After many years with Beetles and Camper vans I decided to look for an early 911. At the time I knew nothing of T's, E's, and S's, was ignorant of the 1580 or at what point IB started. I just wanted pre 73 for the free tax disc! Bearing this in mind I ended up with a targa T sporto!.. I know, somewhere between a Marina and a nicely turned out 924. The car was the best of the bunch I looked at at the time. Cheapest too, £5000 bought me 35years of HEAVY patina with no structural rot. That was 5 years ago.
The only bits missing were the centre rear bumper panel and the original front seats. No prob I'll find some old seats affordable on e-bay...like I said, I knew nothing!
So the idea was as all my previous projects, a rolling resto. I cant buy one and then not drive it straight away. I'm the kid who's model spitfire pilot was an unpainted blue plastic glued in the cockpit! Swapping US spec overriders and lenses, and sporto to 5 speed were done as soon as I found the parts needed and the car was used rat-look..ish.
The main problem I had was after a wash and buff the car came up quite nice. When viewed from across the road it was presentable, this is mostly because it was brown, coincidentally the same colour as rust. It's all solid underneath though, with it being my first one I didn't know what to look for corrosion hotspot wise so got lucky I guess. I decided a top side repaint was needed to get rid of the crusty edges (headlight bowls, door bottoms etc). I wanted a 70's shade but with a tan interior my choices were limited. The shortlist was Chartreuse, Aubergine or back to Sepia. In the end I wanted a change from brown and when I saw a sample of Aubergine it looked like a colour a Goth would do there fingernails (apologies to Auber fans)
I don't have the biggest space to work in but it was something I wanted to tackle myself. The garage to store it overnight with the heaters on and a carport I could sheet up into a makeshift spray booth (Yes the neighbors loved the shanty town look) 2008 was a nice summer and that was when I painted it. The layout of the garage and carport is side by side so shunting between the too was always a traffic stopper.
So along with a set of new rubbers, carpet set, lenses and some boxster seats this was the new look.
From the first tin of nitromos to the final coat of lacker took 3 weeks, my whole holiday that year. Putting back together and fitting the interior and glass etc took another month or so of weekends and evenings. Now by the time I was this far I had learnt of the differences in T's E's S's etc so hankered after a coupe. A couple of months ago I sold my Camper so thought I'd look for a coupe of the same age. It would probably be another T but at least it would be a tin top. Haven't they gone up in price!!! The recent RHD T on E-bay that fetched 10k+ (for what looked to me like a logbook, vin plates and a lot of work) means I've got what I've got and be happy. So I will do the bits I scrimpt on last time in favour of the shiny quick fix. The saga continues...
My plan is to tidy up and paint the underside, renew/refurb the suspension/brakes and stop the engine leaking. Now I know these things can be expected to leak a bit but if any of you are bikers I'll describe my car as powered by a 2400cc scottoiler! This I think is the reason my car has stayed mostly rust free underneath. There is rust on the suspension arms and brake parts etc, but the body metal work is all sound. The car has been grounded at some point though, and scuffed areas of the petrol tank and floor have some surface corrosion where the sealer has been grazed. Where this has occured I'll strip the sealer off and get back to bare metal. There is a mixture of oil, over spray and Schultz under-seal. The latter is my own fault, it was a quick fix to cover the over spray that would match up to the oily blackness under there. I'm really regretting that decision now.
I have a head start and I'm shifting between the floor pan, suspension and engine as the mood/budget swings, so some of the questions I ask in the other sections may seem out of sync but its all got to be done by sunshine next year.
So it's time for thinners and a rag....
so have applied etch and then stone chip where needed. This will get a week to harden and I hope next Sat/Sun to get some top coat on.
