Project Karl - 84 Outlaw with 3.6 VRAM

[sgroer]

Hi All - Introducing myself here! Father of 2 kids, 14 and 17.... my 17YO son wants to be a mechanical engineer and his off to college somewhere next year. As we toured colleges we kept seeing the need for hands on training to gain an understanding of how things work.

After a great deal of discussion and encouragement from my wife, the day had finally come to for my son and I to start a journey with that we had fantasized about about for years... time to do a project car. There is no better way for him to see how something like this actually works and time is short. In 18 months he will be off to college and our window to do this will have closed.

We live in Chattanooga, TN and found an 84 carrera in California that is totally rust free, with a running 3.2 that drove. The car was a failed project by a previous owner - they had started and and some point, got overwhelmed and packed it in. The car arrived on a trailer a few weeks later and that was the moment we realized how much work, thinking and research will be involved.

As the car rolled off the trailer, we noticed "KARL SMELLS LIKE POO" had been scratched into the hood, so naming this project "Karl" became the easiest part of this process.


As background, I am a co-founder of Smokies GT - the world largest gathering of Porsche GT cars. (smokiesgt.org). my experience with Porsches is getting in a modern GT car, flogging it all day in the mountains and / or on the track, driving it home, maybe washing it and then leaving it in the garage for next time.

We've made some progress and I'll make a few posts as time allows to get everyone up to speed on where we are and where we are hopefully headed.

For now I leave you with a photo of Karl rolling off the trailer to start this epic adventure.

[sgroer]

We have made quite a bit of progress since we started this epic journey... so post by post I'll start getting everyone up to speed.

Well - to get this party started, we needed a lift to really be able to access everything the way we want.... So as Karl was working his way across the country, we ordered a Weaver lift. It's a garden variety Chinese source lift available under many brands. The instructions were comically bad but we figured it out.

And here's Parker with Karl in the air for the very first time!

[IndyAlex]

Nice find. Looking forward to watching the progress!

[AG81]

I'm going to follow along.

[75 911s]

Good times! Maybe think about one of the browns like Bitter Chocolate to go along with the name. :-D

[sgroer]

Originally Posted by 75 911s

Good times! Maybe think about one of the browns like Bitter Chocolate to go along with the name. :-D

Hahaha!!! Our hearts are set on a deep green but I see your point.

[sgroer]

A couple of updates - we got the dash wiring out of the car and only used 64 feet of labels on the label maker. No exaggeration.

Fuel tank is out.

The engine and transmission are now out. The only thing that stands between us and a bare tub is the suspension which won’t be much work.

None of the bolts are rusty at all, the body is truly rust free which makes this a lot of fun to work on. We are set to have the bare tub media blasted on 7/12. Then its 930 flares, paint and we get to start putting it back together.


As for the build-
1) British racing green
2) Getty design Yellowbird bumpers
3) Tractive touchscreen suspension
4) 3.6 VRAM (25k original miles)
5) Rotiform 917 in matte bronze
6) carbone custom pepita door cards
7) Recaro Sportster seats in pepita and black leather
8) Rennline backdate dash
9) 964 side skirts
10) 930 fender flares
11) 9eleven design raven s headlights in black
12) all new kroon wiring harnesses
13) Bluetooth audio
14) classic retrofit electric A/C
15) classic retrofit engine and main fuse panels
16) 991 GT3 muffler with rest of exhaust TBD.
17) Brembo GT brakes
18) WEVO shifter + 915 Gateshift + transmission rebuild


A lot of work ahead but so much fun!

[H-viken]

That is really nice to see, something both of you will remember for ever!!

[Bill Verburg]

Plan on adding a front cooler in the Ruf bumper, you will need it

[sgroer]

Originally Posted by Bill Verburg

Plan on adding a front cooler in the Ruf bumper, you will need it

Thank you! Yes forgot to add I’ll do a front center cooler in addition to an oem size cooler in the original location.

