Flint

Whoah, whoah, hold on. Normy, did you say someone DIED in your 928? Or am I just too drunk to be using the internet now?

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Nicole

Aaron:

Please join us at Sharks in the Park, even if you can't bring the shark! You are going to make some good connections, and probably get a lot of input on how to put your beast back on the road again...

Joe and Cobey: Hope to see you guys as well!

Normy

From what I've been told, the first owner of #1526 committed suicide in the car by pulling into his garage and putting in a tape. Then going to sleep. He intentionally forgot to turn off the engine...hence the vinyl seat covers when I bought the car.

Don't worry- it not "Christine" or anything. I don't think it kills anyone when it occasionally goes out driving around by itself- <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="eek.gif" />

N!

Cobey

Thanks Nicole! Hopefully I will be able to make it. No snickering though, I know she needs work and I am just a computer geek. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />

Nicole

Well, Cobey, if you can't bring the "real thing", bring some pictures, have a hamburger, and talk the talk... You won't be the only computer geek there!

Normy: How did you find out about the death in the car? Was there any smell? I once heard about a 911 in Germany in which someone supposedly had died, and it kept being sold and sold because nobody could stand the smell in it for very long. Rumors had it that even a new interior did not get the smell out completely. But then, I'm violating this board's policy of not reporting things first hand - I have never seen (or smelled) that particular car...

Normy

-Right after I bought this car, I attended my first and last PCA meeting. I kind of felt out of place- most people there were a lot older than me and I was the only one with a 928 in attendance. There was a subtle current of pretension that made me decide to avoid future meetings.

While I was there, a guy came up to me in the parking lot and asked if I had bought the car from someone in Ocala. I had..and he told me the history of the car. Apparently he had considered buying it, but shied away when he met the PO.

-I probably should have too...

The history of this particular car involves a prominent local jeweler who went to Vienna to purchase it, for reasons that I have not been able to determine. He was completely and totally gay- and completely and totally closeted. Until someone "outed" him. Apparently he could not deal with this, and died choking on its un-catalyzed exhaust.

The car sat in probate for a year, eventually purchased by the jeweler's mechanic, who I've talked to extensively. The year sitting in a yard was NOT good for the car- and I think that some of my "Rough Running" threads are the result.

The seats were pretty torn up according to him, so he replaced the original leather with vinyl reproductions. When I first bought the car, the PO had installed cheap lambs-wool covers...I pulled them off for aesthetic reasons. And then I discovered just what the term "vinyl" actually means!

I typically exist in shorts when I am home. Florida is warm, and mine are running shorts- kind of skimpy. I think I lost several layers of skin the first few times I sat on those vinyl seats....

So here came the new leather seats. And since I was doing that...lets get to work on this ratty interior in general. $3100 later here I am-

To answer the question, this event took place around 1994. There is no smell in the car, other than the smell of the stuff I use on the leather, and an occasional smell of coolant...

-MUCH more on THAT smell real soon-

N!

'85 S2 5 Speed

PS: Its to my advantage that the PO didn't tell me this story. I hagled unmercifully with him- if he had told me all this...I would have bought the thing on the spot, simply because of its unusual history-I cannot stand anything "ordinary"-

Joe '87 S4

Hi Nicole, Hopefully I'll make it this year. I'll try and make it to the gathering but unfortunately I have another function to go to later in the afternoon so I'll miss the drive.

V-Fib

The odor of a body left in the vehicle for say 24-48 hrs will not necessarily ruin the interior, for instance, found in the garage. However if left in the sun, the vehicle acts like an oven and decomposition occurs in rather quick fashion. It is a pungent, maladorous odor and will permeate everything including the metal. Unlike Normy's true story, there are urban legends of vettes and other exotic cars that the owner died or was killed in the vehicle, and you couldn't remove the odor from the car and the car was ultimately destroyed. The permeation of the interior and metal by the odor is true. Even completely stripping and refurbishing the interior will only mask the odor for a while, if the body was left in the vehicle in a decomposed state for an extended length of time. There is no other odor like it, and you immediately recognize it for what it is.

Anthony Tate
79/928 Silver Metallic

Nicole

Anthony: How many people did you have to kiill to know this so well? Just kidding!!!!

Thanks for the answer!

Normy

BAH! If you really must know, I was told that the cleaning lady found him dead the next morning. The car was still running-

When I was a landscaper in Detroit in the 1980's, the place I was cutting the grass at unfortunately for me had a dead body one day. One of the other members of our crew found him- I was exposed to the smell.

It did psychological damage to me, I think. I vomited.

I've dealt with it, but I think that exposure to that smell in the future would seriously mess me up! I know I couldn't fly for a few hours afterwards-

-At the same time, it doesn't bother me in the least that someone did something epically stupid in a vehicle that I now own. So the f*ck what? Stupid ***!

N-

Flint

I think I may know what you mean, Normy, my car tells me it's been fighting criminals when it goes out on its own, but I think it's just looking for tail.

AaronE

Well, as far as I can tell, it's not a plastic dash cap, but rather just a plastic dash. I can see a little bit into it through one of the cracks, and it looks like plastic with a foam backing. I guess the next step is to bite the bullet and pull the damn thing off to see what can be manipulated under there.

Nicole: it does run, and is my only car. as far as things wrong, miraculously, none of the 20-30 issues with the car, none of them keep it from driving...

Cobey: if we both go, we can take a poll on who has the more mangled shark...

Flint: what would a 928 do without chasing tail? I heard someone claim that the back end of the 928 was designed after a woman's butt...

Cobey

LOL. Cool Aaron! And, they are the same year! What color?

bcdavis

Speaking of dash replacement, it seems like that is another thing that would be really cool if a vendor would make a replacement dash, perhaps in carbon fiber, or fiberglass, that you could leave as-is, paint, or cover in leather...

Nicole

The problem with those materials is that they are hard, unlike the original foam padded dash. I think this might be a negative in an accident. If I had to choose between banging my head against an original 928 dash, versus one made of carbon fiber, or even fiber glass, I think I'd choose the factory one. Not that I'd ever want to try that...
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