The Stimulus Check Porsche

A few years ago I had an '87 924S that was thoroughly trashed, but it was a fun car to drive. I've been keeping an eye out for one while browsing the classifieds. An '88 popped up on Marketplace not too far from me listed for $2000. It's a solid car and fairly clean, but it's been neglected. The odometer stopped at 64,100 who knows how long ago. I almost walked away because of the amount of work it needed, but ended up negotiating the price down to $1300...there goes my stimulus check.

I got it home and started looking it over, it's in pretty good shape and mostly original. The last stamp in the maintenance book is from a Porsche dealership in 1999, and that's probably the last time it's seen any maintenance. The original Blaupunkt Charleston radio still works. The most of the parts underneath still have the gold cadmium plating. So I started feeling a little better.

Yeah, I know, it's an automatic. But that's what I was looking for, so I could install these.

Now that's done, time to start fixing everything that is broken. First on the list was wipers. Pulled the motor apart and it's toast, time to look for a replacement.

Next replace the dry-rotted tires. The perfect time to upgrade since 15x6 phone dials are too small for my tastes. I picked up a staggered set of Boxster wheels on craigslist. They look better than I thought, although I'm still keeping my eye out for some 16" phone dials or some other '80s wheels.

Before:

After:

I placed an order for brakes from Rockauto, so those parts are trickling in. The rotors arrived today. I'm too cheap to buy the coated ones, so I sprayed them with Rustoleum high temp exhaust paint and baked according to the instructions. This stuff is actually pretty durable if baked on. I used it on my Vanagon exhaust manifold and 4 years later it still has paint on it.

I'm sure as I dig into it more, I'll be placing more parts orders. Just doing my duty as an American to stimulate the economy by buying a Porsche with 20 years of deferred maintenance.

I too bought a 924 with my stimulus check lol

Curious.  Are hand controls vehicle specific, or the more universal, it will fit/work if you try hard enough.

And a red 924, reminds me of the early Wheeler Dealers show, they did a red 924 in the first couple of episodes.

NoviceClass said:

Curious.  Are hand controls vehicle specific, or the more universal, it will fit/work if you try hard enough.

Most hand controls have quite a bit of adjustment, so they are pretty much universal. The thing that will vary from vehicle to vehicle is the bracket that bolts up under the dash. I have a shelf full of hand controls I've collected over the years, so I can usually mix and match parts to make it work.

In reply to vwfreek :

How long would you say that it took for you to become proficient with the hand controls?

Man, you could have done a lot worse for $1,300.  Congrats!

NIce, sounds a lot like mine (it's an '87 I got for $1000, with the motor from an '88 I got for even less)

Also, the staggered wheel setup makes these cars damn near impossible to break the rear end free :) I'm running 7" front (205s) and 8" rears (225s)

Great score!

Woody said:

In reply to vwfreek :

How long would you say that it took for you to become proficient with the hand controls

Not too long. The first car I had with hand controls I drove home right after they were installed.

irish44j (Forum Supporter) said:

NIce, sounds a lot like mine (it's an '87 I got for $1000, with the motor from an '88 I got for even less)

 

Also, the staggered wheel setup makes these cars damn near impossible to break the rear end free :) I'm running 7" front (205s) and 8" rears (225s)

The D90's look really nice on there. So you're telling me I should save the 15" phone dials if I want to go drifting. :)

I had a set of 928 "manhole cover" wheels on my old 924S and liked the look of those. The Boxster wheels were the only ones near me at a reasonable price, so I'll roll with them for now. The look is starting to grow on me, they make the car look like a newer model.

Did a few more things this weekend. The rear brakes are done. And while under there discovered this.

The other side has a new aftermarket axle and the bolts where just as loose, plus a couple of them were broke off. I found some spare bolts in my parts stash, so that's fixed. But then I changed the transmission fluid and found this.

I'm pretty sure that's friction material. When I first checked it out there was a delay shifting into first or reverse, so I knew there was a transmission issue. I was hoping I would get lucky and just have to change the fluid and filter. On the plus side, it's just an 010 VW/Audi transmission so rebuild parts are cheap. My Vanagon has the same transmission, and I had to tear it apart and put it back together three times (long story), so I'm pretty familiar with the 010 transmission. I've also got a spare Audi 5000 Turbo transmission that would bolt right in that has a 3.27 R&P versus the Porsche 3.08 R&P. Sure it would run more rpms on the highway, but it would accelerate a little faster. Decisions, decisions...

vwfreek said:

Woody said:

In reply to vwfreek :

How long would you say that it took for you to become proficient with the hand controls

Not too long. The first car I had with hand controls I drove home right after they were installed.

 

irish44j (Forum Supporter) said:

NIce, sounds a lot like mine (it's an '87 I got for $1000, with the motor from an '88 I got for even less)

 

Also, the staggered wheel setup makes these cars damn near impossible to break the rear end free :) I'm running 7" front (205s) and 8" rears (225s)

 

The D90's look really nice on there. So you're telling me I should save the 15" phone dials if I want to go drifting. :)

I had a set of 928 "manhole cover" wheels on my old 924S and liked the look of those. The Boxster wheels were the only ones near me at a reasonable price, so I'll roll with them for now. The look is starting to grow on me, they make the car look like a newer model.

