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The Perils of the blind Ebay Purchase

sutters

sutters

Member

My first official post since being a 944 owner;

So before I'm called a fool and what did I expect, a bit of back ground. by no means a 944 expert but owned many a 911 and other marques and under gone many (too many) tuning and restoration projects. I will say that this will be the biggest date.

Ok so I am the proud (why not) owner of a 1986 944 Turbo that was advertised on Ebay a few weeks back. The car read as had been standing for a while and has a low rev issue (nothing over 1500 rpm), this was all on the advert. Question 1. no I didn't go and view it. Which in all honesty might not have made much difference to the purchase. The guy who collected it for me (via trailer) had a good look over and said he couldn't see anything suspect. Should I have paid for a specialist to have a look? possibly yes.

So the car is trailered to ProMax and they are slowly reporting back on their investigations.

Looks like the mice were hungry, the previous work wasn't by a 944 specialist however not too bad and of course the money pit; rusting sills. A leakdown test was conducted and that's come back good with less than 5% from all cylinders. The car hasn't been started yet so more to follow.

This could still be the 944 phoenix from the fire.

Fingers crossed.

More to follow.

Ian
 
Crossing my fingers for you.

At the end of the day if you got it dirt cheap (say £1000) and it costs £8000 to get it in tip top condition then you've made a good purchase.
 
[:)]
I would love to hear about how it goes step by step,Promax are a safe pair of hands they turned a tired turbo S into a series winning race car for me,so miracles do happen!!
Updates looked forward to from over here,best of luck with your adventure!
 
Ian, exactly what I did nearly 5 years ago. I still have the car (86 Turbo) so I guess its been worth it although I am very poor. So far I have been spared the dreaded rotting sills but almost everything else apart from the engine internals has needed attention. Happy to share war stories if its helpful.
 
I can relate to this. My 944T was a eBay punt and I paid a price that I thought excellent at the time. It was advertised with 12months MOT, full service history and new sills. When it arrived on a trailer from Northern Ireland it looked smart and drove nicely but everytime it rained I got soaked from above and below. Leaking sun roof (which didn't work) was fixed with a new seal but the big issue was the sill "repair". Turns out they had weld new outer sills over the top of the rotten old ones hiding the rust on the inners and floor edges. We found it when I went for new tyres and the jacking point lifted in to the car!

It decided I'd get it sorted properly as there are so many bad 944T out there. Fixing it yourself means you know you have a sound platform to work from.

My car will actually be going up for sale this weekend as I bought another 944T from a member here who had the same woes as both of us. It was actually far cheaper for me to buy his car that he has spent a lot of money on than to continue to throw money at mine. Watch out for project 944T in the for sale section!
 
Good luck with it Ian, did that with my S2, bought it cheap and threw some money at it and now it's a lovely car.
Keep us posted.

ORIGINAL: sutters


My first official post since being a 944 owner;

So before I'm called a fool and what did I expect, a bit of back ground. by no means a 944 expert but owned many a 911 and other marques and under gone many (too many) tuning and restoration projects. I will say that this will be the biggest date.

Ok so I am the proud (why not) owner of a 1986 944 Turbo that was advertised on Ebay a few weeks back. The car read as had been standing for a while and has a low rev issue (nothing over 1500 rpm), this was all on the advert. Question 1. no I didn't go and view it. Which in all honesty might not have made much difference to the purchase. The guy who collected it for me (via trailer) had a good look over and said he couldn't see anything suspect. Should I have paid for a specialist to have a look? possibly yes.

So the car is trailered to ProMax and they are slowly reporting back on their investigations.

Looks like the mice were hungry, the previous work wasn't by a 944 specialist however not too bad and of course the money pit; rusting sills. A leakdown test was conducted and that's come back good with less than 5% from all cylinders. The car hasn't been started yet so more to follow.

This could still be the 944 phoenix from the fire.

Fingers crossed.

More to follow.

Ian
Click to expand...
 
Good luck with it. Will watch with interest, hopefully your sills wont be as bad as mine, but even if they are, once repaired properly you'll have a solid base to build a nice car on.
 
It happens to us all, I bought a cheap S2 on ebay beginning of the year there, it had been stood for three years. It ran ok, but it needed a new dashboard (deep cracks like a canyon) a full paint job (lacquer peel and tree fallout) and it needed new sills and a full new floor too..went to change the wheels and the jack went through the floors lol.. Nearly £3000 later in body and floor work brake and fuel lines and it was a top car again. I know the guy who sold me it knew exactly what he was doing, a liar. It's not always possible, but best to try and view before you buy and get underneath it if you can.
 

Gents, really appreciate the replies. It helps to hear im not the only one who has had problem's and certainly highlights there is light at the end of the tunnel albeit at a cost.

Ian
 
Have a look at my S2 restoration thread which is documenting what it takes to bring a £1750 ebay special back from the brink. I've spent £4k on mine so far to refresh pretty much all the moving parts and it's now awaiting a full respray which will probably be another £3k. But at the end it will be a solid, reliable and presentable car for the next 5-10 yrs.
 
Good luck. It's in good hands with Promax.

When I bought my turbo, I thought I found a bargain. Couldn't have been further from the truth. Most people won't believe what I've had to spend on it to bring it to a reasonable shape. (Thankfullly, sills were not a problem though.)

All good fun as it keeps us busy and out of trouble with the mrs. :)
 
It's possible that the tide may have turned.
A few years ago there seemed to be loads of reasonable 2-5k 944's on ebay and Autotrader, all similarly priced but some absolute sheds that would cost the same to put right as just cutting your losses and buying a better one.
Now I see far fewer about and at least the asking prices for decent examples have gone up... starting to make more sense to buy one in need of attention and spend the money on sills, clutch etc.
 
You know the only real bit I don't get is just how dishonest people are in this world. The car doesn't start, let alone Rev up to its claimed 1500 rpm, the shake up every few weeks of a few miles to keep her ticking over can only be false as all 4 brakes are literally jammed on to the disc and the handbrake seems to be stuck on to. The car was winched/dragged up on to the trailer by my collector and never offered to be driven on by the owner.

Mice seem to have an appetite for the 944 to.

 
Ian, good luck but do exercise caution with cash ie if you have the cash to repair / make good, question whether your starting point is the best one. Keep us updated. Suspect most of us have been there.
 
You have to be prepared to do as much work as possible yourself including scouring ebay for parts. I've spent over £4k on mine and haven't touched the sills, and I've done everything myself apart from the £2k respray. Although not perfect I now have a car that I'm really happy with and hopefully will be appreciating.

Good luck with the restoration, hope you have deep pockets!
 
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