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.
by John Glynn | Feb 22, 2016 | Classic Porsche Blog, Project Cars
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!
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.
by John Glynn | Jan 23, 2016 | Project Cars, Porsche Cayenne
An unexpected Porsche headache this morning, as the Cayenne left me stranded at the LPG pump with a flat battery. It had started OK on quite a cold morning and I’d driven the fifteen miles or so to the station with dipped headlamps on due to fog. I left the sidelights on with the engine off while I filled up but, when I was finished, the Big Pig wouldn’t crank enough to start the engine. Five minutes with sidelights on had drained whatever voltage was left in the battery.
I always carry jump leads, so I borrowed the working car of a friendly passer-by and got a jump start: it fired up straight away. I drove around the corner to the local Euro Car Parts and bought a new Bosch S4 019 battery to replace the non-Bosch item I had fitted just over a year ago: £104.40 including VAT, which was not too bad for a big battery with four-year guarantee.
The old battery had been a bit of a worry since Christmas, when I had to jump start the car a couple of times after it had been standing for a few weeks. Although my 2004 Porsche Cayenne S has now done 154,000 miles and is still on its original water-cooled alternator, diagnostics showed no problem with the alternator and all the wiring looked OK, so it had to be a battery problem.
When I first bought the car, it had a great Bosch S5 Silver battery fitted. I had a few things play up a bit including the starter and forum wisdom suggested the battery was at fault. Euro Car Parts could supply a Lion battery with slightly more amp hours (100Ah/800 CCA) than a new Bosch S4 (95Ah/800 CCA) and a three-year guarantee, so I bought one and fitted it. Of course, it made little or no difference, but I left it in there. I’m sure I still have the old Bosch S5 battery somewhere, which would no doubt still work perfectly but anyway, the deed is done.
Today was a busy day for the Cayenne trailering 911s up and down the country. It behaved perfectly all day after I had changed the batteries over, so I am hoping this issue is now resolved. It feels better to have a Bosch part back on the car – Porsches never seem to work right with anything else. I’ll claim on the three-year guarantee for the dud one so it should all work out.
How to change/replace your Porsche Cayenne Battery
Tools:
- M10 multispline 3/8 socket & ratchet
- 10mm 3/8 socket
- 10mm spanner
Most Porsche Cayenne 955 (Gen 1) models have a single large battery under the left front seat: that is the passenger seat on a right-hand drive car. The seat base lifts up on a pair of rear-mounted hinges to allow access to the battery box. The multispline M10 bolts which hold the front of the seat frame down are under the two plastic covers in front of the seat: these just clip off to reveal the bolt heads.
Undo the bolts and tilt the seat up: hold it up out of the way with a strap to the grab handle if you’re worried. Now you can see the battery cover, which has four clips, one in each corner: undo those and lift the cover off. Your 10mm spanner will undo the terminals (remove earth first), and the 10mm socket will undo the front corner bracket, and the big side clamp holding the battery in place. If you’re worried about losing your radio settings etc, connect a battery charger to the terminals before you unhook them.
Once the two clamps are off and the terminals have been detached and secured out of the way, disconnect the small battery vent hose and get the old battery out of there. It is worth cleaning any dirt and dust out of the battery tray before sliding the new battery in.
A bit of petroleum jelly on the terminals before connection is an old-school habit, but not too important in these days of sealed batteries that do not give off corrosive vapours when charging. Then reconnect everything, put the lid down and bolt the seat back to the floor: use a bit of blue Loctite on the seat bolts. Have a cup of tea & a decent biscuit – you just saved yourself a few quid by not going to a dealer.
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by John Glynn | Jan 19, 2016 | Porsche Cayenne, Porsche News
Porsche Cayenne running reports have been thin on the ground lately as not used the car much since November, when I disappeared to Kenya for the Safari Rally. After that, I cleared off to Spain for a fortnight before spending Christmas at home.
The UK weather was mild through the end of last year – mild enough to use the Clio Cup or our Polo on summer tyres – but the mornings recently turned frosty and we finally had some snow here last weekend. It was time to bring the Cayenne into service, and try out some new winter tyres that were fitted to the car at the start of November.
You may not have heard of the tyres in question: Gislaved Euro Frost 5. Founded in Gislaved, Sweden in 1893, Gislaved Tyres built a useful reputation for their ability in snow and icy conditions. When the company was a century old, it was bought by Continental AG and remains part of that group to this day. So the Gislaved brand has some credibility.
I have previously run both Pirelli and Continental winter tyres on the Cayenne, but part-worn versions of either are hard to find and tend to be a few years old. The original equipment Pirelli Scorpions in particular go rock hard after a while and are useless in cold weather at that stage, so when I found a good price online for Gislaveds in the Cayenne’s size of 255/55 R18, I bought a set and had them fitted and balanced.
I bolted them to the Cayenne at home (in my new garage – nice one) as part of some work to change driveshaft bolts and other bits so only drove them long enough to move the car around. Then I headed off to Africa. When we got the Cayenne out last week, I used it on the school run for a few days, then did a few client visits in it and tried the tyres at higher speed. Finally there was some snow last Sunday so that was worth trying too.
Given the cost of just £86 per tyre – £344 for all four – I have to say I am pleased with performance. They didn’t need much weight to balance and are very comfortable on the car. The Cayenne tracks well at speeds up to the maximum rating for these tyres (130mph) and the Gislaveds are not as noisy as some reviews claim. No more noisy than Pirelli Scorpions, that’s for sure. Economy is unchanged at 18 miles per gallon on LPG. Dry grip is fine: slightly more squirm than a Continental summer tyre but not entirely lifeless. There is no tyre squeal on hard dry cornering. But it is on icy roads where these tyres do their thing.
No surprise that the Gislaveds recently made it to the final of Auto-Bild’s winter tyre test, beating more than thirty alternatives. Up against the market leading brands – all of whom advertise with Auto-Bild – these tyres rated in the high teens overall but the big picture was quite encouraging.
On frost-covered roads where other cars are clearly being careful, the Cayenne on Gislaveds is very surefooted. Icy corners present no problems for the Gislaveds: a tiny little slide on sheet ice, which stops almost as soon as it starts, thanks in part to PASM but aided by the grippy tread compound, which feels sticky to the fingers even in sub-zero temperatures.
We often argue over N-rated tyres on Porsche cars but so far I find nothing much wrong with these tyres for the price I paid. Michelin Latitude Alpin XLs in N-rated 109V cost £50 more apiece, so £200 extra a set for tyres that will come off in February/March and be replaced by smoother summer rubber on the 19-inch wheels. Doesn’t seem to make that much sense when winters are this mild nowadays.
Elsewhere on the Cayenne, nothing much to report. The odometer has just hit 154,000 miles and while I have written a for sale ad for it, it’s not been advertised as yet and is unlikely to go on sale anytime soon. I’ve bought some grey carpet to trim the new false boot floor and the starter is getting ever-slower in this cold weather so I reckon it is coming up for rebuild. I’ve got a used one in the garage to send out. Also, the plastic handle to remove the detachable towball has snapped: I blame the last man to borrow the car for overtightening it. He knows who he is!
