Planning for repair/upgrade works over the Autumn/Winter..

[matthewwood]

Finally got the family FD on board to getting the funds to get the 944 sorted and back on the road. I've had in my mind a light resto-mod and i'm putting some rough figures together.

The definate to do list

Main sills left and right ( guesstimate £1,500 per side all in )
Patches of small corrosion around upper body sorted ( base of windscreen and at the top as well as bubbling around the 944 badge on the rear )
Replace window rubbers
Repair broken rear hatch lock mechanism & renew hatch struts
Replace broken bonnet catch & renew bonnet struts
Sort sunroof!!
Replace broken trim on door sills
Renew clutch ( £1k ish?)
Oil and filter service
4 new tyres

Under consideration to be done..

Renew/improve suspension - possibly coil overs? or fit Turbo suspension? - open to suggestions!
Fit spacers
Momo 3 spoke steering wheel

Back of fag packet i'm thinking this little lot will top out somewhere around £6k?

This car is a keeper...i'm not looking for a track day weapon but a well stanced tidy handling car i won't have to ( hopefully !! ) spend big bucks on a quite a while after this!

Any recommendations for specialists in the Worcestershire area?

 

[PAUL RUDDY]

That's how mine started and it's well passed £15k, maybe nudging £20k, with I would estimate another £5k+ to go, not including any labour costs other than that included in the bare shell paint job.

The world of Porsche restoration is a financially scary place !

Edit

Thought I would add some meat to the bone, so to speak, it's the hidden/forgotten costs that mount up.

Powder coating
Zinc plating
Vapour blasting
Soda blasting
Buying special tools, as a time served engineer I hate lending or borrowing tools, it's not normal.
Dozens of tins of aerosols, WD40, paint, freeze spray, stud lock (at least 4 different types so far)
Drill bits, cutting discs, abrasive paper, scotch pads
Cleaning solutions, acids, alloy cleaner
Rubber gloves, coveralls, cleaning cloths (100's), paint brushes, nail brushes
General fasteners, tapes, rubber gloves, glues and adhesives
Gaskets, ori gas, oils

Now lets talk actual parts, Porsche have definitely bumped up the price of 944 parts dramatically, I know my fuel lines and hoses front to back have exceeded £1k alone including all the hardware to fit them.

Sills jumped from £140 per side to £300 per side, that's before you start on the rear inner closing parts, add another £100 a side.

A full engine gasket set will run to near £400

Add an oil pump rebuild, water pump, belts, rollers, clutch, clutch fork pin and bearings.

Suspension, I converted mine to B6 Bilsteins , the adapters were £100 from Germany, a second set of strut tubes to convert, blasted, powder coated, professionally welded, all new Porsche hardware, £1000 for the par complete, then there's the hubs, bearings, backing plates, brakes hoses, plastic clips, lock nuts, special washers, blasting and rebuilding the alloy arms, bushes, new 968 castor blocks, new discs, rebuilt calipers, pads, brake pad fitting kit, top mounts, drop links, anti roll bar mounts, more bushes...should we say the suspension can swallow £2.5k+ , then there's the rear suspension.

Stripping the torsion tube, rear wheel bearings, handbrake mechanism and cable, new spring plates and hardware, bushes, drop links, discs, calipers, Bilstein shocks, more Porsche nuts and bolts, hoses, pipes, another £2k soon goes.

Then you start on the engine, stripped down to its block, crank and Pistons ........I don't even want to think what it's cost in bits and that's without 6 months of labour cleaning etc

Radiator, expansion tanks, hoses, steering components.....think I'll leave it at that, oh no , new genuine windscreen + fitting, interior parts.....

Add the hours and hours spent running around dropping parts off and picking parts up, 6 hour round trips to the zinc platers, oh and postage costs, import duty, fuel costs, trailer hire, electricity usage (garage heater and tools)

Then there's the money wasted, second hand parts from EBay that are damaged or inferior to what you already have, so then you decide only new will do...."hello, is that OPC, do you have.....how much !!! oh go on then"

I need a coffee.....

Paul

 

[PSH]

to be fair Paul, you have taken your restoration further than most could or even would? I think the prices that Matthew has quoted are reasonable but I do agree that costs do creep, there's always the hidden extra's that can add up.
I wish you good luck Matthew and hope that you get the car sorted to your liking very soon.

regards

Pete

 

[robdimond]

I'm pleased you said 1500 a side for sills and not 150! Sounds like a reasonable budget, good luck. Suspension upgrades is where you could really blow your budget, although just about anything will be better than the tired original shocks.

 

[PAUL RUDDY]

I am guilty of going just a tad over board []

 

[matthewwood]

Thanks for the replies chaps all very helpful, Paul thats one big list there and very detailed you certainly didn't skimp at all! I guess i will try to make the best use of the funds i will have available...time to drive the other half mad whilst i price up the suspension upgrades and get quotes for the work!

 

[Monkeythree]

Given that you have to take the doors and the front wings off to do the sills properly and that you have some other rust issues to sort and you want to replace the window rubbers.......I would budget for a full body respray whilst it is all in bits. You will get a much better finish than trying to blend in all those separate areas.

Quite a few things on your list are simple DIY jobs so I would also suggest starting with doing what you can yourself and putting the money you save on labour into the bigger things that you can't manage.

 

[matthewwood]

Cheers Tom i'll bear that in mind. Nice little collection of cars you have by the way

 

[fniikks]

Great works! I am really impressed and liked them a lot. Do you have more works to show? Possibly you have a personal website devoted to your art. You have talent, I really mean it. Where are you from? I am from https://postcodefinder.net/england/. How much time do you usually spend on one sculpture? Let me know details of your work, I will be glad to learn more about it.

 

[Frenchy]

Matthew, Paul's car was not that good when it came from the factory, trust me I witnessed it in the metal, he tends to get carried away ??
All done in a single carriage which really impressed, the car is now in a collection.
As Paul has already said Porsche have whacked the prices of everything 944 up.
Some OEM bits available from ECP and motor factors, Gates belts a third of OPC prices, same for Bosch rotor arms, flywheel sensors can be had for a fifth of Porsche prices, genuine Bosch parts, very expensive boxes from OPC, IMO they should be helping us price wise as they are always banging the classic drum.

 

[dlknight]

Just do what you can with what you have when you can.

Sounds like you have got the main important bits at the top of the list anything else can be done as and when possible.

I took my car off the road in 2014 and got it back on the road in 2019 after bare metal respray and some body repair plus offset mechanical maintenance. Now I'm slowly working through different areas bit by bit until I get it to a level I'm happy with.

Currently just my parts expenditure is sitting at around £3,000

 

[dlknight]

Great works! I am really impressed and liked them a lot. Do you have more works to show?

More tame than some of the other posts I've seen by this poster - I've reported several times now already, appears to be a bot or someones poor attempt at phishing judging by the links being posted in some of them. Do we have active admins?