New to me: 1972 T

[Greg D.]

I'm nuts... Less than a month ago I bought a very nice 912 from a board member, and now this... Wasn't planning on it. But it was local and the odds that I'd overpay were slightly less than the odds I'd kick myself for the next 5 years for not buying it...





This is a 1972 T with 53000 (supposedly, but pretty believable) original miles.



If you think that NAPA filter has long to live, you are mistaken ;-)

The interior is very nice:



Everything appears to work, got the stock radio and all the manuals and delivery books you generally only see in Milou's garage collection ;-) (not pictured here, and no, not Wayne Dempsey's book ;-)



Complete toolkit minus the fan belt...



Now for the fun bit: The body is super clean but it looks like someone dropped it in a dryer with ball bearings ;-) A gazillion small dings and dents on almost every panel save for the roof. But small stuff, garage rot, barey noticeable on white paint but ALL OVER.. Hence a dilemma.. Call it patina (+/- 80% of the paint is original, the interior is bone stock down to the perfect door pockets, original if slightly drippy motor etc...), or redo the car ???

Right now I'm leaning towards redoing only the rubber seals (rear glass, motor mounts, an overdue engine service, all the bushings of the noodly 915) and leave it like that.

Questions:

- On an original 2.4T, would you go hydraulic tensioners or put fresh stoppers ? I think originality is what makes this car, so....
- The York compressor needs repair, I tend to deep-6 A/C in my cars anyway. Any value in keeping it ? That's aftermarket anyway, is it not ? Same with the A/C vents where the knee pad should be, any value in keeping that ?

There is a certain irony at work here, that 6 months ago I was desperate to find a decent car and now I've got 2 right at a time when my garage is being rebuilt, my wife about to give birth, and did I mention one window doesn't roll up and it was pouring rain when I drove home ? ;-) The things we do....

[FL-Frank]

Nice find Greg!

Is the paint original?

[blucille]

clay bar, compound, wax the paint, find a paintless dent guy for any dimples, and get good at touchups....maybe try dr color chip.....but leave the paint alone, even if it isn't perfect....and, hell....leave the A/C too.

[Greg D.]

Nice find Greg!
Is the paint original?

I'm no expert. Going by what little I know and what I was told, about 80% original is my guess. Minus some front end gravel respray and the licence plate panel... it's believable with a 50K mileage.

but leave the paint alone, even if it isn't perfect....and, hell....leave the A/C too.

You're not the first person to mention dent repair guys today, I'm definitely considering that now... with low expectations, but I may be surprised. The A/C really ??? It's dealer installed, not factory, it's broken, takes knee and engine bay room, and even if I fixed it it'd probably be semi-useless anyway. Really ? think its that big of a plus ?

[edmayo]

Nice buy! I'm with the others, let paintless dent do what they can and ignore the rest. You obviously know what a slippery slope a complete disassembly for a proper repaint would be. Remove the compressor and the knee guard, bag them up and put in storage. Someday when you pass that car on to the next guy he may want the a/c. Besides to remove it all properly requires a lot of welding. Re. the tensioners that car would have come with hydraulic tensioners. Now if you're referring to the later pressure fed (as opposed to captive oil that it has now) with their exposed oil lines then I'd say no. I rebuild my tensioners (captive oil type) with 60 wt. oil, use tensioner guards, and the latest style wide idler sprockets. That car's value is its ORIGINALITY!

[Tom F.]

I have an original paint 73, and I think that the original paint needs some special care. Buy yourself some Glasurit 22 line paint in the original light ivory, and some hardener. Learn how to mix them and touch up any chips. Pay a professional to repaint that rear latch panel, and any similar, easily isolated bad sections. Use P21S paint cleaner to clean the paint by hand. Try a drop of blue magic in with the P21S if you have really stubborn spots, but not too much because it will remove paint. Shouldn't need wax, but the 3M or P21S carnauba waxes work great.

I haven't had good luck with on line touch up paint services, though I admit that I only tried twice. The color match to my tangerine paint was poor. The Glasurit 22 matched perfectly, which is probably a sign that my 38-year old paint has not seen a lot of bright sunlight. Judging by your dashboard, I would say that your car has been kept in a shady spot, too.

