Butters944

Ask for a picture of the option code sticker... Never know what special goodies it may have...

And mmm, I like copenhagen blue on 944s...

67King

This car is good for two options:
1. A ground up, concours restoration
2. A parts car

I'd offer him $1000. And if by "how much would it cost tp repair" you mean "how much will Acme Porsche Repair charge me to fix it" then you need to run. There is absolutely no way anyone not capable of fixing these cars should buy a cheap one.

Voith

Take a mechanic with you and let him do leakdown and compression test.

If cylinders are making good compression, buy it, fix it, paint it and love it.

If compression is bad or something is fishy in this department, walk away.

Dutch944

I would say spot on!
A friend of mine also has a leaky heat exchanger and his oil is also filled with coolant and his coolant is filled with oil. So next week we're exchanging the gaskets and everything will be fine. But ofcourse it could be the headgasket but the changes of it being a headgasket against the headexchangergasket are way slimmer!

And ofcourse, paint, my paintjob was done for 3800 euros, so about 5k$, but it was really rusty and for just the welding they charged €900.. So when the car looks like this, i would say about 2000 euros!

67King

There are huge variances in the cost of a paint job. I painted mine, myself, and I had $1500 in materials alone in the cost of it. And since paint is a petrleum based product, as the cost of oil increases, the cost of paint goes up, too.

hacker-pschorr

+1 except I would start at $750.

IMO most 944/928 project cars that need paint are parts cars unless you can do 100% of the body / paint work yourself (or a friend that does materials only).
A Porsche factory quality job can and usually costs more than most 951's are worth.

There are exceptions when the car is really rare, but 99.9% don't fall into that category.

Rod bearings could still be bad from coolant contamination in the oil.

Buying a car like this you have to assume the engine is toast or you are better off dropping your money on the roulette table.

Voith

Changing rod bearings is not that bad and should be done when buying old turbo car anyway. In my opinion atleast..
Dealing with bent rods and shot cylinders/pistons however is a major pain.

I doubt that much water would leak in the engine since the engine tends to blow out.


btw: in EU petroleum based colors are banned. Only water based colors can be used..

hacker-pschorr

Could be, that's why it's a gamble. Hence my comment about the roulette table.

Yes it could just be condensation, made worse by not being brought up to temp in 2 years (sorry, a "freeway loop" probably isn't fully warming up the oil).
He would have been better off just parking it for 2 years.

So again, what is it worth? Assume it's going to end up a parts car and base your offer on that.

divil

Then walk away! Low mileage on our cars just means "overpriced".

I mean...think about it: what is low mileage supposed to mean? It is presumed to be a "good thing" because it's an indication of a car being well preserved. But you can see this car hasn't been well preserved at all. Trust your eyes, not the odometer - even if the odometer is correct. Somewhere along the line low mileage has become an end unto itself, instead of an indicator of some real, desirable factor.

theiceman

FYI
since 2000 paint has been water based due to environmental and health concerns. it is called 2k paint. Still .. the labour will kill you unless you strip it down yourself.

67King

In most states, oil based paints still make up the entirety of the aftermarket. Only a few "green" states like CA and MA require water based paints. And even then, it is only the basecoats and primers that are water based. I've painted three cars (including the white track car you see to your left - which was what I spent $1500 in materials on a few years ago), a car interior, and some body panels since 2000, most recently last Summer, all of the time using petroleum based paints.

PeteL

Paint prices do vary....I had my car, which had some rear end damage, completely repainted for 2000.
Pics of the work can be seen in my albums:

https://rennlist.com/forums/members/...o-the-944.html

https://rennlist.com/forums/members/...ished-car.html

Cole

I'd disagree a bit. Too many times people pay a premium for a car that has old worn out parts in it.

There can be a very pleasant happy middle ground to your two options.

For example. I found a car that had a bad clutch(among other things) so the car was purchased at a deep discount. This allowed me to spend the differnce on a performances clutch I would have bought anyway.

So instead of paying a premium for things like "okay" paint, you save money on the initial purchase and get to repaint it better anyway.

I think a lot of owners paid a premium for old, high mileage cars expecting them to be problem free. Then think they are money pits when they have to replace old parts.

carlege

agreed on all accounts.

Cole

To the OP. If you want to put the time into it and the price is right. This could be a good opportunity. It's all about perspective.

These cars are truly hard to find in pristine perct working condition.

I bought mine with nearly everything wrong with it because I wanted to change nearly everything about it. In the end I have a a ton of upgrades and performance parts at a fraction of the cost to those that started with a much more expensive car.