Newbie with an '83 911sc Targa

Sammy V · 03:16 PM

Hi guys. I'm completely new to Porsche, aside from borrowing an uncle's 911 several years ago. Long story short, I fell in love with the car, told him if he ever sold it to let me know, and then waited patiently by the phone for 5 years. The call finally came a few months ago, and he made me an offer I couldn't refuse (if I told you what I paid, you'd run me out of here).

To him, it was kind of a piece of junk that was never driven or appreciated. To me, it's a very road-worthy car with just the right amount of "project" that I'm going to enjoy tinkering with and putting to good use for a very long time.

I'm no stranger to internet forums or boxer engines, as I've been in the Subaru world for about 7 years (my daily driver is an STi swapped bugeye wagon with too many mods to list). But so far I'm really impressed with the maturity of the 911 crowd, have really enjoyed browsing Pelican the last few weeks, and should be sticking around for a while.

Anyway, that's me.. now for the car!

-83' 911 SC Targa - Chiffon White
-135k on the odometer, although it reads about 8mph high.. probably 125k actual miles on the clock.
-Stock everything, as far as I can tell.
-AC and cruise control don't work, but that's no biggie to me (already yanked the compressor and some of the other AC bits).
-Was repainted *sometime* in the last 15 years, along with a transmission rebuild.
-Seats and interior are pretty beat up, but I'm using the old search button to figure out what to do with that.

Otherwise, she starts right up, shifts smoothly, has decent grunt, and the compression check was about right for a 28 year old car. Never thought I'd own this car at the ripe old age of 31.. it's certainly a dream come true!

Couple photos from the day I picked it up. I've since gone over the body with a clay bar and have about 4 coats of sealer & wax on, spent a couple minutes with a vacuum and some Armor All, and now it's time to start building my wish list. I'll try not to ask questions that have been answered 100 times already.. the only one I have right now is why do Targas have a bad rap? Seems like they're viewed as the red-headed stepchild, and I can't figure out why.

Anyway.. hi!

1982911SCTarga · 04-09-2010, 04:01 PM

Congratulations! You car looks great. Targas and a bad rap? It's just a jealousy thing.

Brian

Winter · 04:20 PM

Sammy, I just had a killer drive in my '75 this Friday afternoon up into the mountains outside Boulder, Targa top off. You will be stoked with your car as it continues to warm up on the Front Range! I knew I recognized the skyline in your pics. Definitely check out the first Saturday of the month Coffee and Cars gathering, it's cool.

I just also bought some seats from a fellow Pelican. If yours are really ratty, I'm looking to sell mine, which are not too bad, but have splits on the seams on the bottoms. At some point you might want to check them out. Or not. Regardless, you've come to the right place. I've got a lot of respect for Subi tuners, as I come from the Audi tuning crowd, and STi's can be amazing with the right mods. You'll find this group generally older, but just as passionate and less likely to talk "smack" and more helpful. Your 911 is the perfect 2nd vehicle. I rely on my S6 avant for the lousy weather and winter mountain driving, but on days like this Friday, the targa rocks.

Good luck with it and see you next month at Coffee and Cars (do a search on this forum for pics, details, etc.)

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Tom '75 targa

nineball · 04-09-2010, 04:22 PM

seats are easy to fix - buy a new cover kit and have a professional install it. same thing for the carpet, but you can do that yourself. domestic kits run $400 or less, german are much more expensive. aside from the door panels it is super easy to recover your interior other than the dash (if needed). the only reason the doors are harder is because of the stitching pattern. the rear parcel shelf has it as well but i prefer the smooth clean look and did not put them back in (i did pad under though).

Sammy V · 04-09-2010, 04:34 PM

Thanks guys! Good info on the seat covers. Mine aren't too bad, so I'll probably just condition them a little until I can save up to do it right. I also might end up taking out the rear seat and fabricating some type of platform for the back. I'm a little bit of a car audio nut, and while I love the boxer rumble, I also like decent sound quality for longer trips.

Tom, I think I met and talked to you briefly at Cars & Coffee last weekend! I had just picked up the car a few days earlier, and my tires had about 45 minutes of life left in them. Luckily that meet happened right before my appointment at Tire Source and I was able to limp it over.

I'll be at the next one, and I'm also planning to go to the meet on the 17th.

It was definitely a top-off commute home this afternoon.

nineball · 04-09-2010, 04:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sammy V

Thanks guys! Good info on the seat covers. Mine aren't too bad, so I'll probably just condition them a little until I can save up to do it right. I also might end up taking out the rear seat and fabricating some type of platform for the back. I'm a little bit of a car audio nut, and while I love the boxer rumble, I also like decent sound quality for longer trips.

funny you should say that, me too!

new audio install

Grady Clay · 04-09-2010, 05:02 PM

Tomorrow is our ‘little’ PBC breakfast
Yahoo! Groups at the Village Inn, I-25 & Colorado Blvd. (Enter off Mexico, just East of Colo. Blvd.) 1995 S Colorado Blvd. Denver, CO 80222-7901 (303)757-7155
With daylight so early, I’ll probably have breakfast at 7:00.

