[winstonbike]

I have a friend in England who's shop is telling him his 67 912 needs new metal at all the suspension mounts - charging him close to $3k. Seems pretty high to me? Any thoughts/things he should ask?

[William Miller]

He should ask himself how much he loves his car? Just Kidding!
Best thing for us would be to ask a lot of questions and get pictures posted if you can.
If all the suspension mounts are toast there is probably more to come.
I would assume the sheet metal is avalible. (I think it is here)
If he can do a lot of the prep work himself he will save a lot of labor. (remove and replace the suspension)

[BillJ]

Holy Rusty Metal, Batman!

Ok bad joke, but sounds like that 912 chasis is in a bad way. Might be better off finding a better tub and transfering the good parts over. How nice is the rest of the car? This sounds like a nightmare that will not stop at 3k... Have another shop do an assessment at the minimum. That said, 3k for replacing all the suspension points is not expensive. Thats a lot of work to get right.

[jpnovak]

HMM I could use teh MIG gun and add "new metal" for that much. I assume he is having patch or replacement panels installed.

So the question is... which mounts? Front or rear? I have seen reported prices to replace the front pan and tank support for $1200-1500. This would be for the front half. If the rear mounts are rusted or the steering tunnel has issues that wrap into the floor boards the cost will increase significantly.

If he has to replace the rear torsion bar tube or patch longitudinal sections I could see that being $3K alone. these are not trivial replacements and need a good chassis jig. This does not sound out of line. He needs to determine how much he loves the car before proceeding. It is possible to spend a large sum of money replacing these panels.

Of course, I don't know labor rates in the UK.

[Vicegrip]

912 guys in the UK are the 912 world fanatics and good ones are hard to find. They buy our old crunchy ones and ship them there for the final oxidation and the slow return to earth. IIRC there is tax based on hp or # of cyls or something like that and it is less expensive to own a 912 than a 911 912s are real popular there.

It is hard to say if $3K is a good price or not as each body repair is unique. My guess is that Bill is right, it will not be hard to get to 3K worth of rust work. In the UK body shop rates are capped as are mechanic rates. Body shop work is billed at a good bit less than wrenches get and thus the body work there is much like the dentistry. “Yea, Baby!”

[Trak Ratt]

Having just put almost that much into just 2 suspension points on the ’71 I’d say it was probably a good price. Most front end suspension point rust includes gas tank bracing too.