993 Interior into '82 SC 99% complete!

[TonyG]

I'll never do it again... but my 993 interior conversion is almost complete.

I still have to get my 993 gauges wired up, and my modifed 993 center console installed, and my door sils installed, and the 4 spoke steering wheel installed, but other than that it's done (complete with 993 style non-perforated head liner...)

PS> This is not a job for the timid!

Here's a couple of pics...






TonyG

[ruf-porsche]

Do you get more airflow from the a/c with the larger vents?

Nice conversion.

[TonyG]

ruf-porsche

Thanks... and yeah, you get probably 50% more air out of the vents (non-scientific estimate).

TonyG

[jfw834]

wow, congrats....looks very professional. I am considering buying some 993 seats for my SC...didn't think of the whole deal.

[Jgordon]

I'm confused - that dash looks identical to mine. same vents, etc. Door panels and seats (in last pic) look different, but nothing else?

[TonyG]

Jgordon

The upper dash is the same, the side vents are the same, but the lower dash is not (which blends in with the door panels/speaker covers). Nor are the door panels, door handles, locking mechanisms, speaker enclosures/covers. The head liner is different, as are the front seats, rear seats (push button release), center console (not installed yet), gauges (not installed yet), and the door sils are different (not installed yet).

There's more that's different between a '89 and a 993 than there is the same.

Lastly, remember.. this conversion was done on an SC (which is the same as the Carrera upto '85). Your car has got the later style side vents and upper dash which the SC's (and the Carrera's up through '85) do not have. So while it would be a big set of modifications to your car, it's a gigantic set of modifications to a '78-'85 car.

TonyG

[TonyG]

jfw834

Thanks for the compliment.

If I had to do it all over again... I would not. It's far too expensive, and far too time consuming (about 75-100 hours start to finish).

But, it sure is nice having the classic 911 with a more contemporary interior.

It will be fun 'till I get bored and move on to the next project! :-)

TonyG

[Glasgow 911SC]

Nice work Tony. How easily do the various door panel parts mount up? Also, will the centre consol work given the long throw of the SC shifter?

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Tony, looks really nice, those hours will pay for themselves every time you close the door and turn the key.

Question: what was most difficult? What took so long?

I am refreshing my 84 interior with black ultrasuede on all panels below the belt line, which is in black vinyl, also painted a few trim pieces (door lock surrounds, handles, center console plastic, ignition surround) matt nickel.

[CEO]

Tony,
Please document how you are going to install the late style gagues. I have a set but am unsure how to do this. I am by no means an electical genius.
thanks for all your help in advance.

Regards, Kenneth

[plain fan]

Very nice job. My dad and I updated my 78SC to the newer dash and center vent which was very time consuming but worth it. I can only imageine how difficult it would be to do the whole interior.

[TonyG]

Glasgow 911SC


>>>How easily do the various door panel parts mount up? Also, will the centre consol work given the long throw of the SC shifter?<<<

The door panels bolt right up.

The door handle bottom 2 bolts line up, but the top anchor point does not... becasue it's obviously in a different location.

You need to fabricate a bracket to bolt to the door, so that you bolt the upper handle to it.

Also, you cannot have the rotory door lock because the location of the rotory door lock intersects the inner and outter door panels. You could do it, but it would look horrible.

What you have to do is to cut off the square bolt boss off of the internal locking mechanism so it doesn't hit the door panel. At this point, you can't lock/unlock the doors from the inside of the car.

The 993 uses electric door locks. Which is certianly an option. And what most people do is to install an aftermarket alarm with the electronic door locking mechanism.

I choose not to add stuff like that because it's too aftermarket for my tastes and it's just one more thing to go wrong. Plus... if your batter went dead, you'd be locked in the car and have to break or push out a rear quarter window to unlock the door. No good.

What I did was to simply install longer door lock pulls (the thing you push down on to lock the door). This way I can simply unlock/lock the door as you would a normaly style car.

