So after 19 years in storage and 4 years of a rebuilding project, my 1968 911L is finally back on the road after a 23-year break. Having read so many stories on this forum over the past 4 years of rediscovering these awesome cars and the thrill of getting them back on the road, I wanted to share the back story on my ‘68. So here it goes:
My uncle bought this US-delivered 1968 911L (VIN 11805200) from the original owner in 1972, taking phenomenal care of it while living in Northern California. Fortunately for me, my uncle was absolutely OCD in his care, maintenance, and record keeping of this car, which has paid significant dividends over the years. He literally kept every single receipt for everything he did with the car, from bulbs to tires to every service record. I remember my uncle cruising around in this awesome car when I was a kid, cementing him in my mind as the consummate “cool uncle” with his tangerine orange 911 and ginormous mustache. He loved this car, and he babied it for the 20 years that he owned it. Here are a few pics that I converted from slides that my uncle took from 1973:
Fast forward to 1992, and after 20 years of care and meticulous stewardship, he decided it was time for a change in ownership. As an awesome family gesture, my uncle offered me the opportunity to “buy” this car as a wedding present. I can’t remember the actual details of the transaction, but I DO know that I didn’t have the means to pay him what the car was worth (even in ‘92 when they we cheap ...). So as a 24-year old kid just out of undergrad, I found myself in possession of both a soon-to-be wife (who I had dated throughout college) and a Porsche, with a mortgage to soon follow...
So over a long Memorial Day weekend in 1992, my fiancée and I flew out to California for a wedding shower and to pick up the 911, which we nicknamed Chester (after Chester Cheeto given the same orange hue that they both share). After packing it to the gills with Crate & Barrel gifts (the standard 90’s wedding gift source) and smashing in out our luggage, we drove it out to Chicago on a blast of a 3-day road trip along Highway 80. Despite a few mechanical blips along the way (including a busted shift linkage outside of Salt Lake City), it was an awesome trip and a great way to get introduced to my first 911! Two years later, after my wife finished law school and while I was still in the middle of getting my MBA, an opportunity came up to move to Paris for a job opportunity. So in 1994 we sold what we could, rented out our newly-bought starter home, and put the Porsche in storage for what we THOUGHT would be an 2-3 year stint overseas.
Well, our planned 2-3 years in Paris turned out to be 13 years in both Paris and London, where we had twins boys born in Paris and our youngest son born in London. All the while, the Porsche patiently sat in storage back in Chicago. After 13 wonderful years overseas, we made our way back to Chicago in 2006 with the twin boys 9 and the youngest 4. With everything going on in those first very busy years back in the US, I never found the time to get the car out of storage, as life always seemed to have something more important to take my attention. 7 more years passed.
Fast forward again to 2013. As my Father’s Day present from my awesome wife, without telling me she tracked down the location of the car (it has been moved a few times over the past 19 years), had it pulled out of storage, and surprised me with pictures of the car and a card that said “Go Get Your Car Back”. So began a 4-year path to getting this magnificent little car and all its history back into our family and onto the road. Last Friday, I finally picked up Chester after what turned out to be effectively a 23-year separation. This car has always been special, not just because of the family heritage and the unique story behind it, but also because of the fact that this car rolled off the line in Zuffenhausen on February 13, 1968 - three days before my birthday. So both Chester and I are 1968 model years. Over the past 4 years, I have now completed pretty much a total mechanical restoration of this. As this is an all-original numbers-matching car, I wanted to stay true to the authenticity of the car while also updating it to make it drivable and enjoyable, so I’ve erred on the side of practicality and usability versus retaining everything original but sacrificing the ability to drive and enjoy it. For example, I pulled the smog pump off it, although I kept it if I every want to put it back on. I also elected to go with a set of PMO carbs as the original Webers have been painful to get working properly (again I’ve kept the Webers in case I ever want to go back to them). Over the past 4 years, I’ve completed the mechanical rebuild of this car including: a total engine rebuild, new PMO carbs, rebuilt gearbox, new clutch, restored suspension, new brakes, new exhaust, various gauges rebuilt by Hollywood Speedo, etc. All I have left now is some body work, but right now I just want to spend the next 6 months enjoying how well this car runs, how smoothly it shifts and how much is wants to go down the road.
I pinged my uncle this weekend to let him know that Chester is back on the road and I shot him a few pictures, letting him know I am enjoying and caring for this car with the same amount of pleasure and pride that I saw him do in his 20 year stewardship of this car. I also promised him that this car will always stay in our family, and I’ve been teaching my 3 sons to drive stick to make sure that they prepare to take the reigns at some point down the road. We’ve always been a car-nut family, with my Dad passing down the gear-head gene to both my brother and I. In fact, the 3 of us just spent the day last month at the new LA Porsche Experience Center, throughly nerding-out on all things Porsche between the tack time, the museum cars, and the simulator. Cars are a shared passion in my family, and they still bring us together. My goal is the make sure that I pass that on to my 3 sons as well.
So that’s the story on my own (self-imposed) barn find. After 19 years in storage and a 4-year rebuild, this car is found, fixed, and back in our life. I’ve been on this forum since I got Chester out of storage in 2013 and have read so many stories of how these cars are connected to people’s lives, but I wanted to wait until I finally completed my rebuild before I shared the back story on Chester 11805200. Many thanks to all of you who have shared your own stories and your immense wealth of know-how about these air cooled gems. This is a fantastic community with a deeply-held shared passion, and I consider myself privileged to be part of this community. That, and I’ll be looking forward to some suggestions for a good body shop in the Chicagoland area for some cosmetic work on Chester over the next few months. In the meantime, here are a few pics I took this weekend. With Chester running perfectly after all these years, I can’t wait to clean up the body work!
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