Turning my 1982 Porsche 911 SC Targa to "the one i always wanted"

Figured since it's going to have a few projects going I may as well post them up.

Since I was a kid I always wanted one. It isn't a huge list, but a list of things I always wanted on a Porsche 911 and I plan on transforming it into that. Sold the 944 and bought this for my daily. Over the years I've seen things on them that just make me go "OHHHH" and "AHHHH" and "I WANT!" so now that I have the chance, I'm going to do just that.

The list of things it needs:

- Heaterbox hoses and lines
- High heat hoses need replaced
- Linkage fixes
- Wheel bearings
- Vacuum lines
- Tires... some tard put the wrong profile size and it was eating through the oil return line.
- Speakers, deck... they're old, and speakers are mostly blown.
- Targa and window seals. Old, worn, and not doing the best.

Things replaced thus far:

- Most of the heaterbox lines/hoses
- Most of the vacuum lines
- New tires...
- Wheel Bearings

Plans:

- Converting to Targa hard top (specifically, looking at a Carbon Fiber replacement, still doing the math to see if they're quality enough for consideration)
- Fabspeed 930 exhaust (probably with with resonator so it sounds nice, and not overkill)
- Trading out the original deck (yes, still has the ORIGINAL tape deck, and normally I would leave it be, but it's my daily, and i've left my 914 entirely factory original so this car is getting modified) to go with a nice sound system, nice speakers. I don't want to go sub and overkill, just some nice speakers. The fabspeed will add sound as it is... so with the resonator setup and a nice deck with speakers, should be fine. I just can't deal with blown speakers...
- Airbox pop-valve, don't feel like blowing up my airbox.
- CF or Fiberglass floor layouts instead of the OEM hardwood ones. They don't hold up all that great, and god forbid you get them wet, ever. They won't be in plain site but it'll be a nice improvement, and any weight lost is a good diet IMO.
- Carrera graphic work (hey it is a super carrera...)
- Polished engine bay and repainted parts. Planning on polishing everything from the fan down to the rest of the covers and repainting some parts to match the car. Going to stick with metallic silver to go with the themed paint of the car, sparingly of course since I don't want it to look like a big rolling blingy silver bullet... just hints of it here and there to look nice.
- Custom CF parts, brackets, mounts, etc. I am helping a friend who works in the aircraft industry with some website work, and we're doing CF parts for it in trade. w00t!

Pics to come as progress becomes progress!

:twisted:

I can't say enough about infinity speakers. I will never buy another speaker again. just my $.02 on car speakers lol. looks awesome!

I'm always open minded on opinions. I am not an audio specialist by any means. My last system sounded good but I also searched for opinions on products and wired it up right, too.

Thank you for the opinion, I'll have to dig a little and see what fits my car. Thankfully, one of the local audio and alarm system guys over here at one point owned a shop in cali and all he did was Porsches, Ferraris and other cars along those lines for audio and security so he was very familiar with the setup and said he'd have no problem finding out what would fit and work with my car. Pretty excited to get crackin' on the progress.

Those factory gauges are pretty sweat. I like those.Those factory seats look nice too. Can't beat the condition for the age. I'm shocked the inside looks as good as it does with that top.

Nice car man!

I have always loved the whale tail Porsches, My grandpas boss has an '85 911 turbo in gray and he would let my grandpa borrow it every so often, and my Grandpa has a '58 356 Coupe.

For the speakers I have some Polk Audio, DB series in my Chevelle and they sound AWESOME!!! very full range from low to high, I was never impressed with the Sony or Pioneers because they were either to tinny or to low. But the Polks have a very nice blend of all the ranges. Or if you want to get really crazy check out Focal audio ;) they are extemely high quality but with the quality comes price, in our show car we currently have a 2400watt 12 speaker Focal Audio setup and with the custom built panels they are mounted in to direct the sound through the car it sounds like your at a concert hall listening to an orchestra.

I am going to follow this religiously. I can't wait until the next update.

Are you going to do anything to modernize it or is this a pure resto?

-Nick

Sorry I didn't respond to these.

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Originally Posted by altec

Those factory gauges are pretty sweat. I like those.Those factory seats look nice too. Can't beat the condition for the age. I'm shocked the inside looks as good as it does with that top.

Nice car man!

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I like the interior, the gauges I definitely love. For some reason the era of all the P-Cars I love.

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Originally Posted by chevyboy_0

I have always loved the whale tail Porsches, My grandpas boss has an '85 911 turbo in gray and he would let my grandpa borrow it every so often, and my Grandpa has a '58 356 Coupe.

