RennPartsDirect

This would be my second option. I would offer him $400-$500 and you could easily triple your money by selling the parts and reinvest in a better condition car.

Owning one of these is a love/hate relationship. I personally LOVE the way the car looks and very much enjoy driving it but when the bugs come out to play it can be a real PITA. Its such a fun car to drive and you just don't see them very often so it makes the driving experience that much more enjoyable to know you are in a car that not many other people have. You will never find yourself in the below situation (2 identical mint green Fords) unless you're in a 928 caravan headed to an annual event. Even then, no two may be alike...



I say go for it. If you can't get it running part it out and find another one...

Landseer

Looks good to me, superficial rust on rear hatch, common, spoiler traps leafy stuff beneath it that clog the drains and trap moisture, replacement hatch easy to find. Cowl issue is weird, so long as it is limited to cowl, you are ok, spares are easy to find and install ,you've already had a generous offer of a replacement. Kind of looks like a red cowl painted black, where paint is thick and lifted.

Is whole car a repaint, if so, what was original color. Generally a poor repaint is a pretty big value deduction, but if you are like me, resale value of the car is the least important thing. If bubbling all over, than it might just be a cheap respray, and it its black over red than it might quickly be ugly. Pay somebody to strip it and start over. Starts adding up, but the journey is the fun of it.

Its like an aging German Shephard, you love it and what the dog is worth at resale is an irrelevant question. If a repaint, does it have reasonable integrity from 20 feet, if so, less of an issue, at least initially while you get it running reliably.

Warning lights wouldn't worry me if the engine runs with stability.

Rear bumper shock replacement is easy, tailcones are reusable usually and regain shape. If impact wrinkled the rear fenders its a different story. Sunroof panel is actually pretty easy to remove, repair, replace, it that is your roof issue. Body / paint will be your challenge on this car. Did it get hit? Or was the repaint supposed to be a cheap refresh?


Interior looks great, I see valuable good condition parts in the drivers seat picture. Love that 930 steering wheel, its perfect for a 928. Is the leather dash that nice on the passenger side -- looks like it is. Yes, door speakers were replaced, good eye Uneekone.

(Small manpoint deduction for the Velcro sneakers if you are under 55).

Appropriate price is probably 1000 to 1500, due to unknown driveline condition, great way to get into the hobby. Clutch parts are pricey but findable. You actually would have the skills to rebuild the trans if needed, parts are a little tricky they say so you might need to be a little resourceful. Doable.

Body is galvanized inside and out, except for aluminum doors, front fenders and hood. If bad rust under rear fenders or along rockers, then that's a difficult fix, but I'm not seeing that. Where are you located?

Jerry Feather

Part it out is so easy to say, but that will not be your hole card. These guys who keep saying part it out have not likely ever done it. On top of that the parts from that early of a 928 have almost no value. Take the engine for example: it has at least 100k miles; it will take you half a day to just figure out how to remove it then at least another half or whole day to do so; and then all you will have is a hunk of metal hanging from your engine hoist, or the one you borrowed, worth about $400, if that, and with no place to put it, not to mention all the trouble you will end up with just to try to sell it and then ship it. Then what it came out of will be barely movable and still in your way. What few other parts you might take off of it will take a lot of time and also be nearly worthless; and finally what you are left with will not be very movable and need to go to the dump or scrap yard, and even that will be a pain in the neck.

The body work and half way decent paint will cost you about $5000 since you are not inclined to do it yourself. The interior, modestly done, should cost you about the same, and I suspect you are not inclined to do that either. Even if the mechanical stuff costs you only about $5k and you do all of that work yourself, you are going to end up with a $6000 car at best that is not a whole lot of fun to drive around with a 4.5 engine in it. Not bad, but not great. And, this is not to even mention the electrical gremlins.

