[Mike] This time...
All right, here we go.
...we're taking on one of the greatest 911s ever built.
Oh, yes! [cheering]
[Mike] This G body is in rough shape...
It's covered in dirt, but I think underneath all of this,
there's a good car, isn't there?
[Mike] ...but has the potential to be an epic restoration.
Let's make sure we do it right and end up with a belting driver's car.
We're hoping that with a few modern upgrades...
I can see the heated element running all the way through, it's pretty good.
...we can catapult it into the 21st century.
It'll look great and should really improve the car as well.
[Mike] And prove that it is still king of the road.
It's got the power. It's got the performance. This is unbelievable.
It's like holding onto a wild beast.
I'm Mike Brewer...
Ooh.
...and I've been buying and selling cars for nearly 40 years.
It's rattly, smelly, and it's bloomin' brilliant.
Now I've set up shop in Britain's motoring heritage heartland...
Oh, yes!
...along with ex-Formula One mechanic Marc "Elvis" Priestley.
That engine management light never put you off then?
[Mike] Together, we're going to buy...
Top man.
...and fix up...
Look at the state of it.
It's got the Spirit of Ecstasy and everything.
[Mike] ...the most iconic and exciting cars on the market.
Oh, mate, I love these things.
Bolt a supercharger to it and you end up with a car that does this.
With Elvis's engineering skill...
And there it is, the offending article.
[Mike] ...and my car dealing clout...
He'll be over the moon, isn't he?
Elvis better get the posh tools ready.
...we should be able to make ourselves a tiny profit.
This is my job, and I bloomin' love it.
[theme music playing]
Right, I can't contain my excitement.
I've finally done it. I've got a car I've been dreaming of getting
into the Wheeler Dealers Workshop for quite a while now.
Even Harry was smiling this morning when he'd come to pick it up.
It is the hot ticket in the Porsche world,
a brilliant 1980s, a G body Porsche 911 SC.
It's part of a divorce settlement.
The lady has decided she doesn't want it as a reminder
and that's where I stepped in. I got the car for a reasonable price
because it needs quite a bit of work to get it over the line.
In fact, it needs a lot of work. It's in pieces.
But I've snapped it up for just 27 grand.
The G body was the second,
and, if you ask me or Elvis, the best generation of the 911.
It marked the debut of the famous whale tail spoiler
and enjoyed the longest production period of any 911.
From 1973 to 1989,
Porsche made nearly 200,000 of these sports cars
and all out of their factory in Stuttgart.
But you rarely see one on the road nowadays.
Why? Because they've become so valuable,
people don't want to risk getting them out of the garage.
So I've got a plan to do something different with this one.
What I wanna do is make a proper daily driver,
a car that somebody could jump in and use on a daily basis
and not be frightened to use it.
The only problem I've got
is I've discussed none of this with Elvis. None of it.
I've got a funny feeling
he's gonna be very excited when he sees the car.
And then he's likely to be very angry
when he sees the amount of work in front of him. Let's find out.
[laughs] You're here. Oh, mate.
-Good morning, how are ya? -I'm all right, mate, yeah.
Oh, I've had such a good weekend.
You look like it, look at the smile on your face.
Just been outside unloading something. I can't wait for you to see.
-Have you bought a car? -I went and bought a car.
I pressed the button and said, "We're having it."
-Go on, then. What is it? -A mid-1980s Porsche 911, 3L SC.
What? I mean, I love it. Amazing car. But everyone loves it
and that's why the prices are up there somewhere.
The prices have run away with themselves
so the only way to get into this market
is if you jumped in on an abandoned project.
-The car has been pulled to pieces. -Okay.
Some of the work's been done, it's not yet been put back together.
-How much have you paid for this? -27 grand.
No way. You can't get one of those for 27 grand.
-Is it all there? -It's all there.
It runs, it drives. So, do you wanna see it?
[chuckling] Oh, wow.
Car's running and driving.
I said it was in bits, but look at what we got, Elvis, eh?
It's covered in dirt. I mean, it's obviously been stored away for a while,
but I think underneath all of this,
I think there's a good car, isn't there?
I don't know. You said it was a wreck,
but look at the state of it. That's a lot of work.
Yeah, easy. I know it's not gonna win any beauty contests right now,
but, mate, I only paid 27 grand for it,
so we have got room to manoeuvre.
Think of it like this, you know, it's the ultimate project car
and somebody's already started it for us,
they've taken it apart so we don't have to do that work,
and when we get it finished and we do a good job, be amazing.