For the speakers I have some Polk Audio, DB series in my Chevelle and they sound AWESOME!!! very full range from low to high, I was never impressed with the Sony or Pioneers because they were either to tinny or to low. But the Polks have a very nice blend of all the ranges. Or if you want to get really crazy check out Focal audio ;) they are extemely high quality but with the quality comes price, in our show car we currently have a 2400watt 12 speaker Focal Audio setup and with the custom built panels they are mounted in to direct the sound through the car it sounds like your at a concert hall listening to an orchestra.

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I ended up going with JL in the front, the JL i got for the rear didn't fit, ended up going with Polk in the rear. Haven't got the head unit in yet. Have to do the timing belt on my wife's car tonight (snapped, oh yay!) thankfully not an interference engine. If there is time I'll wire the head unit and stereo tonight.

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Originally Posted by Indybird

I am going to follow this religiously. I can't wait until the next update.

Are you going to do anything to modernize it or is this a pure resto?

-Nick

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Bit of both. Plan on removing the A/C (storing it in case I ever want to put it back on of course) for weight reasons. I want to keep most of it original but I don't mind doing body work. The interior though I totally dig so I don't plan on doing much inside the car. Seen too many of them get butchered, don't plan on butchering the car. Definitely want a nice sub and system in the car, so aside from that will likely leave it be after that.

As to body work I don't know if I really want to do much, I like the body style. Love the targa top. I am on the fence between sending my original top in for a rebuild/refurbish or if I want to dump the money on a carbon fiber or fiberglass top. Unfortunately, the aftermarket CF/Fiberglass targa tops are a DIY project (no joke) and require tearing the original top apart and using it for parts. A NEW targa top from Porsche is $10,000. So if I bork the one i've got I'd end up having to buy a used one because there's no way in hell I'm spending that much on a targa top. The CF tops and Fiberglass tops are a fraction of the cost, about $500 which is the same to get the original top refurbished.

I need to sleep on it for a few to figure out what I want to do.

I do plan on running through the engine bay and polishing/cleaning/painting some things to make it more presentable as well.

Once it warms up and i can ride my bikes to work i'll probably get the engine and tranny out and clean it all up and get to it.

I installed a new stereo in my car today. *When I saw the nest of wires... I went *:o

Really... they just used a bunch of connectors, and then got lazy enough to twist the wires together.

I couldn't for the life of me figure out why the speakers randomly went in and out, turns out the screw holding in the back seat was screwed INTO one of the wires accidentally.

What a hackjob.

Soldering iron, happy helping of solder, 2 layers of shrink wrap per wire, and taping/bunching the wires together properly and the result was very happy.

I'll get some pictures of it when it's daylight outside. *I even stapled the upholstery back together where the original factory staples had failed near the speaker, so it's nice and tight now.

Finally, the 911 has tunes! Wait till you see the pics of the old crap that was in the car...

Each segment was wrapped and labeled. *In this case, the 12v constant and 12v ignition wire. *I inspect the wires, all were pliable and the copper was clean, tested for continuity and resistance was fine so I reused the wires on them. *

Here is before the wires were all segmented, just soldered at this point with double wrap on each wire.

Before completely wrapped, but you can see the shrinked and soldered wire on the left (my side) and the original wiring (right side).

Oh sweet... let's install front speakers and not replace the rear speakers. *Who seriously leaves speakers like this in a car? *The new polks next to it.

The super cheapo crappy speakers (red left) and the new JL Audio speaker (right).

And of course, always lay down a matt when you install it, do it right.

More pics once it's daytime, these were taken when it was light outside, I was still working on the stereo at 8:00ish..

Man, that is a really nice car. Subbed, and good luck :)

Thanks man! :)

Here's the deck, sorry for the mess on the floor, still have wiring stuff from last night.

Thanks man! :)

Here's the deck, sorry for the mess on the floor, still have wiring stuff from last night.

How are those Polk's working? My truck is going to need speakers when I'm done. The separate tweet looks nice.

I like them. Oddly enough vocals are far more pronounced in the rear. I think mostly it's because the deck in the rear of the car is the same height as the seat so there is more exposure compared to the lower speakers in the door. Vocals sound awesome, I love it.

For some reason I expect to see a Blaupunkt deck when I look at the pic. Maybe it's cuz I'm still stuck in the 80's :D

OOooooo shiny new speakers!! That rats nest reminds me of the Chevelle's old stereo, the PO had left almost 3' of extra speaker wire in a bundle with twist ties stuffed under the dash :/

The shroud "Before" in the engine bay (yes i realize the hose is split in half, I'm doing an A/C Delete and replacing all the lines and hoses...

Bringing it down to bare metal

Note how clean it is compared to the original..

Finally... after being cleaned, brought to pure metal, and then powdercoated... and yes I realize "the masking looks weird" near the pulley because that part will be brought to metal as well, since that's where the belt rides.

I'll get some daytime pics with it IN the car once the car is back together.

Before...

After.

