It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...oh wrong story.
I wasn't in the market to buy a car, but I do look through HMN, Classifieds (and later) eBay and craigslist regularly since high school. I didn't have the money, I had a young family, a 1 car garage and already had 2 DDs and an old 57 mercedes. More toys weren't in the cards.
But in 2010 a friend in town called me and said "hey you like old cars?". He told me this story of a friend of his in Israel bought a 911 on eBay from California, had it shipped east and now it is stuck in storage in the port of Newark. He didn't have the money to have the car shipped to Israel (I suspect he bought it not realizing it didn't have an engine, so it sat at the port for just under a year. The 911 has been on my "list" since I was a little boy. Here is a book I purchased with christmas money at 15 in 1983...
I took a drive out to the car and I noticed it was in great shape california car, birth date of June 1975. It had no engine, missing some interior bits, and later learned was missing a transmission. The price for all this german goodness? Simply pay storage fees and it was mine (a little over $200). My late wife was supportive; a few weeks later I brought her home.
Since then I have purchased a lift and all the parts to get her running. She is still a work in progress but I get her out on the road quite often. I couldn't be happier with it.
Its been slow but rewarding doing all the work myself...click here for the extended version of my journey...
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/664950-1976-911s-garage-find-road.html
Before
After
