Porsche 911 : Guide to Purchase and DIY Restoration (Foulis Motoring Book)

There's a reasonably good section on troublesome areas to watch out for before you buy one, and a very brief history of the model. These sections are finished off with a series of random 911 photographs with some of the stupidest captions ever written. This is a British book, and it shows; the mechanical aspects of the car always come second to the dreaded rust and where to find it (answer = everywhere on early 911s).

The main part of the text is taken up with a very comprehensive chapter on body restoration - if welding up old cars is your idea of a great week-end, you'll love it! There really is a huge amount of information here, and the authors really seem to know what they are talking about. They even cover jobs such as head-liner replacement, and the dreaded windscreen replacement.

Its followed by a shorter chapter on rebuilding the engine, which has some helpful photographs and some good information. Its really more of an over-view though, as the 911 engine isn't something you can rebuild in a couple of afternoons, nor explain in less than 100 pages.

The remainder of the book is devoted to random jobs, such as fixing the electrically operated mirrors.

Anyone who has an old 911 is likely to find this a useful and informative book, but unfortunately there's an awful lot of missing information, for example minor components such as the transmission and differential barely get a mention.