Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

In Ye Olden Days, when people wanted something pointless to spend their money on, they would build a “folly”, which was generally a tower and in a field – a folly would serve no purpose other than so soak up revenue, keep them occupied for a while and to look nice at the end. I chose not to build a folly. I chose to buy a high-mileage Porsche 944.

I first mentioned my acquisition of Porsche Number Two, a 1989 944 S2, back in August when I first bought the beast. It has taken since then to get it into suitable condition for daily use and has been an ongoing project soaking up large amounts of time and cash. However, all was worthwhile as last week it was finally (pretty much) finished.

The idea behind The Red Shed was to buy a cheaper Porsche than my Carrera , that I wouldn’t be so precious about – I could let it get dirty, park it on the street, use it for work, cane the arse off it, etc – and generally treat as an everyday car. After much diligent research (one bottle of wine and an evening on eBay) this car was selected – first six months of its life it was a Porsche demonstrator and then had the same owner for the next twenty years. It came with a full history and all bills going back to 1991 and was a very original, honest car – it had been used as a daily driver and had 179,000 miles on the clock and was all mine for £2,600. Bargain, I thought. Er, no… As any fool knows, there is no such thing as a cheap Porsche.

This is where my new purchase acquired the name The Red Shed – various parts, including indicators, interior and passenger mirror, were held on with blu-tac. Smoke billowed from the rear to such an extent I fully expected it to be pulled off the road and impounded. Various other things came off in my hand. Having driven the Red Shed home, with it doing a passable imitation of a burning oil well, works commenced. Delivered straight to my local friendly mechanic with instructions to service it and do whatever else is required, it disappeared for the next three weeks. Works carried out included -

Full service
Fit new cambelt and balance shaft
Repairs to alarm system
Wheel balance
New battery
Repair to headlight lifter
Unjam and grease electric windows
Free off jammed rear brake
New gasket seals throughout engine, all oil leaks cured
Ametech “Restore” additive used in oil (worked brilliantly)
Repairs to tailgate release and brake lights.

Total cost a further £1500 (for cash payment and mates rates discount)

There was also the problem that The Red Shed had numerous rust bubbles, seriously dodgy looking sills and at some stage the roof had been painted the wrong shade of red – more Tango than Guards. So it went straight from my mechanic round to Premier Coachworks, who did a fantastic job of getting rid of the bubbles, sorting the sills (including welding in a new patch) and ensuring the whole car was the same colour. There are a few nicks and scratches, but they are very minor and short of a full respray not much one can do. Another £450. Pleasantly surprised by that.

With such a high mileage, there was a fair amount of transmission whine. Although 944’s seem to create more noise than others, this one was excessive – although pronounced perfectly safe, it sounded like someone sitting in the boot with a Black & Decker drilling into masonry. Even with Public Enemy’s Greatest Hits on full volume the noise was still audible, to the extent that after driving from Daventry to Rugby I became so incensed by the whine that I attempted to chew my own ears off. Not much you can do but bite the bullet and stick a new gearbox in – Total Car Care obliged with a second-hand box and for £1400 gave me back a car I could drive which didn’t sound like the world’s largest wasp going for the world record for “loudest buzzing sound ever created”.

A few minor other bits have been addressed – new crested wheel centres, clear side repeaters and front indicators, new chrome exhaust cover, CD player, German-style number plates (Achtung, schweinhund!), new interior mats, porsche crest valve caps and a damn good valet. Only two real niggles remain – the heater was jammed permanently on high and has apparently been a problem for years which despite trips to a Porsche dealer could not be rectified, so this was bodged by cutting off the hot air supply to just a trickle, and the pinstripe interior has faded over the years to a beige/grey/yuck colour in places. I was intending to tackle this with industrial carpet dye and turn the whole lot black, but common sense has prevailed and (to date) I have not summoned up the courage/stupidity to attempt it. And I can’t get the bloody sunroof to tilt open.

So the end result? A car that cost £2,600 has cost almost another £3,500 to bring up to a decent standard and still isn’t quite finished. However, touch wood there is very little major stuff that can now go wrong with it and will hopefully serve as a fun almost-daily driver for the next few years.

Photos as below -

Hooray

Well done that man!
Must be ready for a blast down the Pod on the 17th April next year?


Live and breathe the Marque,
Stephen

blimey, well done that man

Looks good, scary amount to spend on a 944 but well done for doing so.

Although it's admirable to see you keep the car on the road - you could have bought the very best 944 for the £6000 you have spent!

See other threads about the heater. Mine, like many others on here, was the broken clip behind the dashboard just to the right of the glovebox. It breaks and the heater defaults to hot. Clip is about £1 from Porsche.

Just an observation / question - Are the number plates legal? Wrong typeface and a 'D' when you're not actually from Germany?

I know I could have bought a minty-mint-mint one for £6k, but that would have been far too easy.... To be honest, I thought it would only be a couple of grand to get it up to scratch but then it became a case of "I've started it so I'll finish it". I also quite like the idea of having a car with such a massive mileage on it and using it every day. At least, until it snows and then its going in the lock-up and I'll be back in the Rangey.

Will look up the heater thread and investigate next week, thank you.

Number plates are not strictly legal, but I'm not overly bothered. I think I'm risking a £60 fine, but a copper friend said it was most unlikely I would get in trouble for them. Last week I parked in a loading bay on two occasions, police asked me to move both times and nobody mentioned the plates.

High mileage everday car? Mine is a daily driver and went over 195000 over the weekend, and it never goes in a garage - mainly because my son's crashed Mini is in there waiting for a new front end. I think it will only be a couple of hundred pounds to fix it.... here's hoping I don't have an experience like you did!

Police aren't actually interested in number plates, probably too much paperwork for them. It's DVLA who would say something, and it shouldn't pass an MOT with them on - so remember to change them on the day to save you paying a fee for a 'fail'.

Just 16,000 to go and I'll catch you up!

The other Porsche has done 2 MOT's with German plates and passed each time, although I think this is more due to my mechanic's relationship with the test station than anything else.

John you said this before & it is wrong. Number plate legislation is a bare minimum up to 2001 & before that most things are OK for the MOT. Mine has passed 2 MOTs now with the plates that are not the latest standards & they are OK.

Why the bee in the bonnet about plates, you gave me a hard time about this?

Pic of mine.

where in daventry are you then????????

The red shed is no longer, well done mate

It's still a bit of a shed! the shed-ness will never change, it gives it character. Am pleased that this is one more saved from that awful scrappage scheme.

Drove past your house this morning, just resisted the temptation to introduce you to Red Shed first hand.

You should have dropped in for a coffee and a biscuit.

I'm normally in WH about midday on Sunday as I shoot just off Quinton Lodge. If I'm passing next week I shall bring Shed round and you can marvel at its Shed-ness.

Well done on getting it sorted.
This thread should be a sticky on the pitfalls of buying a cheap 944 (Or an expensive bad one.) & why it isn't worth it! I actually spent more than you Though I have had it on the road for over 3 years now. But get pretty tired of the guys who come on here & say that you can get good S2's for 2 to 3K. The enthusiast owned cars that have had the money spent on them & are only a bit more to buy than the tired examples (Typically 1 to 2K depending on model.) But are worth every penny. But you can't tell people.
Hope after all that you can have some fun with it now.