And so it begins, again...

[FA-18C]

I spewed the below in the Market discussion, but after a couple year hiatus, amended and moved this here to rejoin the community and announce my stupidity and ignorance with authority.

After a 14 year drought to support private schools and college, I am finally back in the game. I recently drove 997s, Caymans and watched BAT and PCARMarket sales make my stomach churn, but finally settled on 3.2 Carrera Targa. Will be picking the car up next weekend, and then let the misadventures begin.

I credit my wife for knowing me well enough that, even had a bought a 997 (which I really really liked) that I would enjoy, I would always be sifting the boards looking for an older aircooled project. I think she really likes the older cars as well as they are unique and come with the built in advantage of the easy button for birthdays, Father's Day, Christmas, and all of the other spare change in the house.

The car was laid up for some time, but gone through by a specialist shop and the current owner made some really good calls to do establish the driving baseline. Engine was gone through, fuel tank and system flushed, new pump, filters, cleaned injectors, all hoses checked, full tune, cap, rotor, plugs, valve job, sensors etc. G50 was serviced and checked. Every oil line front to back was replaced. Every component on the brake system, all hard lines, softlinks, booster, rotors, pads and calipers are new. New contol arm, new bill steins all around. New Yoko tires, and Audette LED headlights.

Car drove really solid - and to enjoy as is, I just have typical laundry list of 34 year old bits and parts that need to be refreshed over time. Interior is in decent shape, with a couple of areas that need minor attention. Will have a paintless dent guy go over half a dozen spots, and in the attempt to keep as much of the original paint as possible, will wade through options for chip and touch up in a couple of areas. Body is really straight, and no rust.

So near term, I will get her home, and spend the weekend, or two, going top to bottom with a thorough clean and detail. Then ID, document and prioritize near, mid and long-term objectives. After cleaning interior, engine bay, and bottom, will address the door checks first, and then engine and tranny mounts (plan to go with WEVO Black for those).

The items I am not looking forward to are ( in no order ): dealing with missing passenger door lock cylinder (no idea what led to that), repainting the targa bar (wurth matte vs. wurth satin vs. rustoleum 777 decision ahead), and removing and cleaning the engine fan and shroud (creosote vs polish, paint, or anodize?). Most is just time and grunt labor - but the lock cylinder is making my head hurt - have not had any luck finding one yet.

For now, will focus on getting to know, and baselining the car, then driving it for 4-6 months to develop confidence - I expect the car will let me know what the priorities need to be. Depending on the cost of some paint touch up and interior repairs, the stock market, and my wife's patience - these will dictate the decision to leave it original or make some personal touches.

Mid and long-term, if I cannot resurrect the existing AC, will convert with Griffiths, and also sooner than later will add the Porsche Classic stereo with Airplay etc...Why not, getting soft in my old age. Will likely add a Prototipo well as well - not sure if I will just go with the Black edition, or more dish as I am 6'3" and the added dish might improve driving position.

The final stages will address stance, complete refresh of suspension bushings, and refresh of the interior. Have a good dash, but will interweave some Rennline (an others) bits and parts, and convert over to charcoal square weave with black RS doorcards, replace plastic with metal bits, and find some seats to recover with houndstooth inserts. When I get to this point, I expect we will be back to the beginning of the soundtrack and looking at top end or engine refresh.

Good Lord, what could possibly go wrong?

Since parting with my 70E, I have often cruised the boards like a lost soul over the years and really look forward to diving back in - cannon ball style. It is damn cool to see a lot of names that I still recognize, and many that helped me many many moons ago are still here. Anecdotally when I sold my 70E 14 years ago, I packed up a considerable tech library - all factory, tools, spare parts - all of it, and shipped it with the car. Yes, I am an idiot - so now I get to start all over again beginning last week when I shook the owner's hand to buy the Targa. Ironically, call it karma, but the seller is tossing in his Bentleys and a box of different parts from the car, and his pile of receipts.

So as an old newbie, I may as well get started by asking for help out of the chute

1 - anybody have a couple of door lock cylinders with the tumblers for a reasonable $$ so I can Jethro Bodine my way through learning to reset the lock on the passenger door?

2 - If anyone has manuals or tech docs for 87-89 cars serving as nesting material for garage critters, let me know. Not sure of my real needs given the vast amount of info online, videos and write ups, but I enjoy reading repair manuals to understand where all the parts belong

3 - I also will start to try and track down the toolkit from the original owner who is 20 miles from me, but no guarantees there. I am building up a traveling kit, but at some point will want to have a 3.2 kit, just because.

I apologize for vomiting words both in the Marketplace discussion, and then on this first post in years - but I am just so damn excited I cannot stand it!

Happy New Year to you all - I look forward to embarrassing myself, getting bashed, and learning a lot from this crowd in 2022.

[fanaudical]

Welcome back.

You might look at that new-fangled electric AC kit...lighter weight and no compressor stuck on the engine...

