Heading to Hershey: Another 931 Rescue

[ideola]

Leaving Friday afternoon to go fetch this forlorn foreigner currently sitting in a small town near Hershey PA. Will be a tight schedule to get there and back on a single overnight...but, anybody along the route between Detroit and Hershey? We might be able to visit briefly on our return trip on Saturday...

[Rasta Monsta]

← struggles to keep "Hershey Highway" commentary at bay, ultimately fails

[phil823]

lol....that is in quite rough shape.... it looks like the hood is actually warped or something.....hope thats not from an accident...and they just put on new fenders to hide it...


GL with it though!

[ideola]

The parts on that car are worth 2x to 3x what I paid, so it's well worth the trip regardless...

...not sure what's going on with the hood, but I have spare, and it's even a black one. Don't think it's from a crash though, as those are the orig Euro fenders.

[ideola]

Bump...leaving tomorrow afternoon. Anyone along the route?

[exitwound]

I'm about 90 minutes up rt322 from Hershey. If you take I-80 east, I'm on the way. You'll go right by my house. If you take the PA Turnpike (I76), you'll be hours away from me.

[ideola]

OK, good to know...was thinking of the 76 route, but will be locking in the plans later this afternoon.

[JHinOH]

Are you going to sell the header panel?

[ideola]

I have a spare hood and header panel on the shelf for a future project. If this particular car turns out to be something worth saving, then I'll probably put the spare 931 hood and badge panel up for sale. The hood is already provisionally spoken for. I won't know until next week after I've had sufficient time to evaluate what I've gotten and what needs to be done to it. Stay tuned!

[JHinOH]

Thanks, I'd like to find a decent black one and I'm like 5min. off the turnpike so...

Anyway, good luck with the car and watch your speed in Ohio!

[924RACR]

I have a 931 hood that needs paint...

[wild man]

Originally Posted by Rasta Monsta

← struggles to keep "Hershey Highway" commentary at bay, ultimately fails

Believe it or not, there really is a hershey highway. I think it goes from the town of hershey (where the chocolate factory is) to the hershey park amusement resort, a few miles away. I'm about 2 hours north - not on the route to detroit.

[imaidiot]

I live real close to this car and did check it out........You will probably end up parting it out.........It needs ALOT of work.............and i do mean ALOT!..............to put it back on the road, your looking at least 2K.................Rt 80 to Rt322 will get you here from Detroit.........Hope you know what you got yourself into!

[ideola]

Made it back safe and sound. Not gonna part this one. Definitely some issues, but nothing that I can't take care of out my stash of extras.

[cvriv.charles]

I would love a 931. i want to get one sometime in the future.

[carlege]

just curious? what are your plans for the car. Fix it up then sell or make it pristine?

[ideola]

Still a little undecided on exactly what direction I want to go. I don't plan to sell it, nor to part it out. I'm currently thinking about a pseudo-restore, and might go in the direction of a "club sport" type of setup. So delete the terrible rear seat, remove both power mirrors, and install a LHS-only manual mirror (which I have in my stash). The car is dolomite grey, so when it comes time to respray (which it will need), I'll probably keep it that color. I'm also toying around with just leaving it in satin black, but we'll see how serious I get about the "restore". I don't think I'll do any major engine mods, but rather, keep it in it's stock 177BHP Euro-spec form. I *might* consider a boost controller, but that's about the extent of engine mods.

I was hoping for an LSD on that G31, but no such luck, ah well. Haven't driven it yet, other than pulling onto the trailer, and won't be attempting anything more than that until the timing belt & tension roller are changed. So, I don't yet know the condition of the gearbox. I have plenty of G31s lying about, so regardless, it'll keep a G31 of some sort.

The hood is not original, and has been sprayed black primer. I suspect some trauma to the hood because of some suspicious scarring in a few areas, but I have a spare 931 hood to swap on if that turns out to be the case.

The worst issue is the rear LHS quarter panel, as it will definitely require some bump work and repaint. All in all, however, the damage is not too terrible, so I'm confident I'll be able to retain the chassis. The Euro bumpers don't mount up straight, and haven't had a chance to investigate why. I suspect bent brackets. The car was definitely federalized by a private party. The front fenders have Mercedes side markers added on just ahead of the wheels, and the rear round side markers are also add ons, as they're surface mounted, rather than flush mounted like a US car. So as part of the restore, I will remove both of those, fill in the holes, and retain the Euro side markers aft of the front wheels.

The interior is interesting for sure. A/C delete, so it has an OEM volt meter and an aftermarket boost gauge, which I will definitely be changing out for a VDO unit. It has manual window regulators with the rare PORSCHE script door cards, but some idiot damaged them where the door pulls attach. The damage is pretty severe, but I might be able to have Bob at Classic 9 do something to repair them. TBD. Would be a shame to not be able to keep them.

Both front seats are in UNBELIEVABLE condition. They have the same grey tweed that's in my 81 NA, and they are nearly pristine, just a little dirty, but no tears, no obvious wear, and the piping is in excellent shape. The rear seats, on the contrary, are in AWFUL condition. The carpet isn't too terribly bad, but the rear quarter liners are in bad shape, as is the headliner, and the carpet near the quarter liners is completely missing.

The car runs, started right up. No apparent oil leaks, although there is residue on the head and around the turbo, fairly common, but no major drips. No smoking at all on startup. Have not had a chance to see if the turbo spools, and again, won't be testing that out until the timing belt is changed. The upper charge tube somehow managed to get a giant hole in it, which the PO "fixed" by wrapping it in duct tape. Good thing I have a spare S2 upper charge tube on the shelf. It also has an aftermarket strut brace of a make I've never before seen, which is pretty cool, will take photos of that later. It's missing the correct S2 ignition distributor, but runs with a plain jane NA dizzy, so I'll replace that with one of the two DITC dizzies I have on the shelf.

It has five lug suspension, and has front and rear sways, haven't had a chance to see if it's the M471 package. The spiderwebs appear to have been rattle canned in satin black, but they actually look pretty darn good.

Overall, I'm very pleased with the car, especially for what I paid. It will definitely be a fun project to bring back to life.

[carlege]

Great! sounds like fun

[Cocacolakidd]

Please keep all of us posted on the progress of the car - always interested in bringing back to life a classic Porsche.

[Schumi]

ideola-

is the G31 the gears-in-front-of-differential transaxle? The one that uses a different torque tube and what not?

I've been interested in those units for a project in the back of my mind. I'm curious to their robustness and shift feel.