zabak80

I have always loved Porsches, from my 944 T to my brothers 911 and Boxster. I had to switch to BMW for a few years but have recently just rekindled my love affair with the original Porsche 911 styling. My favorite thing to do in my entire life was to drive my brothers 911...NOTHING ELSE. And I still miss it every day of my life.

When I saw the Singer 911 last year, my passion was ignited again. I just realized how much I love the classic 911 and I WANT a Singer 911.

I need to get some opinions on if this is financially feasible and possible, since I realize anything is possible WITH money. I would say my budget is between $10,000 and $20,000.

About 10 years ago, my brother purchased a 1978 911 sc. Had it stripped down, repainted, threw a 1989 Carrerra 4 3.2 engine (I think) in it and put a special transmission to match. The project through a mechanic took like 9 months.

Anyways, the thing flew. Like, faster than last gen. M3 fast. I still don't know what specific engine was transplanted or what was done to it, but I would blow away muscle cars off the line. Nothing really could compete with it 10 years ago.

Back to my question. My brother pretty much abandoned it when he moved across country, it sat outside for a couple years without running and was recently put into a garage for storage.

It has some rust, probably would need a new paintjob.

This is what I would like to do with it:

1. Take out the engine and have it running again by a professional mechanic. Maybe add some performance aspect to make it even quicker? Get everything working mechanically. I would LIKE to add some performance aspects to the 1989 3.2 engine to bring it up to par with today's cars. What can be done and how much would it cost?

2. Repaint the car. Either do a complete color change to white, or keep it guards red with just a respray fixing the rust.

3. Add the 911 RS front bumper (not the long hood and fenders, just a bumper), add the rear bumper eliminating the God awful reflector, adding the dove tail, adding the vinyl effects, replacing stock side mirror with retro chromed, making sure all chrome pieces are in good shape.

4. Interior: take out AC and radio, get rid of carpets, keep everything pretty much stock, add some retro looking Recaro seats. Interior would be last on my list, I would go for performance and exterior first...custom interior later on.

So basically, how much to get a 3.2 engine / 911 that has been neglected for 7 years running again, get the tranny ok and the other mechanical aspects, and do either 1. a complete respray or 2. complete color change.

Thoughts?

This is assuming I pay nothing for the car.

ivangene

too many variables, no way to answer the question - could be $3k to $20+k

privatepang

Find out what you have before asking.

Its all guess work. Your bro should know which motor he put in there..

500

Wide range...

"Some rust" on these cars nearly always will mean "more rust". They have a lot of nooks and crannies. Rust repair and a truly good (good as in close-to-factory) paint job will be a $7 to $10K proposition if you can find a shop that prices very reasonably and the rust repair is not too involved. In other words, consider that estimate a floor, rather than a ceiling...

On the mechanical side it can be all over the map. However, an older SC will likely need a fair amount of basic wear and tear maintenenance (i.e. bushings etc). Easily I would expect a couple of thousand... if you are lucky.

zabak80

Yes, it was a 1989 Carrera 4 engine. It was so large to put into the 911 sc body that they had to flex it open for it to fit.

zabak80

Well the car was completely redone about 13 years ago: new engine, tranny, pretty much everything. It was a complete tear down at the time. Mechanically it would be considered low miles at the time.

The rust is just mostly front quarter. Everywhere else is good.

theiceman

wow too much yak not enough pics

zabak80

Just was looking for some ballpark figures.

Would it cost $10,000 to restore a basic engine or $30,000?

Just looking for people's experiences in this. How much did it cost people to restore an old 82 911 barn find that didn't run in 20 years?

theiceman

i didnt even know there was such a thing as a 1989 Carrera 4 . I always thought the 89 was a 3.2 and the 90 was a 3.6 , but i guess it could be an early run 3.6 ? they wouldnt have to do anything to put a 3.2 into an SC so if your story is true about shoehorning it in it would have to be a 3.6. which would also fit fine i think actually.

Ed Hughes

That's nonsense. You can fit any air-cooled 911 motor in without having to "flex" anything. Somebody is feeding you BS. That would have to be a 964 engine, maybe in the 250-260hp range stock.

You talk about stoplight performance. That isn't really what these cars are about-it is the total package. If you want to run in the arms race of today's cars, budget $25k to redo a stock motor. Add another $3k for brakes to stop it. Then, you'll probably want to take some corners fast, so add another $2-5k for suspension, depending on how far you want to go.

Ed Hughes

Famous last words. That is all that is showing. As 500 says, expect more. Keep in mind that by this time, bodies were galvanized, and pretty damn corrosion resistant. If you're showing rust, that is pretty advanced.

911Dave

Yep, the 964 body style C4 was offered alongside the outgoing 3.2 Carrera in model year 1989.

911Dave

god awful reflector, sir? Most of us around here LOVE the reflector.

You mean duck tail, not dove tail, LOL.

My thoughts are that you are looking at 10k easily, and that's if you pay for paint only and do all the rest yourself. As with most projects, it will likely take more time and money than you anticipate, so be ready for that.