Inheritance 911 Project

[Jgordon]

Originally Posted by Erbe_911

If memory serves we actually bought the shocks years ago... they may even still be in his garage... we just never got around to installing them or never had the right Torx tool or something.

No tool required. Just a few bandaids and a strong vocabulary of four-letter words.

[RDM]

Originally Posted by Erbe_911

It should look good when the other mods are done, even with the sugar scoops.

My condolences to you. If you're OK with the sugar scoops, you can upgrade to round H4s for not much money and much improved night lighting. Preserve the look while upgrading the function.

[Pedro '84 Coupe]

Originally Posted by Erbe_911

Appreciate it. Luckily we knew it was coming and had a chance to say goodbye, and he didn't suffer long. It was the best way for a bad situation to occur, I guess.

Unfortunately I'm not sure what color the Targa is, nor what it was originally. This is very close to (if not exactly) the original shade. It is a Porsche color for sure, but they did about 432,238,955 different very similar blue-gray colors in the '80s.

We had it resprayed about 10 years ago; I thought it was a factory-correct respray, but my dad remembered that it was a different Porsche color. I'm not sure who is right. He kept exhaustive records throughout his ownership but for whatever reason the paint job information didn't end up in there.

It's a little frustrating that I'm unsure of the color since I would probably like to do a Euro headlight conversion at some point and ideally I'd paint the bezels. I'll have to either run them black, which is fine and would match the Targa bar, or have a shop figure out how to match the paint for some ungodly amount of money.

No worries. Looks good. Thought it might be Slate Blue Metallic

If you do paint the trim rings for the Euro H4s, I'm sure the shop can match the color.

[Erbe_911]

Originally Posted by Pedro '84 Coupe

No worries. Looks good. Thought it might be Slate Blue Metallic



If you do paint the trim rings for the Euro H4s, I'm sure the shop can match the color.

I'll post some better, if dusty, pictures tomorrow when we go up to get it.


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[86 ssinit]

So sorry for your loss. What a great way to remember him. What a great thing to leave them to you. Targas are great you will enjoy it. Take it to bear mountain and play with it in the twisties. Some great roads there over the bridge and up to the fire tower. The best of luck with it.

[Erbe_911]

Failure on moving it today. Further north in CT they got hammered with snow this week so today was spent getting it off stands, freeing the slightly stuck brakes (just took a big shove), and a whole lot of shoveling. If all goes well it should ship down to the shoreline tomorrow.




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[Erbe_911]

Mission successful thanks to Dave at ButziGear! The Targa is now at his shop and on the road to revival.






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[Erbe_911]

Another quick update, and a question I'm currently contemplating.

Shop has been busy for the last few weeks but he's been slowly working on the Targa. He's spent some time replacing failed relays and fuses, and has power back to most of the car. It definitely needs a fuel pump, and then he'll see if it'll fire. As of now no major concerns have popped up; anything catastrophic would force this onto the back burner until everything is settled with the estate but so far so good.

So, the question.

Given that it's been sitting, the car definitely needs tires. In my finished/future state plan I had been thinking about going with 17" Euromeister Fuchs replicas, but I'm not sure if that is the right call.

Does anyone have any input on keeping 16s vs. uprating to 17s? I'm sure there would be a ride quality penalty, which is a significant downside to me. I've also heard that it changes the steering feel significantly. Another option would be a square 16x8 setup, to push the front tires a bit more flush. Has anyone done this? I'd ultimately like to set it at Euro sport ride height, and don't really want to roll the fenders.

Basically I have no idea what I want to do between keeping it stock fitment, going 16x8 square, or 17x8 and 17x9. It doesn't look like the tires I want (Continental DWS) are difficult to come by in any of these sizes. 16s are a good bit cheaper, too.

Any advice or input is appreciated.


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[Coastr]

My advice is to keep the 16s, get some good tyres and keep the change for something else that will really improve the way the car drives. I would only look at a different wheel size after everything else between the driver and the hubs has been checked and improved and optimised.

[darrin]

You can't run 16x8 up front without significant modification. Many folks (myself included) move the 16x7 rears up front and get 16x8 fuchs to run in the rear, using the same stock tire sizes for the factory 16x6/16x7 wheelsets (205/55-16 front and 225/50-16 rear). This will push the outside edges of both front and rear tires closer to the fenders, but may still result in some rubbing up front (which can be fixed by rolling the front fender rims). Another option is to mount spacers on your current wheels to move them slightly outward too.

