Recommend a 'Project 928' shop in SF Bay Area?

[triplecan]

tl;dr -- Looking for a Porsche-friendly mechanic near San Francisco that won't be scared of a mid-project rescue.

Hello, everyone. First post here. Diving right in! I bought a 1980 Porsche 928 that was mid-transition to being a track/open road race car. My own background includes multiple SCCA CSP NB Miatas, BPU'd mk3 Supra Turbo, 350Z, blah blah. I've done light wrenching on each, but don't have a strong mechanical or electrical background. I've spent hours trying to get traction on this but I think I bit off more than I can chew...

The previous owner was in the middle of wiring up the dash with flip switches for the fuel pump, starter, etc, plus custom gauges. Unfortunately, he seems to have gotten to "take it all apart and wire a few switches" and didn't get to the gauges or the all-important putting everything back together again. It's all in pieces, extra parts are in a box in the trunk (including Autometer gauges and some trim bits), there're no screws/bolts/fasteners at all, some parts appear completely missing (eg, whatever the green parts are on the schematic attached.).

Highlights include: Flip switch for starter. Hooded flip switch for fuel pump. Lighted blue switch that appears to arm NOS. Twisted orange and blue wires, attached to nothing, dangling behind gas pedal. Small box/ECU dangling left of clutch pedal, seemingly does nothing. Copper wire attached to nothing. Wires attached to a shift light (which appear to do nothing). Multiple black wires coming off the HVAC box, attached to nothing. Large clump of wires which... I guess I hope they're all stereo stuff, but I don't really know.

Essentially, the immediate repair it needs is someone who's willing to sort through the wiring mess, safely capping off/removing the stuff that isn't needed, hooking back up the things that need hooked up. Wiring up the gauges would be awesome too, but as a first step even just having stuff back together would be awesome. Seems like this could be one hour of work for someone who understands these cars well and can just button it back up, or easily 5+ hours for someone figuring things out and debugging as they go.

I'm located in San Francisco, but willing to drive for the right shop as long as it's near BART/Caltrain, etc. So... shop recommendations for gutsy mechanics who aren't going to balk at a birds nest of wires? Thanks!

[Dmitry at Pelican Parts]

Welcome to the forum triplecan! There are tons of people here who will gladly help you out and provide info when relevant, so definitely take advantage of their experience. I've also attached a link to our site's technical articles. Pelican has thousands of tech articles categorized by year/make/model which are very east to follow with a step-by-step guide. Best of luck and again, welcome!

Porsche 928 Technical Articles - Pelican Parts


-Dmitry

[Danglerb]

Several good shops, but electrical work is often methodical and time consuming, how gutsy is your wallet? What do you want to end up with?

Your 1 hour estimate got a good chuckle out of me. Model year to model year has a lot of similarities, but enough difference that anybody, even the most experienced will be working from a year specific wiring diagram attempting to sort out what has been done and what does and doesn't still work.

[Mal81]

You can do this yourself. Maybe your beast bet would be to decide what part you want to put into service - window switches or HVAC controls, for example- and take it on piece by piece. Unfortunately a lot of the cars accessories meet at that spot, so trying to do it all at once is going to be a tough job.

Are the driving essentials working? -lights, instrument cluster gauges, etc?

[aluminum]

Bauer Porsche Oakland Ca :
Owner Chris has race cars himself and has been Involved with 928 for many years
Address: 601 Brush St, Oakland, CA 94607, USA
Phone: +1 510-834-2772
Link:
https://www.yelp.com/biz/bauer-porsche-repair-oakland-2
I would have him just make the car running to evaluate it then meet with Chris and decide just what you want to do next . To bring some Imported Beer about 3Pm on a Friday for the whole Shop ( only a few workers ) is a Good Idea as well

I have spares in body parts for that car in CA but up the Coast as well as 2 928's