JStouf

I've found what appears to be a clean 1986 - 944 with 138,000 on the clock. Overall the car is what I would call decent condition. Its a 5 speed car that needs some TLC as one would expect but no real body damage aside from a dent in the hood (someone closed the hood on a wrench) and a small dent in the front fender that can be pulled without paint repair. Rubber gaskets look to be in good condition as does the top and interior. A few minor spots where the seat stitching has dry rotted but thats not a deal breaker and again an easy repair.

Under side looks clean and virtually no surface rust / or build up on the components. Car has not been on the road in 2 years but has spent the majority of its life in a garage. Phone dial wheels not rashed up / body panels line up and no accident history on the report.

Now the questions - I'll put a battery in it before buying to make sure it runs smooth after initial start (existing battery is dead) Car needs a water pump so from what I've seen its the following when in there - water pump / timing belt and possibly a pulley or two if the bearings are bad. I plan to drop new plugs / wires and distributor in it. Again overall the car appears to be in good condition for 30 plus years old.

Do I buy it (can purchase for roughly $1,000 give or take a few dollars) what obstacles can I be overlooking? Most if not all the work I can do myself and having mercedes and BMW in the stable already I've familiar with the "German " engineering. Looking for some advice on this deal......close it or move on?

WC944

JStouf.. sounds like a very nice find to me...but I'm new to this.. $1000 sounds like a great find to me.. as my guess is you could part it out for much more.. especially if it is runs....good luck if you decide to get it.

Mr. Toasty

I think that's a great way to start a project, as long as it's not missing things. Given that it's only $1k, I wouldn't expect it to be a driver for a little while, but it would probably make an excellent project and eventually a great driver. 944s can be great projects, but I don't want you to get your hopes up too high expecting a reliable driver for $1k plus belts, pulleys and a water pump. If you start digging in and find out that it's really not what you expected, you could very likely use it as a parts car or just part it out like WC944 said. For that reason, it seems like a pretty solid purchase.

If it's been sitting for a couple years and the water pump is bad, I'd plan on replacing all of the pulleys regardless of current condition just to prevent a catastrophic failure. Also plan to reseal at least the front of the engine pretty soon. After you've replaced those things and the fuel hoses on both ends of the rail (please just do it), you should be able to ease into the rest of the project.

A couple less obvious things to look at before you really get going:
-Pull the passenger fender liner and inspect the brake and fuel hard lines for corrosion. There can be corrosion in that area when there isn't much corrosion elsewhere.
-inspect jack points for rust (there are 6 jack points: two in the middle by the rocker panels, one near each rear corner and one on each inboard frame rail on the front). These can rust out and become soft without really looking bad

Good luck, and welcome to the forum!