My idiot/sad story: a rare 1972 + 3/4 - long story
Late in October 04, I started looking for a long hood... I've had a 911SC, a couple 356s, a 993, I really needed to get back into an oldie. I thought I knew my 911s too... I passed on a local one that seemed too expensive, and found one in California instead - as far away from FL as could be - but I used to live in SFO and fancied a trip back and a better deal. $10500 on a rust-free 73.5 T sounded good, it was almost 1/2 price, but the nightmare began.
The owner said it had been PPI'ed the week before but the buyer backed out at the last minute so I called said garage and was told the car was super. mistake #1. I sent my brother in law to see the car just in case, and asked him to check the Vin(s) and he reported it was a great little car - Mistake #2. I bought the car long distance sight unseen because I could not fly there right away , mistake #3...
When I showed up in Cali to pick up my car from my brother in law's house, I found rust in the rear corner of the back window (not fixed to date), the car would not hold Idle, it changed lanes when you braked, no oil pressure to speak of, no temps either, no horn, 1/4 turn of free play in the steering, no suspension to speak of, etc... But it got worse. I passed by my ex-local mechanic in San Rafael for a quick tuneup so I could drive it to the shipper without stalling at every light or driving with the hand throttle permanently up. That turned into a $6000 bill for stripping the motor to remove a putrefied rat from all over the cooling fins, redo the entire CIS rubber, put in a new clutch, fix a variety of "while in there" issues and more or less fix the brakes - 80% labor... Right there with shipping I was back to the price of the one I should have bought at home !
After paying the bill and using some preparation H to alleviate the pain, I parked it outside in Berkely one night to find out the next morning someone had keyed the door !! The one night !!! Sweet ! Not catastrophic considering the paint was **** in the first place, but aggravating...
Looks sweet there, the wonders of digital pictures.... I went to Easy in Emeryville to grab some chromed bumper guards to remove the sagging 73 plastic ones, good thing, they were held by aggregated rust, not bolts !
Took the car to the shipper and picked it up in sunny FL a month or so later...
The fun continued ! Upon arriving at the DMV and getting it inspected, it dawned on me the California title was off by one digit, a 2 became a 7, and all of a sudden I could not title the car ! Call me silly but I had asked my bro'in law to check and it was close enough that it did not jump at me until then ! Bureaucratic nightmare ensued - car in FL, title from CA ? Owww... That meant PAYING TAX in CA to get them to reissue my title (though I am not a resident of CA), outside companies to help straighten this out, a cop showing up at my house in FL to eyeball the VIN, which is about when surprise #5 showed up... I thought the VIN plate on the nose looked "reinstalled" so I went looking for the absent secret VIN #. No dice... Hmmm.... Got my grinder out and removed the bondo over the VIN and found a third number !!!
So far, one VIN on my useless title, 2 similar vins on the car but not matching the title #s, and the secret # matching yet another car !!! Whooheeey, I got me a chop job !! Another trip to the DMV to check on the legitimacy of the numbers- all clean - the car was made from 2 "honestly" disposed of vehicles.
Quick trip on the lift and on the web for VIN decoders ensued and indeed, what I got was the nose of a 72 S and the ass of a 73.5 T, welded in a jigsaw pattern right about where your calves would be if you were driving it... Hence its rare 72.75 designation ((1972+1973.5)/ 2) Much joy ensued, and quite frankly I would have thrown it away at that point and resold the parts if I had not $18000K in it already with repairs and shipping + DMV issues. I thought about getting a shell and transplanting, but that would have sunk me even deeper !
It was almost a year before I got to drive it again and all the issues were straightened with the DMVs, plural. At that point we took it to a celette bench for the final blow, and tried to figure out if it was worth even saving. My gut said no, but I've seen 356s rebuilt around a VIN number plate, so why not check this car out... Turns out it wasn't a bad welding job. One inner panel was rewelded on the spot by the bench guys to restore strenght and they proclaimed it straight after a slight pull on the front suspension points - shessh, the doors still close with a thud, one may be a bit stiffer to open but I think it's the lock catch, not the fit... Right then she blew her airbox as the pop off valve was glued wrong, and started pissing oil from its 72 tank which is not a great fit for a 73.5 CIS car by the way! !!! So we did that, replaced the steering rack, put new tires, redid the brakes thoroughly, and I now own the most expensive "unselleable and worthless" T on earth. And it's not over as I got 4 konis on the way ;-)
I did fix other niggles, new oil temps and pressure senders restored readings, new ebay dash gauges where needed, an oil change to pennzoil 20w50 brought back the oil pressures to normal, and it's quite a hoot to drive (even without a suspension to speak of).
Of course this week it started leaking Swepco 201 at the nose of the tranny, the effing shift rod seal it toast... It'll never end !!! But for the first time, I've got a Porsche that is both fun to drive and which I can park anywhere without a care in the world !And A/C works too !
The moral of this "sob" story are pretty obvious... Get your own PPI, not someone else's, do not trust your blind brother in law, buy close to home, triple check the Vin !! And don't buy my car ;-)
Jokes aside, the body guy pronounced it pretty damn strong and straight. Woould you trust such a car if it were yours ? It feels pretty good now, and it's mine forever apparently, unless I can find an SC shell and backdate it with the good bits !!
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Originally Posted by jaudette3
