I've been meaning to start a thread on my restoration of an early series 911 but never seemed to get round to it. I started out by buying a 1973 911T targa that was painted in Blood Orange but I subsequently discovered was originally finished in Light Ivory.
I did some research into potential restorers and looked into the possibility of using the factory Porsch Classic service but discovered they were quite expensive and had a lengthy waiting list for taking on new business. They were very helpful and gave me some good advice on the 911. I then found a very highly regarded UK restorer who has produced some outstanding work and got in contact with him. He also had a waiting list but gave me some more encouraging ball park figures for things like engine rebuild, suspension rebuild, body repainting, interior retrim etc. He also advised me on the likely areas of potential rust on an early car and an indication of cost involved to rectify them.
Armed with this info I set about looking for a car. Very few suitable examples seemed to come to market and then I spotted the targa. It seemed ideal but my first serious mistake was not to view the car in person due to the distance it was from me but to send a friend in the motor trade to view it on my behalf. He reported that it definitely required a full bare metal body restoration and that there was corrosion visible on several panels but the car seemed to drive well enough. There was a lot of interest in the car at the advertised price so I had to make a quick decision as I had first refusal. I phoned the restorer and he said to go for it as if I didn't he had three other clients who would.
My plan was to return it to it's original factory spec and I booked it in with a well respected restorer here who only works on the 911. He was very busy so I had to wait nearly a year for my restoration slot to open up and work begin.
Here is the car I bought. It looks quite respectable in these photo's.
All I can say is never trust a photo! The true horror of what lay beneath was not revealed until the strip down . The restorer was shocked at the extent of the corrosion and had never seen a car this bad before.
The restorer had never seen this before - rust so severe that it had eaten away the dash!
It seems that Porsche made little to no attempt to provide any sort of corrosion protection on the early 911 models. Being a monocoque construction means that rust can quickly become a serious structural issue so anyone contemplating a purchase of an older 911 needs to take great care when checking a car over. Rust will be hiding unseen somewhere on the shell.
The estimated labour involved just to get the rotten metal work cut out and replaced was 900 hours. This made the project a financial disaster and I had little option but to cut my losses and do a deal to sell the various parts of the car. The restorer was pretty good and took a degree of responsibility for suggesting I go ahead with the purchase of the car. He had a 1973 911E coupe awaiting restoration which he offered to do for me on a fixed price basis and agreed a price to take the targa off my hands in part exchange. I agreed as I would end up with a more desirable coupe model with a higher performance fuel injected engine.
Here is the car I agreed to buy awaiting it's turn in the restoration queue. It was taken off the road in 2007 but is in fairly good overall condition. I'll apologize in advance for the quality of the photo's here on in as they have been taken by the restorer, not by me, and are very inconsistent. These pictures were taken in early November 2012.
The restoration progress on this car has been a lot slower than what I've achieved restoring the old Ferraris. Updates will doubtless be slow as the process is taking what feels like an eternity 
Re: 911E restoration
