'65

[inaglasshouse]

At this point let's briefly introduce our host, without invading his privacy by naming etc.
The paint gauge was a nice touch, and I also appreciated that the car was on axle stands, under cover, for me to poke around at leisure.

Here our vendor is very excited to show me something from the parts stash:



It's an original knob / cable for the fuel flap release. Did you know they are different (smaller) on the early cars? I didn't.

[inaglasshouse]

The anticipation for Friday's reveal is killing me

Me too, TBH. Not least because if it's hideous, the resto costs escalate rather quickly...

[inaglasshouse]

Then it was down off the axle stands - test drive time...



The chrome beast started easily enough and, as promised, ran.


Not brilliantly well (definitely something awry with ignition or fuelling), but it did run. It also moved under its own power.

The vendor pre-warned me that the gear selection was very vague, but it felt normal for a 901, to me (bearing in mind that the centring spring on the level was clearly missing, so a bit of deliberate side-to-side placement was required).

[inaglasshouse]

So I went for a quick whizz around the industrial estate (on my own).

This was more exciting than it might have been, because the pre-drive briefing slightly omitted to mention the lack of brakes. They came back after some vigorous pumping, but brake pedal to floor on first use was not a great moment.
Anyway no sign of burning oil, no sign of big oil leaks, at least 5 (possibly 6 but I think 5 was a better bet) of the cylinders seemingly working, gears selectable and clutch fine. Certainly enough to pass the "most major components present and broadly working" starting point for a full resto. It actually rode quite nicely. Steering very sloppy.

Back to the office, did the deal, had lunch together, looked at some Rolexes and a guitar signed by Kurt Cobain. Tried out a hand gun for feel (not for efficacy).
After some financial completions, off we went to the shipping warehouse.

[inaglasshouse]

I suppose that when we entrust our cars to shipping, hence the laws of nature, the main thing we hope for is an uneventful experience. Nothing lost, no containers falling off decks, no sinking etc.

So it proved in this case. Boring, just the way you'd hope.




When it got to Southampton I popped down to have a look. Nothing much to report, but this one from the same shipment caught my eye. A De Tomaso Pantera. From Beverly Hills Car Club. What could possibly go wrong?!

[911GP]

Hi Richard,
Great to read about your latest adventure. I wouldn’t mind doing another restoration myself now that the dust has settled but HQ has said no (actually she said it rather firmly so I think she means it).
Good luck.
Gitesh

[inaglasshouse]

Hi Gitesh,
Thanks. It's good to hear from you.
I think HQ is wise. This will be my last. Deffo!
Cheers, Richard.

[inaglasshouse]

A few pics showing the car during the strip down. They give an idea of what some of the less molested areas look like.

[inaglasshouse]

A final post before the bare metal shell comes back tomorrow.

Here's how the car looked for a few months after I got it home from the US, and fitted a few bits including the correct wheels and somewhat-more-correct headlights (were H4s). It's always interesting how little it takes to make a car look "off", hence how details can make a big difference to overall impression.

I UK registered it - wanted to get that out of the way while it was a fully-assembled car, in case identity inspection was requested (it wasn't, probably because it had a full current California title doc at the time of import).

I drove it a few times (slowly) having sorted the brakes, given it a bit of a service, and generally established that it wasn't a complete death trap. Being mindful that the front pan rot had not magically disappeared.
It ran much better after a bit of timing work plus new plugs and HT leads. Not much wrong with the engine, in fact, it appeared.

Looked quite nice too:

[hashman]

This looks like it will be a good education in short wheel-based 911s.
Thanks for buying another car and sharing.

Karl

[inaglasshouse]

Well ok then, let's have a look at the shell. Which, as promised, came back from Enviro Strip today. I pottered down to Barry's workshop, the delivery location, to have a look and deliver a few relevant parts for the later fitting up.

Let's start with the bits which are bad, but were expected to be bad. Before we move on to the nice and nasty surprises. Spoiler alert - there aren't any nice surprises. Surprise!

Front pan will not be winning any prizes in beauty contests, but the rot is no more extensive than it looked. Repair panels readily available, of course, and had already been ordered and delivered so they are with the metal guru.

[inaglasshouse]

Continuing the known knowns (or something), diligent readers will recall that the non-original rear slam panel and copious filler suggested rear wing trauma, but pretty localised. Post-strip reality was more-or-less as expected, I'd say:





Rear wings original and, ignoring the rearmost 100mm or so, very nice indeed (as hoped / expected):

[210bhp]

That rear wing (inner and outer) looks great!

Regards
Mike

[inaglasshouse]

Thanks Mike.

Floors, tunnel, inner sills all good. Possibly even slightly better than expected.

There had been a fair amount of missing (brittle, flaked off) underseal on the outside of the floor, and some surface rust on the inside, so I think I was imagining some pinholing and local repairs at least. But looks like no need. Anyway, in essence, they are original and sound, so that's a win.

[inaglasshouse]

That's the end of the good news. I guess we all know that nice surprises are rare when the paint (and filler) comes off. So it proved in this case.

On the bright side, I am very glad we stripped it. Possible lesson there.

For a long time I was in the rose tinted mindset of this being quite an original car, shame to do more than necessary. Address the local rot in the front pan and the rear wing damage, obviously bare metal and paint the exterior, but no need to go too crazy on the underside, interior, front bay and engine bay (where original finishes were indeed intact).
Barry, and Robert, both of this parish, each gave me a version of the reality check on that. Thank you gentlemen.
It's quite original, but when viewed dispassionately this is a 50+ year old car which has not been preserved in a museum or cherished by a single owner. Like most of these cars, it has survived the period when they were worthless, and stuff has happened along the way. The only way to find out exactly what, and frankly the only way to make it a palatable restoration task for metal and paint experts, was to fully strip it.

Maybe one day I'll start from such a nice original car that things will be different, but this is not that car.

I did not enjoy adjusting to the new reality, but I felt a bit better about all this when I read Porsche's own PR blurb about their restoration of car number 57 for the Porsche Museum. No messing about with the shell - straight in the acid bath for number 57 and back to bare metal... (although, tbh, I think they have over-restored it).

https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/history ... 14644.html