Silver/Red 69S Restoration

[sehoel1]

First off thanks for a great site.

At it’s core an unbelievable resource on early 911s, with it the added bonus of popcorn moments as CDO (…often referred to as OCD but I prefer it alphabetical) meets laid back. I think the full spectrum is required for this site to work as well as it does.

I was lucky enough to buy, and keep, a couple of older 911s before the world went nuts on these magnificent machines. Though I’ve recently made up for some of that good fortune by purchasing the missing parts as NOS or close to it.

I’m decent at taking things apart, cleaning them up, and putting them back together. I loved to play with LEGO, which is my primary qualification. The real work is done by the pros.

I enjoy the picture threads, restoration or hot-rod or whatever. I’ll share some pictures first, and then move into some questions/observations thereafter.

This car left the factory in 69 as silver metallic/red leather (seats and the rest –ette) S coupe. It came to me neither silver nor red, but with only 46k miles and very dry and rust free in the body at large, suffering less from mother nature than from acid and the human touch. I don’t see myself ever cutting into a car for speakers, but then the 70s were awful good as far as music goes. Some of what was not in it came with it.

Cars are only original once, and I prefer to keep them that way if at all possible. This one had some fun through the years, and it was just as well to take it down to bare metal. I know a fair bit about how the cars left the factory in -69, and stayed pretty true to that but chose to deviate on a few points. Hopefully Hans and Franz would approve, else my kids can re-restore it down the line.

As it was presented to me in pics:

[sehoel1]

...as presented to me by ze mothership:

[sehoel1]

An early look at the details shows some signs of original red, and some signs of 70s, 80s, 90s, but all in all thankfully very lacking in the rust department.

[sehoel1]

...and some more:

[sehoel1]

the goopy tar-like floor gunk came out in one piece on both sides, but there were signs that moisture had been trapped underneath. I'm sure I can find some pics of the floor pans, which were good but not perfect by any means.

[sehoel1]

having dropped the engine and stripped the car down, the body went out to address the in in the big picture, relative to most 60's cars, fairly minor issues:

[LongRanger]

Seven posts in seven years --- five of 'em here, tonight . . . on this thread

Bashful, are we?

Well . . . welcome aboard


So --- what's The Story w/ the car? Where/when/why/etc . . .



. . . and why now?



And --- as always . . .




. . . more pics, please




Looking forward to mucho more



Reference . . .

VIN = 119300960
Eng# = 6391355
Trans# = 7195841

[sehoel1]

while the body was being taken care of, I had the engine freshened up a bit though not much was needed beyond cosmetics. no sign it had been apart. gathered up the red that was tucked underneath the black:

[sehoel1]

hey LongRanger,

more pics coming.

and yes, i should have done this much earlier. but hey, its coming now, with lots of visuals. suffice it to say that much has happened that means more than 911s over the last decade. but that didn't stop me from spotting a couple of good deals along the way. so i kept them in my own barn, and now i'm finding them

[sehoel1]

while i was tinkering, some more body work being done. keen eyes will note that the external temp gauge, which is correct and was installed in the US on delivery, was not in the original location. i've come to know the original owner, a true gentleman ex-pilot in his 80's, and i was considering leaving it where it was. but OCD prevailed, and I had them plug the hole so that I could either go factory, or reposition it where it should have been: