starting my 1978 project

[carslutt]

i have worked on 911's for others but never had my own till now. i picked this car up locally for under 6k. it drove home just fine. i don't know anything about the cars history other than the whole car needs a bit of everything.

here's the new project sitting next to my old project out side my shop.




and the main reason the car was priced the way it was




bad paint!...... so far i can tell this car has about 3 full paint jobs on the rear and 5 on the front! yikes!....




the inside of the car isn't in too bad of shape, but the door cards are falling apart. i hope to set the doors up like early cars with just a pull handle and release lever.





the motor, its not a pretty site but its a good place to start with the upgrades




iv already set in motion the gears of rebirth for this car.


my plans for this spring are

motor rebuild.....
-low millage used 3.2 pistons/cylinders
-new cams
-custom made intake system
-mega squirt EFI
-twin plug heads

tranny rebuild....
-replace any worn out parts/seals
-light weight fly wheel
-upgraded clutch
-shifter rebuild and short shifter

interior....
-recover seats
-replace door cards
-remove rear seats
-new carpet
-tint windows
-new stereo equipment
-install power windows
-new threshold pieces

exterior.....
-respray outside
-new targa top
-get matching head lights (have 1 h4 and 1 h1 now)
-remove rubber from bumpers

suspension...
-lower ride height
-new tires


all this on top of the normal old things that have to go with out saying. tune up/fix things so the car is able to actually be safely driven on the road.

as this time so far i have ......

no working break lights
no working turn signals
heater controls are falling out the dash
heater duct work is sitting in back seat
hood doesn't open properly
drivers door doesn't shut properly
fuel pump is really loud (not sure what can be doen about this but its louder than
the motor)
passenger door handle doesn't work with key
window cranks are bent (need replacing or something)
figure out how my power mirrors work (i have no left/right switch above the
ignition)


wow, my want/to do list sure seems a bit large once i put it all into a real list and not just something in the back of my mind.

iv been reading on here for a few months in preparation and also bought a Bentley. i'm sure over time ill have more books read and threads full of help to guide me along this trip.

ill post updates and questions here as i go on this project.

[crustychief]

Wow! I think you got a full time job there! congratulations on your purchase, keep us posted.

[76911]

So what year is this car?

[carslutt]

Originally Posted by 76911

So what year is this car?

1978 911 targa SC, cars fairly stock lill updating has been done to it by the prev owner.

[carslutt]

Originally Posted by crustychief

Wow! I think you got a full time job there! congratulations on your purchase, keep us posted.

yeah, no wife or kids so iv got time to let the lift in my own back yard helps keep me busy!

[dtw]

Why putting on 3.2 pistons/cylinders?

[carslutt]

well, iv been cleaning the car this evening and i wonder what i should do with my hood.

my hood has 2 sets of 3 holes that have plugs in them near the leading edge of the hood. i assume that at some point there was a set of fog lights on the front of this car mounted into these holes as i have seen photos of many 911's set up this way. should i simply weld up the holes and not give them a 2nd taught or is there some kind of significance to justify getting a different hood and sell this one?

its amazing how may nuts/bolts/screws are missing on this car. i have a feeling im going to need to find a whole a good source for hardware that is specific to Porsche applications.

[carslutt]

Originally Posted by dtw

Why putting on 3.2 pistons/cylinders?

i found a good deal on low millage 3.2 p/c's locally. im looking to freshen up the motor and figured why not add some more displacement while im at it.

i don't know 100% of what im doing yet w/ this motor so it could change that's just the plan for now.

[dtw]

Originally Posted by carslutt

i found a good deal on low millage 3.2 p/c's locally. im looking to freshen up the motor and figured why not add some more displacement while im at it.

i don't know 100% of what im doing yet w/ this motor so it could change that's just the plan for now.

Hate to tell you - 3.2 pistons/cylinders are the same 95mm bore as your 3.0. The stroke - same from '72 to '83 - on your crank is 70.4mm. The 3.2l engine got a 74.4mm stroke crank.

Now, if you want to get larger pistons and bore out and replate your cylinders, keep the 3.2s and use them - you can't do it to your existing 3.0 jugs. Give Troy @ EBS (ebsracing.com) a call for more info, they do this work.

[carslutt]

ill have to snap some photos of what i have.

i was told they are from a 3.2 motor w/ 98mm pistons.

there is no groove in the cylinder for the head to cylinder gasket. i guess someone had them done back in the day.

i will have to measure them and double check.

thanks for the heads up.

[oneblueyedog]

Drool. Pass the napkin please. Look forward to the transformation.

