My 1990 S2 Cab Project thread

[azbanks]

I've has the car over 7 years but I don't have a thread about it or the projects I 've done to it.
I had a thread on RL but I don't go there anymore.

Here is how it looked when I bought it.
The PO was/is a lying POS!
I asked if it had ever been in an accident, he said, "no". It was in an accident back in Ohio years ago. It was repaired pretty well, but not perfect.
He did a couple things right. The recovered seats are better than plain black leather on hot Phoenix summer days and the replacement grey top will look great with the plans I have for the car.










Here is how it looks today.



More to come.

[azbanks]

First Change:

Wheels the "experts" said could not be installed.

2002 911 Turbo wheels I had powder coated gun metal grey metallic for my previous 1986 944 Turbo(RIP)

[azbanks]

Next Change:

Smoked lenses and a TonyG splitter coated in white truck bed liner.


This picture is on the return trip from an Ariel Atom Track day put on by my buddy Franz at Foreman Motor Works at Inde Motorsports Ranch in Wilcox Arizona.
I don't have an Atom but Franz was nice enough to invite me anyway.
If you are looking for an overgrown street legal go cart(an Ariel Atom) or other fun on wheels, Franz can set you up. https://www.formanmotorworks.com/

This was the first(and only) time I had it on a track. I got sideways and went off the track into the dirt.



My car hiding in the background at Inde.



I was in good company as another white Porsche went off track that day. You can see the dust on the rear tire.





I wish I had taken a few more photos that day. When I first arrived someone was out on the track doing hot laps in a brand new Ferrari. He bought it the day before in Denver and had it trucked down to Inde.
The Ferrari owner was a very nice guy. His wife was just as nice.
In the course of our conversation we discovered that he had been the owner of a company I worked for 20 years ago. I got to meet my boss for the first time 20 years after I worked for him.

It was a great day all around.

[azbanks]

The next change was a switch to fixed headlights.
BiXenon Projectors.





Switching to high beams involves a metal plate moving out of the way of the light beam.





It took some creative wiring to get the high beam function to work.



You may not have noticed in the second picture but the bottom of the bumper cover is hanging a little low. Someone who shall remain nameless hit a 5 gallon bucket on the freeway(in her defense, it was at night and she didn't see it until it was too late). Here is the beginning of the replacement cover. It is a euro bumper cover. $hipping it from the UK $$ucked.

[azbanks]

When the euro cover showed up, I started working on the next project to go with it, a single piece header panel/ light cover. (It's still a work in progress).





My goal is something like this)



After a bit of work I took the header panel out to the garage. A few days later I found that leaving it upside down was a bad idea. I tripped on something and broke my fall on the upside down header panel with my little finger.
The header panel has some sharp edges.
It went nearly to the bone and just missed the tendon. I've got a nice scar almost 4 years later.

[azbanks]

Along with the euro bumper, I bought a Techart rear spoiler from the UK and arranged to have it shipped in over in the box with the euro bumper. Ben at 9apart Ltd in the UK was a great help

I picked up some clear turn signal lenses and rear side marker lenses to clean up the look of the car.

I installed the rear spoiled, stripped off the old paint from the euro front cover, cut off the leading edges of the headlight covers and broke out some white duct tape for these pictures.

[azbanks]

Next I went back to the powder coater and had some parts done to match the wheels.
I also stopped by the anodizer and had some work done on a dynatech strut bar I picked up along the way.








My car was heavily optioned from the factory, 10 speaker sound system, AOR limited slip, gazillion way power seats, etc.
The speaker grills got some powder coating and new felt.
White, grey and blue are starting to dominate the color scheme.
I think the grey top fits the color scheme quite well. I love it when a plan comes together.

[azbanks]

The speaker grills were part of a stereo/interior upgrade.



The upgrade included a steering wheel from a 2008 tiptronic 911. The plan is to integrate the audio controls into the wheel but that is another, on-going project.

The plastic across the dash and the shifter surround and the ash tray were painted with a gun metal metallic paint that matches the speaker grills, wheels, strut bar, etc.



All the old speakers including the 2 inch speakers were shot so they got replaced. The new 2.5 inch BA speakers didn't fit the 2" square holes so I used body filler to close up the gaps.







I built a custom amp board and added a sub box to the trunk. The sub box is removable if I need the trunk space.

[azbanks]

Another part that went to the powder coater was the cam cover. The cam pulley cover was painted to match.

