Considering that a same era 911 would cost double that I find the early 928s a bargain.

Impossible to get a clean 928 in Europe for less than 20k, let alone an early manual car.

 

That's to funny...the chances are better than I imagined.

Ben, thanks for considering 928 Classics! Lets talk soon so I have full understanding of your search criteria.

 

Fixed it for ya

 

Thanks Ed!

BTW you were right. Buyers are willing to pay a premium for an early 928 with 'good bones'. The $21K (+5%) sale price of this one and $17.7K for the other reflect this... both very nice 928s with a fair amount of deferred maintenance.

I thought this was all the money for a well-sorted one... but it appears that's not the case. Looks like I may have sold my last early one for a bargain.

 

The silver car on bring a trailer can IMO, possibly, with a lot of work become a 2 on the Hagerty scale (i.e. "excellent"). The "good bones" comment is spot on - IMO, any early car with a good original interior and no accident history can be considered to have "good bones". The cashmere one wasn't in as good shape - the dash crack and a few other clues (center vent) indicate it wasn't as well looked after or as original.

The interior on early cars is the tricky part, not least because so many of them have cloth seats, which is much much harder to restore to originality, because there are so few donor seats with good-condition factory-original matching fabric. IMO, if you want to turn early cars from 4's into 3's (or maybe even 2's), you should be buying early seats and door cards from low-sun countries. Case in point is Bronto buying Pascha seats from the UK a few years back.

What I'm really curious about is whether Rob E's work on the 91 cobalt GT, which I'd have said was a 4, can turn it into a 2. 3 is definitely attainable, but jumping 2 grades would be a huge achievement.

 

Good read on collector car ratings from SCM (where else?)

http://www.classiccollectableautos.c...tember2009.pdf

I agree on the Cobalt car currently being a #4 car. There are enough dings in the rub strips of the Cobalt car and enough 'patina' in the wheelwells and underneath that I don't think it could be a true #2 car without pulling the drivetrain and suspension and going through all of it, and fixing all of the superficial paint blemishes.

I didn't do enough work to the engine compartment- it's now grime-free, but it's hardly clean. And the underside is still pretty bad.

I'm not averse to actually trying to make it a #2 car, but I think Mark might like to at least drive it a little, first....

 

ADGUY924CGT - Hi Ben and welcome to the shark tank and what better investment than 3 years membership in this forum. You could not wish for a better group of car nuts. We will find you a 928.

Ask me about my 924SE next time we talk.

 

Cloth seats can as be as simple or as difficult as you want to make it.
In most cases, the best approach is to reupholster them, at minimum the front seats (where often the rear seats and inserts are in better shape).

Quick sidenote: the thing about '78 cloth seats is the seam where the cloth meets to vinyl is glued and not stitched. So it easily separates. It's preservable, but good luck finding someone capable and willing to do it.

So even the best of early 928s will have this separation issue.

Which leads to the other option of finding good used cloth seats. I've done it 3 times now, and each time has been less than ideal (however, in my case I had no other option). I've done it overseas, done it stateside.
Long story short, I wish you well. It's a needle in a haystack. And in some of the relative best case scenarios, there will be issues.

FWIW, PCA preservation class allows for a 75% originality threshold.
So if you plan to show in that class, choose your 928 wisely so you may redo the front seats.
Nothing lets down an interior worse than ratty cloth seats, IMO.

 

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Porsche-928-S...item27f87d26a5

 

What I gather using Google translate is that these are reproduction pascha seat covers. The white part is much brighter than the originals, and the fabric looks less soft, but overall, these would be pretty cool. I'd be interested in these, but communicating with the seller in Germany may be too much of a challenge.