I guess this is my introduction thread!
Quick backstory. Dad was a VW mechanic, so I grew up around air cooled VWs, have owned many and now own his last bus before he passed. Very familiar with Porsches as a car, but always seemed like something no one in my family could ever attain. Crazy to look at prices and really, how attainable they were back then, for them and for me in my 20s. Reconnected with an old friend a year or so ago who had a couple Porches, a newer one and an older one. Now into my 40s, this definitely sparked my interest and it only took a spin around the block to set up a few online searches and start planning how I could acquire one....
Chapter 1: Finding the car... After finding a few sitting and hitting dead ends for whatever reason, my previously mentioned buddy calls me one day to say he's going to look at a convertible 911 with a coworker and he'd let me know how it went, etc. The coworker had a small budget (under 10K) and the seller wasn't budging on his initial ask (20K). I said I could probably do 15. Silence.... Several weeks later the seller is asking my buddy again about buying it off him, he really wants it gone, needs the room, etc. Said he'd do 18. I was stuck on 15. There is some back and forth over the course of a week or so, then we go and look at it, strike a deal....
The car has been sitting for 1-2 years. Previous owner has owned the car since the 80s, but more or less mechanically inept. Car was converted from a coupe to convertible before he bought it, as well as the wide body kit. Car was worked on by John Walker for the most part. Has just over 100K on the odometer. Has some upgrades throughout, but also some other "upgrades" that will need to be removed. PO said he parked it one day and when he went to drive it, it wouldn't start, he got a new battery and it would only click. He assumed starter. He is a bit older and with how crusty the outside was, I'm guessing this has sat close to two years.
Day 1: Will it start? Armed with a small wrap of tools, optimism to the moon and a check for 15K, we meet the guy, transfer the title and then get to work trying to start this thing. Fresh battery proves the clicking noise, but the motor is stuck. Backing it up in third allows the motor to turn, but when pushed back forward, it hits something and stops. That's our "clicking" noise that PO assumes in the starter. I use a phone a friend to call my brother in law who owns a small european repair shop in Seattle and he thinks maybe some rust in the cylinder is stopping a piston, but says it's tough to say without being there. We keep tinkering with it, hoping to get it to turn over completely. My optimism is all but gone and I'm already coming up with an explanation for my wife on how I could blow 15K on a car that doesn't run.
With the battery nearly dead. My buddy gives it one last attempt and it surprisingly turns over for about 10 seconds straight. Moods are restored and I may have even smiled a bit. We keep trying for about 30 minutes and then tell him we'll return tomorrow to tow it away.
Day 2: 30 miles or bust! I borrow a trailer from a friend, it has no lights as it's got a euro plug, I have no brake controller, so no brakes and after getting it hooked up, I realize there is no license plate. But the 911 needs to move today and my anxiety is to the moon. I get the trailer to the 911 in bumper to bumper traffic along South I-5 in Seattle. I back it up down his narrow driveway, somehow, almost looking like I know what I'm doing. I get everything ready as I wait for my buddy to show up and help me out. I only have a come along and we're pulling it up a slight hill and the ramps onto the trailer. This took a good hour. Pull it backwards a couple of feet, lock up brakes, readjust come along, pull a couple more feet, etc. We eventually got it on the trailer, strapped down and pulled away. A friend of my buddies even snapped a picture of us randomly driving down I-5.
So we make it to my buddies house who has graciously offered a place to store the car and work on it. He's super pumped to have a homie with a car to work on and I am as well. The trailer pulled well, traffic was surprisingly light for the hour and only had a few dumb drivers spike my blood pressure. My wife met us at his house and helped unload the car and she started to fall in love quickly, lol.
We decide to give it a quick wash to see what's under the crusty layer. Nothing fancy here, just a quick scrub. The three of us jump in and start seeing the deep purple paint under the grime. The PO said the color was called Black Cherry. He seemed to think it was an original color. Again, mechanically inept. He wanted a cool car in the 80s and that's what he got, lol. We wash 'er up and call it a night...
