[ChopShop]

Welcome and sorry in advance.

This car has been in Project Purgatory for more than a decade. You might have seen it recently come up on eBay as an unfinished project car with a bunch of good quality parts hung together on a painted 74 tub with an LS2 attached to a 930 transmission.

Skip the next few parts if you don’t care for the back ground story, it’s mostly for comedy value. For those who don’t like any of the wordy part, skip to the pictures.

After my better half (commonly referred to as my better 3/4’s, anyone who meets us realizes pretty quickly that I’m batting out of my league!) said she wanted it, we went halves the most expensive car I have ever bought.

Daryn (better 3/4’s and comedy genius) has had 911’s in her life since 1980 (year she was born) when her Dad bought an SC new in Germany, drove it around there and then shipped it back to California. It got stolen a few years later and the only part that was recovered was the steering wheel (which he still has on a hook in the garage, along with the 85MPH speedo he had changed out). Her Uncle had a 1987 930 Turbo in green with a caramel interior in 1989 for a few years (I would marry this girl if he still had it, just on the off chance I might get to drive it) and currently has a 996 S(ok, maybe we should get engaged.). She drove the 996 for the first time in July this year (she learned how to drive stick weeks before just so she could surprise her Uncle with her new skills and request a drive in the Porsche) After that drive, she declared in no uncertain terms; “Yeah, I gonna need one of those...” with that look that says “You make that happen.”


I, however, specialize in P.O.S $2000 or less cars that haven’t moved in 20+ years(the current record is 46 years). If I can drive it away, I’m not interested. If it has a clean title, I’m not interested. If it has paint, an interior, an engine, wheels, intact glass......you get the picture. This car only sort of fits the mold, I can’t drive it away, it’s missing lots of parts and I couldn’t see it in person(added a certain element of surprise).

After making the deal with a very nice guy in Ohio, (Oddly the buyers remorse stayed away after the sale, most unlike me. This must mean it’s a good idea.) the car has made it’s way to Colorado. (Where the buyers remorse kicked in hard, apparently it only stays away when the car is in someone else’s garage!)


Welcome back those who skipped the preamble, let’s get down to the car part.

Soooo....never buy a car without looking at it first. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that bad, but you just can’t get enough info from a couple of phone calls and a few random pictures (the only other car I bought sight unseen was an Audi wagon, when I asked the guy what the interior was like he said it was in great condition. He must have been looking at the back of the rear seat headrest when he said this because when I got the car, it looked like a goat had been living in it).

Regardless, there were a few surprises, like the puffy radiator that looked like it was left in water for too long and swole. I’m pretty sure it was filled with water when it froze during it’s long term storage in a unheated garage in Ohio. More on that later, it will be a surprise to us all because I don’t even know yet if the motor has suffered the same fate. Also the quality of work was questionable in some areas (nothing the P/O did, his work was really nice. I swore I’d never buy a car modified by someone else after I bought a 4x4 converted 61 Ford Econoline van done by a guy who didn’t own a drill. He did, however, own a gas torch. Are you starting to see a pattern in my buying habits?).

Anyway, on the positive side, it has a really good collection of top quality aftermarket parts (I see now why you buy good aftermarket when you don’t have the stock part, because it’s cheaper!). Motor is low miles, transmission is rebuilt, body is solid and pretty well painted even though it was 10 years ago and some of the filler has shrunk(Daryn refers to it as “just a little cottage cheese on the thighs, who doesn’t have that.”).

Long story short, the car rolled(it was more of a limp) into my shop(and life) in late September and I’ve been working on it since (I’ve taken some time off when I’ve had other things to do or I’m generally just annoyed with it).

I figure this is a good a place as any to share this story, those who are interested in motor swaps might not hate it and the haters can dip in and out as they see fit. I also figure it’s a good place to stop for now, this is a lot of waffle, the car is not going to build itself.

Thanks for sticking with it.

And so on with the pictures........