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When it was time to address a few of the mechanical issues with the car, the guys at Vertex noticed a slight tapping sound. During a subsequent inspection, the culprit was a defective chain tensioner. A couple of years prior, the engine had been completely rebuilt by Vertex when a part of the crankshaft sheared off and we decided to replace the 3.3 L with one from a 3.6 L, thus bumping the car’s displacement to a 3.5 L.
After all internals were checked, thankfully no damage had occurred and everything seemed to be in good shape. Therefore, a comprehensive undertaking was planned in order to ensure the engine would be in excellent shape for many more miles to come... Upon disassembling the engine, all components were stripped to bare metal and put into a high pressure wash at high temperature with cleansing chemicals, in order to remove all carbon deposits and debris from previous failures. Then, the cylinder bores and pistons were checked for cracks and wear tolerances. Pistons were machined to spec and the rings were then changed. The connecting rods and the previously replaced crankshaft checked for tolerance specs. Each cylinder head core was disassembled and inspected for broken bolts, stripped thread holes, and broken mounting holes, etc. http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1403994706.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1403994776.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1403994844.jpg |
The head was thoroughly cleaned by having it pass through a high temperature oven, then it was professionally bead blasted, and finally, placed in a non-caustic hot tank. It was then inspected for cracks and pressure tested.
Some of the machining that took place included: · inspecting valve guide bores using a dial bore gauge and repair where needed; · new OEM German phosphorous bronze valve guides & valve stem seals were installed; · all valve seats using three angle cuts for maximum precision; · the valves were inspected for stem and valve face damage and/or wear, as well as straightness; · then they were hand ground and/or replaced as needed; and · all of the valve springs were inspected for proper tension / resistance and replaced as needed. http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1403995312.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1403995362.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1403995411.jpg |
Final cleaning and assembly included cleaning the heads in a solvent base tank in which all oil galleries, thread holes, etc. with a number of different brushes to catch any remaining contaminants. Then, it was run through a detergent-based hot tank before assembly and you can see the results:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1403995706.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1403995773.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1403995826.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1403995883.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1403995948.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1403996008.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1403996066.jpg |
As you can see, we added billet valve covers, a Custom Schnell Header System was installed, and the compression was raised to a 8.5 to 1 from the factory 7.5 to 1.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1403996215.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1403996256.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1403996293.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1403996335.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1403996372.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1403996405.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1403996437.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1403996466.jpg |
Now that the major mechanical work had been completed, it was time to finally address the body work. If you may recall at the beginning of this post, the car had been hit in the front and I was never truly happy with the original 22yr. old paint on one side of the car and then fresh new white paint on the other. So, I figured this would be rectified by a full glass out job and replace all seals along the way... Not for the faint of heart, btw!
Even though I had replaced the original windshield with a 993 spec shortly after purchasing the car, it seemed as if some rust was beginning to creep in the area although it had been barely visible before removal of the gasket: http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1403996717.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1403996844.jpg There also some light surface rust, that when peeled, revealed some more damage around the driver's door sill: http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1403996941.jpg Lastly, there were some minor rust bubbles coming up on the rear glass by the passenger side that also needed some work: http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1403997113.jpg |
The repairs were satisfactorily made. At the time, I also decided to replace the stock mirrors for something different, like the 935/Ruf ones, so I had the mounting holes filled up:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1403997292.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1403997353.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1403997417.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1403997544.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1403997639.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1403997707.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1403997788.jpg |
The car came back from paint looking much nicer than before, obviously...
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404158408.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404158463.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404158548.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404158641.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404158718.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404158785.jpg |
BUT, and a BIG BUT, I was not all that impressed or enthused about the car as a whole... Yes, it was getting a duck tail as well as Cibie Pallas fog lamps up front, new mirrors, hard back seats, etc., but my mind was conflicted. Part of it had to do with the time and resources invested into the project overall at that junction. I felt as if somehow, it'd just look somewhat normal and tame compared to other cars and since I had the opportunity at that junction to effectuate any change on the project, if something was ever going to happen aesthetically, it'd have to be then.
