It’s still a bit hard to reconcile what Porsche 912s are selling for these days, and it makes people like me wish I had grabbed one while they were cheap. Not to flip – not at all, as I have a hard time selling anything – but rather to enjoy. Given this one is trending close to $30K at the moment, it seems unlikely a cheap 911 or 912 will fall in my lap anytime soon. The seller describes this car as an all-original car with lots of recent maintenance and the only rust present limited to the passenger floorboard due to an unchecked water leak. Find the 912 here on eBay where bidding ends tonight. The 912 is located in sunny Turlock, California.
The 912 looks solid from all angles, and it’s always encouraging to see the club badges affixed to the engine lid. The listing doesn’t read as someone who has owned the 912 for a long period of time, and little history is provided. The seller notes he drives it around the block on occasion, which isn’t usually the stuff of a long-term car/human relationship. The 912 shows recent registration, so unlike the many California vehicles we profile with the old blue or black plates, this 912 hasn’t been recently dragged out of a garage. The seller does note, however, the rust located in the “passenger side front” can be blamed on a bad windshield seal that wasn’t addressed.
The interior is in respectable condition, with an attractive vinyl/fabric pattern that doesn’t appear to be factory, but I’m not positive that Porsche didn’t offer it as an option. The 912 is in driver-quality condition all the way through, with nothing exactly perfect but all areas of the car seeming usable as-is. You could live with the faded paint and some seams giving way in the bucket seats for a long time before they became important to address. The rubber floor mat shows no tears or damage, and it doesn’t look like the 912 has had a chintzy aftermarket radio jammed in the dash.
The 912 benefits from the following recent maintenance / repairs: new clutch and pressure plates, rebuilt brake calipers and brake master cylinder, and a reconditioned original fuel tank. Despite the brake work, the seller states that the brakes still need bleeding. The rubber seals around the doors are noted as being dried out and in need of replacement, and the seller also notes that the windshield is cracked. Obviously, it will need paintwork to be perfect, but it seems like the kind of car that’s close enough to being a driver that you should just use and enjoy for the time being – I know I would.
Driver quality Porsche–kind of a breath of fresh air considering between the hopeless rust buckets and the high end dreamer cars we have been seeing here. It probably needs a brake job, and the carbs need synching? Limited experience on these tells me the carbs on these are expensive to fix, and the step up to webers is also. Anyhoo, good luck. up to 28 large . Fixer up and drive!!! Stay safe.
Cheers
GPC
a 912 with early uphostery on the seats and very late license plate number,
which means the seller or someone just registered the car in the State and
it smogged. I’m with anyone who says these cars are ridiculously overpriced.
No smog required on vehicles pre 1975 in the state of Ca.
I would rather have a Plymouth Valiant of the same era. More room, better handling, more reliable, plus more people will come up and want to talk about it, at least where I live they will.
Basic Solex carbs are sturdy and parts are plentiful. Once adjusted, which isn’t a hard job, the engines run well and hold up well. Agree on the prices but a car in this good condition might be worth it vs. hiring a welder and buying truck loads of sheet metal.
I never drove a 911S, but back in the day I thought that the 912 was more fun than the regular 911T. Ok, only 90 hp vs 110 hp, but also lighter and more tossable.
I think it was the summer of 1990 that a friend of mine decided to trade his rather new but “boring” Ford Sierra for a SWB 912. Apart from being a terrible deal financially I tried my best to prep him to at least look the 912 over properly before swapping cars, but to no avail. When my friend came to my garage with his new 912 it was quickly obvious that he had been badly scammed. The brakes were shot but had somehow been made to work with seals cut out from flat rubber with scissors. And worse was that the entire front suspension was bondoed in and covered with liberal amounts of undercoating. There was nothing for the poor guy to do but to park the 912 in a barn and buy an old beater Volvo to drive. I do hope he kept the 912 long enough to recoup the value of that Sierra when he finally dragged it out of the barn and sold it.
But having seen how badly rusty that car was 30 years ago doesn’t instill much confidence getting another one today.
SOLD for $29,100.