Dane, it just made me sick to see your car. You had that baby lookin' good. I almost bought the farm on that road about 40 years ago when I became hypnotized by the site of a giant bumble bee sitting on my elbow, which was sticking out the window of a '40 Chevy at the time.
When I looked back to the road, the road was gone and I cranked the wheel toward the mountain visible on my left, since I had no idea what was ahead or to the right of me. Just as I cranked the wheel I was entering a gravelled observation turnout at a left sweeper that appeared bottomless beyond the turnout. I slid accross that gravel sideways and came to a stop about five feet from the edge and thought my heart would never return to a normal rhythm again. The bumble bee was long gone. And along with him, my teenage sense of immortality.
Listen Buddy, you have absolutely no obligation to preserve your Shark as a road worthy member of the herd. There is a natural culling process that occurs in making a breed of car viable and valuable and those choices are made for each car by whomever is paying the bills.
If you can pick up 7 or 8K from the insurance company, buy back the Shark for $500 and part it out for another 8K, you can pick up a nice clean S4 and feel good about the whole thing. Or you can repair the '83 and know exactly what you have.
I hate to see you having to deal with this, but hope it all works out in the end.

 

Charley, Doc, Perry, Brian, Bill, Karl, Rod, Ron, Hacker, George, Kevin, Imo000 and Fraggle:

Thank you all for the replies. I thoroughly appreciate your entertaining reads. I apologize for the delayed response but I was out of town for guard drill (Boise). TO this point, I honestly have no idea what the heck I am going to do. My last three "fun" cars have been difficult experiences and I'm frustrated:
(1) 1982 Mondial 8: keyed the whole left side but repaired. Sold it several months later.
(2) 1981 308 GTSi: stolen, recovered but only after the thief plowed it into a police cruiser. The engine was toast thankful to the thief's hotrodding. A long story, very short: It ended up on Monster Garage as a pasta maker (not my wishes).
(3) 1983 Porsche 928S. Current experience.

I have always tried to take the best care I could of these cars because I thought they deserve it. To be honest, the fun has been cut significantly and I'm tired of being burnt.

We'll see. Thank you, again, for your efforts in responding. Dane

 

:

This has turned into a horrible experience. Nobody will touch my car. Autobody shops here treat this like it's the plague. Now, it's turned into a topic at home that, long story, short, I refuse to talk about.

SO, is anyone interested in buying my car as is? I know I'm in Bozeman, MT so I'll take a reasonable offer considering shipping. This car has alot of receipts and a recent transmission rebuild. It runs great, even drives straight. It drives like it never happened.

I'm not giving the insurance the satisfaction of totaling this car and giving it the salvaged title. !@$# that.

I can't believe it's come to this. A !#%ing quarter panel and bumper cover. I love Montana but it's bull!@#$ I can't find someone to fix it here.

 

I feel your pain. Someone here will come up with a way out of this.

 

Man, you've had some rough goes with your vintage cars. Sad to hear that you're giving it up, but also happy that some one here will love it back into good condition. I wish I could buy it, but I'm not in the market for any vintage cars right now. Take your time, the market is kind of shaky now due to the housing challenges. Drive it when you can, and sell it when the right buyer comes along.

Get another 928 when the time is right.

 

Bill,

Maybe we should ask Rich if he needs another car in Montana? Or, I'll be moving my
engine out soon, he'll even have room in the garage.

 

It sure wouldn't take the two of you long to get out to him thats for sure.

Michael

 

I think now you should call your insurance and make a claim. Thats what insurance is for.

 

Would it make sense to send the car to Motorsport in Salt Lake City? They have lots of experience with restoring these cars, and are the closest to you that I can think of.

 

There's a place in Great Falls, MT that has painted at least 2 928's (one they did a decent amount of body work to fix a deer impact) and a number of 911's. They do great work. Shoot me a PM if you want there info.

 

I got sick of having my car look so damn ugly so I decided to remove the bumper cover and "cut" away the damaged part of the rear, quarter panel.

The rear hatch still sits flush with each quarter panel. That's good. The left, rear window is flush as well. That's good, too. Now, I'm asking myself, in the interest of shipping costs, drilling spot welds and grinding panel from body, if I should expect a body shop (if I can find one nearby) to want removal of the entire quarter panel. Any thoughts?

 

Each car is different with respect to this. although they may get a complete quarter panel to work with, it's one of those personal type decisions that each body guy will decide. I would think if you just left it up to them, they would want to do the whole quarter because it's more costly, and that's what they are going to get to work with. So, it's likely to me(not a body guy) that they will cut the whole quarter down.

Now, I would see if you could take it to one of the shops mentioned above, or at least send photos, and see what they say. Maybe tell them that you'll like to leave as much original as possible, and if they can work with what you've got now. There is always a way to do it, but it might not be viable for structural reasons that I can't see or don't know about.

Glad to see you're getting a bit feisty on this project.

 

Thats such a pretty car. I sure hope you're able to fix it and keep it.

 

We'll see. I just want it fixed. It is a nice car, not perfect (before), but very nice. Thank you for the words.

Hi Doc,

A bit feisty?!? I would call it pissed! I got so darn sick of looking at that wart on her rear end that I decided to CUT IT OFF. I have a MONSTER blister to show for it, too.

I completely agree with your comments. I, too, think it comes down to what the body guy is willing to tackle. We'll see. Thank you for your continued feedback.

d

 

If you are not a body man by trade do not try to do a rear quarter panel there is more to it than meets the eye and if you butcher it up you will never get someone good to fix it where you left off.