Bill Lynch

Hello Fellow Rennlisters - I need some input from those of you educated in art of frame and body repair. The front end of my 87NA was recently recently relocated by a good 7 inches left of center and pushed back at least 2 inches also . Long story short, car was being driven to fast on bad tires on a bad road. wound up in a single car accident involving a curb and a light pole.

I am now faced with a decision - can this frame be salvaged/straightened and be safe for future use or does it become a parts car. To complicate the decision the parts car I have has a good frame but a failed auto trans. That would mean that I would need to covert what I thought would be a parts car to the primary car and put the manual trans into it

Can an auto trans be converted to a manual trans? Which way do I go? On a scale of 1-10 how hard is a transmission coversion (I have tools, time and patience)

bpu699

Anything can be fixed. It costs money. Proper frame and body repair could be 3000-5000$. Based on the value of a 944, not worth it. That is now a $500 parts car...

If the other car is in good shape, work with that.. I would the the motor and trans would carry over pretty easily.

Good luck.

FRporscheman

It's not worth it to fix it. It can be fixed, and if you find a good skilled shop to do it, it can even end up looking perfect from outside (maybe). But it'll look ugly underneath, and the metal will be weaker if you ever crash it again.

Converting an auto to a manual is not hard. Definitely cheaper to convert your parts car than fix your driver. Just my point of view. Does the parts car have good paint?

odonnell

Are you still in Houston, Bill? I have an engine crane and am happy to lend a hand if you want to swap everything over. Great time to do a clutch job too

Bill Lynch

To all

thank you for your replies, kind of confirms what I was coming to believe. The crash was too severe to safely bring it back to life. So I guess I'll start a new thread shortly - my conversion of two rather ratty 944's into a reasonably nice DD.

I only recently retrieved mine from west Texas where it had spent the better part of the last year and where it met its demise. Upon disassembly of the damaged car (gold) it became obvious that my initial impression of the damage was a bit optimistic (I had received a couple of pictures in a text).

Given my underestimation I bought the parts car off Ebay thinkiing I was just going to swap out some sheet metal. The purchase was very recent and I haven't even seen it yet. Its located in Tulsa is blue and I'll be picking it up on 7/5. I bought it for $666 (Hmm something about that number) and was described as having a bad auto trans linkage, bad igition switch, no HVAC control unit and a less than pretty interior. I'm not expecting much more than a straight body. So, a new adventure begins. Will give me something to do now that all the kids have left the house.

To answer some questions, the paint on the new car is not so good, so when all is said and done with mechanicals I plan to learn a new skill, how to paint. I'm looking forward to it.

Michael - Thank you for the note, and I will be happy to accept any help you are willing to provide. I'm not ready to do a megasquirt change over yet but pulling the trans and engine is new to me, so experience and an extra set of hands would be awesome. Its sad that the pretty car you saw by is now headed for the scrap heap. I will preserve and transfer most of the interior as I really like the script seats. The final product will be a dark blue exterior over a tan script interior. While I'm in there I'll likely have the dash redone too as it looks like your experience there has been favorable.

Thanks for the inputs - Bill

odonnell

Definitely no need for a megasquirt. if I were you, I'd just simply swap over the driveline as-is...harness and all. Late care to late car is staighforward... motor, trans, torque tube, instrument cluster, clutch hydraulics and pedal. Sell one DME, other engine, and the messed up shell for $666+.

Jay Wellwood

This should be an interesting build/resurrection thread.

FRporscheman

Sounds like fun actually! I'm not close enough to physically help but I can offer motivation - it may seem like a lot of work, but just treat it step by step because each step by itself won't be hard.

Don't scrap the other car (or any parts) until you have the new car finished and driving!

Dash01

Beyond economic repair. Even if fixed, the color is not particularly popular, and to match it you'd need a complete respray.

Salvage what you can from the wreck, spend the insurance money on a Turbo or at least an S2, which hold value much better than an NA 944.

Bill Lynch

Well I really like these cars and I'd hate to see two get parted out. So I am going to move forward with the conversion. And turn two bad ones into one mediocre one (or better hopefully) Picking up the new car tomorrow. Started pulling parts from the wreck today and hope to have the transmission and toque tube out by Sunday. I'll likely take the engine out through the bottom hopeful illy by the end of July

As for taking the insurance money - nice thought but no collision. My son new the risks when I handed it over to him. While I'm not a big fan of blue, that's what we got and that's what we'll stick with.

Let the fun begin - and yes I'll write up the conversion in another thread.

thirdgenbird

That actually sounds like fun. If a guy had the time and space, you could set them side by side strip both down, and rebuild a single car with the best from both.