• Drivers Manual
• Super 90 supplement to the Drivers Manual
• booklet on folding the convertible top
• booklet produced by Drauz on caring for the body and paint
• service coupon book (not 88205 though)
• original Porsche binder to hold it all
• original Kardex

History

I don't have the full history of 88205. It's recent history is kind of interesting. It was discovered in the Upper Midwest by a car flipper from Seattle. Here is what he wrote me in an email when I inquired about the car:

A little bit on the history. The car was in a private collection of an older gentleman who had numerous collector cars, and the car was kept in its original condition essentially needing restoration. It was not driven for many years, rather it was stored in his large warehouse, gathering dust.

The previous owner knew this gentleman from a business relationship he had. He was invited to see the collection of cars and other collectable items in the warehouse, and fell in love with the roadster, and told the owner he planned to buy it. Well, it was not for sale, and it took years to talk the owner into selling it. They had become friends at this point. He brought the car home where it was stored, still painted the white color it had since the 1970's.

The owners wife, who is a most charming and interesting lady, had a contact with an auto restorer in the area, and under pretense of fixing the brakes or something, brought the car over to be restored over period of I believe 4 months. She somehow hoodwinked her husband into some story of why the car was not returned for so long. On the owners birthday, she drove the car at night the 20 miles or so to her house, and garaged the car, and tied a big red bow around it, and presented the restored car to her husband on his birthday! He loved the car.

Well, there's a fair amount of puffery in that. Initially, the car was a huge disappointment. When I got it, the paint, which might have been an attempt at Ruby Red, was a kind of candy apple red. The cockpit was full of gas from a badly leaking fuel cock. And it absolutely would not run. I think the car flipper who sold it to me thought he had really pulled one off by selling it to me.

Getting It Running

After digging a little deeper, things were better than they first appeared. As it turned out, the fuel system was full of water. I cleaned things out and the car started right up and ran strong. There was other good news as well. The car had an early, original Nardi steering wheel in nice condition. I didn't know much about Nardi wheels at that time, but a friend advised me that it was pretty rare. So I sent it to Jack Arct in Portland and he worked his refurbishing magic on it. In any event, while the various components were in pretty shabby condition, they were all there -- the car was substantially original and complete. I came to realize how unmolested it was later when I realized that it had all of original and correct size fasteners on it.

It drove so well that I decided to restore it. I started with the mechanical and rebuilt the fuel system and the brakes. I dropped the engine and torn it down to the case. The rods looked tight and there had been no signs of problems with the bottom end, so I more or less just cleaned and painted everything and put it all back together with new seals and gaskets. A friend (the Bend Solex Medicine Man) sold me a pair of after-market split-shaft Solex's (that have since been rebuilt by Harry Bieker of Bieker Engineering). We did all the tune-up procedures -- and the car ran well.

Restoration

It still looked odd though, with its candy apple red paint. I sent it to a body shop in Long Beach, California for body and paint work, a process that took about a year. Next I sent the car to Thomas' Auto Interiors, a one man shop in San Diego. Thomas is a highly-skilled craftsman who does Pebble Beach level concours work and currently heads up the Interior Department at Symbolic Motors in La Jolla, California. He installed a dark navy blue interior using Connolly leather (no longer available) and a dark navy blue cloth top. Thomas also sent out everything that needed replating to the shop that he has used over the years. The result exceeded my expectations.

Final assembly was done here in Bend at the Audette Garage.

Undercarriage Restoration

The undercarriage restoration was done by the Audette Garage. I'm posting a list here of the work done to help others who are comptemplating a similar project.

Summary

The Mouse is of my favorite all-time cars. It was a pleasure to work on over the years and it was kind of bitter-sweet to have finished its restoration. One I wish I had kept.