1969 911S restoration

[endo911rs]

I debated on starting a thread on this car...mostly due to time constraints but I also knew I was throwing originality out the window and I didn't care to hear opinions about that. However, the last couple years have taken this car through some extensive repairs and some very rewarding results so I feel it warrants posting. I always appreciate the info I read on the forums and I know others have been wanting to read about project updates...so here goes!

I bought the car locally in early 2013. It had led an "interesting" life. Somewhere along the line, I think it probably mated with a stolen mid eighties turbo. This car had an extensive 930 update done to it, and all the donor parts were obviously off the same car so it was suspicious to say the least. Anyway, it all had to come off and the prior metal work done in the updating process was done poorly, which led to several areas of rust. Installing a sunroof roof clip with no provisions for drains, certainly didn't help...

[endo911rs]

Sadly the original motor and transmission were long gone so that is my first "get out of jail card" when it comes to deviating from originality. The motor that came with the car was a turbo 2.7. It ran but needed a lot of sorting with the fuel delivery so I removed and sold most of it. I kept the 2.7 core motor since it had fantastic leak down numbers and you never know when another project finds its way home!

[endo911rs]

Previous owners.....sometimes, it just makes you wonder what kind of recreational drugs they were consuming when doing DIY projects on their 69S

[endo911rs]

Step 1...remove all the turbo body work and sell it.

Step 2...remove the Frankenstein motor/transmission and sell most of that also.

Step 3...cut away all the horrible welding on the chassis and start chasing rust. Cut, cut, cut....

[endo911rs]

Starting to get ugly... The access would be nice for engine access!

[endo911rs]

And more cutting... Remember the car had a sunroof clip poorly installed on the pillars so I had no choice but to remove the whole thing. I fabricated some make shift bracing since there wasn't much of the car left at this point. My braving also had locator points for indexing the new roof clip.

[endo911rs]

Now off for media blasting and epoxy prime. Note that the floors were also removed but the replacement ones temporarily installed with sheet metals crews in these photos. On the dash, you can also see where they cut it up with tin snips to install all the updated dash components, AC vents, switches etc...

[endo911rs]

In the mean time, I had the opportunity to pick up a correct MFI 69S motor locally. It needed a full rebuild but more on that later.

[endo911rs]

Ironically, I had the opportunity to cut up a 69 912 that had the lower 8" of the car completely rusted away but the rest was actually really nice! So that gave me most of the roof and rear seat patch panels that I needed. Other panels were sourced from Restoration Design and a front clip that I modified from an '82 SC. RD now makes the front clip pieces but at the time, I had to do some creative fabricating!

[endo911rs]

I had never removed or installed floors before but there are A LOT of spot welds!!!! And I seriously question the ability to do these with the car right side up...no way! I also snuck in some seam welding around all the suspension pick up points and the perimeter of the chassis pinch welds. The chassis is noticeable stiffer when jacking on the pinch weld.