A Sunday morning cruise

Today I visited the first classic car meeting with the Porsche. During the last week I washed, clayed and polished the paint to an acceptable level. So it was time for a little cruise to the Neanderthal near Düsseldorf, It was a little late, but still some cool cars were around:
In good company:

I really like those Lotus Esprits:

I also took care of some mechanical stuff. The idle is adjusted, the coolant leak is history, the cooling system is now free of air, the Targa roof was still leaking, even though I replaced the inner and outer seal - I tried a special product to adhere the inner seal to the roof and I cleaned the drain pipes, I hope it is o.k. now...

The Porsche is now stowed away in another garage until I am back from vacation, hopefully I get it registered with no problems then.

The main garage is now ready to tackle the engine swap on the fastback- finally!

Put some Mercedes in your Porsche!

Again, I can't believe what is going on with spare part prices. I need a heater valve for the 944. It is a common part between some Mercedes and Porsche vehicles. No surprise, the Porsche price is a bit steep with 83,69€. So, a quick check on ebay and: 29,93€ incl. shipping - One could think: Not bad at all!
I called the local Mercedes Benz dealer and - believe it or not - the Mercedes price is 17,14€ inkl. tax!

So, once again, check with your OEM dealer before you buy spares on ebay!
Porsche part# 928 574 573 03 and Mercedes part # 000 830 57 84 - A Meyle part

Just like at Porsche, usually you can order any part from Mercedes until 16:00h and next day you can pick it up:

To be on the safe side I also ordered the connecting hose from Porsche:

Hopefully the coolant leak will be history as soon as I mount those bits!

fuel

This is actually the first time ever I stopped at the gas station for some go juice:

The keen eyed might have noticed that the hood wasn't shut properly - body gaps weren't that big in the 80's)
During the weekend I covered  about 180 kilometers and fixed a lot of small niggles. It is such a fun car to drive!

Starter issues...

Here is the offending article:




The pinion was already chewed off a bit, as the magnet switch didn't work properly and the axis was free to move in both directions!
Also, there is a coolant leak, as you can see the green drops...
I already checked and think it is the valve for the heater, it looks like there is a leak somewhere.
I need to check the details, but instead of the +100€ spare from Porsche, the exact same part is available from Mercedes for a fracture of that!

It's Alive!

For the first time after the tear down and string of repairs I drove my own Porsche! The first kilometers felt odd, but I knew why when I checked the tires:

This is a 3 digit DOT manufacturing code, read: week 12 of 1987! front tire - No wonder the car felt weird to drive, the rear ones were about 20 years old!
So, next stop: tire shop, 4 new rubbers. The rear ones are 215/60/15 V - which are rare beasts!


Ah, what a relieve, now it drives like it should! The Bilstein shocks make it feel firm, but give a great sense of control!
I didn't feel any issues without the balancer belt - no vibrations or otherwise - I guess I am o.k. with that.

Having no power steering is something I am used to, as my aircooled VW's also have no power steering - but they have a light engine in the rear, not a manly 2,5 liter lump placed directly over the front wheels!

Of course, not everything was great. Upon launch the horn went on all the time, as the Momo steering wheel boss had the wrong contact ring, so I changed back to the original wheel. The power window mechnism on the driver door failed twice. During the 2nd repair (read: remove the switches, handle, door card, foil)- I realized I installed a guide the wrong way, now it is fine!
Later that day the starter went poop. The magnet got stuck several times. I need to repair or exchange it (I think I have a spare somewhere)

Overall, I'm well chuffed!

Now I can start to make it look nice from the outside...

rear axle

The rear axle is also updated so far. New CV joints and CV boots, and a new pair of Bilstein B6 dampers:

The tank straps are not in the best shape, but the rest looks o.k. by now.

This is the 30 year old shock which was replaced by the new Bilstein shocks - Nürburgring approved!

Once again: Porsche parts on ebay - makes me chuckle every time

I was looking for some spares on ebay, all of them are carry-over parts from VW.
A pair of rubber pads for clutch and brake pedal: Search for Porsche 944 parts and the best offer is 9,95 € incl. shipping, even up to 12,90€ + 1,90€ shipping.
The exact same parts (which are actually VW Golf 2/ T3 Bus bits): 5,99€ for the pair incl. shipping!
Even the Porsche spare parts catalogue shows the exact VW part #: 321 721 173

Same for the side repeaters (Blinker) Search for Porsche parts on ebay: What do you like to pay?
19,90 € for a pair of Hella - or even one USED part for 45€ + 10€ shipping? Insane!

 
Search for the Hella part # 2BM 003 647-021 and pay 4,95€ each + 3,90€ Shipping

Actually, the Porsche part # is a little different than the VW part #, but HELLA claims these 3 part #s for the same thing: 161 949 101 (VAG part #), 4A0 949 101(Porsche part #), 001 311 10 (Claas Tractor part #)

Or, what about 4,32€ for the pair + 3,90€ shipping? O.k., it is not Hella but Van Wezel, with E-approval marks - Good enough for me!

Wheels day

On Saturday I took some time to clean the wheels of the Porsche, top to bottom:

top: AZEV A 8 + 9,5x17" which might look similar to these soon:

picture found on Google

center: Porsche 6+7x15" tele dials - the original wheels the car came with:

bottom: Rial 7+8x16" multispokes

The plan for the Rials is to powder coat the centers in gold and polish the lips, similar to these:

 picture found on Google, property of  Robert Richardson

Final assembly

Find the failure:

When I checked the brake lines before bleeding, I found out that I managed to install the left caliper on the right and vice versa, so I had to change them.
 
The bleeding nipple was on the lowest point of the caliper!

Now, the brakes are bled and work really nice, they have a firm pedal pressure.
The wheels are on as well.
During a first check the Instrument warning lights for brake wear and brake fluid lit up and after engine start they disappeared, like they should.
So far so good!

The most important work is done. Brakes are totally refurbished, front struts as well, drive shafts are equipped with new CV joints, the front anti roll bar is powder coated and rests in new Porsche rubber, the timing and generator belts are new, driver seat is repaired, power windows are installed and working, updated shift lever installed, targa roof seals are renewed, the interieur is cleaned and the small niggles like quartz watch and instrument cluster are repaired, the heat control is also repaired.
It took much more time than expected, but here I am. Tomorrow I will put the Porsche back on the ground and check if it moves again on its own power...

This is what I did today: Inner fenders left + right installed

 The de-laminated rear window and a good polish of the bad paint are next on the list of thing to fix...

front struts: done!

So, yesterday I did the final assembly of the struts




while I was at it, I kept cracking on and mounted the calipers



followed by steel braided lines (with black sheathing for stealth look) , new wear sensors with a set of new clips as well





The strut tops are looking really nice again





Plans for tommorow: Fabrication of final brake line (the long one from bulkhead to rear axle), test fit of rims and maybe bleeding the brake system

Front strut assembly

Finally, all the powder coated and cad-plated bits for the front struts arrived, again, a superb job from Jens!
before:




after:





So I layed out everything for the re-assembly:






In order to maintain a good cooling of the shocks, I filled them with 100 ml motorcycle fork oil:


It is almost filled to the brim




(You can tell by the price tag in Deutschmarks, it must be at least 14 years old - but still good enough for the job :-)
Maybe fork oil is like wine - it gets better with the years :-)

Tomorrow I need to visit somebody with a spring compressor for final assembly!