Yeah, Okay. Look, I mean, I'm happy to give it a go, obviously,
because underneath it, it is a Porsche,
and I know when it's finished, it will be epic.
But let's not do what everybody else does
in that Porsche world. Let's not over-restore it.
Let's make sure we do it right
and end up with a belting driver's car
for somebody to really enjoy.
[Elvis] The big question's gonna be, "Have we got everything?"
That's a worry when you find a car in this sort of state.
I mean, there's a few things that might be missing.
Oh, no, the carpet's there but I can't see a windscreen anywhere,
so we might need to get that.
I've got a funny feeling the paint work might be all right, you know.
-Pasha interior. -Pasha interior, very nice.
When was the last time you see one of those on an SC? I haven't for years.
Now, I know the weak areas on these
and it's the front wings, mate, because I've owned several
of these cars and this is where they go wrong.
Oh, I mean, look, we could repair it or we could just replace it.
-I don't know what they cost. -£1,600 a wing.
-I'll repair it. -I thought you'd say that.
Well, this is a 3L SC. Good, strong engine.
I mean, they are really bulletproof.
You haven't driven this yet, so we don't know how it feels.
I can't drive it, can I? It's not exactly road legal,
it hasn't got a windscreen in it.
Saying that, you are a fearless chap,
we're on private ground, why don't you drive it?
I suppose I could. You not gonna come with me?
No, I'm not gonna come with you. There's only one seat in it as well.
Plus, I can get on the phone and see if I can find a windscreen for it.
But you might actually find out if there's
anything else wrong with it at the same time.
-All right. I'll go and grab some goggles. -I'll jump on the phone.
[Elvis] It might look like a bit of a wreck, but I'm desperate to see
what this Porsche's engine is capable of.
All right, here we go.
Oh, yes! [cheering]
Oh, that feels good.
Well, the engine feels good, the experience is pretty awful.
Oh, it stops well, too.
Although I have to say,
the brakes on these cars were always kind of okay,
but I always felt it could be better.
Now, if we're gonna make this a daily driver,
I might think about doing some work to those as well.
Oh, my goodness!
I got flies and dust and dirt hitting me everywhere.
But I'm still in love with this, I've got to be honest.
Given that we're doing a ground up restoration on this car,
I think I'm gonna do the same with the engine.
I know it's had work and it does feel good,
but they're so easy to drop out the bottom of these things
that I think that's what I'll do, give it a full service myself.
Not only is that gonna give me confidence,
but I think it'll add value to the car,
knowing that it's preventative maintenance.
Whoever owns it next will have a car that'll have
many, many great miles ahead of it.
[chuckles] That was fun.
I'm already in love with this car.
But actually, in all honesty, I've always been in love with this car
and cars like it, because the 911's iconic, isn't it?
I had pictures of these kind of things on my bedroom wall when I was a kid.
But then so did everybody else.
And that's why, today, values have gone through the roof.
But this one, this specific car, the SC or Super Carrera,
actually took quite a long time to catch up
with some of the other models in terms of that value increase.
It was relatively unloved for a long period of time.
I find it strange, though, because this is a great car.
Nowadays, an SC in good condition could cost you over 40 grand.
But Mike paid far less than that for this unfinished project car.
For that reason, I'm a little bit worried about what I'm gonna find
when I start poking around in this one.
But either way, I've got to get this big jigsaw puzzle back together,
make this car worthy of that iconic 911 name once more,
but also turn it into a car that people are wanting
to get behind the wheel of every single day.
Now, the front wings on a 911 are pretty exposed.
They take stone chips from the front,
and they've got little in the way of protection underneath
and so they suffer with rust like this one has.
Now my issue is that these costs £1,600 to replace them with new ones
and I might need two of them.
I can't afford to do that, so I'm gonna have to carry out some repairs.
But the issue is, it's so heavily corroded in this area,
there's nothing for me to gauge exactly what form
the new repair panel should take.
Luckily, the right-hand panel isn't corroded in the same area.
So I can use that to make a template using layers of masking tape
and then simply reverse it
to create the exact shape I need for the left wing.
Right, there's a repair panel, and this is our template,
which I'm gonna draw around to get the shape that I need
to cut out of the steel here.
With my template marked out,
I can cut the rough shape out with an angle grinder.
Right, now that I've got my flat two-dimensional repair panel,
I'm gonna use the metal working tools, a dolly and planishing hammer
to really turn this into a nice 3-D shape
that will eventually go back onto the wing.
