PORSCHE 911 CARRERA 3.0 IMPROVEMENT
Mads van Appeldoorn
February 5, 2020
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Well, I wouldn’t call it a restoration project. From my perspective, this particular car didn’t need a resto, so it got improvements and some beautification here and there. A great car which I love for so many reasons. Most important, the story of the purchase with the heartwarming stories of the previous owner and the interesting conversations when we had dinner together. Thank you Gene.
1977 Porsche 911 Carrera 3.o
I was on the hunt for a 1977 Carrera 3.o for quite some time, had a 1976 Carrera 3.o and just wanted one from each year. A friend pointed me to his client who wanted to sell this 1977 Carrera 3.o at the age of 83. Flew out to San Francisco, drove down to Palo Alto and bought the car on the spot.
To my surprise, everything was working. That was really, really the first time when I’ve checked out a car. Fascinating. Drove down to my friends shop and put the car on the lift. Turned out it was in excellent condition. Of course, the cookie cutters were not original, just like the rear wing and the front valance. But so what.
First thing I did after I took delivery was to adjust the CO, the car was running way to lean. Turned out it had a problem with the vacuum system so I pulled the engine, replaced all the hoses, gaskets and seals that are hard or even impossible to get to when the engine is in the car, replaced the gearbox oil and put the engine back in.
JUST A FEW ALTERATIONS
I’ve had some black Fuchs wheels in the perfect dimensions (7 & 8 x 15), put some Toyo rubber on them and the car looked so different already. Added the side decal to make the Carrera look like a true Carrera. The front fender had a little rust hole so I’ve added some sort of band-aid from the leftovers of the decal.
Guess I said that already, the paint wasn’t that great, it wasn’t the original paint either so before I would do a new paint job, I would play around with the car a little. I’ve also had a already matte black painted louvered decklid which I added and one day I just spraypainted the front hood in black matte as well. Pretty rad look. Removed the non-functioning aftermarket air conditioning and if you’re looking at the first pictures, you might have noticed the faded (door) window frames. Took all the window frames out and had them re-anodized in black. What a difference!
INTERESTING HISTORY OF THE CAR
What’s really interesting about the car is the history. The gentlemen I bought the car from hired the son of Paul Lang, who owned a Volkswagen dealership in Santa Clara Valley to find him a 1977 Carrera 3.o in Germany. Olaf Lang (son of Paul Lang), later Porsche Executive and 917 Factory Racecar driver, worked at the Porsche factory in Stuttgart at that time. The previous owner paid Olaf a $500 finders fee for a good example. In 1980, he flew to Germany, picked up the car in Stuttgart and drove it around Europe for 3 month before he eventually shipped it to California where it stayed until I got it.
The previous owner had a rebuilt at 113.000 km, when I bought it, it had a little over 280.000 km. Perfectly strong running engine, I can tell you. Honestly, I love the fact that the car experienced so much, a car full of history and presumably a lot of cool stories along the way.
NEW PAINT JOB
Before the winter of 2018/2019 I decided that the car needs a new paint job. So I took it apart and took the parts and the car to a nearby paint shop. Whenever the guys had time, they prepared a part and than another and so on. That’s why the whole paint job took 6 month but in the end I was fine with that, I was gone for a few months anyway. Took it apart by myself and put it back together as well and so saved a few hundreds if not thousands. Took the chance and installed new seals all around.
And my most loved task: Headliner, again. Well, this was the 3rd time. Turned out nicely, though – that was definitely the last time (until the next one). 4 packages of Binder clips and Elmers Cement Glue and two days later the new headliner was in the car. The pictures on the bottom are the most recent ones. Like the way it looks, a bit dirty and a bit classic. Love this car, I truly do, I am more connected to that one than I’ve ever been to any of my cars.
