For the past 3 years, I have been restoring this 1966 Porsche. It is now running and it is a kick to drive. Thought you all would like to know.
I have perused this forum semi-regularly since I've had the car and I have learned a lot of very useful information, but I have not posted much except to ask a few questions -- just didn't want to get into the "blogging" routine, and besides, restoration occurred mostly in spurts.
History: I acquired it from a friend who found and bought it here in Santa Fe, NM. He decided not to tackle it (his current project is a Lotus 23) and he sold it to me for his costs. It is a numbers-matching car (the engine, trans, and body numbers have been sent to the person keeping the database of 911 numbers). This car has been in Santa Fe since new and has had only 2 previous owners (according to registration records with the car; not counting my friend who only had it for a few months), but was stored outside for the past several decades. Mileage indicated is low (55K) but lots of surface rust and mice living throughout -- including in the headliner and sun visor.
It was running when I got it, barely, and I drove it home with the engine overheating badly. I drove it straight into the garage and immediately started disassembly. The top piston rings were broken on all cylinders and water had been sitting in the bottom of cylinder 6.
Here is the engine during disassembly. After removing alternator, note large mouse nest on top of oil cooler, completely blocking air flow over the cooler and cylinders 5 and 6. I spend hours afterwards with a piece of wire, flicking mouse turds out of the oil cooler fins.
After:
Since this picture of the engine, I have turned the fan shroud band around so the bolts are on the right, and I sent the fan blade to Mark Motshagen for cleaning, coating, balancing, and proper silver plating on the pulley.
I hired a guy who did soda blasting to come to the house and remove all the paint. No major collision damage was evident, no major bondo, and the factory leading was still there. Floors were good, but rust was mostly along the left side just inboard of the pinch weld. Outer rockers had been replaced during previous work. I also replaced the front suspension pan and patched in other metal on the bottom of the frame rails and bottom corner of the rear window.
I have restored it to original specifications, but mainly to be a very nice driver, not necessarily a concours winner (e.g., non-original wheels but optional for following year). I had the original cylinders bored one mm and put in custom J&E pistons with stock compression. It is painted the original Light Ivory. It has an added MSD ignition unit, though I was initially running conventional coil with points.
Seats with added houndstooth inserts were restored by Tony at Autobahn Interiors in San Diego, who also supplied the replacement carpet and vinyl I used on interior parts and dash.
Rear seat delete unit came from Eric Linden in Seattle.
I plan to restore the Webasto heater unit. Need to acquire the exhaust pipe pieces, though the car came with an original replacement muffler with the original Porsche part number sticker still on it!
The car will be in the upcoming Santa Fe Concorso (santafeconcorso.com), representing the 50th anniversary of the 911.
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. I feel like I am looking at my pictures when I see your car. Our 356 group will be in Santa Fe Oct 9th - 13th there will be a lot of very nice 356's you should come by and show off your great Car. I would really love to see it up close. PM me if you want more info.