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overrestored: I appreciate your thorough and honest evaluation. Many of the small things you have noted are a quick fix. I am currently restoring a 912 and have everything available to correct any finish details and am quite comfortable doing those. Should the original wheels, once restored, be put back on the car, or just available? Not sure I want to pull all the tires if not necessary. Time does matter to me. Same thing with the Leitz luggage rack.
I can easily pull the light buckets and get rid of the engine turning, even though I think it's kinda cool. I am an old school hot rod guy too.
As for the 12v conversion. I'm not quite sure about undoing those changes. I have the detailed invoice for all the items that were changed during the conversion, but looks very time consuming to change out all the bulbs, generator, coil, regulator, on and on. I certainly don't want to let loose any gremlins that aren't running around anywhere now with everything working so well. Remember, this is not my car, and this is a favor, not a paid commission. I have no way of determining what is and what is not OEM on the car, such as the front rubber insert and the lenses. You have helped tremendously in pointing out the details as you see them.
The engine currently purrs like a kitten. Is having the original Solex's available but not installed acceptable?
I'll hold onto the trailer until the car sells and Reliable comes and loads the car, or not.
I am still struggling with the fact that all these things are needed for the car to bring a decent price. My entire career I've dealt with supply and demand issues. The lower the supply, generally means the higher the price. Think Cabbage Patch or Beanie. Boy did that just date me. The other side of my life has been in restoration work. Furniture, cars, buildings, houses, etc. I know the value of good bones. I've had correspondence from other restorers relating to this car and they have all told me how rare it is to find a rust free example so well documented.
I fully understand the value of an auction setting. When faced with winning or losing the little things quickly turn into tiny things and then tiny things into not mattering at all. I get that. There is only one Speedster available in Scottsdale this year. I would assume that there will be more than one buyer. Do the losers all go away and pout or do they continue looking for a car worthy of purchase? How many Speedsters are out there and how long do they want to wait for a perfect car? I guess I thought this was going to be a little easier than it's turning out to be with so few cars available and the market continuing to escalate in price.
Maybe I should just get a disco ball for the garage, put on some Bee Gees music and some platform shoes, and try to convince the buyers they are back in the 70' or 80's. The car would look right at home. Oh wait, it would only be worth $9k then.
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