Yes, I have dave's build page for that car bookmarked for motivation. I was ready to start stockpiling fenders, bumpers and other body work to get it started as soon as possible but there's a lot more work needed on the rest of the car than I first thought. It has been nice not worrying about having a pristine car though. I'm not worried about driving and parking anywhere I need.

One of the most important roles for this car was that it needed to be kid friendly. There’s no point having a fun car if I never get to drive it. A large portion of my driving involves school drop-offs and after school activities. That mean useable back seats.

The seats wouldn’t stay up because the retaining straps had perished from age. After seeing the price of new straps were over $250, I went to my local hobby shop and $25 later I had a strip of leather and a packet of snaps to make some replacements.


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1642645025.jpg

The new straps were screwed in to place (I do have a parcel shelf, it was having the vinyl re-glued where it had lifted).

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1642645025.jpg

And now the seat stays up.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1642645025.jpg

The next step of the kid friendly transformation was 3 point rear belts. I picked up a set from seatbelt planet. As my car is an ’86, it already has the mount for the third point so installation was very easy. My 9 year old fits the seat belt without a booster, my 6 year old (modelling the new belt) is using a bubble bum booster. After the test fit, I cut the slots in the parcel shelf and reinstalled it.


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1642645025.jpg

You might consider an aftermarket through the body adjustable sway bar. Not that you sound like you are prepping the car for the track or anything like that (at this point), but because it is so difficult to get the sway bar you have back in with new bushings. Maybe someone has a trick for this, but replacing with the earlier set up isn't beyond your demonstrated skills. You don't even have to pull the gas tank, though that makes things easier and doesn't require the same level of ingenuity.

Short term on the brake bias - you might install a bias adjuster for the front brakes. Doesn't have to be cockpit adjustable (which would be tricky for the front). You could consider what Porsche did with the 3.2s - a pressure limiter in the line. These can be sourced with varying levels of cutoff - the point where the pressure never goes higher no matter how hard you push the pedal. Or put the appropriate big red on the rear? You might be able to sell the 930 rear for a fair price. Or sell the front big red for enough to get a 930? At least defray the cost.

Overall, it seems you aren't heading toward originality, though, with that retro long hood look you posted. In which case, which brakes you have ought not to matter much.

Nice work on the rear seats. Working on a limited budget myself I’ve found allot of ways to get around the ridiculous P tax. Nice that you still have the original turbo upholstery.

I picked up a set of the Eibach sway bars that mount in the same location as stock but have a removable linkage to attach to the control arm. They should be going on this month when I replace the control arm bushings.

I'm watching the classifieds for some calipers to fix the bias. It seems like the price of front 930 calipers have gone way up so that probably not an option anymore. 993 RS would be my first choice but again not a cheap option.

My next project was the rear suspension bushings. Fortunately, whoever had the spring plates off last had used copious amounts of anti-seize so everything came apart very easily. Just like the front of the car, I used the sport hardness bushings in the rear to keep it family friendly. The control arm bushings came out with a little heat and the elephant racing removal tool.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643070726.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643070726.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643070726.jpg

New bushings were pressed in and the trailing arms are done.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643070726.jpg


I used Spring Plates from rebel racing and elephant racing CamberMax adjusters (not shown) to make alignments easier.


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643070726.jpg

I replaced the support shock mount.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643070726.jpg

The re-used the rear shocks as they're in good condition. Does anyone know if the damping is different for the RUF stamped shocks? The torsion bars were stock.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643070726.jpg

After everything was re-assembled and ride heights adjusted, I set the rear toe and camber and went out for a rewarding drive.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643070726.jpg

The car had a weird steering issue that seemed to happen on fast sweeping turns such as highway on-ramps. I would need to add more steering input that expected and the front of the car would wander a small amount. I hoped that replacing all of the suspension bushings would resolve the issue but it remained. After a little investigating, I found that one of the rack bushings had come loose and allowed the rack to move up and down, changing the toe angle.

https://youtu.be/8bDRrGRHiYo

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643072657.jpg

With the help of some posts on this board, I found the bushing retaining rings. I checked the bearings, seals and bushings and everything look great with no wear. Fresh grease, boots and a clean-up and it was back on the car.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643072657.jpg

You are doing a great job with this! I will suggest two tools that will make refinishing a LOT more pleasant.. a good sized blasting cabinet with upright 100+CFM compressor. Glass beads work well on delicate parts, you can use a course media on things like control arms and steel parts. I used Eastwood non-yellowing clear on most aluminum, though they also make some fantastic colors that match quite well.. Enjoy the process!