Love the light ivory. My first two 911s, a 66 and a 72, were this color. As a result, I cannot see any other color as completely "correct" on a coupe.

P.S. I'm with Ed: take out the aftermarket A/C. It's not pretty, and wait till you see how they installed it!

[72S]

Keep the a/c. Love the floor mats, Dad had them in his 72S.

[Greg D.]

Well, some you win, some you lose, some you break even on...

I had a short window to buy this car, not just to beat other buyers, but mostly to do the deal before my wife gave birth and my free time disappeared... I bought the car based on the model year (72, I'm a sucker for that rear fender oil door, the 2.4 engine and the 915 - what can I say, the dogleg 901 drives me bonkers), the original mileage and superb interior condition, knowing full well the motor was leaking here and there and has deferred maintenance needs. The verdict is in:

I *definitely* did not rob those people ;-) If anything, I locked myself into owning this car pretty much forever, at this stage...

A quick estimate by my mechanic (who used to built Daytona 24H winning 993 engines for Dave White, he knows his stuff) is about $4200 minimum to redo what needs to be redone mechanically, to be safe... The engine is leaking pretty much from everywhere it could leak, name a "cover" (valve cover, which are mismatched, cam tower cover, timing chain cover, any other cover), an oil return tube, something about a piston jug leaking too at the case??.. It needs a major reseal and possibly - hopefully not - a few case studs too, which may have pulled. We will know more when they pull it out and clean it up...

Add piddly stuff like some rear axle boots, new chain tensioners, minor brake work, some newer fuel lines, tranny cover (leaking badly too) and seals, bushings/rubber hoses everywhere the car has rubber (from engine mounts to tranny coupler), it adds up pretty quick... I can't say I am shocked, that's almost to the penny "in line" with what I was thinking doing my own PPI ! Good news: I'm getting good at PPIs, bad news, I wish I'd been wrong in my favor ;-)

Without adding all the trivial body work to make it perfect (which I may not do, given the supposed largely original paint, warts and all), I'm definitely going to own a $30K 911T before this is over... Oh talking about shocks, the rear one are blown, completely, which explains the nose high attitude of the car ;-) We're putting new inserts....

Not complaining either, despite the whiny nature of the above list, it's still a solid 72 with 50K original miles that I will have $30K into with tax title and registration, and will wear its original paint at that point. What gets me a little is that I could have bought almost the same car for $18000 5 years ago and stupidly passed on it, mine is probably more original though, no zeibart holes in the longitudinals ;-)

Question: My plan it to start on the little dents with the dent wizard guys, and do minor touch ups... Not sure I can find someone who can minimize the repaint surface, and do spot touch ups and blend them in on aged white paint... Doable ? Worth doing ? At this point I either plonk another 10K and it's mint, or as most of my friends recommend, leave it the hell alone because "it's only original once", and drive it warts and all, as is.... I'm gonna have to double check the claim of mostly original paint, are those $50 magnetic paint thickness gauges any good or should I find a pro with the digital readers ?

Either way, in 5 years or so, the market will catch up with me ;-)

[Macroni]

This is a great find and given the prices of low mileage Ts lately I doubt you over paid. Cherish the originality!

[Greg D.]

The fun begins... if I can call it that (might spend more $$ than I anticipated).





More "bad" news: the heat exchangers and muffler are a little too rotten to keep, possibly. I guess the oil leaks did not protect the entire unit...
And the "54000 original miles engine" shows some goop at the engine case halves, so it looks like the case has been split before. So it's not a virgin. $%#$%
I believe the sellers, nice folks, it may have happened before their time...

Good news: The painter next door from my shop confirmed that the paint is largely original. and the non original bit (hood and front bumper) was done with the same kind of paint, so long ago as to be aged exactly as if it were original, and showing the same flaws ;-) He said the original paint on those can show fine cracks with age, I got that all over... Now, since I can't live with a couple of those dings, can anyone recommend a painter in FL (Tampa bay ?) that can match original aged paint and spot fix it ? Or is that a lost cause ?