wow....what a person can do to bring it back from the dead.....wow

 

Thanks for the support guys. Unfortunately at this point i am searching for a new engine. The car was recently vandalized in a very rude manner. Someone drained the oil of it the night before it left to move to my new apartment. Took less than 4 miles to blow a head gasket and ruin a lot of the engine. Unfortunately, since the gauges are not 100% i did not hear anything, see anything, and get any warning indications on the oil light until a wonderful "PFVTTT" sound came from the engine, resulting in me limping it half a block home. Unfortunately, the cops could prove nothing. Insurance company wants nothing to do with it. Soooooo... looks like I get to get anther engine or rebuild.

 

Ladies and Gents, we have a solution. I found a parts car! Cosmetically, this car is finished. It's farther off worse than the one I started with. BUT.... inside...... it has an engine that looks almost new and had ran and driven 2 years prior to it being parked. New hoses, new parts to the CIS system, and a late year engine and CIS system.... I am happy. Unfortunately, this is one 924 that will never see the road again except for a dolly down to the junkyard, unless someone wants it when i'm done. May it RIP. It will serve a good purpose.

 

Few updates....

1. Engine turns over and partially starts. However there's **** all over in the combustion chamber so I'm gonna do a head gasket job on it, clean it up, paint the engine and drop it in with the newer CIS system out of the parts car.

2. Electrics are AWESOME.

Update (copy and paste from another b0ard)

Got bored today so i started working on the new gauges which were in wayyyy better shape. Was going to get to work on stripping some stuff out and getting to work on the dash.

However, I can't find the strips of carbon fiber I had for it.... so i worked on the gauges and getting them back in shape.

I salvaged the extra console i have and basically stripped it of the switches, gauges, etc, which I am going to reuse on a small, carbon fiber layered display once i'm finished. Because i'm finicky and picky, i decided to take them apart, clean them up, etc.... tested them as well. Obviously there's no point in using gauges if they don't work, right? And that milky look you get when gauges are 20+ years old? Annoying, right?

Here's the console itself.


Pulling the gauges.


Switches (tested each one, work great)


Process of testing and fixing gauges. First off... These are in WAY better shape than my last ones. They just need cleaned. On these particular gauges Porsche uses tools to essentially put a small metal cover over a rubber gasket that seals the back onto them. It's a delicate process to try and take the cover off.... not break the glass... and put it back on properly...



Cleaning up the exterior metal.


The back and contacts.


That milky look i was talking about.


First, test it and make sure it even reads voltage.


Sweet.


Taking the back off to clean the contacts and make sure 100% we are getting the best POSSIBLE connection at all times. Remember these contacts are from 1977!


Sand and clean these down, ensure the plugs are done well.


Looks bent, but corrects when putting back on. Delicate... remember...


Gasket.


If the inside is in good shape it'll be nice and black, look clean and solid. Remove any contaminants inside the gauges...


Make sure you are happy with the glass before you put it back in. I gently blow on mine to remove any dust, and then use something soft to wipe it off. Put it back in the gauges and if there's dust, blow it off and do it again. I touch it with a napkin so my fingerprints don't get in it.


Sweet. There's glass in there?


And done.



I also got bored and figured I'd see if the badge was also able to be fixed. Covered in some sort of awkward primer, paint, and house paint?


So i started wiping away.... something is under there.


After a lot of using my own little tools and chems to get it down to where it needed....


Finally....


After a nice polish. Just needs a little hand polishing now...


Before and after. This goes on the car last. It's not finished till the badge is on it


Gonna get to body work and prepping it this weekend hopefully.


PS: If anyone has any scrap pieces of carbon fiber laying around they don't need.... i'm having a hell of a time finding mine, was just a small 12x12 piece. If anyone has any they don't want, might be up for buying some. Need to get these gauges going.

 

Prepping to pull the bastard.


Ugly, but not rusted, needs cleaned and runs great.


This windshield has aerodynamic A/C mods!


My buddy Kenny drinking his coffee with an elegant touch.


Cherrypicker time!


Me disconnecting the crossmember to get the engine out.


And...


YES


Finally it's home.




Now the real work can start.

 

Nice resurrection you've got going on there, CorsePerVita. I've got a quick question for you, if you don't mind. Regarding your gauges and their disassembly, how exactly do you go about getting the trim ring off without futzing it up? I'm interested in any specific tools and/or procedures used.

The reason I ask is that I've got two '84 944's along with nearly two full sets of 924 gauges. Several individual gauges from every set, the ones in the cars and the 924 sets, also, require some attention from me to bring them back to where they need to be.

Thanks for any help you're willing to share and again, nice going on the rebuild. If I can ever find the pics of my gold 944 that I rescued, I'll try to post them. She looked almost as bad as your donor 924. Imagine cats using the rear floorboards for a litter box. Not pretty.

 

wow - keep up the good work!!!

 

It's a delicate procedure. I don't have a full write-up on it, but i'm also afraid of putting one on here and then having people go "OMG you made me ruin my gauges! you sob!" because a lot of people don't have the patience. If you're indeed curious shoot me a PM and i'll cook something up for you so you can see, since I Have more gauges to do here in a week or so.

 

Going to share a quick update for everyone:

Thank god for vacations. Most people go to another state. I go to my garage. With a nice week to myself, and motivation, I plan on getting a LOT done.

Some quick updates since pictures will come later and I'm taking a quick break....

