1971 911S barn-find, anyone?

Nick Moss · Post by **Nick Moss** » Fri Sep 24, 2010 4:57 pm

The seller called me today (my first contact with him BTW) with a view to getting the car restored himself. He has been watching this thread but has not managed to register here to explain himself. It seems he really wasn't aware of what he had; his wife badgered him to get rid of it, thinking they would get £3000 or so for it. He was taken aback by the interest and when his wife and sons realised what it was really worth convinced him not to sell it but to restore it himself. Seems he has been in the trade and has worked on all sorts including Aston Martins, but just lost motivation with this one. I hope he will manage to register here and explain for himself, maybe start a restoration thread

964RS · Post by **964RS** » Fri Sep 24, 2010 5:37 pm

People should do their homework first imho before offering something for sale, selling it and then backing out of it.

You can cancel an auction as long as there are 12hrs left to run....he had plenty of time to do so.

Still bad form, from someone who has 'been in the trade'.

72911E · Post by **72911E** » Fri Sep 24, 2010 8:09 pm

'You can cancel an auction as long as there are 12hrs left to run....he had plenty of time to do so'.

That's the bit in this whole thing that does not make sense. There was a bid in the mid teens with 12hrs to go.

visualfx · Post by **visualfx** » Fri Sep 24, 2010 8:39 pm

I especially would like to hear the seller’s explanation!

He didn’t even give me the decency of a phone call..... Just “ I don’t want to sell” “changed my mind” by text...

Gentlemanly conduct would have be nice, still it’s far a few between now days

9xx · Post by **9xx** » Sun Sep 26, 2010 10:28 pm

Good luck to him. If it was just about money he should have sold it, no real profit to be had if he does a proper job. All the same, nothing like a bid of 17k to make you fall back in love with a 14yr resto project.
I sold my 2.2s a while back, kept contacting the new owner just in case he wanted to go back on the deal.

restoreit · Post by **restoreit** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 8:35 am

Hello to all. This is my first forum entry. I am the owner of the car in question. If you want to story from the horses mouth here it is. A brief history. I have been restoring cars as a hobby for some 30 odd years and have won several concours awards. This car was bought by me some 15 years ago to restore. Circumstances such that I had to convert my garage to another use. The car was put into a shed for storage. It has sat there for some 14 years. It was only having to be moved as the building of a new garage would have resulted in the car being land locked. I moved the car to another shed and placed on ebay. I was amazed at the response and was finally informed by a bidder what a rare car it was. After a lot of pressure from my eldest son who was very keen to help restore it I decided to keep it. I tried to post a note on ebay that it was no longer for sale but this can take up to 24 hours to show. I did try to remove it but as it was within the 12 hours I could not do so. My apologies to all who bid for the car and my thanks to those who were prepared to tell me the true worth of the car. At no time has the money been a factor and no I would not have taken 30k for it. It will be restored and true enthusiasts should be happy that another car will be preserved for the future. I would point out that I never see myself as the true owner of a vehicle just the custodian for a while trying to keep great cars on the road for myself and others to enjoy. If there is enough interest I would be prepared to start a restoration article. My apologies again to all who bid.

964RS · Post by **964RS** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 9:46 am

Maybe you should have picked up the phone and rang Gary and apologised properly???

He's the only one you should really be making the effort with imho as its the winning bidder that has been most let down.

Good luck with your restoration.

DIRKBROWNFINGER · Post by **DIRKBROWNFINGER** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 10:43 am

restoreit wrote:Hello to all. This is my first forum entry. I am the owner of the car in question. If you want to story from the horses mouth here it is. A brief history. I have been restoring cars as a hobby for some 30 odd years and have won several concours awards. This car was bought by me some 15 years ago to restore. Circumstances such that I had to convert my garage to another use. The car was put into a shed for storage. It has sat there for some 14 years. It was only having to be moved as the building of a new garage would have resulted in the car being land locked. I moved the car to another shed and placed on ebay. I was amazed at the response and was finally informed by a bidder what a rare car it was. After a lot of pressure from my eldest son who was very keen to help restore it I decided to keep it. I tried to post a note on ebay that it was no longer for sale but this can take up to 24 hours to show. I did try to remove it but as it was within the 12 hours I could not do so. My apologies to all who bid for the car and my thanks to those who were prepared to tell me the true worth of the car. At no time has the money been a factor and no I would not have taken 30k for it. It will be restored and true enthusiasts should be happy that another car will be preserved for the future. I would point out that I never see myself as the true owner of a vehicle just the custodian for a while trying to keep great cars on the road for myself and others to enjoy. If there is enough interest I would be prepared to start a restoration article. My apologies again to all who bid.

You says its not about the money, but you only tried to remove it from ebay when you found out how rare (ie valuable) the car is? You could have have contacted bidders by email through ebay to inform them of the premature ending of the auction, and you were in contact by phone with some of the guys on here too?

You now appear to have fallen in love with this car and talk of being a custodian, yet last week you wanted rid of her! Coincidence?

Its so about the money! And if someone offers you 30k (which they wont cos its possibly worth 17) then bite their hand off. There are enough people 'in the know' on here, and if was that fantastic a find then it would have gone much higher.

I would hang back on the resto thread for now!

Dirka.

Disco · Post by **Disco** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 12:30 pm

the car isnt actually that rare, it would be a nice one once finished, but its not really that rare.

- if you have access to the internet, you could quite easily have found out what the car was worth ( or not ) I'm surprised you didnt do that before you put it on ebay. - would have been the sensible thing - perhaps something for next time.?

You committed to sell the item, the price you got bid for it was in the region of 17k. There were plenty of bids on the car, and therfore I think that it achieved fair value. so if if you do end up restoring it, then I wish you luck and hope your pockets are deep and keep an eye on the money spent, plenty of dealers out there that dropped out early on so your margins are likely to be tight.

I'm sure you have your reasons for not selling the car and then not providing an adequate reason to the higest bidder but I'm not going to judge you, but I would suggest that if you use Ebay in future, you obey the rules and stand by your committments. - if it was me on the other side of the deal I'd be thinking that your apology was pretty hollow.

good luck.

9xx · Post by **9xx** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 1:42 pm

Hold back on the resto thread? Why?, not many cars cause this much interest!

restoreit · Post by **restoreit** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 4:30 pm

Margins do not matter as the car will not be sold after restoration. My son wants to get involved with the restoration and it is a great opportunity for him to learn a bit about cars etc. After all the young are the restorers of the future and should be encouraged at every opportunity.

74rsman · Post by **74rsman** » Wed Oct 13, 2010 6:56 pm

Disco wrote:the reg alone has to be worth at least 5k. ( if included )

eh!? 9920TB

What the ..

is that for oh yeah, its number plate speak
9920TB for Mr Kahn, Ms OTB, Mr 99 TWOB..
got to be a £20k plate at least not..

am i missing something obvious

Disco · Post by **Disco** » Wed Oct 13, 2010 7:30 pm

I reckon if someone offered me a dateless plate with the reg **** JD I'd probably pay about 5 bags of sand for it? (jd being my initials )

At least my 6 year old range rover would look newer ( and it would be cheaper than dropping 60k on a new one ).

74rsman · Post by **74rsman** » Thu Oct 14, 2010 12:54 pm

Really?
5 grand

luckily my name is FP55MAL

To me, thats a £100k plate.. Im really lucky.

Disco · Post by **Disco** » Thu Oct 14, 2010 1:43 pm

you're right - I am definately cash rich and intelligence poor

2 grand then