It’s not a 73. Horn grills are wrong.

Is there a reason you don’t have a vin? It’s right on the title even if they don’t know where to find it on the car. 91111 is how it will start for a 71T.

It's a 70 or a 71, based on the interior and bumpers.

The license plate stickers show it was last registered in 2010. So it hasn't really run in eight years, not three.

And sorry, but the duct tape holding the door pocket in place is not an encouraging sign of how this car might have been maintained...

Yeah at $30k you’re in UnOb territory.

Be nice and do the right thing.

Go inspect the car !!! Money pit , value trap, they are all those, just a matter of degree.
Avoid the hobby if you are adverse to those risks. Or follow what the savvy guys like our Mr Adam
and the other flippers do, but then you are no longer a hobbyist in my book.

You do sound like the right buyer here though.

I say $25-$40K depending on the rust which you know little about now until you go see it. Paint looks great in the pics.

As a long time owner of a '72, it most definitely isn't a 72. 71 or earlier as you suspect. Get the vin and that will definitively tell you what you want to know. If it starts with 91111, it's a 71T, or 91101, it's a 70T. Too bad the dash is cracked. An uncracked original dash would boost the value 10K by itself. My best guess would be in the 25k range. Presence of rust will greatly affect the value though so do what the previous poster recommends and poke around on it a little bit.

Silver is to German cars what red is to Italian cars. National racing colors.

I wouldn't give her anymore than $25k cash. You can probably get most of it back if it's riddled with cancer, engine/tranny needs etc... Protect yourself and get on it quick.

Another case of Itzame disease

Buying barn finds is not for the risk averse.

$25k is a sell in minutes price, unless there's a hole in the floor or something major like that.

Good luck, OP. PM me if you are passing on it.

Yes it is but $25k is a lot of money to many people.

well then! ^^^^^ that pretty much puts a bow on it until somebody actually sees the car....:rolleyes:

Have you ever even owned a longhood?

MattR

"I can't afford that"

-Pmax

Sounds like you need a longnose 912. Why not go all in and get a SWB one? :D

Time for a brief update and to answer some of the questions above. First, thank you everyone for your input. The board has once again demonstrated its collective wisdom and generosity in sharing its knowledge.

The saga started when the widow got the bug earlier this summer to sell this car so she could get a modern Porsche she could drive and enjoy with little maintenance. She's the type of person who likes cars but doesn't know much about them. She had the vague idea that if she got the car running it would be easier to sell and would bring a lot more money, so she contacted a local mechanic and asked him to give her a list of work that needed to be done and a cost estimate. The mechanic wouldn't give her an estimate to get the car running. All he did was keep trying to buy the car from her. This set off her Spidey sense and she showed him the door.

She asked her son for help and he reached out to our mutual enthusiast friend. My buddy has taken my older son under his wing and knows that he has long dreamed of a long hood to go with my 1984. He could buy one if the price was right, but it would take the right car at the right price. So my friend immediately thought about my son and me when he heard of this car and asked if we were interested.

Of course we were, but as I alluded earlier, the family had no idea whether the car was worth $1,000 or $100,000. The invitation to make an offer came with the message that they would trust us to make a fair offer. We both knew that the early 911 market has taken off, but my buddy is more in tune with the vintage British market and I obviously pay more attention to the SC and Carrera market than the early cars. So we had the idea that this would be a $30,000 car in good driving condition and a $40,000 to $50,000 car in fully restored condition. Working backward from $30,000 and subtracting a reasonable budget to get the car back on the road put it in the range that my son could afford, but I was worried that we could easily put $20,000 into it and promptly go upside down on his first vintage car. And that's how we got here.

I hadn't asked for the VIN to decode simply because it hadn't occurred to me. I was assuming that they had the year right and that it wasn't such a valuable car that my offer would cover any issues.

All of that is a long way of saying that I've passed the information on to the family and my son and I are still considering the car. It's a lot of information for the family to absorb, so they're taking a little time to let it sink in. We feel more comfortable with our valuation now and feel comfortable that the car will always be worth more than we would put into it, which was my real question when we started. I'll let the family work out how they want to proceed, and if my son and I don't end up with it I'll put the owners in touch with the people here who have reached out and expressed interest.

Thanks again to everyone.

You're short $20-30k on your prices.(if not more)

a '71 T isn't going to be worth $70-80K in this market unless it's #'s matching and either a well preserved survivor or has had (in the case of this car) likely $40K+ put into it. likely more.

he could buy the car at $30k and discover it needs $15K in metal work and another $10-15K in mechanicals pretty easily. there is risk here.

it seems the OP is approaching it reasonably considering the circumstances. i, for one, applaud him for not trying to grossly under pay...

Sounds like a good plan.