Blind purchase of "Barn Find" - thoughts on resto. 76 911s

[Irish]

Thank you so much for the above. Now on a proper keyboard so can type more than a few words without blowing up!

Getting the authenticity cert from Porsche which will clear up the colour issue.

[LaurasOtherHalf]

Hey no problem, happy to help out

Now, managed to do a wee bit of digging & found some bed time reading for you-I imagine you've already searched these out but if you haven't, here's some original scanned brochures from around the time the car was built ('76-77):

1976 German brochure
http://www.turbosition.com/_files/brochures/1976_-...

1976 technical brochure
http://coochas.com/brochures/Resources/911and912-1...

1977 technical brochure
http://coochas.com/brochures/Resources/911-1977.pd...

There are more out there, but for the life of me I can't remember the website that has them all to download, if I remember it I'll post it up. More interesting perhaps for your choices on colour, there's these;





Obviously they're from a '78 brochure, but I'm sure most of not all would have been available the previous year.

I'm sure it's a nice thing to do to restore to the original specification, but in reality is there any reason to keep to what the original buyer (or salesman!) specified if you're going to the huge effort of rebuilding the car yourself?

By the way, I'd be going talbotyellow over your existing lobster interior-very 1970's!

Eta, sorry for the long winded post-I'm up to my eyeballs in paperwork & it's a bit of a relief to focus on something different for a bit!

Edited by LaurasOtherHalf on Tuesday 22 July 22:55

[Irish]

Fantastic. In other breaking news my specialist had another poke around:

"Had another nose around your car yesterday, all the interior trim is there except the front carpet mats. I didn't find anymore rust, although there may be some small areas revealed when the car is stripped down.

What I did notice though is that the car has had a secondhand roof skin fitted at some point, probably to fix a rotten sunroof. This used roof skin was from a red car hence my thoughts that the car was originally red, it wasn't, but looks to have always been white."

Well at least white is better than red! Great news on chassis rust (or lack thereof).

[LaurasOtherHalf]

Well it's nice to know that even in the 1970s some small amount of taste restraint applied! Another thought occurred to me over breakfast re colours, it wasn't a European colour but was apparently used for US bound cars: Gulf Blue





The Singer interior posted on the previous page that looks very much like lobster is actually on a Gulf Blue car, I guess the thinking is a play on the original blue & orange theme. The 2.7 above looks great on colour coded wheels but to lairy it up abut you could continental orange wheels & decals to carry the theme over.

[Penguinracer]

I'd be inclined to retain the original exterior colour - for both originality & ease of respray reasons. You could then change the interior colour scheme to something more tasteful without it impacting future value as drastically as an exterior colour change.

Retain the original exterior colour for value & originality & change the interior for YOU - best of both worlds.

Prospective buyers are generally more sympathetic to a non-original interior colour (especially if it's very well & tastefully done) than to a respray in a non-origianl colour.

[Lost soul]

EricE said:

With the prices rising the way they are I’d say go for a restoration back to 100% original specs/color or you may regret it in 10 years or so. (only half kidding )

[Irish]

Plan is to take it back to stock. Lobster is lovely in person apparently....

By stock I also mean cookie cutters and keeping the sporto box.

[LaurasOtherHalf]

Irish said:

Plan is to take it back to stock. Lobster is lovely in person apparently....

By stock I also mean cookie cutters and keeping the sporto box.

Sounds like a great plan-don't forget to keep the thread updated!

[y2blade]

Fantastic, all the best with it



Following with interest

[majordad]

Well done, hope to see it on a PCI run. That looks like Jon Millar's towing vehicle and trailer ? Top man if it is.

[Irish]

majordad said:

Well done, hope to see it on a PCI run. That looks like Jon Millar's towing vehicle and trailer ? Top man if it is.

Yep, Jon is taking it on. Once done car will be off to UK for a few years until! I finish building a house in Dublin.

[Adam B]

LaurasOtherHalf said:

Sunflower Yellow (favourite)
Mexico Yellow
Green Chatareuse
Green Viper
Blood Orange
Slate grey
Silver
Ivory white (least favourite)

Any of the above would work brilliantly I think

Loving the interior but agree red was a weird choice to go with it, my thoughts

Yellow
Green
Orange - closer to interior and therefore worse than GR
Slate - lovely
White - yep nice
Silver - would work best IMHO

great project though, please keep us posted- fascinating to see how this develops and what it costs in the real world

Edited by Adam B on Friday 25th July 20:32

[rubystone]

If it's an SC, Sporto is OK. If it's a 2.7 CSI then it'll be slower than the last train home.. You might like to reconsider your choice whilst it is in bits. Sportos will never be worth more than manuals, so throw a 915 box at it now. As an aside, I have had 2 cancan cars...almost tomato red in their colour...both Carreras cabs, one Chiffon, one GPW. so white n loud go together...

[Irish]

Porsche have responded to my request for original spec:

> color R4=grandprixwhite
> interior 23=leatherette lobster,pinstripevelours
> dealer EG=GB
> invoice Sep.'76
> 288=headlampwashers
> 439=Porsche-lettering black on doors
> 650=sliding roof

Is the lettering relatively rare?

[uktrailmonster]

Irish said:

Is the lettering relatively rare?

Don't think so, it was a popular graphic on the side of 70's 911s. Looks good too if done correctly as below (earlier cars but you get the idea). I'd go for it on a restoration, particularly as yours had it originally.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technic...

[72911]

A cool buy mad awesome interior. Get the original spec sheet from Porsche and build to that. There are too many "tribute" builds out there and the early impact cars are coming into their own, post pics of your build!

[Irish]

Update. Mechanic starting the strip down next week. Should be pictures appearing here through the build.

https://www.facebook.com/ClassicCarreras

Still very unsure what to do. I will never make the spend back - but is is a keeper - it turned 38 the day after me this month.

For now - original....but I have moments of viper green etc. etc.

Leaving the sporto - but unsure on that to. Add a manual and crate the sporto?

Going for a full rebuild on the engine. Get it right first time.

Edited by Irish on Friday 24th October 22:20

[shoestring7]

Irish said:

Add a manual and crate the sporto?

This seems sensible, a decent 915 box + rebuild is not going to be cheap though.

SS7

[Koln-RS]

Irish said:

Add a manual and crate the sporto?

The Sportomatic is actually very clever. OK, manual is better and faster, but a good Sporto shouldn't be underestimated.

If investment potential is important, then I would 100% agree that originality in all respects will be key. And, in the fullness of time, Porsche's first semi-automatic (long before Tip and PDK) will be valued for its rarity.

[Irish]

Koln-RS said:

The Sportomatic is actually very clever. OK, manual is better and faster, but a good Sporto shouldn't be underestimated.

If investment potential is important, then I would 100% agree that originality in all respects will be key. And, in the fullness of time, Porsche's first semi-automatic (long before Tip and PDK) will be valued for its rarity.

It is a classic - not meant to be fast - if I want to be on the limit I will get a GT3 RS for the commute!

Thanks for the input - will keep the sporto.