Best,
Grady

Sammy V · 04-09-2010, 05:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nineball

funny you should say that, me too!

new audio install

That's incredible.. almost exactly what I had in mind! Although I was thinking of having a couple small subs fire straight up from the rear seat pans (molded in fiberglass) and leaving a small gap above the subs but below a fold-down rear platform. Lots of daydreaming to do on that one, but whatever I do I want it clean, stealthy, and lightweight. I don't need anything too crazy, or permanent for that matter.

My WRX, on the other hand.. Here's a not-so-great photo of the latest install I did (version 3). Pretty goofy, definitely permanent and custom (yes, that's tongue and groove bamboo flooring) but it sounds great. I guess over 1kw and 10 speakers in a small wagon will do that.

nineball · 04-09-2010, 05:47 PM

nice, makes me want to play basketball

one of my other cars has the beefy system in it, and almost all alpine. pdx 4.100, 1.1000, spx-177r, swx-1243 and a kenwood x993 hu. that one i sometimes compete at local shows over the summer so it just has an mdf box, 2.5cf tuned to 34. boring as hell to look at but it has it where it counts. here is an old mid-install pic.

Sammy V · 04-09-2010, 06:06 PM

Oh yeah.. check out THIS bad boy:

Yikes. Shouldn't take much to improve on that.

Here are the seats. Guess they could be worse, and I haven't even tried to clean them up yet.

dshepp806 · dshepp806's Garage

Nice ride, SammyV. Welcome! Enjoy it!!!

Doyle

Davewjunior · Davewjunior's Garage

Those seats don't look too bad. Try using some leather dye on them before you go through a re-cover. It'll at least buy you a few years.

Your initial comment did bring up an interesting point. Are the odometer and speedometer "linked"? In other words, if the speedo is reading 10% high, is the odometer mileage also 10% high? I suppose I could work it out easy enough with the GPS.

Winter · 04-10-2010, 07:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Davewjunior

Those seats don't look too bad. Try using some leather dye on them before you go through a re-cover. It'll at least buy you a few years.

Agreed. I've seen some pretty good results posted here on the forum. Do a search. I wouldn't be looking for new seats just yet. You can definitely bring those back to life with some dye and elbow grease.

For carpet keep your eyes on the classifieds here. I just scored an excellent complete set in black for $100 bucks. It's used, but looks great and I saved a few bucks, money which will be spent on new parts for my engine from our host.

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Tom '75 targa

Sammy V · 04-10-2010, 08:34 AM

Now that I dig around a little more, the carpet actually isn't too bad either. I'm probably going to start by pulling it out and giving it a good shampoo. I'd also like to scrape up the old sound dampening- would you guys recommend a coat of POR 15 while I'm in there?

nineball · 04-10-2010, 08:38 AM

por-15 is good if you have rust but if the tub is clean there isn't a need for it. i plan on removing my old stuff and replacing it with products from Sound Deadening Materials for Noise Reduction from Second Skin using damplifier pro and possibly some luxury liner pro but the jury is still out on the llp since i have a targa.

Sammy V · 04-10-2010, 08:42 AM

I've used something similar to "Step 3" on that website, but I think it was called Ensolite. A coat of Dynamat (or RAAMmat) is probably a good idea though.

nineball · 04-10-2010, 08:50 AM

for best results step 1 would be a damper like damp pro or dynamat xtreme. over that you want a layer of ensolite or similar closed cell foam. last step would be a mass loaded vinyl. damper helps with vibrations and the ensolite absorbs some frequencies and acts as a decoupler between that and the mlv which is used to stop noise from entering the area. this is the process i did in some of my other cars but since i have a targa which is driven 90% of the time with the top off it would be a little overkill.

Sammy V · 04-10-2010, 08:53 AM

Looks like a much better product than RAAMmat. Excellent link, thanks for posting that!

nineball · 04-10-2010, 09:05 AM

it is a good product. the bxt2 (or whatever it is) is decent stuff as well but i prefer ssa.

Sammy V · 08:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Davewjunior

Your initial comment did bring up an interesting point. Are the odometer and speedometer "linked"? In other words, if the speedo is reading 10% high, is the odometer mileage also 10% high? I suppose I could work it out easy enough with the GPS.

I just assumed they were linked, but now I'm curious.

Next time I go somewhere a good distance away, I'll MapQuest the actual distance (or bring my fiance's iPhone? I'm sure there's an app for that) and see how far off the odometer is.