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Once in a Lifetime Find! 300061 a certified 901 sees the light of day (again)!
This quest started in 2006 and about three weeks ago it finally paid off. My very good Porsche friend, with whom I spend countless hours pursuing our Porsche passion, had a secret wish to find a 1964 911. To make it tougher, not just any 1964 but a true 901. One of the eighty-two produced, since to him 901 has that "ur" touch to it . Then, on a sunny California day, there are so many here, he is contacted by a local dealer/car finder regarding an early Porsche that this guy has located in Missouri and might buy. Long story short .. a ‘64, possibly a 901! My friend comes over that same night and he and I go over the pictures, check our sources (a big thank you to Bob Fleming!), and decide to form a partnership to buy the car and then we wait…. and wait. Then finally it sits safe and secure in my garage on Tuesday November 18, 2013. Almost exactly forty-nine years since the day it was completed, November 2, 1964.
We are, essentially, the fourth owners. This early Porsche, like many others, was brought to the U.S. by a serviceman returning from Germany. The car is largely complete, authentic and with matching numbers engine, 900171 per Build Book and Kardex.
300061 needs a total restoration and our plans are to begin on this soon. Please enjoy these photos. Note: the "thin photo," above the engine case photo, is extracted from the handwritten Factory Build Book which is the ONLY record which tells us if we have a 901 or 911. Thanks again to Bob Fleming and the 232 Registry for much valuable information.
There were twenty known 901s out of total of eighty-two produced. Now there are twenty-one! We’ll keep you posted with more photos and updates.
Thanks.
-Allen-
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Luggage compartment sees the light of day without broom or other support !
Interested in little detail folks,
Anyone who has ever replaced the hood suport shock on the driver's side of a 911 knows what a F$%^ ! pain this can be. Now IMAGINE that it is not the little "L" shaped spring pin we all know and hate but a tiny circle clip ! Yep, that's what I found there and on the rear deck lid too (see pics) Makes me think these two (out of three) gas-charged support shocks had never been replaced. BTW, did I mention 3000061 was last on the road in 1976? Here are a couple pics. Original support "shocks"? please respond. I suppose a good mechanic would put back the little cicle clips but on the drivers side, that would take real desire! I checked my original Picture Parts Book and "L" shaped spring pins are shown. So, circle clips must have been VERY early. Thanks.
-Allen-
PS Was it a "waste" to put these on to a car that needs a total restoration? Me thinks no, I mean don't YOU hate PVC, broom, or other jury-rigged supports? Did you EVER buy an old 911 or 901 that didn't need these?
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Help with proper Pepita, Houndstooth
Interior Gurus,
Below you will see an abstract from the Kardex for 300061's interior: "K-Led. rehbr. pep." K-led is kunstleder which is German for artificial leather e.g. leatherette; rehbr is rehbraun which translates to fawn (color) and pep is Pepita or Hounds-tooth (seat inserts). So our car had a fawn leatherette interior with hounds-tooth inserts for the seats. We are trying to figure out what Pepita 901 061 came with. Also below are three standard Peptitas which were available for late 356s and early 911s. Also shown is our interior which, where we think, the hounds-tooth inserts wore out and was replaced with black leatherette inserts. We'd guess that the lighter tan/fawn hounds-tooth or the darker brown hounds-tooth was original on our car. Any help would be welcome.
There are actually two pepitas with brown/tan; a light and a dark (I've included those in the pics) IF someone could provide ACTUAL photos of the fabric on seats and/or of swatches (from the color paint book) it would be much appreciated. Thanks !
-Allen-
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901 passenger footwell floorboard retainer
901ers,
300061 is tucked away in the corner of the garage and we were not able to access it this weekend; we will get to it and post more photos. However, here is a close up of the retaining plate. If you look closely you can see what look like four rivets or screwheads. The plate is mounted over the horsehair/tar mat. Highly likely this is a factory 901 or early 911 detail. Meanwhile, can members with 1964 or early 1965 production cars please check and report your arrangement for retaining the passenger footwell floor board. Thanks !