[Mehoff]

“Karl Smells Like Poo” is too good to lose. May be worth spending the extra dollars to buy a new hood to paint match and keep the old hood. Clear coat it to preserve “Karl” and you have the perfect track day/C&C piece.

[sgroer]

Originally Posted by Mehoff

“Karl Smells Like Poo” is too good to lose. May be worth spending the extra dollars to buy a new hood to paint match and keep the old hood. Clear coat it to preserve “Karl” and you have the perfect track day/C&C piece.

Totally agree that it’s a shame to media blast it off. We actually discussed leaving that part and clearing over it. Lol!

[Mehoff]

Originally Posted by sgroer

Totally agree that it’s a shame to media blast it off. We actually discussed leaving that part and clearing over it. Lol!

Do it!

[Bill Douglas]

What fun. Your son seems like a really nice young guy. A great shared experiance by the look of it.

[sgroer]

Update on the project! We’ve got the suspension out. Everything will be shipped to Elephant racing for reconditioning.

Our Carbone custom door panels and recaro seats are here. We’ve spent some time removing the carpet adhesive (fun!) and the tub will go to media blasting next week.

We continue to march ahead, in August the hopefully bodywork will be done and the fender flares will be welded on. We started mocking up the Yellowbird bumpers and fender flares just for fun.

Still having a blast!!!

[Trackrash]

Buy a project 911. $$
Buy every part to make it great. $$$
Have a son that is enthusiastic working on it. Priceless.

[Racerbvd]

Originally Posted by Mehoff

“Karl Smells Like Poo” is too good to lose. May be worth spending the extra dollars to buy a new hood to paint match and keep the old hood. Clear coat it to preserve “Karl” and you have the perfect track day/C&C piece.

I have a few hoods in Florida.

Congratulations on a great project and what will be great memories, you both are very lucky.

[sgroer]

Some updates on project Karl -

Our plan was media blast next week but the welder I've been chasing called and he has a window next week to get the turbo flares done - so it's flares next week and media blast the following.

We loaded him up today to leave the house for the first time in a while.




The tractive coilover Suspension arrived and it's a piece of artwork. Classic Retrofit fuse panels and Electric A/C are en route as well.

[ToySnakePMC]

This is a fun build turning at some good rpm’s too!

[sgroer]

An update to this thread is long overdue... we have made some great progress on our outlaw build... when I last posted, Karl was headed to get the widebody kit welded on... It has been an absolute joy working on this car with my best bud and son Parker who is 17. We try to make progress everyday, with the goal being that he drives the car to his senior prom in April.


We finished welding the OEM turbo flares and it was time to send Karl to his date with the media blaster




A successful venture that only took a few hours. No panel warpage and the car was ready to go to the body shop...




New seam sealer throughout the body - very satisfying

]

Wheels arrived - Rotiform 917's 17" with 9" front and 11" rear



While the car was in for paint we removed the varioram intake and had it media blasted and cerakoted in bronze to match the wheels



Meanwhile - Karl starting to look sooo much better in primer - This was 8 sessions of prime / guidecoat / block until we felt that the paint was completely straight.



And a few weeks later - Karl Showed himself in Irish Green!! An exciting day!!



We did quite a bit of work on the 3.6 VRAM to get it ready while the car was away - new billet chain and valve covers, cleaning, pugs, delete cruise, SAI, A/C, new plug wires, etc. etc. The engine has just 25k miles so it will run like a champ. We also rebuilt the transmission with wevo carrier and sideplate (930 bearing), and WEVO gateshift. We added a wavetrac rear differential.



We had everything that looked at all dirty media blasted and powdercoated... All of the hardware was stripped and replated in Zinc or replaced with new.



The first bits of the build went in - powdercoated silver crossmember, tractive touchscreen electronic coilovers....



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THE PROGRESS CONTINUES IN THE NEXT POST

I can only post 10 images at a time.