Porsche 924 Turbo Restoration Latest

by John Glynn | Apr 12, 2016 | Classic Porsche Blog, Project Cars

My 1980 Porsche 924 Turbo restoration has made great progress since I reset my work schedule and committed to spending the weekends working on my own projects rather than sitting behind a laptop. My bank account is slightly less happy about the restoration, but payback will come in due course.

I’ve now clocked up a couple of hundred hours on this car, and poked around most of it. While there is unsurprising evidence of parking dents and other traumas from its former life in Italy, underneath all that it’s a really great example, especially now I have reconditioned most of the moving parts fixed to the bodywork. Dropping all the mechanicals to do a full restoration is very tempting, but I must resist.

Retaining Porsche Patina in Detailed Restoration

Perhaps the most engaging part of the rebuild after the 924 Turbo’s bodywork was so nicely stripped, prepared and repainted by my old friend Rob Campbell at Racing Restorations has been deciding what to keep and what to ditch, in hope of retaining some patina and original character to compliment the delightful new paint.

For example, none of the locks matched, so I junked all of them, pulled the smoothest ignition barrel out of my stash of 924 & 944 parts and then bought a full set of VW tumblers and rebuilt and rekeyed every lock on the car to match. This led to stripping the latch mechanisms and locks, new door seals, new hatch seals – you know how it goes.

The dash was a mass of old alarm wiring and leftover radio installations so all that got junked. The black speedo trim ring was rusty for whatever reason, so I tossed that and stripped another speedo to find one in better condition. That led to stripping all the clocks and cleaning the dials and glass faces so they all look great now.

Porsche 924 Turbo Strip & Rebuild

Everywhere I look on the 924 Turbo now, I see bit that have been stripped and rebuilt. I stripped the electric window regulators including the motors and sorted all those out, bench testing them before refitting to the car. I haven’t done anything about the wiper motors yet but I bet it happens. Having all of the trim out of the inside meant I could clean it up properly and Dynamat quite a bit, so the doors now shut with that satisfying clunk and none of the rattles that used to soundtrack entry and exit.

Having junked so much stuff, I also found a few bits I wanted to keep. The Italian plates are back on the car, just because I love them. I riveted the rear plate together, which is not strictly correct but it means bits of it can’t get stolen! I tossed the LED-infested centre console gauge surround and bought another mint one in black, but kept the slightly crappy cigarette lighter from my old one, as a well-used cigarette lighter in an 1980s Porsche is just so Italian, darling.

I fitted a replacement glass hatch with a good condition spoiler (the original was utterly ruined) and polished all the original glass, refitting it in a mix of new and good used seals. I liked the Italian anti-theft alarm window sticker so I kept that. Under the driver’s seat carpet, I found a 200 Lira coin from 1978, so that is now the keyring. I kept the original dog-leg gearlever but replaced the shift boot and sent the ratty steering wheel off to be restitched – I hope they can retain the original leather. I have a nice three-spoke for the car if not. I ordered a full gear linkage rebuild kit from AutoAtlanta in the US, but that has not yet arrived.

I fitted new rear speakers (long story) and decided not to cut the original front door panels to fit another pair of speakers – the rather spartan black vinyl has survived this long without cutting and deserves to be left alone. I stuck a centre speaker back in the dash to add some noise up front. I decided not to change the cracked dash: you can get new ones but 924 owners are generally well used to cracked dashboards. The original rear view mirror is a non-dipping version and I’m slightly on the fence about keeping or saving. I have a pair of dipping ones with the glass mounts in my stash so I may change that.

Original seat belts are in good condition so still in place: they were likely never used in Sardinia! The car is quite low mileage anyway, so they are fine. Refitted the original roof aerial as, while it is not the shiniest thing ever, it is perfect for the 924. I fitted a new rubber trim to the rear bumper (just squeezed into the Polo in the massive tube it ships in from Porsche) and new seals on the door mirror, door handles and boot lock.

I rebuilt the front bumper light clusters: you’d be surprised how long that took. One indicator reflector was completely rusted out so I stripped the reflector off another one and plastic welded it back together (the fun of playing with £5 parts). I cleaned and refitted the Italian side repeaters as, while they are not very attractive, they are original to the car. Stripped the window switches, sorted them out. All very satisfying. I have been keeping things as tidy as possible, but you’ll see from the photos that it needs a lot of cleaning when it is eventually back together: I am quite looking forward to that.

Classic Porsche Build Quality in spades

So many hours later, with many more left to invest, I continue to have great respect for classic Porsche build quality with the 924. The way it’s built is inspiring to work on when you’re not in a rush; so much intricate detail signposts the hours of highly skilled labour it must have taken to build each one. The assembly is very like my old E28 BMWs and Mk 2 Golf GTis: plated screws and high quality metal clips everywhere. It is time consuming to make things better – stripping the fusebox and wiring out to clean up the corroded earth points behind for example – but once done, you get the feeling it will last forever.

I feel sure I will buy another 924 to work on once this one is sold and I have cleared out a few more cars. The Signal Green 1977 924 we saw at Essen a few years ago is still very strong in my memory – that’s the sort of old-school 924 I would like to do some miles in if Turbo prices have soared out of reach. Small but modern 1.4 engine transplant, little Turbo, careful gearbox build, classic trim.

Porsche 924 Turbo Rebuild Continues

by John Glynn | Feb 22, 2016 | Classic Porsche Blog, Project Cars

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.

Porsche 924 Turbo Project Revival

by John Glynn | Jan 31, 2016 | Classic Porsche Blog, Project Cars

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.