The Dirty 911: The Project Begins...

Targa time.

As I wait for parts to arrive, I turned my attention to the Targa top. These have aluminum frames and are covered in vinyl. They fold up and can be stored in the trunk. The tops are often cracked and torn and are also pretty expensive to have re-covered. This one is in surprisingly good condition.

Inside, though, the aluminum frame had gotten really pitted. Again, I used the wire brush on the Dremel to clean it all up, then I masked it off and shot it with black Hammered paint.

Much better.

I did not know those folded! That's pretty cool.

Woody wrote:

Raze wrote:

stroker wrote: In reply to Woody: Why not sell us all a $10 raffle ticket?

I'm game

If you can convince 590 of your friends to play along, I might just do that.

I'm pretty sure I would fly up tomorrow, hand you $6k, and drive it home if you really would sell it for that much.

In reply to dculberson:

In 1974, they offered a solid fiberglass top, but they're rare and I don't think they fit in the front trunk.

In the 80's, you could buy an aftermarket tinted lexan top from places like Beverly Hills Motoring Accessories.

MrJoshua wrote:

Woody wrote:

Raze wrote:

stroker wrote: In reply to Woody: Why not sell us all a $10 raffle ticket?

I'm game

If you can convince 590 of your friends to play along, I might just do that.

I'm pretty sure I would fly up tomorrow, hand you $6k, and drive it home if you really would sell it for that much.

I don't even have 6 grand to blow, but I would find a way to beat you to it!

The tentative plan is to use that as the starting bid on eBay, with no reserve. I'm still about a week and a half away from having it ready to sell.

And...I wouldn't plan on driving it too far on these tires.

Woody wrote: The tentative plan is to use that as the starting bid on eBay, with no reserve. I'm still about a week and a half away from having it ready to sell. And...I wouldn't plan on driving it too far on these tires.

I am already in Hartford, CT until 2PM today if you want to move it for $6K. I'll be back the 1st week of April if you want to fix more stuff first. It would be kinda awkward driving 2 911s home so maybe I should come back with the trailer

Today wouldn't be an option for me anyway.

I expect that it will go for a little more than six, but not a lot more. I'm not all that anxious to sell it though, as I'm having too much fun doing the work and I'm heading into the home stretch.

Woody wrote: Today wouldn't be an option for me anyway. I expect that it will go for a little more than six, but not a lot more. I'm not all that anxious to sell it though, as I'm having too much fun doing the work and I'm heading into the home stretch.

I am pretty certain that my wife would murder me if I came home with another one although at that price - I'd have to think long and hard about picking it up as a car to use for DE instructing. My race car is a horrible, hot, loud mess best left for racing only and the 964 is a little too soft and unmolested for serious track work.

Must stop reading your thread (covers eyes)

Great write up - I seem to be following this one more closely than the GRM project 911. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at what it ends up selling for.

oldtin wrote: Great write up - I seem to be following this one more closely than the GRM project 911. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at what it ends up selling for.

That would be fine.

Parts have arrived!

Both FedEx and UPS stopped by the house with orders from Pelican Parts and PartsHeaven. There a few new items and a couple of significant used ones.

I placed the PartsHeaven order first, because they had the used stuff that was holding up the project. I needed new straps for the airbox because the old ones were dry rotted and I got a replacement air filter because it seemed like the right thing to do while I was in there. I saw that they had Mahle oil filters for only $8.50, so I ordered one of those, too. As soon as I committed to an oil filter, I immediately knew what was coming next: I might as well do a valve adjustment at the same time.

911s do require frequent valve adjustments (about every 10,000 miles) and anyone in-the-know who is shopping for one will ask about when it was last done. The job is not hard to do, but you need to drain the oil to get it done. And these cars hold a lot of oil: about twelve quarts for an oil change, fourteen if you've just completed a full rebuild. So a valve adjustment is a bit of a commitment. I decided that I might as well get it done and ordered a set of valve cover gaskets, too.

The most significant parts were the bracket that holds the fuel pump up under the car, and the stone guard that protects it and also forms part of the mounting assembly for the front sway bar. These were the only things (besides, of course, proper registration and full insurance) that were preventing me from road testing the car. The previous owner had replaced the fuel pump, but never finished the job and these parts were left behind when I bought the car. They were surprisingly affordable, but I had to wait for them to be shipped across the country.

There were a total of eight bolts involved, but this was not a lot of fun. It wouldn't have been too bad if I were actually changing the fuel pump, but I didn't want to remove a brand new one and spill a lot of fuel everywhere. Instead, I had to bolt the bracket in place above the existing fuel pump. Porsche makes pretty efficient use of space and there wasn't much room to work, but I was eventually able to get the bracket bolted up and then attached the pump to it with a large hose clamp.

The next step was to replace the stone guard. This is a strange combination of simple and complex design, all in one. I don't have any photos but I'll hotlink the parts diagram. From the bottom up, I draw your attention to the stone guard (7), large bracket (3), small bracket (25), and the sway bar (23).

At first, I thought the long brackets (3) were bent, because I couldn't even come close to getting them to line up with the bolt holes in the body. Then it occurred to me that any time you're working with a sway bar (already bolted to the bracket and running through the bushings on the control arms), the car needs to be at or near ride height, and I had it up on jack stands. I remounted the wheels, removed the jack stands and put the front end up on ramps. Now everything lined up as it should and I was able bolt everything back together.

There is almost no extra space between the stone guard, fuel pump and the body.

Here's a look at the finished assembly. You can just barely see the fuel pump above the center of the stone guard. Also, notice how nice the floors are on this car.

Ever since Dish dropped Velocity I've been hankering for some Wheeler Dealers, seriously, don't stop, keep going 'Ed'

I wouldn't mind flipping it for a few quid...