Now, if you have a look at the repair panel,
having put this fold in it has done that to the piece of metal,
it's put this curve in it and that curve is in entirely the wrong direction
to the way we actually want it to go, it should form that sort of shape.
So I'm gonna use one of my favorite machines.
This, the shrinker-stretcher machine
which is gonna shrink this edge and put the correct curve back in it
and make it perfect again.
The top and bottom jaws of the shrinker grab the metal,
and then, when I press down on the foot lever,
they draw it together and crimp it,
gradually giving us the curved edge we need.
All I've got to do now is punch some holes in so I can tack it in place.
That's the first panel repair done,
but I've got a feeling that was the easy part.
Moving on to the front end of this wing,
it's got quite a lot of damage, a lot of stone chips,
quite a lot of filler, and actually, quite a few previous repairs
that haven't all been done that well.
I think I'm gonna have to replace this whole section around here,
definitely up here as well,
and possibly even along that side there.
It's time to make another template.
But the awkward curves around the headlight
mean that I'm going to have to break my repair down into smaller parts
and then jigsaw the panel together.
I think we could probably split that one through here.
That can split across there.
Probably this one will come down here.
It's quite a complicated one, this, you know, it's gonna be quite tricky.
I know we're saving £1,600 by not buying a new wing,
but this is turning into an enormous amount of work.
And to be worthy of that car,
this has got to be absolutely spot on.
[Elvis] We've bought ourselves a G body Porsche 911
at a bargain price of 27 grand.
But it's no easy doer-upper. It's in pieces.
We're rebuilding it and turning it into a reliable daily driver.
It's taken me about four hours,
but I've finally finished fabricating
a replacement panel for the front wing.
Well, it's coming on, but it's been an enormous amount of work.
In fact, so much so that at times I've questioned
whether £1,600 for a brand-new one might've been worth it.
I've cut the old piece out, but as you can see,
it's such a complex shape that there is no way really
I could make a new one of those out one piece of metal by hand.
So, I've cut it up into sections and the first two pieces are in.
I mean, just look at this one final piece,
how much work is involved in the multiple different contours
just in that one little section.
However, it's on, it's done,
and all I've got to do now is tack it into position
and then I can weld it up, grind down the welds,
fill it and make it look beautiful again.
Once the panel's been welded,
I can offer it up to the car to check it'll do the job.
Ah, yes. Look at that. I mean, there's a long way to go
and there's still loads more work to do with this,
but it's starting to look more like a Porsche again, isn't it?
And once I've finished this, the next job on the list
is to get that engine out and start having a look at that.
But I'm really pleased with this.
To access our 911's flat six engine,
I first need to take the back wheels off
and get it up on the ramp.
Flat six air-cooled engines in these are pretty much bulletproof.
And I've got to say, when I drove the car,
it felt great out on the road,
but there's no getting away from the fact it's done 140,000 miles,
and at that sort of mileage, anything could be going on inside,
worn camshafts or timing chains.
It's probably why, in fact, specialists say
they should always have a rebuild around 100,000 miles.
And given how easy they are to drop out of the back of these cars,
it feels like a no-brainer to get it out, strip it down
and give it a good inspection.
With the oil drained, anti-roll bar out of the way...
...and various wires, pipes and hoses disconnected,
I can lower the car back down so the engine's sitting on my hydraulic table.
Okay, just two remaining engine mount bolts
and then I can lift this car off this enormous lump of an engine.
There we go, easy as that.
All right, mate. [chuckles]
That was a very large lump of Porsche
rolling across the workshop.
-It is. -What's happened to the car?
It's about preventative maintenance, right?
I've taken it out because I wanna give it a full service.
I'll give it a proper top end rebuild
because if it's gonna be a daily driver for somebody,
I wanna make sure the engine's got thousands more miles
of usable lifespan left in it.
Well, a top end rebuild in the Porsche world
can make all the difference between selling the car and not selling the car,
so I'm pleased you're doing it. But that does mean
if you've got the engine out the car and you're pulling that apart,
you don't need the car any more, do ya?
-Uh, no, not for a while. -Excellent.
I can go and see a company that can help me out with that windscreen.
They need the car to fit the windscreen to it?
Do you wanna fit it, or shall I get them to do it?
-No, get them to do it, -Right, I need the car then.
All right, listen. You take the car,
I'm gonna send the wings and the bonnet away
to be painted and crack on with the engine.
