Roadtrip - Page 4

Shaun @ Tru6 · 09-22-2013, 08:25 PM

Baltimore

Shaun @ Tru6 · 09-22-2013, 10:02 PM

Delaware

dtw · 09-22-2013, 11:10 PM

After Shaun left tonight I continued working on the car. With a little work, I got the engine running. Very rough idle for 30 seconds then back to running like a sewing machine as if the last 7 years were 7 hours.

The amazing thing is, it didn't smoke. At all. Id10t, when was the last time the engine was started? For a 7 year slumber I would have expected massive amounts of oil smoke. Nope.

This is a special 911 - I'm honored just to have it on my lift and be able to work on it. Easily the nicest 80s Porsche I have turned a wrench on (ok except for that 959 one time...) Lots more info, but this is Shaun's story. I'll let him tell it.

dtw · 09-22-2013, 11:12 PM

Quote:

Quote de Christien

Beautiful!! But I want to see pics of a 77 year old lady driving a 911!

Here is my 76 year old Mother driving my 88 Carrera

Shaun, you were so close, you should have called me..

Guess I will take that bullet, we were in my truck and I drove all 20+ hours...

Shaun @ Tru6 · 09-22-2013, 11:58 PM

GWB

id10t · 09-23-2013, 05:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dtw

After Shaun left tonight I continued working on the car. With a little work, I got the engine running. Very rough idle for 30 seconds then back to running like a sewing machine as if the last 7 years were 7 hours.

The amazing thing is, it didn't smoke. At all. Id10t, when was the last time the engine was started? For a 7 year slumber I would have expected massive amounts of oil smoke. Nope.

This is a special 911 - I'm honored just to have it on my lift and be able to work on it. Easily the nicest 80s Porsche I have turned a wrench on (ok except for that 959 one time...) Lots more info, but this is Shaun's story. I'll let him tell it.

Yup, 7 years of sitting.... I think what is making the resurrection easier is there were no engine problems when it was parked, just the transmission issue.

Shaun @ Tru6 · 09-24-2013, 07:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Racerbvd

Did you head back tonight, or you going in the morning, at one point you were within 15 minutes, if not closer to me..

Sorry Buddy, timing wasn't the best here and there will be another time I'm sure! Next time I'll even have things to trade, nothing this time.

Shaun @ Tru6 · 09-24-2013, 07:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dtw

Torrential rain for the last hour of SC and all of NC. That added over an hour to the trip as we were often going 45 mph. Still we made it back! Tomorrow it will go on the lift to begin the wake-up process. Now...sleep. Steve - great to meet you yours. Thanks for the warm welcome.

Dave was a MACHINE driving the truck and trailer safely back home. Thank you Brother!

Shaun @ Tru6 · 09-24-2013, 07:16 AM

Steve, once again, it was such a great pleasure meeting you and your mom (you are a lucky man), and an honor to be the next steward for this car. My plan is quite simply to bring it back to showroom condition over the next 2 years. I'll have Tony Garcia do the interior and Damon do the paint. Before then, I'll be driving it proudly.

Thank you again for this exciting opportunity!

Quote:

Originally Posted by id10t

The TL;DR version - Dad bought it, after he died it rarely got driven, has been parked and not moved for 6 or 7 years....

The long version -

Yup. Dad had a '63 356 that got totaled in early '65. He scrambled, and bought one of the last 356s made and the only one available in Florida... #222522 - which I still have.

In the early 80s, Dad said "Hrm... id10t will be getting his license soon and taking over his mom's station wagon... I've been driving the 356 for almost 20 years... time for a new car for me." Unfortunately (for every car salesman in the world) Dad *really* takes his sweet time buying a car. So... 3 or 4 years later, after every issue of Auto Trader, after driving several 911s of various vintage, a 928, a 944, and even looking at non-P car options (a few Mercedes were tested), Dad decided on a 911. So then he spent almost a whole year after that finding *the right* 911.

He aquired this one in late '87. It is an '84 m491 optioned car - factory turbo look. Turns out 420 were made in '84 (of which 350ish were for US/Canada the rest mostly went to Japan), with just over 1000 made total from '84 thru '89.

Dad drove it "some" until he got Lou Gherigs disease, around 92 he couldn't depress the clutch pedal anymore. Became my job to drive it around the block (we have a LARGE block) once or twice a month. After Dad died in '94, the car sat for a bit until Mom decided to drive it. It was more car than she enjoyed driving, so I started to casually look for a buyer. Unfortunately, no one else knew what the m491 option was, what it was worth, and wanted to pay us about half the parts value for the car - before Shaun, even when the car was running the highest offer I was given was $7k 'cause the guy was going to have to gut it out to make it a race car...

We kept driving the car every so often, until one day 6 or 7 years ago 2nd gear went AWOL. Apparently a known issue w/ the 915 transmission around 72k miles, the car has 72568 on it. Car was parked - Mom didn't want to spend the $ fixing it, she didn't want to be driving it, I couldn't really drive it - too much to insure, and I've got a wife and a couple of kids to worry about. No spare $$ in my life for the luxury of an expensive occasional driver.