I had never been truly happy with the car's wheels. As most of you know, the 1974-89 cars have considerably more room to stuff wide wheels compared to the 964 C2 cars. When I had to re-order some narrower outer wheel barrels on the set of Work Brombacher wheels that came off a 993TT when I tried to install them on my car (a couple of months post purchase 4 years ago), I was somewhat frustrated by the lack of depth of the wheel. I mean, there are some 15-16 inch wheel applications that had a steeper lip than those on my car wearing 295 series rubber! Changing to narrower trailing arms is cost prohibitive, so C2 owners do not have options for wider rubber out back like other 911 owners. A few months prior, I had contacted Jimmy Hendrix (yes, real name) over at John James Racing about the possibility of building a set of center lock look 5 spoke RSR wheels. I found him through a search in this forum because I had also entertained the idea of getting real old school racing BBS wheels with fans, which is unobtanium by the way. The guys over a D-zug had built a prototype of a wheel with fans, and they also have an 18 in center lock wheel available. I remember the old RSR had step lips on the wheels, something that the D-zug ones did not have, and at 18 in, they seemed disproportionately bigger than the factory 15's from the original 1970's RSRs IMHO... Cost for them also was a factor, but suffice it to say that those guys are really cool when I was looking into a set from them! Jimmy at John James Racing had been hesitant as they had never assembled a set of wheels for a C2 chassis and after months of looking into it, they coincidentally bought a C2 tub to convert it into a RSR replica from 1974. I had not considered it on a serious level, but the fact that over a few months Jimmy (co-owns Penta Wheels) had gone from no chance of building a set, to perhaps entertaining the idea of assembling them piqued my interest. He did, however, warn me that it would not likely be possible to make them fit. They did, however, sell 17' wheel applications for 'regular' turbos and he had sent me these pics off a customer's car that had been converted to center lock: http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404159413.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404159434.jpg |
After some debate from my end, Jimmy sent me a wheel half to see if it'd fit inside the wheel wells for my car. He told me that they made sets with the 5 bolt pattern that with caps over the wheel bolts, look unnoticeable along a "faux" center lock so as to give the wheel (and car) the appearance of center lock wheels.
The results speak for themselves: http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404160595.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404160663.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404160696.jpg |
I also was not fond of all black wheels, something that has been of a trend in recent years from ricers, all the way to pro athletes 'murdering out' their Rolls, Lambo's, etc. The only Porsche race cars from the 1970's that had black centers with polished outers while wearing the factory 5 spoke wheels was the Porsche 917-10 Can am car, which was contrary to all the 908's, 910's, 917's, and of course, RSRs. I obviously researched this and somehow for the time being, felt "justified" that since the factory had done it, so could I. The issue was whether my car would be 'sticking out' for all the wrong reasons, or would I simply follow my instincts in creating a one-of-a-kind machine unlike any other.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404160927.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404160938.jpg |
All I knew was that in my mind, I had convinced myself that I could justify changing wheels on the car one more time, and this time, it would be the car's last set! After seeing that the wheels could not fit in my 965, I debated over a couple of days and many drinks what to do next as I wasn't satisfied with what I had, but on the other end, the options I had given myself were limited as well...
So, I came up with the bright idea to make the car wider! I don't know of a better looking car than the 934 with its glorious racing heritage, yet streetable nature (in theory anyway); therefore, I naturally opted for 934 flares and called Jimmy at John James not only to proceed with making new wheels for me (with 5 bolts so I could re-use my Brombachers and be able to swap wheels out) and polished outer rim halves (so as to avoid having all black wheels), but also to FedEx me some 934 flares which came out of molds originally from a really reputable team in the 70's he had been affiliated with and whose name escapes me at the moment... This is the end result, masking tape a little extra! http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404161568.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404161626.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404161689.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404161749.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404161795.jpg |
Just like I had "infused" a retro personal touch on the rear center reflector of the car shortly upon purchase by having it painted a solid color, and then putting a RSR type Porsche script across it, I strongly believed that the caveat for this car would be to have it remain looking like a C2. The pic below was a big influence on me once I saw it at John James Racing's website (they have a LOT of pics from customer cars which are drool worthy!), which then prompted me to go ahead and paint the center reflector now to all black, thus concealing the reverse light cutouts which had already been tinted...
