Help me beat depreciation and pick a fun car for up to $30k

The deal is done, it's hiding in my garage now. Photos to follow.

So the newest wallet drain of mine is a 1989 Carrera 3.2 Cabriolet. About 115k on the clock and checks all the boxes of what I didn't want - it's a convertible 911 in Guards Red (well, India Red, but that's the same colour). I was adamant that in the unlikely case I would buy another aircooled 911, it would be a coupe in anything but India Red. Oops.

It needs a couple of typical repairs - the spring plate bushings are worn, the interior needs work, shifter needs a rebuild, I suspect the intake gaskets have taken a hike and it's got some mods I disagree with like 17" Cup 1 wheels. Well, for the latter I already have a set of used 16" Fuchs on the way in the correct sizes.

First, I need to crawl all over it and figure out exactly what I bought - I do have a pretty good idea as I do know my way around these cars, but there are going to be a bunch of details I overlooked.

Awesome,  congratulations!  I love 80s era 911s and plan to always have at least one in the garage. Can’t wait to see the pics.

Pictures, we have them. Complete with bird poo on the frunk.

The outside looks a lot better than the inside of the car - it's a "mostly Cali car" with damaged and dried leather and all the usual sun damage. That said, right now the hope is that the work will be mainly confined to the interior and some tidying up of the roof - I'll have to take all the interior out anyway as the PO's wife had a dog that spent a lot of time shedding in the car and I happen to be allergic to dogs. Plus I need to figure out if I want to have a go at recovering the driver's seat or buy a nice used pair. The passenger seat has no rips, but it's so dry it makes parchment look supple.

Still, due to the interior issues, the wrong wheels and the general impression of "needs a bit of help", it seemed to have put off the let's-rip-off-a-grieving-widow-and-make-ten-grand-in-a-quick-flip merchants. As I managed to convey the impression that I was going to try and bring it back to its former glory - heck, who else but your average GRMer has a set of wheels on the way before buying the car - and more importantly, was buying it as a keeper, I did manage to get it for noticeably less than Hagerty condition 4 pricing. I would say it's a condition three on the outside (it has been repainted, and not too great in some areas) and a definite four on the inside IMHO, so I'm pretty happy with the deal, as is the previous owner.

Looks sweet. Love it. 

In reply to dculberson :

Thank you!

Nice!

Are you going to start a build/resto thread for it?

 Very nice.  89 is a great year!

I misread the thread title and thought it said "help me beat depression and pick a fun car for up to $30k" and I was like, mk1 Ford/Mercury Capri with a 302!  TKO five-speed, 8.8 swap and an LSD!  Build something wild!

Then I realized this wasn't really about that and felt like I need to build a Capri instead.

z31maniac said:

Nice!

Are you going to start a build/resto thread for it?

I will, as soon as I get started on it.

In reply to pres589 (djronnebaum) :

Nothing wrong with building a Mercury Capri!

In reply to BoxheadTim :

I'm in the process of building a 911 Safari and redid my interior converting from tan interior to Black. I had great results from an eBay seller for my seats. I decided to have them done in German vinyl with German houndstooth. I have some custom touches done and since they make each set of seat covers to order was I able to talk directly with seller and explain what I wanted done. Front seat upholstery sets run from low $300 range for regular vinyl for a set of front covers. Hi $300 range for German vinyl. And about $800 for leather. The houndstooth inserts were an extra $100 or so. Their work turned out beautiful. I had a local upholstery shop install the covers for about $250. Well worth it to get a quality finished look. Pictures of my seatcompany is zoomzoomzoom-ing on eBay

For carpets i went with lightweight charcoal (not perlon...too thin) from appbiz with rear seat delete.  Steering wheel sparco deep dish suede

In reply to Ovid_and_Flem :

Those seats look rather nice. I've been toying with the idea of switching to houndstooth but in the end I'll probably stick with the stock leather and hope that the seat heaters are still working.

Love the houndstooth!  Excellent choice.

Look what the UPS man dropped off today:

Foxy!

Yeah, bad pun. 

In reply to BoxheadTim :

Where did you get them?  They’ll look great.

In reply to BoxheadTim :

Euromeisters?  Look good.  16s?

Cotton said:

In reply to BoxheadTim :

Where did you get them?  They’ll look great.

A place called Carquip in Boulder, CO - they had the wheels advertised on the Pelican Forums for what I thought was a pretty reasonable price as "driver quality" wheels. Price is still a little ouch but probably one of the cheaper piles of parts I'm buying for this thing.

They have a nice amount of patina but aren't "worn" if you know what I mean.

Now for my next trick, I need to source the correct wheel nuts.

Ovid_and_Flem said:

In reply to BoxheadTim :

Euromeisters?  Look good.  16s?

Genuine Fuchs[1] with 911 part numbers in 6x16 and 7x16, aka the correct stock size for this model year.

[1] Hence the bad 'Foxy' joke - Fuchs = Fox in German.

In reply to BoxheadTim :

They look great.  I'm astounded at price of used. Used Fuchs.  Especially 16s in 7 and 9.  These went for $3700+ on BAT yesterday.  And many consider that a bargain.

Well, first it's BaT, that always brings out the deeper pockets.

Not to mention that the 7 and 9s (which IIRC are the turbo sizes) are a lot harder to find that the 6/7 set I got. But I still paid around $1300 including shipping for my wheels, and they aren't exactly mint.

In reply to BoxheadTim :

That was a good buy.

What all do you need for interior?

The biggies are the driver's seat cover, I might be able to restore the passenger seat to a less parchment-like consistency. In general it's just sun damaged - carpets probably need replacement, too. I also need to figure out how to restore the dash and put a new gear shift knob in the car.

That, and the roof needs a bit of work - the headliner has become a little dislocated.

BoxheadTim said:

Well, first it's BaT, that always brings out the deeper pockets.

Not to mention that the 7 and 9s (which IIRC are the turbo sizes) are a lot harder to find that the 6/7 set I got. But I still paid around $1300 including shipping for my wheels, and they aren't exactly mint.

Yeah,  last year I bought a set of used fuchs for my 87 930.  Man,  it hurt to pull the trigger on those,  but I really wanted to go back original.  I still haven’t installed them though.  Here is a pic with the current wheels:

That's a good looking car. Congrats.

In reply to BoxheadTim :

Thanks.  I have a soft spot for 80s 911s.  That was my “poster on the wall” car when I was a kid and I bought my first one used, which I really couldn’t afford,  when I was about 22.  I still have that one,  an 85 targa.  

When I was in college I used to listen to Dave Ramsey all the time,  didn’t have a car loan or anything,  worked two jobs to minimize student loans.  Then I graduated and got a decent job,  said berkeley it,  and took out a loan to get that 85 911 targa.  It worked out and that is one I don’t think I could ever sell.