-Allen-
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Help: First owner 901 300061 Dr. Fritz Waldschmidt DDS Wetzler, Germany
901ers,
We don't know how our 901, 300061 got to the U.S. The first owner was Dr. Fritz Waldschmidt DDS, Berg Strasse 3, Wetzlar, Germany.
He puchased the car from dealer Glöckler on Nov. 27, 1964. A fellow German list member, as well as ourselves has done some in country research. Dr. Waldschmidt is deceased and had no children and we have come up with no friends or family.
If you have any information on the history of 300061, or Dr. Waldschmidt in relation to the 901, please let us know.
Vielen Dank !
-Allen-
PS As you can see we even went to Wetzler but "no joy."
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Hood from 300061 with stamping
901 ers,
How can it be that it is almost a year since we've posted an update?! Well 1. our expert, artist, "metal guy" (actually he should have a PhD in Porsche restoration although, in fact, he is a college educated artist) moved his shop. And 2., frankly, more importantly "we' were also delayed in that we wanted to get the floor pan (Webasto exhaust ports and tow-hook assembly structure EXACTLY right and with few original examples existing this proved challenging). However due to fantastic help and fabrication of these parts by a highly recognized restorer of 901s, early 911s and more!, we now have, or almost have, what we need to complete the metal work. His name and shop will be mentioned soon. We would at this time, though, like to recognize Bob Fleming, Bobs 67S http://www.early911sregistry.org/for...hp?39-Bobs-67S) who continues to be of great assistance and, in fact, kindly dropped by to visit me on his way to Rennsport Reunion last month. Along with a shot of Bob in his 996, here is the hood from 300061 with the original ink stamp from the metal manufacturer stamped, as you can see, in 1964. How cool is that ! Thanks.
-Allen-
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Four and on-half years later: 901 300061 Update
All interested list members,
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Four and one-half years have passed since dropping off 061 at the metal guy and earlier this week the day came that 061 was picked up and delivered at the next stop, the painter. The reason it took so long is that the metal guy is an acknowledged artist who likes all sorts of metal challenges and didn't continuously work on the car. When we met him first in 2003 he was still at a school for art with a special interest in moving metal structures. In his spare time he did some restoration work for a mutual 356 friend and at that first visit we saw a fearless young blood reskinning a Pre-A a Speedster from technical drawings stuck to the car and wall (mind you this Speedster turned out so good that it was later sold by Elevenparts). During the time 061 was in his shop he also completely reskinned 356s and built a pre war car on a tube from drawings; he likes coach building the best.
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Restoring the body to October '64 specs turned out to be more of a challenge than expected. We have not seen even one early car that was showing all the details well and that paved the way for us. No blueprint book available and during the 901 and 64 911 production details changed within a few numbers and therefore quite some time was spent on visits, emails, picture research, etc in order to compare what he had to what other cars showed or experts could tell or confirm. Fortunately 061 was parked in '76 and basically just the bottom 4" was rusted severely but enough was left to spot details and confirm what we saw or measured on other cars. That didn't mean just that 4" was removed ..
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We are convinced that we got the body details correct although details like 'is a piece of metal to sharp edged, is a length of a weld too short, etc.' remain (a source for discussion among true and " internet" experts). Not really the things we think the factory had a standard for and which could even differ between two cars manufactured at the same day or between batches supplied by different manufacturers. We can't mention all those who helped but we want to recognize: Dave Dimaria, Bob Fleming and Franz Raab. We don't need to introduce these guys but without them we could not have done this part so well. Thank you guys! Also special thanks to Henk Baars of Carparc for donating a tall grill as a return favor.
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The next step will be the paint shop. The guy who we gave this job to happens to be a former "colleague" of our metal guy so we are pretty loyal to old friends. He informed us to count on 12-18 months before we can pick it up, but also here we have to do our homework and supply him with details in order to move on. After that we count on another 18 months for assembly, but that is just a guess. Bottom line we aim in the fall of 2023 the car to be finished, 10 years after we found it.
BTW we are in search of one final '64 part, the monkey motion to open the gas door. Contact us if you have one or parts of it.
We wanted to show a photo of the "monkey motion" here but we've reached our image limit. Thanks !
-Allen-
