hlee96

When you are going through your car, either due to maintenance or repair, do you send the parts in (ie front control arms, steering rack, etc) for rebuilt exchange, or is it more important to have that exact same part rebuilt and send it back for originality?

Looking for answers, bc while I am going through my '78 slowly, I will want those mentioned parts renewed while I am cleaning the car out. Although I am not thinking about selling anytime in the near future, I don't want to shoot myself in the foot if it would mean something 10-20 years down the road.

I had a feeling that when William and Rob are going through #107, they wanted to keep all the original parts after cleaning/rebuilting them.

Any advice and answers are much appreciated.
-Hoi

ROG100

Most customers purchase the rebuilt part (the parts that you list) and return the old part as a core. That applies to all year cars and I have some very meticulous customers.
For an early car I would recommend sending the rack for rebuilding so the original is returned if it is a show/originality car. Same goes for a GTS rack if the customer cares to retain the original.

hlee96

Could the same be done for the control arms? I mean send them out for rebuilding and receive them back afterwards?

I remember reading that Greg does rebuilds for the steering racks (direct original rebuilt, not core exchanges), not sure if some others do it for the control arms.

Thanks-Hoi

ROG100

The only company facilitating rebuilds of upper & lower control arms is 928 International so you should direct your question to them. We sell the rebuilds but they are supplied to us by Mark. The quality of the rebuilds is better than new.

A few customers send their steering racks to us for rebuilt so they have the original returned - not a problem. We have a two to three week turnaround so time is the only issue.

Interesting enough, for the 84 to 95 cars, customers send there MAF's for rebuild so they have the original returned instead of using the core service.

hacker-pschorr

What is unique with early steering racks that one would want to keep the original?

I understand some items have casting marks (not sure if control arms do) and it may be important to keep a 77/78 stamped arm on an early car vs say...an 83 even though technically they are identical.

VanD

To be on the safe side, I would have whatever pieces that are original and that can be rebuilt, rebuilt. Someday it will matter to someone tremendously to have those date coded/correct parts. Just sayin'.

hacker-pschorr

There is a very small list of parts that are rebuilt. I would think we can put together such a short list of those and note which ones are known to have date stamped or earlier period parts / casting numbers.

I just sent the clutch master from my 78 to White Post for a rebuild. It has nothing to do with originality, just my concern over the piston length issue and IMO their rebuilds are actually superior to new.


The rack in my 80 is leaking bad, and now I'm pondering if I should keep the original versus just ordering a rebuild / exchange. I'm not understanding why the original rack would be unique to my '80 versus the correct unit (from a different core).

dr bob

So we gaze into a very cloudy crystal ball, peering into the murk to find out when somebody else will value the car more than we do. And why.

From a victim of shortcutting and such on cars before their value started to rise as "collectible", I can say that having original parts rebuilt is much more desirable. Is it worth it to you right now? Tough question. It can be --IF-- you continue the philosophy and your action throughout the car. Don't bother with keeping original parts in one place if you are substituting aftermarket bits somewhere else. Are you worried about having the original distributor rotors in hand? Not so much if exact Bosch replacements are used. Worn-out original brake rotors important? I hope not, but I did put correct replacements on the car.

My guess is that Mark has a collection of control arms that have been rebuilt. Call him and see if he has a set with casting date codes that are close to what you have now. The parts were certainly manufactured in batches, so there's quite likely a pool of cars that had control arms from the same batch yours came from. If a matching batch item isn't available, send yours in for rebuild. There's an extra charge to cover all the separate labelling and tracking needed. Extended projects allow for some extended rebuild scheduling too, making the process a little easier.

GregBBRD

Since the 911 restoration market went crazy, people are hunting for the correct manufacturing date on virtually everything.

Keeping an original rack can be an interesting problem....the bonded rubber steering stops, which are almost always completely disintegrated, have been NLA for a long time...and the new design will not fit.

Some machine work is required.

hacker-pschorr

What is different externally between the early and whatever one would receive with an exchange?

What year was this changeover where the "new" will be a direct replacement without any differences?