Wow, making some nice progress on this! :D

Sweet. Huge improvement. :up:

AC delete? My kinda guy! I'm really on the fence about keeping the AC in my truck. Figure I'll hook it up, and if it ever springs a leak I'll rip it out...

Someone on one of the 911 forums told me today that the A/C weighs in at 108lbs total in these cars. After having to lift the compressor, and seeing the entire system in a diagram I can believe it. Nice weight reduction, worth it IMO.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CorsePerVita

Someone on one of the 911 forums told me today that the A/C weighs in at 108lbs total in these cars.

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:eek: Wow, maybe it would be worth it to look into pulling out my compressor. (It killed itself about a year ago and would cost more than the car is worth to replace, so it's just bypassed now...besides, I didn't use A/C anyway.)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CorsePerVita

Someone on one of the 911 forums told me today that the A/C weighs in at 108lbs total in these cars. After having to lift the compressor, and seeing the entire system in a diagram I can believe it. Nice weight reduction, worth it IMO.

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I can see it if you're going to use it as an occasional track/autocross car. Personally that would be the only way I'd delete ac. It may only be used for a couple of months around but having cars without ac suck like h@#* when it's hot. But yes if performance is more important lighter is better. :banana:

I'm not worried about A/C to be honest. I'll likely box it and store it should I ever wish to revert. But during the summer either the Targa top comes off my car, or the windows get rolled down. Rarely does it get hot enough for me to justify bothering with A/C. My 914 doesn't have A/C and I do fine with the top off. Our ZX2 has A/C and my wife loves it, but I never used A/C at all. I guess I just don't like it lol.

Less weight! More performance. I dig.

If it gets too hot, roll the windows down. If it's still too hot, you're not going fast enough! :twisted:

The top comes off too! :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CorsePerVita

I'm not worried about A/C to be honest. I'll likely box it and store it should I ever wish to revert. But during the summer either the Targa top comes off my car, or the windows get rolled down. Rarely does it get hot enough for me to justify bothering with A/C. My 914 doesn't have A/C and I do fine with the top off. Our ZX2 has A/C and my wife loves it, but I never used A/C at all. I guess I just don't like it lol.

Less weight! More performance. I dig.

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Originally Posted by x88x

If it gets too hot, roll the windows down. If it's still too hot, you're not going fast enough! :twisted:

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Sounds about right. Between the compressor, metal lines, evaporator, condenser. Adds up. Can't help but wonder if they count parts that are shared with the heater though. Like the blower, and such.

Can't forget the power loss when the compressor is engaged.

2/40 is how I roll! :D

A/C is g-g-g-g-g-one! I still have a few hoses and pieces to remove but there is a whole lot more room to work on the car now in the engine bay. Few brackets to remove and it'll be back to "normal" in my book. Less weight is a happier car IMO.

Got a huge list of parts reserved from a place I regularly buy parts from. Entire list will be posted soon. Likely ordering at end of month. Going through the under side of the car this weekend to see what all I need to add so I can just order it all in one big swoop.

A few things on the list...

- Clutch
- Pressure Plate
- Flywheel bolts
- Throwout bearing
- Pressure Plate bolts
- Sport mounts for the engine
- Tuneup kit (cap/rotor/plugs/wires)
- Main seal
- Valve covers
- Valve adjustment feeler
- More heater hoses
- Suspension Bushings
- Rest of the wheel bearings/seals/o-rings
- Pilot bearing
- S-Oil line
- Main return oil line to engine

Already bought:

- 3 quarts of swepco 201 which had better me partially made out of unicorn blood at $15 per quart...
- More Brad Penn oil
- More wiring ends, more wire of various gauges to go through the rest of the under dash area
- SS Nuts Bolts in 10mm and 13mm socket sizes to replace the old and otherwise nasty/rusted bolts throughout the car
- More resin and hardener for the last bit of CF I have so I can make parts that I want for it.
- High Heat resistance updated hoses for the main flaps and heater box so I can rid the leaks and get it back to "normal".... and last for freaking ever.

During the process of A/C removal I had NO HEAT because one of the main hoses from the blower motor was completely removed since it wouldn't fit under the stock A/C bracket as the updated hoses were intended for the cars WITHOUT A/C. So I updated to the larger diameter hoses.

I still have plans to take apart the blower motor and box in both the engine bay area and in the smugglers compartment and refreshing them so there is less drag on the system from all the dust and gunk buildup in the years. Besides, it would be good to clean it out so it's healthier for me and my passengers anyway.

Don't forget to weigh all the AC junk when you're done!

Might want to pick up some anti seize for the stainless hardware. Only reason I hate working with stainless hardware.

I generally use "Neverseize" - those big crayons you use for spark plugs. Seems to work ay-okay.

Cool project, I definitely like those Porsche's, hoping to get a 911 myself down the road. Good luck with the project.

Well the time has come for "Engine out" maintenance...

