Finnish Francesca, 1973 targa resto

[mooney3019]

I imported a beetle from Finland, and the guy I bought if off put it on a ferry from Turku to Harwich, is this not a possibility on the way back ?

[Darren65]

Very much look forward to following your build Mike, please post lots of photos

[210bhp]

Thanks Darren.
Would be carrying on but just upgraded my iPad and having trouble with my photobucket account. Apparently it doesn't like the new safari search engine which is a bit of a pain. Nothing working at the moment.

Regards
Mike

[210bhp]

It was quite exciting to contemplate the trip. Neither of us had been to Scandinavia, never done such a long trip and certainly never aquired and collected a car from so far away.

There was a fair bit of confidence as we set off. I'd bought many ratchet straps and done a test run pulling the trailer loaded with my E and put the six wheeled 'sled' (dad had made many years ago to single handily move a baby grand piano) into the trailer for sliding the engine up to the front.

Eventually the day came and we were off,



Arriving at Newcastle





We knew we would get a full nights kip on the Newcastle to Amsterdam overnight ferry but after that it would be a long slog. We disembarked at Amsterdam at 8am having stuffed breakfast down and prepared for long day/night. The ferry from Stockholm to Turku was booked for 7am the following morning. We shared the driving from Amsterdam through Holland, Germany (passing through Hamburg where the targa we were going to collect was sold new), through the spine of Denmark to Copenhagen, over the longest bridge in Europe which connects Denmark to Sweden and arrived in Malmo for a fuel stop at 10pm. We had the full width of Sweden to cross and I asked the girl in the petrol station "how many hours to Stockholm?" and she replied "10". Bloody hell I said to Alex we might not make the ferry at 7am. We ploughed on through the night in 2 hour stints while the other napped. Finally arriving at the docks in Stockholm on a beautiful sunny morning at 6.30am. We made it. Almost 23 hours of continuous driving.

Long bridge




We loaded the car and trailer on to the ferry and went for a look out on deck as we left beautiful Stockholm and all its islands before heading out into the Baltic Sea.



Agnetha owns and lives as a semi-recluse on one of these islands apparently. Didn't see her.





We had breakfast, watched the beautiful scenery as we left the islands off Stockholm and then both promptly fell asleep in the bar for 3 hours.

Looking at the map you would think the hop over to Finland would be a short crossing but it takes almost 12 hours so we didn't arrive on Finnish mainland until 8pm. It was still a 3 hour drive to Lahti. We didn't arrive at Mika's until almost midnight. What a welcome! Food, shower, sauna if we wanted it and loads of Porsche chat. What a fantastic house! Typical Finnish log house with full wet room, fantastic heating and insulation, log fire, a room each for me and Alex and oh those comfortable Finnish beds. We slept well that night I can tell you.

Regards
Mike

[hot66]

Have you watched 'the bridge' ? Driving across it and into Malmo should be a modern day 911 pilgrimage

[Gary71]

When it's completed we should find the time to recreate this shot without the dodgy mini van and moody policeman!

[murph2309]

I'd be up for that - would be a good trip to take the SC on....

Mike, loving this already. Mentions of Turku & Helsinki making me nostalgic for the Nokia days...

[210bhp]

Breakfast was bright and early and then we went downstairs to the garage. The garage was in the basement. No need to go outside. It was as warm as toast down there and the targa, Francesca, was sitting on her four wheeled trolley (included in the sale) all warm and cosy. Mika took us through the boxes and boxes of spares and then we loaded up. It took all day but it was a joy to work together the three of us. We had a laugh and by the end of the day I can honestly say we were friends.







"Right" said Mika. "that's you all loaded up for the off tomorrow, I'm taking you out for dinner". We went to a classy Lahti restaurant and Mika insisted we both had reindeer steaks to remember our first trip to Finland. All washed down with a nice bottle of red. We chatted about all things Porsche, Finland's history, Mika's profession, his new Passat coupe with automatic parallel park (first time I'd seen that), Lapland and the fact that we were only 200 kilometers from St. Petersburg! Bloody hell, we are almost in Russia!

We had a great time. We went back to his house and Alex and I gave Mika our Scottish gifts which seemed inadequate after the fantastic night we had enjoyed. Another big sleep and the following morning we were ready to leave.
Refreshed, happy, and truly spoilt by Mika's hospitality. There was one more surprise.... " we are going out for breakfast " said Mika and we were off down to the lake side where an old railway carriage was a beautifully resorted breakfast cafe. We had the most delicious croissants and steaming hot coffee served up by two gorgeous Finnish girls in tiny aprons. A quick drive round the lake, a visit to Mika's hospital (what a setting in the trees overlooking the lake) and we were back at the house ready for the return journey. The UK has a lot to learn. Finland is a beautiful place. I have never seen so many lakes and trees. (The country of a thousand lakes).

