993 restoration

[Ferry Man]

[Ferry Man]

Lets talk about chassis legs. They are the biggest cause for rust concerns on a 993. It seems Porsche assembled the inner wing support panels to the body before it was painted. Quite why I do not know. But it left the contact area between those parts unprotected. Couple that with the position inside the rear arches, proximity to road spray and engine heat and you have the ideal environment for corrosion.
The big problem is that accessing those areas is difficult and effective repairs require a substantial strip down.

In the shot below the rear bumper and heat shields have been removed. So too the exhaust boxes. In the bottom left corner you can see a bumper bracket still in place. The one on the right hand side has already been removed.
Once you remove the inner wing support panel you can reveal any rust. See the next few pics.

[Ferry Man]

Here's the right hand corner. You can see rust along the chassis rail. Inside the box section is actually pretty good.

[Ferry Man]

This side was bad. But not as bad as the other side.

[Ferry Man]

This is the inner wing support panel. It was scrap, I purchased new panels from Porsche for both sides.

[Ferry Man]

And here's what the other side looked like:

[911hillclimber]

I'm puzzled at this poor level of engineering.
When I worked in the Auto Industry in the late 80's Rover had these issues esp on white cars which bled every joint to rust in 4 years or so.

How come years later Porsche are so poor at making cars?

[Ralph]

Wow - I think of the 993 as a 'new' car and certainly would not be expecting rust repair work on this scale. Luckily for me my 1970 car was taken off the road in 1989 so I guess that it was in fact newer than your 993!

I am sure that it will come out lovely (if not done already?).

[jjeffries]

Paul, what a superb thread. I've followed your others, also. This sort of thing is why car magazines have (almost) become redundant. Great to see a 993 and learn about it the way we already know the older stuff. Thanks for taking the time & effort. John in CT/USA

[Ferry Man]

Paul, what a superb thread. I've followed your others, also. This sort of thing is why car magazines have (almost) become redundant. Great to see a 993 and learn about it the way we already know the older stuff. Thanks for taking the time & effort. John in CT/USA

Thank you John, that's very kind of you. I don't intend to go into as much depth as I did on the '74 Carrera thread but hopefully I'll be able to entertain and inform as this one goes along. I do like a 993.

[Ferry Man]

I'm puzzled at this poor level of engineering.
When I worked in the Auto Industry in the late 80's Rover had these issues esp on white cars which bled every joint to rust in 4 years or so.
How come years later Porsche are so poor at making cars?

I apologise to Porsche. I may have misled on the state of this car.
Yes, there is rust in the chassis legs and that is poor form for a mid-nineties built car.
But that is a rare exception, these cars survive really well.
I consider this car to be rust free. Really. There is hardly any rust. Don't forget it is 23 years old! It has had a hard life. It was daily driven on salted roads in a harsh climate. So, when I saw the body revealed I was delighted.
There was some slight rusting on the wheel arch edges. And a little surface rust underneath the engine bay. But it's all laughably small compared to my 1974 Carrera.
For that car I spent £40k on the shell alone! (£15k panels + £25k labour). For this car? Just a few hundred quids worth of patch welding. The only panels I purchased from Porsche were those two inner wing support panels (about £70 if I recollect correctly).
This car was in really great order. And had absolutely zero accident damage. The shell was completely unmarked. I'm delighted with the condition.

[Tp81]

Paul, good the hear that the rest of the car is solid. 993's have some notorious areas which you have highlighted. The chassis legs seem to be a hit or a miss and very reflective of the cars life. I don't think I have seen many UK cars (on forums) that haven't required some work. There are lots on US forums that get away with a sand down and paint.

Does the air con work? I have never had a great experience with the 3 cars I have owned.

[Bootsy]

Mine works for a few weeks after a pump / refill but then it's not great

[smallspeed]

really interesting thread! the rot above surprises me too though, for all the reasons you mention its not a great design. At first I was with 911Hillclimber that they should have done better, but I assume 993's (and to a lesser extend 964's) were kind of an old body shell with bits bolted onto it to bring it up to current (for then) standards, particularly things like impact protection / crash structures, hence the issues like this.. Its an adapted design rather than a ground-up one
I am surprised they didn't e-coat and paint before assembling though, as that would have resolved most of this problem I would think?!

For comparison here's the same bits (crash/bumper bar mountings) on the rear end of a BMW 3 series with 145,000 hard miles on the clocks - its not been painted, just disassembled and washed with a sponge hot water and some soap.. ..by comparison this is a ground-up shell design introduced in 1992 (ie before the accountants and marketing people screwed everything )

[Ferry Man]

Another weak point on the 993 is the Oil Cooler & Air Conditioning ballast resistors.
These control the fan speed but they invariably fail due to heat.
If you're stripping the car it's no effort to replace that component but ordinarily they get left malfunctioning because of the difficulties accessing them.

In the shot below the oil cooler is to the front of the drivers side inner front wing.
The resistor is bolted on top of the fan unit.
If I had air-conditioning fitted it would reside in the same position on the passenger side.