Would you buy a 911 with a wrap? - Page 2 - Porsche General - PistonHeads UK

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?

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.

I wouldn’t buy *any* car with a wrap, certainly not a classic.

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.

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

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.

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

Depends on price to some degree

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

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.

I can guarantee you, if an air cooled 911 has visible rust there’s more hidden.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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 ..

....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.

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

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.

80’s guards red… that’ll be as pink as a dogs todger under that wrap

Nurburgsingh said: 80’s guards red… that’ll be as pink as a dogs todger under that wrap That can be fixed with a machine polish and cheaper than hiding with a wrap. I wouldn't buy any car with a wrap. An older car is even more worrying.

Would it not be the case that you’d work under the assumption that any 3.2 is going to have some rust unless it’d been taken back to bare metal? Assuming this, you buy if the price is appropriate.

Owned two silver 3.2 Carrera coupes. As others have said if you can see rust you have to assume there will be more hidden away. You need to remove the side sills and potentially front wings to have a real look. Rust on these needs removing asap before it spreads. The wrap will have to come off to sort out the rust, so you may have the cost of a repeat depending on the condition of the paint. Older cars do need money to restore them, so depends on the price. You have to factor these things in.

Cheers. The problem is if you dismantle the sills and wings it tends to upset the vendor. Short of buying a (recently)fully stripped and restored one, what is one to do?

My 86 on a D rusted from the inside out by 92 . Bubbling on top of the front wings started first .Then near the oil pipe runs next to the cills .It was my daily and I did 100 k miles with it , salty roads inc . It had the older box but was zero issue . Agree with the sentiment that none G50s are fine . Tbh a bit disappointed.My previous 924 a 89 on a T I ran up to 150K miles and it didn’t rust , apart from front end chips it was immaculate.It also handled as well . I would only revisit one if it’s had a recent glass out rotisserie paint job . A 987.2 boxster is the nearest thing for the same raw feeling and drive Hp/ kgs wise . Also handles better fwiw ? They have no serious rust issues .

Megaflow said: I wouldn’t buy *any* car with a wrap, certainly not a classic. Exactly, particularly an older one, could be hiding any number of issues.

OP, did you buy it?

Ayahuasca said: Cheers. The problem is if you dismantle the sills and wings it tends to upset the vendor. Short of buying a (recently)fully stripped and restored one, what is one to do? Where are you located? Personally I'd get an inspection from a specialist if possible or take someone who knows there way around 911's. On a 3.2 Carrera I'd look everywhere: B-pillar, Sills, Oil pipes, round the headlights, around any rubber seals, all windows and windscreens, inside front boot under carpet, inside engine bay and in wheel arches. Look at state of exhaust, suspension etc for rust, often if these are showing signs the body will be similar. A wrap will need to come off, so the question is do you like red, do you want a respray.