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Jul 21, 2011 13:51:40 GMT
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Hi all, I've been browsing this site for years and had my own project to share but never had the time, anyway the time has come for some serious restoration and modifcation so here it is. I will keep it short as i could ramble on about this for years and bore you all to death, so first the car as it was after a wash when i bought it So i bought the car a few years ago when i was strapped for cash and living in a friends shed... naturally i thought buying an old 944 would be the best thing to do in this situation. When i bought the car it started, but that was about it... Had been standing for a loooooong time, possibly 10+ years and felt like it. 3 years and just under 30k miles later the car is mechanically spot on and drives brilliantly. So the whole reason i decided to start sharing my project with you is i am at the stage where i would like to change the appearance of the car completely while also tweaking the odd mechanical and interior issue here and there. This will include: Sorting out wheel offset Removing any lumps and bumps and remove any traces of rust (luckily very few) protecting under the arches and under the car remove and skim over the side repeaters full re-spray (what colour?) recondition alloys new interior carpet in lovely 70/80's coco brown retro decals? The car is my daily driver but has taken a real bashing the last couple months due to it being used for trips down the dump and picking up bits for my other project (triumph vitesse spyder). at the moment the car looks like this but covered in dirt and a few more scratches, the sun makes it look a lot better than it is. i'll take some more detailed photos this week and also some of the interior which is almost done :-) I want the car to be original in many ways and not 'chaved up' but also to stand out enough for a retro enthusiast to notice. I have been looking at earlier porsche colour schemes, wheel and decal combos, also really like the colour combos that singer use. So the question is, what colour should it be? anyone have any good examples?
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BenKH
Part of things
Praise the lowered
Posts: 421
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Jul 21, 2011 18:23:41 GMT
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I say definitely go for a scheme inspired by the old 911 Carrera RS'. Why not white with green wheels and a custom made green side stripe. Similar to the one displayed on the Singer ones above but with "944" written? Actually, just saw this on my searches... get it done
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Last Edit: Jul 21, 2011 18:24:37 GMT by BenKH
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maxkia
Part of things
Retro ZA
Posts: 122
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Jul 21, 2011 19:43:18 GMT
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loving this car pity there so few in za saw a really rotten '79 924 with broken motor lots of rust and incomplete guy wants 2500 pounds and he will definetly get it
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dazvr6
Part of things
Posts: 70
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Jul 21, 2011 22:07:59 GMT
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Here's a couple of shots of my old '85 for you ;D
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1998 Porsche 996 C2 manual 1989 MA70 Supra Turbo (5 speed) 1996 Fiat Coupe 16v Turbo
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yea i definitely think the early RS colour schemes will be the key inspiration :-)
dazvr6 Your car looks great, I'm after something slightly more subtle though, yours looks primed and ready to eat the road, i want mine to be a little more reserved, love the colour scheme though.
I'll be playing around with a sketch pad and rmeoving a few bits tonight so will keep you all up to date, i have never seen a 944 without the spoiler, i wonder what it looks like :-)
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Jul 25, 2011 10:03:28 GMT
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I too love the early 944's and the RS colour sceme - keep us updated on what you decide. You defo need some spacers or some wheels in the early offset.
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Jul 25, 2011 10:11:34 GMT
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The early square dash models are my favourite. Your car looks fantastic as it is, don't ruin it by painting it up as something its not (my opinion). It looks fantastic in the colour it is, awesome! If you want to improve it, do what the count says and get the correct spacers, and if you were really keen, convert it to manual. Otherwise, it looks really really great as it is! All the best mate! :-)
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1974 Skoda S100 tarmac car 1998 BMW 750 daily 1994 Mitsubishi Evo2
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Jul 26, 2011 13:18:06 GMT
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I totally agree with you ray, and i have no intention of making the car look anything that it isn't, just tweaking what's there. As you say spacers are the biggest issue at the moment so that's first on the list along with removing any lumps and bumps which i will start this weekend.
as for it being auto i actually quite like that so that will stay, and i drive like someone four times my age anyway (probably why its running so well) :-)
video and interior pics will be up this week :-)
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bit of an update, started investigating any rust spots to see where they go, luckily all was on the surface, also checked under the sills and arches and all solid :-). Fitted new disks which are nice and shiny, will paint callipers once i have decided on colour. For now I'm working my way through lumps and bumps, smoothing and tidying, heres how it looks in its current beaten up state: Also some pics on the interior which is prettymuch how i want it, just needs a tidy here and there. Before i get flamed the gear stick is temporary while i find a brown leather one :-). I replaced the stitching on the wheel myself which took ages, also did the roof lining (original shrunk and ripped) out of some brown soft vinyl which i bought for a fiver in hobbycraft, just happened to be the same colour :-). still no idea on colour, i need to photo shop some ideas, that's up next :-)
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MK2VR6
Posted a lot
Mk2 Golf GTi 90 Spec
Posts: 3,329
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Am liking the look of 944's more and more. Looks a superb base for a project. One thought though, what happened to the original alloys? They looked lovely! Triumph Vitesse as well you say? Tell us more...
