1965 RHD 911 restoration started

[DEEMAN]

Hi Everyone, I don't think I ever 'officially' introduced myself but I have owned 6 Porsches over the last 40 something years. I started with a 356A then a 356SC before a '69S 911. Then came two more 911s and more recently a 2001 3.2 Boxster.
This thread is to do with one of the 911s and as the title says a 1965/66 RHD 911 Coupe, the only early car still with me.

This may be a long restoration thread, indeed I hope it will be and I hope it will be interesting.
It started in 1986 when I bought two early 911s for spares. They were to be dumped in a local tip as their keeper deemed them as too far gone and dangerous to be rebuilt!!! I had tried to find these cars some years earlier after a tip-off but when I got to the address the place was deserted. The owner had emigrated. End of story - I gave up.
Then two years later I wanted to put a Ferguson tractor on the road so the Vehicle Inspector had to check the engine/chassis numbers before a registration number could be made available. It was not a nice day and we sheltered in my garage chatting. My 69S was behind us and he said he knew where there were two old Porsches that were going to be dumped.
Dumped!!!!! Where are they???
I went along to the address he gave me and spoke to the foreman of the garage. Yes, they were going to be dumped.
"I'll buy them off you"
"How much?"
Silly (little) money was agreed and they were delivered the next day.
But for the next three or four years they lay in storage, hardly looked at, as I was rebuilding an old watermill and converting it in to a house. Big job when you're working full time. And then came our first child.... hey, you've heard it all before.
It was quite some time later before I even got to grips with the details of the cars. And what incredible details. They were both AFN imported RHD cars.
I knew nothing of really early cars then but it transpired I had a 1968L and a 1965 911 Coupe. The '68 had 'lost' its personalised registration -RS 2000(!!) - but the Coupe V5 was still current as BSC 3B.
As I dug around I got more and more excited. Letters to Porsche AG and then AFN confirmed it was a 1965 car, ordered in August and completed on the 17th September. The registration had been reserved and was allotted to the car when it was registered in November.
You will not find another 911 with an earlier registration!!
So BSC 3B (chassis 302136) started life as it left Unity Motors, Edinburgh with its owner, a Mr Usher. She was Golf Blue (paint code 6603), the only one of its colour ordered that year. The COA confirmed the engine/gearbox matching numbers and that it had Black leatherette interior and a loudspeaker.
But she was a sorry sight and had apparently 'died' after twelve years with 87,699 miles on the clock. Last tax disc was August 1977. She was complete and standard in most respects apart from widened steel wheels with ridiculously oversized tyres, a Momo steering wheel, a front fibreglass skirt and a ducktail. Even the Blaupunkt Bremen radio was there.
So there you are. My Beauty, slept quietly for so many years awaiting her Prince to give her the kiss of life. I never forgot her in all those years, and collected parts I would need from all over the world (in truth), and dreamed of the beauty she would awaken to be one day.

Oh bloody hell get on with it!!!!!!!!!!

Hush heathens, life is beginning to beat again in that gorgeous bruised body.

to be continued with pictures very soon - I've got writers cramp


Ian

[KS]

B*gger the cramp, we need pictures!

[IanMcLeod]

Good to see you starting a restoration thread on here Ian. Such an early and rare car too. And in a great colour. Can't wait !!

Ian.

[redrobin911]

Same here - well done on bringing another one back to life - need pics now no matter how bad they look. I'm also building a 65 car but for racing - give me a shout if you need parts etc you never know I might have some that may be of use.

[Lightweight_911]

What an amazing 'find' ... locating the correct parts for such an early car - especially a RHD model - must be a challenge !

[DEEMAN]

Hmm, I wrote some more and posted pictures but nothing seems to have happened.
This is not the first time I have replied to someone or made a comment and nothing has happened.
Has anyone else had the same experience?
Is there any way I can check what I have sent?


Ian

[DEEMAN]

Lets have another go.

My original reply was to Keith being somewhat tongue in cheek.
I started the thread with a tempting text preamble. (is that how you spell it?) These journalists always want to pack in the piccies so they don't have to write so much. But, I suppose a thousand words don't say as much as a pictures. Especially if you buy a car from the States!!!

Anyway here ARE some pics. Taken as it came out of storage but otherwise unchanged apart from those awful wheels.
]


The engine cover came off a 1970-ish Texan 911T. The car and engine have now gone. The car was banana'ed. Really! It was driven by the wifey of an American oilman working here and slid off the road in the wet hitting a concrete lamp post on 'our' nearside. It was a LHD and the drivers seat was crushed to half its width. She walked out of it apparently unhurt. The car came from the recovery garage complete with its four canvas-showing tyres and unconnected front sway (sorry anti-roll) bar fitment. She was one lucky lady.
I can post piccies if requested.

