Would you buy a 911 with a wrap?
Would you buy a 911 with a wrap?
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Ayahuasca

Original Poster:

27,546 posts

299 months

Monday 17th October 2022
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Thinking of buying this 1984 3.2 Carrera. Everything about it seems good, great provenance, except it has a silver wrap over the original red. There is a tiny amount of rust at the bottom left hand corner of the engine bay in the drain channel (visible in pic). The wraps means that the paint / rust condition is not really knowable.

Is that a massive no-go? Would you buy a wrapped older 911?



Discombobulate

5,780 posts

206 months

Monday 17th October 2022
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Having owned two 3.2s, no.
Rust can be hidden without a wrap - kidney bowls, sills, inner wings - but even riskier with. And they all have it.

Megaflow

10,785 posts

245 months

Monday 17th October 2022
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I wouldn’t buy *any* car with a wrap, certainly not a classic.

Koln-RS

4,067 posts

232 months

Monday 17th October 2022
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All aircooled Porsches are at risk from some rust and a wrap could be hiding all sorts.

You would certainly need a thorough PPI, and weigh up the amount of work required (body and mechanical) with the asking price, and whether it represents sensible value.

Is it a G50? They seem to be the most sought after.
Does look nice in Silver, but Guards is a classic colour and originality is best.


liner33

10,861 posts

222 months

Monday 17th October 2022
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Megaflow said:
I wouldn’t buy *any* car with a wrap, certainly not a classic.
This , unless it was cheap enough to allow a full respray

supersport

4,518 posts

247 months

Monday 17th October 2022
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Koln-RS said:
All aircooled Porsches are at risk from some rust and a wrap could be hiding all sorts.

You would certainly need a thorough PPI, and weigh up the amount of work required (body and mechanical) with the asking price, and whether it represents sensible value.

Is it a G50? They seem to be the most sought after.
Does look nice in Silver, but Guards is a classic colour and originality is best.
No in 1984 its not a G50.

I wouldn't, there is no way to know what it looks like under the wrap.

I would have thought though that the really scary rust problems would be visible through the wrap, e.g kidney bowls

Get it properly looked at.

Ayahuasca

Original Poster:

27,546 posts

299 months

Monday 17th October 2022
quotequote all
Thanks all. Shame about the wrap. The seller is an enthusiast who races a 2.7, and has a few other Porsches, the previous owner before seller is an ex Porsche works driver and Le Mans winner. He had it wrapped. So it has a good history and is probably OK…. but it might not be … hmmmmm


BertBert

20,687 posts

231 months

Monday 17th October 2022
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Depends on price to some degree

Orangecurry

7,738 posts

226 months

Monday 17th October 2022
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Totally depends on price. Shirley the wrap makes no difference. If the current owner had just had a shiny cheap respray, could you tell what was going on underneath?

Looking underneath is what's needed.

But thank god we're back to looking at silver Porsches hehe


GRD_72

181 posts

79 months

Monday 17th October 2022
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The car sounds like it has excellent provenance and although the wrap is normally something I’d walk away from, on this occasion I’m not so sure. If it’s been on for a few years and still looks good it suggests the bodywork was in pretty good shape when wrapped. Oh, and it looks stunning in silver.

Pflanzgarten

6,615 posts

45 months

Monday 17th October 2022
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I can guarantee you, if an air cooled 911 has visible rust there’s more hidden.

Royal Jelly

3,904 posts

218 months

Monday 17th October 2022
quotequote all
I did. Would I recommend it? It depends…

I purchased my 981 Cayman from a chap who was clearly a mega petrolhead. He had a GT4, too, and numerous other sports cars. Ot was wrapped to match the GT4 from it’s original black; we all know what that is like to keep clean. He had maintained it impeccably at significant expense and as part of the ‘buy the seller’ mantra, I trusted he wasn’t flogging me a car where the wrap was there to hide gremlins.

The wrap also looked fantastic - in the shuts, everywhere. It made getting it removed a fairly complicated affair!

However - on removing the wrap, while I was pleased to find lovely paintwork, but there was a couple of small areas where the little blade thing used to cut the wrap, had damaged the lacquer, and therefore needed touching up. The Porsche indy body shop charged 250ish for this.

This was on a nearly 9 year old car. I’m not sure how wrap removal will go on a classic with decades old lacquer. Having said that, the 3.5 years of wrapping did protect the paint. It looked like new after a good clean.

BertBert

20,687 posts

231 months

Monday 17th October 2022
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Pflanzgarten said:
I can guarantee you, if an air cooled 911 has no visible rust there’s more hidden.
FTFY

julian987R

6,840 posts

79 months

Monday 17th October 2022
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Assuming it is original paint underneath wouldn't a wrap potentially rip off that paint when it is taken off. Perhaps not the whole car of course, but some areas might suffer. Who on earth wraps a classic? that mindset alone would make me walk away.

Orangecurry

7,738 posts

226 months

Monday 17th October 2022
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julian987R said:
Assuming it is original paint underneath wouldn't a wrap potentially rip off that paint when it is taken off. Perhaps not the whole car of course, but some areas might suffer. Who on earth wraps a classic? that mindset alone would make me walk away.
We could pontificate all day, but off the top of my head
1 - oil-cooled paint will be oil based (if original of course), and probably be welded to the metal.... they don't make 'em like they used to. Lacquer of course is a different matter.
2 - you find a great example of a rare car, but in a colour you don't like. So you wrap it, retaining the originality.

All makes sense to me.

Caddyshack

13,405 posts

226 months

Monday 17th October 2022
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Koln-RS said:
All aircooled Porsches are at risk from some rust and a wrap could be hiding all sorts.

You would certainly need a thorough PPI, and weigh up the amount of work required (body and mechanical) with the asking price, and whether it represents sensible value.

Is it a G50? They seem to be the most sought after.
Does look nice in Silver, but Guards is a classic colour and originality is best.
A well set up 915 gear change is lovely to use, no need to get caught up with the ‘must be a g50’.

The 1984 915 often had a magnesium casing which was very light.

Ayahuasca

Original Poster:

27,546 posts

299 months

Friday 28th October 2022
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So I had a poke around under this 911, the wheel wells seem rust free, also the infamous kidney bowls are intact. There is a tiny bit of rust near the jacking point by the oil cooler pipes. Seems to be OK? Running out of reasons not to buy ..

Orangecurry

7,738 posts

226 months

Friday 28th October 2022
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....depends on the price..... but I'd have been thrashing it through the countryside on a glorious autumn day by now, if I was in your position.

roca1976

629 posts

135 months

Friday 28th October 2022
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Looks like it may have originally been silver and had a red blow over. Mine was body colour everywhere.

roca1976

629 posts

135 months

Friday 28th October 2022
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My 76 2.7 needed a full engine rebuild, even doing a lot myself and mates rates it was well over £10k. It can easily ruin the experience. I ended up selling it once rebuilt. Worth checking when it was last rebuilt and if only a top end or reseal. Bottom end is pretty strong mine was still on original grind at 180k and only really needed a regrind because it spun up on one journal.