The average week puts me in touch with a stack of people seeking 911 projects. “I want a cheap SC/3.2/964, let me know if you come across anything.” A quick email to enquire about their plans usually leaves me depressed, as the Porsche hot rod has mainstreamed to Magnus and Singer, with most other builders going back to factory spec. Singer is by far the biggest influence nowadays.
There is nothing wrong with factory spec if that’s your bag and you do it properly, cutting no corners: a crisp early 911 is a very beautiful machine. But the idea that owners of SCs and 3.2s (and 964s and 993s) have suddenly been appointed as rolling museum curators just because values have shot up continues to be a major pain in the arse for those of us who enjoy individuality expressed through classic Porsche. There are lots of these cars in the world and plenty of nice original examples. Bring something to the car which is all about you, other than your name on the annual service bills.
Of course there are some fine hot rods in build at Porsche specialists all around the world, but those builds could be said to be slightly diluted by the professional suggestions that inevitably infiltrate the process – specialists are not exempt from the idea of conservation and what is “period correct”. Pics received from Neil this week offered some light at the end of the tunnel: people are still building Porsche hot rods to express their vision of the essence of Porsche.
Neil’s car was built by Neil, in his garage and to his taste. You might do some things differently, but individual expression is the point. Based on a 911 SC, this 3-litre has the Jenvey throttle bodies we would all like to fit to junk the ageing K-Jet intake. Neil has added DTA engine management and a straight through exhaust (I presume this is headers) into a custom silencer. The car makes 236 bhp, so there is a good chunk of budget gone, but a lot of fun added and a big leap in throttle response and fuel economy.
With more power on tap, the obvious next step was to take weight off and Neil found the answer in the EB Motorsport catalogue. Lightweight front wings and bonnet, much lighter bumpers and the rear quarter panels and engine lid have taken at least 100 kilos off the car. The diet continued with polycarbonate windows and lightened doors. The engine was treated to GRP tinware on the lighter engine (losing that winding exhaust junks a lot of heavy scrap too).
Neil hasn’t told me what his car weighs, but given the parts used, I am confident it’s less than 1,000 kilos. I’m sure it makes a great noise and he has plenty of tyre options with those 17″ Fuchs-style wheels. Of course you would do it differently, but instead of telling us all how you would go if you were building a hot rod, send us the proof that you’ve done it. Curators don’t get a say in the hot rod world.
Watched a cool project in progress at Tuthill Porsche this morning, with my ex-BTCC tech mate Chris Defriez fitting EXE-TC dampers to a Porsche 964 RS track day machine.
EXE-TC suspension is a high-end option for Porsche 911s that has been used to great effect on many Tuthill rally cars over the years, but decent suspension is just as important on road and race cars. EXE-TC kit is now available for most 911s from 1965 onwards. These remote reservoir 964 dampers are beautifully manufactured, featuring mega adjustable billet top mounts, which gave a wide range camber and castor adjustment at the top and bottom of the suspension leg on this particular 964 RS.
The kit being fitted to all four corners of this RS created an interesting challenge for Chris, as he worked out where to site the remote reservoirs. Front is not too bad, as there is a handy strut brace sitting there ready to mount damper reservoirs, but the engine compartment on a 964RS is pretty packed, so not many options in the back. I’ll head back over in a few days to see what he decided.
964RS is still the one for me – they are absolutely fantastic cars. I am another one of those who almost bought a 964RS many years ago when they were circa £30k, but decided against it. I can live with the decision but, every so often, it does niggle me that I will never actually own one of my own. Prices will never return to that sort of level.
Prices for proper Porsche 964 RS models now start circa £120k and rise to much bigger numbers for original, low mileage RHD examples, so this well used LHD track car is still worth serious money by normal standards. There are a few 964 RS models up for sale at the minute, including a 964 Cup Car for sale at just under £200k. I’m not about to remortgage my house for a 964 Cup Car, but how cool to have bought one when they could barely be given away.
Finally resurrected my 1976 Porsche 911 Carrera 3.0 today. As I walked around the car while it warmed up on tickover, I noticed the road tax had run out in July 2011, so it had been parked up for more than four years. On the upside, it is now tax exempt.
Cranking the Carrera 3.0 back to life was easy enough. I had charged the new Odyssey battery up to full strength over a couple of days, swapped the terminals over from the old battery and then stuck the new one into the car, reconnecting the various positive feeds to who knows what (long time since I did all this stuff). Dropping the negative terminal on and reconnecting the battery disconnect made it ready to go.
