Project Janis - Getting a 1973 911T back on the road after 30+ years

[ATK]

Hi everyone, my name is Adam and welcome to my thread where I plan to document the restoration of Janis, a 1973 911T in Oxford/Dalmatian Blue. My brother-in-law, Jeremy, and I acquired the car from his Uncle Matt who purchased it from the previous (possibly original?) owner back in 1993. We acquired the car in November 2023 so I have some catching up to do and hope to document the progress we've made since then and going forward.

Uncle Matt was a Porsche Factory Master Technician in the 80's and 90's that worked at a couple of Northern California dealers and then finally for a friend at an independent shop before he chose to change career paths. Janis was towed into the shop one day in 1993 with a blown engine and transmission where Uncle Matt performed diagnosis and estimated repairs that the owner was either unable to afford or chose that it wasn't worth it at the time on a 20-year old car. Uncle Matt chose to buy it "for his wife" on her birthday for just $250. He described it as being in rough condition and needing some paint and body work. It was well driven in it's first 20 years of life.

Not long after purchasing it, eBay came around and allowed Uncle Matt the opportunity to start buying needed replacement parts. Needless to say, he did a great job by acquiring some things like an original dash, seats, headliner, and other hard to find original parts. Some time around 1998, he had an acquaintance that owned a paint and body shop that needed some engine work on a 914 so they bartered and traded their skills. Janis was stripped, metal work completed, prepped for paint, and resprayed in her original color. The process was said to have taken about 5 years, parts continued to be collected, but she was never reassembled. She wasn't forgotten about, but got moved around as life moved on and lived for about 10 years in the storage unit where Uncle Matt first showed her to us.

Jeremy and I first saw Janis in Summer of 2023. Uncle Matt and Jeremy each giving their best "I can't believe we're doing this" grins.


More than a decade of dust lay over the body and hide most of the beautiful color.


You can see some of that color coming through the dust on the side of the body.


There's clearly some things missing here. Glass, interior, engine, transmission...


And here is where you can see the most unfortunate part. The driver's door was the innocent bystander to a decades old family argument. It will be fixed.


Nothing is ever perfect, but it's hard not to imagine how great Janis will look when back together.


Imagine gripping the steering wheel and rowing through gears!


There were so many parts stacked in the interior and front trunk, but it was like Christmas going through all of them.


The engine and transmission aren't here, but Uncle Matt was able to acquire a replacement. More on that later.


Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy the updates to come!

Cheers,
Adam

[Ian Comerford]

Looking forward to seeing this develop, thank you for sharing

Ian

[AG81]

Good luck gentlemen. I'll be following along. Having just gone thru this.....I am cringing due to everything you guys are about to go through. I wish you the best success.

[PeteKz]

A project like that ain't for the faint of heart or wallet, but very much fun when you get to the point where it becomes a "driving project," instead of a "garage project."

As the owner of a 1973 that went through both garage and driving phases, I can attest that I lost motivation several times in the garage phase, as other stuff in life pressed for my time. I would have got it done sooner if I had got it to driving condition to keep the motivation going. Therefore, I encourage you to make the choices to get it to driving status first.

Do you have the engine and transmission?

[ATK]

Originally Posted by Ian Comerford

Looking forward to seeing this develop, thank you for sharing

Ian

Thank you, Ian!

Originally Posted by AG81

Good luck gentlemen. I'll be following along. Having just gone thru this.....I am cringing due to everything you guys are about to go through. I wish you the best success.

I found your thread documenting your own and it seems we started about the same time but in very different positions assembly wise. We're very lucky to have Uncle Matt and another secret weapon in our back pocket in regards to engine and transmission work. I hope you enjoy!

Originally Posted by PeteKz

A project like that ain't for the faint of heart or wallet, but very much fun when you get to the point where it becomes a "driving project," instead of a "garage project."

As the owner of a 1973 that went through both garage and driving phases, I can attest that I lost motivation several times in the garage phase, as other stuff in life pressed for my time. I would have got it done sooner if I had got it to driving condition to keep the motivation going. Therefore, I encourage you to make the choices to get it to driving status first.

Do you have the engine and transmission?

Thanks, PeteKz! This is the first time we're undertaking a project like this, but we have such great support from Uncle Matt (Mr. photographic memory) and have made a lot of great connections with other local enthusiasts that have been guiding and helping avoid some mistakes along the way. We're very motivated to get this thing assembled and having more than one of us working on it keeps each other going.

We do have an engine and transmission, but no longer the original from this car. I guess I'll go ahead and tell the story on that...

Not too long after Uncle Matt purchased the car, a family member of someone who had an engine and transmission pulled from a 1973 911T at his shop came in and asked if they were worth anything and if they knew anyone that might be interested in them. Uncle Matt's shop owner pointed them toward his way. He learned from the family member that the owner of the engine and transmission was trailering the body of his Porsche to another shop in Southern California where it was intended to get some kind of RS race setup, but was in an fatal accident during his travel. The family member didn't want anything to do with the car and Uncle Matt purchased the engine and transmission.

He recalls the engine serial numbers only being about 60 numbers different from each other, but he no longer has the original case to verify as it was destroyed. However, we have verified the serial numbers for the engine and transmission are in fact from another 1973 911T.

Uncle Matt and his friend that he used to work for at the independent shop have recently reunited to work together again after 30 years so they can rebuild the engine and transmission in his friend's shop where he still actively restores vintage Porsches.

Here's a little teaser of the engine's status from a couple of weeks back.

[evan9eleven]

Great story! Looking forward to seeing Janis come back to life.

[Uncle Matt]

Thanks to my nephew and his brother in law “Uncle Matt” is a part of this forum. Thank you all for the nice comments and support. The boys have been doing an amazing job putting Janis back together and it’s been fun to get back in the shop to complete the transmission overhaul and the Engine overhaul. I loved my years of working on Porsche’s but sometimes we have to move forward, but the guys coming together to get the project moving again has been a blessing. We all need to keep these classics alive and well. Good day all, have a bless day, and “LIFE’S BETTER IN THE TWISTIES” Project Janis’s Uncle Matt.

[Hawkeye's-911T]

Sub'd.

[JeremyE]

Jeremy here, it’s been a great project so far. I can’t believe the amount of different skills we’ve learned or used in this restoration. This week I put new vinyl insert on the aluminum trim strip, and Adam and I have been putting refurbished pieces back into the car. We’ve taken everything out restored or replaced it and made sure it’s going to be functional for another 50 years.

[Winter911]

Wow you guys work quick. This might set a record on the quickest build thread lol

Keep it up

[JeremyE]

We’ve been hard at work on this project for over a year and I got excited about our latest progress. We’ll continue to share other stuff in chronological order as well. There is finally parts going back into the car, which makes me giddy.

[LukasM]

Cool project, to bring an old classic back on the road. Especially nice that you guys are doing it together!

[Sunroof]

I owned my 1973.5T for 24 years. I sold it last year. The only modification I made was an upgraded radio/CD, added a Momo wheel and updated AC compressor. Keep it all original!

Bob
1973.5T 911 (sold)
1974 911 (sold)
1979 911SC (sold)
1985.5 944 (sold)
2017 718 Cayman (what a driver)