We're getting there, aren't we?
-Nice one. -Nice one, fella.
Do you know what? There's no denying how happy I am
with the purchase of our Porsche 911.
But when I did buy the car, not everything came with it.
In fact, it was missing an important part,
and that's the windscreen.
But I think it gives me a golden opportunity
to do something really special.
So I'm heading up north to Gateshead to go and see a company
that reckon they can add a modern element to the windscreen
that will make it much more usable as a daily driver. Let's find out.
The Porsche has been sent off to Ricky Evans Motorsports
who's come up with the neat idea of a heated windscreen
you can retrofit to these classic cars.
They install the screens,
but it's Tyneside Safety Glass that they task with making 'em.
I'm meeting local lad, Chris,
who's gonna show me how it's done.
Look at this place, this is brilliant.
Wow! There's my man, Chris.
He's up there. Chris!
-Mike, how are you? -How are ya, buddy?
-Good to see ya. -And you.
-This is fantastic, innit? -Yeah, fantastic.
Right, I've come to see my 911 windscreen get made.
We're just about to get one cut there now, so let's have a wander up.
Right, so this is the piece of glass, is it?
It is. So, the glass has been brought into the cutting area here,
and then we're gonna score the surface of the glass
to the actual shape that the windscreen is going to be.
We can cut multiple different shapes out to get the least wastage
-out of each individual sheet of glass. -Yep.
Our windscreen will be made up of two separate pieces of glass
which sandwich the heating element.
Once both have been scored and carefully pressed out,
the next step is to turn the flat sheet into a curved windscreen.
Right, so this, this is basically, you lay the glass down
-and this is a giant oven. -Yep.
It goes in there,
it blasts it with heat, and it melts the glass into the correct curvatures.
-It sags onto the actual bending mould itself. -Ah, okay.
So what's gonna happen now, the glass is taken up...
...and then it's sent into the furnace
and it takes approximately one hour 20 minutes from that...
from that bend going in to that one coming back out again.
Gotcha.
-It's a nice hot place to work, this. -It is, yeah.
-It's a bit steamy. -Great in the winter,
not particularly good in the summer.
[Mike] The furnace cranks up to a whopping 690 degrees centigrade.
The heat makes the glass sag
and slowly form into the shape of the mould.
So that's the windscreen there coming out, Mike.
Wow, that looks amazing!
Our windscreen is taken out, cooled off,
and then it's ready for the next stage.
Ooh, this all looks a bit scientific, don't it?
-What's this about then? -Right, so this is, um,
where we put the heated element onto the PVB interlayer.
Right. What is PVB interlayer?
PVB interlayer is polyvinyl butyral interlayer
and it's what's used to sandwich those two pieces of glass
that we've just seen being bent on the furnace.
-So it's a laminate? -Yeah, it's a plastic product.
There you go. That's what it is there.
-This is what goes between the glass? -That's correct. Yup.
Wow. I mean, it's opaque, isn't it? And stretchy. And tough.
That's right. Well, it needs to be tough
to stop any projectiles coming through the windscreen
if there's any impact.
Okay. And, uh, when this gets put into the two screens,
it goes through another process,
-bit of science, and it turns clear? -Yep.
And these guys then are laying down this, what,
-the strip for the heated element, yeah? -Yeah.
Once this is placed on, we then put the glass,
the interlayer onto the drum
and the wire will be heated onto the surface of the interlayer.
[Mike] Cool.
The windscreen is rolled through this enormous drum
which presses the wire into the PVB interlay,
fixing it in position.
But that interlay is still opaque.
So there's one more magic step
before we have a lovely clear windscreen.
What we're gonna do now is we have to create a vacuum in this bag
to de-air the product and we're gonna do that in the autoclave up here.
-What is an autoclave? -An autoclave is a big pressure vessel
where pressure, heat and vacuum is applied to the windscreens
and by doing that, that then turns the windscreen
from opaque to a fully cleared windscreen.
Look at the size of that thing. That's amazing.
The autoclave applies ten bar of pressure to the screen.
The process is known as lamination.
The air is vacuumed out of the plastic
whilst at the same time, the heat and pressure
bonds the two pieces of glass
with the heated element sandwiched between them.
Right, this is the first time I've seen... I've seen it.
I can see the heated element as well running all the way through,
-it's really good. -Looks fantastic.
I can't wait to get it in the car.
I'm sure it'll look fantastic.
It's a perfect upgrade for what we need.
