CountryBoy

I was given a 1979 928, I was taken off the front suspension to update the usual, shocks, bushings and brakes and discovered some bad news.

Apparently the car had been wrecked or had been damage somehow.

You can see the area between the upper control arm that has been bent up and welded on.
I've included photos of both sides.
Is this repairable? If so who would you recommend in the South West Florida Area?
What should I expect the cost to be?
I've been slowly removing all hoses, wiring, fuel lines, fuel tank, etc trying to make it a reliable driver.
So I have a good bit of time into it and purchased quite a bit of parts....so I'm attached and need an objective opinion.
Also the paint job is really nice, but it would be really nice to remove the front fenders. They look pretty easy to remove, but didn't want to damage the paint or the fenders, do you guys routinely remove the front fenders?



Damaged driver side, should mounting areas be in the same plane?


Damaged driver side


Normal Passenger Side


Normal Passenger Side


Normal Passenger Side

Ducman82

not knowing whats happened... who knows. does the lower controller arm fit? was the alignment good? i see cars all the time where the front lower CA mount it bent out a tad from the subframe due to hitting something. but you can get the alignment pretty darn close. thats your true tell. alignment. might be ugly, but it might work....

otherwise that subframe is trash = no idea if that can be fixed right.

Mrmerlin

call up 928 intl buy a used chassis with a title and swap over your parts 1/2 price sale

CountryBoy

Yea I don't know, it had been sitting a long time. I got it running before deciding to really work on it. But it need new master cylinder, clutch master and slave so I never really took it for a drive.

CountryBoy

Thanks, I'll give them a call.

nosnow

Looks like there was a fire. Have you scrapped the melted plastic off to see if the metal is okay? Might just need to put new under coating and get a new control arm along with associated plastics in that area. Also check your wires and brake hose if it was a fire. .

Looks like my 86, in my case I think the car was parked on grass or something that caught fire. I wish I did a more thorough inspection before I bought it.

CountryBoy

That look of melted plastic is actually deformed structure, that someone covered up with undercoating.

nosnow

Now that I see it on my laptop that doesn't look good and replacing that part is cost prohibitive unless you are pulling the engine and most of the interior for something else. I think you will probably aso have a hard time locating a good body shop willing to get that involved in an old car. I was rear ended in my old 86.5 and the frame rail had kink, every body shop I went to refused to even consider the repair.

Didn't see your location but there is a 79 5 speed in Monterey CA with a bad engine, craigslist ad says 2K.

dr bob

A few years ago the west coast group located a good frame jig and a high-end resto shop willing to use it. This was only an early step, a very significant bit of straightening prior to a full mechanical and cosmetic restoration, plus a bit of stroker engine magic. I'll only suspect that since that was way beyond my 928 budget that it is probably beyond most others' budgets for such things. If there some significance to the rest of your car anywhere close to what the frame-straightened and restored car had, it might be worth a look. If yours is like most other early-car recovery stories, it will take a lot of soul- and wallet-searching to try and justify the recovery costs. If your mission is to have a great early car, you might start shopping for early cars that need the mechanical work you've already done, so you can transfer the restored pieces you have now to a willing recipient car. The flip side is that some repairs can be re-repaired to make them serviceable again. If your target is a decent driver, this may be a better way to go for you.


For those playing along at home, there's a very good case for having a full 928-competent PPI done on a candidate car before any money changes hands. Even when a "car" sells for what appears to be a very bargain price. We've seen too many times, in my opinion anyway, where the glamour of the car blinds a buyer especially where the initial buy in appears to be incredibly low. The saying "$10k away from being a $5k car" is stretching out as the market and restoration costs both multiply. 80% of any project is managing expectations, and these cars are prime examples. Be aware of what you are buying vs. what you want the car to be for you. You stand a much better chance of success in getting to that "what you want the car to be for you" if you are fully informed of where you are starting and what it takes to get there from here.

I preliminary-PPI'd an early car for a member recently. The seller was pretty realistic about what he had, and the car was available for an OK price at $4-5k. It would have been fine for someone with lots of time and low expectations, meaning a car that would drive OK but not be anything special. It needed the very typical >$5k in rubber and basic parts (no labor allowance) for stuff needed to just make it a safe-to-drive car. It needed seats and interior and straightening and paint to move it from a 3 to a 7, at least another $10-15k+ invested. Then the slow march from a 7 to a 8 to 8.5 would be another $10k in parts (no labor allowance...). And an 8 - 8.5 is the best that car will ever be, due to provenance and other crippling factors. Reality: $25-30k in parts, plus labor and time, on top of original purchase price of a mechanically-sound car, would net a car that would grab $12k in the current market. For sure there are bargains available. There are some gems that come up once in a while, distressed sales or whatever. Just know exactly what you are buying, and exactly what you expect it to be like when you are done.

terry gt

I seem to recall some issues with some early cars having frame failures in that area ?
perhaps what your looking at is a poor repair job ?

CountryBoy

Yes its definitely some type of attempted repair attempt.

I guess there were no chasis parts for repair ever manufactured?

CountryBoy

Interesting thread here. https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...ng-manual.html

dr bob

There are repair sections listed in PET, and that's always an option. Contact Mark at 928 International, who deals in good used as well as new parts. He will have the section you want available. Meanwhile, clean all that crud and undercoating mud-mask off and see what's actually distorted. From the pics I see a little but there's no good way to assess the actual work until it's all exposed. You'll have to clean it all anyway to install a replacement section. Anyway, you may decide that it's more practical to repair the previous repair vs. replace.

I put a wire brush wheel on a small disk grinder for cleanup like this. It sails through the undercoating, joint putty and paint pretty fast. True weld prep will need more grinding at the weld areas of course. Clean it up and take more pictures for the committee here. In the meanwhile, look at PET to see where the factory segmented the section for repair, so you can decide whether replacement or repair makes the most sense for you. Talk to Mark after you do that to see what it takes to get a replacement section in your hands.

CountryBoy

I agree, starting to feel like pulling the engine makes sense.

I think the reason the 1st repair was so poor they were too lazy or no funds to have the engine removed.

Would you remove the front fenders?

I'm not the youngest of people, and I don't have a lift. So anything that makes it easier overall I'm for it.

RennPartsDirect

I have several front subframes that are straight that I can sell you for a very low price if you're interested...