74 carrera restoration
Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 5:00 pm
So I bought an old Porsche……a 2.7 Carrera to be precise delivered 21 November 1974 and 1 of only a few hundred made and by all accounts 1 of less than a hundred left, give or take……
I could do the short version of this or the long one, but as its taken 2 years to get to this point I think a potted version is better otherwise the car will be finished by the time I even finish writing this
Why a 2.7
Well probably because it has that fantastic lump in the rear, and although exactly the same engine as the touring and the lightweights, and In some respects even rarer, maybe because so few people seem to want them, but the more I read about them the more this model appealed
I’ve had an SC before, and although as a daily driver it was perfect I always found myself finding fault with those awful impact bumpers…..but that’s a whole debate in itself and is not meant to offend those who do
So it was always going to be a modified car, which I know is a bit perverse, why not buy a pre 1973, but then that 2.7 engine and its pedigree was always an influence
Not a lightweight look as there are so many, so no, the touring appealed more, but I’m not changing the interior and trying to make it a copy, its just the same car with smaller bumpers, as the early Carrera 2.7’s had duck tails anyway
I wanted RHD, original black paint and I wanted chrome trim, which for the best part of a 2 year search seemed impossible (not surprising), but then after giving up all hope found myself looking through back issues of 911 Porsche World, and there one was. Must have missed it somehow, but the magazine was a year old, anyhow I rang the number and it was still for sale ( now I know why….perhaps)
Short version is I took one look and bought it, it was 7 miles down the road, which seems incredible when I had tried the US and Germany, Austria, Belgium, and Holland
So Christmas 2004 I got myself a project……..and some
note the bloke walking away from the car
was the previous owner and the one on the right just delivered 
The car was partly stripped, but with no MOT meant I could not test it. The engine did run, and first and reverse gears worked for sure, as we had to get it into the garage under its own power
Stripping a car is fun, unless perhaps you do it for a iving but its also a bit of a nightmare as a) you have to remember where it all came from and b) it reveales all the nasty surprises…….
At least the rear parcel shelf was perfect…………
Labelling is an absolute must, and lots and lots and lots of photographs and sketches is essential……..
this was basicaly all of 2004
I deliberately did not set myself a deadline, lifes full of them, so with a house, family, kids and work, it was allways going to be a balancing act
all I wanted was to be able to have the shell emptied, ready for striping over christmas 2005, when i would be able to use the full 2 weeks to grind, treat and POR-15 all the good metal
so I spent the best part of a cold 10 days doing a fairly good impersonation of a coal miner........
next part is the bodywork...........
I could do the short version of this or the long one, but as its taken 2 years to get to this point I think a potted version is better otherwise the car will be finished by the time I even finish writing this
Why a 2.7
Well probably because it has that fantastic lump in the rear, and although exactly the same engine as the touring and the lightweights, and In some respects even rarer, maybe because so few people seem to want them, but the more I read about them the more this model appealed
I’ve had an SC before, and although as a daily driver it was perfect I always found myself finding fault with those awful impact bumpers…..but that’s a whole debate in itself and is not meant to offend those who do
So it was always going to be a modified car, which I know is a bit perverse, why not buy a pre 1973, but then that 2.7 engine and its pedigree was always an influence
Not a lightweight look as there are so many, so no, the touring appealed more, but I’m not changing the interior and trying to make it a copy, its just the same car with smaller bumpers, as the early Carrera 2.7’s had duck tails anyway
I wanted RHD, original black paint and I wanted chrome trim, which for the best part of a 2 year search seemed impossible (not surprising), but then after giving up all hope found myself looking through back issues of 911 Porsche World, and there one was. Must have missed it somehow, but the magazine was a year old, anyhow I rang the number and it was still for sale ( now I know why….perhaps)
Short version is I took one look and bought it, it was 7 miles down the road, which seems incredible when I had tried the US and Germany, Austria, Belgium, and Holland
So Christmas 2004 I got myself a project……..and some
note the bloke walking away from the car
was the previous owner and the one on the right just delivered The car was partly stripped, but with no MOT meant I could not test it. The engine did run, and first and reverse gears worked for sure, as we had to get it into the garage under its own power
Stripping a car is fun, unless perhaps you do it for a iving but its also a bit of a nightmare as a) you have to remember where it all came from and b) it reveales all the nasty surprises…….
At least the rear parcel shelf was perfect…………
Labelling is an absolute must, and lots and lots and lots of photographs and sketches is essential……..
this was basicaly all of 2004
I deliberately did not set myself a deadline, lifes full of them, so with a house, family, kids and work, it was allways going to be a balancing act
all I wanted was to be able to have the shell emptied, ready for striping over christmas 2005, when i would be able to use the full 2 weeks to grind, treat and POR-15 all the good metal
so I spent the best part of a cold 10 days doing a fairly good impersonation of a coal miner........
next part is the bodywork...........
) and new windscreen trims too