Example of a 3.2 intake finished..

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1643107348.jpg

Thank intake looks fantastic.

Unfortunately space is at a premium in my small two car garage. I downsized my compressor recently to help with space. I'll have a replacement front suspension cross member being blasted by a local company. I will try the Eastwood clear on the when I get it back. Thanks for the tip.

Having been born with giraffe length legs and regular arms, I often struggle to find a comfortable seating position in cars. To help with this I picked up a Renoun 100 steering wheel to replace the Momo that the car came with. It has 100mm deep dish to bring the wheel closer to me. I also added the Jwest offset spacer to get a bit more legroom and see the gauges better.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1646880772.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1646880772.jpg

Next interior upgrade was a Wevo shifter. I gave the shifter base a quick clean up while I had it out, re-assembled with the new parts and topped it off with a 917 style knob.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1646880772.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1646880772.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1646880772.jpg

After driving the car for a few days, I quickly realized that as comfortable as I was now, the stalks were now too far from the wheel and I had to reach forward for every turn. Fighting my inner bmw driver instinct of simply ignoring the turn signals, I went off in search of a solution and found the actungkraft extended stalks. I ordered a set of 2” offset stalks which was the perfect fit.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1646880772.jpg

The final piece was a porsche crest on the horn button to complete the interior work.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1646880772.jpg

Thanks for the updates. This is a fun thread to follow along on as you tackle several things I want to focus on (after the current project car rolls out of my shop!). Steering wheel and stalks look great by the way.

When I first got the car, I played with the whole myriad of heat and cooling switches, knobs and levers. A good number of them resulted in no action. I read the owner’s manual a few times to make sure I wasn’t missing anything. I narrowed it down to…

- Autoheat: Non functional, some whiring noises, no heat, defrost lever stuck

- Air conditioning: Non functional, fan only worked on high or low, medium setting turned the fan off

- Fresh air: works per the manual.

Being based in Florida I focused on the air conditioning first. So the next project was to troubleshoot the cooling. I had receipts from the previous owner showing a new compressor and condenser from 2016 so I had hope that it had worked in the recent past. Before getting too far in to the project, I pulled a vacuum on the system to check for leaks and surprisingly it passed. So onwards we go.

The compressor was not very secure in the engine bay, the threads in the mount were quite stripped and barely hanging on. I drilled, tapped and helicoiled all three and refitted the compressor. I need to replace the base as the mount for the tension adjuster has broken off but this base is specific to the 930. I found this out after picking up a regular 911 one, only to find that it doesn’t fit.


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1648778071.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1648778071.jpghttp://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1648778347.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1648778347.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1648778071.jpg


Now that the compressor was secure, the next step was to find out why it wasn’t turning on. I spent an evening researching the forum and this lead me to try bypassing the temperature switch. I unplugged both spade connectors and touched them together; this caused both the compressor and front condenser fan turn on. After replacing the temperature switch and recharging the system, I now had “working” air conditioning. I will most likely look in to some upgrades in the near future but at least I having the bare minimum right now. The last check was the fan not working on the middle setting I pulled the connector at the passenger footwell and saw one of the terminals missing. I opened the connector and found the terminal laying inside. After placing it back in the right hole all 3 fan speeds were selectable.

The last item was to find the fault(s) for the autoheat system. The Bowden cable foe the defrost lever was clamped behind the fresh air assembly. Luckily a quick fix by loosening the assembly, lifting the cable up and retightening the fresh air fan.
Back to the forum to find all the items to troubleshoot. Inside the car, I checked the servo was connected the ball socket controlling the opening of the valves. The valves were being opened when turned on but the footwell fans weren’t turning on. I ran 12V to each of the fans and they both worked. This lead me to checking the microswitch inside the autoheat box. After confirming that the switch was bad, I ordered up a new one and soldered it in. After reassembling it all worked as designed.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1648778071.jpg

