Simplifying vs. OEM

[uncle_scott]

I am sure topics like this hve come up, and if this is beating a dead horse, please direct me to the search bar and I will look it up...

I am wondering what Pelican's think about simplifying a Porsche's interior vs. spending the money to bring things back to stock. My 84 Carrera was in bad shape with water damage to the door cards, carpets, and rear seats. I have elected to do RS Door Cards, and an AppBiz RS Carpet kit. Along with this I have pulled out the stereo and speaker wiring, and I have been trying to clean the interior up as much as possible, but it is no where near "stock" now.

How will this affect value over time? Do people buy cars that have been heavily simplified in the interior? Am I shooting myself in the foot for future sales prospects, or is it something that people will want to do to their own cars, so they may buy one with these modifications?

My car had high miles, and was somewhat of a mixed bag as it was...I personally think I have improved the car...but I just wonder what it may have done to the value.

Opinions?

[jb 911]

I am a future buyer. I would say if you are concerned about resale, keep it stock. If you are on a budget just leave it. To me it deducts value if anything is non original looking. I'd rather have worn out original parts that I can work with. If you are keeping it then obviously it is a different story.

[Matt Monson]

When you start with a high mileage car the next buyer will NEVER be a concours guy. The potential buyer of that car will be someone who is going to drive it. While RS doorcards and the lightweight look is a taste thing, it's something that a lot of people like. I think it's pretty much a zero sum game in a situation like yours and will have pretty much zero impact on value, only impact on who the exact buyer will be when the time comes.

If the car were a 35k mi car that got sunbaked and the dash and doorcards were all dry and cracked, then maximum value is to replace with pristine original parts to match the mileage on the car. But on anything 100K mi or over doesn't make a difference...

[uncle_scott]

^^^That is about what I figured. I kind of started with something that had been headed down the non-stock road. No sense in trying to bring it back since it will never be concourse.

[SilberUrS6]

Originally Posted by uncle_scott

^^^That is about what I figured. I kind of started with something that had been headed down the non-stock road. No sense in trying to bring it back since it will never be concourse.

There is sort of a middle road - the weekend/nice day driver like myself. I don't mind a little "personalization" when I'm buying a used car, but I'm not going to pay top dollar for a car that has a lot of personal touches that are not to my taste. If I'm buying a 3.2 Carrera, then I am expecting it to have a radio, and electric windows and AC, unless I'm trying to get ahold of a track car. If it doesn't have that stuff, I'm going to start subtracting from the asking price, or skip the car entirely.

It's not a concours thing, but a functionality thing. I am going to be driving the car and will want to listen to music (maybe), or be able to roll down both windows from the driver's seat (maybe) or be able to cruise around in 90-degree weather in relative comfort (no maybe there). Now start removing sound deadening, and putting in really thin carpet, and you're headed toward a car that I'm not going to take the effort to make into the car I'd like to own. And, since there is no shortage of Carreras to be had, I can wait until the next one comes along. If your car has had recents trans work and a recent top end build, and the seats and headliner and paint are in excellent condition, then I might think harder about skipping to the next one. But knowing what I'm going to have to do to get the car closer to stock so I can use it as I would like, I wouldn't pay you in the upper range for the car, even with all those things "right".

That's *my* perspective.

[techweenie]

I don't like RS door panels, myself. But opinions vary. Generally if you're keeping the car for a while, make yourself happy. But I strongly recommend you only do easily-reversed modifications and keep the original parts.

[uncle_scott]

I like hearing everyone's opinions on the matter. My car came sans-AC, and it doesn't bother me. It had a stereo in it, but it sucked, and I could barely hear it especially with the windows down, haha. The RS carpet is a huge visual upgrade over the 27 year old stained tan carpet that was there. I guess it is my car, and I want to be happy with it...but it is always good to hear other opinions.

Anyone else?

[Matt Monson]

Originally Posted by SilberUrS6

It's not a concours thing, but a functionality thing. I am going to be driving the car and will want to listen to music (maybe), or be able to roll down both windows from the driver's seat (maybe) or be able to cruise around in 90-degree weather in relative comfort (no maybe there).

One of the beauties of pretty much every door card kit on the market these days is they make them with cutouts for power window switches. It's not mutually exclusive and doesn't force one down the lightweight path because they chose to replace ratty door cards with broken pockets with some RS ones.

I've got a brand new Alpine head unit with Infinity Kappa speakers. Damn right I'm gonna have tunes.

My '85 is an AC car but it was non-functional when I bought it. So it is coming off at some point to remove the dead weight. But along the lines of what Techweenie said, you can be sure that I will keep every single parts those goes with it. In fact, the reason it didn't work was because of a ruptured line and I've already purchased the line to repair it so that what I offer to the next guy is a complete functioning AC. I'm just not going to put it back in the car for him, and will expect him to beat me up on price a little bit because of it.

It's that give and take that you describe in your post. On 25 year old cars like this, unless it's 100% stock shopping for one is going to be a matter of finding one that ticks enough of your boxes that the things that aren't stock or to your taste don't matter.

[SilberUrS6]

Originally Posted by Matt Monson

On 25 year old cars like this, unless it's 100% stock shopping for one is going to be a matter of finding one that ticks enough of your boxes that the things that aren't stock or to your taste don't matter.

BINGO!

The trick is to personalize it to your own tastes without going so crazy as to remove the ticks from the boxes.

Probably the closer you stay to stock, the wider your potential market when selling the car. Stuff that is almost universally described as "upgrade" you can do without too much worry - stuff like turbo tie rods, turbo brakes, Bilsteins, turbo valve covers, just about anything from Griffiths regarding the AC, 7+8 inch Fuchs (or 8+9). Stuff that helps the function of the car that don't really have any negatives. But start getting into body kits and crazy wheel sets and wild interior mods, and the market starts shrinking down. A moot point if you plan on being buried in the car, I suppose.

[Jrboulder]

Originally Posted by silberurs6

bingo!

The trick is to personalize it to your own tastes without going so crazy as to remove the ticks from the boxes. :d

probably the closer you stay to stock, the wider your potential market when selling the car. Stuff that is almost universally described as "upgrade" you can do without too much worry - stuff like turbo tie rods, turbo brakes, bilsteins, turbo valve covers, just about anything from griffiths regarding the ac, 7+8 inch fuchs (or 8+9). Stuff that helps the function of the car that don't really have any negatives. But start getting into body kits and crazy wheel sets and wild interior mods, and the market starts shrinking down. A moot point if you plan on being buried in the car, i suppose.

+1

I'd much rather buy a car with a ratty stock interior and whatever it would take to simplify the interior spent on the engine and suspension.