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404163345.jpg After years of spending countless hours on this forum, going to many events Porsche related (documented in several of my other posts), I did not want my car to be a 'typical' conversion to a 934 or RWB - please don't take offense to that approach, as I genuinely do believe those cars are extraordinary looking and I do like them very much, just not of me, in light of those also being a major undertaking. In other words, having my car painted, getting center lock looking wheels, a duck tail, etc. was within itself a big transformation, but I reckoned it'd be too easy to simply bolt on a 934 front spoiler and change the rear tail lights to look like the quintessential 911. Nope, wasn't going to do it on my car. I had already wanted my car to be somewhat unique by having mounted a 993 3rd brake light rear spoiler, 965 Turbo S front winglets, painted the headlight trim black, added 993 windshield and shifter, tinted the rear lenses, etc. I mean, I am neither young enough or rich enough to actually go racing in my car, so if I had the look of a racing car for the street, I'd be happy. The issue was that NO ONE had ever grafted 934 flares on a C2 Turbo before, at least to my knowledge. Yes, the green (then subsequent Pink Pig themed) Porsche 934 by Paul Kramer of the Auto Kennel had been a car I had drooled for many years as it was unique, but I wanted to put my own spin on my project, and all I had was a blank canvas... The guys from the paint shop across the street from Vertex who had painted the car did not want to do it, and it seemed no one else either wanted to step up. So, the car literally sat around for over a month with one of its sides having taped 934 flares! http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404162613.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404162699.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404162726.jpg |
Subscribed to the goodness in this thread. MORE MORE MORE
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I am on vacation for the first time since December and this has been in the back burner for a while although the car is not yet 100% finished... I have 100's of more pics coming where the real cool **** comes up (or down?) on this car. Stay tuned ;)
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subscribed!
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Fast forward the magic that is Michel Durocher who was recommended to Al at Vertex by another client of theirs after seeing my car sitting all sad for a bit...
Michel is part genius, part mad scientist, full blown engineer to the nth degree, perfectionist second to none, master fabricator, etc. and I could go on and on about Michel - can you tell I highly respect and admire his skills? Let me put it this way, if I had real money, I'd open a shop and he'd be my main man (he's currently undertaking a painstaking nut and bolt restoration of my Ferrari with a whole of lot of re-engineering going on)... He was up to the challenge and I received some pics of his past work. On this one, he converted a 996 into a GT-1 that was subsequently featured at SEMA: http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404169792.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404169805.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404169904.jpg Among other projects, he also transformed another 996 into a 997 GT2 machine below: http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404170168.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404170182.jpg |
The dilemma and pressing issue for us was to decide how to make the 934 flairs fit in all 4 corners of each side of the car:
1) up front since the 934 flairs stop at the accordion portion of the impact bumper models and then 'integrate' into the spoiler section of all 934's, which are naturally wider than even stock 911 Turbo front spoilers... 2) at the back portion of the front flair since all C2's have a rocker panel that's composed of 2 pieces - the longitudinal one running across the entire side of the car, and then the rear quarter panel one where the shark fin conceals a hole that must be there in case the car's rear differential(?) needs to be removed... 3) the front panel of the rear flair where the shark fin goes and again, integrates with the rocker panel... 4) and naturally, the back portion of the rear flair, where on C2's, the rear bumper is not only wide, but also has a rear valance integrated into it, thus making it somewhat complicated to graft the 934 flair. We had our hands tied there for a bit. I definitely did not want to install 993 GT2 bolt on flares since I was more inclined to proceed with the retro look and both styles, used simultaneously, would seriously clash. I decided to extend the front of the 934 flair all the way to the bottom of the front spoiler as I didn't see any other possible way to make it look good, and then, shorten the back portion of the flair so that the natural "cut line" off the rocker panel remains as a border. This wasn't an overnight decision and again, I had little to go on since no one has ever done this modification before. I took note of modern race cars for this and I knew all along I'd have the purists all in arms about it... But, its my car, my choice, my decision so to those who don't like it, well - you know who you are, just take note of it and don't rain on my parade! If I extended the flair all the way to the bottom of the front spoiler, it would somehow resemble the look of the 997 RSR racer: http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404171530.jpg I was influenced on how to shape the rear portion of the front flair from both the 997 RSR racer: http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404171294.jpg And, from the 993 GT2 which I believe was the first time this look was introduced on Porsches, although I may be corrected: http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404171262.jpg |
At some point during all of this, I decided to get full-on center lock wheels ordered, plus obviously the adaptors which are of very high quality offered by Jimmy at John James Racing. I mean, once I decided that Michel would undertake the fabrication of the custom, one-of-a-kind flairs for my car, then the sky was the limit!
