As some of you may have read in my 944 thread, I recently bought a second transaxle Porsche!
It's got a cool story and I'm aiming to bring it back on the road.
The car started life as a 924 Le Mans - a special edition for the 1980 model year to celebrate Porsche's success in Le Mans.
This is what the car would have looked like when it was new:
The special edition means it was only available in white with a special Le Mans decal on the side, Turbo-look mesh wheels, a needle stripe interior with white piping, 4-spoke steering wheel, sway bars and some other details. There were about 1000 of these made, 263 of these came with a Targa roof.
The seller's father bought the car used 30 years ago for 1000DM (Deutsche Mark) and drove it for about 7 years. Then he suffered some health problems, the car was stored in a shed and largely forgotten. Fast forward to about 4 years ago - the seller (let's call him J) remembered the car and decided to restore it. He got it for the symbolic gesture of 1€ from his father. He started some work on it but soon discovered that he's not a mechanic and a full restoration was too big for him and so the car sat again.
Now the barn were J had the car stored currently is being sold and so J is about to lose his storage space and so he decided now it was time to get rid of the car.
He made a post on a Porsche group on Facebook - no pictures, basically just "Hi, I'm giving up. My project is too big for me. Contact me for details." and didn't receive any responses. A few days later he added some pictures and "It's a 924 Le Mans. Bad condition, needs restoration, whoever will restore it may come pick it up for 1€.". As soon as I saw that, I immediately contacted him - for 1€ it would be a good deal just for the parts alone, even if the car was complete garbage.
I went to have a look at it and... it turned out to be better than I expected. It needs a LOT of love to be sure, but it's not a complete wreck. The body is okay-ish, with a very bad repaint ages ago, but no really major rust spots. Some minor spots, but no holes. Engine turns over but currently does not run. Interior is garbage, seats have rips in them and seats and carpet are moldy, but I got a second set of decent carpets with the car.
All in all, it's a solid base.
I'm not entirely sure yet wether I'll be restoring it to factory condition or turning it into something custom. At this moment I'm leaning towards a mix of the two, but we'll see.
First order of business is to take stock of what I'm working with, which will likely happen during one of the next weekends.
Yesterday I transported the car home and it's now sitting in my garage next to my 944.
It's got a cool story and I'm aiming to bring it back on the road.
The car started life as a 924 Le Mans - a special edition for the 1980 model year to celebrate Porsche's success in Le Mans.
This is what the car would have looked like when it was new:
The special edition means it was only available in white with a special Le Mans decal on the side, Turbo-look mesh wheels, a needle stripe interior with white piping, 4-spoke steering wheel, sway bars and some other details. There were about 1000 of these made, 263 of these came with a Targa roof.
The seller's father bought the car used 30 years ago for 1000DM (Deutsche Mark) and drove it for about 7 years. Then he suffered some health problems, the car was stored in a shed and largely forgotten. Fast forward to about 4 years ago - the seller (let's call him J) remembered the car and decided to restore it. He got it for the symbolic gesture of 1€ from his father. He started some work on it but soon discovered that he's not a mechanic and a full restoration was too big for him and so the car sat again.
Now the barn were J had the car stored currently is being sold and so J is about to lose his storage space and so he decided now it was time to get rid of the car.
He made a post on a Porsche group on Facebook - no pictures, basically just "Hi, I'm giving up. My project is too big for me. Contact me for details." and didn't receive any responses. A few days later he added some pictures and "It's a 924 Le Mans. Bad condition, needs restoration, whoever will restore it may come pick it up for 1€.". As soon as I saw that, I immediately contacted him - for 1€ it would be a good deal just for the parts alone, even if the car was complete garbage.
I went to have a look at it and... it turned out to be better than I expected. It needs a LOT of love to be sure, but it's not a complete wreck. The body is okay-ish, with a very bad repaint ages ago, but no really major rust spots. Some minor spots, but no holes. Engine turns over but currently does not run. Interior is garbage, seats have rips in them and seats and carpet are moldy, but I got a second set of decent carpets with the car.
All in all, it's a solid base.
I'm not entirely sure yet wether I'll be restoring it to factory condition or turning it into something custom. At this moment I'm leaning towards a mix of the two, but we'll see.
First order of business is to take stock of what I'm working with, which will likely happen during one of the next weekends.
Yesterday I transported the car home and it's now sitting in my garage next to my 944.