-Brilliant. Excellent. -It's been a pleasure.
-Nice one, mate. -Cheers.
[Mike] The new windscreen cost us just £239.
And all that's left to do is to get Ricky's boys
to carefully install and wire up the windscreen
before it can come back to Elvis.
[Elvis] While I wait for the return of our Porsche,
I've still got an engine that needs my attention.
Now I've stripped all the ancillary parts and the gearbox,
exhaust, everything off this engine already
but I've already found a problem on the first cylinder head that I've removed.
One of the four cylinder head studs has fractured halfway down
and the top has snapped off. Now, I can probably rectify that myself.
My biggest worry is, as I find more of these, which I almost certainly will,
they can shear all the way down at the base at the block itself
and if that happens, the only way to fix it
is to strip this completely and send it away to a machine shop.
[Elvis] We've taken on the challenge
of turning this 1980s G body Porsche 911
from an unfinished project car into a reliable daily driver.
Whilst giving the flat six engine a top end rebuild,
I discovered several head studs had sheared and lodged inside the block.
Now having sent the block away to a specialist,
they've managed to get all of the remaining studs out,
some of which were actually broken, but it only cost me £80.
And whilst that was away, I've actually stripped and serviced the heads
and checked the valves, valve guides,
and they're all in great condition too,
so it's nowhere near as bad as I thought it could be.
What it has proven to me
is that I think it's well worth upgrading these studs.
Now, these are not cheap, they're £50 each and there's a lot of them.
However, they're now made of steel,
plus they have this crucial plastic coating on the outside
and it's the plastic coating that actually gives us the biggest benefit.
That equalizes the thermal expansion rate
between the stud itself and the alloy block.
That means that the two items heat up and cool down
at a very similar rate, which means it puts a lot less stress on these
and that means they're a lot less likely to break.
All I need to do is get all of these back in,
get the heads built up and then get it back in the car.
Once I'm happy everything's sitting perfectly, I can carry on.
The next part of the rebuild is to check the camshaft for wear and tear.
The good news is, having inspected both camshafts,
they're actually both in great condition.
There's no signs of excessive wear.
There's no discoloration from overheating.
So all I've gotta do is throw 'em back in.
The heads are torqued to 35 Newton-meters.
Now, I can move on to my next check.
Once the engine's out, particularly a high mileage engine like ours,
it kinda makes sense to change things
like the timing chain, the guides and the tensioners.
Now, a chain has a much longer lifespan
than a more traditional timing belt.
However, we have done 140,000 miles and they do become slack over time.
The guides wear away, the tensioners become slack
and gradually, this will rattle around getting noisy
and eventually could even break if left unchecked.
For the princely sum of £400,
it may not be cheap but I think it's worth doing.
So, at this point, I've loosely assembled
the timing chain and cam sprocket
'cause I'm gonna need to adjust those when it comes to timing up the engine.
Once I've rebuilt the other side of the engine,
I've gotta time up the crankshaft and the camshaft.
If they're not completely in sync with each other,
the internal components can collide, destroying the engine entirely.
The first thing I need to do is find out what position the camshaft is in
using this DTI gauge.
Dial Test Indicator or DTI gauge goes into cylinder number one
and measures the height of the inlet valve spring
and that in turn tells me the position of the camshaft.
Right, so I'm zeroing the DTI gauge at top dead center
and then I'm gonna get one full revolution on the crankshaft
[grunts] until the inlet valve begins to open again.
Now we're just round to the top,
I can see the DTI gauge moving again.
[grunts] There we go.
So now I'm turning the crankshaft pulley
until the little mark labelled Z1
lines up perfectly with the center of the crankcase,
and that means I know that my crankshaft
is in the perfect position in relation to my camshaft.
Almost there, just gotta use these special tools
together with my torque wrench to torque up this camshaft bolt
and that'll be an engine that's rebuilt
and has many more reliable miles left in it.
[Mike] The Porsche is back at the garage,
so Elvis can finally get the engine and the Pasha interior back in.
-[whirring] -All right, fella!
Ooh, yes.
-Starting to come up nicely, innit? -Yeah, yeah.
Well, the Porsche's back. Heated windscreen's in,
so that means it's a proper daily driver,
-it will demist immediately. -Perfect. Nice one, mate.
-You're gonna see a nice present in the frunk for ya. -Yeah?
-Set of discs and brakes for the car. -Nice. Well done.
And I can then get the engine back in 'cause that's good to go.
