Per Schroeder

We started block sanding our 911 this week, after letting the 2k primer cure for about 10 days.  

We trailered our 911 down to a buddy's paint booth for a long weekend of work.  We got the car scuffed, blasted and masked—ready for its first coats of new paint.  

While we were at European Collectibles last month, we got a chance to crawl under an original early 911 that was getting a very sympathetic cleaning.  It's really neat to hear about barnfinds like this—and even cooler to see it in person.  We shot some pictures of the underside to show how the cars look in unrestored, yet good condition.    

We're continuing our work on the 1973 911, including pulling the windows out in preparation for paint. 

We recently visited Willhoit Auto Restoration in California and shot some pictures of a stunning 1973 911S that had received a full restoration by Nate Cantwell. We were particularly impressed with the level of detail—which is typical of a Willhoit restoration. These guys make even garden variety nuts and bolts look fantastic.

We're still chipping (well, grinding) away at our 911 to get it back to the original paint surface where we can.  Portions of the car are back to bare steel.   We're taking care to remove all previous filler so we can start fresh.  

We get the pedal cluster back in our 911 and continue on the preparation for paint.  

We sponsor the 356 Club of Southern California's Dana Point Concours every year and this year's event was an impressive success.  Here's a selection of our shots from the event—what a beautiful crop of cars! 

Initially, we thought we were just going to get this car running and leave the paint as-is.  However, we're starting to go down that slippery slope towards a full restoration. As Br'er Rabbit would say, "Please don't throw us in that briar patch..."

It can be said that the enemy of "done" is "better." and we occasionally hear this phrase when we're talking about Porsche restorations.  While at first, this might seem like a defeatist attitude, the truth of the matter is that this idea could be applied realistically to even best concours-winning restorations. The trick is to know when to recognize that you're going overboard and deal with it.