Hey y'all, long time Porsche/Pelican enthusiast here, always lurking but never posting and figured it was time to put together my first build thread. I'll try to keep the tangents to a minimum...
I always grew up in a "Porsche family," riding in the back seat of my dad's '98 993 C2S Widebody bouncing my head off of the hardback seats when he would smash on the brakes on our way to Sunday morning breakfast. Man I wish he kept that car...
He and my Uncle Freddy always had cool cars and used to have a race team together, and long story short, my Uncle Freddy unexpectedly passed away a year and a half ago.
I had just finished putting together and had sold my 1962 VW Beetle hot rod project, and was just dipping my toe into the market for another air cooled 911 when we lost him. A friend of mine sent me a Facebook listing for this car, and I ended up sending a deposit over to the seller while I was on my way to my Uncle's funeral, and then re-arranged my flights to stop and pick up the car in Denver on my way back home to Montana where I was living at the time.
Uncle Freddy sent this one my way, so whether you choose to "name" your cars or not, I felt that it was only fitting for this one given the timing.
Anyway, that's enough of the sad part of the back story with this car, on to the fun stuff - I've been working on this car for the past year and a half with my girlfriend and have a lot to share...I'll throw in a few pictures of my previous projects also here just for fun.
Thanks to the Pelican community for being such a great resource throughout the years here...
Here are the first photos I saw of the car, from the Facebook listing that the seller had posted. Originally a silver car, he bought it four years before me from an estate and had his buddy do a pretty decent glass-out respray color change to Ice Green Metallic, one of my absolute favorite mid-year colors.
(These seats were eventually sold on BaT to fund more parts of this project)
The car looked pretty great in person - mostly a survivor, save for the respray. Interior and engine looked to be original, the front tub is relatively untouched with the factory black paint spots still visible, and the car is straight with no floor or rust issues at all. A perfect candidate for a refresh
AND it came with H1's - my absolute favorite headlight for these 911's. Score.
It also seemed to run great; if it wasn't for the MANY extra parts and THREE(!) sets of wheels the seller included with the car, I would have just driven it back to Montana. But, everything happens for a reason...more on that later. SO - this was the next 12 hours of my life:
Once I got it back, I drove it about 8 miles before I heard a clunking from the rear wheel and the car wouldn't move. Fortunately I was already coasting into my work parking lot, so I was able to get it to a safe place to see what was going on and get it fixed. The engine still ran great, so I took a peek underneath and found this...
Remember when I said everything happens for a reason?
Also fortunately, I worked (at the time) at the airport, so this was the nearest "garage" that I had access to pop the car in and continue my repair once it started raining...
Rough life, I know.
Anyway, drama finally aside, after sourcing the correct bolts, realizing my axles and hardware aren't the right size for those little half moon connecting double lock washer things, and finding the right one-directional single bolt lock washers, I got it back together and on the road before delivering the bug to it's new owner.
Then the garage was a two-Porsche garage, for a quick moment...
That's a good start, and gets me through the first month of ownership of Freddy - June, 2023. More to come, thank you guys for following along!
-Andrew