Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

Greetings all,

I am looking to make my first foray in to Porsche ownership with a project to do up an old 944. I have read the buyers guide at the top of this forum but was wondering about repairing the sills. I have seen a suitable car which is good except for the fact the sills are rusty. The buyers guide say that it can cost about £1000 to repair, is this because of the cost of the repalcement parts or because of the complexity involved in doing it? Can it be DIY'd (assuming welding and mechanical skills are present!) or is it an expert only task?

I've access to spray equipment so can paint the repairs myself.

Cheers

You need to be quite brave to take on sills!
Outer sills are not structural and OPC parts are not ridiculously expensive. A decent welder/fabricator should deal with these without too much trouble.
The problem is that these things tend to rust from the inside out so however bad the outer sill is the inner sill, which is structural, will almost certainly be worse. This is a much harder job, hence more expensive.
£1000 to do both sides properly I'd say is good. Often 1000 per side is quoted. On an old car it is often all or a vast portion of the car's value so they don't get done often. Certainly it isn't cost effective but then that isn't the point.
Personally if I had the skills I'd look for a rusty late car - S2 or turbo. The work is the same for a better end result.

2 findIng a car cheap, with the sill in routh condtion, I'm betting it won't just be the sill tht need attention. And with it not require just the sills. and therefore not become the cheap bargin you once thought u had got. But with these cars been the age they are sooner or later this is a job we will all have 2 do, and something I'm hoping won't be nessery at respary. With the respary protect from this job becoming a near furture job.

Poor mans Porsche, more a Porsche turning a man poor. It's a shame a lot of work donesnt wornt the cash value of the car. It's value is offent in the heart of the owner, this is were it's priceless

IMHO would be cheaper to buy a good one. There selling for peanuts in good condition still. If your serious about buying one of these join the club first. Will save you loads. I should have & didn't.

From experience, J.J. is right. I wish I had met J.J. before I bought mine. But of couse the satisfaction of....... etc.

But good luck in your adventure, what ever you decide. You will have fun in the end.

Lee.

Thanks for the replies. Sounds like I would be bitting off more than I can chew with the sills work. Think I will look for a reasonable one and do some improvements like new suspension and brakes rather than looking for one that needs restoring.

Cheers

Your welcome. Only words of advice would be 2 ask ur self why you want 2 own the car and how much u intented on driving and spending. Cas if it just Porsche own ship ur looking for be prepered 2 find that all is not as cheap as it seems. I don't no about others, but I brought my 1st car this year and it was a 944 that I feel in love with so 2 speack. Now 2000-4000 may seem like a proformance bargin, but try 2 find won't that's had everything all ready done would be a bargin. There's a lot that needs doing just cause of age regardless of mileage. But that all depends on ur personal level of expecations, and what ur happy 2 live with. All these cars have gremilings. Some are liveable some arnt. I brought mine 4 2100 down from 3000 from a mercanik, with 12 months mot and drove it home 360 miles no problem. But over the last 7/8months iv covered 9000 miles and have neatly spent 8000 pounds. Petrol not cheap ethir. Some off that been choce some been a nessery.

So my adivce would be these are deffently not a poor mans Porsche, and ur heart really must be in the car 2 still find injoyment from it when ur pokects are empty. And it heart breacking 4 some 2 justif tbd high cost of repired and maternce when it's half the value of the car. Other then tht same points when buying any car. Find the best you withing ur price range.

Good advice but can we have that in English please

Been travelling so not a lot of time to chip in but pics of the work done on mine are here:- http://www.pbase.com/tr7v8/porsche_repair_pics

These are not suitable for small children or those with a weak wallet. This lot cost £1400 & the damage from rust was bl00dy scary. The inners support your seat belt mountings & mine were non-exisitent! The frustrating thing was the bodgers had been there multiple times with an area of cut-off sill of around 12 x 5 inches weighing 12 pound of so with bits of tin & lots of filler!

These cars are generally quite cheap to run & mine was dumped immediately into being my daily driver doing 18 months & 38K with servicing and a clutch slave.
A lot of the secret is buying the right car, the 944 market is becoming a 2 group market, dogs which are on E Bay etc. & the really good cars & these groups are diverging rapidly.
A lot of people don't realise that the cost of buying a dog & just keeping it running let alone improving it will cost £1000's

Jim,

Do you think the S2 suffers more from this problem? I have looked at a few and they seem much worse than the early model, or has it just been coincidence. If so, why?

Lee.

I was in chat with my indy a while ago and he also said that S2's seem more prone (given relative ages) to Lux's and S's. He put it down to the the additional trim fitted along the lower edge of the car running between the front and rear wheels trapping moisture.

Howard

That could be true, Im just fitting the same said trim. I had hopes of it keeping the water off that area more, with the plastic been the new drip eage. Expendcture wise, I would say it's been sort of half nessery and half choice. Respary body parts wheels and tires, weren't a needed. Head gastik, top end rebuild. cambelts rollers and pump. Power streeing belt and pump, water hose, door handle, windscreen, wing mirror glass were. I wouldn't call mine a dog or a shed, there's a compelte service history with lots off work. But I do wish I just got a turbo S at times, mostly every night. Lol these hold there money more and wornt the repir costs.

And way I love mine, given hours of pleasure inside and out of it.

Sorry David, but outer sills ARE structural & contribute a huge amount to the beam strength of the shell. Also the rear of the inner/outer sills supports the rear suspension beam.

Hi People

very new here but been watching for a while, I have had my 944s for over 10 years but it was laid up 18 months ago, (not for any other reason than work commitments led to it being garaged) after reading this thread i inspected the sills to night and to my horror the rears on both sides are looking grim , outers seem OK and it looks like the rear is the main problem, question is I live in Scotland and wondered if any one could recomend someone to take on the repair, I love the car and it is great in all other respects, help would be much appreciated.

Dave S

I stand corrected. You learn something new every day.