Intro and Pete's 1986 911 Carrera Thread

[pjm1]

Hi guys,
I'm quite new to your forum and I think it's sometimes customary to give a little intro about oneself if you're a newcomer and you hope to become a part of the community. So here goes! We are a family of four - Pete (me), Sarah (my wife), Jamie and Eric (our twin 18 year old sons) - and all of us are not very knowledgable about cars at all, but we've grown to really enjoy working on cars over the past 2 years as we've built a kit car (a cobra replica from factory five). As this project is pretty close to being successfully finished up, we were thinking about what to do next since we had such a good time on it.
Like many of you, I've always dreamed of having a 911 and so we decided to take the plunge and get one - we bought a 1986 911 Carrera Targa. Here it is:



It has almost 170k miles on it and it runs pretty well, but we are looking forward to learning a lot about the car through a bunch of different projects that we will take on (which ones, we are still figuring out). This is a huge stretch for us, but ultimately, I'd love to rebuild the engine as I can't think of a better way to learn about the engine than that.

From reading through the forum the past few weeks, one can't help but be very impressed by the depth of knowledge here and of people's generosity in helping others out who may not know as much. I'll just start by saying thank you right now for all of the helpful advice that I'll receive here!

In the future, I plan to use this thread to show the various small and maybe bigger projects we take a shot at. I'm sure I will also have so many questions that I'll post as well.

Like I said, we have an very low level of knowledge about working on cars, especially when compared to you - I am sure I will shock you with my lack of knowledge many, many times. So I apologize in advance... But know that we are very excited to learn and will take any help we can get. And don't ever hesitate to say basic things because we very well could and will mess up on those.

Thanks a lot, guys. I'm really excited to be starting this adventure and I look forward to getting to know a lot of you here. Thank you very much for all of your help!

Pete

[Hotshot]

Fellow 86 Targa here. Welcome! This group is awesome. Insane amounts of knowledge on here. Nice car!

The 86 is a little unique. Pending on when you car was made ( check drivers side door) you may have some 85 things, and some 86.

Here’s a cheat sheet to save to time.

Your seat rails are different, window drive mech is standard and not specific targa, seals for targa on rollbar and windshield are new..

There are more but that’s the main thing.

Fuse your blower motors and AC front blower. Also your instrument lights. You’ll find how to in the forums.

Enjoy.

[Bill Douglas]

Hi and welcome. Nice car.

[RDM]

Taking the plunge and buying a car gets you 80% there. Congratulations- I look forward to learning along with you.

[Bigtoe32067]

You are a blessed man to have your two boys working side by side with you in these projects. The memories you’re giving them will last a lifetime. It’s one sign of a wonderful father in my book
Good luck and welcome to the forum.
Tony

[Mike Andrew]

Welcome to the forum and to the madness. Nice looking Targa but your garage appears too clean. Not enough parts strewn about yet
You will find, as most of us have, a wealth of info here and people willing to baby step you thru projects as you go. This forum has been a significant wealth of information and assistance to me over the years. Not much that one of us does not know about or done during ownership.
If you have not done so yet, a Bentley manual and 101 Projects should be on your shelf.
Probably 2 future owners in the wings as well since they will have lots of knowledge.

[RedCoupe]

Welcome Pete! Fellow 86 Targa owner here. Yes, this is a great forum. Hope you and your family are able to really enjoy the 911. These cars love to be driven!

[pjm1]

Originally Posted by Hotshot

Fellow 86 Targa here. Welcome! This group is awesome. Insane amounts of knowledge on here. Nice car!

The 86 is a little unique. Pending on when you car was made ( check drivers side door) you may have some 85 things, and some 86.

Here’s a cheat sheet to save to time.

Your seat rails are different, window drive mech is standard and not specific targa, seals for targa on rollbar and windshield are new..

There are more but that’s the main thing.

Fuse your blower motors and AC front blower. Also your instrument lights. You’ll find how to in the forums.

Enjoy.

Thanks, Hotshot! Very interesting to hear all the little differences of our 86's.

Originally Posted by Bill Douglas

Hi and welcome. Nice car.

Thanks, Bill!

Originally Posted by RDM

Taking the plunge and buying a car gets you 80% there. Congratulations- I look forward to learning along with you.

Yeah, taking the plunge took a long time but really excited we did it.

Originally Posted by Bigtoe32067

You are a blessed man to have your two boys working side by side with you in these projects. The memories you’re giving them will last a lifetime. It’s one sign of a wonderful father in my book
Good luck and welcome to the forum.
Tony

Thanks a lot for your kind words, Tony.

Originally Posted by Mike Andrew

Welcome to the forum and to the madness. Nice looking Targa but your garage appears too clean. Not enough parts strewn about yet
You will find, as most of us have, a wealth of info here and people willing to baby step you thru projects as you go. This forum has been a significant wealth of information and assistance to me over the years. Not much that one of us does not know about or done during ownership.
If you have not done so yet, a Bentley manual and 101 Projects should be on your shelf.
Probably 2 future owners in the wings as well since they will have lots of knowledge.

Thanks a lot, Mike! I've been reading Wayne's 101 projects & his engine rebuild book and the bentley manual is on the way. Thank you.

Originally Posted by RedCoupe

Welcome Pete! Fellow 86 Targa owner here. Yes, this is a great forum. Hope you and your family are able to really enjoy the 911. These cars love to be driven!

Yeah, I had never driven one until now, despite admiring them for 40+ years! I really like how it feels. Thanks!

[tschall]

Hey guy, I too am a relatively new (again) owner of another '86 Cab. I have had the car only four weeks so far, but I've got to say this Forum is a repository of GENIUS. There are several members here that have lent their expertise to my initial problems and offered clear, concise remedies. I won't mention them by screen name but they ar SO SMART... degrees earned at the school of hard knocks and Experience. Welcome I look forward to sharing my very limited knowledge if I can assist in any way. Great car. It looks like a solid starting point, all the best!