As you may know, we recently acquired a garage find, classic Porsche 912. We’ve been doing some research and putting some elbow grease into the car in order to get it back on the road. We replaced or rebuilt lots of components throughout the car, including the fuel system, carbs, bearings, suspension bits, oil lines, etc. to get the car mechanically sound again. We also reinstalled the original mirrors, fixed and reinstalled the original steering wheel, fixed a broken passenger door latch, removed the broken aftermarket radio antenna, and restored/rechromed the steel wheels. We also took the opportunity to change the wheel widths from 4.5″ to 5.5″ width by replacing the wheels outer barrels as well as upsizing to 185/65/15 tires on the car (the previous tires were 165/SR/15 tires). All these efforts paid off, and the 912 is back on the road!
In other news, Garage Woolery has acquired a new lift! The newly installed two-post lift did wonders in allowing for quick access to the 912′s suspension. We’re taking full advantage of this lift now. It’ll allow for more work to be done on all of our cars in shorter time.
After about a couple months of work, here’s some pictures of the Porsche, in considerably better, more presentable shape!
The Porsche 912 before:
And after:
We’re really happy with the results so far!
During our initial weeks of ownership, we discovered that this 912 is a very early production 1966 car. Although it was sold as a 1966 model, it was actually built in 1965 to the earlier model year’s specifications. It has a 3-gauge dashboard, Porsche 356 seats, and other traits found on the first production year 900 models which makes this 912 a very desireable car to Porsche collectors and afficianados!
After we got the car running, we’ve found that the 912 drives very nicely. It really likes to be tossed about in twisty canyon roads, and comfortably cruises on the highway. Next, we’ll be looking into making some more restoration improvements to the suspension system, as well as seeing what we can do to bring some more shine to the oxidized paint. We also have a lot of other small restoration projects and tweaks in mind to make this car really shine. In the meantime, though, we’ll be driving and enjoying the beautiful Southern California summer weather in this classic Porsche, and using the euphamism “patina” a lot to those who strike up conversations about the car. See you on the road!
