Restoration - How far do you go?

[Bloooor]

I've been clearing an old unit which my grandad has let me use to keep the porsche in, it's secure and dry and has use of an engine crane too in there which will be handy, i've looked over it all on ramps and over a pit and i constantly question how much money the car will need for me to be truly happy..

I started off with re doing seals on the exterior of the car to keep the weather out, then sorting bulbs/contacts on the dash, window regulator/switches and other small things in the cabin, then mechanical i have no history of the car having a clutch done and i have a slight judder when pulling away and when changing gear so for peace of mind i would like to change it, also i have a small oil leak somewhere on the block, planned to brush some Jizer degreaser on i've bought then find the leak but at the same time, I might as well sort the headgasket out as again, i have no history of it being done.. then whilst i'm in there i might as well give her a full service (belts/tensioner have been done but not sure if i can re use the tensioner once it's been used before, i would have to do some reading up on that) Is there anything else i might as well do whilst in the bay?

with regards to paint i can only really see 2 patches that need doing in the sills, i corner of the sill and some bits under the doors and rear the subframe.. I've looked at a lot of restoration/rebuild threads and i keep seeing people pealing back metal to find more rust.. so i'm nervous i will find this and just want to restore the whole shell lol

Basically.. how far do people go with restoration? Is it just down to budget/time you have for the car or is there a limit to what's worth doing? I could really just do with somebody maybe having a look around the car if possible, if anybody is free i would supply bacon and as many brews/drinks as you can drink (Manchester area)

*The car in question is a 1984 Lux 944, shell and seats look immaculate apart from rust mentioned above a small rip in the drivers side seat, standard cracked dash, 134k on the clocks but loads of history and MOTs to show it's been looked after*

 

[JagdHamster]

Hi Bloooor,
There has to be an element of time/cost consideration, because our cars aren't usually worth a whole heap of beans, so that has to constrain the amount you invest in the car. However, the rust is never going to get better, so you either ignore it, or be prepared for the worst if you go looking.
Rusted fuel lines and earth points seem to be other known weak points, but other than that, the HG, belts, service would be a great idea.

Russ

 

[ChasR]

I used to chase perferction, but a few things have stopped me since. Is my logic flawed? Possibly. My main reasons are possibly down to cash. But in my mind, they are:

-Time: I do not have much spare time and truth be told, the last time I attempted a 'full-resto' on a working car resulted in me keeping it off the road for 10 years. Maybe with patience this would not have occured.

-Money: the above did drain me of quite a bit of cash, with only 20% of my cash coming back in the end. But then, cars will always be money pits .

-Quality: Whilst this is not a huge issue with the 944 IMO it is with many BL cars. HGs which are worse in quality than what was made years ago, bushes which will barely last the period of the MOT due to using cheap materials, oil pumps which are incorrectly calibrated and machined, I could carry on, but you get the idea. Poor ignition parts seem to be rife in the classic car industry (I have had first hand experience of this, once almost fatal!).

-It's a car!! They are designed to be used, driven and enjoyed! If I am honest, they seem to work better with this being the case. With my resto, things started going wrong due to a lack of use (electrical contacts tarnishing was the main one, but there were other things (bushes drying up, new oil leaks becoming apparent etc.). My 205 was the same when I left it for a couple of years, yet it never let me down (and still does not) when it is in regular use. Besides that, you find yourself being scared to take the car anywhere or use it for anything (I'm scared enough to park the Porsche up in some car parks and it is hardly the best example out there!). To me, a car at this point becomes a monument, which is losing the point of why one bought the car.

That is not to say I do not maintain my cars at all. Far from it! If things are beginning to perish etc. I shall see to them and change related things (judging whether they are on their path to decline) (i.e, cutting all of the rot out to ensure that part of the car does not rust again) to ensure I can enjoy the car.

The above view is probably different to many of you (and I've probably made my fleet sound like a bunch of nails!), but that's my 2p .

 

[Kongsodoken]

if the restoration is a chore and the end result is the prize then it,s the wrong car

if the restoration is what you enjoy then there are no limits or budgets[]

 

[colin944]

You go as far as you can afford ( financial and time wise ) Do the body then mechanicals then interior and trim in that order and you won't go far wrong.

 

[Frenchy]

Ken is my hero [] doing an awesome job with his and long may it continue, a proper nut and bolt job and i am sure it will make him proud and turn a lot of heads.

