This post is not aimed at anyone in particular. Human nature for some of us gearheads is to take stuff apart because its easy and fun. Much harder and time consuming to reassemble. We take it apart then lose interest, time or both and we end up selling off projects or literally 'basketcases', often at a loss. So we have "invested" our time and labor to disassemble, but that effort just devalues the 914 that we paid good money for.

The one benefit to a basket case 914 is that its already disassembled, saving time and effort. But if you don't know 914s, then parts could be missing or unusable. There is usually a reason why it was taken apart...because something didn't work...so finding and replacing the defective part(s) is also a factor, further devaluing the package. If your time is worth anything (its our biggest asset), then the cost to reassemble is significant and in many cases can be worth more than the value of the parts if you put a $ figure on your time.

Would you pay more for an assembled, functioning 914 or that same car that is disassembled and in boxes and maybe not even be complete due to lost or otherwise unusable parts? Could that disassembled 914 even have a negative value, actually less than free, all things considered?

"some assembly required" HA!

Is this a philosophy quiz??

You can drive the complete car. You can't drive the basket case. The driver is worth far more, because you won't have to put dozens or hundreds of hours into it before you can drive it.

As an architect, maybe you can relate to this:
What's worth more, a house or a plot of land and a bunch of wood and drywall?

--DD

We all build dreams in our minds but have only so much time, money, and skills. Lack of these extend the goal, and then life happens. Fight it.

My newer goal is to drive everything I have, and enjoy it.

+1

Imho, I would not pay more than half of the parts value for a basket case.
It's called risk mitigation. You have to assume the worst case I.e. complete engine rebuild tranny ect.
also, it takes much longer to put everything together than apart.
I never timed myself, but I guess I could take a complete car, down to every single nut and bolt in less than 8 hrs or less.
It's the 5th year for me now in the build phase.

However, if you look just for a car to build your dream car, there might be some value to a basket case.

Personally, I think getting one assembled (for me) is the safest route. I would want to disassemble it personally and tag/bag the parts so I know what is missing or not. Now, if I had taken a few of our cars apart and put them back together, then I could probably determine what is there and what is missing just by looking at the parts. I am not there.

For those with the skills, a disassembled 914 is probably the way to go as you could quickly assess the condition of the chassis with no effort and get right to work on the rust.

PS: If you buy it to sell the parts i guess you might be able to make some money, over a driver. But that will "cost" you a lot of time.

True. Parting out a rusty car brings 2-6X vs selling it complete.

Buy assembled car for the reasons stated, AND it is my time in life to start enjoying the driving part. Have build/restored several cars either complete or rolling chassis and have enjoyed the process; as I change I find I want to drive more of my completed projects and enjoy them. If I were younger, it probably would be a different story.

Steve

You never know with a pile of parts:

If it is all there

If the parts are right for the car

If the parts are the remains of three project cars and what you have left over is the worst of 3.

I might buy it, but only at a price so low I could not go wrong. Like $250 for the car and all the parts.

With a running car you can easily see what is NOT there.

The other huge factor is I like fixing up cars. If I was doing it for a profit I would not touch a pile of parts unless it was so cheap I could get my money back from one or two parts.

If the driver... has all the rust repaired, good paint in a color I like, fresh rubber and is mechanically sound... as in exactly what I want as is, it's worth about $2500 of my time vs a lego kit. More if I have to build the engine or trans.

If it needs paint, rust repair, or an engine swap... for which I would be taking a lot of it apart anyways, it generally breaks even. Knowing all the parts are there & easier to move vs not having to disassemble is about equal for me, as I have all the hardware from a car that was cut up and a good idea of what goes where.

Not to mention anyone who has ever bought a car from someone who doesn't know what he is doing when dis-assembling knows there will be a million snapped off bolts, stripped hardware, and nothing will be labeled or marked, making a lot of the "stuff" you get useless to actually restoring the car. If a car is all complete you can take your time and carefully dis-assemble/label everything. Buying a car in boxes is a real pig in a poke. The other problem that always comes up is like when I bought a matching #s 67S that was taken apart. The guy said it was all there. Except when I really starting going through it he did admit he sold off some juicy stuff to fund his other restoration, little things like the S Webers, or the 4.5 FUCHS....

There's a basic economic reason as well. For a complete driving car your market is the universe of people who've ever wanted a sports car. For the identical car that's a pile of parts that market is reduced to the much smaller universe of people who've wanted a sports car who ALSO have the ability to assemble one from parts. In other words you've shrunk your universe of potential buyers to a small fraction of the original market. Fewer buyers, less interest, more uncertainty, considerably lower price.

Great question, I just bought another roller to rebuild at my pace and then decide if I want to keep it or not. Good foundation car with most of it's rust issues in the engine bay and outer jack pad area . My friends easily said "why don't you buy one done ??" I stated because for one, I can't come up with that kind of money for what I'd consider buying and two because I sleep better at night knowing exactly what's been done to it and who worked on it etc. It's kind of exciting to find parts and deal with the peeps on this board who are always willing to help you get it done and running that's just my .02......

time is money, money is time. Depends on what you have more of. Sometimes its worth it to pay someone to do it , other times ,its worth doing yourself and then you know what you have etc.

My build project is and interesting example of this. the P.O. , before Bill H held on to it for a few months, gave up on it after he stripped it down to restore it. For the most part its a really good shell, so since I wanted a project, someone else stripped it down, that is a plus in this situation, it saved me a lot of time. but it sat a while and while verything is in bins and labeled, lots of stuff will have to be replaced, like the whole interior. the time issue now is having to hook up the wiring to try and run it so that I can assess the motor, but I know I need new exhaust and exchangers.
- I have a driving car so i'm ok with getting a project that has a good base. Don't get me wrong it has a few issues, but the longs and jack points are better than the car im driving right now!! so the if and unknown is, the motor. IF it runs and has good compression, then I got an excellent deal and its worth much more than what I paid.
- Bill passed because, lack of time, other projects etc etc.
I would say the finished product fo rth most part will be worth more ahtn any sum of a heap of parts. This car has some rust but the frame is solid with no flex, all 4 jack points are solid, the doors have no runs in them or on them( I might just put them on my other car, if I run out of time/ money to finish this righ.
right now If it runs, its worth a lot more, if not I am not out of anything that I cant make back easily. -
each person has a different value they can put on that time vs. money . I can tell you because of the increasing values our projects have more value than they used to, and others are taking notice - example: local neighbor(buys rust buckets and brings them back), used to only do 911, 356, and some 912, now looking hard at 914's!!

My dad bought a disassembled TR3 from a guy, but they made some contingencies to the deal to make sure it worked out. The seller had taken the car apart for a rebuild and then got injured pretty seriously (can't remember if it was related to work on the car) and could not continue. They made an arrangement where dad would take a couple weeks and go to the guy's place and reassemble the car. The sale was contingent on getting it running within a certain time. He's been driving it around for some 20 years now. Well, maybe 10 yrs driving, 10 yrs on jacks.

My wife will let me drive or even tow home a complete vehicle...

No way in he// would I be allowed to bring a bare chassis and a truckload of boxes/parts home!

Then would it be a good haul when you bring a complete car, and a bunch of boxes?

I passed on a complete 2.0 car since the seller insisted all the spares HAD to go..in fact he wanted those items picked up 1st...hoods, doors, extra motors and gearboxes and enough other items to fill a small U-Haul truck. That was actually a deal breaker for me.

Too much of a good thing?

That's what I look for! But my wife says I have hoarded tendencies...