I agree with Costr's advice -- get the car dialed in first and then, once running/working RIGHT, consider what you want to make it BETTER.

My other piece of advice is to consider the Michelin Pilot Sport A/3+ tires, I find them to be more performance-oriented than the summer-only continental extremecontact DW tires they replaced).

[Tremelune]

Lovely car. Lovely story.

I'm of the mind that you should get this car safely on the road with a minimum of expense before spending or changing much more. You may find your priorities will shift drastically once it's on the road.

I've had three 80s 911s. The one that drove the best was the bone-stock car at stock ride height with stock torsion bars and shocks, stock rubber bushings everywhere, and 6/7 16" wheels. I'm not saying this can't be improved upon, but it can much more easily be ruined, particularly on the majority of streets that have bumps and potholes and steep parking lot entrances. The two cars I've had since have been lowered. Motion control was not noticeably improved and ride quality was significantly reduced. Steering is worse, unless you raise the spindles. Pushing wheels out also negatively impacts steering, and wider wheels make steering heavier (both to a negligible or significant degree, depending on how drastic the change is). Most go for a look and accept the compromise—which is fine—but I think it's important to understand what you might be giving up. A lot of "upgrades" you'll read about are geared towards maximizing tire grip around turns, and if you're not already sliding around on dry roads, this probably isn't an area that needs to be improved upon, and since it comes with downsides...well. It's costly to do right, and easy to do wrong.

Similarly, you may find a 350mm steering wheel to be irritating in the way it blocks gauge visibility and exacerbates heavy steering feel. I have one, and it's fine, but it's suboptimal. There are ways to mitigate the effects by using an offset adapter, and there is a current thread pleading with Momo to reissue the 370mm Prototipo, so. There are options, but maybe see if the current steering wheel actually bothers you during a run up a mountain first...I never liked the stock steering wheel on these cars, but my concern disappeared after the first drive.

The Wevo, on the other hand, is hard to beat. Whatever you can do to improve the shifting of the 915 transmission without opening it up is money well spent. It might still be worth experiencing the stock shifter first, though.

Get the car on the road, put a few tanks of gas through it, see how much oil it uses, and enjoy it. Over time, you'll find areas for improvement and personalization that are based on first-hand experience, for which no amount of research can substitute.

Hang around here enough, you'll soon come away with plenty of ideas (good, bad, and counter arguments to both—all costly)...

[Erbe_911]

Originally Posted by Coastr

My advice is to keep the 16s, get some good tyres and keep the change for something else that will really improve the way the car drives. I would only look at a different wheel size after everything else between the driver and the hubs has been checked and improved and optimised.

Originally Posted by darrin

You can't run 16x8 up front without significant modification. Many folks (myself included) move the 16x7 rears up front and get 16x8 fuchs to run in the rear, using the same stock tire sizes for the factory 16x6/16x7 wheelsets (205/55-16 front and 225/50-16 rear). This will push the outside edges of both front and rear tires closer to the fenders, but may still result in some rubbing up front (which can be fixed by rolling the front fender rims). Another option is to mount spacers on your current wheels to move them slightly outward too.

I agree with Costr's advice -- get the car dialed in first and then, once running/working RIGHT, consider what you want to make it BETTER.

My other piece of advice is to consider the Michelin Pilot Sport A/3+ tires, I find them to be more performance-oriented than the summer-only continental extremecontact DW tires they replaced).

Originally Posted by Tremelune

Lovely car. Lovely story.

I'm of the mind that you should get this car safely on the road with a minimum of expense before spending or changing much more. You may find your priorities will shift drastically once it's on the road.

...

The Wevo, on the other hand, is hard to beat. Whatever you can do to improve the shifting of the 915 transmission without opening it up is money well spent. It might still be worth experiencing the stock shifter first, though.

Get the car on the road, put a few tanks of gas through it, see how much oil it uses, and enjoy it. Over time, you'll find areas for improvement and personalization that are based on first-hand experience, for which no amount of research can substitute.

Hang around here enough, you'll soon come away with plenty of ideas (good, bad, and counter arguments to both—all costly)...