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yea i love 944's, this think eats miles up and with a bit of savy is very cheap to run, i have friends who run 'sensible' small cars and they spend far more on servicing and parts, also this thing is very good on fuel when motorway crusing :-). my cookie cutters were awsome but as mentioned further up i lived ina shed and needed new tyres, so after some trading i got boxter wheels with tyres in exchange for my old ones, at the time i had no choice. Ahh my vitesse, here's the short story: Only 24, good job but can't afford 15k deposit to buy house so... eureka! buy junk to break up and sell, found junk on ebay for 500quid, ex-rally triumph vitesse and succesful until 2001 when owner emigrated, also on cover of triumph sport six club mag. got a decent workshop and put vitesse and spare body, chassis and parts in, sold parts to fund project. prevous owner let it rot too far so but didn't have the heart to break it, soooo... found lancia d24 replica body to go on it did obsessive nut and bolt rebuild with plan to sell to play for deposit so i can return to porsches! got new job and can afford deposit but still got this car I'm building i don't regret it though, will look amazing once done :-) i have no 'overall' pics of the vitesse sadly as there more as a reference for myself, so heres what i started with, minus all the other junk + multiple bodies: heres it as of a couple weeks ago:
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Aug 22, 2011 10:09:55 GMT
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Quick Update 1) I finally found a replacement brown leather auto shifter knob :-), £ quid on ebay and its mint condition, will wax, polish and re-stitch with yellow stitching so it will match the steering wheel this week :-). 2) Did my cambelt. Its always had odd noises and rattles but as its health has been restored all those have gone apart from one very irritating rattle which happens between 2k-2.5k revs and then around 3k revs (which is 70 and drives me mental). After looking online this is due to one of the balance shafts being out, in these cars there are two belts, the main cambelt, and a balance belt, this spins two counter rotating weighted shafts with the engine to make it feel smoother. So either the belt has stretched with age or it was done incorrectly, either way its a good excuse to replace all the belts and rollers. :-) First i get the front of the engine naked, by removing all the air sensor equipment, one of the colant hoses, distributor cap and the belt casing. This all comes off very easily, none of the bolts gave me greif which is handy, i also removed the spark plugs so i can rotate the engine freely. A screwdriver in spark plug hole 1 gives me a good idea of where top dead center is, i can then wander to the back of the engine where there is a little viewing window with a bar sticking out, this should line up with a mark on the flywheel when its bang on TDC, at this stage i can rotate the engine by hand a tiny bit left and right. Now time to check the markings: viewing window for TDC: cam shaft: top right balance shaft: bottom right balance shaft: As you can see the previous guy to do this has made his own markings alongside the rollers, this also gives away his mistake, but i'll explain this in a second. For reasons unknown to anyone but porsche, the rollers on these engineers have plenty of markings to help you line up the shafts correctly, sadly all of these markings on the face of the rollers are completely wrong, which would mislead many a garage. Infact to line up the shafts you have to roll it round and look at the back plate, here there will be a tiny notch cut out, these line up to markings in the plastic cover. Now if you look closely at the pic below you can see some badly drawn line on the bottom right roller, the previous persons mistake is they tried to line this up to the random bit of jutting plastic when infact the roller for the balance shaft is the roller to the right of it which is pointing the complete wrong way, all they did was line up a tensioner roller. so problem solved, after working out the alignment i removed all the belts, checked the rollers (which were in great condition) and while i was there i checked the water pump which was also in mint condition. wacked it all back together and tensioned up the beltns, rolled it round by hand again to check it stayed aligned and bingo, all done! :-) now it drives a lot smother and no rattles throughout the rev range :-)
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mechagran
Part of things
I love you, in a way...
Posts: 292
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Aug 22, 2011 20:50:16 GMT
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Hi! I am presenty doing the same thing to a 924, not the paint job ( keeping the red) but I'm thinking about rims and retro stuff but no idea where to start really! I actually like your original wheels ( black fuchs?) - they look awesoem- do you still have them As on my 924 theyd look amazing ( he says!). Any idea where i can get Some from? Have you lowered yours? Many thanks
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1990 964 RS 1990 944s2 cab 1986 Carrera coupe 1978 Honda Express 1 a few other curse word things 64 other classics gone but not forgotten.
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Porsche
West Midlands
Kev from B'ham.
Posts: 4,725
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Aug 22, 2011 22:09:36 GMT
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Ditto about the original cookie cutter alloys.
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Hi guys, yea its a hard look to do without making it look like I'm trying to turn it into some pretend race car, at the moment i've been going through all the really early porsche colours for something classic thats different but won't look completely out of place, i love ravenna green but not sure if thats a bit too much. For retro ideas i've been looking at www.singervehicledesign.com/As for the wheels sadly i had to part with those as at the time i couldn't afford the tyres and it was cheaper to buy the wheels i have now than buy tyres, and i did have the wheels until recently when i had a clear out and sold them for very little saldy :-(, i get mixed response with the wheels, i like both the current wheels and the old ones, maybe these wheels will look better once painted and with spacers? or should i sell them and get teledials? :-)
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Felix
Part of things
Posts: 324
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Aug 23, 2011 15:23:22 GMT
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I love the stitching on the interior! I'd go for teledials over the current wheels though.
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Porsche
West Midlands
Kev from B'ham.
Posts: 4,725
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Aug 23, 2011 19:12:16 GMT
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Teledials over your current alloys...Porsche wheels like teledials and cookie cutters are getting hard to aquire cheaply nowadays, as all the VW owners keep on buying them it is often cheaper to buy newer Porsche alloy styles than the classics.
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Yea i think your right there, well if you know anyone who would like to swap some teledials or cookies for my boxter wheels (which have almost new rubber all round) then let me know ;-)
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sumpcracker
Posted a lot
Yes, I’m still here.
Posts: 1,751
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Aug 24, 2011 17:14:34 GMT
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If you want to do a manual conversion or change the wheels, i know a guy who breaks 944s constantly and will have what you need cheaper than most. Genraly only does oval dash cars.
Nice car btw, i like the colour.
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Aug 24, 2011 21:42:13 GMT
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Thanks, pm me his details if poss, as for manual conversion I'm automatic and happy :-), not many of us around now so might aswell make the most of it, and I'm more of a cruiser than a racer.
As for colour thanks, although i was thinking of changing of changing it but i change my mind every hour
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