Effort/Cost to replace Front Boot Pan in 997?

[lord_von_pineapple]

Hi,

I had a potential purchase 997 Gen 2 inspected by a Porsche specialist and they found that it has a very poor repair to a front-end incident. It looks like someone has replaced a large part of the front boot pan ("spare wheel well") by cutting the damaged piece out and replacing it with something very similar, but not exactly the same and used about 30 bolts to hold the new section in. It looks very bad.

I have priced a full replacement part (98750197900) at £1500.

My question is how big a job is it to completely replace this piece on the car? Is it feasible, or way too much effort to be economical? Rough handwaving price?

[LennyM1984]

I think I'd look for another one. Given the quality of the repair you can see, it doesn't bode well for the repairs (or lack of) you can't see.

[c4sman]

LennyM1984 said:

I think I'd look for another one. Given the quality of the repair you can see, it doesn't bode well for the repairs (or lack of) you can't see.

+1

[Fast Bug]

Unless its spectacularly cheap, why on earth would you even consider it?

[lord_von_pineapple]

Thanks guys. I agree that it makes it very unattractive. I've had a professional pre-purchase inspection and this is the key "major" issue for me. There are pluses and big minuses, so I'm just trying to understand what it would take (if economical at all) to get this back to acceptable.

Car is a 2009 997.2 S manual, coupe.

Pluses:
- low miles on car (35k)
- new replacement engine 2 years ago with only 4k miles

Minuses:
- Cat D 11 years ago in 2009 (fan failure, overheated, melted rear deck lid)
- Recent poor quality front end repair

I'm ok with the Cat D incident and status if the price is correspondingly low. But like you guys I think most potential Porsche buyers would walk away from the poor quality front end repair.

So I'm just trying to understand what would "spectacularly cheap" would look like. Is is economically feasible to replace this entire component properly with the correct one, and how big a job is it if the car is running now, but just has had a poor quality repair?

[Pando99]

What about if you want to sell it - how many people will run a mile, narrows down your market drastically

[CoolHands]

Cat d. Poor repair, chances it’s been clocked? Probably high.

[Lagom]

What's the reg?

[lord_von_pineapple]

Coolhands - HPI check with MOT reports show consistent increment mileage - don't think its been clocked.
Lagom - I don't want to link to the car or the seller, but its a black 2009 Cat D 997 for sale in UK and you'll find it in about 2 mins if you want to.

Back on topic, does anyone know about how hard it is to replace the front boot pan?

[Scrump]

Given it will always be a cat D car and hence worth less then why bother fitting a new front boot pan?
If the car is cheap then get even more money knocked off for the boot pan repair and then just live with it. With the carpet in place you are never going to see it and you will have an exceptionally cheap 997.
If it is not exceptionally cheap or you are the type who wants the car to be perfect then walk away.

[SignalGruen]

Why not ring a few bodyshops and get them to give you a ballpark quote on a boot floor replacement ? I don't think it's particularly difficult to do but at least you'll get an idea of whether it's worth the effort/cost or not.

[Fast Bug]

Cat cars need to be circa 25-30% lower than a non cat car. Add in the fact that it's got a st repair that's the most bodgy thing I've seen in a while (and I've seen a lot with old Beetles over years). I'd say if it's more than half the price of a non cat car then don't even think about it

[jetbox]

Seriously, walk away....quickly!

[roca1976]

That's unusual, you would expect damage to panel in front of the repair if front ended. I wonder if it was as a result of hitting something in the road which resulted in local repair section. I guess due to location it would have been Cat S if claimed.
Are you able to speak to previous owner?
I was suspicious of mine when I viewed it due to paint, fortunately I was able to phone previous owner who assured me it was the result of keying and not accident damage. I would probably have walked if I hadn't been able to square it away.