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

[Irish]

Evening all. I was at the Classic Le Mans a few weekends and came back determined to own a 70s 911. Fast forward 48 hours and I was bidding on this:



I had not seen it. Barely have a description for it. However when HPI'ing it realised it was first registered on the day after I was born - I am a sucker for the emotive hook.....

Oh the car was last on the road in the late 90's.....paid £8,700 for the "project".

Fast forward to last week and my guy goes to collect:





So.....update - car is back and it is a mixed bag. First, chasis is excellent. Original, only rust is on the bumper mounts and kidney bowls - and the all do that. So, straight original chasis is top bananas.

Car is a 77 MY but registered in Oct. 76.

Unfortunately no service book and the "history" consists of a lot of papers from the 80s & 90s - none for major engine or body work.

Issue is the previous owner had started to strip - but rather that methodically unbold and record stuff a lot was just prised out. The expensive reflector strip is off intact, but the fixings are still on the bumper - that kind of stuff. Also one of the plasic housings on the engine is cracked (trying to get access to the alterator) - the only way to get at it is to drop the engine. All of which is annyoying from a time standpoint.



Interestly the original colour is guards red - red on reddy orange was a brave choice.



SO, my orignal plan was to get it MOT'd as quickly as possible and look to restore in a few years. With the interior stripped and the engine having to be dropped now may be the time for a respray / colour change.



Thoughts from the collective on colours / work / nice exhaust etc. Looking at it now I overpaid - but with the date connection not bothered.....did I mention it is a Sportomatic.......

[Irish]

Too much with the red interior to do something like:

[LaurasOtherHalf]

What date in October? I think our birth dates are extremely close

Looks like a fun project, if you're keeping with the original interior I think silver would go nicely with the orange & it's a pretty rare colour on impact bumper cars.

Or, get yourself a new interior & open up the possibilities.....

[Fattrader]

I'm a sucker for Guards Red and chrome

[Carl_Docklands]

If it's a full strip down and respray, you could change the interior colour? If the interior stays red then silver, dark blue or white exterior would work.

[N24]

Is that just a red roof-skin - perhaps to add the sunroof? I'd have expected red to bleed-through into white if red was over-painted.

Either way - GREAT project!

[Wozy68]

Are those original seats?

[Irish]

Wozy68 said:

Are those original seats?

Yep - very 70s

[EricE]

Quite the project! Looking at the pictures all I can think is how much cheaper it would have been to buy a complete car in decent condition but if you are looking for a project then I think it was a good purchase. My hat goes off to you!

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]

EricE said:

Quite the project! Looking at the pictures all I can think is how much cheaper it would have been to buy a complete car in decent condition but if you are looking for a project then I think it was a good purchase. My hat goes off to you!

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 )

Well - it is a lot worse that I thought..but adds to the story....

[braddo]

Good luck! Do you intend to stick with the sportomatic or source a manual gearbox?

I wonder how many sportomatic 911s are still on the road in the UK and Ireland? Could they be counted on one or two hands??

[Irish]

braddo said:

Good luck! Do you intend to stick with the sportomatic or source a manual gearbox?

I wonder how many sportomatic 911s are still on the road in the UK and Ireland? Could they be counted on one or two hands??

The intention is to keep the sporto - for rareness if nothing else.

[sleep envy]

Irish said:

Thoughts from the collective on colours / work / nice exhaust etc. Looking at it now I overpaid - but with the date connection not bothered.....did I mention it is a Sportomatic.......

If it's a keeper I'd be tempted to convert it to manual, spray it silver and keep the red interior.

As for over paying, you've saved yourself a tonne of cash and time on not buying a rusty heap

[LaurasOtherHalf]

Irish said:

The intention is to keep the sporto - for rareness if nothing else.

a very brave but (IMHO) correct choice! The sporto's might be a strange curio of the pork world but it would be a duller world without them.

Fwiw, I think it's a good system & it does work really well & is light years ahead of contempory systems, plus if nothing else it gets you out of the habit of resting your spare hand on the gear leaver!

I seem to remember Vic Elford (or one of the works drivers) absolutely loved it. I'm sure sympathetically restored, it would get one of the magazines interested.

[Wozy68]

Irish said:

Wozy68 said:

Are those original seats?

Yep - very 70s

Oh ok, I thought they looked more 964 comfort. I thought the early seats were called tomb seats or something like that because of the bolsters . You learn something every day

[LaurasOtherHalf]

Now, onto colours, or more specifically the colour of your interior as I should imagine it will be the decision on whether to stick with this that may well determine the colour of the exterior.

When you look at the colour of the recent singer cars, they use something pretty close with a contrasting black belt line to brake it up;


This, with a grey, silver or black would look lovely IMHO.

But period correct, which looks like it might interest you there's this car on pelican parts forum;


That's lobster interior on a '77 car, prior to '77 there was simply light red & can can red interiors (can can is PROPER red!), check your vin number as with it being an October delivery date it might well be a '77 build year car. Here's lobster that looks suspiciously like yours on a '77 turbo;


In which case, I don't think it would be too "orange" to go with a loud exterior colour if that's what you want.

This was my old '81SC in GT3RS orange (or 8C6 as it was known) & been though it had a black interior, it was a black & pasha interior!


If you're interested in more pics of the restoration I can point you in the right direction-I have tons!

[Irish]

Cheers LOH - my car was 0085 of the 77 model year. Seems a rare interior.

[LaurasOtherHalf]

Irish said:

Cheers LOH - my car was 0085 of the 77 model year. Seems a rare interior.

There you go then, be a shame to get rid of it when it's so rare eh? Have you definitely confirmed what colour the car came in originally? Without seeing it it's hard to tell but as posted above it does look like it's simply had a roof swap to add a sunroof in the pictures you've posted.

Out of interest, disregarding interior colour, what would be your ideal colour?

[Irish]

LaurasOtherHalf said:

There you go then, be a shame to get rid of it when it's so rare eh? Have you definitely confirmed what colour the car came in originally? Without seeing it it's hard to tell but as posted above it does look like it's simply had a roof swap to add a sunroof in the pictures you've posted.

Out of interest, disregarding interior colour, what would be your ideal colour?

Definitely guards. It is showing under the rear window seal. A resto to original an option.

[LaurasOtherHalf]

Irish said:

Definitely guards. It is showing under the rear window seal. A resto to original an option.

Porsche will be able to confirm this for you but it certainly sounds like that was the colour then, which is almost a shame as I can probably only think of guards red as the worst colour combo with this lobster interior! But, who am I to judge? Originalty counts for a lot these days I guess.

Bearing in mind you might not want to take the advice of a man who has owned both yellow & orange 911s if you're keeping the original colour interior & not restoring to original I'd happily go with any if the following;

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