This 30 year old gem came into our possession at the end of 2010 through a referral of one of local clients. This car belonged to a neighbor of his who used it on the weekends and shared it with his son. The reason for the visit to our shop with this SC was due to an oil puddle forming in the owners garage. This Porsche overall was clean for the age. It did show 30 years of road abuse after 70,000 miles. The car was a driver; everything was complete with the vehicle.
Once the car was up on the lift, it was evident that the last shop that had their hands on it had worked on the motor. It was leaking oil from all over due to improper sealing and negligence on the re-build. Also, one of the cylinder head studs was cracked due to over-tightening and stressing the stud until it broke, and everyone knows these studs cost as much as putting a down payment on a new car. The owner was notified and unfortunately was unable to perform any repairs at the moment. The car sat in our shop for about 3 months with a for sale sign. The offers came in, but were not in the area that we had hoped for. After 3 months, we ended up purchasing the vehicle from the customer.
Now with the vehicle in our hand, a decision had to be made whether or not to make it a clone of an old 911 race car for track use or to re-store this SC into its original factory condition and re-sell it. The option of restoring to originality was chosen and the process of rebuilding begun.
At first, all of the drive-train was removed including the suspension, steering assembly, brake and fuel lines, everything came out to leave the 911 tub bare. The body was then stripped down completely to the original factory primer. All of the bodywork on the vehicle was original, no accidents or repairs had been found once the body was stripped which was a great sign. No metal work or panel replacements were necessary so the body preparation did not take as long as anticipated. The original color, wine red metallic, was sprayed to match originality from the 1982 delivery.
The interior was in terrible shape; nothing was useful. The entire interior had to be stripped out and replaced. The seats were sent out to be re-upholstered to match the color and stitching, a new carpet set was replaced, door panels were re-upholstered and a new dashboard was put in place with the original brown leather.
The engine was rebuilt completely from the bottom up keeping the original matching numbers. All new seals, gaskets, piston rings, tensioner upgrades, valve job, main and rod bearings, hardware, the entire motor was built to be reliable and a daily driver. Once the engine was completed, we jumped on to the steering and suspension components. Every part on this vehicle was replaced with either a brand new Porsche part or refurbished to new quality. Bushings, links and hardware were all installed new to match the original ones that had been removed. All of the undercarriage parts that were originally black were stripped and powder coated black, and other components were stripped and plated to correct era specification.
Once everything was together and the body arrived back from the paint booth with its fresh coat of Win Rot Metalic paint, the re-assembly process began.
The vehicle was sold just weeks after completion to a happy new owner.
Take a stroll back in time to see our work. Click through the gallery below to see the finished project.