And then we're ready to hit the open road, aren't we?
On that subject, got any ideas where we should take it?
Well, I know through experience, a Porsche 911 is gonna be epic.
-Yeah. -So we need to take it somewhere that's really epic.
-[chuckles] Yes. -And does it get any more epic
than some of the great driving roads up in Scotland?
No, there are some epic roads up there, yeah.
And it's cold, so we can test that heated screen.
Of course, yes, we can. What I'll do is I'll get Harry
to trailer the car up there cos it's gonna be mint
and I don't wanna put any miles on it
but I promise that'll be the last time it sees the back of a trailer.
Yeah, all right. Fair enough.
Now that Mike's brought our Porsche back with its lovely new windscreen,
it gives me the chance to do another very important job on this car,
and that's to take a look at the brakes.
Whilst they felt okay when I drove it,
I wouldn't be comfortable putting a car like this back onto the road
for someone else to use without giving it a proper overhaul
after it's been sat for so long.
And it also gives me the chance to give it a full upgrade too,
and that's something that should make this car a better daily driver.
Now the very first job is gonna be
to get the old caliper and disc off the car.
But before I can get going, I spotted a problem.
The union on the hard line,
the part of the brake pipe that goes from the flexible hose here
into the caliper, is completely rounded off.
I mean, someone's had a go at that in the past.
I don't know how they've got that done up, but there is no way
I'm gonna be able to get that undone.
I mean, given that it's a very short piece of pipe and I can easily make a new one,
I think the quickest way to get that caliper off is just gonna be to cut it.
With the dodgy pipe snipped off,
I can get the caliper and the brake disc off and over to the bench.
With 70% of the cars breaking down at the front end,
that's where I'm gonna put the upgrade onto this car.
Now better brakes typically means bigger discs,
so you get a bigger surface area
to enable that clamping force to slow down the car.
I wanna keep our car's expensive Foosh alloys,
but I can still go an inch bigger with the new discs.
They're 12-inch discs here.
They're still vented like the original ones,
but these have got grooves in as well which give an extra biting point
and help to manage heat dissipation as well.
They've got that larger surface area.
They've also got a separate
floating aluminum dispel in the middle.
Now that's really important for dissipating heat
under the heavy braking forces.
If that heat build-up transfers too quickly into the hub,
it can start to negatively impact the wheel bearings
and so, this has a really important job to do.
The new brake disc simply bolts onto the hub
and then I can get the whole unit back onto the car.
Right, now that we've got much bigger discs on the car,
we can also afford to put nice big calipers
and brake pads on there, too.
And if I bring in the old ones, you can see
just how much of a difference there is, first of all, in size.
The pads themselves on the old ones are small
with just one piston behind each pad,
whereas these, these are six-pot calipers or six pistons.
Now each of those pistons is acting on one of these,
a much bigger brake pad spreading that clamping force
over a much bigger surface area.
Now, even though it's much, much bigger,
the new one is way lighter than the original caliper,
because this one's cast out of steel,
whereas this one is machined from billet aluminum.
So, as well as giving us improved braking performance,
it's also helping with the overall mass of the car, too.
There we go. Don't they look good?
The only thing I've got left to do on this side
is to make up some new hard brake pipes to connect the whole lot up
and I wanna service the brakes at the rear
so that I'm comfortable with them too.
But, overall, I'm really pleased with this kit.
It's gonna look great and it should really improve the car as well.
The brakes are my last mechanical job,
so now, I can start to reassemble the car.
I've had the bonnet and my fabricated front panels resprayed
and I've given the seats and carpets a deep clean
because they are a bit special.
This is Porsche's Pasha interior.
Now, no-one seems quite sure where the design or the name came from.
Some say it was inspired
by the camouflage dazzle ships of the First World War.
Others say it was named after a Mediterranean butterfly.
Perhaps more likely, though, it's a nod to this brand's motorsport heritage
and it's based on that chequered flag waved at the end of a race.
Either way, although it's not to everyone's taste, it is rare
and that means it adds inherent value to the car,
so I've just gotta get it in.
The seats just clip into position,
then I've just gotta do a few final checks.
Ugh.
[chuckles] So annoying, just when I thought I was almost there
putting this car back together, I've got one of those horrible,
annoying niggly little issues. Every time I put the headlights on,
it stays on full beam and I can't turn it off. It's stuck.
Now it's not hugely uncommon on these older cars
and it's actually not that complicated to fix,
but I've gotta get all of this stuff apart to get to it.
