First let me apologize for the long-winded post. I have to say, it's been quite some time since I've been a regular here on Pelican. I used to post a ton when I had built my Black/red '72 Carrera RS clone w/3.6 from a 964 (every single day I miss that car). It was built right around the same time Jack Olsen built his and I always looked at mine kind of as a kindred spirit to his '72 RSR Clone and a real coincidence that we only live a few miles away from each other. Well my 911 has long since been sold and I've recently been looking at buying a 996TT. As we all know, life doesn't always end up going in the exact path you have planned as life sometimes chooses a different path for you. I'm a 911 junky, from the early cars to the latest watercooled wonders coming out of Zuffenhausen and everything in between! I've always liked the 912's and their charm as well (and all Porsche's for that matter). But I never really thought I'd get a 912 as I have always just loved the sounds, added power and character of the 911. Well fast forward to today and I find myself asking..."OH NO, WHAT DID I JUST GET MYSELF INTO?!?" I am now the owner of not 1, but 2 Red 912's...If the length of the story bores you, feel free to scroll down to the pictures instead, I wont be offended
But warning, they're not pretty! Yet anyway
The story
I'll try to keep it short without leaving anything out. Last week on Thursday, I got a call from a friend telling me of his neighbor who had passed away the week before. He told me that his neighbor had 1, possibly 2 Porsche 912's in his backyard and his adult son (we'll just call him Oscar, not his real name) was going to be just getting rid of them for scrap metal along with a couple other cars and items in the backyard at the insistence of Oscar's mother. My friend told the Oscar that he had a friend who was REALLY into Porsches and may be interested in the car(s) and if he wouldn't mind if he told me, that if I bought them, they'd go to a true enthusiast and wouldn't go to die in a scrap metal heap to be melted down. Oscar agreed to meet me. So on Thursday, I went to my friend's house just to look over the fence as we didn't want to disturb the grieving family on the day of the gentleman's funeral. By the time I got off work and to my friend's house, it was dark. So, I climbed onto a chair, turned on a flashlight and peered over the fence, only to see the red painted unmistakable front end of the 901/902 chassis peeking out from the shadows. You can imagine my joy! Well, yesterday, I went and met with Oscar who had a Coors Light Silver Bullet in-hand. He was a nice guy and I expressed my condolences. He thanked me and then motioned with his Silver Bullet in the direction of the backyard and said, let's go have a look at the cars. We dodged and weaved through a whole bunch of different miscellaneous debris with sharp metal edges, including rakes, rusted shovels, exhausts stood up against the fence and other stuff blocking 2/3's of what little space was left beside the large old RV in the driveway leading to the backyard. As I got past the RV, I immediately noticed amongst the Cement mixer and generator engine and other stuff, a red 912 sat in front of the garage. Then l looked to the right and saw the red 912 that I had seen on Thursday. Indeed there WAS two of them! I first walked to the one I had first seen. My neighbor had told me that he recalled was told a long time ago that it was a '65. Well the first thing I did was look through the drivers side window and noticed it had a 3 gauge instrument cluster! Well this was a great sign of it truly being a '65 or may possibly be an early '66. This car was sitting in the weeds and mud and being red, I immediately dubbed it Toadstool (1980's Nintendo Mario games reference). Both cars are in very poor condition and will require an incredible amount of work for restoration. But, the '65 just has something special about it, maybe it's the fact that it's such an early year chassis. I couldn't open the driver's side door because there's no door handles (I guess I could have pulled on the latch rod on the inside, but didn't think of it). So I was not able to see the paint code. But based on the two paints that were showing through the red paint, I'm guessing it is either Golf Blue (I sure hope so!) or most likely, it is Light Ivory, which is still also a very cool color, but something about Golf Blue that I just love, so I hope that's the original color. But I'll find out soon enough!
After looking over the '65, I now turned my attention to the other car which was also a short wheelbase car, but had one of those aftermarket 1980's rear bumper center-pieces that make the rear of an early car look similar to an impact bumper car. Well, looked inside and to my amazement, the entire interior was still there. This car was much more complete, but definitely still in need of SERIOUS attention. The Passenger seat doesn't have any rips or tears at first glance, but the old leatherette will still need to be replaced as it it weathered. After looking through the glove box, I found an old registration from the last time the car was registered which was good through 1995. I had suspected that this car was a '67 (just a hunch). Well the Registration revealed that this 912 was actually a 1968. I had been fooled as it didn't have the one year 1968 US spec oddball sidemarkers. Most likely they had been removed and holes filled in during a repaint. I looked on the badge in the doorwell to see if I could see the paint code. Unfortunately, the plaque had been painted over and the paint looks to reveal paint code 680scratch marks scratch marks scratch marks...Ugh, well at least I know it's has paint lol But I suspect it may be 6805 which is Bahama Yellow. The car does have bits of yellow sticking through the tired red repaint. So after looking the two cars over for about 20 minutes, knowing that they had been scheduled to become scrap metal, I made an offer which included a case of Coors Light Silver Bullets! He laughed and said alright, we've got a deal and shook my hand.
Both cars are missing their engines, however both have their transmissions intact. The '65 has 2 front fenders which look very straight stored inside the cabin. But they're clearly from a 69-73 911 based on the fender lips, so I wont be using them in the restoration. Maybe someone would like to trade me for a set of early 65-68 fenders? It's decklid was also in the cabin and looked to be very straight and correct. As you will see in the pics, these cars need some really serious attention. They're old, neglected and rusted. But, they're 912's! I'm honestly still not sure what to do with them. I still really really want a 996TT, so my options are to:
-Restore the '65 to showroom like condition then sell it & restore the '68 and sell it also
-Restore the '65 and keep it then restore and sell the '68, then buy my 996TT (most likely as the itch for the 996TT is very strong!)
-Restore them both and keep them both but turn the '68 into a hotrod 912Rish type car and enjoy the dynamics of the lightweight agile 912.
No matter which route I choose, I have a feeling I will keep finding myself asking...WHAT DID I GET MYSELF INTO?!?!
The '65 aka Toadstool