There are quite a few of us on here that are OCD with a lot of unseen things that most people never see but we know that it is sound so we are happy, kin hell i have all the boot liners stripped out of my 997 tonight to clean underneath !
The battery tray which no one will ever see will be off to be powdercoated shortly, makes me happy []
It's called "attention to detail"

 

[scam75]

Yeah we're all different but happy with our cars! My idea of resto is to potter about with stuff whilst the car essentially is still a car and usable whenever I wish to drive it!

Stuart

 

[Bloooor]

I agree with so much that's been said, it's such a terrible obsession of wanting to throw every penny i have at a car but i remember back when doing it with my 172 years back, the feeling you get when you go out for a drive on a summers day, knowing all the time and effort you have put in to the car, just extends the smile already on my face..

This article i've just read is also helping me to see the light, i may just have a lot of niggles to sort but once these are fixed/replaced it will hopefully transform the car - http://www.jmgporsche.co.uk/index.php/menu-articles/articles-performance/item/219-924-and-944-gear-shift-part-one

 

[Frenchy]

Get a white board, write the jobs required on it and aim to tick one off a month, bigger jobs 2 months, up until January this year i was up to 3 "Hobby Cars" 2x 944 Turbos and a 7 series E 38 BMW, i work full time have 2 kids 2 dogs and various other interests along with a substantial house to maintain.

Chicken feed fella, get on with it []

 

[Bloooor]

I'm having a late night ebay spree.. looking at white boards as we speak, could even go for a revolving one!

 

[zcacogp]

Good Q. It's called "scope creep". Part of the answer has to be what you want to use the car for once done; is it to be a daily driver, do you want to carry on driving it whilst the work is being done, are you trying to create a show car?

I think an useful divide is between things that are cosmetic and things that have mechanical value, and between doing things that will get worse with time (and may cause failure of other parts) and things which, while they look bad, are not going to deteriorate.


Oli.

 

[vitesse]

The old saying -"if it aint broke ,don't fix it " comes to mind.

I love cars or anything mechanical-but they are for driving & I have run Porsches since 1982 on that basis doing whatever needs doing generally myself but with an eye on the budget-daft things like tidying up very annoying wiring spaghetti seem to end up sorting out other annoying things like missing lights or radios that fail to keep tuning in the memory-but some people seem ignore that type of fault'

Prioritise as suggested -I don't go posh with a whiteboard because that's more work putting it up.Most of all enjoy it-it can be a good excuse to buy missing tools & equipment or suggest them as presents

 

[tref]

I know the dilemma... My hunt for perfection was stifled by having a couple of cars written off for me... I still suffer the affliction though - even with Bomber, covering 30k miles a year, any you dent or scratch pains me greatly... The most I hope for is to "keep moving it forward". I am lucky enough to have a "Garage Queen" as well as the daily driver - as they are both 944s, in many cases I can buy a new part, it goes on the garage queen, so that always gets the best, and the perfectly serviceable "hand-me-down" goes on the road car, so it still gets a very good part, but I don't have the worry that it is entirely wasted on that car.
So... best comment I could make would be to get another one - one fer lookin' at, one fer drivin'![]

 

[Bloooor]

It's hard to say really, in essence the main reason i've always wanted an old Porsche is for that 80s feel and because they are a good all round car for country lanes, long distances, maybe the odd track day and just general driving.

I think for me it's my 'enjoyment car' i would love to take it to shows, not so much to show it off but to feel proud of it being there knowing i've helped keep another one on the road. I have a cheap daily that is an automatic used to just get from A-B so it can be kept in the garage for a few weeks whilst getting sorted but the less time it's away the better (I'm also going to Le Man again this year and hoped to go in the 944 so that's another little deadline i want to try reach with getting it ready for a long trip out..

I'm quite the perfectionist really when it comes to these sort of things, i always like them to be at there best (which is strange because i don't really care what i look like or dress like but i do care about my health) so maybe i could stick with that concept for cars..

Another quote i've always tried to stick too is "if you're going to do something, you might as well do it right"

ORIGINAL: zcacogp

Good Q. It's called "scope creep". Part of the answer has to be what you want to use the car for once done; is it to be a daily driver, do you want to carry on driving it whilst the work is being done, are you trying to create a show car?

I think an useful divide is between things that are cosmetic and things that have mechanical value, and between doing things that will get worse with time (and may cause failure of other parts) and things which, while they look bad, are not going to deteriorate.


Oli.