Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

After spending a long time thinking and looking at the general condition of the body work I have decided to repair this old girl to her former glory.

Looked a quite a few 944’s and for 4k they all seem to be quite far from mint condition. So decided to totally rebuild the one I have from the shell up.

Hope you all don’t mind but I am probably going to have loads of questions (most of them stupid) but I hope with all your help I can save her.
Will post photos etc... And show you all the progress.

Plan of Action.

1. Get the engine running and test drive to assess condition and running of auto box.
2. Strip the car down to the shell
3. Get the shell blasted and undercoated
4. Repair any body work
5. Full re-spay (don’t know what colour yet) any ideas?
6. Fit modern sound proofing materials
7. New seals all round
8. New front windscreen
9. Fit new brake lines
10. Fit new fuel lines
11. Repair or Re-new and install fuel tank
12. Repair or Re-new and install suspension components
13. Repair or Re-new and install brake components
14. Get the cookie cutters polished and new types
15. Repair or Re-new, make new and install wiring loom
16. Strip down and rebuild engine and refit and install with all new serviceable parts
17. Service and install automatic gearbox and transmission gear
18. Repair or Re-new and install all electrical components
19. Repair or Re-new and install all interior parts
20. One very clean 944 is re-born

Looking on a budget of 4k – 6K doing all the work myself apart from the re-spay
Well here goes everyone wish me luck,

Richie (a man who dives into the deep end laughing)

As your going for the big repair, I'll be the first to wish you all the luck you need.
Be good to see the progress and there are far better people than me who wil be able to answer most of your questions.

as previous good luck on your venture, the forum should give you answers to any questions, and of course plenty of opinions on any ideas or mods you will carry out

swap 3&4 about or weld after blasting. i wouldnt really advise blasting tbh. its a harsh way to remove anything and heavy duty blasters will tear away the metal work. i would advise going on frosts website and hunting down the paint remover. its a little more gentle.

colour....original shade would be nice its in keeping with how the car left the factory and will add to the finished value.

good luck

Agreed blasting can be very damaging if not done well or weak metal discovered

However new technique is to soda blast paint off

Very gentle, and environmentally friendly. Also just wash residual soda car off with water and then dry.

Amazing process, if you are in the Midlands then there is a specialist in Birmingham which does it

Have a look at http://www.soda-blast.co.uk

Good choice Richie! I wish you all the best. You've got a realistic budget there. Personally, I think jet black is a cracking colour on Porsches.

With regards to blasting after welding, I thinks it’s better to do all the welding work once you can see all the problem areas, some time ago I helped one of my mates with his mini, he had already done quite a lot of body work before I blasted the shell for him so he could get a better paint finish, but it just showed up loads of areas around his welding that still needed doing. So he ended up practically doing it all again, but with lots of grinding. The main problem with older cars it that the paint hides loads of problems. With my 944 it’s been re-sprayed recently so it makes this issue worse.

When I say blasting I should off been a bit more clear, I have used in the past a basic home compressor with a attachment for sand blasting but used a very fine polymer blasting material, it takes quite a long time to work it’s why through the paint layers but does not damage the metal work, And makes quite a lot of mess. But I think I may look into a chemical paint remover and see how that goes first.
Thanks for your support guys
Richie

Any updates on the rebuild?