Porsche 912 questions
 

A friend is practically giving me a 1969 Porsche 912. The car had engine problems, was stored in an unsecure area, and vandals broke out all the windows. Does the '69 912 have a locking steering column? Just wondering because if he can't find the keys, I don't want to try loading a car onto the trailer with the wheels locked at a 45 degree angle. I don't know if those older Porsches had locking columns or not. And how do you open up the rear engine compartment lid? Is there a handle to turn, or is there a lock requiring a key? I only saw the car for about 2 or 3 minutes and know little about it. I'm mainly trying to save it from certain doom where it is now located.

Not certain about the locking column, but my best guess would be yes - it has one.

To open the engine compartment: open the driver's side door & pull the handle located on the door jamb.

Enjoy!

Definitively yes, the 912 has a locking steering column.

That´s right! :)

What are you going to do with it?

A '69 912 is a neat car. The only year 912 with the early bodywork and long wheelbase. They are very light and when all the suspension is done up correctly and a hot engine is installed they can be very quick little cars. They don't have as much rear weight bias and overall they weigh close to 200lb less than a similar 911, that all results in a car that can be made to handle VERY well.

You can also drop a 911 engine in pretty easy. If its not rusty, you could have a great basis for a really neat Porsche hotrod!


Terry

Thanks for the quick info. Right now, my plans are just to save the thing from going downhill any further. It's part of a package deal. I'm buying the '65 912 Porsche (with broken out windows), AND a 1965 Volvo P1800 (also with broken out windows); $800 takes both cars. The P1800 was running and driving when parked. My friend doesn't have a place to put them and is tired of paying for any more monthly storage fees in a place that turned out to be not secure. His enthusiasm went downhill when he found out that all the glass in both cars was broken out. He just wants OUT and I have a trailer and can haul them away. Even if they don't turn out to be my "cup of tea", I figure that I could use them for trading material or sell them for some Ferrari money.

2 quirky & VERY cool cars for $800?? All I can say is congrats & have fun with the restorations!

Why did Volvo resort to big square boxes when they once had something as beautiful as the P1800????

I agree that a '69 912 is a hoot. One of the reasons that the car handles so well is the longer wheelbase AND the smaller engine. Balance is important.

However, I wouldn't do a restoration because you can quickly go upside down. Get the car the running. Fix the major problems and then drive it like you stole it.

Dale

Can you please post lots of pics of the 912 when you get a chance? I love those cars. My ex-girlfriend has one. we bought it about 5 years ago, and she still owns it.It is an orange 1968 912, imported to Holland from California. COOOL car!

Any updates on this story, Horsefly?

Here's the update, but no photos yet. Last Saturday I drove 75 miles to pick up my trailer then drove 75 miles back to the cars. I got there about dark. Spent the next hour or so utilizing my hand crank winch on the trailer to load the Porsche. Naturally, all four tires were dry rotted and torn up with huge holes. Not one would hold air from my portable air tank. So it was a pain winching it onto the trailer with totally flat tires. . Fortunately my "worm gear" hand crank winch is pretty beefy, but I doubled the cable and used a pulley block to double the power and also take twice as many cranks to get the job done. After tying it down on four corners with the ratchet straps I then drove 30 miles to a friend's house who let me drop them off until I can haul them to my storage land. The next day, I had to off load the Porsche to free up the trailer for hauling the Volvo 1800. It ONLY took an hour and a half to get the Porsche off the trailer. I had to use a come-along attached to a tree to drag the car down the trailer ramp. The flat tires just kept it from rolling at all. I then drove 30 miles back to pick up the Volvo. Fortunately, it had good tires which I had filled up with my air tank the night before when I picked up the Porsche. It was pretty uneventfull loading the Volvo. But right as I finished loading, it started a steady rain. I don't like hauling in the rain since I don't have electric brakes on my trailer. So I crept back to my friend's house at 35 to 40 mph along the interstate access roads whenever possible.
I didn't have time to evaluate the cars at all yet. My friend noticed while tapping on the body looking for Bondo spots, that the Porsche doors sounded like they were made of fiberglass. I didn't have a magnet handy. The body looks very good. Just one spot behind the right front tire where there looks like a small bent spot. I don't know if 912s have fiberglass doors or not. For all I know, the entire car could have been in a wreck at some time. But I didn't think that I could go wrong for $400. I never even got a chance to pop the engine cover and see what is still there, or missing completely.
All things considered, it looks like the loss of the glass was the only real damage. The cars are weathered quite a bit. But nothing looks horribly bad. When the weather clears up, I will try to clean them up a bit by vacuuming out all the broken glass and removing the junk from the interiors.

I have a friend well along with a 912 resto....I'll get him to chime in.....tough news about all the glass.

I don't think the 912 had fiberglass doors- maybe aftermarket repair job from an accident? It should have a 1600cc motor (the motor used in the 356sc- the last car before 911/912). It should have 2 carbs... 4 cylinders and 2 carbs- a far cry from 12 cylinders and 6 carbs ;)

Thanks for the update! I'm sure that parts for the 912 are not very difficult to come by in the US (main market for early Porsches). Please post some pics when you get a chance!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=10076

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=10076

And, in case your engine is missing:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=34208

There's tons of cool 912 stuff on eBay!

912 doors are exactly the same as 911 doors...... steel. They also rust, and thus are probably just full of bondo. No big deal, you can get great shape used doors pretty cheap.

Getting glass used is also no big deal. I actually have a full set of 911 glass around here from a 911S I parted out several years back.

The big issue on those cars is rust. Check the inner and outer rocker panels, the door shut panels, the inner front wheel wells, the front pan, the rear torsion bar tube and spring plate mounts and the floors. The question is not if the car has some rust, but whether or not its terminal. They all rust.


Terry