cie_lab

Finally got some pics. I wanted to get some pictures after washing and waxing.

That was over a week ago.

Now the kids are back from vacation and chaos resumes. These pictures are after a week of driving back and forth to work and 2 work-related road trips.

The Burgundy color looks good I think. The sewer lids set it off nicely. It's way better than the original photos the guy took with his camera phone!

useth4z

Nice pics, great color!

Darwantae951

Beautiful car! I'm not a huge fan of the sewer lids, but stunning car none the less! You should get a new coolant expansion tank just to top it off.

-Darwin

cie_lab

Initially I thought the sewer lids would make the car look too sedate, but I've gotten used to them (i.e., too broke for anything else at the moment )

you mean they didn't come faded yellow from the factory???

thanks for the comps

cie_lab

sweet ride!

Riff

Nice grab. Car looks great, what were the problems that made you say it was too good to be true?

judd944

very clean car!

U-30AT

engine bay looks extremly clean!! when are you going to have some of us local NA boys over for a joy ride? i.e. pcarfan944 and the uboat capt

cie_lab

If you recall the original description and Q&A, the guy said no dash cracks.

Wrong. It has the 'usual' small dash cracks. 4 or 5 in the 1/2" range and one 2" crack right in front of the driver. Good thing is that I can't see 'em when I'm driving.

Also, he claimed the interior was 'mint'. While it is in VERY good condition, the seats have normal wear and the outboard 'bolt' has quite a bit of the finish rubbed off. I would consider 'mint' to mean 'perfect'.

He also claimed the a/c worked last time he tried it. I susptected that meant it didn't work and so far that seems to be the case.

I was also a bit freaked when I saw some bondo-like stuff inside the wheelwell in the back, but that turned out to be some sort of factory applied sealant.

I know those are minor things, but it still wasn't as good as described (I was kinda obsessed with the dash crack thing...I'm over that now ) I still feel I got a great deal. The car runs terrific...half a crank and it starts right up. After learning more about these cars over the past month, I'm really happy with this find.

The trip was a bit of an adventure. I rented a car on Friday, got to Detroit on Saturday about 8:30 and met the guy around 9:00. He wasn't what I expected. Middle-eastern kid in his early 20s driving a mid 90s BMW 7 series. He took me to the dealer's house where we picked up the temp sticker. Around 10:00 we were at his shop on the north side of Detroit. The place was dead and not a little bit creepy. The shop was a typical grubby mechanic's garage. Not overly messy, but definitely not what you would imagine as 'Porsche Tech'. BTW, my guess he's not any kind of 'Porsche Tech' whatever that may be.

He gave me the keys and I fired up the car. It actually startled me how quickly the thing seemed to just turn on. I pulled out onto the street and drove it around a little. Everything was very sound. Not even a squeak or a rattle anywhere. When I pulled back into the lot, I did a walk around and noticed there was a 1" chunk of tread sliced down to the chords from the driver's side tire like the car had run over some garage junk. For about a half-second I thought about going back to the rental place and getting a car home, but that's not me. I decided to chance it. He hadn't noticed the problem before. We negotiated the price down accordingly. Good guy to deal with.

After we finished the deal, I pulled out of his lot and people started showing up from all over the place. Like ants. A lot of guys came out of a windowless building right next to his shop. I think it was a mosque.

I headed west through some city streets until I made it to the interstate. I was still a bit disoriented. It felt like I was seated on a skateboard. On the interstate I stepped on it. I was really flying. I looked down at the speeo: 45. Cars were passing me like I was standing still. I finally managed to crank it up to 60 and that's about where it stayed for the whole trip. I had visions of that tire flying apart and adding clearance to the fender. Luckily, the tire held. I replaced it the next day.

The only iffy part was near Madison, WI. The sun was setting so I turned on the lights. Everything seemed ok. At one point out of the corner of my eye I caught a cop hanging back in my blindspot. Then I realized I never actually checked to see if the lights were working. I pulled off at the next exit (the cop kept going) and found out that I had headlights but no taillights, blinkers, or marker lights. I managed to rearrange the working lights so that I could have running lights and made it home without a hitch.

I was back in Minneapolis by 4 a.m. Sunday.

All in all, it was a great experience. The guy has another turbo for sale. This one's an '86 and has lower mileage. It has all options (including headlight washers) which I know isn't an interest to the go-fast guys. It is lightly moddded. It has had some bodywork done but it's pretty straight. I think he said he's selling it with the original Fuchs wheels. He told me he's thinking it will go for around 8k at auction.

If you include the car rental, gas and all the little detail stuff I've picked up since buying the car, I've spent about $700 over the $7k I spent on the car. I think there's an a/c compressor in my future and I plan on having a real Porshce tech go through the car and make sure something isn't about to explode. That whole 'faces of death' thread with wrecked Porsche stuff gives me the heebee jeebees. This car is going to be a semi-daily driver (about 2000-3000 mi/yr) so I need it to be more reliable than some of the cars I've read about around here .

Thanks again for your responses. Thanks to Judd944 for sending me here. I'll be relying on this place a lot. Definitely an amazing amount of knowledge around here.

cie_lab

Thanks man. PM sent.

Lord_Galva

Thats too bad that your "mint car" wasn't. The last 2 cars that I saw they were nearly mint but the owners didn't say so. There was a white 87' 951 with complete records dating back to original sticker, spare parts, complete workshop manual vol 1-7, and I couldn't get financed!
The other one, I bought and I love it. I still get complements on the condition of the car.
Welcome to the club.

boston951

Congrats on the new ride. It is a nice looking car (burgandy is not a color that I often see) and the engine bay is cleaner than most. Enjoy the rest of the Summer

judd944

Glad to hear you are happy with the car!

cie_lab

thanks dude. Part of this is your doing

Oddjob

You MN guys need to bring all your 944s up to BIR next wknd for the PCA Club Race.

www.nordstern.org