911Syncro

Hello folks,

I am rebuilding some damage created by one of my offspring. Looking for the following parts:

- Rear view mirror glass drivers side: Searching for the glass (mirror) only for the driver's side rear view mirror. Maybe somebody has a trashed whole unit that you'd like to part out the mirror glass itself. Looks like 965 731 035 00 in the PET. Does anybody know of a generic that would fit? Is this a mirror glass that maybe a glass shop or a windshield shop might be able to provide?

- Under bumper / engine cover, the half moon part. Searching for the under bumper engine cover, the half moon thing towards the front. Looks like 944 505 075 00 in the PET. Also would like the mounting HW.

- lower grille, the checkerboard thing. PET: 944 505 121 00

- rear bumper tow hook hole cap (little round thing)

- front grille tow hook round cap, in the small upper grille.

- may need the 2 drivers side plastic ground effects panels, but won't know for sure until I try to rework the 2 that were damaged.

Thanks very much!
Roland

PS: Here is my rebuild story (just happened to pick the 968 forum since it was the first one to pop up, but I read rennlist as well): http://www.968forums.com/index.php?showtopic=5965

RajDatta

Roland, some of us don't go to other forums. Could you please post your story here so we can see what you are referring to.
Thanks.
Raj

911Syncro

Hi Raj,

OK, my son is 16 and I let him drive the 968 on occasion. One evening he ran it off the road into a ditch, he was making a left turn on a green left turn arrow. I heard that there was another car coming from the other direction that spooked him; one of those that comes quickly and starts to turn right in front of him, but then stopped short before making the right turn. Either this spooked him, but I suspect he was going too fast trying to catch the green left arrow before it turned red. In any case I believe the tail of the car started to swing out to the right as he was turning left, and he overcorrected by turn the wheel to the right, the swung the other way, lost traction, and ending up in a ditch on the right after the turn, because the momentum carried the car that way.

So, there was minor damage to the bottom of the car in a few places: ATF cooler under the lower left front bumper cover, ground effects panels on the left side, LF signal and driving (fog) light, front bumper cover needs repainting, ATF storage reservior broke. These are the main things. Here are photos when it was up on the lift at the body shop: http://picasaweb.google.com/syncronicity1/968Damage

Problem is that the insurance company totaled the car, I thought the repair costs would be way less than the value of the car. I had it at a very good body shop, they had 911 turbos, Ferraris, brand new Mercedes, etc. that they work on, and the complementary Porsche shop is also high class, the folks who would do the mechanical stuff. Both of them upped their estimates amazingly high because of conservative initial views, and so did the insurance company.

So I bought the car back from insurance for effectively peanuts, and am undertaking the work to bring it back. When I bought it I knew already that this instance of a 968 was a bit worn, it had 142K miles on it. I bought is as a daily driver, and did drive it. But I love these cars, and this one is my perfect combination: coupe, tip, silver, and light color interior (classic grey). Having looked at the others for sale during the years I saw the likelihood of being able to replace it with my desired features was low, and I saw that much of the work could be done by my son and I, I figured this was worth a try. We will use shops to do some of the hard things like paint for example. There was no structural damage. I have to convert to a salvage title, but this doesn't matter, we are going to drive it.

So that is the story, i am trying to recover this one! I think it is worth it! We are taking it incrementally, making sure that the mechanicals are correct first. Over the last couple of weeks I got it fixed up and started driving it, and all is very well, drives like a champ. So now we are taking the next steps to replace some of the non-mechanical parts, and we'll also swap out some mechanical items now that we know we have a solid platform to work with and the investment in fixing the remainder of the things will be a good idea!

Roland

spieln

That car looks in very nice shape to be totaled. Good luck with your restoration project.

RajDatta

Roland, for some of the parts you mentioned, you are better off going brand new from a dealer like Sunset. If you do find a used lower bumper cover, chances are, it will have some damage and people would still want $150 or so. For an additional $75, you can get a brand new one.
I would call the dealer to see what some of these parts cost new. Most dismantler wants to sell for 50% of list. Sunset sells at 15% over dealer invoice. With some parts marked up heavily, it it a no brainer to buy new.
Raj

911Syncro

Tim, yeah, I was disappointed they totaled it. The body shop said $4-$5K in total, for example their price on a new front bumper cover was $1,400 just for the unfinished part which seems very high; there are some hairline cracks in the paint and they said that they have trouble refinishing a flex part if the paint has these little spiderweb cracks (which i didn't believe). The german auto specialist wanted to do a whole trans service (because of the cracked storage reservior), whole new strut and control arm, etc., etc. But turns out these parts are fine. I already have the car up and running, it runs fine, drives excellent like before, have been driving it around town and freeway, no problem, now I need to get the finer points and bodyword completed, there is no metal damage except a couple small scratches, the work is all in the bolt on plastic parts.

They said their process is very high end and thorough. First it goes for the mechanical work, then it goes for the body shop, then it goes to the Porsche dealer for a thorough checkout, and if any problems surface they have to redo or fix it from there. Sounds fine for a 2007 911, but not for one of these older ones.

Raj, yeah thanks, i called Sunset already to get some preliminary numbers, and was hoping to spare some $ if I can find some of the parts used. I guess it isn't like the old days, (as teens rebuildng British sports cars) when we would drive to the junk yard and find several examples where we would just pull the parts off that we wanted, bring them to the shack by the gate and pay. I didn't know the lower bumper cover would be that much, but of course with what I paid to buy the car back from insurance, plus the small amount of parts I need, this is still a great cost effective path. But now I just saw your tag line: "Do it once, do it right, don't do it again!". Hmmm... sounds like good advice.

Roland

spieln

You maybe noticed but there is a bumper cover on e-bay right now.

I had my car repainted after hail damage and my body shop had no problem fixing a few cracks in the plastic. It might not be perfect but looks good for a DD that has 150,000 miles. From what I am reading, I think you are thinking along those same lines. Shop around and you might find a body shop that can fix many things that others will not touch