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Nothing like a new project. My partners (Mike Benson and Larry Markham) and I had been searching for months to find a car that had a solid foundation at the right price, and we've gone from California to Nebraska to look. Finally have found a great car right in our own backyard (almost). We didn't want to get into a car that needed a lot of metalwork, so that's a tall order right there. Looking at cars in primer or paint doesn't let you know what's underneath the primer. What we found was a car that had been a long-time project car that had 98% of the metalwork done, we just need to clean up the gaps a very small bit. If it was just a driver, the gaps would be great, but we want to go the extra mile here to make a really superlative car. Total basket case.
(The grey around the headlights and doors is lead)

The good news is the prior owner saved every nut and bolt, as well as the bits you need that you can't buy.
A huge plus for originality. The bad news is, everything needs to be restored. The very good news is the metalwork was done by a fellow who did a car in the Porsche Museum, and he really did nice work. Lots of new sheet metal; underneath, it's a new car with a bit of surface rust, largely from sitting fairly close to the ocean.

You have to start somewhere, so collecting all the bits that the prior owner had and moving them was the first order of the day. Sorting and getting like things together takes time.

Mechanically, we've started here:
Looks like we had guests:
But we know things are straight:
which is a good start.

Nice find, Jim!

Your find was in my back yard and based on the license plate, out of Skagit County. None the less, a great project and did it come with the hard top too?

Trust this will be a fun project and an interesting read as the project moves along.

The transmission assembly was really covered with gunk and sawdust.
The splines were a bit loose, so we'll have new ones installed. Likewise, one of the axles had runout that was a touch beyond factory spec, so that'll go as well, and we haven't checked the splines on the remaining axle yet.
The trans had updated R&P bolts, so someone had visited before, but we'll go through this as well. Nice to know it's got the original trans, though.
The seats were fun to take apart.
(feeling good that I haven't broken anything...not everything was happy coming apart)
So we're at the point where we have a box to go to the chrome plater, a box for the powder coater, and a box for the cad/black oxide plater. Nothing is ready to go yet, because getting some of the parts like door locks and ignition switches apart is delicate. Larry's expertise is encyclopedic.

Tomorrow the car heads to the walnut blaster to have the rust removed.
We keep finding interesting little details. Not only does the deck lid have the last three digits of the VIN, but there's another interesting mark as well, looks like "E" and something...

Dan Kalinski wrote:Nice find, Jim!

Your find was in my back yard and based on the license plate, out of Skagit County. None the less, a great project and did it come with the hard top too?

Trust this will be a fun project and an interesting read as the project moves along.

Actually, Dan, the car was originally a Washington car, but the PO moved south of LA a number of years ago. We did get the hard top as well, but the Kardex doesn't mention it at all, and Porsche says they don't think it came with one. We do have a soft top frame, though, so we'll likely go with that. Originally, the car was Ivory with a black interior, and the seats had grey corduroy inserts. So that's what we'll dress it up as.

team effort? no doubt that will help you work through your details. share your progress often and the trouble spots that hang you up, looks like a great start. thanks for posting

Progress continues. Brake backing plates turned out to be very nice under the gunk.
Larry's deft touch has turned the hood hinges from "needing a little help" to "works very nicely"...
More pieces for the "chrome box"...
And we ran into our first little snag. Since we know the PO bought this as a project, at some point a very long time ago a Turkey was involved. Instead of using the bronze Porsche bushings, he used the grey metal VW ones, which are close, but no cigar. The wear rate of the VW piece (or maybe lack of maintenance) has caused us to rethink using the C links that the spindle fits into. Thankfully, we've located a pair, and they've cleaned up nicely.
The biggest issue was that the slop in the assembly has caused excess wear (the one on the left).
It's really nice to have the factory tools. Makes things a whole lot easier.
Also nice when the spindles turn out to be straight, no surprises.

More Turkey: the bearing races look like they've been in a vise. Sigh... We'll replace them.
At the end of the day, things are shaping up nicely. We'll remove that little tube that the speedometer cable goes into to replace the o-ring.

I bid on that car. You got to work quickly.

Well, it was close, about 120 miles away, and we took a couple of trips to gather bits. Bear in mind it was almost completely apart to start with. After that it was just getting down to it methodically. More pictures tomorrow.

Fortune smiles occasionally; we caught the blaster in a lull; he got us right in.
Monday:

Today:
A pretty good starting point. Off to the painter for a quick coat of epoxy primer.

Great progress. Factory tools...... Very convenient!

This is a personal record for me for a project car, from drop-off at the blasters to in the trailer headed home, four days. I'm sure the rest of the job won't go like this, it just doesn't go this fast. Extremely lucky to find a gap at both shops at the same time.

It's not the Mona Lisa, but it's not intended to be; lots of little fiddling to make it right coming up.

You are making everyone in the East and Midwest who has done a project car very jealous. Good Bones!