- More weight reduction. Back seat removed. Passenger side coming along nicely.
- Unfortunately the "seal" to the hatch failed in a spot, leaking in water, I have more work to do.
- The "sealing" job for the floorpan failed. I am going to re-grind (again) and reseal (again) the floorpan, this time using the right ****. POR15. Then repaint and recover the floor plan in black. Mostly because I can, and I hate that unfinished primered look on floorpans.
- Tested the fitment of the racing seat to ensure it will fit correctly. Looks like I'll need to get some custom brackets done. Luckily, my buddy who made the seat brackets in my 944 confirmed he can do so for the 944 as well, since I Have no welder or torch. Yessssss.
- Tested the placement of seat just to see how it sets. It's a tight fit, but a comfy one once your in. Keyword.... once you're in... getting in and out is a *****, but whatever, it's going to be a trackday so I don't give a ****.
- Removing the wiring and everything that goes to the heater. Since it's a trackday car you guessed it, won't need one! So prepping all of that.
- Working on the gauges some more.
- Working on the engine rebuild some more. Trying to figure out exactly how I want to do everything, also searching for part #s from my friend's megasquirt build since i saw how he did his and like the setup and it's simplicity. Part hunting time.
- Checking major parts of the frame and under the car for any serious rust damage that may compromise integrity. Thus far, it's clear, a few surface rust spots, nothing major. Will be POR15'd in any spots I don't like and painted over to ensure it stays that way.

More to come.

 

The site wouldn't let me send a PM because I don't have at least 15 posts. As of this one, I have the grand total of 2. So, please consider this as a request because I am indeed curious. I hope this is OK. Thanks and good luck with the rest of the build.

 

I will see what I can do with a write-up on my next set of gauges I'm working on.

Onto the updates

Alright so I pulled my seat out of my garage after it had been sitting a while. Didn't really care about cleaning anything up, so everything is grody as hell but whatever.

The seat fits and does fit correctly. However... I ran into an issue.

Issue #1... the hatch apparently didn't latch properly... Resulting in the floorpan having some issues with rust. Again. Thankfully it's a small amount of surface rust. However, the other issue at hand now is that I found the sealing I did ended up NOT sealing it as well as I thought.


^^^ Stupid hatch leak.

Anyway, tomorrow I'm going at the WHOLE floorpan all over again with my wire wheel. Going to get it all the way back down to bare metal and reseal it with more layers and ensure this time it is finished and done, cleared, and triple uber super duper sealed from cancer.

Issue #2 is that the brackets ended up being just a hair shy on the brackets. Turns out the "universal 924/944" bracket isn't so universal. As previously said, my friend is going to help me cut and weld and move the brackets or make new ones, no biggie.

The plus side is that regardless, I was able to bolt them down and see where the seat would set to. Tight fit, but, a comfortable one... but tight...






One small step back with the rust sealing, but move forward with more stripping, no back seat and more weight reduction. More and more progress.



After taking the back seat out, I stumbled upon a LOT of rust. Tons of pitting. None made it's way through just yet. I didn't feel like taking pictures constantly through the entire process as it can be a bit cumbersome, and on top of it the cabin smelled of chemicals, prep clean, sealant, primer, etc.... so really with having a paint mask on you just wanna get it done.

So anyway.

I did want to get a picture of what it looks like when you take off sound deadening on an old car.


You will notice in the above picture that I left the sound deadening portion off and the glue STUCK on the middle portion. Up towards the back where the seat was I cleared it off to the best of my abilities without chemicals.

Below is after chemicals.


As you can see in both pictures it's clean. But you can see around the edges where the paint worn away that there are soft spots where moisture sat and ate away and got to it and it rusted.

As well.... where the seats were provided a horrible spot for rust. Since the padding Porsche used was not the foam we use nowadays, but between a cardboard like substance that has the texture of fiberglass you'd lay inside your walls, it felt like that, but very absorbent. The entire lining in the cabin area with anything that was laid down with the stuff is moist and will need ripped out.

Positive side.... got to use my new powertools my dad got me for Christmas.

Again, didn't feel like posting the entire process. So here is while I was taking out the soft spots and getting down to the metal.











Since the window was the best to see the result halfway finished... here it is through a few coats.


Will sand down any more soft spots again tomorrow and lay down a few more coats to fully seal it. Mean while I will also seal the trunk. It actually HAS NOT RUSTED through the sealing coat I put through it, but to be sure I'll inspect and seal as necessary.

 

Alright, working a bit on the engine today.

This one has a blown head gasket too. It did start and sputter and run like *** when we tested it, now it makes sense why it wouldn't stay running. Thankfully my dad has a lot of tools in his shop so I am going to take it in and get it honed and measure it, new rings, clean it up, do some head work and get this puppy back on track.

Sign #1 something is wrong when you lay the intake manifold down and this **** falls out.





Valve tappets are in great shape. So is the cam. Don't mind the dirt on the top, it's from taking the distributor off the engine.









This is when I went "Ugh."




Reason for the failure. If you can't see why, well... we need to have a talk.




Gonna go tear the bottom half off now. More pics later.

 

Pretty narsty eh? BTW please take note this is engine #2 from the donor car, not the engine still in the 924 that I blew the gasket in.

 

The engine is now down to the block. Nothing left on it. Next stop: Hot tanking and machine work. More parts on the way. More overtime being worked this week - I'm going to finish this engine.

As you can see... black is down to nothing.


Pictures of cylinders. Not that bad. Will need honed.








Perspective from the bottom end








Crank is in very good shape.






This had me going "huh.." as it has some oddball wear. Doesn't look rotational since it goes back and forth diagonally, perhaps factory? Odd.






Yep. Ick.






Another of the odd wear.


I think the pistons could be cleaned up and reused but I think I may wanna just get new ones since I'm already getting new rods.








PS: Derek 1 - Crank pulley bolt 0

 

w00t.