 

I like the 928 wheels as well. Yeah, the D90s seem to "fit" style-wise and are generally not hard to find for fairly cheap. The upside to having the 16" wheels is obviously more tire selection (I'm using BFG Comp 2 A/S, which are really excellent), though obviously a bit of a penalty in ride quality if the roads are rough. 

I finished a few more things in the last week. All the brakes and shocks/struts have been changed out. I made a tool for tightening the top of the strut housing, no more pipe wrench.

I had a set of Hella driving lights sitting on the shelf, so I bolted them on. I'm still deciding if they should stay or not. They definitely have an '80s vibe.

The fuel hoses had a bunch of cracks, so I replaced those. I wasn't paying Porsche prices for replacements, so there was some cutting  and compression fittings involved.

Next was the wiper motor. A Boxster motor fits with minimal tweaking, the wiper motor frame needs to be notched to clear a screw head. I snagged one off ebay for $27 with the pigtail to make wiring easier and cleaner. All the functions work properly, and it's a lot cheaper than the $150 most people are asking for a used 944/924 wiper motor.

I also picked up a spare transmission on craigslist for $50. So if the one in the car gives up, I can swap it out. That's most of the major issues taken care of now. There's no service history, so next on the list is timing belt/water pump just to be on the safe side.

A quick update. The rubber damper is making awful noises. I bought a used flywheel and clutch off ebay to replace it. So it looks like I'll be pulling the transmission and torque tube in the near future.

At least this is just about ready to use so the job won't be quite as bad...

Today I got a set of 16x8 928 wheels on marketplace for $120. They should fit nicely in the rear, but won't fit up front. So I'll have to sell or trade the other 2 to get a pair of 16x7 for the front.

In reply to vwfreek :

They won't fit even with a fender rolling and a touch of negative camber? 

Just curious since I know 8's have been fitted to the front of 924's before, but I know offset and tire size plays a lot into that.

The clutch disc for damper replacement isn't a direct fit, there's some fab work involved.

Stefan (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to vwfreek :

They won't fit even with a fender rolling and a touch of negative camber? 

Just curious since I know 8's have been fitted to the front of 924's before, but I know offset and tire size plays a lot into that.

The clutch disc for damper replacement isn't a direct fit, there's some fab work involved.

I think the offset is wrong, they might fit if I switched to 944 front fenders.

What type of fab work needs to be done? From the research I've done, it's just a matter of swapping over the flywheel, disc, and pressure plate...but the internet has been wrong before.

vwfreek said:

Stefan (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to vwfreek :

They won't fit even with a fender rolling and a touch of negative camber? 

Just curious since I know 8's have been fitted to the front of 924's before, but I know offset and tire size plays a lot into that.

The clutch disc for damper replacement isn't a direct fit, there's some fab work involved.

I think the offset is wrong, they might fit if I switched to 944 front fenders.

What type of fab work needs to be done? From the research I've done, it's just a matter of swapping over the flywheel, disc, and pressure plate...but the internet has been wrong before.

I seem to remember the 924 NA folks had to do a bunch of work as it wasnt deep enough to engage fully.  I'll see if I can find the post.  I'm not sure if it applies to the 924S/944, but they are so very similar in those areas that I'd be surprised.

http://www.924board.org/viewtopic.php?t=38730

and

http://924board.org/viewtopic.php?t=38275

In reply to vwfreek :

Strange the offset is wrong as the offset should be the same all around, but oh well.

Well bought! The pistons alone are worth nearly that much.

I have two sets of 17” x 8 late offset phone dials to sell, but they are powder-coated school bus yellow. The combo might be a little... carnival like? Ronald McDonald?

Nice work on the wiper motor... I’ll have to steal that idea since mine makes a horrible noise and it seems to be on its last leg. Thanks!

Stefan (Forum Supporter) said:

I seem to remember the 924 NA folks had to do a bunch of work as it wasnt deep enough to engage fully.  I'll see if I can find the post.  I'm not sure if it applies to the 924S/944, but they are so very similar in those areas that I'd be surprised.

The 924 turbo/924S/944 do have a larger splined shaft, so maybe they are slightly different. I might have to space out the clutch disc anyway, since I bought a Miata disc instead of a Porsche disc because it was cheaper.

Those Hellas look great up front!

And with that lift mounted outside your garage you must have both very good weather conditions and either very understanding or remote neighbors.

Stefan (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to vwfreek :

Strange the offset is wrong as the offset should be the same all around, but oh well.

Pictured is my old 924S with 16x7 928 wheels. The offset is 65mm and I had to space them out 5mm to avoid rubbing on the spring, so effectively a 60mm offset. The 16x8 wheels have a 52.3mm offset, so there wouldn't be the issue with hitting the spring but with the offset and width difference they would be sticking out another 20mm. With stretched tires and some serious negative camber they might fit, but I'd rather not run aggressive negative camber on a street car.

