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Buying a part restored 1972 911T

colintrippas

PCGB Member
Member
Hi
I am thinking about buying a 1972 2.4 E Series 911T.
It looks clean but I am apprehensive as it is a 50yr old car worth a lot of money.
Has anyone who has owed something similar got any advice especially:

  • Corrosion
  • Buying parts for them
  • Where are they price wise at the moment
  • What to avoid?
Would be great to hear from you
Thanks, Colin
 
Where to start here?
First off if you are contemplating buying an early Porsche then get it inspected by a marque specialist who knows these cars.
As for rust : outer sills, intermediate sills, jacking points, front suspension/ fuel tank support, lower part of inner wing adjacent to the A post, lower part of B post, kidney bowls, area around torsion tube at rear, floorpan especially the edges and around the pedal box, lower corners of front and rear screens, rear parcel shelf and rear seat pans, around the headlights, lower corner of front wings adjacent to the A post, door bottoms, plus other 'surprise' areas. In short lots of places. I have only detailed the typical ones.
Part restored could actually mean part bodged unless someone familiar with the cars has done the work.
A T will cost as much to restore as an S and is of lesser value.
Most replacement metalwork is available but beware like all Porsche parts is ridiculously expensive. Most suspension parts are available as are body seals and rubbers. Engine cylinder, pistons, con rods, valves, tappets, crank bearings, oil seals, gaskets,
etc are readily available as are exhaust systems. Interior trim, and carpets is readily available. LHD dashboards are available but cost around £900 and are of variable quality. Some parts are only available second hand so suggest you join DDK-online and early911sregistry.org which are the early Porsche communities in the UK and USA respectively. On DDK you will find build threads and can see what other owners have had to do to restore their cars.
There are well known specialist who work on early cars: Autofarm and Tuthill being just two. There are others of course.
Early cars once sorted are extremely reliable, relatively inexpensive to maintain and wonderful to drive.
I will not comment on prices as it is "how long is a piece of string" situation. Depends on the condition and completeness of the car, how much history it has etc.
Good luck.
 
Thanks for the quick and detailed reply - Very much appreciated
I especially like your comment "Part restored could actually mean part bodged" so will be looking at that carefully on a ramp
With the introduction of E10 fuel I wonder if we will see classic car prices stabilise or maybe even come down?
Cheers
 
"With the introduction of E10 fuel I wonder if we will see classic car prices stabilise or maybe even come down?"

I suspect its just going to create a new market place for components to resolve the problems and have zero impact on the price trends or just use super unleaded which is remaining E5 for at least 5 years which takes us closer to no ICE cars which I suspect will have a bigger impact on classic car prices.

thanks
 
Regarding E10, the UK classic market needs to get their heads out of the sand and realise that this fuel screws up our cars! I have lived both in the US and the UK. At least in the US you can buy E0 at a few selected stations. Here in Scotland it will not be available. So, run on E10 ... use an additive, but make sure you store the car on E0. Trust me.

I will not go into rust details as they have discussed above. Just a little from my experience of owning three airheads. The first a modded and fun 914-6, then an epic 930 also modded and now my sweet '71T. A clutch is an engine out service! Gears for gearboxes are ~~£700 per gear! LSDs cost! A proper quality stock engine rebuild on a mag case car £20K plus. If you want more ... nearly everything in a Porsche engine costs big money! It is not hard to spend £50k on an engine / transmission. I actually have more than that in mine! The purchase price of the car is only the start; however once sorted to your "standard" they just drive and drive. And, in my opinion the '72 is THE one to get. BTW, if you can get one with its original MFI motor running sweet that is the one I would get. Colours can be important. I bought my '71 as it was originally Signal Yellow and wanted to return it to original. However after a few classic rallies I wanted more suspension and more motor! Now its just a hot rod, built to my spec.

Values, ... I actually think "real" longhoods (69-73) are under valued. So many are cutting up later cars and backdating them. Even a Singer as great as they are ... are backdates. Get a '72 and its the real thing. Just don't add coil overs etc and muck it up!
 
Hi Colin, where are you located in the country? if you are anywhere near North Buckinghamshire you could have a look at my car which is a very high mileage 1973 911S 2.4 MFI car
Have a look at Hagerty Insurance website they have a valuation guide for all sorts of cars.
Rust is a problem which often gets overlooked as it is hidden beneath the stone chip coating, as said before get an expert to look at it before you buy, if possible.
The current debate about 10% ethanol fuels is interesting, I have driven many 1000's of miles in France using their 85E10 fuel which is 95 octane, my car is standard compression of 8.5:1 and will run happily on 90 octane fuel so the 85E10 works fine. I did have a problem over ten years ago in France and on return did change all of the original braided rubber flexible hoses for the latest spec material and have not had any problems since. I have a tank of 10% now and the mechanical fuel injection system doesn't seem to even know what it is dealing with it just starts and runs as normal, so far this year nearly 900 miles done.
Good luck with your car.
 
1972 is a particularly sweet year because the oil filler cap on the bodywork has a story to tell. The 2.4 gives you a bit extra power and you can add E cams to get a really nice engine.
 
All really useful and interesting comments around buying an early - and in my case ‘72MY - 911.

Still need eyes wide open regarding cost of these things but it seems that unless you buy a just-completed bare metal / nut & bolt restoration by an acknowledged and highly-regarded air-cooled specialist (e.g. Tuthill, Autofarm, Greatworth, Canford, SCS etc), you could be buying a load of trouble from a shiny dealer under the skin of what appears to be a very nice car without a pre-purchase inspection. So hence why I decided to buy a sound project car needing full restoration rather than one done some years ago with unknown / incomplete history.


I suppose for me the non-matching numbers of my ‘72T is a bit of a negative, as is the originally-specced 4-speed gearbox. I was actually very close to buying a 1st paint, totally sorted but unrestored garage queen Bahia Red / black leatherette 2.2T imported recently from Florida. It had every single service invoice from new, Florida tax slips, wagenpass & owner‘s manual in original burgundy wallet, keys & keyfob, original sales invoice etc etc. You name it, it was there. However, unfortunately it also had a 4-speed 901 ‘box and I felt I couldn’t live with that with and didn’t buy it for that reason.

Interesting comment from Kirk about a T costing as much to restore as an S. Unfortunately it seems matching numbers ‘72S Coupes needing full restoration are extremely rare beasts - as much as I’d like to find one one day!




 
Is your the one that recently sold on eBay? If so, I thought it looked a good, solid car.

An S needing restoration is indeed rare, and the free market being what it is, you would pay a premium equal to the uplift in value anyway.
 
If you saw a burgundy car for $39,950, then yes, that was the one, although I got it for a bit less. The seller, Beverly Hills Car Club, had another burgundy 2.4T for sale which they said was matching numbers, for $41,950 I think, but in far worse condition.
 

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