World's biggest jigsaw puzzle....who's game? Options

[raynekat]

Recently found on Ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1970-Porsche-914-c...em=122188760966

Looks like this has been sitting in the bottom of a lake for the past decade or just parked outside for the last 40 years.
Lots of nice but real rusty authentic 914-6 parts here.
Maybe those alone are worth the $14k?

I'm not sure I'm brave enough to take something like this on.
Absolutely everything needs attention....except for the interior light. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[iwanta914-6]

I think the sitting in a lake comment is derived from the fact that every little part and piece has rust on it, even the keys!

I see it's up over $17,500 now, yikes! To think I could get a well sorted solid -4 for that money. Heck, I'd jump all over that Ravenna 2.0L on Craigslist before this nightmare for the money.

[raynekat]

I think the sitting in a lake comment is derived from the fact that every little part and piece has rust on it, even the keys!

Exactly....
You need to look way down in the Ebay ad to see all the up close and personal pics.
Everything, I mean everything....except for the pristine interior light....has rust all over it.

If you're going to do a "quality" restoration....I'm not talking what you can do in your own garage, but quality such that this car is going to be worth in excess of $75k when you're finished, you are in for a lot of work and and lot of money.
Not sure the math makes sense on this car.

Let's do a little back of the envelope figuring.

The engine is an easy $25k....if you have a good shop (Rothsport, John Walker, John Esposito, etc) with another $5k for the tranny.
911 engines are wickedly expensive to rebuild.
And this guy needs to be near concours in appearance as well as proper function.
I'd guess that the inside of the tranny looks as bad as the outside.
Your'e already at $30k with just the drivetrain.
I know some will say I can do that for a lot less money.
When the project is done, it won't be worth near the price if you haven't used a "known" engine/tranny builder.
I certainly wouldn't pay as much for a car with an engine built by Joe Blow.

The metal work will be at least $10-15k if done by a shop.
Maybe here is where you can save some money.
But then add a good paint job to the mix and you'll be saying goodbye to another $10k minimum.
No Earl Schreib jobs allowed here.
Remember, we trying to get top dollar for this car.
Whew, we're cresting at $55k now and you haven't done much else to the car.

I would never trust that wiring harness.
Kroon can build you one out of Europe for $2k.
All the electrics (lighting, switches, etc) will need to be sorted and or replaced.
Send North Hollywood a quick $1000 to restore the gauges.
Checkout the pictures of the interior.
Seats, door panels, back pad, carpets, seat belts.
It's a total write-off if you ask me.
Let's find an NOS early 914 dash.
Will be much more expensive than 914 Rubber's beautiful late dash.
So you'll either be sourcing really, really nice 2nd hand or new parts, or refurbishing it all through a good upholstery shop.

A huge expense that no one's really thinking about is all the mounds of rusty hardware.
For this 914-6 to worth any money to a collector in the end, you'll need to re-use most of not all that nasty, rusty, filthy stuff.
The lettering on the ends of the bolts is important if you're looking to get top dollar.
You can't be replacing this with new nuts and bolts.
You'll be wire wheeling and re-plating these until the cows come home.
You better have a good PET for this car, as you'll need to cross reference every single piece of hardware to know where it goes.

Currently, it is "completely" disassembled....I mean completely.
They've even peeled most of the badges and stickers off this car.
Who does that and then turns around and tries to sell it all?
That's why I call this the world's biggest jigsaw puzzle.
Normally, you bag and tag everything while you take it apart for restoration.
No chance of that with this car.

I really believe when it's all said and done, you can easily put another $75-100k into it beyond whatever the ultimate sales/purchase price is.
Restoring early Porsches, 356's, 911's and 914-6's is not inexpensive at all.

The "piece de resistance" to me is the close up of the VIN that is engraved in the body.
The last 4-5 digits are unreadable due to the amount of rust and corrosion on the body.
What could possibly go wrong here?
I don't thing the final digits will be readable after stripping all the non-original paint off the chassis.
Perhaps it's something that can be fixed?
But with everything else going on with the car, are you willing to take that chance?

Will be interesting to see what it goes for and what the purchaser actually does with this car.
The full blown meticulous expensive restoration.....or a quick and easy assembly with minimal attention to detail?
Glad it's not my project....at 62, I don't have enough years in my life to finish this baby. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)