Well, we completed the deal today on the one-owner-since-1969 911S Targa and I drove up to Dallas to pick 'er up. The seller and I finalized the deal on Monday, and Ed Mayo went through the car for a PPI, then reset the ignition, and cleaned out the fuel tank for a first round to see if the car would start after about a year of slumber. It did.
So I bolted out of the house this morning at 5a and drove from Houston to Dallas with a trailer. At 9a, I met the seller (for the first time), Ed Mayo (for the first time), and saw the car (for the first time). Yes, I had paid for the car before even seeing it; Ed and Mike had highly recommend that I buy this one - once I went over the car, I understood why. Very original. Very. All documents since 1969 including the books (and service stamps), the service records, original Bill of Sale. Original and complete tool kit (even with a Porsche-branded belt!). All original inside. My kind of car - I love the original, untouched but well-treated cars. The second-owner is always the bonehead who screws up a good car (not in my case, however), so it's always way cool to come across a one-owner car that was clearly loved, yet driven and service regularly. It's been a garaged Texas car from Day One, so it's remarkably 96% rust-free; a huge perk to me because my intention is to leave it incredibly original as a great-driving survivor car.
Sidenote: Seller had two buyers contact him over the weekend from out of the blue. Seller is a wonderful stand-up guy; he had a deal with me first and he was going to honor the deal. Odd how people just come out of the woodwork, no?
We went over the car for about an hour - Ed was very kind to answer questions that I had and the seller was very kind to show me the car's foibles. We drove the car to a nearby bank so we could get the original 1969 title notarized, then I loaded the car up on the trailer and brought it home to Houston. She ran a bit rough, smoked a bit, but overall ran quite well - especially the more I drove it. Always a good sign. Here we go loaded up:
When I got the car to a hanger at a private airport in Houston, I drove it around a bit more and the smoking subsided quite a bit more once a lot of the oil was able to burn away. It still smokes out the tailpipe quite a bit, but I'm hoping that will get minimized with more usage. I think the fuel tank sock is plugged up again because it's getting fuel-starved at higher rpms. I have a busy weekend with my two young boys, but I'd love to get over there Sunday morning and clean that tank out again. I've got a long list in my brain of 'to do' items, but all of them are very minor since the car is soooo good. I've never owned a Porsche, but I love the feel of this car. I've always loved classic cars, so I feel right at home in it. I can't wait to get 'er running well so I can get out there and open it up and have some fun. Here's some pics. I'm glad to be able to hang out on this site; I know that y'all's help will be huge to helping me learn more about Porsches and about this particular car. It's a great machine, and I'm very proud to own it. It won't be parked very often, nor for very long. Oh, yeah, I need to get a Porsche Certificate of Birth - I'm curious to see what's on it.
Here's some pre-cleaning photos. The car still has a lot of dust on it; will detail it as soon as I can get to it: