New Build: Slate Grey 76'

[Bobboloo]

Hi fellow Pelicaneers,

Forward:

I've decided to start a thread on a recent project I came into in hopes of contributing to the Pelican community and keeping it alive and well. This board has provided immeasurable help to me over the years and it's time for me to do some payback. My posts won't be as fast in coming as I would like because I have an engine building business I have to attend to so please be patient.

The project car started life as a 1976' Slate Grey 911S that a very close friend of mine bought back in 1998. He has been a Porsche enthusiast for many years and owned 914's, SC's, other mid-year and early long hood cars. He even had a Westfalia with a Carrera 3.2 and G50 tranny he installed in it. He and his wife used to travel in it and camp out.

This car was to be his final project but he was never able to finish it due to his wife's declining health from Alzheimers which culminated in her passing away last year. I wanted to help him finish and enjoy the car but having gone through what he had just gone through he had lost all will to deal with anything from his life up to that point and ready to move on and leave his past behind which I totally understand. He sold his house and moved to Thailand to help his sister and niece. I wish him all the best as I have the utmost respect for him. I don't know that I could have gone through what he did. He was his wife's sole caretaker for 4 years and literally could not leave the house unless someone else came over to sit which was one day a week for a couple hours.

Sorry, I had no intention of even mentioning this stuff but it's part of how I came to own this car and was unavoidable I guess. The big take away is life is short so enjoy your Porsche's while you can. Love the people around you, don't judge and be helpful to others if it is within your means.

Back to the project car...

The car as mentioned was an original Slate Grey car from 1976 still wearing it's paint tag.



It had received a wide body update using factory Turbo fenders and 965 Turbo quarter panels so there is no Bondo covered flairs. This is how it looked when it came into my possession.



Looks are deceiving though. There were signs of lifting in the paint so the car was stripped and re-prepped for paint. Rats had been living in the car so I vacuumed it out and then had to power wash it. I even power washed the center tunnel to get the bits a vacuum couldn't. Since the previous repaint in Slate Grey was not mixed from code it wasn't the proper Slate Grey. So it was stripped to prepare for new paint.

[Bobboloo]

The car was originally delivered to California. It has been off the road since at least 1998 when my friend bought it but was already non-op status so it's been stored for longer than it has been driven.
The original stone guard aside from some stains looked healthy.


My friend originally had planned to install a 3.3 Turbo engine I had built for him but he ended up selling it because he needed the money. So I plan on building a 3.5L ITB based EFI engine with a hot sport cam that will be used for street or DE.

Here are some of the bits from his vision that I will not be using. A Tea tray Turbo tail and late model leather sport seats. So if anyone is interested they will be offered in the Want Ads section of Pelican.

[Bobboloo]

Since the car would no longer have a Turbo engine I searched for an alternate tail that would look "correct" for the car. Fortunately I found the perfect tail for it, a 75' to 77' non A/C factory Carrera whale tail.

The car will have A/C but it will use an electric compressor and all A/C parts will be mounted up front. It' has a condenser in the front pan and a 964 style condenser mounted in the drivers side front fender. Dash has beed updated to accept the 964 style center and side vents.

For seats I plan on installing a set of Stefan's version of the Rallye II seat he calls the Gran Turismo.

[Bobboloo]

The car has now been resprayed in Slate Grey, code 615, in Glasurit single stage Line 22. Costly but a really excellent paint. This paint will last another 50 years only needing an occasional polish to bring it back to looking new. Several layers were applied. A little over 2 gallons was used. I can't wait to see how it looks after color sanding.

[Bobboloo]

The car has been modified to accept a Turbo suspension. The rear torsion tube was swapped for a Turbo version. The front mounting point for the front control arm was also modified the same way as the Turbo's which mounts the steering rack slightly higher in the chassis to help alleviate bump steer which may have been more pronounced in the Turbo cars. I will post pictures after I take them of these mods. The rear shock cross member has been reinforced to accept coil overs which the car will be receiving. I have Rebel Racing RSR bushings and the Bilstein coil over adapters on the way.

[Dpmulvan]

Should be a nice car when your done, who makes the seats?? I’m looking for some new ones.

[Bobboloo]

A heavy coat of catalyzed Satin Black urethane was used for the interior.

[almostordinary]

Wow!

[Bobboloo]

Rats chewed on the original harnesses and they were in too bad of shape to reuse so I replaced them with a front harness from a 74' except I removed the silly seat belt starter interrupt circuits and warning buzzer stuff. I also replaced the rear with a 77' rear harness. All the connections were cleaned and then acid dipped and rinsed with Acetone. Then new shrink tubing was installed and harness was rewrapped with New electrical tape.

[Bobboloo]

Next update will be on the suspension. Stay tuned.

[Bobboloo]

Originally Posted by Dpmulvan

Should be a nice car when your done, who makes the seats?? I’m looking for some new ones.

The seats are made by GTS Classics. The owners name is Stefan.
https://www.classiccarseats.com

[oscar94]

beautiful car!! looking forward to the updates

[ToySnakePMC]

Beautiful indeed! Lovely color and excited to see this EFI 3.5 come together. Please share all the pics and details you can! This car has been off the road quite a while... I’m sure the PO would be glad to know how you’re putting his car back together.

[NeedAJoker]

Love the color! Looking forward to reading about the suspension.

[Bill Douglas]

Congrat's, it's sure looking good.

[winders]

Originally Posted by Bobboloo

...The front mounting point for the front control arm was also modified the same way as the Turbo's which mounts the steering rack slightly higher in the chassis to help alleviate bump steer which may have been more pronounced in the Turbo cars.

The rear mounting points for the front a-arms were raised ~21mm while the front mounting points were spaced down ~6mm. The reason for this was to increase front anti-dive. Any positive change to bump steer characteristics is serendipitous.

[Bobboloo]

Anti-dive, of course, I remember now! I'm forgetting stuff as the years go by.
Funny thing is that this mod is probably only relevant to anti-dive when using torsion bars.😅 Still if someone prefers torsion bars they can switch to them and take advantage of the geometry mod.
Thanks for posting Scott.

[Cairo94507]

Oh my- this is an absolutely amazing build. I look forward to seeing progress as you post it. Cheers,
Michael

[Bobboloo]

Thanks for encouraging words guys. It's funny that this car will have a definite resemblance to McQueen's 76' Turbo visually. I asked my buddy if that was his intention and he said no, he said he just saw the car when it was for sale and thought it looked cool and unique. He always wanted a Turbo and so that's the direction he went.

[winders]

Originally Posted by Bobboloo

Anti-dive, of course, I remember now! I'm forgetting stuff as the years go by.
Funny thing is that this mod is probably only relevant to anti-dive when using torsion bars.😅 Still if someone prefers torsion bars they can switch to them and take advantage of the geometry mod.
Thanks for posting Scott.

The anti-dive geometry of the a-arms works the same for torsion bar and coil-over configurations.