Chuck. I don't recall the piston Porter being dented. I think it flew 39 hours only with our spare zero time Queenair IGO-540 piston engine before the engine failed. I think engine cooling was an issue? Junior then wanted to convert it to a PT6 but the cost was $100,000 - big dollars in those days - and it never happened.
The last prang I recall was in the turbine Porter when Max was endorsing a pilot in the Highlands (Karimui??), ground looped the aircraft and removing one main leg.
The problems were more than the prangs and ground loops, it was the economics. Despite the Wau loading technique (when the bags of coffee are loaded to the roof the aircraft is at MTOW!) - from memory - the aircraft civil MTOW was 4,800 pounds in Australia, whilst the military operated to 6,108 pounds MTOW and I think the US military operated the Garrett powered Fairchild built aircraft to 7,000 pounds MTOW.
At 2,800 pounds empty, 4,800 pounds MTOW, the higher turbine fuel burn, slow cruise speed, accident record (and resistance to SE aircraft) the Porter simply did not carry enough payload to make money. The revenue/tonne/kilometer yield at legal weights was well below comparable aircraft.
Also, an incident occurred one Saturday afternoon when, after more than a few Brownies, a well known Lae pilot clad only in shorts and thongs "borrowed" the Porter to "give the finger" to the Nadzab tower staff and fled to Goroka, after which DCA kept a very close eye on the Porter and refused to consider any increase in MTOW.