New to me original 6. Most excellent adventure !, And why Jon Lowe is a good guy. Options

[michel richard]

There was a bit of disucussion a couple of weeks ago about Jon Lowe's 914/6 project that was for sale. I bought it within a couple of days of the ad going up, and fedex-ed a deposit.

Went down to pick it up over the weekend. Left Montreal noon Friday and landed at Huntsville, Alabama at 4:30 central time. Jon picked me up at the airport and took me to the U-Haul store. They had a bigger truck than expected, but they were waiting for me, and had a trailer.

Got the car at Jon's house along with a mountain of parts. I was in hurry to get going but still saw that there was a ton of original /6 stuff that I was getting. Jon gave me an official-looking bill of sale and an odometer confirmation, both done before a Notary Public, with a nice embossed seal.

The route was basically I-65 North to Louisville KY, then I-71 North to Cleveland OH, then I-90 east to Utica NY, then NY 8 east to I-87 and that North to the border. Then Quebec 10 to within a block of my house. 1,300 miles.

I left Jon's house around 7h30 central time Friday evening, driving the 26 foot U-Haul truck, with the car trailer in tow. This is at least twice as big and heavy as anything I've driven before (although I have towed smaller trailers extensively). Made it to the far side of Louisville, KY, by 2 Saturday morning. Found a rest area and proceeded to pass out across the seats. Got up around 6, back on the highway at 6:10. If I remember correctly, had lunch outside of Cleveland. Reached NY state at 3:00 (I remember that one clearly). Continued to Utica, then 100 miles of smaller roads across the Adirondacs to I-87. I was at the border just before midnight.

Border crossing was hilarious:

When exporting a car from the US, one is supposed to stop at US customs for export control. They want to make sure the car is not stolen, and the process takes several days during which the car has to stay at the border. Big hassle. Let's say I forgot to stop.

I show up at the Canadian side, and the officer in the booth grimaces when I tell him I'm importing a car. He sends me to the office for further inspection and to process the paperwork. I did'nt have a title, because Alabama does'nt issue them for cars built before '75. I explain this to the officer inside.

She goes : OK but how am I going to report this to US customs without the title ? and says she will phone them to find out. I began to worry about having to turn back to the US customs post, and having to explain to Border Patrol why I'd forgotten to stop, "midnight express" visions started racing through my head.

Apparently the phone conversation went something like this. "Hey Fred, this is Alice at Canada customs, I've got this guy importing an old Porsche that's all apart, doe'nt have title, does'nt have registration of any kind. He does have this fancy looking paper with seals and everything where a guy in Alabama says he's the owner and has sold to my importer" Fred answers: " Yeah, it's quite possible some states were'nt issuing titles in '70. Tell you what, Alice, if you let the importer go and don't tell us about letting that car through, I don't think we'll mind"

Lady customs officer fills out the required paperwork, fills a couple of boxes with " N/A " tells me about US custom's answer, collects duty and taxes, and wishes me a safe journey home. I felt like I had just tickled a Great White under the chin and gotten away with it.

Left the border just shy of 1:00 and 40 minutes later, I was home. Passed out again, but in my bed, at 2:00.

Now, for the parts.

The tub has a little rust in the front, and a little light surface rust elsewhere. The bodywork has some dings from being neglected (prior to Jon's ownership). Not quite as good a tub as the one I got last year, but it's OK, very fixable, and the serial number starts with "914" ! Allright, please remember that this is an Eastern Canadian speaking. If you can't fit your fist through a rust hole, it's a pinhole, and if you need a sturdy screwdriver to punch a hole through anything rusty, it's surface rust.

The parts are incredible: Rebuilt calipers all around, including rear calipers, original /6 halfshafts and at least half a dozen NOS CV joints. All the switches, including the ignition switch, /6 steering column, sheet metal, new trim for everything, new rubber for everything, /6 inside trim, /6 suspension, gauges. Gazillion of parts replated, including all the headlight stuff, all the door components, all the latches. New carpeting etc . . . Plus a mountain of spares, including spare /6 things.

I was like a kid at Christmas this morning while unpacking the truck. I just need to store it correctly so it does'nt get damaged and I can find it when I need it.

I have some steel flares in the garage, plus a 2.2 E engine. The plan is to put the flares on but not make the car into a racing machine, just bigger wheels and the arches. Something like a /6 that just had the M-471 package. The only thing I might do is upgrade the engine to a short-stroke 2.5. We'll see.

Cheers, and thanks to Jon.

Michel

[mskala]

Cool story, and interesting that Jon is getting away from them.

One question; with a 26-foot truck I cannot imagine how you would
also need a trailer, unless there was no way to get the car and
parts up into the truck.