It was hard to say goodbye. Mikas house was also on the lakeside and for the life in me I couldn't understand why he would want to move anywhere else. It was a real wrench to drive away but we had a ferry to catch.

Turku


We had the same return journey to complete but the weather was stunning. Back across Sweden past the Saab factory.





Beautiful scenery



Interesting load




Stopped for a picnic lunch



Back across the big bridge



I have never had such a wonderful time buying a car. I can't thank Mika enough and I would love to visit again. Obviously we invited Mika to visit us in Scotland and I only hope we could show the same welcome he gave us should it ever happen.

We arrived home having done the same return leg as on the way out. 8 days, 8 countries, 4 European Capital cities and thousands of road miles and a new friend.

I phoned Barry on the way home and booked a slot in his restoration diary.

It was May 2014.........

Regards
Mike

[brembo]

Tremendous thread Mike.
Crammed a lot into 8 days,probably a wee bit tired when you got back to the Maidens.
Between this, and the Sicily run you've had a couple of trips that will be very difficult to better.
Looking forward to the signal yellow project progressing.When finished,I'm sure it will be superior to the day it left the factory.

[mrk]

Sounds amazing....inspiring stuff!

[Gary71]

Great story, keep it coming

[210bhp]

There was no one else set to restore the targa shell other than Barry. Mika agreed. Even in Finland Barry's skills were recognised. Amazing! Good news travels far.
Barry quoted a 2 year wait for his services but I was happy with that. It would give me time to unload all the parts and store the shell at Leslie's farm (see Eves thread for info on another great friend). I have lots of patience.

I decided to deck out my garage in racking and boxes. Mika had bagged, boxed and labelled everything he had dismantled from Francesca. It was a pleasure to file it all away ready for re-assembly.

Barry received photos of the shell as requested. Metalwork is really an area I know nothing about. I had thought of doing one of his famous welding and fabricating days but let's face it, you can't learn years of skill and acquire Barry's legendary knowledge in a couple of afternoons. I'd rather have it done right and was looking forward to our relationship anyway just as so many of you have documented on here before. I was also looking forward to doing my first total resto which I knew would likely be my only one. Got to do it once in your life. It would be a learning curve too.

Two years didn't seem like too long but Barry was threatening to wind down his 911 work in favour of other stuff so I was desperate to stay on his list. I think he has had a re-think since them. He said the photos of the shell looked promising. I think because the shell was bare he decided not to come and inspect the targa but suggested sending more detailed shots. I sent loads and he seemed encouraged that it might not be one of his 'big jobs'.
Mika had many spare panels with the shell but no front wings which he said were the only parts beyond saving. I contacted Porsche Classic Glasgow and ordered two front wings. Mika already had two extra rear wings, a front panel, rear panel, A posts, doors, two targa tops, inner and outer sills, four kidney bowls, jack points, battery boxes, a mixture of NOS and Porsche replacement panels and parts most of which I thought might not be needed as, to me, the bare shell looked reasonably good and I assumed most of it would be savable. I did prefer as much of the original metalwork to be saved and from the pictures Barry thought it could be.

On unloading for storage I was still quite impressed with the overall condition of the shell. I thought it looked better than most restoration projects but of course I don't have a trained eye for these things.




So, the big wait began.

[inaglasshouse]

On unloading for storage I was still quite impressed with the overall condition of the shell. I thought it looked better than most restoration projects but of course I don't have a trained eye for these things.

I've certainly seen worse!

So, the big wait began.

Keep telling the story.
I'm going to pad my thread with pictures of me hand-cleaning individual nuts and bolts during the 2 year wait. No rush.
The long winter evenings just fly by.

Cheers, Richard.

[tangerineT]

Great thread ! Maybe our cars will get to meet at some point ?

I went to helsinki about 20 years ago delivering an mgtc for a client. .the drive through holland and Germany was ok,,but the ferry from lubeck to Helsinki was a horrible 27 hours and the sea was frozen for the latter bit of the baltic

I'm so envious ,,I'd love to go back there !

Good luck with your targa !

[210bhp]

Thank you Matthew and Richard.

I get the feeling that Richard is about to post his resto thread with Barry which is about to commence. I feel it might overtake this thread because I have the speed of a tortoise. To get out of sync for a moment I can say that Richard's 911 will replace my targa on Barry's jig which has just been completed today. I have a great deal of Barry's photos to post up in the coming weeks to show the level of his dedication and brilliant workmanship. This we all know about. What you should also know is the level of customer service Barry gives. This is what completes the perfect package for me. As well as being a genius he is also a gentleman and as honest as the day is long. For all my working life I have come across vagabonds and corner cutters so the last few months (despite being so far apart) he has made me feel close to the project and let me realise that there are truly decent people in the world of business after all.

Barry, I thank you and applaud you and wish you all the best.



Regards
Mike