[gsmith660]

Nice project you have looks like you will have to go thru it top to bottom. Was it stored outside? What megasquirt system are you going to use the Bitz system is pretty complete and Tony's tech support is top notch. Now would be a good time to put some flares on it, check out the official modified bumper thread. The official modified bumpers thread!!!
IMHO dont put fog lights on the hood of an sc that was a long hood thing except for the rally cars. Good luck. post lots of pics. Oh yeah what color ya going to paint it?

[carslutt]

thanks oneblueyedoga, im actuly looking to dirve this thru TX sometime this summer.

well a friend just stopped by to gave me a gift to help get the car back on the road for some shaking down before i take it apart. new tires,.... got a free brand new set of "Fuzion HRi" tires.

[carslutt]

im building my own MS. got all the parts from http://www.diyautotune.com/

i plan to build my own intake manifolds among other things for the MS install.

as for the fog lights, i don't want them on the hood. the car came with the holes and if im not going to be destroying a piece of history or something i will weld them up and go on with life.

as for a color, hum........ yeah. being iv already got a TT that is denim blue, i plan to at some point do a full strip down respray of the targa in nimbus gray my 2nd favorite color. but, for the time being im going to paint the targa hum....... what ever color i get on the uber cheap thru work.

as for flares and such, im really fighting the urge to change them. this car is if im lucky going to be my summer daily driver. i don't need monster tires or any thing else to suck money out of my pocket any faster ahah..

Originally Posted by gsmith660

Nice project you have looks like you will have to go thru it top to bottom. Was it stored outside? What megasquirt system are you going to use the Bitz system is pretty complete and Tony's tech support is top notch. Now would be a good time to put some flares on it, check out the official modified bumper thread. The official modified bumpers thread!!!
IMHO dont put fog lights on the hood of an sc that was a long hood thing except for the rally cars. Good luck. post lots of pics. Oh yeah what color ya going to paint it?

[SCWDP911]

looks like this is going to be a cool project. Thanks for saving an SC. I am sure you will make it "SUPER". If you have some money to burn, maybe you ought to try to build the 3.0 to the SCRS specs. Have not seen that yet. You would be the envy of a lot of us... Heck, maybe do a targa version of the SCRS. That would be cool...

Welcome to the Plot friend. Please register your SC on the SCWDP registry sometime.

[gsmith660]

Originally Posted by carslutt

im building my own MS. got all the parts from http://www.diyautotune.com/

i plan to build my own intake manifolds among other things for the MS install.

as for the fog lights, i don't want them on the hood. the car came with the holes and if im not going to be destroying a piece of history or something i will weld them up and go on with life.

as for a color, hum........ yeah. being iv already got a TT that is denim blue, i plan to at some point do a full strip down respray of the targa in nimbus gray my 2nd favorite color. but, for the time being im going to paint the targa hum....... what ever color i get on the uber cheap thru work.

as for flares and such, im really fighting the urge to change them. this car is if im lucky going to be my summer daily driver. i don't need monster tires or any thing else to suck money out of my pocket any faster ahah..

What are you building the intakes out of? Fog lights where not a piece of history on the 78 sc, you need to join the scwdp. You can get rota fox wheels from pelican for 1300 and reasonable tires for a turbo flared car and that doesn't cost anymore than putting nice rims and big tires on my full sized blazer.

[carslutt]

iv been searching on the forums and having found any info about how to set door cards up like this.



could anyone direct me to some kind of tech data on what all is involved in changing my door card to be more like this?

thanks

[wachuko]

Originally Posted by carslutt

iv been searching on the forums and having found any info about how to set door cards up like this.



could anyone direct me to some kind of tech data on what all is involved in changing my door card to be more like this?

thanks

You can get those door panels from Pelican...

http://www.pelicanparts.com/cgi-bin/ksearch/PEL_search.cgi?command=show_part_page&please_wait=N&make=POR&model=911M&section=INTacc&page=39&bookmark=61&part_number=PEL-APBZ-DP4RVB

Easy to install.

[carslutt]

thanks for the heads up, iv been searching for them. im kind of shocked they didn't come up when i did run a search on the main site.

[carslutt]

spent the after noon working on a different project car of mine (1980 vw truck) but,....... i did break away from it for a bit and cleaned the floor boards of the 911 as it had a lot of misc bs in it. well....... i discovered something odd, well not so much odd as displeasing. i found what seems to be the better half of a relay left for dead. it seems to of been smashed fairly well and was under my passenger seat. im thinking its the kind that is normally round has a flat top on it, is over all black in color and has a few silver pins poking out one side. that's about all i know about it as the top w/ its part # is missing. i will take some pics of it tomorrow and post them up in hopes someone cal help me A. figure out what it is and B. where it should be. maybe this is why my blinkers don't work, or why my brake lights don't work?.......

other than this discovery today i didn't get much on the car done this weekend. i did pick up a few parts for it and got new tires put on it tho. but no real progress.