Thanks to those giving encouragement and offering help. Much appreciated. Always, always, post a comment if you can see potential problems please.

Ian

[DEEMAN]

Forgot to send second picture. But why don't they show?? NOW CORRECTED.

[Lightweight_911]

You used the URL tags rather than the IMG ones ...

[DEEMAN]

Thanks Andy, I'll get used to doing it correctly one day!

[DEEMAN]

So on with the saga (no, not a Targa)

Remember I mentioned a gorgeous bruised body? Well, the word bruised is not strong enough. Some clowns had done their worse with her. A heavy accident had happened at some time judging by the offside front and the fact that the passengers door had burst open (this car had the very early door lock pins) and wrapped itself forward with subsequent damage to the A pillar and surrounding area. The door had been replaced and I have since discovered it came off an even earlier car (!!) as the stamped number is 060 and the internal lock connecting rod is actually twin wires. The repairs had been adequate but no more.
The rust worm had been active but in a very unusual way. Many parts that are so suspect were really good, the floor, the seat buckets and parcel shelf, but the suspension floor to the front was non-existent. I've never seen one so bad.








The areas near the rear torsion bar outters was no better.





Big job! Yes, ultra, ultra.
This is when I found DDK and the Restoration Threads that I have studied and studied. The wonderful work being done gave me all the encouragement to go ahead and tackle this baby.
The shell had been stripped bare and carefully examined in the early 90s. I concluded expert hands were essential in restoring her and I am not an engineer or panel beater by trade. I had built several special motorcycles in the 70's based on the fabulous 998 Vincent engine but this Porsche was something very different and very special. I am not a millionaire (indeed I am retired and over 70) so I had to work frugally and wisely. New body parts, even if they were available, were prohibitively expensive.
I decided the only way round it was to find a donor car from the States. That night I looked on Evilbay and there was a 912, with one day to go and only two months different in build-date. I pondered over it for hours and then placed my bid - and punched the accept key before realising the decimal point was in the wrong place. I had bid ten times too much!! (frugally, wisely??!!)
Panic! I tried to withdraw my bid but e-Bay wouldn't let me.
I contacted the seller, who was very fair but said that he had come across people before 'trying' the market.
But, with understanding, the sale proceeded and I won at $6000. I was pleased with that (£3750 at that time).
The 'Yellow Canary' as it was to be knicknamed, was a very strange bird. Orginally out of Idaho she had been heavily modified with an America RS bodykit but underneath she was very original and sound - so the seller told me. And he turned out to be very honest I am pleased to say.



It took three months to get it shipped from Tacoma, Washington State, working with Kingston Shipping, who made everything so easy, but then the problems started. It was collected from Southampton Docks by a one-man business called Cartransporter, a Mark Lowe near Cerne Abbas but then it 'disappeared'. (if you want to know more then look at the thread 'STOLEN CAR' about this time last year.
But I'll cut it short and say the 'Yellow Canary' finally arrived but died soon after to provide vital organs to save a more precious 911.
Sorry 912 owners.
That brings us almost up to date. Here are some pictures of the shell as it was two weeks ago.
















BSC 3B has gone to the operating theatre together with the 'Yellow Canary'. The Celette has been prepared. The surgeon, a Porsche-trained bodywork specialist, went into action with scalpel( laser cutter) last weekend.

Let us bow our heads and pray for a full recovery, even if it will take time.


to be continued....

Enough piccies Keith?


Ian

[Jesse]

Fantastic thread! Feed us more!



You´ll be alright Ian, after looking at Alans 2,2s resto I believe anything can be brought back. Even though I am an amateur I got more confident to proceed with my 912 resto after looking at true craftsmen at work!

[964RS]

Wow, you certainly had your work cut out!

[beny happy camper]

Nice car !
A quick sandblast perhaps ?

[DEEMAN]

I dare not blast it yet. It will fall to peices!!!

One or two more pics here showing the first 'cuts' which produced no surprises. The 911 was placed on the jig bed and secured with the sill clamps. The job was started in the rear nearside quarter. The rotten metal was then cut away. This is going to be a progressive operation going in short spurts ( not blood thank heaven).



Nibble nibble.....



Nibble a bit more....



Hmm, OK, take a breather....



Inside the longitudinal seem just fine. The heater tube has rotted away under the torsion bar so a new bend section will be pulled and put in.
The idea is to take the whole inner section out of the 912 and transplant it onto the 911.
Don't expect the work to proceed with the speed of the likes of Mike or Barry.

While I am on here may I ask a question..
I have often wondered what these brackets on the rear inner wing are for?



And should one be able to see through the torsion bar from side to side and everything be in line? Because on the 912, it isn't!!

Ian