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Keeping the Tradition Alive
Article and Photos by Ralph Fritsche Part 2
Welcome back for Part 2 of Keeping the Tradition Alive. Last time,
I shared some pointers about how to acquire the right car. In this
segment, I’ll talk a bit about what to do with the car after it has been
found.
As you may recall, I decided on a 1984 Porsche 944. It’s likely that any
vehicle over 20 years old is going to need some maintenance work
no matter how well it was taken care of previously. Hopefully, a Pre-
Purchase Inspection (PPI) was performed and any potential issues
were factored into the purchase price.
My 944 was in great overall condition, but still needed a lot of
maintenance to bring out its full potential. The floor of my garage had
drips of every fluid except fuel. So it was off to the Porsche forums to
identify the problem areas and develop a plan of action. Although I was
completely new to automotive repair, I had decided when I acquired
the car to do as much of the work myself as possible. With the help
and encouragement of members on several forums, I managed to
complete the repairs and address all the leaks. I quickly learned that
most leaks were just the result of old seals and not necessarily the first
sign of a potentially fatal problem. Working on the car was actually
fun and no single job proved to be all that difficult.
After a few weeks, the car was running like new. Now my attention
turned to cosmetic issues, primarily the paint. Paint was one job I
chose not to tackle. So the big questions I had to answer next were
where to take the car and how much to spend. This started as an
inexpensive project and clearly I wanted to keep it that way.
A well masked car, one
of the keys to great paint
Fortunately, I had just spent the last several months visiting Sharpe’s
Body Shop with my good friend and fellow Space Coast member
Steve Hoffman, who was having his 1967 911S completely restored.
Sharpe’s did an amazing job with Steve’s car, and I was equally
impressed at the price he was quoted.
So, I arranged for Mark and Lisa Canada to take in the 944 and do
their best to make it look new. Mark’s staff has a lot of experience
working on Porsches. They took every dent out of the car (and there
were many!) prior to painting and even duplicated the stripes in paint
that I had applied with striping tape. The end result was beyond all
my expectations. The car was beautiful and the price was more than
fair. In California, a paint job of this quality would easily cost more
volume 5, Issue 1
Smooth as glass
with excellent reflection
than twice the value of what the car was worth. I can’t thank Mark
and Lisa enough.
The car is now both mechanically and cosmetically as good as new. At
least that’s how it seemed at first. Unfortunately, little issues with the
interior that hadn’t bothered me before have become more noticeable.
But I guess that will have to be the topic of another installment.
Next article - interior