Over the summer the car had sat for about 4 weeks due to vacations and previous work causing the battery to drain down. I put it on a charger but it didn’t come back to life. The date sticker had 2011 so it was definitely time for a replacement. Looking for the opportunity in face of this failure, I took this as a chance to save a little weight. I ordered an antigravity battery, made a mount with a chopping board, aluminium strip and high density foam. All in it was about a 30lb improvement.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1648778968.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1648778968.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1648778968.jpg

I also added the Bluetooth monitor, which is supposed to update my phone on a daily basis and alert me if my battery is draining. However, it doesn’t seem to update unless I got in to the app so it’s a bit disappointing.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1648778968.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1648778968.PNG

The first time I filled up the with fuel there was a very strong smell when I got in the car to drive away. It was so strong that I searched underneath the car for a leak but did not find anything. Somewhere along the cars life, the fuel evaporation tank in the front fender was removed and the line to it was capped off in the frunk. I wondered if it was the leak was due to the fuel vapors in the tank being pushed out as the tank was filled. The next time I filled up, I felt around the fuel fill tube and all of the rubber pipes for a leak and sure enough, I could feel wetness around the lower rubber connector. It looked old and had a few cracks around the clamp

I replaced the large rubber connector and the vent lines. I also connected the vent lines up to the pipe that passes through to the fender thinking that venting the vapor out from the frunk would reduce the smell in the cabin.

Confident that the problem was now solved, I filled the car up again only to be greeted with the sweet smell of failure (or gas). Feeling around as best as I could at the petrol pump, the new rubber connector was still wet. Back to the garage, more disassembly, and the true leak location was discovered. A crack in the brazed joint for the fuel vapor pipe.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1652545269.jpg

After a quick check online for the price of a replacement pipe I quickly moved on to how to braze videos on youtube. I picked up some brazing rods from home depot and gave it my best effort. It wasn’t pretty but there were no bubbles when submerged in the sink.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1652545269.jpg


On the next fill-up the smell was finally gone!

Its now February 2022 and I’ve owned the car for year. I had made it through most of the shorter jobs but it was finally time to move on to the two jobs that were affecting my driving enjoyment the most.
A transmission rebuild to fix the third gear crunch and tackling the oil leaks from the cam boxes and valve covers that caused it to look like this after a long drive.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1652548123.jpg

…..and several other jobs that make sense to do while the engine is out. So one Saturday morning this happened.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1652548157.jpg

I loaded up the transmission to drop off for its rebuild.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1652548157.jpg

When I picked it up 10 weeks later, the outside looked the same as when I had dropped it off, something that couldn’t be said for my bank account. However, on the inside it had new 1-4 synchro’s, both sliders and a new 1st & 3rd gears.

Great thread; thoroughly enjoying you working your way through this car. :)

Thanks. Reading project threads is what I enjoy most about the forum. I'm happy that I get to share mine.

With a long wait for the transmission to return, I started on the axles. While taking the engine out I notice the passenger-side inner CV boot had a small split. Luckily, it hadn’t spread its grease all over the transmission yet. After disassembling and cleaning all four CV joints, I found that two had some marring and needed to be replaced.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1652665208.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1652665208.jpg

While they were apart, I had the axles power coated, then reassembled both with new boots, packed with grease and ready to be reinstalled.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1652665208.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1652665208.jpg

The last original suspension bushing remaining were the front control arm bushings. I had a set of rennline sport hardness rubber bushings sitting on the shelf ready to go in. Following the online tutorials from elephant racing, I heated up the bushings and disassembled everything. The control arms and torsion bars went out to be powder coated along with the axels.


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1652665813.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1652665813.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1652665813.jpg


Reassembly proved to be more difficult that the other bushings. I started off with a 3/8” threaded rod through the center of the arm. Using a little brute force and a lot of ignorance, I managed to get one control arm assembled before the threads gave out.


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1652665813.jpg


For the next one I 3D printed a couple of pieces similar to the metal guides from the elephant racing tutorial and used a woodwork clamp. The 3d printed parts helped guide the rear bushing on better than before but unfortunately the cheap harbor freight clamp wasn’t up to the task.


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1652665813.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1652665813.jpg


The final attempt was using ½” threaded rod and coupling bolts which finally managed to get the job done.


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1652665813.jpg

Quote:

"When I picked it up 10 weeks later, the outside looked the same as when I had dropped it off, something that couldn’t be said for my bank account"

I'm laughing with you...we can all relate.

I'm also enjoying your thread and all the photos! Keep up the great work.