1985 Porsche 944

It's about time you started a thread on the 944! It won't be long till it's back on the road

I have in no way reflected the amount of hell I went through with all the fabrication and welding. But remember, there were lots of little holes and bits found along the way which also needed to be addressed. Which is why weve just covered May to October in a short period. Lets return, we reach late October 2021.

The backs of the sills needed closing off. Everything mocked up, lots of marking and trimming took place over a couple of evenings.





Welding wand out and lots of careful work. It still went a bit wobbly, but it was workable. I must remember to weld slower and slower.



The passenger side was a touch more of a challenge as it also required the arch lip. Having had to make the inner arch as well, I had no reference to work to. So I was all done by measuring the drivers side and by eye.



Naturally I started with some CAD.



The first rough beating around a wooden blocks.



I made a crude profile gauge from the other arch to help see the high and low spots.



As you can see, I didnt quite get this right once it was welded in, about to 10 oclock position it was sitting a little deep into the arc. I reworked this with some adjustment to the inner arch lip as well.





A bit fruther in, still not finished, but much closer to the shape.



That photograph was the 3rd of Nov 2021. It was what I had expected to be the last of the welding. I knew the front of the car better than the back, so didnt think there was anything to find up there. I was also in regular contact with the body shop as the car due to be with them Feb 2021. So I was trying to keep my slot open for paint, and we had agreed to get it in before christmas. This meant the level of work had to be turned up to 11. While also sitting aircraft engineer licence courses and exams for the last 3 months of the year. If I thought I was busy, I was in for shock!

Coming up in an all new episode of "why the curse word did I start this" Some mechanical work, rather than sodding welding!

The gift that keeps on giving. Well for your welding practice at least...

That was mid Novemeber 2021 and the car was due to be in the body shop before christmas. It started to feel possible.

Relatively simple things remained. Cleaning up and organising parts. Both doors were stripped and all traces of glue and sealer were removed.



This was to speed things up for the bodyshop. I also remove the sound proof matting from under the bonnet. Well the tiny bit that remained.



It was then hung back together front suspension back on, wings and doors hung to make it suitable for transport and the day was upon us. December 23rd 2021.



At this point I took most of a weeek off for Christmasing. Once back too it, it was nice to have a big space in the garage. Which enabled to me have a clean and tidy up. Which was good and relaxing. There's no therapy like tidying a garage.

Many months previous I had been given a 3D printer. I decided to use this time to learn how to use it. Thanks to thingiverse I found some inlet manifold blanks. These would come in very handy while cleaning the engine down.







Short and sweet today resto fans

That's some work you put into making the engine stand out. Looking very nice, well done.

More engine building. With my failed attempt at wrinkly paint, I decided to remove the cam box, rub it down and throughly clean it up. And heat it up properly sat in front of the stove for 2 hours. I then spent 2 mins shaking the can of paint. Ran to the shed, painted it with 3 coats and then plonked it back it front of the stove.



The top face wrinkled up nicely, but the rest was patchy. Better than last time but still not great.



I decided that it would be better to retry this in the summer with a warm engine. I could then mask off the full engine bay and paint the box in situ.



To that end, on with the rebuild. Various brackets reattached.



And some larger lumps. I got the exhaust system blasted and then gave it multiple coats of high temp silver. I did find a few pin holes in the 2 into 1. I have welded these up, but I need to add a step up adapter to the end as the dansk mid box I use its about 1/4 bigger diameter and its never sealed properly.



I also had the bellhousing blasted and liberally coated with engine silver enamel.



A throttle body with a little love.





With everything cleaned, painted and new seals installed. I put all the front engine pulleys back on. With the plastics.





The inlet manifold and full injection rail needed cleaning up. This was originally Cad plated but it was too big for that. So I set about cleaning it all and painting it. Ill skip all the steps of stripping and cleaning. Heres one I made earlier.







I had a large collection of parts plated. and its these little details that make me happy. Like this spring.



All the while the car was in the body shop. They started by bare metaling anything I hadnt already been at.





They welded up the front valance and the bubbling around the rear light where it had leaked. This was followed up with shaping up the whole car, and then prepared for a coat of corrosion inhibiting epoxy.

I've always had a fascination / desire for a Porsche and, accepting some "purists" dislike of them, a 944 would be equally high on my list,
Your work on this is first class (as is the VW)
I was going to comment on your high standards of fabrication and welding but, having seen your reference to aeronautical engineering it's hardly surprising,
Looking forward to seeing future updates on this thread,
Nigel

I havent forgotten you all, ive just been on holiday to florida, part of which was to watch the Sebring 12 hours. If you wanna see more just ask

Another 944 update coming in the next few days!

Right then, some holiday snaps. There are videos, but I havent sorted them out yet. Other than this one.



Access is like no other track ive been too. After meeting up with some american friends over there, they gave us a little guide and said it as old skool as US tracks get. There is no covered areas, so in the heat of the day. Which was usually over 30c, you fully exposed to the sun. I love the heat, so thought it was great. Others, not so much.

We started with the paddock walk. The IMSA scruteneering bay.









A wander down the back of the pit stalls.



And heres a little track action. WEC night practice on thursday evening if I recall.







While wandering the campsite the following day we came across this. After speaking to the owner, its genuine race car. Suffered a rear end write off, so these guys got hold of it and made a BBQ, it still has all the original running gear in the front. They locked the steering and fitted a towing arm to the other end.



And walking back I spotted this. Dunno who'd own one of them...........



At the trade stalls, this chopped up vette C8 was on display.



We got to take part in the pit walk just before the start of the 12H



The good yorkshire sports car team.





There was also a NASCAR demo lap to tie in with the NASCAR return to le mans next year.



Lets have a few track action shots, first of all WEC 8h.











And finally the big one, the Sebring 12h.









I could go on and on. But thats a general flavour of it, it was a bucket list race. And I am so happy ive finally been! But lets get back to the matter at hand.