Checking in again, car is taped and prepped. Told then again no rush, one of the benefits of no rush is they can take the time to prep it right.


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I'll give them this, they are doing a *lot* of work on this old beast. The little tiny dings, divots, and such as well as the crunched things like the spoiler.

We'll see in a week or two...

Very cool! Do you know how they're going to deal with the sunroof seal? Removed or taped? I'm looking forward to hearing your impression about the quality of their tape work, because I think if it's done really well, these cars should be able to get a quality paint job without doing glass out. At least that's what I'm hoping when it comes time to do mine!

Also, when it's all done and cleaned up, you might consider a new hood liner from 944online (I think they're the ones that sell it). Not too expensive and will really spruce up the look of your engine bay.:cheers:

I asked them today if they wanted me to pull the sunroof and the seal and they said it would be easier to get everything level with it in. So we'll see how it looks. If stupid I'll just pop off the sunroof, take it apart, and have them redo it. Still, the amount of filling and cleaning up of said sunroof was impressive (it was falling to bits from age).

Frankly I'll be impressed with anything at this point, as the car looked so bad it was an embarrassment. We'll see what we get and for how much, and I'll be sure to post pics.

Drove by the Maaco today and the car was out in the lot. They're in the process of wet sanding it, it's getting there.
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They said they would probably redo the hood as there are still a few small dents they want to get out. My guess is it was 30 years of acorns falling on the car, need to think about that. But progress.

To be honest if this wind up costing what they quoted me I will be stunned. It's a *LOT* of work to do.

Hmm, that is scary. How could they proceed to paint without thoroughly checking the entire body for imperfections? The only time you should need to "redo the hood" is if there was a problem with the paint applied to the hood, not for more bodywork. This "miss" costs them and you money and time.

I think they did a pretty good job in finding imperfections, given the before and during I can see a lot of work done. Maybe they just want to make it perfect as possible.

Should be interesting to see the final cost. I haven't approved any extensions to the original estimate, although I think they've done a lot more than what I originally was expecting. If you look at the before pictures we can agree it was a basket case (and I pretty much ignored things like a million acorn divots).

C

I once had a Datsun Roadster painted at a Maaco and they stuck with the original quote even though they really went above and beyond with the bodywork, prep and color matching. Maybe they're just happy to do something other than another tweaked Camry fender. Anyway, I'm excited for you and I look forward to seeing the finished results of your rejuvenated old friend.

I would have to agree with the above comment. They are probably happy to be working on something with a little class... And I agree that they’re probably sticking to their original quote. Doing your car up right is good advertisement for them. There’s not a lot of shops that will touch a paint job on a 944. Just a shame that they didn’t correct the hood before painting it.
Good luck and keep updating us.

The operative in that is "little" not much class, just a little. I would guess the class is limited to the only Porsche part in the car, the motor - which they are not working on. The rest of the car is VW/Audi and we know those two have no class. None at all.

The Lexus SC next to the 944 - that's high class. High society high class. Just look at the little tree hanging. First class high class.

The Boxster - Meh! More Toyota than the Lexus. No class. OK, a little class. But not 991 class.

That's pretty much it: When I look at the in-between pictures and see how much work they did with the rust in the stone chip areas, the endless sanding of that junk factory paint, the rebuild of the sunroof, not to mention filling dozens of dents from acorns I have to think that this is getting my $2500 or so worth. The longer they spend on it, the better it will look.

Big #1 reason why I tell them no hurry and not to rush. If I wanted it in a week they would have probably done it quickly. For now they seem to be trying to do a good job and given the basket case condition of the thing it's not bad. Jeff Shaw was saying it would cost 12-14k for him to paint. Fair enough, my dad spent that on his 68 1 owner 911L. But that car is worth well north of 100k, and the job is flawless. This 944S is worth about $50 bucks so anything will be an improvement :-)

I'll give them another two weeks and drop by again. If nothing else this is entertaining and it's much better than looking at the wreck it was in my driveway.

The guys there seem to love it. They really also like the 928S when I bring that over to check on things, it's a pretty unusual car but of course it's also not a real Porsche :-)

Now a 914 (ducks)

We got $400 for our 944S with the blown motor. The near new track pads and S2 sway bars were probably worth $350 to the buyer.

That's about it. For some reason people are weird about the 944S and I don't quite understand why: It's almost as fast as a Turbo without the extra wear and tear on the engine, takes off like a rocket at 3k RPM, and if you keep the timing belt in good shape will last until the chain tensioner pads break at which point the head explodes.... And that's just a simple head rebuild, but belts don't really break anymore since they went to the -02 style...

So what did in your car?

I got to ask, what happened to the gas cap door? It was in the before pictures, but not in the most recent ones. Are they doing that off on the side since it is plastic?

They're doing it on the side.