Rennlist - Porsche Discussion Forums - Project Battle Ship

Hi Gents – sorry in advance for the Loooooooooonnng intro but as I’ve never introduced myself to all 993 owners on RL here goes ...

As some of you may have seen I’ve been working on a new project car recently (a few pic have been posted on a separate thread). Here I aim to walk us through the full story of the car from purchase to completing <-- if ever that word exists ;)

This is to be a full nut/bolt rebuild and I will cover different aspects as we go some areas of the build will happen faster than other but I promise to finish what I started this time :banghead:

Some know the history of this car and its unfortunate ending but at the end of the day almost any car (no matter how badly damaged) can be restored back to as-good-as-new ... heck it’s only metals and plastics with a few other materials thrown in for good measure – the deciding factor on taking a project on like this are normally:

A - Madness
B - More money than sense
C - Love of the job / challenge

... Well I guess A & C are the order of the day in this case only wishing for B to materialise someday :)

I’ve been a longstanding RL member mainly frequenting the 944 Turbo and 968 board and even though I’ve owned both 993’s and 964’s in the past, it has been awhile now after a recent stint in a 996TT which ended up much the same way as this car did before acquisition :crying:

Just to clarify at an early stage that this car is one of our companies (Deutsch Nine) project cars and in owned by myself and business partner Benjamin Loertscher and is to be used for product developments.

Bit about boring me ... I have been rebuilding and restoring wrecks since the age of 17 (now 34) in my spare time as a hobby. At the age of 17 my first accident rebuild car was a TVR S1 and by the age of 20 I had purchased and rebuilt 5 more with my last being a lovely Cerbera 4.5 Red Rose. I loved the TVR’s but soon found myself owning an old Lotus Elan M100 (don’t ask why) – This quirky little car then lead me through 4 more Lotus wreck/rebuilds and then I went down the Jap route before realising the error of my ways and moved on to Porsche’s.

Anyway moving on swiftly, it was about this time last year whilst browsing this board I stumbled across pictures of Arnard’s 993 F/S and the sad story of the unfortunate track accident which are always so regrettable to see and hear about no matter what the car.

I still have a couple of pics of Arnard's car in it's best remembered days and just hope we'll do it credit:

http://www.deutschnine.com/rennlist/...che-993-01.jpg

http://www.deutschnine.com/rennlist/...che-993-02.jpg

Sales negotiations moved swiftly and a price was agreed ... Arnard was/is a fantastic person to deal with and went out of his way at every opportunity to take more pictures of the car and answer the relentless amount of questions we asked etc. (please remember we were buying the car - sight unseen).

Below are a few pics take by Arnard during early comunications (hate to post these again :crying:):

http://www.deutschnine.com/rennlist/...classic-01.jpg

http://www.deutschnine.com/rennlist/...classic-02.jpg

http://www.deutschnine.com/rennlist/...classic-03.jpg

http://www.deutschnine.com/rennlist/...classic-04.jpg

http://www.deutschnine.com/rennlist/...classic-05.jpg

http://www.deutschnine.com/rennlist/...classic-06.jpg

http://www.deutschnine.com/rennlist/...classic-07.jpg

Then began the long process of looking into shipping the car from Canada to our factory in Switzerland on route via the UK. In the UK and throughout European member’s you can import a car via a process which is called “Inward Forward Processing Relief” ... This basically means that we do not have to pay import duties in the UK and the car can remain in the UK for 12 months – when finally exporting to the final destination (in our case Switzerland), we pay import only to Switzerland. The reason for this is that we do not have our own JIG facilities and I’m very well connected in the UK with such specialists who do the good old “mates rates” discounts (Not sure if I can do this but if I can then I’ll post details to the bodyshop in question which resides on the outskirts of Manchester).

Back to the shipping, we had 2 options – RORO or Container. As the car was not a roller we purchased all the replacement suspension/control arms etc in the UK and shipped direct to the workshop which Arnard had entrusted all work on his car since ownership so it would qualify as a roller. The work was done and the car was loaded onto the train for Canadian Port destination. Upon arrival at the port they refused to accept the car for RORO so we had to stump up a killer £2k for a 20” container which was the second kick in the teeth :(

The first kick came during the workshop making the car a roller ... they found that the Flywheel housing was cracked badly which Arnard previously had no knowledge of. We’d already committed to purchase (sent 50% deposit) and purchased a lot of part including a full 993 front clip, panel’s suspension components etc and Arnard, much to his credit agreed to drop the price :thumbsup: +++++++++++++ more credit Arnard :biggulp::biggulp::biggulp:

We knew the car was now going to blow the build budget but when “in for a penny, you’re in for a pound” so heck with the cost - roll on more of the "A - Madness" approach ;D

I was over in Dubai following onto Australia (met a great fellow RL’er) when the car arrived at UK Liverpool docks and over the phone we arranged for the car to be simply dropped off on my driveway outside my house. 3 weeks later I was back in the UK and got my first true look at Project Battle Ship.

As soon as I returned I started stripping the car back to most part, a rolling shell and it was evident that literally every pipe, panel, cable, light, trim aircon-rad and housing, oilcooler-rad and housing, fans ... you name it needed to be replaced (at the front) so the hunt was on and slowly but surely from all kinds of sources, parts were purchased. It shocked me at how expensive some of these parts were even used on eBay but some bargains turned up ... here are a few examples but before a quick statement from me ... "I read lots of fantastic project and restoration builds on RL and after project completion people ask the question "How Much Did This Project Cost?" which never seem to get answered ... for this thread I'm going to detail every cost and a final sum at completion because I know that this is information all budding restorers want to know and so you can ultimately tell us what TITS we are :)" - Disclosure of cost of car purchase I will have to agree with Arnard first before posting ... this is only fair:

993 front clip: £800 <-- There is a story to this shortly :(
Both new front fender: £300
New N/B front bumper: £100
New RS front chin corners: £400
New Turbo front bumper from Germany: £330
New L&R front chassis legs (real bargain on these): £140
News & used suspension arms and rear suspension side panel £700
Used rear bumper PU: £100
Other bits up to now est.: £1500
Estimated cost of parts needed to have the car running/road legal: £2000

^ All of the above are OEM Porsche parts which again will be detailed in more depth later when it comes to fitting :)

And there are times when parts required ASAP can’t be found anywhere on a budget (in this case it was a new hood) ... This was by far our worst and most costly used part ... Ended up finding a great one on eBay in the US, with a BIN price of $400 USD with 10 minutes auction to go ... seller stated “shipping worldwide, please contact me for a price before auction end”. To hell with it I though with no time ... just how expensive can it be to ship a hood from the US to the UK ... end result another $400 USD shipping = $800 

Whilst amassing all the main parts I stumbled upon Graham’s 993 Speedster build thread and the same day also found that he was listing his rear fenders (of which I needed 1 side) on eBay. Turned out that Graham lived just round the corner from myself in Wilmslow, Cheshire (UK) so that was another part sorted, I thought ... For some reason when we drilled out the spot welds and cut the rear fender from the car, the 993 cab one would just not line up 100% so another “spend” was the order of the day from our local Porsche Centre adding another £550 to the ever mounting list.

Next instalment being typed now and will be up shortly :)

Best regards,
Mark