future

Peter, I used David Woods Metal Works to da all the welding for me. He is no Porsche specialist but has a reputation as one of the best welders in the UK and mainly fabricates bespoke rollcages and various custom intercoolers, rads and arch extensions etc.

He also said that the sill trims are 99% to blame. As he tried to remove the nuts holding them on he said they simply broke off in his hands! But Having said that, am I right is saying that the 944 n/a's also have these bolts allready in place?

Peter Empson

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the kind comments, I've answered your questions below:

My repair work is being done by a great guy called Alan Yeadon in Kimpton (near Luton), I chose him because he came highly recomended from a friend and he does all the work himself (I could just imagine most bodyshops passing an old scruffy 944 onto a trainee). He's also completely flexible and willing to get involved with one off's without hesitation. For example I'm having all the things that irritated me about the car sorted, including silly little things such as the bolt holes for the roof rack removed and all the useless holes inside the rear of the car welded up. When he's finished, the interior and rear cage should be good enough to eat your dinner off and will be in the same Glacier white I've chosen for the outside.

His pricing is extremely reasonable and all in it should cost much less than the five figure (GBP) amount I priced up for a proper reshelling (to a standard I was happy with anyway). To date there's been £1,800 worth of genuine Porsche panels fitted so it's not a budget job, and much more than the car's worth, but since I have no intention of ever selling it that's immaterial.

The work is still underway, the other side of the car is having the sills finished now and then it's onto the fun bits! To come are the fitting ot the temporary fixed headlights (which are rubbish) until yours are available. A small screen wash tank is going in. The GF wings and CF bonnet need to be fitted and aligned, the carbon sunroof is going in, the Aerolatches and Spa carbon mirrors mounted and the front bumper made. This latter piece should be interesting, it is basicaly going to be a one off narrow body style 924GTR nose. I'm not sure how it will work out or look, but I wanted to do something different (and retro) with plenty of scope for brake cooling and openings for intercooling etc. A new plastic rear screen is also ready to be fitted (the old one lasted a few years but got too cloudy to use).

I've owned the car 11 years, the car had been fairly recently painted when I got it which should have been a warning sign. I did use to waxoyl the sills but stopped when I was concerned I may be trapping moisture on top of the already formed rust. I put off the respray for a few years (which in some ways was a good thing because I had a ball joint fail at brands last year which caused quite a lot of damage to the wings) but it undoubtedly ended up worse than it should have been.

My front wings did had the usual rust on the leading edge and this and the weight saving is what caused me to pursue fibreglass ones (I considered them something of a consumable when I ordered them and didn't buy carbon ones, which in hindsight I regret).

Inside the car is going to be just the carpets (all sound deadening removed) and my Cobra Imola seats. The A pillars will have trim but there'll be nothing on the headlining. When I've finished them there will be carbon door cards too. If it's too noisy I will add some sound deadening back in, but I rather like a raw car. The rear carpet and 968 rear seat delete will be taken out for trackdays, but left in at other times to reduce gearbox noise.

I didn't know about the colours being worse than others, so that's something I'll look out for.

My car has the bolts in place for the sill trims and I was tempted to fit them, but after Oli at RPM Technik who maintains my car mentioned his rust theory I decided not to. I think they are on all the post 85.5 cars, but am not definite.

I'm due to visit the car next week so will update the site with some more pics if possible (I can't wait!).

Best regards,
Peter

88BlueTSiQuest

I think that in the States, the only cars that are prone to this issue are the snow belt states. I actually was bidding on a rusty 88 Turbo S, it was under 80k miles, and I figured I could save it. The bidding got too high for it, so I let it go.

But I do believe the above assumption is likely correct. That the extra panels on the Turbo and S2 would lead to a rust problem due to sand and salt getting between the plastic and body, which would eat away at the galvanized metal.

I fought similar rust issues with my old Conquest. Those issues are actually caused by a gap in the body where the rear quarter and the inner fender come together. Salt and sand are flung up into the body through that gap, allowing the quarter panels to be eaten away from the inside out.

hosrom_951

I am under the impression that all porsches are hot dip galvanized, they have been doing so for 40+ years now.

sawood12

Galvanising is a process that doesn't proof from corrosion - it only increases resistance to corrosion. It seems that after 15 - 20 yrs of the UK damp climate the limits of galvanising seem to have been reached. It does seem that the under sill/fender plastic trims are a contributory factor which are only fitted to the turbo and S2 models. Other 944 models don't seem to be affected to the same extent. The nuts that hold them on are actually plastic onto studs that appear to be welded onto the underside. The theory we hold over here is that the plastic trims prevent the moisture and road crud from drying out meaning that the affected areas are continually exposed to damp and dirty conditions that eventually corrodes the zinc coating exposing the steel underneath.

So if any of you chaps in the US are breaking any cars then there is a market in the UK for your un-corroded wings. I'm certainly considering a full respray with new wings and sills as i've started to see the signs on my car (give me a shout if you've got a pair of wings going!!). New wings in the UK are £400 a side!! and it is no good buying from a breakers as every wing i've seen is suffering from the same problem.

Geneqco

They're a little different though because of the side markers.

88BlueTSiQuest

They just need the sills though, which would be the same.

MAGK944

We'll send the wings (fenders) over for your euro bumpers..fair exchange?

edh

I've seen the same rot in the 924S - & that doesn't have trims on the sills.

I think the problem is that the sills rot from the inside - so unless you inspect regularly, by the time it has eaten through to the outside of the car, you have a major problem.

There are 2 bungs either side on the inner sills, just in front of the seat - they are good access points for inspection & injection of wax.

sawood12

Sounds great to me - I don't mind scouring breakers at this end to source euro bumpers (is it just the rear bumpers?). And we don't even need complete fenders - on fendors that have damage to them as long as the bottom 10inches or so is good then it can be cut off and welded onto our fendors to replace the rotting areas.

Seriously there would be loads of interest at this end given the price of brand new fenders.