FS: '68 Sportomatic SWB

[Cal]

A friend of mine posed this question to me earlier.....

'My question is, could you ever be whole at that starting price?'

My response was:

A sportomatic SWB 911 is a rare car……how many are left? Judging by the rust that you can see in the photos I'm sure it's also deep down as well. I don’t see how you could make much of a profit given the asking price unless you were able to do a lot of the work yourself. A nut/bolt restoration by a reputable shop would take a year or two and would most likely exceed $100K plus the asking price of the car……is this worth $125K finished?

If the restoration is done correctly it's probably worth it to a collector who knows how rare this car is.

What do you guys think????

The asking price is $16K

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifie...php?id=1373511

[Jules Dielen]

The resemblance to the original paint 68 L I found here in Phoenix is astounding. Also o.g. paint, hidious sand beige on black. Mine just had a 5 speed and it came sans the corrosion part ! I think it will go quick at 16k. 911L LA.jpg

[raspy2point2]

I think it is a little over priced. I bought a Euro 911L with sunroof, 5.5 Fuchs and a rare color of Ossi blue. It is also a Sportomatic . Now the 911L has the 911S brakes and 911S interior trim and mine has a Driver side sport seat from the factory order. Original Calif Black plates. It also does not have the burden of smog pump and last minute looking side lights and vacuum advance dizzy. I paid 15K a year ago. I do have some rust work but not as bad as this car. So I think this car should be somewhat less than 16K. By how much? The market will decide. Chris

[Frank Beck]

"Rare" in this case does not necessarily equate to valuable. Although 100k is an accurate number to restore, there are still too many cars available out there to bring this one back. And if someone did, there's still the dilemma of the Sporto.
Having said that, where do you find a SWB anything in the 15k neighborhood these days? The extent of the rust is the issue here for sure.

[juche_namja]

That 911L has been on SAMBA and the bird for long time with no takers at 15K firm.

[Jules Dielen]

The rare part here is that that goofy sporto is still in the car I would bet a cold one that the owner stopped driving it because something in the tranny went 'ka-clunk'.

Put a 5 speed in it, whoever decides to take the plunge. It won't be a cheap plunge, so might as well cough up 3k for a 901 trans and some peripheries.

Frank is right tho, 15k does not buy a lot of SWB anymore - well not with 6 cylinders anyway.

[T308]

It would have some appeal if so much of that original paint wasn't ventilated. $10k would be a more realistic selling price in my mind.

[raspy2point2]

This is where we are at these days with the SWB cars. You can no longer find a nice survivor 911 with original paint and fair mileage on the clock and little rust. LWB cars are a plenty still.For some reason the SWB cars are much more rusty and have many engine changes. One thing I have noticed is the bottoms of the 911's have less rust protection. It has fallen off. The asphalt form of rust protection is not as good as the LWB cars. So now when you find a 5 to 10K car, it looks like it has been sitting on the bottom of the ocean for 30 years. Most of these nice cars have been picked up that have been sitting around and we have car hunters looking daily for these cars in addition to us that are in the market. Someone who finds a nice survivor 911, not even a 911S, wants 60 to 90K depending on the market. So us that wants to spend 10 to 15K has to put up with a Sporto or a converted car to a impact bumper style, or car with flairs or other major body changes like a clipped front end etc. Chris

[Squerback]

Hi to everyone.
I recently bought this car and car will go to Poland.
I was looking for original car "restoration project"
Sporto was not my goal but is aditional value for me.
I'm more knowlegable about 356 cars and have 356 B T5
I was trying to decode VIN number 11830385 and diferent sources decode it as S engine or normal.
What is the true? Can help anyone?

[Badhabits]

My source say: this is a normal 911 Coupe Body from 1968.
What engine-number?

Greets

R. Niklaus, Switzerland