white car project, the survivor Options

[targa72e]

I have started working on a car a purchased last year. Its low mileage and is cleaning up very nicely. I thought I would take some pictures as I work thru this project.

I did not need another car but a 73 came up for sale last year and when I went and looked at it and it was rust free so purchased it on the spot. When went to picked it up and drive home the next day I got the full story. Two owner car, documented 83K miles (Porsche dealer stamps in maintenance book) it had only been driven about 1K miles in the last 20 years. It has a issue where it will not stay in 4th gear and that apparently limited driving. Because of many oil leaks and the engine is very well marinated with oil and will need a full reseal. Fuel injection works great and the car is very original. Its too nice to cut up and do a -6 conversion so I will fix the tranny and reseal the engine drive it a little and probably sell it to fund other projects.
Pics before cleaning.








This is after washing and buffing. You can see quite a color difference.




When I pulled the rockers off all the screws, washers and spacers looked like they were factory and had not been touched.

john

[targa72e]

I heard it somewhere before:

some guys have all the luck

Great project, but the other P-cars also sound great.

Ever dabble in anything Italian?

no doubt some luck was involved. I live in a dry climate so rust is not quite the problem as other areas. Part of the luck is I looked at every 914 that came up for sale locally for about 4 years. I saw lots of turds, met a lot of interesting people but most important got better at knowing what I was looking at. When the diamonds in the rough popped up I knew what I was looking at, I also know where some other gems are at that the owners are not quite ready to get rid of.
I agreed to buy this what car before I knew it ran, a quick look over indicated it was that nice. I also ended up buying 4 cars over the 5 yea time.
I have been told that when you are searching for a car and find the one, you should keep looking because a better one l might be around the corner.
The last 914 I purchased is a 75 almost rust free (I don't know that any are rust free until restored) that will need a little trunk work.
It is car that like the 73 is from southern California and was brought to Colorado 20+ years ago and not driven, it was on jack stands and stored indoors. It was a abandoned project that had been stripped to the bare chassis (all the rest was in boxes) so I could see what i was getting.

Italian lust yes, but not acquired, I had a Fiat 124 spider for a short time is college if that counts. I lusted after Alpha Rome spiders back in the day, thought about Ferrari's and Lamborghini (or More likely R8 equivalent) but have mostly had German cars. Rented a Alpha 4C about 3 years ago, and if it had a manual transmission I would have one in my garage (automatic it comes with is so bad).
I did have a Lotus Esprit turbo for a while (not Italian but on the exotic side) before I purchased the 996 Turbo, looked cool in the driveway but not that great to drive. Most of my daily drivers have been BMW coupes for the last 12years (their turbo 6 at altitude is awesome). I currently have a BMW M2 Competition on order as my daily driver as its one of the last manual transmissions available (its going to have to sit outside if I don't sell off some of my Porsche's!!) and wife drives the last year manual transmission Audi Avant available. As manual transmissions become non existent i figure my next new car will likely be some types of hybrid, plenty of old ICE engined cars to keep me intertained.

John