The 993 door pad (the upper most large plastic/rubber trim piece that sits on top of the door panel at the window) is different than the SC/Carrera. It's front bolt points are different. While you can use the 993 bracket to bolt them onto the early car, it's not worth it. There are other problems with doing this. Problem 1 is that the 993 pad has an alarm LED where the door lock push is, and the 993 uses a different mirror switch, with different mirror wiring, and different mirror motors, etc... It's not worth the hassle.

The speakers will bolt right up along with the rest of the door trim.


With respect to the center console:

The SC/Carrera center console will not work with the 993 lower dash. The SC/Carrera center console is about 1" too high and intereferes with the lower 993 dash.

The solution is to make a custom center console. I'm having made from a modified 993 center console. So it will look 993, but will be modified to bolt on to the lower SC/Carrera style center tunnel and will use the stock shifter location.

I'll take a pic of it when I get it back. It looks perfectly factory in appearance and is the best solution by far that I've seen done.

Then I'm simply going to mount my factory a/c controls in the normal position in the center console (which will be the only electronics in the center console.

TonyG

[TonyG]

CEO

>>>Please document how you are going to install the late style gagues. I have a set but am unsure how to do this.<<<

Neither do I! :-)

I have a friend that has done the conversion a bunch of times. But you will have to have the factory gauge connectors with at least a 6" pigtail.

Some of the wiring will not be spliced and will use the factory connector. Some cannot. At least this is what I've been told.

I'll take a picture of the gauges pulled once the new gauges are intalled, which should be next week.

TonyG

[TonyG]

plain fan

Thanks for the compliment!

Actually, the upper dash was a piece-of-cake compared to the rest of the job. The ducting lines up perfectly. You just have to open up the existing duct hole downward about an inch or so. Slide up the new dash, and bolt it up.

It's the side vents that require a lot of time to cut out properly, to aquire the 993 sheet metal, remove all the tack welds off of the 993 donor sheet metal, line up, test fit, re-test fit, re-re-re-re test fit, etc.. then to get welded backup.

And... I managed to break my windshield taking it out....


Honestly, I don't know which was worse... the dash work, or pulling all of the glass / head liner work

TonyG

[plain fan]

Yeah the dash wasn't too hard but it was time consuming. Originally we thought about updating to the larger side vents as well but once I saw what it would take, I wussed out. An interesting point about the under dash update, in ROW 964s if the passenger side airback wasn't used the old standby was used, OTW it didn't change!

Yeah, the headliner and glass install was a beeaatch.

[TonyG]

plain fan

I've been told, but since I'm in the USA, I don't know for sure, that the ROW non-airbag 993's also used the early style lower dash.

IMHO, the larger 993 lower dash is beautiful, and really ties in well with the premium sound 993 door panels (obviously since Porsche designed it). Plus.. it just looks more contemporary.

TonyG

[plain fan]

I'm surprised Porsche didn't use the same version of the dash across the board even if the car didn't have a passenger side airbag.

[89turbocabmike]

Nice work Tony, looks great.

[TonyG]

plain fan

Porsche probably thought the newer style dash more of an after-thought.... which only supported cars with airbags.

Personally, I think it's 10x better.

TonyG

[TonyG]

89turbocabmike

Hey... thanks for the compliment.

It's been a lot of work for sure.

I initially purchchased a complete 993 interior before researching exactly, from people who have done the conversion, what's involved.

By this time, it was too late. I had $2000 worth of 993 interior sitting in my garage starring back at me.

I had no choice. I just decided to "let 'er rip" and next thing you know, I had the entire (and I mean entire) interior ripped out... so there was no "turning back" :-)

Like I said... I wouldn't do the conversion again. It cost me about $3700 to convert the interior with the new windshield, 993 interior, professional installation of the custom carpet, head liner, A/B pillar vinyl, new windshield, reinstalling the glass and more.... not counting roughly 40+ hours of my time (probably a lot more than that)... and I don't have the gauges installed yet (probably another $300 for custom wiring, odo transfer by licensed shop, etc...)

But is sure feels good gettin in and shutting the door and looking around :-)

TonyG