I also decided to make the wheels all black, to fall in line with the 1970's era correctness that I was attempting to achieve - "attempting" being the key word. I didn't want the car to be all white with black wheels, but Jimmy offered me to have the hub adaptors be gold colored (look above at the center locks on his customer's red turbo, which had metallic red up front and black in the rears), while having a aluminum colored center lock. So, this would offset the black in the wheels and tires, at least in theory. I then assessed what else I could change on the car's exterior to make it more authentic looking. So, I opted to replace the original 935/Ruf mirrors to the classic Vitaloni Sebring mirrors: http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404173839.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404173851.jpg I opted to purchase a folding tow hook from Rennline for the front of the car: http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404174039.jpg And, I decided to purchase air ducts up front to replace the factory fog lamps since I was going ahead with the Cibie's. The placement of these was an ordeal and half as to preferences from the guys at Vertex, my studies of forum members' cars, and many other pictures available. http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404174252.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404174281.jpg |
As to the interior, I was having brand new German-made carpets installed to replace the tired originals while refreshing the rest of the interior by dying the leather panels and rear seats, as well as purchasing a Momo Prototipo wheel with the silver center.
Man alive, that was an ordeal and I had to buy one from Ebay in Poland, as they simply weren't available anywhere, and I mean A-N-Y-W-H-E-R-E!!! Whether checking with our host, TRE, Ebay US, etc., no dice and had to wait 4 weeks, but it arrived with no issues. Nothing beats the look of one in light of the fact that someone conscientiously is removing an air bag-equipped steering wheel! http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404175258.jpg Coco mats were in order to replace the original floor mats, as those were also tired and there's nothing more classic than coco mats. The original ones were black, so I ordered them black with cork accents which is the color of the car's interior. Details, details, details... Other mods included addressing the old original tail light rear lenses that were worn out and had a tired dark gray tint to them to camouflage the otherwise poor factory effect of these inevitably turning pink (even if new). Al from Vertex - who is no longer there - personally modified new ones to make them really, really red, and thus complement the black rear center reflector. Kudos to him, as they friggin' look killer: http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404174984.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404175031.jpg We also sourced a new 1995 993 rear glass from Porsche - one of the few new, old stock around that could be located - in order to replace the 964 rear glass which had the black ceramic trim that surrounded the factory 3rd brake light, and which I had placed a dark tint strip across it to conceal it. With this new glass, which had to be 1995 specific as 993's for that year only had the handle basket 3rd brake light on the deck lids (vs. on top of the glass like what I had installed in my car), it would make the car that much simpler looking in that area, a goal I was looking to achieve since the 1970's cars didn't have to deal with 3rd brake lights! While I was at it, I ordered from D-zug a rear deck grill insert since they make a lot of cool stuff and would complement the Gary Stratton duck tail for the turbo: http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404176077.jpg Then, evoking strong memories of years past in my childhood when I would see Luis Mendez race his 911 RSR along with other competitors' RSR's/911 race cars of the 1970's-80's, I had to wrap all of this up with Megaphone muffler ends which I sourced from GT Racing! Those guys are genuinely nice and passionate about all things Porsche and I cannot vouch enough for them. I am sure many other Pelicans have had similar experiences with them, no? http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404176442.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1404176515.jpg |
I see this build being a feature article in Excellence. Outstanding design an fabrication!
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