Ignition on, fuel pump buzz, key turn, oil pressure light off. Then key off and turn – it started on the second attempt and soon filled the garage with smoke. Trying to drive it outside was an issue, as the clutch had seized on. Not ideal. I knocked it off and tried working the clutch a bit but nothing would free it. Cranking it out on the starter in first, the car started and took off for the bins. Brakes wouldn’t stop it on gravel, so I quickly knocked the key off and avoided a crash into the bins and my big trailer.
I rocked it backwards and forwards a bit in gear, wound it backwards on the starter, wound it forwards again, there was a burst of revs and the clutch was free. Saved me having to do anything brutal with a tow rope! Now the car was ready to turn a wheel, I put Ted in the 911 and took it for a quick spin around the village checking for seized brakes. All seems OK: I will book it for an MOT this week and we’ll see what it needs to pass the test and get back out there. Here’s some video:
I’ve been pushing myself to keep the Porsche 924 Turbo post-paint rebuild progress going. Really I am working on stuff that doesn’t involve ordering the numerous replacement body seals this car is crying out for, but sooner or later I’m going to have to bite the £500 bullet.
In the meantime, I have been ordering cheaper stuff, like contact adhesive, bulldog clips and clamps to help re-stick some trim, including headlining and B-post interior vinyl (below), as well as the rear side panel coverings. I had hoped to just re-stick those and button up refitting the side windows, but of course taking the side panels off exposed cheap speakers, which have been hacked into the metalwork, so I have to sort those out first.
Really I have stripped a load more of the car along the way: doors, trunk and rear seats etc. I have two other complete interiors which I could use, but I’d like to keep as much of the original trim as possible in the 924, so I am trying to give it all a bit of a lift instead. The trunk/boot is completely stripped now for a good clean before that all goes back together. I have heat-gunned off some crappy sound deadening in the deep rear sides and that looks better. I will replace the failed sound deadening with Dynamat Extreme – I still have loads of that around from my hifi fitting days, so it will go to good use in the 924.
First port of call for the Dynamat was in the centre console. This was looking decidely tired with the dried up internal foam sound deadening falling apart and crumbling all over the carpet, so I heat-gunned that off and replaced it all with Dynamat, which will deaden any rattles with some foam glued on top. I had already ordered a bit of spray-on carpet dye, so I cleaned the console up and applied that, working it in by hand. I was pleased with the results:
Looks even better in person than in my iPhone pics. Only downside is it makes the carpet pile quite stiff, but that eases with a bit of a going-over with a vacuum cleaner. I dyed the gearshift carpet surround also and have ordered a new leather gaiter for the dog leg shifter. I also stripped the faces off all the clocks including the centre console auxiliary gauges and cleaned the glass inside – made a big difference to the look. The fascia for the clocks has three 1980s alarm LED holes drilled into it, so I have scrapped that and bought an undrilled one on eBay – £18 delivered. Waiting for that at the mo.
I had an old Toronto SQR48 head unit put aside to fit but a bench test showed the output stage is blown so no sound to the speakers. I’m torn between fitting a modern, clean-looking Bluetooth/iPod head unit or going back to eBay and looking for something more period. It is not a high quality hifi setup in this car, as I am leaving the flat door panels uncut, so I will probably stay with period.
I am also changing all the locks to get a single matching key sorted. The ignition switch created a problem as this steering column top set is a four-screw column switch setup and my other spares are both three-screws, so I couldn’t just bolt a complete new assembly in (different switches and wiring etc). Anyway, I worked through a Rennlist 924 lock change guide and went like a dream with cobalt drill bits. Downside is I now need a four-screw column shroud as the old one was missing a bit. Typical old Italian car thing – like the cigarette burns in various places around the driver’s seat.
What’s next? Well, the wheels are off, I stripped the crappy old tyres on Saturday and will have the new Bridgestone rubber fitted this week. I was going to refurb the wheels beforehand but decided against that for now as I want to get this MOT’d (safety inspected) soon. With the car up on axle stands, I have been thinking about dropping the front crossmember and suspension wishbones off for blasting and a repaint. All that surface corrosion on my nice clean 924 bothers me.
The steering wheel needs a re-trim (or at least a re-stitch), but then I have a Momo 924 boss and nice old 1983 Prototipo from my 911. Maybe they should go on. The doors are being rebuilt internally with stripped and regreased handles and window regulators. Really I could do with adding some sort of remote central locking, but I have to keep remembering I’ll be selling this car when it’s done, so the new owner after me can take it to whatever the next level is (I will probably still do the central locking).
I bought a new bonnet badge for it and need to order some body decals too – probably just the long ‘Porsche’ one under the rear lights. It looks good with just the simple silver lines as per the early press pics.
