BauerR

I have a really nice '89 S4 that I'm bringing back to life. I love everything about the car less the interior color. It's dark blue.
Although the interior is in 7/10 shape, I'm just not happy with it and want to go full restoration. My perfect combination would be all black with a darker red seat or completely black everything.
I know I'm not going to keep this car forever, so selling it is always in the back of my mind. I just dont know which way to go.

Mongo

These cars are becoming more collectible and there are typically three types of owners:

Purist
Restomodder
Driver

Changes that are not part of the build sheet may drive away the purists who prefer everything original. The latter two categories are usually the ones you would target should you decide to sell it later (are you REALLY sure you want to do that)?

Being the owner of a restomod, I could care less how far off the build sheet I go. And, the tan carpet does the interior no justice (I want to switch to black). In the end it all comes down to one thing:

It is your car. Do what you want with it.

Bigfoot928

My 928 was a restomod before it was cool to be a 928 restomod....

Mongo

^ True story.

Ninespub

^^^^^ What he said! I'm a restomodder also and 928sg's is one of the best out here. If you don't think you can compete for the purists' big bucks when you choose to sell it, tastefully make it yours, enjoy it and don't look back!

James Bailey

Much ALSO depends on how you do a color change. Trying to PAINT or Dye interior plastic is a disaster as it chips and scratches way to easily. Replacing each and every piece is extremely expensive.

Mongo

I have had fairly good luck with SEM paint for interior pieces. We did my Dad's 70 Camaro SS seats with SEM vinyl black paint. Been 3 years now and no chips. Wear is still unnoticeable. He takes care of it though. Meguiars Natural Shine vinyl protectant from Walmart and applications once a month. Downside? Well... a slippery seat if you don't wipe off the excess.

BauerR

I would be replacing all surfaces with new leather. No painting or dying.
Just don't know whether I should replace with new blue or my color choice.

linderpat

Bauer - here's my take - unless you are doing a "preservation", you can do a correct "restoration" with a different color interior - the standard would be whether the interior was correct for the year of the car, and had a color that was offered in that year. Since Porsche allowed customers to spec colors, pretty much any color could work, and certainly black will work. This should not affect value so long as you are keeping the bits and pieces correct for the year.

If you start to modify things, and use upgraded componenents, or put in after market seats, etc, then it starts to be come a restomod. Value can become very uncertain with restomods. Sometimes the value is good, but often it is not. I do not think simply changing the interior color to another color that was offered on that car hurts its value from a restoration standpoint, and likely may enhance the value. Watch the auctions - many high end cars are completely restored and go for very high prices, notwithstanding things like interior changes, paint changes and even drive train changes to a correct motor - always the key seems to be that the restoration is faithful to what would have been available and correct at the time the car was built.

An unresorted car can't have new paint (although I understand it can have paint work done so long as it does not rise to the level of a repaint), and it needs to be intact with original interior, motor, etc. It seems that over the past number of years, the unrestored cars have climbed the most in value. I would not strive to keep your car unrestored, as I think it will be many years before most 928s benefit from that status as collectables. Some do now, like very early cars, or 89GTs, and so forth, but most are not yet in that realm.

Hopefully the folks that really know this stuff, like Drooman and Jadz will chime in with their thoughts.

Mongo

Yes. For example:

RESTOMOD:



NOT A RESTOMOD (except maybe the shift handle):

RennPartsDirect

Go black. It will have the most appeal later when you decide to sell it in my opinion. I've modified mine to be something different. Have some fun with it...

Mongo

^ Definitely restomod. Love it!

Alan

Do what will make you happy in the end.

If its about resale value that will drive you one way - if its about your enjoyment or achieving a particular look or functional goal that will drive you another way.

I have GTS with >140K miles on it, it has a lot of modifications so purists would likely hate it - but my opinion is that Porsche got some things wrong - and they need to be fixed. Still most folks probably wouldn't even notice most of the things I have done - mostly fairly subtle... I have no intention of selling so I don't really care what anyone else thinks anyway.

It does needs some paint work because it has been driven almost every day for the last 17 years - leads to a lot of paint chips and general wear - maybe one day!

I imagine there would be a very small set of interested buyers if I tried to sell, possibly measured on less than 1 hand. But it makes me happy, I just wish my wife would stop calling it the 'money pit' - gets old.

Alan

James Bailey

I especially like what you have done with the console...

DeWolf

You could keep it basically stock color but add linen carpets with dark blue mats. Also do a white piping on the dark blue seats. I've never been a fan of all dark blue and seen one done in the color combo mentioned and it looked superb.
When it comes to cars never say "I'll keep it forever". That seldom happens. But, keep it as close to original as possible. These cars are getting rarer by the day.