Porsche factory to start doing restorations of older cars??
Discussion
In GT Purely Porsche this month it was mentioned by one of their journos that the Porsche factory is going to start doing restorations of older models at "reasonable cost". (Aston already do this don't they?......maybe not at "reasonable cost" though). Does anyone have any info on this? Will it put the strain on existing Porsche restorers? Anyone fancy picking up a 964 or 993 RS in poor nick and sending it back to the factory for that "as new" feeling?
Edited by johnny senna on Wednesday 25th October 22:18
The Porsche factory has a restoration department in Works 1 (over the road from the main factory building).
It is in the building which was the race department in the 1960's before Weissach. They repair / restore anything, from Porsche staff company cars to classics, do re trims, re paints & engine re builds. They also carry out the restoration work and maintenance for the Porsche museum cars.
The place is proper old school with the capability to re manufacture items that are not available.
I have been there two or three times to look around, the costs are very reasonable, about £80 per hour. The only downside I would imagine to be that they would not let a car out that was anything less than spot on, and this would reflect in the cost.
But, that said, if you want the job doing right it is the place to go.
There were cars there from all over the world, including a 959 from the middle east which the owner wanted painting metallic pink, to match his 993 turbo s (which was already pink!). A year later when I went back the cars were still there, had been completed and were ready to go, the 959 was now burgundy and the 993 was white, although it still had a pink interior.
Anyway, good place to go, if you have the euros.
Paul
It is in the building which was the race department in the 1960's before Weissach. They repair / restore anything, from Porsche staff company cars to classics, do re trims, re paints & engine re builds. They also carry out the restoration work and maintenance for the Porsche museum cars.
The place is proper old school with the capability to re manufacture items that are not available.
I have been there two or three times to look around, the costs are very reasonable, about £80 per hour. The only downside I would imagine to be that they would not let a car out that was anything less than spot on, and this would reflect in the cost.
But, that said, if you want the job doing right it is the place to go.
There were cars there from all over the world, including a 959 from the middle east which the owner wanted painting metallic pink, to match his 993 turbo s (which was already pink!). A year later when I went back the cars were still there, had been completed and were ready to go, the 959 was now burgundy and the 993 was white, although it still had a pink interior.
Anyway, good place to go, if you have the euros.
Paul
Edited by PH5121 on Thursday 26th October 07:36
Edited by PH5121 on Thursday 26th October 07:37
The long wheel base 911 that was shown at Eynesham Hall in it`s "work in progress" state was from the factory resoration dept. although it did take them 2 days to fit a headlining (they tried to keep someone "working" on the car to add some life to the exhibit).
An intersting concept, hourly rates are one thing but obviously it depends on how long they take to do a job. As a comparison most bodyshops (where the bulk of the labour will be swallowed) will charge less than half that amount. You will find you`ll end up fitting eveything new as well (certainly I would once they had it sitting there). I have no doubt the finished article would be superb but not the cheapest restoration in the world (although in fairness what resoration is !
Henry
An intersting concept, hourly rates are one thing but obviously it depends on how long they take to do a job. As a comparison most bodyshops (where the bulk of the labour will be swallowed) will charge less than half that amount. You will find you`ll end up fitting eveything new as well (certainly I would once they had it sitting there). I have no doubt the finished article would be superb but not the cheapest restoration in the world (although in fairness what resoration is !
Henry
johnny senna said:
Interesting stuff Paul, thanks. The author of the GTPP article seemed to think that something new was starting though. I wonder if this is true?
They've definitely been doing this for a while - I stopped by on a tour of Europe several years ago and got my 911 serviced there - all sorts of 365's, 959's etc
Very friendly and helpful - several of the production workers even wandered over and make nice comments.
Here's the car after servicing ready to go outside Werk 1 (It's for sale if anyone's interested.... )
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