As my small car collection lay mostly unused last year, I made “use it or lose it” my car motto for 2016. The little 1981 Porsche 924 Turbo has enjoyed a lot of attention so far this year (spent another full day on it yesterday), but this morning I finally pushed the 1976 911 Carrera 3.0 out of its corner and took a good look at it after a few years unused.
Porsche Paint Microblistering
I discovered some microblistering in the paint last year, caused by using a car cover (genuine Porsche Tequipment) in a relatively damp environment, so I expected to find a bit more on the other side closest to the wall. Turns out I underestimated the amount as that entire rear quarter panel is covered in tiny blisters – the car will definitely need a repaint. I am sort of OK with it as it will give Robert at Racing Restorations a chance to repair some other panel stuff I have never been happy with. It won’t happen this year, but I’ll have a budget for it in 2017.
The main aim at the minute is to fire the engine up and get it ready for an MOT sometime in April. Advice from Anthony at Tuthills is to pull the spark plugs out, crank the engine until the oil is up to pressure, then put the plugs back in and fire it up. I need a decent battery for that and my compact Odyssey PC680 battery is totally shot so I have a new one to fit. To fit the new unit, first I had to get the old one out.
Porsche 911 Battery in Smuggler’s Box (not RHD)
This little Odyssey lives in the smuggler’s box held secure in a tidy aluminium mount. I fitted this as a younger, more flexible person, so my 48 year-old self had a good curse at that idiot while trying to get this all out single-handedly. Whatever possessed me to stick it down here I do not know! Funny how it all changes in ten years. Anyway, half an hour later I had it out and in the boot of the Cayenne. I have a new Odyssey battery here so will stick it on the charger overnight and fit it later in the week.
A quick look at the battery showed my pretty aggressive boost charging of it last year to try and start the car had done the battery no favours: the centre is totally distorted. No big loss as it was not responding to a charger by then anyway, but it shows how little tolerance for misbehaviour these things have.
I do like the lightweight battery ethos in this lightweight 911, but am going to have to be more regimented about using a maintenance charger on it. Not leaving the car sitting around for years would probably also be a good idea. My nice bright damp-free new garage at home will help!
My Porsche 924 Turbo restoration project returned home this weekend, more than a year after it was painted by Rob Campbell at Racing Restorations. I had been storing it out in Worcestershire but recently lost the space, so it’s come home to be finished with a view to selling it sometime this summer for cash to plough back into my garage build.
This LHD non-sunroof Turbo is a nice example of the very cool Porsche 924. Having lived most of its life in Sardinia, this one is lower than average mileage, entirely rust free and still remarkably original. Despite being stored for more than twelve months and not being on a battery charger in all of that time, it started easily when the time came to load it on the trailer. It runs pretty well once warm – cold running is not great so will be taking a look at that. Bound to be something simple.
I spent a few hours on the 924 today and made some good progress. A few exterior bits have gone missing since the car was stripped for paint (probably still at Rob’s), so I excavated some of my 924 spares boxes and dragged out some prize pieces, including a brand new boot seal I bought from Porscheshop a few months ago. I put that on and made a little shopping list, which turned out to be quite a long shopping list in the end: more than £500 worth of rubber, including door seals, rear window seals and numerous detail parts including a new Porsche badge.
Other bits which were missing from the 924 when I bought it include the aluminium jack, spare wheel compressor and tool kit. I did find an ally jack and an old Blaupunkt Toronto stereo in my stash, which I need to test. I’ve stripped out the doors so I can clean and regrease the handles and lock mechs and also the electric window motors and regulators, which are notorious for seizing up. I’ll dynamat the doors and fit new membranes at the same time. I found a full lock set to replace all the mismatched keys, but no miracle finds can sort this steering wheel, which desperately needs a retrim, if not just swapping for a Momo Prototipo.
The carpets are quite faded from UV exposure, so I bought a good LHD carpet set last year, but I might try dyeing these carpets first as other 924 boys have had good results with carpet dye. Elsewhere, there’s a set of 205/60 15 Bridgestone tyres to go on and I’ll take some engine bits off for powdercoating to lift the underbonnet presentation.
It’s a good solid car in nice condition, so most of what it needs is simple. The hardest part will be UK registration. It is still Italian registered and I don’t have the Italian registration document, so getting it UK legal will be a bit of a ballache involving waiting for a Porsche Certificate of Authenticity and also getting it through an MOT, which will force me to fit a passenger mirror.
I don’t want to do screw anything into the bodywork permanently, as I like the uninterrupted line down the passenger side, so I’ve been looking at temporary fit mirrors which could be detached once the test has been passed. The single side mirror is an oddball European car throwback, which I have always quite liked. You have to hang on to these details.
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