New to the 911 and diving in… questions

[REVerend]

Intro: Never had a Porsche before and dove into it last month buying a 1983 911SC. I wouldn’t say I went in entirely blind but a lot of this is very new. The car is a good driver with 104k miles and, from what I can tell, doesn’t have any rust issues with the body which seems to be a big thing. Paid $36k for it which seems like a reasonable price these days for an air cooled.

The biggest issue the car had from the start (known when I bought it) was the ignition was unreliable. Turned out to be partly the electrical switch and partly the start lock. With lots of digging through threads here I got that resolved and it now starts reliably I have been reading a ton of threads here as I try and figure things out.

Questions to follow… for some reason I can’t get obligatory pic to attach. Maybe I need to have a certain number of posts first?

[REVerend]

First question… once I got the ignition issue sorted out one of my first matters to address was the relatively sedate exhaust. While the car didn’t have any rust issues the bolts attaching the cat and muffler were more or less mummified with rust and I ended up cutting them off and installing a Dansk pipe and Fabspeed muffler bypass. The car sounds amazing now but it is a little bit on the loud side for daily driving. Don’t get me wrong, it is incredible, but this thing is gonna get old in a few months and my neighbors might start complaining at some point. I more or less have to idle it out to keep from annoying folks.

So I’m looking at the Fabspeed Supercup as a viable compromise… anybody have thoughts on how that sounds compared with what is essentially a straight pipe? It’s hard to tell from YouTube videos and the like and I would rather not spend $1k for just a very minor reduction in sound.

It doesn’t seem like many folks run straight pipes outside the race track… are there any downsides I might not be recognizing? The shift in power band to higher RPM range was expected and noticeable once I got the new set up installed but it’s not something that bothers me.

[John2244]

REV,
Recently, there seems to have been problems with various people posting pictures, me included. May not have to do with the number of post as you are thinking.

[REVerend]

Originally Posted by John2244

REV,
Recently, there seems to have been problems with various people posting pictures, me included. May not have to do with the number of post as you are thinking.

I had seen someone else having problems with pics yesterday… hopefully it gets resolved as I have been taking a ton of pics of my various projects with this car. I’m not nearly as talented as some of the folks here modifying their cars but this forum has been invaluable with what I have done so far. I have a lot of questions which pics will go a long way toward supporting. For instance I think my car has the updated cam chain tensioners, it looks like the oil lines running there, but as a newbie to 911s I don’t always know what I’m looking at. It would be great to be able to post a pic and have someone confirm what I think I’m seeing.

[Mr jamo]

This is very helpful for me, as I’m looking to buy my first air cooler Porsche.

[Mr jamo]

I do think that a certain number of posts are required before you can attach pics though

[HarryD]

Picture posting is not working for some reason. Hope they fix it soon.

[safe]

Originally Posted by REVerend

It doesn’t seem like many folks run straight pipes outside the race track… are there any downsides I might not be recognizing?

Pissed off neighbors. Also incredibly loud inside the car. Many tracks also have strict noise restrictions.

[REVerend]

Originally Posted by safe

Pissed off neighbors. Also incredibly loud inside the car. Many tracks also have strict noise restrictions.

Neighbors don’t seem bothered too much just from our conversations, they seem much more concerned about people speeding. I start it up in the garage and then just idle down the street. As for the volume in the car it is loud but not unbearable. No track near me so that’s not much an issue for now.

And pics still don’t seem to be working…

[Wayne 962]

I've got a call into Jay regarding the photos not working...

-Wayne

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by REVerend

Intro: Never had a Porsche before and dove into it last month buying a 1983 911SC. I wouldn’t say I went in entirely blind but a lot of this is very new. The car is a good driver with 104k miles and, from what I can tell, doesn’t have any rust issues with the body which seems to be a big thing. Paid $36k for it which seems like a reasonable price these days for an air cooled.

The biggest issue the car had from the start (known when I bought it) was the ignition was unreliable. Turned out to be partly the electrical switch and partly the start lock. With lots of digging through threads here I got that resolved and it now starts reliably I have been reading a ton of threads here as I try and figure things out.