Just a couple updates since the lift isn't anchored down yet, and I really don't want to change the engine damper with the car on jackstands.

The sunroof was having issues. It would flip up but wouldn't unlatch to remove the panel. Went through all the troubleshooting procedures on Clark's Garage and found the plastic gears were stripped. Ordered some brass replacements from Rockauto, and everything works as it should.

Next up, I'm retrofitting cruise control. I managed to get most of the parts at a reasonable price. But the switch prices were more than I wanted to pay for a used part. I've always liked the 'chunky' mk2 VW column switches so ordered up a set brand new from VW for the same price as a used Porsche switch...'88-'90 Golf/Jetta is what matches the Porsche plugs. The turn signal/cruise switch was a direct bolt on with a little clearancing of the column cover. The wiper switch had some pins that didn't match up. I'm sure if I spent quality time with the wiring diagrams I'd eventually figure out a way to make it work. But I opted for the easier route and just put the VW stalk on the Porsche base.

I also started to work on refinishing the wheels. Just a quick rattle can job. Rustoleum etch primer, satin metallic nickel, and wheel clear coat then I baked it at 185 for a couple hours. The badges are rattle can too, except I sprayed into the lid and used a brush and toothpick for the details. It's not perfect, but looks good from a few feet away.

And to bring it up to date. Today I swapped out the speedometer. I tried fixing the odometer a couple times, the gear wasn't broken but slipping on the shaft. I bought a used 944 speedometer off ebay and tested it with a drill and odometer works. The only problem was the early 944 had yellow letters and needle. So I swapped the gauge face over from the 924S and sprayed some satin black on the bezel because it was looking a little rough. 

I was admiring my work, when I noticed a little mistake. You know that feeling when you make the perfect brake flare and forget to put the tube nut on first...

 You know that feeling when you make the perfect brake flare and forget to put the tube nut on first...

Oh do I ever!

I've been neglecting my other vehicles and have been working on the Porsche for the last couple weeks. I picked up a set of '86 944 turbo sway bars. So the rear went from 14mm to 18mm and the front 23mm to 24mm. The car is neutral during normal driving, but there is a touch of oversteer when driving more aggressive.

I had tires installed on the wheels. I went with Achilles ATR Sport 205/55-16 and 225/50-16. I had a set on my Vanagon and it handled suprisingly well for a box on wheels, so I figured at $250 for a set of 4 I'd give them a shot. The odd thing is although the tires are staggered, they are almost the same size -- within 1/4". They had two options for 205s, I went with the XL reinforced sidewall option since the 225s were only available in XL. I'm guessing I should have went with the non-XL if I wanted a more staggered set. Other than that I'm pretty happy with the tires, grip is pretty decent although I haven't really driven it that hard yet.

I tackled the leaky power steering hoses. The one hose is $200 from Porsche, because it's crimped to the cooler line and one end has a larger opening. I opted for a $10 alternative, actually free because I had $10 from Advance Auto Speed Perks. The nipple on the power steering reservoir is 1/2". I used 11/32" transmission cooler hose, some lubrication, a heat gun, and some gentle persuasion. Then I had to tear the front end of the car apart to cut the crimp off the other end. Probably wouldn't need to with a dremel tool, but I have a 4 1/2" angle grinder, if it works for Binky...

My cousin snagged a set of bumper pads from a local pick and pull. So now it doesn't look so naked.

Next up was the exhaust. The one on there was a cobbled together mess. I went with 2 1/2" pipes, and ebay high flow cat, Cherry Bomb, and a Jones Full Boar chambered muffler. It sounds pretty good, a nice deep tone at idle and not too loud inside the car going down the highway. I used v-bands on the center section, so I can easily swap in a straight pipe if I want to make more noise.

Not sure if this is a thing, but a little trick I used to line up the pipes. After I taped it together, I just grabbed a piece of scrap pipe cut it to size and welded it in. It keeps everything lined up nicely.

I probably put the tailpipe a little too close to the bumper because I wanted the muffler to follow the body line, but it doesn't rattle so I should be okay.

While I was working on the exhaust and adding a v-band to the downpipe, I switched over to a Mustang O2 sensor to save a few dollars. I turned the factory pigtail into an adapter harness, so if I need to change the sensor later it's just plug and play.

I set up an alert on ebay for a front under tray. And snagged this one when it popped up for $60 shipped. I'm not sure if it added any high speed stability, but there is a noticeable decrease in coolant temperature.

And finally, I've gathered all the parts to swap in a static clutch to replace the damper. I needed a cheap clutch disc, so I went with the answer...Miata! NC 6-speed to be specific. The six puck is probably overkill, but it's for science. It needs to be spaced out to clear the flywheel bolts. To use in a manual car you would probably just need one spacer, but the auto shaft isn't splined all the way to the pilot bearing. The reason I didn't do it in one piece is because with a plasma table for best hole accuracy the material shouldn't be thicker than the hole diameter.