Went to the hardware store today to pick up some replacement hardware. I'm going to replace as much stuff with stainless steel as I can, as the bolts and screws (wood screws, as this car is made of wood) have all rusted over the years. Some of them have this weird "wood deck screw" square head on them - I'm going to be swapping those out for normal screws. I think that those may have been added later on by a later owner. What's slightly irritating is that nearly none of the screws match, which shows a bit of a lack of attention to detail - both in not bagging the screws properly when they came out, and also in not getting them all to match when putting it back together. We'll fix this right when it goes back together.
Another issue is what to do with the tires. I believe it has the original tires on it. The car was imported into the US in 1972, and the tires are old Goodyear G800 tires (common on smaller performance cars of this era). Except for one that has been rubbing against a bolt on the bodywork who who knows how long, they actually all look very, very good. No cracking, treads are good, and they hold pressure very well. I can't decode the date code / serial number printed on them - I think they may actually pre-date date codes.
A brief search of the Internet reveals that I'm not the only one looking for a good replacement, and all of the "modern" tires look, well, modern by comparison. There's a part of me that would love to find another set of wheels (or 1/2 set, since I already have a front and rear spare) and keep a set of the "vintage tired wheels", but then again, how important is that? I won't know how it will look until the new tires are on it (it may look better!).
It's funny because it has 12" wheels in the front, and 15" wheels in the back. We all know that 15" wheels look a little small on the 911 sometimes - these look absolutely huge compared to the 12s on the front!
-Wayne