Jerry Feather

On the other hand, buy the car, do the electrical, the clutch and other mechanical stuff yourself, take a wire brush in you drill to the rust bubbles, and sort the bumpers, stitch the interior roughly back together, then clear coat it and call it a rat rod. It will still be as much fun to drive, it will satisfy your creative need to fix er up, will still draw about as much or more attention, and it will still be worth about what you pay for it, and maybe even the cost of parts put into it.

RennPartsDirect

This was my first time tearing into a car like this. From a complete car to this in under 5 hours. It's not that bad. If the engine isn't in great condition part it out as well. You never know who might need what. These cars are a hobby. Tearing this one apart was actually more fun than fixing the ones I keep on the road because I didn't have to worry about putting it back together correctly!

I sold a non-running '84 automatic a few years back to a local guy who bought it for $2000. It was complete with a full leather interior but it had rust in the lower door sills and around the rear windows. He had a vision for the car and wasn't too worried about it. The rust was superficial and he wanted to put a Chevy engine into it anyway so the car was a perfect starting point for his vision. I still talk to him every couple of months and he told me that he ended up selling the original engine which had a blown head gasket to a guy for $500. There is always a buyer no matter how old the car is or how "undesirable" the parts are perceived to be. You just have to wait for the right one to come around... and adjust your price accordingly.

Buy the car and enjoy working on it. Then enjoy driving it. If it doesn't run after a while and you get burned out put it on Craigslist and someone will gladly take it off your hands...

TobinH

Thanks again for all the great information guys. I already knew this is was a great community from my lurking, but it's another thing altogether to get this quality of responses to what is surely a somewhat tiresome request from a non-owner. If I manage to find the right car to enter this community, I hope I can repay some of this kindness with some machining services/parts prototyping/small production runs. I have more or less free reign over the milling centre, some of my friends have found this to be a valuable resource!

A few responses: There's no problem for me with space or time, I have rented an industrial space with quite a lot of room and essentially infinite resources in terms of tools and capabilities - except no lift, sadly. It's good to be in a mechanical industry, I'm always surrounded by people who are smarter than me. The older gentleman I was very fortunate to apprentice under, I'm pretty sure he could just walk over to the manual machines and bang out most of the parts on a 928 just by eyeballing it. Except for bodywork! Only plastic panels on the machines I invent!

Parting it out...I mean I could, sure. I have some experience disassembling and crating stuff in an industrial capacity. I don't particularly want to though, I like to put things right. I did a handful of down-to-the-frame motorcycle restos back in the day and found it very fulfilling.

The car and me are in Burnaby, BC. Butted right up next to Vancouver.

I did resolve to make an offer, but his starting point was $5k. I did not want to insult him or beat up on his car too badly in front of him to be honest, as he's my good friend's dad. So I just declined, figuring a 'fair' (to me) offer would be too far away. Sounds like it's going on Craigslist soon, so if you're in the area keep an eye out. If it doesn't sell for a while, maybe he'll come to his senses and I'll end up with it after all!

Oh, and those shoes are not sneakers, they're bicycle shoes. Think ski bindings for bikes Laced varieties were not available for a long while so they were all velcro.

Red Flash

This is a good answer. I should doe something like this and I've been in 928 mechanics school on the East coast for on-off for over 4 years now!

Wisconsin Joe

$5k for a car that isn't driveable? He's delusional. I'd love to know what he's basing that price on.

That is a $1k max car. The junkyard will pay a lot less.

If he puts it on C/L (don't you guys use Kiji or something like that up there?) he will be "insulted" by the offers.

I haven't seen it posted in this particular thread (although I may have missed it), but there's a saying that the most expensive 928 to own is usually the cheapest to buy.
For the money you'd pay for this car and the parts to get it going, you could do a lot better. And still have a "project" car that will give you hours (and hours, and hours) of "enjoyment" and also plenty of opportunities to spend money on it.

OTR18WHEELER

Agree, I could've bought a well sorted GT driver for less than what I have in my 5k '85.
..but then again, I now have a dependable 928.. PRICELESS.