My car restoration

[tennster]

as per Rick request.

I'd love to hear more about that.

My experience with restoring cars is limited to panels/gaps/paint and mechanical stuff. A full-blown restoration -- especially a factory one -- is totally outside of my personal experience . . . never mind my finances.

What kind of car do you have and why did you take it back to Porsche?

Do you have any more photographs? It looks like, from the Porsche site, some documentation gets generated.

And how long did the work take and what did you think of the results?

What did it cost?

And were the results worth it to you? . . .

Rick Kreiskott

Hi Rick

My car is 1966 SWB.
The reason I did it with them is
1. price is comparable and competitive with other reputable independent shop.
2. They are cool with me bringing my own parts. They operate more like independent shop.
3. I know that my car need to be on a jig, as some vital body structure was in really bad shape.
4. professionalism. No missing or miss place parts, everything is boxed and label and then stored. Always send me progress picture. good communication. 2 years warranty if any paint or rust go wrong.
5. They know porsche. They know which parts they need etc. Remember this is Thailand, there is no special independent porsche body or restorer shop.



It took about a year but that because i was slow on finding parts. They make progress every week.
I couldn't be more happy with result.

For cost: The total excluding parts come out too about 6000 USD. give or take but i did got a nice deal as this is my 3rd car done by them.

[tennster]

Ok first let me tell you about my car. This is my first classic porsche. I buy it as a body restored complete car. It's a 912 with 2.7 engine in it. so basically it's a bastard .
I always wanted it to be a hotrod and it's the only SWB i can find that's for sale, so no. matching wasn't on my card.
anyway I have rebuild the engine, suspension etc. The body was looking really good. It was painted in a very cool Slate grey.
I have enjoy it for about a year, taking a trip and even race in it.

[tennster]

Then this happen.
I though i just need a repaint. I book the time at AAS auto service (Official Porsche center Thailand). 2 days later i receive a phone call, They say i should come in and look at it.

[tennster]

... Oh well probably a little rust here and there... i though.



Needless to say I was shock when i see this..... The whole car was mold with bondo. It was 2 inches thick in some place! My heart sank. The body guy says who ever did this was very skill with clay modeling...

[tennster]

No wonder when i weight my car it was a bit on the heavy side...
The more they dig the more bad news...

[tennster]

Remember i bough and paid for this car as a finish body project. It was suppose to be rust free. I really wasn't ready for this.. mentally or financially. I have spend all my budget building the 2.7 Engine to RS spec, all elephant racing suspension etc. This just really got me down. I couldn't sleep for days.
I still get funny feeling in my stomach when i see these pictures...

[tennster]

I have a sit down with Body guys and we start planning for the next step.
They will put the car on the jig to check all the important pick up point. Then evaluevate what's need to be done.
It come down to most of the body structure would have to be replace.
All panel are beyond save. some parts are rusted into the metal.
I will provide all the metal parts. Some they will fabricate for me.

(OT) check out a very cool Skyline 4 doors GTR next to my car

[tennster]

Learning as i go (so please correct me if i am wrong).

You can see in the first picture that the front suspension pick up point was really off. The front pan was repaired before in the past and it wasn't done correctly so the pick up point is not correct. You can see how far off it is. That's why i was having such a hard time when i was trying to do a suspension alignment.

[popowitz]

Tennster,

I'm astonished at the extensive body work that you were able to have done for ~6K. In the US dismantling a car and prepping it for paint will run nearly 4K. For someone in the market for a full blown restoration with a high comfort of managing a project from a great distance it may be worth it to have the car shipped to Thailand. Any unusual tariffs or fees we should be aware of?

-Dave

-Dave

[tennster]

Tennster,

I'm astonished at the extensive body work that you were able to have done for ~6K. In the US dismantling a car and prepping it for paint will run nearly 4K. For someone in the market for a full blown restoration with a high comfort of managing a project from a great distance it may be worth it to have the car shipped to Thailand. Any unusual tariffs or fees we should be aware of?

-Dave

-Dave

Dave,
I think it's doable. I will check what type of paper work etc. The labour rate here is low but it's off set by the high price of the car. 300% tax on car.