To update what I had written earlier about solid Targa tops:

I've learned that the solid tops were standard in 1975, though many dealers ordered folding soft tops because they were an extra cost option and there was more profit in them. In '76, a few solid tops rolled off the line before it was discovered that the solid top would no longer fit in the front trunk along with the new brake booster. Solid tops will fit all Targas up until 1982, when the mounting system was changed. You just have to figure out where you're going to leave it when you take it off.

Okay, back to work. I knew that the alternator / fan belt on the car was old and worn. The pulleys were a mess too, as one of the drain holes in the engine tin was plugged. I cleaned it out and replaced the belt with an old / new belt (Genuine Porsche!) that I found in the car.

Changing the belt and adjusting the tension on a 911 will be familiar to anyone who has ever performed the task on an old air cooled Volkswagen (surprise!). The fan / alternator is driven by a split pulley that uses a nut, cone washer and (always) a total of six shims. Belt tension is adjusted by the placement of the shims; more shims between the pulley halves means less tension on the belt. As the belt stretches, shims are moved from between the pulley halves, to the outside; the V of the assembled pulley is then narrower and the belt rides higher up the gap, much like a CVT transmission. It is critical, though, that the system always includes a total of six shims, regardless of whether they are inside or outside the pulley, otherwise, the center nut will bottom out on the threads and the belt will slip. While I had the assembly apart, I cleaned up the corrosion from the pulley halves and from each of the shims.

It is suggested that when changing to a new belt, you start with five shims in the middle and one on the outside. I didn't see it mentioned in any of my books, but I discovered that one shim has a slightly larger diameter than the others. It made sense to me to use this one on the outside, as it was a better match to the cone shaped washer.

In this photo, you see that the inside half of the pulley is built into the alternator (which itself is in the center of the fan), five shims are in place on the shaft and the outer pulley half is in my hand.

Woody wrote: I wouldn't mind flipping it for a few quid...

Six fousand quid? Are you mad?

Maroon92 wrote:

Woody wrote: I wouldn't mind flipping it for a few quid...

Six fousand quid? Are you mad? </blockquote

I'm pretty sure he does, or a least did, a lot of coke.

This weekend marks exactly one month since I dragged home this shabby, non-running, non-rolling Porsche. The engine would turn over but wouldn't start, the brakes and throttle were frozen and it was generally a mess. I cleaned it up a bit, got it running, and made the brakes safe.

Time for a road test.

Before I dropped it back down onto its tires, I started it up while it was on jack stands and ran it through the gears to make sure the clutch, transmissions and brakes were working properly. The idle was still rough, but it sounded good when I could get it up above 2000 rpm. All the gears engaged smoothly and the brakes worked without sticking. I decided to take it for a short drive.

Big mistake.

I made it out of my driveway, but as soon as I got onto the street, it started bucking and was undriveable. I couldn't even get the car turned around and had to back it up the street and into the driveway. I walked away from the car for the rest of the day.

Remember this little guy?

It's the oxygen sensor relay that I replaced last weekend. I was told that if it was bad, the car would run, but not idle. The one in the car was nearly unrecognizable and fell apart in my hands (you can see it in the background). Last Saturday afternoon, I stopped by a local Porsche race shop to try to buy a new one, but was told that the owner was gone for the weekend. One of the mechanics was there working on his own car and he gave me two used ones. I tried each one and the car seemed a little smoother, but there was no difference between the two of them.

After some research on the Pelican forum, I found that the relay was fed through the dome light fuse and should get 12v in at all times and send 12v out through two poles when the ignition is on. I got out my multimeter, found 12v going in, but nothing coming out. I swapped in the other used relay and had the same results. Since it was now Sunday afternoon, my options were limited. I went down to the basement and started digging through the big box of left over Miata parts. In there, I found a brand new Fiamm 30 amp, five pole relay that came with a set of Crazy Red Italian Air Horns. I decided to give it a shot.

History has shown that when the Italians and Germans get together, there isn't always a happy ending. But in this case, everything worked out very nicely. I measured 12v in and 12v out with the ignition on. There was also an audible click that I hadn't noticed before.

Road test: Take two.

Holy cow what a difference! This engine is so incredibly smooth. The clutch and transmission feel good and the suspension wasn't bad either. At least as far as I can tell from a bunch of laps around the neighborhood.

I am happy.

Excellent!

I'm starting to believe that the car may really have only 54,000 miles on it.

When I bought it, the seller told me that this was the actual mileage, but that the title he was given incorrectly stated 150k. He insisted that the title was wrong, but when I was negotiating with him, I made it clear that my offer was based on my belief that I was buying a 154k mile car. After all, the title rules and speedometers can fail and are easy to change. Besides, I would have to convince the next guy of the same thing. I would present the car as a 154k mile car and that was that.

But boy, this engine is crazy smooth now. Also, the speedometer and odometer both work and are the correct ones for the car. And when I tore down the pedal cluster, the plastic bushings were in really good shape, even though it showed no signs of having been rebuilt before.

Hmmm....I'm still going to list it as a car with 154,000 miles, but I have a good feeling about this.

Put the AC and cruise control back on it and ship it out to me.

The cruise control will only take minutes to reinstall, the a/c would take me about an hour, but it will never be any good. It wasn't in 1983, either.

Loving how this is turning out, too much want. Must resist urge to start selling off organs to prepare for the Ebay Auction.

Yeah, I have a strange feeling this car may never need to be listed on Ebay.

The original plan was to do a valve adjustment, oil change and flush the brake fluid this week and put it on eBay by Saturday, since I have no intention of getting it registered...

...but then I remembered that I have these:

Those are R-compound Toyos on Ronal R9s that I bought for my other car.

I also have one of these:

And there's a Test and Tune Day in Hartford this weekend....