A Great Porsche Project Handbook

Insanity is believing you Will run out of projects ...

When I first took on the 1974 Porsche 911 I thought I’d do some general maintenance and maybe even some performance modifications before taking on the larger challenge of paint, body, and interior work. Being new to the Porsche 911 model I wasn’t sure where to start, looking in the catalogs and the online forums I found many cool ideas. It quickly became apparent that the cost of those ideas was going to add up so my next bright idea was to look for recommendations from a trusted source.

Wayne Dempsey is one of the founders of Pelican Parts, an online Porsche parts dealer that has established a strong following in the Porsche community. Not only do Pelican Parts sell items for Porsches they have a good library of technical articles and a very active user forum.

So back to ideas of the 1974 Porsche 911, I came across the book 101 Projects for Your Porsche 911, written by Wayne Dempsey and knew that thought it would be a worthwhile investment. This is one aspect of the project that has turned out as planned. The book is very complete in offering both maintenance topics and performance enhancement topics. Guidelines for technical skill, time required, tools, and parts are provided making it very manageable to plan for and execute on one of the projects. Best of all, the book is not a platform for selling more parts, I’ve actually found myself not buying parts based on recommendations in 101 Projects for Your Porsche. I highly recommend this to anyone who works on their Porsche or who is looking for great ideas to take to their shop of choice.

A Final Resting Place?

The new home for the 1974 Porsche 911 is a corner at Ocean Paint and Body in Oceanside. The car, engine and transaxle are covered to protect them from the elements and the occassional seagull passing over. For a while I thought this corner of the shop would be the final resting place for the little brown Porsche 911 but Warren had a different idea.

Last Ride of the Porsche 911

When I started this project I didn't think the 1974 Porsche 911 would leave the garage on the back of a tow truch but that's how it played out. At least its getting some sun and the dust blown off.

Kat and the 1974 Porsche 911

Here's Kat jumping for joy as the Porsche 911 is brought to rest on the tow truck. Not only is Kat happy to have space in the garage for her Honda Odyssey, she's ecstatic to not have to look at the poor old brown 1974 Porsche 911. You can see my new (Kat's old) minivan in the background - that's a post for another time.

Porsche 911 Leaving the Garage

The 1974 Porsche 911 as it is being rolled out of the garage and onto the tow truck. There's nothing much left of the chassis, only enough to make it reasonably easy to roll the car around. The horizontal six engine and transaxle have already been loaded onto the truck.

Homer's Odyssey and the Porsche 911

This has nothing to do with Homer but it does have to do with an Odyssey and a 1974 Porsche 911; this is where you find out what derailed this project that previously seemed to be moving forward at a reasonable pace. In about July of 2006 I decided to surprise my wife Kat with a new Honda Odyssey. She had minivan envy as several of her friends had new new rides and I had a decent sized bonus check from my previous employer. Kat not only wanted a new van she needed one, her 2000 Honda Odyssey had about 125,000 miles on the odometer and the new vans with the electric side doors and side-impact airbags seemed like a much safer way to transport our three little ones. I fished around for color ideas, got the finances in order, and headed off to the local dealership to buy a new Honda Odyssey. Kat had no idea and that night when she came home from a school meeting the new Odyssey was in the driveway. The only problem was that the Odyssey was in the driveway and not in the garage because the 1974 Porsche 911, supported by four jack stands, was taking up its spot.
The following weekend it was time to gather up the scattered pieces of the 1974 Porsche 911, call the tow truck, and have the entire project relocated to the shop managed by my Father-in-Law, Warren (Ocean Paint and Body in Oceanside). I have to say I was somewhat relieved to have the Porsche 911 out of the garage and it removed some of the pressure to complete the project.
At this point the 1974 Porsche 911 was (and still is) nothing more than a rolling chassis with the engine and transaxle removed, the wiring harness pulled, no lights, interior, nothing. We pushed the Porsche to a far corner of the shop lot, covered it with the newly acquired car cover, and mission accomplished: the new Honda Odyssey fits nicely in the garage. The problem is that now instead of having a project just waiting for me to get home at night or dedicate my weekend to, I have to travel to work on the 1974 Porsche 911. This combined with not having my tools handy and there be many other things to spend my time on (kids, new job, motorcycles) meant that the project completely stalled.
And now you know.

What the future holds

For anyone wondering what my current thoughts are regarding the paint scheme for the 1974 Porsche 911 here's a hint. This is a modern replica of "Old Blue" the 1977 Daytona winning Ducati.

Blog renamed

You may (or may not) have noticed that I've renamed this blog 1974 Porsche 911 from the original "Porsche Build or Bust". Why you ask, to make it easier to find in the search engines. Yes, I am adopting the best practices that I talk about all day and build into products within my own sites. I don't expect to make this 1974 Porsche 911 the hottest spot on the internet but it shouldn't be completely hidden either. If you're reading this post I have to assume you've found the new url and are updating your bookmarks.
I've also created two other blogs to sell off my current (small) stable of motorcycles. More on this in future but if you're interested you can click the links to find out more about my 2003 Suzuki SV650S and my equally nice 2003 BMW F650GS Dakar.

Still no updates

Okay, I have to apologize as several friends have asked "where are the updates for the 1974 Porsche 911?" I promise I am working on it and will make time soon to get the pictures updated, etc. This project has been on the back burner (again) due to work, family, and other distractions - this is great weather for a motorcycle ride.
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