1965 911 VIN 3008XX Build Story

Hi -
I didn't know it was appropriate to tell a build story here until I was asked to share my Instagram posting by a member. The beginning is a bit long but then the pictures with shorter descriptions take over. So here goes.

It all started when a longtime friend of mine and I came back in touch. He had been the guy that told me in 1973 I had to check out a friends Porsche 356. Well, that friend took me for a ride on a very winding uphill and now 15+ Porsche's later I've had a wonderful Porsche life! My friend later in the 70's bought a 1966 912 that had been converted to a 2.0L 911. As some of us older folks know this was done quite a bit back in the day. Fast forward to 2012 and I found out my friend's Porsche had been side swiped by a delivery truck while parked in front of his house. So he parked the Porsche next to his house with a cover and left it there
for over twenty years. GRRRRRRRRRRRRR. So upon inspecting his Porsche it was in very sad sad sad shape. As expected the bottom was rusted to the point of large pieces of the floor where gone and major rust every where. The interior was moldy and soggy. YUCK. The cover had split above the engine grill so you can imagine what the engine looked like.

After my shock, and being the crazy Porschefile I am, I was obsesssed with what could be done to bring this sorry sad sack back to life. So I worked out a deal to pay to have the Porsche picked up by my mechanic and for he and me to inspect everything and see what could be done. The long and short of it was that the 912 body and interior was too far gone and not valuable enough to be restored. DAMN. The good news was that the 2.0L engine was all original with the Solex's!

My friend and I worked out a price for the mess and I figured (back then) it wouldn't be that hard to find a SWB 911 body for the engine/trans and restore it to a nice, fun 911. Then another crazy thought came to mind...........Wouldn't it be cool if I could find a 1965 body with a matching engine case? Never happen........
Then it did on Samba! The early 3008XX with matching engine case in California. But what a price. UGH.

So I flew out to see this miracle body and engine case and was greated by this 911 body called swiss cheese. OH Boy..........But the engine case did match the COA but the transaxle had a blank serial number. Wasn't sure on this but after some research it was possible the transaxle had been replaced from th factory at some point and the factory replacements had no seial number. OK. Another interesting note is that the restorer I bought Swiss Cheese had bought it from our friend and colleague Magnus Walker. But wow, the cost to restore Swiss Cheese was going to be big. Decided to take the plunge and worked out a deal for Swiss Cheese.

So here's what I was going to tackle. Stay Tuned..........

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Should be a great thread. Thanks for sharing!

gouda project..........

Will be tuned in !!!!

PART 2:

Now the big decision, who to do the body fabrication? Let’s ask Porsche friends. After many opinions, I discussed this with a friend Bob Bailey. Bob was one of the youngest drivers for the Porsche of America Racing Team and won the 1971 Daytona 24 Hour Race, 1st in Class. He raced 356’s and 911’s from 1963 to 1973. Bob also partnered with Mark Donohue to form the company RACEMARK that some of you may know. Bob had recently bought back his 1968 911L Porsche racecar that is one of only six that were made for the Porsche of America Racing Team (PART) in 1968. He then went on the epic journey of restoring it back to the original racing form. Bob told me there was only one man to rebuild his engine and transaxle, Martin Steger whom he had worked with in his racing days. He flatly said Martin was the guy for my all original 2.0L engine rebuild.
Martin graduated in 1968 as one of 12 apprentices under Dr Porsche in Stuttgart Zuffenhausen. During this time Martin worked on the 901 project and his first assignment at the Porsche factory, was building the first 25 917 engines to be homologated. Over many years he worked for several racing teams like Toad Hall racing with driver’s Bob Bailey and Mike Keyser. Over his career he has built many engines and transmissions for numerous other racing teams. Martin had retired several times but was called out of retirement to rebuild the engine and transmission for my 1965 Porsche 911 Vin# 300XXX.
I hope all this detail isn’t really boring you folks………..
So I contacted Martin and he agreed to do the work out of a shop in Mooresville North Carolina housing Metal Shaping by Ralph Brawley. He said I should consider Ralph and his shop for the fabrication. I did my research and discovered that this guy Ralph Brawley was one of the best. Ralph was in the middle of selling his business and retiring in the next year or so. With that, my decision was made on both fronts so a contract was formalized.
As a side note, Ralph did retire in 2015 and my 911 was one of the last cars he did. For any Panorama junctions Ralph’s career and retirement was featured in an 8 page article in issue 710 May 2016 with the cover photo of his 356 body buck on the cover. Another note, of major interest to me, is a picture of his shop with my '65 911 being worked on. Here’s the link if anyone is interested.
https://ww2.pca.org/panoreader/may-2016/#page=1

So off to the races...........

Am I name dropping too much? HUH?

The last picture is of the Yoder hammers Ralph had purchased that allowed him to fabricate any part! These previously were used in aircraft manufacturing.

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Nice to see masters at work, and their workplaces.

it would be fantastic to see the "pieces" as they are formed on the machine....

This is a great story ! Not boring at all
Please post more
Thanks

I've always thoughyt that would be neat. But they never provided that. Darn.

Now for the floor metal pieces decision. When I started this I was not going to cut any corners and do all I could for total originality. Nothing new to me. I always overdue everything. If that much of something is required I do double. hahaha. So decided to buy the complete floor from Porsche knowing there would have to be some modification to the one ordered to match the original flooring for this early 1965. Little did I know this decision would almost double the cost. But it is Porsche and it is correct!
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