I have been making progress on my 1976 911S. I have been posting questions here and there but I thought it would make more sense to put all this together to show the progress.
IN THE BEGINNING
While I have been searching eBay for a few years for a 911, with a young family blooming and a very small garage, I didn’t think it was in the cards. However, an understanding and adventurous wife and a lucky opportunity presented itself in January of 2010. A friend of mine mentioned a guy who had a 911 in storage and he needed to get rid of it. It had no engine but was a California car. A couple of hundred in storage fees and it was mine.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/519698-jumping-both-feet.html
After getting it home, there were a few surprises, some good and some bad.
The car was in good nick. The interior was in good shape, the vinyl seats were in great condition and there was little rust anywhere on the car. Body work looks good with only the engine hood needing repair and a small bit of rust next to the rear vent window.
The bad news, it didn’t have a transmission and the title turned out to be an issue.
TITLE WOES
So here was the problem, I purchased the car from someone who was Israeli and out of the country, but the car was purchased from the US with the intention of taking it to his home country. It made it to the docks and there is stayed for over a year. The car was purchased over eBay, the guy the Israeli purchased it from also never registered the car, so according to the title, someone 3 owners ago was the rightful owner. To complicate matters, I was in NJ, the car in NJ, and the previous owners were in Israel and California. It took a lot of legal BS and a number of letters to previous owners and some DMV people giving me nasty looks (thinking I had stolen it). But after a year, I had the title in my name. I now have it insured, registered and with classic plates. All in, it wasn't too expensive, about $100 with no lawyers. You have to be patient though.
LIFT!
I needed a little help to do the work on my car. I did some searching and purchased a great lift by Dannmar. Great price, fairly easy to set up and it fit. My little 1 car garage now can sport 2 toys and give me something to help me work on them.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/605017-i-need-lift.html#post6001436
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/621807-engine-install-question.html
MORE POWER
Prior to titling, I kept my purchases to a minimum thinking if this car was had illegally, I didn’t want to get stuck owning an engine with a car I had to sell for parts or return to the previous owner. With title in hand, I started my big purchases. I first found a 915 transmission on pelican. Got a respectable price from a good guy…still jealous of his garage.
For the engine, I was open to any 2.7, 3.0 or 3.2. I leaned toward a 2.7 to avoid any conversion issues but was open to anything. One came up for the exact year of my car in not too many miles (83k) with a recent top engine rebuild (NOT BY MM!). After some haggling, it was delivered and in my garage.
The engine overall, looks pretty good. It’s a 2.7 with a number of new parts that are readily obvious. It has carrera tensioners. Plus there was no oil leakage on top of the engine but definitely some below. It looks like the lower value covers and the oil cooler. The exhaust system was a bit of a disappointment. It has been repaired a number of times and downright ugly.
I think they are functional, but they were definitely on the replace list. Happily, I lucked out. On craigs list I took a chance and purchased this for a couple of hundred. It looks like a good fit, but we shall see.
Next on deck...let the cleaning begin...