PPI says NEW FRONT PAN NEEDED!

[berettafan]

****. So i know seller is either misrepresenting car OR was lied to himself.

Also, engine is 3R case, not Al or even 7R.

Deiter says approx. $2k to replace front pan and another $2k roughly to fix various leaks (non are major he says).

What does the group say about this? Previous price was agreed on at $15.5k. I am fairly confident this guy is not going to knock $4k off the price but.....

Can i find a better car for under $20k? Rust free?

Erik

[69Sman]

Not to put too fine a spin on it, but PASS. First off, you gotta double the estimates for repair. And these do not sound that 'minor.' I'd keep looking, frustrating as it may be. Or, get a STEEP discount, more then $4k

[mike walker]

You can find a rust free car under 20k...I agree, I'd pass on this one.

[MattB]

$2k for a front plan replacement. Kind of steep no? I can't see applying a 100% safety margin to that repair cost though there may be other hidden issues. If there is nothing else major wrong with the car it may not be a bad buy with some more haggling. How many <$20k cars are 100% rust free? Not many I would imagine.

[Bummler]

I would be inclined to move on.

It took me six months and countless "pigs" to find my '69 911E and that was in 1982 before these cars really developed the following they have today. Maybe I'm just picky but these cars can get real expensive real fast.

[Mr9146]

There's two places where I would deem rust to be "acceptable" - the front suspension pan and the sunroof drains.

The bottom line is that the car is upwards of 30 years old. After that much time you're bound to see some sort of deterioration in the area around the battery box. Sorry, but it's a fact of life. The repair for this isn't all that costly, but $2,000 sounds like an estimate on the high side ... which isn't such a bad thing. What do they say, "Plan for the worst but hope for the best?"

If I were you - which I'm not - I would forget about the oil leaks for the time being and use the front pan as your bartering point. If the rest of the car is solid, then it's worth it to purchase a car that need minimal work.

Look at it this way - if the suspension pan gets fixed, the seller might add another 2K on top of the $15K he's already asking. It's not unheard of for people to do that, and it would be a shame to miss out on a great car just because of a little bit of rust in the front pan ... which, I'll say again, is a VERY ACCEPTABLE place for them to deteriorate.

Just my opinion, but you asked......

[Sacto S]

The areas you mentioned have a price but, what's on the plus side? Does it have a nice set of wheels? That could save you $1000 right there. Is the tool kit there? More savings! How's the interior? If you can clean it and save all or part you just saved another chunk.

Look at the whole enchilada and not just the cheese on top.

[Cornpanzer]

I am with Marco here. Front suspension pan is not that big of a deal and I bet a bunch of people with "rust free" cars have iffy front pans.

If the person performing the inspection is knowledgeable in rust evaluation and is confident that this is the only rust, I wouldnt worry too much. Did he get pictures?
It certainly does make a good negotiating point though.

[berettafan]

Well i talked with the seller expecting him to say 'no negotiations, sorry' and be done with it BUT after the shop showed him the rust, etc. he agreed it needed to be fixed.

Bottom line, he offered to come down $2k. His thinking was he was going to have the work done anyway so why not let me do it and be in the same boat money-wise.

i'm still interested at this point so i called the shop back to go over the results again. Deiter says no concerns about the engine other than oil leaks on external stuff (return tubes, chain covers) but he did not verify S cams. Said it felt like it was running on 5 cylinders and probably a carb problem (specifically suggested to the owner to clean out the idle jets).

Deiter is working up an estimate for resealing the motor, fixing/tuning the carbs and prepping the front to go to the body guy. He is also calling the body guy to get an estimate on the pan replacement.

I told the owner i need a night or two to think about it.

I am thinking about going down there in two weeks to take the car back to Deiter for further inspection and to verify S cams so i can feel good about the motor. If i can get comfortable that i have something other than a poorly prepped T motor with different cams I am inclined to let them do the rust work and tune the carbs. owner says the oil leaks are minor and he would certainly not bother to fix them if he were keeping the car.

[berettafan]

if the motor turns out to be a disappointment (140hp or so vs. the 190+ i was expecting) but still solid I could always sell it i guess. I would think a running 2.4 would be worth $2k-$3k with good compression/leakdown #'s and i can probably find a nice 3.0 to put the 40mm webers on right? Maybe come out short by $2k on the deal? as the 915 is already there i should be one step ahead.