Knowing what I know about the car, what it would take to make it "perfect", I've had a very firm price in my mind - it was higher when it was running, but I'm a realist. Earlier this year I did some server work for Shaun, and then noticed how he kept posting about getting disappointed when he'd go look for "the right 911" for himself. A quick phone call with some details and Shaun laid dibs on it - not even questioning the price, totally unseen except for some beauty shots take in my mom's garden several years before when it was running. I insisted on full disclosure, told him everything I knew about the car being wrong, broken, or needing attention, and gave him a video tour of it.

So... now after a REALLY LONG DRIVE... Shaun is the custodian..... I'll miss the car, but it was more of an albatross for mom - she didn't want to spend the $ to fix it, she never really liked driving it (and to be honest my 77 year old mother does NOT need to be driving a 911!), she didn't want to sell it local and see it running around town, she didn't want to sell it to her doctor "friends" that wanted to gut it out and turn it into a racer - she wanted to sell it to someone who realized just what they were getting and would appreciate it. I think we've found that in Shaun....

Shaun @ Tru6 · 09-24-2013, 07:25 AM

My original plan was to get this car up to Dave's shop in NC and we'd get it roadworthy, then fly down this coming weekend and drive it back, see some friends on the way. Given Sunday's progress and Dave's yesterday, that was a done deal.

After draining the temp oil last night, Dave pulled the valve covers to check on head studs and with 6 lower studs broken, I'll be trailering it home. All part of Dilaver + time + humidity = snap.

Plan now is to get the car home, get the motor out, start on the top end and make a decision on whether to go full rebuild. I have a spare engine to plug in, so I hope to be driving the car by the middle of October.

Laneco · 09-24-2013, 08:40 AM

Broken head studs are inevitable on a 3.0 (I think I'm 3 for 3 on 3.0 liters!) and increasingly common on the 3.2's. You still have a lovely low miles car in a beautiful color. Whatever you put into this $$ wise you are still the custodian of a wonderful vehicle acquired at the "good buddy" price.

angela

Shaun @ Tru6 · 08:53 AM

Agree 100% Angela and will most likely go with the full rebuild so it's done once and done right with all the modern sealants and seals. Also a great time to super-detail the case.

Have a fresh batch cad plated hardware in.

speeder · speeder's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shaun 84 Targa

Steve, once again, it was such a great pleasure meeting you and your mom (you are a lucky man), and an honor to be the next steward for this car. My plan is quite simply to bring it back to showroom condition over the next 2 years. I'll have Tony Garcia do the interior and Damon do the paint. Before then, I'll be driving it proudly.

Thank you again for this exciting opportunity!

This car needs a repaint and new interior?

I thought it looked good in the pictures, if a little dusty. Hasn't it been sitting in a garage? Does it have issues from the humidity in Fla.?

Shaun @ Tru6 · 09-24-2013, 09:13 AM

Denis, leather dash and interior in FL, nuff said. Body is good, some odd respray on passenger side that needs to be redone and enough here and there for me to want to paint it. I could drive it forever as is, and certainly will, but my goal is to bring the car back to as new.

javadog · 09-24-2013, 10:24 AM

You might be able to save the interior and most of the paint. You might be surprised at what can be done. You never know...plus it costs essentially nothing but time.

If you look at what some of the top restorers have done with old interiors, I think you'd be amazed.

JR

Shaun @ Tru6 · 09-24-2013, 10:52 AM

Good advice JR but I'll need to do much of it. Dash definitely, driver seat as well. After that, yes, it's all good, but I'm something of a perfectionist so would want the all the navy pieces to match exactly. My sense is I could do dash and both seats alone and it would look great. But my eye would need the door tops to match the dash, and so it goes.

Paint is similar. Again though, the car will be driven and I've got some time before I need to anything cosmetic. Mechanical excellence has always been my highest priority.

dtw · 09-24-2013, 11:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by speeder

This car needs a repaint and new interior?

I thought it looked good in the pictures, if a little dusty. Hasn't it been sitting in a garage? Does it have issues from the humidity in Fla.?

I can confirm paint and interior - Shaun and I both have a pretty good read on what can be preserved versus what needs to be redone. No worries, the car is in good hands.

onewhippedpuppy · 09-24-2013, 12:26 PM

Great story, but your photography hurts my head Shaun. And if you paid $7k for that car I officially hate you.

RWebb · RWebb's Garage

I'm still curious about the age of that tire that failed...

Shaun @ Tru6 · 09-24-2013, 12:36 PM

Hey Matt, yeah, I have to figure out why the iphone does what it does. definitely annoying.

I didn't pay $7K for it, I couldn't have, it wouldn't have been right and I would have talked him up, but Steve is a great guy and he gave me a great deal, there is no question there.