Luis de Prat

No, I wouldn't consider a 'project' of this nature by any stretch.

Just trying to make the point which many of you agree with that although a relatively rare car, it doesn't make any economic sense to fix when you can buy a straight one and probably end up spending the same or less.

Some people over here think it can be done and still come out ahead. I doubt it.

Thanks for the well thought out responses so far, everyone.

mark kibort

I would never worry about structural issues with this type of accident. its all sheet metal, and possibly a little tweak on the frame, but it would pull out fine. add all the stuff that is all crunched up and it would bolt on and look like a new car. fenders, hood, bumper, lights, light mechanism, and all the stuff in there that is tweaked. HUGE job, as it would cost around $20k to fix it at a shop, but you would end up with a really sweet GTS.

mark kibort

yep, that is probably the better way. an entire new front clip. that way, everything bolts right back on. not a huge job, for someone that knows what they are doing, but still a ton of work. race car, not so much but a street car with all that wiring, and "Stuff". it would be a mini nightmare im sure.

Mk

karl ruiter

If I were interested in a project like this again, I first ask the seller to pull off the (now worthless) fenders and have a really close look at the frame. If the frame is bent it can be tough. The project that I did like this one was an '82 and I finally had to swap out the whole unibody. It is a little hard to say how I ended up. My total costs were about $20K, and when I sold the car it was worth about $3K, but there was 20 years or so in between and a lot of that was depreciation, and I had a lot of fun. What is clear is that, at the time, I could have bought a nice car of the same year for the $20K I ended up spending on the project and had years more driving and a nicer car in the end. Balance that against the fact that when I started the project I did not have $20K, but I did have the $5k ante, and I learned a lot about 928s that has left me very comfortable working on them decades later.

There is someone in France who needs a motor.

The market in the U.S. for GTSes is still finding its legs, and things are on the way up. But there has been at least one GTS in the community with salvage history and major work and it sat on the market for a long time. Not sure what the outcome finally was, but my impression it that a GTS with major damage history is not worth much more than a reasonable S4.

FBIII

Another option would be to transfer all the GTS parts to a stripped S4 tub. Probably a lot cheaper way to go as well.

tmpusfugit

far too much money for a car with this much obvious damage...and who knows how much hidden damage there might be? I think you would have to assume the chassis is well "tweeked" and that alone makes it parts, unless it is very minor, and a minor tweek is akin to partially pregnant.....looks like a parts car to me too.....

Cosmo Kramer

Part it, find a nice S4 with thrust bearing failure, put in the low mileage GTS powertrain and rear quarters and have one sweet ride. But as a parts car, $12K no way!

danglerb

12K Euro's I suspect is a fantasy asking price, maybe 4k is closer to reality.

Like Jim Bailey said, those blown air bags are going to cost some serious money, and may have caused a lot of unseen damage.

Damage like this can be straightened, but never made like new, never have full structural strength.

Do all the body work yourself and maybe you could pretend its not a totalled and repaired GTS that never should be driven like a Porsche again, and maybe never fully insurable, but ok to drive around town and park in front of fancy restaurants.

Parts car, nice one, but parts car.

Hilton

Option A

If you were bloody-minded, I'd consider trailering it to the UK and getting it fixed there - there's someone on the 928uk e-mail list who has a body shop and the correct jig for the 928 frame already, plus he owns a 928 himself. From the quote I've seen he's very reasonably priced.

The UK also has several good 928 mechanics - some of whom also have a lot of parts cars and will have the required body panels to make the front end whole again once straight.

Plus the GBP-Euro rate is nice at the moment.

Option B

This.

Find an S4 with blown or thrust bearing failure engine (I know of one poster here in Germany who has such an S4).

Transfer the nice GTS bits to it (rear quarters, engine, gearbox, shift lever), and part out the other bits to affray costs. The end result will be an excellent driver and you won't have any qualms modifying it because its already so far from stock that its value as a preservation case is lost

Charles Parkinson

Almost anything can be fixed...just depends how stratight you like a car to be. I punted my GTS into a wall at the track with following result.



Among other things...the LHF floor had a 5" high crease, both frame rails were folded, roof was cracked, both doors and hatch didnt close properly, bellhousing was broken, rear of engine block broke off around the bellhousing bolts, airbag deployed, straightedge on TT showed a bow, flexplate was turned into a pretzel, small fire in ABS loom etc etc.

Car was almost perfect with no expense spared maintenance but there was no way it would have been worth fixing (to me). However, it was bought and rebuilt and is cruising around as we speak, so anything is possible.

S4ordie

Damn Charles! You Kiwi's can fix anything. I would be totally scared fecal-less to drive your GTS after it had been repaired. That much damage would make the unibody compromised on many levels. It might look good, run good, but I'd be afraid of what happens next time.

I had to be convinced by more than a few experts at structural automive repair that my S4 could be repaired as good as or better than new and all it had was a minor tweak to the nose rail at the front of the left side of the car. PPO (previous previous owner) hit a parking sign. Damage looked superficial and required minor body work to make it look like new. When we pulled the engine is when we noticed a 1.5 inch difference from the left to right side. It took a lot of work and stripping of suspension etc. in order to get it on a 928 body jig and straightened and then reinforced to as or better than new.

I wish the present owner of your GTS never has to find out if the repairs will hold up.

Chuck Schreiber

Yeah Right, I see another purchase in the future for the Naked Cowboy!!!

odurandina

it can be fixed for less than 30 grand.

S4ordie

Well it is strange to have one running sorted car. Perhaps I always need two in various states of refresh.

Charles Parkinson

Hi Dan, the car is actually in Australia as I only moved to Kiwiland recently .

Just to make it clear - I didn't fix the car as it was much worse than it looks in the picture and I would never have felt comfortable with it. I sold it for parts and it was then resold to an experienced 928 owner who had it rebuilt .

I dont understand why, as it must have cost as much to buy and fix as a high mileage but straight GTS.