941 Reveal!!! (WARNING: NOT bandwidth friendly!)

[ideola]

Finally! Got all the parts to install the 968 door handles, which I completed this afternoon, just in time for a nice evening photo shoot. The exterior restoration is now essentially complete...I'll follow with some of the gory damage & repair shots momentarily so you can appreciate how bad it was! But for now:

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I purchased this car in December 2005 from Ray Wolf. My best bud Larry and I flew to Salt Lake City, and Ray trailer the car down from Idaho Falls thru a blinding snow storm. I'll tell the story of getting the car back to MI later...it's an interesting one for sure...in the meantime...

The car was stolen the week of 03 Jan 2006 while I was away on business. The car was at the nefarious Mr. Johnston's residence for reasons I won't get into now. As the story goes, one Mr. Chris Olson came by to pick up some parts from Mr. Johnston. According to the police report, Mr. Johnston went inside to get the parts for Mr. Olson, and claims that when he came back out, Mr. Olson was gone with my car. Who knows if that part of the story is true...I have my doubts.

What I do know happened from there is that Mr. Olson drove the car up to Flint to do a drug deal and promptly got knocked over the head, had all his money taken, and the car was stolen AGAIN. Stolen TWICE within a matter of hours! The second perp ended up getting pulled over for improper plates, and promptly arrested for drug possession. The car was impounded.

Somewhere along the way, one of the chuckle-heads took the car into a guardrail...could just as likely have been one of the meatheads at the impound lot :roll: In any event, this is what I found when I returned the week of the 10th and drove up to Flint to recover the car:

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Mr. Olson was eventually arrested, tried, and convicted of "improper use of a vehicle". Somehow they managed to plead it down from grand theft :roll: As part of the proceedings, I had to document the damage and potential repair costs. Mr. Olson was ordered to pay nearly $6700 in restitution, money I didn't think I would ever see, considering he was an out-of-work machinist with a narcotics habit living in Detroit.

I ended up going thru a divorce in 2006, so that wiped out that year, and it took me another year or so to get back on my feet, to the point where I could tackle any projects. I continued to drive the car enough to keep it running reasonably well.

Then in spring of 2009, Larry and I got to talking about how to repair the damage. Very few body shops wanted to touch the car because of the custom body work. I actually acquired a LHS 944 quarter panel, and had contemplated cutting the crashed one out and re-welding in the replacement. But Larry talked me out of it and said he thought we could bump out the damage. So that's what we did. Here's a sequence showing Larry's work over the course of a couple of weeks in the spring of 2009:

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Then in the summer of 2009, I had the good fortune of meeting Steve Gordon, a friend of one of my neighbors who happens to be a body man at Les Stanford Chevy (where we bought our Camaro). Steve has won multiple Autorama awards for best-in-show paint and body work, and is absolutely meticulous. After seeing the progress Larry and I had made, he immediately offered to finish it off. Here's the final prep on the fender after Steve's expert touch:

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I was also shocked and amazed one fortuitous day in August 2009. I received a complete payout of the balance of restitution owed to me by Mr. Olson!!! I couldn't believe it. Needless to say, there was hootin' and hollerin' going on my driveway that day! I put it to good use. Steve was able to rent a facility with a top-notch down draft booth, where he finish prepped the car and shot it. Here's the car completely stripped and on the way to the paint booth:




How about one more shot of that LHS rear quarter, just for IMPACT!

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Paint
Sherwin Williams Dimension
Audi S4 Brilliant Red
base coat / clear coat

Exterior Modifications
Shaved front bumper with collapsed bumper shocks
Early 944 front fenders and valance
Early 944 rear quarter panels
IFC rolled rocker panels
IFC fiberglass Euro-style rear bumper
951 rear diffuser
924S rain channels
924S windshield trim
H4 head lamps
Add'l tail lamp in rear light assembly
Rial 7Jx16ET23 & 9Jx16ET14 basket weave wheels
Toyo Proxes PX4 205/55 & 245/50

Interior Modifications
Classic 9 Leathershop recovered dash
Custom center gauge pod by Classic 9 Leathershop
A-pillar dual gauge pod
Momo Corse 13" leather-wrapped steering wheel with Porsche crest button
Momo Super Anatomico shift knob
Lizard G31 short shifter with solid brass rear coupler bushings
PLX Devices AFR & Boost Gauge
VDO oil temp, oil pressure, & volt meter gauges
944 4-way power adjustable script seats
944 leather-wrapped handbrake lever
924S updated sun visors
944 updated interior door handles
Pioneer DEM-P4100UB head unit with full iPod support
Pioneer 4x6 speakers, front and rear
Kicker 1" tweeters with passive cross over
Bazooka active bass tube

Driveline
S2 931 long block with S1 ignition and turbo
G31 + LSD, rebuilt

[ernie9944]

Beautiful simply beautiful not for the purist but a lovely machine ,everything seem to blend together either the 968 parts or your leather interior it take a dedicate Porshefile to bring such a car to higth standard such as this,

[333pg333]

Wow Dan, what an amazing result and backstory!! I think there's a TV miniseries in that. lol

Looks wonderful, well done all.

[ideola]

Originally Posted by 333pg333

Wow Dan, what an amazing result and backstory!! I think there's a TV miniseries in that. lol

LOL, yeah, and that's the reader's digest version! I haven't even told the story yet of getting the car home from Salt Lake City!!!

Thanks for the kind words, guys!

[p-talk]

Great story, and the car looks fabulous!

[VINMAN]

Beautiful job!

[will944]

Wow! Lots to be proud of right there.

Nice work! Feel free to share pics with us ANY time!

[ideola]

Originally Posted by will944

Wow! Lots to be proud of right there.

Nice work! Feel free to share pics with us ANY time!

Thanks!

OK, here's some more pix. How 'bout the engine bay:
As acquired:


After a minor dress up:






I still have one major to-do on this car, which is to complete the power steering adaption. The rack is in the car in a de-powered configuration. I have the bracket for the pump fabricated, just need to complete the mounting arrangements for the reservoir and cooler loop, then have a couple of new lines made up. I'll probably tackle that as a fall-winter project. Once I have that done, I'll take some new pix engine bay.

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And here's some shots of the interior restoration.

BEFORE

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AFTER...

NEW DASH


COCKPIT CONTROLS

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CREATURE COMFORTS
Late 944 inner door levers, Porsche crest glove box latch

4-way power 944 script sport seats, center armrest/iPod stowage

Late 944 sun visors with vanity mirrors, Porsche script floor mats

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SOUND SYSTEM
Pioneer DEM-P4100UB head unit, Kicker 1" tweeters with passive crossovers

Pioneer 4x6 speakers (set of 4, two in the doors, two in the rear; forgive the Blaupunkt speaker covers, they'll have to do for now)

Bazooka Active Bass Tube mounted to rear fold-down

Fully integrated iPod support with armrest stowage, amplified antenna