Questions to follow… for some reason I can’t get obligatory pic to attach. Maybe I need to have a certain number of posts first?

Welcome to the madness of 911 love.

This forum will have the answer to virtually every possible question about the G body 911.

One suggestion, fill in your profile as a general location, and the type of car you have. That helps people know your car, and if a local source for a fix is near you.

And the photo upload issue has been resolved.

[REVerend]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

Welcome to the madness of 911 love.

This forum will have the answer to virtually every possible question about the G body 911.

One suggestion, fill in your profile as a general location, and the type of car you have. That helps people know your car, and if a local source for a fix is near you.

And the photo upload issue has been resolved.

Seeing if the pics will work now…

[porschedude996]

Originally Posted by REVerend

Seeing if the pics will work now…

1983 Sisters!

[REVerend]

After reading various threads here I decided last week to remove the bumperettes. It seemed like it would be easy, just unbolt them and then polish up the underlying paint and plug the bolt holes. Easy enough right?



Turns out there was some variety of galvanic corrosion going on between the bolts and bumper that made things a little more complicated… this wouldn’t be a simple polish and plug. At this point I decided to just hit it with the pressure washer and see how bad it was.



My first thought was so simply remove the bumper and get it welded up and repainted at the local body shop. Stop by and explain things and they say they won’t work on Porsche… I do get that they aren’t certified to work on new stuff but I’m asking about having a removed bumper from a 40 year old car to be cleaned up.

This is where the good idea fairy comes in… since I’m going to have the bumper professionally refinished once I find a shop to do it I might as well take a hack at it myself. First hit with the sander:



After a lot more sanding I got it to the point where I thought it was good enough to paint. I’m not filling the couple areas with corrosion because the is really just an interim measure until I get around to finding a local body shop that can do things right. But it looks less crappy for now. Not the best pic but I found some very close to matching spray paint that makes it prettier.

The ends of the bumper strips stick out a bit and I haven’t quite figured out how to fix that yet. Ultimately they are gonna come off when I get the bumper refinished but they don’t bother me enough to pull off until then. I painted and installed some plugs just to tidy it up further than in this pic:

[REVerend]

Originally Posted by porschedude996

1983 Sisters!

Nice… did you have the wheels chromed or did you buy it that way? Mine are physically in great shape but cosmetically they are a little sad with faded black and rims in need of polishing. I was considering having them powder coated but the chrome looks pretty good.

[REVerend]

Can someone enlighten me why so many people get rid of the sunroof?

Mine is rust free and seems to work perfectly. Most of the time I leave it open and the windows down just to have a more open driving experience and enjoy the awesome sound of the exhaust.

[MichaelSJackson]

Weight.

Weight is bad. Some is worse than others. Weight up high is not good for center of gravity.

Car is already tail heavy so weight in rear is not a plus. Dumping those bumperettes will help with this. Euro bumperettes are smaller and lighter and will cover those plugged holes? I'm running without, same as you.

There are lots of threads on how to dump weight, so I won't go any further here.

I will point out that if you open your sunroof just an inch, the low pressure created over the roof will suck the air out of the cabin. I use this to increase the efficiency of the heater. Those fans can't compare. Will also suck out hot air after it's been sitting in the sun.

Michael J
'78 SC wo/bumperettes

[Fab64]

Originally Posted by REVerend

Seeing if the pics will work now…

Beautiful car! Assuming it's solid underneath, I'd say you got a great deal.

[DerkPerk]

The number one reason is weight savings up high. Second is for more head room. Mine works but I never seem to use it as I’m afraid one day it won’t close. I see the appeal of removing it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[porschedude996]

Originally Posted by REVerend

Nice… did you have the wheels chromed or did you buy it that way? Mine are physically in great shape but cosmetically they are a little sad with faded black and rims in need of polishing. I was considering having them powder coated but the chrome looks pretty good.

I had them polished and clear powder coated. I like the warmth of the aluminum compared to chrome.