Being an '80s car,
thankfully, I don't have a tricky airbag to negotiate
so the steering wheel just unbolts from the column.
Then it's just undoing a couple of tiny screws
before I can get to the indicator stalk.
Okay. There are three plates inside this switch
which make contact with each other depending on what state
or what position the lever is on the side of the steering column
that operates your high beam.
Now, over time, they can deform and make contact
basically when they shouldn't, completing the circuit
meaning that high beam is permanently on
and that's exactly what's happened here.
So just by tweaking that bottom plate,
bending the metal a tiny amount, I've separated them
and then, when we activate high beam, they make contact.
All that's left is to clip the front bumper back on
and that famous Porsche silhouette is back in all its glory.
Perfect.
[Elvis] Mike found us a cut-price G body 911
which arrived at the workshop in bits.
It's covered in dirt but I think underneath all of this,
there's a good car, isn't there?
[Elvis] I had to make a few mechanical upgrades...
Bigger discs, bigger calipers and pads.
I'm really pleased with this kit.
It's gonna look great and should really improve the car as well.
[Elvis] ...and try to restore its signature silhouette...
Ah, yes. Look at that.
It's starting to look more like a Porsche again, isn't it?
[Elvis] ...whilst Mike added a nice modern touch
to turn it from a classic car into a reliable daily driver.
Looks fantastic. It's a perfect upgrade for what we need.
[Elvis] The road to recovery has been a long one
and has landed us up here in Scotland.
And now, I can't wait to show Mike
the massive transformation our Porsche's undergone.
We're at our hotel awaiting Harry's arrival.
There he is.
-That looks fantastic, doesn't it? -Yeah.
Wow, that looks like it's just stepped out of a showroom.
-Isn't it good? -Wow.
What do you reckon?
I just can't believe it. I mean, we've come such a long way.
I mean, it came to us basically in bits and in boxes,
and now look at it.
-That is one sexy-looking 911 SC, isn't it? -[Elvis] Yeah.
I always knew it was gonna look like this when it was finished...
Yeah.
...but I can see you've come a long way to get it finished
because these wings, they were rotten, weren't they?
Mate, there was an enormous amount of work, honestly,
to get those back to a good state and get 'em back on the car
-but it was so worth it. -Yeah,
with the wings looking as good as they do,
tied in with the rest of the paintwork, which has cleaned up lovely.
Right, I don't know how to contain my excitement over this interior.
Have a look at this. Hasn't it cleaned up well?
-Look at that. -That is just epic. I absolutely love it.
Right, well, out there somewhere, there's some belting roads,
-uh, can I have first drive? -Go on, get in, mate.
[Mike] So, how much has this incredible transformation
of our Porsche 911 cost us?
I got the car for a bargain price of just 27 grand.
Elvis' front wing fabrication and paint job was £650,
my heated windscreen and wiring loom, £360.
The top-end rebuild and engine replacement parts were £1,780,
and the brake upgrade was £2,500,
which means the Porsche owes us a total of £32,290,
which, for a G body 911 SC, isn't half bad.
I just hope it drives as good as it looks.
Oh, mate, tell me how it feels.
-Sat right there, how's it feel? -Mate, I'll tell you what,
you have transported me into my happy place.
It doesn't get much better than this for me.
Look at where we are.
This car is absolutely fanta...
First time I've driven it. Listen to that engine,
that flat... Yes, look at that! It's just...
Elvis, it's... It's proper. This is me in my happy place.
I can tell, mate, yeah.
I mean, look, that engine just reaches the red line with total ease
and it sounds so good, doesn't it?
It sounds fantastic,
and it's the bit about these cars I really love
because they're not monumental horsepower.
It's only about, you know, 190, 195 horsepower.
It would've lost a few over the years as well
and it shouldn't really work, should it?
-There's a quarter of ton of weight... -Yeah.
...hanging out over the rear axle.
-Everything's wrong about it. -Everything's wrong.
But there's something just amazing.
The engine pushes you along,
you can feel it pushing you up this little steep hill here
-which makes the steering a bit more intuitive and... -Yeah.
...you know exactly where it's gonna go on the road,
you can feel it underneath you working this car,
and that's why I absolutely love a Porsche 911.
To wrap all that up in the feeling of this particular car
with this Pasha interior,
I'm so in love with this car, it's insane how much I love it.
-Heated screen. -Yeah, that's working a treat, isn't it?