Appreciate the input, you all raise some salient points. I'll get it going on the stock wheels for now and maybe do a 16x7/16x8 setup once it's all sorted out, if it's the look I want. Based on some research I can run the stock tire size up an inch with it being tight but not too stretched, so that's great.

The WEVO shifter is almost a definite; Dave (Esposito, owner of ButziGear who is doing the revival) is putting one in an SC that he's building for himself as a track car. He offered me some seat time once it's installed and assuming I like it I'll probably do that just to get the car closer to modern driveability standards. I'll likely take it to work in traffic pretty often so improving shift feel is paramount.



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[scottb]

Originally Posted by Jgordon

No tool required. Just a few bandaids and a strong vocabulary of four-letter words.

It helps to have a long pair of locking forceps.

Also, if you're going to re-use the clip, tie some dental floss or fishing line around it so if (or when) you drop it or it slips out of the forceps, you can fish it out of the car's depths. Some quick work with a utility knife will take care of the string once you're done.

YMMV.

HTH.

[LUFTKUL]

I'd stay with the 16s you have over going to 17s.

[Erbe_911]

IT'S ALIVE!

Apparently I can't upload videos here but the car now runs. More details as I have then... but this made my Friday afternoon.

The paint also cleaned up beautifully; there are advantages to having a Porsche mechanic who is also a detailer.





I also picked up a new daily driver to placate my better half; she wasn't thrilled about having 2/3 of our fleet be manuals.




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[83_Silberpfeil]

de-badged BMW --- way to go Erbe!!!

[Eric at Pelican Parts]

It cleaned up beautifully!! Now it's time to enjoy the car a bit

[wildthing]

Car needs to be lowered a bit, but maybe that's just me.

Congrats on getting it running. Now enjoy it for a while before thinking about mods. I have mine mostly stock except for the stereo, the steering wheel, and replaced the A/C system. It did come with 16*7 and 16*9...

[Erbe_911]

Originally Posted by 83_Silberpfeil

de-badged BMW --- way to go Erbe!!!

Haha asymmetrical badges always irritate me so they come off nearly every car I own.

Originally Posted by Eric at Pelican Parts

It cleaned up beautifully!! Now it's time to enjoy the car a bit

Originally Posted by wildthing

Car needs to be lowered a bit, but maybe that's just me.

Congrats on getting it running. Now enjoy it for a while before thinking about mods. I have mine mostly stock except for the stereo, the steering wheel, and replaced the A/C system. It did come with 16*7 and 16*9...

It's not quite done yet, unfortunately, and Dave still needs to figure some stuff out.

- Runs fine, after some fiddling. Drives, clutch seems ok, trans works although the shift linkage bushings will need doing eventually. Basically as expected.
- Needs a lot of brake work, and probably more than a few calipers. Mostly expected.
- Ignition is shot and needs replaced. Unexpected but not a huge deal and apparently common.
- Tires are dry rotted and need replaced. Unfortunate, since they're barely worn, but also expected.
- The big one: Exxon Valdez-level oil leaks. He's not sure where from, exactly, yet but if they're bad enough it could put this project on hiatus until everything is settled and the 993 is sold. Hopefully they settle down with some heat cycles, or if not then hopefully it's something that won't be cripplingly expensive. If not, back to the garage it goes.

As for the height, he brought that up on the call also. We can quickly mess with the torsion bars to get the front looking better and that'll be in the cards for sure, whether it's in a few weeks or a few months if those oil leaks prove to be ****ty.


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[Erbe_911]

Alright so, after several heat cycles we have good news! The engine seals seem to have revived sufficiently, so we should be good to go without a project-crippling reseal bill. At least for now. It still leaks some but it shouldn't be a damaging amount.

The paint and interior cleaned up great, for the most part, so cosmetically she's in good shape. Dave said that it still smelled a little musty, but as soon as I got in it memories came flooding back... it always smelled like that when my dad had it. Wouldn't change a thing.

Next up will be a full brake job all around, and replacing the ignition which behaves erratically at best. Once it hits, though, the car fires right up every time and seems to run, idle, and pull well (even over the dragging calipers) thanks to Dave's TLC and tinkering.

So, hopefully we're into the home stretch of the first inning here.






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