryan

[amahatme]

Thank you to all for your sound advice. I do love the car, but have no skills or a lift. That's where I fall short, otherwise I would have done it for sure. I have looked into the vocational schools and inmate programs, with no luck so far, but that is a really good idea. I wish I could just get it to a safe driveable condition, but haven't found anyone willing to tackle it.

[sabby]

I owned a collision shop for years and taught collision repair/painting at a very good community college.........You definitely don't want to bring this car to have students work on it....an old FordTtaurus yes, not a Porsche. Programs such as these are great for older low value cars that the owners are in no rush to get back. A routine quarter panel replacement that might be 2 weeks in a commercial shop will be at the school for the whole semester if not all year.......

[fbarrett]

Don't give up.

Time matters. In 1988 I had my '65 912 Coupe restored and spent a crazy (for then) amount of money on it, at least five times the 1988 market value. Since then I have enjoyed the heck out of the car for thousands of miles (priceless), and were I to sell it today, I could get at least double what I have in it (it's not for sale).

To restore a 912 correctly today, you will probably spend $75-100,000. Ten years from today, if you have enjoyed the car as I have enjoyed mine, and if you want to sell it, this will seem like a great investment!

The wiser short-term alternative, though, is to sell the car as-is and apply the resulting money toward a nicer example that you don't need to restore and can enjoy right away.

Frank

[C. Clark]

Project cars are just that, If is the subjective.....if you're a welder, if you have welding tools, if you have mechanics tools, if you have bodywork tools and if you have the skills... go for it.......and the biggest if of all......if you have lots and lots of time and space........

[912UK]

I would take it on but I know ( somewhat ) what I am doing but for some one who does not ... no

The trouble with that is that the Softback did you say? they have issues along with Targas of rust in area's that are a real pig to work on.. cars can look out of shape. This car needs total strip. Dunk in chemical to see what you have left and then onto a jig to do it right. then cut out and replace. $20,000 if doen llike I said is cheap..

best look for some thing else or if it's your now .. moth ball the car for a few years..look for a coupe you may find in years to come the car is worth more and you could sell it to some one who will do the work ..

[Rick Becker]

If you compare the rust repair cost to the $275,000 price tag for the newly-announced 2011 Ruf Roadster SWT, it's pennies on the dollar, right?

Check out the Ruf Roadster here:

http://www.ruf-automobile.de/en/Roadster.25d90.php

[Donald T]

I have a 911 SWT in about the same condition as yours. My brother-in-law is an experienced welder/body guy and we have the equipment (MIG welder and body tools). I have estimated the sheet metal costs alone to be around $3-4K from ********.

The real problem is that we will still need a jig to keep everything straight while welding (I have all of the factory workshop manuals). Big bucks. Also, the rust on old Targas was pervasive as most of the tops leaked and the floorboards rusted out years ahead of coupes.

We recently worked on a decent 912 coupe driver. That was cheap in comparison and gave us good experience. Still it was nothing compared to this undertaking.

In most cases my Targa would be a good candidate for restoration: numbers matching CoA, Irish Green , 911 SWT. Engine runs, transmission shifts, most electrics works and it even steers and stops. But, man is it rusty!

Decision time this weekend (part?).

I don't want to spend $50K-60K on a car that will be worth $25K at the end of the road