[FA-18C]

On a stupid cold SAT morning, my brilliant and beautiful wife supported the Carrera pickup. Everything went surprisingly smooth, and the car is home and tucked up in the garage. The drive home was a good time to hear all of the gremlins in my head, but I had a huge smile on my face.

To be sure there are things to do - the car is back on the road after a long storage period. As noted earlier, all new brake components, all new oil lines, major service, fuel filters and pump, cleaned fuel tank, new LED headlights. In no particular order, my initial efforts will be:

- #1 Fuel Safety - track down source of fuel smell - there are no obvious leaks, so may lead turn and replace the engine fuel lines with Len Cummings set up. My wife reminded me this is why I bought the car - so I plan to make the decision and order the parts. Of course this will require removing the heater blower and air box, and likely the intakes. I am reading as much as I can and cannot believe the gap in detailed photos of those processes. I have no doubt I can get everything off, and "most" of it back on... . I know there are some wicked smart and experienced calm voices of reason there. I do not want to drop the motor - yet. But I will get there.

I will do some "while you are in there" items and take both intakes off. New intake gaskets and intermediate flanges, intake manifold sleeve, oil pressure switch and seals, oil thermostat o rings, cranks breaker and cover gasket. Also plan on replacing some of the hoses in the fuel tank filler and expansion tank connections as well as the fuel pump check valve.
Question 1 - Am I missing anything there?
Question 2 - the engine is dirty, which is on my to do list in the coming weeks once it warms up and I start taking things off for access - but WHAT IS THIS CONNECTOR TO? Driver side near the sensors connections and O2 sensor - it almost looks like an injector connector?

- #2 Ride height adjustment - the work done in the past 6 months included new Bilstiens all around and a front drivers side control arm. I suspect they did nothing with adjusting the ride height, and when may have sent the car for alignment that ended up with an inch higher on the passenger side, front and back. Also need to address ride height - somewhere between US and Euro makes sense to me. Currently, floor to fender lip - L front 25 3/4", R front 26 3/8", L rear 25 5/8" and R rear 26 3/4". This is something I want to learn to do, and welcome input as well as "whatever you do, don't do.." notes.

- #3 Along with #1 - need to address engine compartment and drivetrain cleanliness. So will clean the intakes and air box etc, groom the heater box and replace the oil restrictor hose

- #4 MISC near term - steering wheel support bearing, shift pushing replacement, various interior small trim parts, repaint targa bar and make some paint chip touch up repairs. Minor cosmetics interior wear items. Figure out the washer bottle and nozzles...which of course don't work - fix contact points on interior light, replace all gage lights

These are near term - them want to just drive for some time and see how she settles in.

Mid-Long term higher $$ items include
- AC update with Griffiths or Retro
- install Porsche classic system and new speakers
- when we get to it - refresh gear box and clutch - when the engine is out, will bit bite the bullet and replace tunnel fuel lines.
- Paint correction and minor resprays to address chips and clear issues in a couple places.
- Replace carpets and other interior

I am hesitant to drive a lot until I sort the fuel, and will likely get an opinion from a local mech who does 911s near our facility.

Equal parts excitement, and anxiety.

Chris

[dtxscott]

If you smell fuel inside the cabin but not outside the car, it is most likely the fuel lines that run through the tunnel. It is best detected after sitting in the garage overnight.

The lines themselves are often OK, but the connection point from the flex line to the hard line gets old and brittle.

[FA-18C]

Scott - Its actually not bad in the car - however Len has a solution for the front connection point I am going to look at near term and then address with an engine drop down the road.

I am sure there are a lot of old seals that are being shocked back into duty here. But not a drop on the garage floor. So I have that going for me.

Trying to figure out how to post pictures.

[FA-18C]

[FA-18C]

Not sure what this is..but appears to have been connected to something.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/ultimate/confused.gif

[Cairo94507]

What a terrific re-introduction. Congratulations on your Targa purchase. She looks like a very nice car to start with. You seem well oriented and organized in regard to getting the car back in like-new condition. I have no doubt you will address any issues in the best way to preserve and enjoy the Targa.

[wazzz]

Originally Posted by FA-18C

Not sure what this is..but appears to have been connected to something.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/ultimate/confused.gif

This connector goes to the heater blower, the big black thing with plastic hoses running up and down on the driver side of the engine bay. Don't know if you still have it in the car. Show us a larger pic of the engine bay.

[pavegeno]

Beautiful purchase. Good luck getting it tip-top.

[FA-18C]

jazz - thanks - I was just going to post that I figured that out and reconnected. I will refrain from embarrassing myself with the really dirty engine bay. The valve covers alone make me thrown up in my throat a bit...but will address soon. If I pull in the intakes for the fuel lines - which is likely, will probably pull those and bring into my shop and go to town on them. Not great. I have a long list...

[Ironman88]

Congratulations on the acquisition of what looks to be a very solid car to start out with.

