odie

Sorry but I'm not selling it....

There is a 944 for sale near by that I'm curious about. I talked with the guy and the story is...

1987 944S with a blown rod. The guy supposedly bought a crashed 1986 951 and swapped everything. Suspension, engine, DME, nose, whatever. Forgot to ask about the transmission. Is LSD standard on 1986 951?

Claims the interior is very clean and body is straight. The clearcoat is peeling in places so It needs a paint job.

The car does not run yet. Says he has too many project but only a weekend or two to make it run.

I have not seen the car yet. I don't think the donor 951 is there anymore, just whatever parts he already took out.

What might something like this be worth? If anything at all?

Lorax

Sounds like a scary buy to me. Personally, I would stay away from any 951 transplant that is not in perfect running condition. Too many risks.

ApexCars

Tell him you'll haul it away for $500 plus the cost of trailer rental.

odie

Well, he wants a bit more than $500...

My concern is what is missing??? without it running I really don't know if it's "all there" but just not hooked up. Or is a major/expensive/rare part missing.

What do you lose with a conversion vs a original? Stuff like head light washers? Are little things like that tricky or do the washers just feed off the windshield washer? Or does the turbo have unique wiring and all for this?

The inst cluster...he has the one from the donor, but are wiring harness compatible? Just plug it in except for a vac hose for the boost guage?

Dual power seats? do all 944s have the wiring harness plug for the passenger seat? or only the turbo models?

many things to think about.

Basically I'm kinda looking for a price range that makes buying this an option over buying a real running 951. I've seen 951 sell as cheap as $5000. Some even less. Some a lot more.

Strong points on this car is a clean interior, re-covered seats. Clean body, but needs paint or new clear coat.

The engine came out of a low mile??? running 951. The door pillar/frame was crushed beyond economical repair.

at least this is the story...

ApexCars

No, not give him $500, he gives you $500 as disposal fee.

Seriously, you are looking at buying a grab bag. You have no real idea about anything. You would need to go through the car piece by piece and check the part numbers on everything to find out if he really did all of the things he says he's done. And you still have no idea if they are really low mile parts or not. A decent paint job is going to cost you around $4000.

What is he trying to get out of the car? Remember, there is nothing more expensive than a cheap Porsche.

josephsc

A running turbo conversion just went on eBay for $4800: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1988-...temZ4638350823 . And that was a car known to some RLers and seemed to have been well done: thread about the car.

IMHO, for a non-running one that needs paint, I'd be thinking something in the ~$2k range.... You'll need more time and parts to get it to something worth $5k -- and $2k is close to value of parts.

ApexCars

Just noticed that you're in Corpus. You might be able to talk someone from Paragon into giving it a once over for you, or at least talking to the owner about the car for you.

odie

The car is out of town. I've called the seller and seen some pictures. The car does not look bad but It will need paint work but can be enjoyed as is for the time being...

Kinda hard to tell much though from pictures. the engine is installed but I don't know how much is left to hook up or attach.

What all is inlvoced in this swap to make it run? Other than engine, intake, exhaust, computer/DME?

Is everything else pretty much optional? like trans, suspension, nose, dash, etc?

nize

fyi; these cars never came with clearcoat from the factory, so this one has obviously been re-painted ghetto-like.

also, judging from the questions you are asking, it's obvious you don't know the sort of high $$$+time investment you'd be getting into if you purchased this thing.

i would take everyone's advice and run away from this car unless the owner can provided documented evidence of everything that has been done to it.

inactiveuser92616

^^ yes they did. Mine came with something called krystal cote or something along those lines.

nize

krystal cote might have been a dealer thing, not a porsche factory option.

pstickne

Definately, get a well-maintained running 951 ... you'll find it more enjoyable. (Right now I just wish mine was running, but that's really my fault... :-/)

ApexCars

Other things that HAVE to be done in the conversion are transmission and clutch. No way will the original tranny hold up to a turbo. You asked before if LSD was standard on 86 turbo. No, its not but the transmission oil cooler is. You will have to have something to monitor boost, so either turbo dash or aftermarket guage. You can get by with NA brakes but they won't hold up to much performance driving. Seriously, you need to walk away from this unless you just really want a parts car or need a way to make alot of money disappear in a hurry. Even if all has been done that he says, you can buy a real, running 951 for $5000 or a little less and at least have a good starting point. This conversion will never be worth as much as an actual 951 and will cost alot more to get to the same level.

odie

My 1987 944S has clearcoat and I'm 99% sure it's all original. The clear coat is just starting to peel around the edge of the 1/4 windows.

The price he is asking I think is high, $3000, but taking "serious" offers...

I know there are several things that are upgraded on the turbo.

The biggest problem is without a real 951 next to this car, it's hard to look at brakes, suspension, trans, etc. and know for sure if this guy has indeed swapped that stuff over as well...

I can look for a trans oil cooler...but shocks & brakes I don't know what are the give-away indicators between S model parts and 951 parts. The 944S is kinda between the NA and 951 anyway.

This was an S model to start with. I guess I'll take good notes of my S before going to see this car. I'm not going to be able to take my car along though...motorcycle weekend

nize

i remember when i ordered my first car new from the factory, clear coat was not an option. when i asked why this was, they explained how shops use clearcoat to hide imperfections in bad paint, or paint one or two coats, and then clearcoat it to give it more depth to save money. high quality paint such as what porsche used on the 944's at the time did not need clearcoat, and thus the factory did not even offer it. (note: things may be different today)

also, real factory-applied clearcoat never peels seperately from the paint with age, because it's applied at the factory while the under paint has not fully dried, so the clearcoat forms a permanant bond to the underlying colored paint.

various dealers, however, would offer things such as clearcoat, underbody 'protectant' spray (not needed on the 944's), aftermarket alarms, etc. etc. in an effort to make more profit.

as for the car for sale;

in any conversion car for sale, it's up to the owner to prove the claimed conversions via documented evidence and records, not the buyer. if he's got nothing documented, that's a sure sign it's a hack job.

plus, this car isn't even running. why not just buy a real non-running/broken 951 for the same price?