Shift mods:

• Factory short shift kit - Pelican Parts - Product Information: 911-424-931-00-M100
• Seine GSK - Pelican Parts - Product Information: PEL-SEINESHFT
• Delrin coupler bushings - Home - The Coupler Whisperer

Parts for H4s:

• Pair of H4 lights, your choice chrome or black rim.
• Pair of H4 bulbs of your choice (I generally use Phillips or Osram), stick to 55/60 watt unless you have relays installed.
• Pair of 4 watt bulbs (same as the side markers) for city lights (optional).

To add the painted trim covers:

• Two primed trim covers - Pelican Parts - Product Information: 911-631-141-00-M260
• Two inner retaining screws - Pelican Parts - Product Information: 911-631-033-00-M260
• Two outer retaining screws - Pelican Parts - Product Information: 911-631-132-00-M260

Paint for trim covers is up to you.

Last night I ditched the way-too-bling Kenwood stereo that came in the car...

http://84-carrera.home.comcast.net/~.../old-radio.jpg

...and installed this NOS unit which I think looks a whole lot more appropriate in a Porsche. Looks right, but still has CD capability, which is good, because who still uses cassettes anymore?

http://84-carrera.home.comcast.net/~.../new-radio.jpg

Yup, that looks really nice. The modern HUs are way too "bling", and the stupid animations are VERY annoying. Yes, you can drill down through the menus to turn them off, but if you interrupt power to the HU, you get to open the manual and do it all again. Annoying as hell.

And let's face it - the car begs for a Becker or a Blaupunkt. :) I'm ditching my blingy Pioneer for a nice understated (and modern) Becker.

Yeah, the animations drove me nuts. And there was no purpose to it other than to try to attract attention to the HU! Despised it. This may not be all that great a unit, but it does basic FM, plays CDs, and only raises the antenna when the tuner is active, not when playing a CD. And since much of the time I spend listening to the engine anyway...

One year in
 

Last Sunday was the first anniversary with the Porsche. And it's been pretty much all good. The car is fun, fast and reliable. Yes, I've had to do a touch of maintenance and repair, but it's going on 29 years old, what can you expect?

Besides my posts here, I've been blogging intermittently on my personal website - The Porsche and I

LOL - Just looked at the hit counter on the car's website. Got lucky - I could have missed this!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1351708845.jpg

Parts arriving!
 

Not much other than maintenance over the past few months, but that is about to change. The first of the new parts have started to arrive.

A teaser...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1363058511.jpg

Prototipo, perchance? :-)

Nope. A little less common than that. :D

Remaining parts arrived today.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1363316036.jpg

370 mm Abarth wheel, mounted to a Momo hub with a JWest eccentric spacer. Seems to have about the same gauge visibility as stock. But a much nicer look.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1363316149.jpg

Changes since the steering wheel:

Mechanical brake light switch

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/757322-84-carrera-c-re-work-mild-climate.html

New Idle Control Valve

Refinished Fuchs

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1366569628.jpg

25mm rear wheel spacers

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1371923065.jpg

Crazy that you could add an inch to the offset and still be inboard of the fender. Looks really good!

where did you get the NOS radio?? my 3.8 carrera is perfect other than the gaudy stereo face unit

A 1" spacer with 7" wheel moves the outer lip to the exact same place that factory 911 8" wheels sit. It's a good fit.

I ran across mine on eBay. Searched around for a while to find it. At the time, the seller had several of them, but I suspect they are all gone now.

Last weekend I played with Photoshop and my laser printer making a new oil temp gauge face, with numbers in Celsius instead of Fahrenheit. (Just my opinion, German cars should read in Metric.)

Was intended as just a proof-of-concept, with final version later. But printing on card-stock worked better than I figured it would. The gloss and texture is different, but not visible when in the car unless you hit it with the camera flash. Under normal lighting and conditions, you can't tell the difference. I will likely try to use a different (glossier?) paper at some point, but there's no hurry.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1383446138.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1383446154.jpg

HI Arne, I really like the Abarth and I am contemplating of selling my Prototipo for the bigger Abarth. Where did you get those?

Mr Fiat - Abarth Steering Wheel

The larger 370mm size is much nicer than the typical 350mm Momo, IMO.

Thanks! I guess its time to sell the Prototipo, any takers?

Tonight I removed the cheap factory plastic-framed rear speaker grills, which came off in pieces. Pressed the original grill mesh into a pair of VERY nice solid aluminum CNC frames that I got from fellow Pelican si Banker.

The new frames are great. The same shape as the originals, and probably the same size as the originals were before they warped, shrank and cracked in the sun. In any case, they perfectly covered the impression in the rear deck left by the original grills. Jay gave them a nice coat of black wrinkle-finish, so they were ready to go.

I'm thrilled with how they fit and look. Yes, I suppose if you are totally OCD concours-nutty, they aren't a perfect replacement. The finish on the new ones is a bit courser than the old, for example. And they are SOLID METAL, not cheap plastic.

But for 99% or more of us, these are awesome. I'll never have to look at cracked and broken speaker grills in my mirror again.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1385439591.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1385439611.jpg

I realized it's been a while since I've taken any fresh pictures of the car. So since Eugene is mostly shutdown today (7" dry snow last Friday, followed by single-digit and sub-zero temps, VERY unusual for these parts), I decided to spend a little time taking a few pics. Here's one...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1386623014.jpg