Having recently come out of a 997.2 C2S and into an '87 3.2 Targa, I think your decision to pursue what you now have is a very good one.

Regarding your comment about repainting the targa bar - I would recommend going the Wurth route rather than Rustoleum. I used Rustoleum satin black to address a variety of bits and regretted it as it repeatedly cured poorly and the sheen level ended up being wrong based on my expectation for a satin finish. I think the makers of the product must have altered their formula at some point. All I know for sure is that I won't use it again for anything.

Best of luck to you going forward with the reconditioning / restoration process.

[Antomero]

Welcome back… And Congratulations on your beautiful targa!

[FA-18C]

Thanks Iron - I plan to scuff/sand to fair out any blemishes, then apply some primer. Not trying to get a perfect smooth, seems like the factory had some very subtle texture. There seems to be a general debate of satin vs matte. But I plan to use Matte right now...

[911obgyn]

Intake removal is a lot easier with engine out, it can be done but get the car up on stands so your lower back is not always bent. While you have it up and off check the top of the motor and oil cooler, easier to
clean if oil has been leaking. Get all the little rubber vacuum elbows and tees you will replace those. And the throttle bell crank bushings. Blower motor may be bad if it was unplugged.

[FA-18C]

OBGYN - thanks for the insight. I spent that last couple of days just digging around, cleaning some things to the extent I can in 30 degree weather, and took a 30 minute drive. She fired right up, and after, oil is spot on where it was 200+ miles ago, and looks new. I suspect this car just needs to be run for a bit and generally cleaned up in the engine bay and underneath.

What is bothering more than anything today is the 1" drivers to passenger side difference in height. Some phone calls being made tomorrow on that.

[Old H2S]

Easy now, don't burn up all your mojo, you got time now and the journey never ends.
For the gas stink you got lots of hoses and connections to tighten from the gas cap on down. I had to trim hose ends back to fresh meat to get everything sealed up. Then go fill it up and sniff around and look with a good light. Then take a little side trip down to Buxton and we can talk about the PLAN.

[FA-18C]

At some point the original owner replaced the fuel lines and they are all pretty well done. I ran the car for several days and then called Len Cummings and he is building replacements. Have the heater blower off and don't plan to reinstall. Have a blank off plate on the way too. Planning to remove the airbag and AFM this weekend and get things cleaned up in preparation. Have oil breather hoses on the way, and replacement for the ICV hoses as well. Will inspect and assess replacements for the "triangle of death" but have parts on the road for those as well. Also replaced cap and rotor, wires are still in good shape (maybe a Christmas present).

Between getting fuel lines I am focusing on cleaning things up in the engine bay, and will replace both door check straps. Also plan to work on adjusting the front right side ride height, and see if that brings the rear a little closer in line. I am mentally headed towards rear spring plates and trailing arm bushings next. That tidies up the rear suspension with the new Bilstiens.

So lots to do ahead of me...but really want to get those fuel lines installed so I can get some miles logged.

[FA-18C]

Heading into the next phase on my January purchase. Since we got the car home, I installed Len Cummings fuel lines, new Lucas injectors (rebuilt and flow balanced originals are going back in this month), new plug wires, fuel tank strainer and check valve, passenger CV axle (driver side on its way, will be done by end of month), Continental radio with Focal and JBL speakers, Prototype wheel, steering bushing, new door and targa body seals, painted targa bar, replaced fuel pressure regulator, replaced with new alternator, refinished fan housing and fan, installed wevo engine and new tranny mounts. Also installed an F9 DME relay and Coco mats.

Overall the car runs well. I run the car to work now and then, and weekend drives including some local PCA events. Love the top off in this great fall weather.

Once I complete the suspension work below, will get the ride height and stance set, add 21mm rear wheel spacers and have her aligned and balanced.

Next up complete refresh of front end - drivers side A arm has less than 3K miles, replacing passenger, turbo tie rods, new ball joints and sway bar bushings. Then on to the rear - new adjustable spring plates, sway bar bushings, and control arm bushings. During that work will also do an oil change and replace the oil return tubes.

In between big lift updates, I continue to pick away at nit-noids - still need to find a passenger door lock cylinder to install, just not a huge priority. Cosmetically, I will likely tackle some minor touch ups on the bumpers and other areas for the short term, clean up some odds and end brittle plastic parts and re-dye some worn areas on the leather seats. Nothing crazy yet. Am still figuring out if I plan to leave the interior more original or go minimal with door cards. Also mentally preparing myself for dropping the motor for major services and clutch, and also identifying path for eventual engine refresh.

Once the mechanicals are sorted, will upgrade the AC to Griffiths, and at that point will plan for a respray, or declare bankruptcy.

This is a 5-7 year plan, and I will drive and enjoy the journey, balanced with frustration and *****ing. Not sure the car will ever be "done." But that is the fun...REally looking to my 1st Fall of wrenching weather in 15 years.

[Robey5]

Welcome back, man. I think that these cars are never really “done” — so; welcome (back) to the club.