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The barn find of a '64 911
#300170 has been resting in a barn from 1974 till 1993. No damage, no rust...
Hunting in the States
Since classic 911's were not so popular yet in the early nineties it was worthwile to go hunting for good or extraordinary specimen in the States. By now, you can forget about that, because all sources have dried up. Bob Hahn, the eminent specialist in classic Porsches, had just founded his restoration company in The Netherlands with my support. In 1992 and in 1993 he travelled to the States with the objective to buy good 356's and early 911's. During his second expedition in '93 he discovered a shapeless mass at the back of a workshop. One can cover a Porsche, but Bob will recognise the silhouet under 20 blankets. This was certainly a 911. 'What's that over there?'.'Well, that's another
Porsche, but it is not yet finished. Not for sale'.
If he could peep under the blanket, because didn't he make a long journey to get here? And yes, the blankets were removed. The shop owner told that the car was owned by a German who left it in 1976, after he had finished his holidays in California. And his dad had purchased it in 1976. For some vague reasons the car had been stripped and it has been standing in that corner ever since. The white body was dirty. The windows were removed and the interior was laying between the car and the wall. The rising ass indicated that the engine was not present. This was also disassembled, in crates behind the body. Together with the gearbox.
Very shabby and sloppy, but what about rust? Or damage? At first sight Bob Hahn could not see any sign of that. The green digits on the gauges indicated a '66, or maybe even a '65 911. With a cigarette lighter stand by Bob lifted the bonnet and he already licked his thumb to rub the VIN and read it.
Three-zero-zero-one-seven-zero. 300170!!! Astonishment and joy fighted to get out first, but now it was important not to show any excitement, no sir...
Porsche recorded the first 911 production like this
This was one of the very first 911's from 1964. Produced in the last quarter, when Porsche still called it 901, before Peugeot made their call. We inspected the engine lid and the script.
In the right bottom corner was no script, so that was also supposed to be in the crates.
But there were no pinholes either on the spot, where one would expect it. So this was one of the first cars that left the factory, without any script.
When we lifted the latch, we were facing a smooth latch panel without the familiar six profiles.
This proved two things: this was one of the very first specimen and it had never been hit from behind.
No frontal damage either. Actually no trace of any damage. This primary 911 had hit the road for no longer than 9 years!
Now, also the dashboard occurred to us. One piece, fixed with four buttons. We had only seen that one time before: on the pictures of the '64 911 in the 911 bible of dr. Brett Johnson: The restorers guide to authenticity.
Well, this looks like a nice project for the long winters in Holland, Bob carefully opened the negotiation.
For how many dollars were the gentleman willing to say goodbeye to these 'remains'? 'Fourteen grand', said the shop owner. But Bob is a native Dutchman, so he declined that indignantly. He had 'less than 10 grand or so' in mind. 'Okay, for 9.5
grand you can take the complete lock, stock and barrels. If you pay cash'. Never before we have arranged so much and so fast to haul the goods out of the shack before the seller would change his mind.
All small parts were immediately put in our car and everything too large or too heavy was stored in the 911 body. With bungies the doors were pulled to each other and the whole thing was winched on the flatbed.
How many non-welded 911's would still exist? We had one on our trailer, discovered by coincidence, in the back of a shabby workshop. We had kissed the sleeping beauty! For no more than 9.500 dollar I was the owner of this ultimate kit. That amount was substantially less than the 400.000 dollar (no, this is not a '0' error...) that Porsche collector Jerry Seinfeld would pay for the remains of a '64er 911 three years later.
In 1996 Seinfeld spent an outrageous 400.000 $ to the above remains with VIN 300049.
In an interview with 911 & Porsche World he called it "a less than pleasant
transaction".
The unspoilt number 300170 was purchased in 1993 for a louzy $9.500. A real bargain...
But that banger carried the VIN #300049 and according to the kardex it was delivered to the professor himself. Moreover serial number 300049 was officially recorded as the first Porsche that left the factory with the designation 'Typ 911'.
According to the kardex # 170 has been delivered in December 1964 by Porsche dealer Fleischhauer from Köln. The first owner was Jacob Nolden in Bonn (click the name for a full size picture). The cardex shows the following options: tinted glass, Blaupunkt radio, Hirschmann antenna and a Webasto gasoline heater. Yes indeed, the device that was responsible for so many burnt down cars.
It seemed a conspiracy against the new Porsche. At the back the Solex company was responsible for many carburator fires and in the front the Webasto company acted as a fire starter. Next to the fuel reservoir, always a hit!
The ignition system of this heaters failed quickly, so that common error fortunately restricted the killing effect of the system. 10 years after its delivery the car would find itself back in the US. The German owner obviously combined the useful with the fun. He financed his holidays in the US by selling his car on return, scoring valuable (at that time!) dollars.
Small set backs and great chances
Back in Holland it would last untill 1996 before the work on my car started. Very slow, but why hurry? It was not easy to assemble a car from unsorted parts. Sometimes we thought that they had been messing around with the parts, like the filler cap actuator. Under the dasboard was a bended aluminum rod, like a tent pin, that came through the door post where - ath the end - a simple clamp fixed a wire to pull the filler cap mechanism. But this primitive solution appeared to be original! It was the factory solution for an unexpected problem. With a gas stop, the door sometimes could not open far enough to give access to the knob in the door post. Fortunately we discovered this detail in time, on page 71 of the above mentioned Porsche bible. Otherwise we would have removed the junk.
Every year some steps were made, to begin with a proper paint job on the body, that did not need much attention further. Only smoothing out some superficial dents and some rust cure under the rear window. Missing parts were purchased from all over the world, in the pre-Ebay era. Or manufactured ourselves.
And there were the missing '64 door handles 'subtly different' from the later versions.
Also significant for the primary 911 are the right parking wipers.
The grille in the bonnet was composed of 15 separate strips, 6 studs, plenty spacers and nuts, 105 parts alltogether. Labour must have been free at that time. For us it was comfortable, because it made it easy to line out and polish the whole stuff, making it brandnew.
It was clear that the car had been on the road for only 10 years. But since the odometers from that period had 5 positions we could not be sure of the total of 79.000. How many times would it have passed zero? The condition of the car and its interior suggested that it was 179.000 kilometer, certainly not 279.000.
The drive train was completely rebuilt and where necessary chromed, galvanised or powder coated. Instead of the poor fitting ready made carpets we copied the pattern of the old carpeting on the right boucle, the type that was used in the 356 as well.
Fortunately, there was hardly car stero in the sixties and early seventies, so the door panels were not ruined by speaker holes. The vinyl chairs were still intact, but since the worn hound tooth cloth middle sections could not be replaced by original material (not available) we used red corduroy. 10 years later we were able to obtain a lot of hound tooth cloth and we have done it peoperly yet. The missing sun visors represented another problem. The ealiest visors that you see on Ebay sometimes are totally worn. Look at the report on the restoration of the correct '65 sun visors that I could score on Ebay click here.
Listen to the engine sound? click here
Click the thumbnails for
the full picture album.
At Porsche Motion 2008 at the TT racing track Assen, the car
was featuring in the 60 anniversary celebration of Porsche
In March 2008 the German precision model manufacturer CMC presented a
model of my car. The most detailed 1:18 model of a 911 ever, priced at 319 $.
CMC have made an awesome 3-D presentation of this model: Click here
For the list and pictures of all known '64 911's worldwide click here