[Mike] It's working wonderful, isn't it?
[Elvis] It's those little details, mate,
that will make this useable for somebody.
But have we ripped the soul out the car
or have we created a proper driver's car?
Well, look, I'm hoping we've got a car that someone can use
every single day for their daily commute, get some pleasure
and enjoyment out of it all of the time,
but, when they want to, can take it to roads like this
and properly go for it. I'll tell you what,
I'd love to get behind the wheel and have a go.
-I was just thinking. Look at these mountains around us. -Yes, please.
-Why don't we have a swap-a-rooney... -Yes, please.
...and you go and take on the mountains and let's see
if we've got a daily driver driver's car?
-Yes, I'd love to. -Like the sound of that?
I cannot wait 'cause I can see the smile on your face.
I want to be at that. [laughs]
Right then, fella, this is really your first time
you've driven this car properly.
Last time, you had a pair of goggles on and no wings.
-Yeah, a lot less windy. -So come on, I want your first impression.
Look, that's my first impression, man. This is unbelievable.
you know, when you bought this car and when I first drove it
when it was half-built, you could already tell
it had the great basis and although you can use this as a daily driver,
it's still a sports car at heart.
-It still feels like a proper out-and-out 911 should. -It's great, isn't it?
And, you know, roads like this, look, it's like a fluttering ribbon, isn't it?
Just finding its way through these beautiful mountains.
This car is perfect for these roads and it feels incredible.
It's got the power, it's got the performance. It handles really well.
The brakes are great when we're coming to these big stops into the corners.
-It sounds incredible. -Yeah, try the brakes, try the brakes.
[Elvis whooping]
They're good, ain't they?
Look at that and you needed to use them then, didn't ya, eh?
Yeah, amazing.
Mate, I love this car. I absolutely love it.
-I wanna keep it. -It has to be sold.
I know. So what do you think?
I mean, first of all, who's gonna buy it?
And how much do you think we're gonna sell it for?
The person who's gonna buy it is us, aren't they?
They're gonna be the same as us,
they're gonna be that person that wants to buy a classic sports car...
-Yeah. -...but wants to use it every day
-and is not frightened to. -You're right.
And as for the price, I was thinking of asking 35 grand for it.
I think it's a very fair price.
-It's a bargain. -It's a lot of car for 35 grand.
It's an absolute bargain for 35 grand.
And I think whoever buys this car,
if they drive it every day and they look after it,
is the same as putting money under the mattress.
They're never gonna lose money out of it,
they're just gonna make money out of it if they look after it.
-Happy with that? -Absolutely.
All right, don't break it 'cause we've gotta sell it,
-so just drive it carefully now. -[laughs]
Well, I always knew it was gonna happen.
Once you advertise one of the country's cheapest Porsche 911s
with the Pasha interior looking like that online,
of course the phone is gonna blow up.
So much so, it started off at £35,000
and during a bidding war, it's ended up at £36,000
and this young man behind me, Brendan,
wants to add a Porsche to his collection.
So that's the price, let's see if he's ready to do a deal.
-So then, Brendan. -How you doing, Mike? You okay?
-Good, mate. What do you think? -Yeah. It's really nice.
-Did you like the way it drove? -Oh, it was unbelievable,
just what I'm after.
-Perfect, isn't it? -Yeah, really nice.
-Elvis has done some great work to it. -Yep.
What do you think of the interior?
It's the one to have, for sure.
-It is, isn't it? -Absolutely. It is.
If you was to say to a... a car-mad little kid,
"Draw me a Porsche,"
-this is the car he's gonna draw. -Exactly that, yeah.
With the whale tail and the Foosh wheels, in red.
Uh, well, mate, as you know, it started off life at 35 grand
and because of the interest, it's now at 36 grand.
Uh, do you wanna stick it in your collection?
-At 36? -Yeah.
I'll have it at 36.
-Yeah? Top man. -Definitely.
Bought yourself a cracking 911. Well done, sir.
-Brilliant. Cheers. -Made a lot of people very, very jealous.
[Mike] Now remember how this car came to us,
it was absolutely in bits.
Uh, but with some clever engineering work from Elvis
and some great fabrication and a bit of canny wheeler dealering from me,
getting a great car at a great price in the first place
and this heated front screen, which you need on a day like this,
we managed to sell the car and we generated a profit.
If you wanna see more iconic cars like this
being turned around by me and Elvis,
then join us again soon on Wheeler Dealers. Ta-lah!