Biscuits704

Apologies for starting another thread so soon... the other one has a misleading subject and seems to have died a death.

As per the subject...





Sadly I'm unable to get a battery-out shot.

On the scale of bad to horrendous, any thoughts on where this sits?

Is it likely to be responsible for:



And



?

I'm very far away from this car and can't get to it to peel back the carpet and have a good look.

Repairable, or walk away?

Cheers!

divil

Walk. It's repairable, but unless you're looking for a big project, and getting the car very cheaply, it won't be worth it. It will leak, and probably already has leaked water down into the passenger footwell where the DME and KLR live, so there could already be damage there.

Look at some of my recent threads on repairing a similar problem (the second one has all the pics of the repair);

https://rennlist.com/forums/924-931-...arch-area.html

http://www.kcws.org/forum/showthread...repair-the-end

It looks bad, but it's impossible to say how bad it is without pulling the battery, and even then you can't say for sure until you take it back to bare metal...so if you can't get a good look at it, it's too risky. The rust can easily extend forward into the firewall and the wheel arch and complicate the repair quite a bit.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see this car saved, but there is no shortage of rust free 951s out there.

odurandina

grind off all the rotted out metal, and build a new tray with Devcon or other good epoxy.


.

Voith

Cut out, weld in new plate. Everything else will fail sooner or later.

Biscuits704

Thanks for all the great information.

You're probably right in the walking away, but part of me is tempted to get a PPI done with the onus on checking into this - see if it has indeed penetrated into the cabin and soaked the DME and KLR. Fingers crossed, might only be surface, but unlikely. What can I say, my glass is half-full!

I'm NOT looking for a big project, I'm hopeless with body repair - so it would be a paid job for someone. This is an 86 with 45k miles on it for $9k if that has any bearing on the cost calculation.

Biscuits704

I'll look into the Devcon - thanks!

divil

I understand your optimism, but trust me, you can't afford to be optimistic with this. 9K is WAY tooo much for a car with that problem IMO. As you can see, the mileage means nothing as far as the condition of the car goes. If anything, it's too low and indicates the car has been sitting.

After doing all the preparation on my car, the bodywork still cost me around $1100. The car was effectively off the road for about 6 weeks, and it was an enormous anount of work. If you want to drop this off somewhere and have the whole thing taken care of, count on around $3k (assuming it's no worse than mine, which it *easily* could be)

A PPI can be great for spotting things that are visibly bad, but I don't see how anyone could say for sure what the extent of the rust/damage is. You have to assume the worst. I had my rust damage inspected by a couple of classic restoration guys and they were both unable to say for sure until the paint was taken off.

Can you tell us a little more about what you want with the car? I mean, are you looking for a track car, a nice stock street car, a well preserved garage queen, or a base for tuning/upgrading etc.? That would help a lot in getting you the right advice. People would be able to post ads to cars that are closer to what you're looking for.

lee101315

Agreed, you need to get that rusty crap out of there, not coat it in epoxy. Rust is like gangrene! It must be removed before it infects the rest of the car! Unfortunately, there is no cheap easy repair.

Take it to a bodyshop
Remove the glove box
Remove the battery
CUT the rust infected metal
Replace it with a metal plate
Weld it in
Paint it
Buy a dry battery.
End of story.

Biscuits704

Agree that the mileage could be too low. It's hard to strike a happy medium - everything else I come across is the other end of the spectrum (huge miles). I've been hunting quite a while and options have been very limited up until now. From what I can tell from my price research - cars in a similar age/condition without body issues are around $12-$15k.

I'm looking for a nice stock street car. No tuning, upgrades, no track. Maybe a hint of garage queen in that I won't drive it in rain or snow. I'm fortunate in that I work from home and live in a city, so any car I have is purely for pleasure.

My ideal vehicle is one that has lower miles (if only for preservation of value as it gets older), bone stock, with a few imperfections and blemishes here and there that I can work on. I'm no great mechanic but I can do the basics, and I love to detail and restore faded paint and replace broken trim here and there. I love a car with a story and an owner who can tell me all about it rather than a dealer who knows nothing about it. This car is for sale by the original owner. The intention is to have something I can use at the weekends, yet not obsess over too much, yet still not lose any value if I need to sell in a few years.

odurandina

you want low miles. the 944Ts with low miles at this point, likely have, at one time or another been sitting. perhaps through several ownership cycles.... you're could be looking at a good deal of rubber and plastic parts that haven't aged particularly well...... you might consider a 968. if n/a-oem isn't enough power, then maybe do a turbo/resto down the road or v8 swap. we love these cars but, many 944Ts are becoming potential major restorations at this point. acquiring and driving a nice example will require patience and a bit of luck.

if I were deciding on a Porsche, with 996/Boxster/Cayman prices being what the are vs a 944T or 968..... at this point, I'd be tempted to cross over to the dark side... especially when you consider that some of the upgrades you'll want to do, and more recent electrical and engine management - already come with the cars.

Biscuits704

Bolded for truth!

I've toyed with the idea of Boxster/993 - but I have this bizarre appreciation for all things 1980's - especially cars. I've driven Boxsters and I have nothing against their image, they just seem so bland and generic to me. I was looking at 80's 911s a few years back, but they're a touch out of my price range for a good one now, so was hoping to get in on some 951 action before its too late.

divil

I see where you're coming from. Low miles is a hard requirement to fullfil. It would not interest me personally. To get the value of maintanence, you have to put miles on the car! Otherwise it's not worth it. Therefore, low mile cars don't get well maintained - it would be pointless. Unfortunately, the 951 is a high-maintanence car.

As a rule of thumb though, outstanding problems with the car will cost the buyer more than the seller. If you could buy a car just like this for 12k with zero rust/body issues, that would be a much better deal imo. Sure, problems will knock down the asking price, but never by as much as they will cost you to fix.

That's just my 2 cents. My car is bone stock but I drive it as much as I can, and do DE track events, so it has to be mechanically perfect for me. The mileage is absolitely galactic but that gives me the freedom to drive it and not care! More miles aren't really goinig to hurt it now

Biscuits704

I hear what you're saying and I appreciate your opinion as the voice of reason

I'd be more than happy to have something in better shape with a few extra miles for a bit more money if such a car was available. Problem is I'm in Canada and thanks to supply/demand, the prices here are easily a few k more than in the US (not to mention we don't have sunshine states like you guys do). There's very slender pickings - anything hot will sell in a day or two, literally. The $12-15k I mentioned was what I've seen over at German Cars For Sale Blog... I'd imagine the same range here would be nearer $15-$18k.

Importing is an option... but buying sight unseen without meeting the seller and getting a feel for them is not my way of doing things, especially for p-cars where no problem is a cheap fix. A few PPIs and the cost of collection/delivery, plus import costs and duties suck my enthusiasm out of doing things that way!

I'm getting more pics later, with the battery out. Should make for interesting viewing.

shortyboy

damn, is this the only way?ive got the same issue but leaking in the passenger foot well

divil

A lot of people have got functional results with much simpler and cheaper fixes, using sheet metal, rivets, fiberglass, epoxy etc...it just won't last forever, or look very nice. But if that suits your application, then happy days. There have been a good few threads on this over the years.

For a nice, low mileage, original car like this, I think cutting and welding in a battery tray from a good donor chasis is the only way to go.