I added some camber plates as well.



If you look close you can see the spring hats for the Koni coil over kit I installed. I dropped the front a bit for a better stance.



This is what I got.





If you look close, you can see the 3" Lindsey exhaust sticking out the back along with the GT Racing rear bumper and 968 door handles.



I'm not done with pics of previous changes yet. I'll post more in the next few days.

[Spring44]

Questions on the BiXenon headlights.

What car did they come from?
Do you also have to take the switch and wiring from the donor car?
Is the hi/lo beam mechanism built into the light unit?
Wiring diagram?

[azbanks]

Originally Posted by Spring44

Questions on the BiXenon headlights.

What car did they come from?
Do you also have to take the switch and wiring from the donor car?
Is the hi/lo beam mechanism built into the light unit?
Wiring diagram?

The are generic units from ebay. Here is the original listing.
I do not have a wiring diagram but I can give you an outline of what was involved in getting them to work.

The standard lighting in the 944 has separate power wires going to two separate filaments, one for lowbeams and one for high beams. When you switch on the high beams the power to the low beam filament stops.

The BiXenons don't have two power wires and two filaments, they have just one power curcuit to the filament and a separate power circuit to the hi/lo beam metal plate.

If I ran the high beam circuit to just the hi/lo plate and the low beam circuit to the filament, every time I turned on the high beams the plate would move but the low beam circuit would shut off turning off the filament giving me a great hi beam pattern of no light at all.

I had to wire the high beam circuit and the low beam circuit to the filament but just the high beam circuit to the hi/lo plate.

Having both circuits wired directly into the filament together presented a problem. The high beams worked perfectly, the filament got power and the hi/lo plate got power and all seemed right in the world, but...

The low beams weren't...
low!

I git high beams no matter which beam selected. The power from the low beams was connecting to the high beam circuit and activating the hi/lo plate.

I needed to block the low beam circuit from powering the hi/lo plate circuit so I wired a diode ( a Schottky Barrier rectifier) between the low beam circuit and the hi/low plate.

This allowed the hi circuit to power both the filament and the hi/lo plate but blocked the low circuit from powering the plate.

The diode is in the little "C" shaped reddish-pink heat shrink tubing in the pictures.

I'll try to get some pics of how it is plugged into the car later tonight.




Here is the diode I used to make it work.

[Spring44]

Thanks for your response! I have the Xenon lights on both of my daily-driver Mercs and really like them, so this is something I'd really like to do to my 944. The existing lights just aren't near as bright as they were when the car was new.

[azbanks]

Originally Posted by Spring44

Thanks for your response! I have the Xenon lights on both of my daily-driver Mercs and really like them, so this is something I'd really like to do to my 944. The existing lights just aren't near as bright as they were when the car was new.

It was a fun project. You've got to like working with your hands if you want to duplicate what I did. The cross support for each light is steel and the mounting brackets started as just sheet aluminum.

Here are some pictures of the aluminum light mounting bracket at various points in the build process.

[kdjones2000]

Looks nice

[v2rocket_aka944]

nice to see you're still in the game.
what are you gonna do with the GT headlights once your new front end is done...

[azbanks]

My plan is to recreate the header panel and light covers as a single piece. The goal is to get rid of the gaps between the header panel and the light covers. The GT headlights will not change, they will just be under one big piece of plexiglass instead of the individual light covers I have on there now.

If you are asking what I am going to do with the current plexiglass covers, I may sell them.

My progress on the one piece unit is currently being measured in millennia.

[culture]

nice work. glad you documented it AZ. I wish I documented mine. it would prob would have been with polaroid pics its been so long though. haha

for those who may not be as skilled, I got my bixenons from dapperlighting. they have a plug and play kit for 7" round headlights and I believe the sell the projectors separately too. they now sell LED kits as well.

^^^^not a paid endorsement

[azbanks]

Here are the pictures of my wiring plugged into the factory headlight plug. It is not pretty but it works. I may attempt to clean it up at some point,

[azbanks]

Over the years, I have been collecting some parts for a big project. I am getting close to pulling the trigger on the last few parts and then it's go time.

This pic is a big hint on what comes next. It's not my car but it is close to what my car will look like.

[azbanks]

I've already added a few things in preparation for the big project.
Lindsey Fuel Rail and Radium Engineering FPR, FPD, and fuel lines.