Franco44

A subject near and dear to my heart. Just had my pan done this Spring by a restoration shop in New England. Plenty of experience with Porsches. Had to purchase U-shaped pan, lateral support on drivers side, some of the inner fender beyond the seam( flat area under the battery so it rotted), front gas tank support and battery tray. Parts were about $1,000 from Restoration Designs in Canada. The labor was another whole story. Suspension not dropped. Feels good to have that solid. Front of driver side A arm was floating around.

vs1383

Thanks for sharing your experience, Franco - I know each repair is different but can you share how many hours of labor it took to get all the replacements. I am getting a broad range of estimates from 15 hours to 40 hours so trying to benchmark here.

Franco44

Yeah I would imagine you would get guesses all over the place. I went to a shop north of Boston run by two young guys. Car enthusiasts but never got back to me. Initially said about $6,000(guess) with dropping the suspension but like I mentioned never got back to me. Ran into a guy at a car show up in NH that was about 70 that claimed he had done the job before. Talked the good talk but again did not get back to me. I had a sense that its a big enough job or maybe too involved. Maybe they just want to do simple stuff and move on.
Was at a small car show and met a guy with a 356 that came out of Paul Russell in Essex Mass(look up the name sometime). Mentioned I should stop in (not that they would stoop to do this job) and ask whom they would recommend. Gave me the number of a former employee that had a restoration shop. Not a body shop - a restoration shop($). This place was about two towns away and got me in in March of this year and had the car about 3 weeks. I spoke to them last fall and the estimate on time was in May or June 2024. I was happy I could drive there and stop in at will to see progress and talk to the owner(more $). He would not give me an estimate as he couldn’t know the extent of the rust. Looking at it in a cursory manner he estimated at least a week (so 40 hrs). Being around cars and shops for a while ( a friend has one) I thought may X 1.50 of his guesstimate. Now this guy had MANY Porsches in his shop and storage that he had worked on. 356s, 911, MB 280SLs, etc. (still more $$). To cut to the chase his labor, materials, paint etc was just over $10,000 (he got $115/hr). I think he billed about 82 hours including paint. I was glad I was sitting down! I was swimming in the deep end with guys that had lots of $$ and this guy was used to that. It was still quite a bit more that I expected but I felt I had a guy that knew what he was doing, was very professional, treated my car and me very well and did a nice clean job. Biggest plus was that he had lots of experience and that ain’t cheap. I also had little confidence in other folks I talked to.
For reference my battery had leaked and rotted through the battery pan, front gas tank support below it, side support, suspension pan below that then travelled across the depression in the pan that goes left to right(why not right?) and over to the other side but that side wasn’t too bad. Also had crossed the seam weld between the pan and the lower inner fender as its flat there before it goes up 90 degrees. Spot welds had to be drilled out, new piece fabricated etc. Part of side support on drivers side had to be cut out and replaced as that is layered in by the battery as well. I’m sure I paid too much but when you see how the parts are stacked together and the collective damage a battery can do over 40 years it puts a new perspective on it. I watched all of the videos and read all of the forums like you are and I applaud the guys that can do this themselves… Since you are in Cali.you probably have more options. I’ll bet you get something in between the $5,000 Mark mentioned and the $10,000 I paid. Just find a shop that has done a few. Don’t let them charge you to “learn” how to do it. Restoration Design was a good place to buy from. Had parts in stock, nice folks to deal with and got everything quickly. Good luck and let us know what you decide and how you get on.
Frank

Extent of rust beyond the pan into the inner fender across seam weld

Partial pan and side support/rail before front gas tank support

Passenger side

Inner fender well and side support drilled out

Dr. 914

If only one side, I would buy a new pan and cut in half. We install them all of the time here, and only replace the area as necessary