If a car from the seventies manages to survive for more than 40 years, there is a reason for that. It’s just not happening without one or more circumstances that are specifically extraordinary. Taking it from here:

Terry’s 911 survived because first it was a summer car, because then it became part of a collection and wasn’t used for daily businesses and finally because after that, it was operated in Texas where the sun doesn’t stop shining and salt on the streets seems as weird as salt in your coffee.
Europe and especially Germany have fallen in love with classic 911s in the past ten years and that means that hundreds and thousands of US cars were reimported to accommodate the demand. So was Terry’s 911. The whole import business was carried out by a Dutch company and from late January 2017 on it stood on the yard of a Northern German 911 specialist.
The 911 certainly is a quality car, but 40 years, you will not be able to argue them away. It accumulated a fair amount of scratches and dents, sealings were dry and brittle, behind the scenes the whole thing was quite filthy.

Breakdown lurked in the injection, the ignition, the countless rubber parts and plastic tubes of the engine, the brakes, the suspensions and the electrical system.

The brake booster was leaky, the steering column showed failures, the roof had wholes and the oil tank wouldn’t resist rust very much longer. Of course the exhaust system and the heaters were end of lifetime.

Not to mention the US bumpers and head lights, the tiny wheels and the fact that it stood far too high from the ground.

Was I disappointed? In fact I wasn’t. Buying a 911S 2.7 from the US for about 45 grand, this is what you get. You need to be aware that this is where it starts and not where it ends. Stay tuned and see Terry’s 911 come back to beauty.

13 additional images. Click to enlarge.