James Bailey

Correct and my comment is ....Perhaps they should not have ! at least not if they decide to sell it.

paulrhein

Lets see if I can do this again. Last post didn't come up. I swapped the radio for a Sony no CD/DVD. I have the original and it works. Car drives pretty good, feels like it needs a timing belt and it shifts good just a lot of slop. I bought new bushings already, windows and mirrors work. Although I have purchased new window switches. Someone had suggested that the oem headlights might be drawing too much juice for the old wires being that is why some smoke was coming from the dash. So I have already rinstalled some LED headlights. While being in the mood I have also replaced turn signals and parking lights with led bulbs and they work good and very bright..

merchauser

that is a sharp looking car, with a 5 speed and great color combo. if you are passionate about it, and have the 12k to plunk down, go forward, get your basics done: running, driving, and braking safely. then you can drive the car, get fully addicted, and plan for the next phase. photos don't always tell the whole story, but that car looks nice to me.

chart928s4

@paulrhein Pretty car! Love that color. BTW - don't get discouraged - a lot of these guys have helped dozens of us but maybe forgotten how to be a newbie. Also note you already have some interest if you want to sell. But $10-15K will get a lot of work done even at a shop. In fact, my ace 928 guy gave me a similar (but not quite as negative) speech before I bought my car, and he suggested to get a typical used 928 running nicely would be ... (wait for it) $10-15K.

While there are certainly plenty of shops that don't know how to work on 928s, stuff like battery, brakes, shocks, alignment, coolant, oil, plugs/wires/coil wires, distributors, transmission service, power steering, etc are all pretty much the same as any other car and are all $100-1000 each, total ~$4K. A 928-savvy shop should do the timing belt/water pump/tensioner (~$2K), intake refresh (~$3-5K), and air conditioning (~$3K). Any good upholsterer can work on the interior (~$3-5K).

At that point you're at $15-19K, no grease under your nails, and driving an awesome car. And of course, some work is optional and some can be spread out over time. Finally, if you're buying parts and doing it yourself I doubt you'd need more than $15K to do a very nice job on almost everything over about a year of weekends, even including paint (e.g. Dean Fuller's amazing solo efforts on some huge jobs here and on YouTube). Good luck!

hacker-pschorr

For many people it's more about the build, the project, the fun of "saving" a car and being able to say it's yours.

I always find this topic to be so interesting. People will stop at no end to point out what a waste of money it is to restore X car since it will "never be worth that!!" but turn around and talk about turning it into a race car (which in many cases will cost significantly more money than a restoration) and everyone thinks that's a great idea.

Meanwhile it's status quo to buy a brand new car that will depreciate far more than the difference between a classic cars retail value and the cost of a restoration.

The car wold has goofy standards.

karl ruiter

For me the trick is to take baby steps, fix the worst things first, try not to break things. Restoring a 928 can be a fun, and not too expensive hobby.
I would tackle issues exactly one at a time in this order:
(Fire safety)
1. Your electrical problem. I would focus on only this problem for now. If you can get it solved, move on. If not don't spend any more money or time. For me this would be easy to do myself, but for many it would be hard. You are likely in the position of finding someone who can manage it for you. One approach would be to pick up a good used front harness and CE panel and have someone swap them out. This would take a little mechanical skill, but no electrical trouble shooting skills. You may also be able to find local list members who can help.
2. Fuel lines. Your other fire safety issue. At least have someone have a hard look at them.
3. Service the trans. Yeah, you might need a big expensive rebuild, but you wont know until you have done filter and fluid. It's cheap and simple, and a good chance it will solve your trans issue.
4. Interior. This seems to really bug you. You could A) pull the dash and seats (or do it yourself) and send them to Rob Budd at classic 9. They will come back awesome. Something around $4k or so. Or B) you could pick up a used passenger seat in matching color and condition similar to the drivers side for a couple hundred bucks. Should possible to find as the drivers side is what usually gets trashed. Or C) you could get the vinyl covers off ebay for $400 or so and pay someone to install them for you. From what I have see they come out OK, although not perfect at all. Personally I would give option B a good hard try before anything else.
No dash photos. But your options are A) Rob Budd. Awesome. B) Dash mat. just to kick it down the road. C) 928 motorsports has a new plastic cap that they say will not warp. Traditionally they do warp and look bad, but time will tell if this new design is better. You can always watch for a better one on ebay. Pickings are slim. I would go B then A when all other issues are resolved.

5. Paint looks good to me.
6. Engine. You don't say what kind of issues you have here, but 1) these engines are pretty solid, and 2) the electrical issues are pretty simple. I would consider a $100 econo plug wire set, cap and rotor, and maybe a fuel filter. At some point replace the timing belt, but not necessarily the water pump. Unless you have records I would do the belt before heading out on any long cross country drives, but around town is likely OK without.

So, if you follow this path, you are probably looking at:
$0 to $1000 to fix your electrical issue
$100 to $300 to have someone inspect and replace fuel lines as necessary
$150 to service the trans
$300 for a used passenger seat
$50 for a dash mat
$200 for an econo tune up
So, somewhere in the range of $1000 to $2000. Does not give you a showroom floor restoration at all, but an awesome toy you can drive and enjoy and continue to improve.

There are 928 shops closer to you the California who could handle all of the above for you (Texas, for example). But do not use the word 'restoration', or people will get confused and think you want to spend $40K trying to make a $8k car new again, because some people do.

paulrhein

The trick is finding someone who can do the work. As far as I know there is only 1 capable mechanic and he says he is not sure he remembers how to work on a 928.

GregBBRD

I was in a very famous Corvette Restoration Shop, yesterday....getting some aluminum pieces tumbled for a transmission for Singer.

Just for giggles, I asked what it costs to restore an early Corvette to extremely nice driver (like factory new, but not concourse condition.) About $150,000-$200,000, if most everything is there and it just needs a restoration......

A Corvette is about as complex as a lawnmower, compared to a 928.....

GregBBRD

Yes, there's not many shops, like us, in the U.S.

Once you've worked on as many 928s as we have, you can do them in your sleep.

The Forgotten On

Corvettes are dead simple. The tricky part about them is working with the poorly made fiberglass body. Those are a nightmare in their own right.

You can get that 82 to a solid driver quality car for easily under your budget. The paint looks fine and the interior needs work as you said but is doable.

The engines in these earlier cars have very few problems, the biggest ones being old fuel lines and the green wire.

I would just worry about replacing all soft lines under the hood and just driving it. They normal servicing parts are fairly inexpensive.

paulrhein

abrescia

jeff spahn

Well, there is always Porsche Classic. They can do it.

jeff spahn

My paint job was $11,000 as a data point.

jeff spahn

Nope, the Green wire is from the harness to the distributor.
Here's a long but informative thread. https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...tion-wire.html