Iceman, it is true we all love the horror stories as long as they are someone elses.

John

1990 964 C4 aka "Baby"

 

..too true ..... did i ever tell you about when I turned my airbox into a fireball

 

Just wait for a good car. If you weren't so far away, you should look at my Weissach. It has 80k on it, but it just came back from a complete repaint @ $6k and I still have to put the bumpers/valences back on. The engine is out as my mechanic is doing a complete rebuild as the heads were loose. He said it had the worst popping he's ever heard. The front seats and dash are at the upholstery shop for new leather from GAHH and so on and so on. lol

 

Thanks for all of the great advice and special thanks to you Peter for writing a book that no potential buyer of a 911 should be without. I drove a 1982 911 SC today which had the top and bottom rebuilt and am seriously considering it. I have driven a half dozen 911's and this car not only sounded good, but pulled me along like no other 911 I have driven in the last several months, not even a 3.2 Liter Carrera G50 Targa that I drove first. No, it's not the perfect car cosmetically, needing some work on the Targa top (tear), the door seals, the paint, the front rubber "smile", the seats, etc., but for the price I think its one I am willing to work with. If the deal goes through and the PPI checks out, I can spend the next several years making it both an excellent driver and a good looking one on top of that. I'll post more info about the car if things move forward in the next several days...wish me luck and good judgment on this, my first potential 911 purchase.

 

You're on the right track with the PPI. I foolishly bought a car that had a rebuild w/ 2k on it. The shop was well known for working on Porsches, but there was a leak that bothered me. So, my mechanic took a look and saw some things he didn't like. The motor came out and the headers were sent out for repairs as it had some cracks at the welds. Then upon closer inspection, the oil line feeding the turbo looked suspect as it was "repaired" with fuel hose and hose clamps. The heads were loose and leakdown was bad on 2 cylinders. They tightened the studs and cleaned up the blow by and got it down to under 10%, but I told him let's do it right. The motor came apart and we found a few nicks on a cam, so they were sent out for a regrind. The valve guides were loose and they were also using the old style stock seals instead of the teflon ones. The whileyoureinthereitis really got to me so we did even more to the motor.

The moral of the story? Just because the motor was rebuilt doesn't mean it was done right!

 

Can you scan & post the "rebuild" invoices so I can read them? Also, post the VIN and Engine number so we can check if everything is OK that way.

 

Hello, the VIN # is: WP0EA0915CS160771

If someone has the access to run this VIN #, would you let me know if you find anything I should be aware of (title issues, accidents, etc.) I have not signed up yet since my CarFax.com access expired last month. I've also heard there are better sources for information out there other than CarFax.com

Thank you all in advance for any of your comments and advice.

btw, I don't have the copies of the actual receipt from the engine rebuild, but I will be getting it before I move forward. I actually spoke with the mechanic who did the rebuild and he was the one who suggested this might be a good first Porsche for me because he has done some work on it himself over the years. You may or may not know of Bob Farmer of Farmer Automotive, but I understand he has a really good reputation in Indiana and works almost exclusively on air-cooled 911's. When I started shopping around locally, half the people I spoke to who were selling their 911's had had work done by Bob and I have spoken with him a couple of times about my interest in a solid machine for a first Porsche.

Again, thank you in advance for your advice on this machine.

Jeff

 

If I were shopping for cars, I'd renew my Carfax subscription.

 

Does anyone have any strong opinion on which source, Carfax or Autocheck has better or more complete information? I've tried CarFax for two months of my search now and some of the cars I searched on had very little information and I was never able to obtain any of the police reports from the authorities on the couple of vehicles I was interested in that had been involved in accidents to try to understand the extent of possible damage and where to look for it. According to the people I spoke to in Ohio or Florida, maybe both, they are only required to maintain the records of traffic incidents five years. Kind of frustrating when the seller indicates he either has no knowledge of the accident or has no repair receipts from it. I may have missed out on several good cars because of the lack of information available because I have just been walking away from these cars. Can anyone tell me if AutoCheck might offer more valuable info than CarFax.com?

 

Wag- If you're in Indy and need a PPI - one word = "Farler"
But you probably already knew that.

Edit - yes, "Farmer" will do also.

 

Can't comment on Autocheck, but Carfax is really just an initial sorting mechanism to weed out anything with an obviously questionable history.

In those situations where the issue is just a dearth of information, then a very good PPI from a knowledgable individual should be able to detect if the car has been repaired from significant damage.

In truth, it is most of the time pretty obvious, if you have a good feel for how these cars go together and how they look.

Trouble is, getting that experience BEFORE owning one...

One thought that may help you pre-screen candidates better than you already are is to go to that good 911 mechanic you know of and pay for an hour of his time to have him put a 911 up on a lift and give you a walking tour of what you should be seeing. This, in conjunction with Peter's book that you already have, may help narrow the field so that the cars you do take to the PPI level are already pretty nice candidates. Just a thought.

 

Looks like the main issue with this car is with the odometer reading. There's an interesting story behind it. From what I understand, at some point the original odometer failed and had to be replaced. When the current owner purchased the car from the last owner he added the mileage found on both odometers when he reported it to the BMV. As a result, the mileage on the vehicle is red flagging as not the actual mileage on the car. The car itself runs really well, but I'm not entirely certain now if I should move forward with this sale because I may have the same trouble the current owner is having selling it if I ever want to sell it myself. The Autocheck report I ran looks clean with an accident-free history and I think I will run a CarFax report as well, but I'm more than a little concerned about the issue with the mileage. Has anyone here had any experience purchasing a car with an odometer problem and then trying to resell it down the road?

 

don't have experience with this issue .. but ...

Depending on how the car is priced and how you feel about it and what the PPi comes back with . that is what i would go by. You can have cars with 100,000 miles that are in way worse condition than cars with 200,000 miles in my opinion.
Cars as a rule are not good " investments " . I buy cars for the fun and enjoyment of owning , not " how much can I sell this for" and what will be the issues on selling .
i do understand your point however, but if you plan on keeping this car for a long time I would think twice about letting this issue stop you.

I would not sweat this issue on a $12 K car , but I might on a $40 K car ,,,, so it all depends I guess

Good luck

 

An extremely competent PPI technician should be able to alleviate some of your fears regarding mileage. There are items on these cars that occur, from car to car, at similar mileages. That said, an exquisitely maintained car (cosmetically and mechanically) might never reflect its true mileage, and wouldn't matter.

Excellent post...

FYI: Many years ago my shop replaced a speedo with a new unit that zeroed the mileage. The part included a sticker on which to record the existing mileage, and put the sticker on a door post. I seem to remember that this procedure was the law (Fed or state?), but I can't clearly remember what we did. It might be worth a call to your local DMV to see what's required.

 

As of 2:00 PM, I was the proud owner of a new-to-me 1982 Guards Red SC Targa. It needs some front end repainting due to oxidation and very minor corrosion that has crept in over the last 10 years that can be treated, some new rubber seals here and there, a Targa top refurbishment ($450), new carpet kit, new seat leather, and some better speakers, but she's still my dream car. I could be wrong because I've only read a couple of descriptions and color pictures, but I believe I just might have an RS America-style tail on this car, not a stock 911SC tail. I'm going to do some more research and read up on what I can perform myself, but I'm going to put a regular SC deck lid on it until I can get the tail rubber replaced. I'll post some pictures to wrap up this thread in the next couple of days, but I'm really looking forward to bringing this car back to life cosmetically. Thanks to all for the great advice I have received in this thread.