A local Porsche friend of mine is always swapping help with each other. Each time he sells one and gets a new one, we help each other with our cars. Lets me use his lift and in return I help him. This time around he got a 912 and I needed to do my engine out maintenance on the 911.. But for those that haven't actually seen one out or seen one worked on I figured I'd post pictures.

Here we are dropping the engine

Finally rolled out and ready to be worked on.

You'll note that it is pretty dirt, things look worn, things are old. It really needed to be gone though.

List of things "While it is out" and "While I am down there"...

- Valve adjustment
- Full tuneup (cap, rotor, plugs, wires)
- Oil pressure sensor
- Vacuum lines (Thought i got them all, not the case)
- Throttle linkage fix on transmission and top of engine
- Heater box adjustment
- Exhaust inspection
- New clutch
- New pressure plate
- New throwout and pilot bearing
- New mounting hardware
- Clean up transmission inside and out, CAKED in grime, rocks you name it.
- Swepco 201 flush on the tranny
- Replace S oil line to oil tank
- Sump seals
- New motor/transmission mounts
- Refresh all extra grounds not accessible with engine in car
- PB Blast the aux air valve to make sure no crap sticks in it.
- Remove the last of the A/C system that is mostly deleted.
- New crankshaft seal

Got everything but the throttle fixed. Waiting on the bushings since I ordered the wrong part # for it... figured that the ONE thing that has to be fixed on the list has to be fixed with engine out. Either that or remove ALL the CIS crap and then do it... better to just wait a day, get the part and do it right.

Anyway on with the progress.

Found out my clutch issue and why it chattered... Long story short after visual inspection we suspected that perhaps the flywheel was machined wrong. If you look close the outer ring is worn and hot spots all over it, you can still see the ORIGINAL machining marks on the inner ring, meaning the clutch was making little contact with it, hence the horrific chatter I was getting. Once I got it to a machine shop it was ground correctly and they confirmed it was indeed tapered. So someone didn't line it up true...

Prettyyyyy dirty.

All these AC lines are going bye bye

Adjusting the valves.

The nuts were good, nothing cracking. Clearances all checked out on valves and the play seemed fine.

Cleaned up the engine. Replaced all parts I needed. New clutch installed.

Happy flywheel

Happy pressure plate

Just before I put in the crankshaft seal

Much more clean than before. Before.

After.

Anyway...
Figured someone would find it interesting so I figured I'd share pics. I try to always document with pics on my maintenance windows just because it's fun to see how far a vehicle has come and perhaps any details that were missed.

Just for laughs and giggles...

When I first got the car.

Powder coating and a significant cleanup of the engine.

Detailing the engine.

And now

I'll post pics when she's all together and back on the road. Sure felt good to go through everything and "make it right" and get the car where it needed to be. It ran fine the way it was.... but now I don't have to question it's condition. I KNOW where it is, I KNOW what needs to be done and I have NO questions where it is at now.

Looks good, I have a concern though. Depending on how deep the hot spots are, they may come back. That is, if they are deeper then the material they removed they will reappear. Not as bad as rotors where they pretty much are always to deep to turn, but it is possible.

Just something I'd consider. Hate to see you have to pull it back apart.

Looking good though! Looks like you shouldn't have to worry about the engine for another 29 years lol.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by altec

Looks good, I have a concern though. Depending on how deep the hot spots are, they may come back. That is at if they are deeper then the material they removed they will reappear. Not as bad as rotors where they pretty much are always to deep to turn, but it is possible.

Just something I'd consider. Hate to see you have to pull it back apart.

Looking good though! Looks like you shouldn't have to worry about the engine for another 29 years lol.

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Indeed this is something I contemplated. However, the hot spots didn't look HORRIBLE but definitely present. I found a method to replace the clutch without dropping the engine AND transmission. So if it does happen it's literally a 2 hour job to drop it, it's not bad at all.

That's good to hear!

I can understand wanting to try turning it though. It is funny how the giant 12" wheel for my GM diesel is $168, and yours is closer to $500... Then again if I wanted the dual-mass flywheel that goes with my engine it would be over $700... I'm fine with my old solid junk... haha.

Looking great...huge improvement. :D:up:

Yeah the cost of a new flywheel is pretty nuts on these cars. The lightweight wheels don't last long either so it makes more sense to go with stock. Even then they are VERY THIN, so there isn't much to turn, this one thankfully was fine. Hopefully none of the hot spots cause issues down the road.

Took a pic the other day, figured I'd update now that it's all back in and I have a picture that can do it justice during the day :)

Note the condenser is gone, hoses are gone, ac is gone, it's allllllllllllllll gone.

With that said... I've got everything tuned up to a happy point where I like it. She's running like a champ. But I'd be crazy not to have some fun. SO I signed up for autocross this month! I plan on taking my video camera and our Nikon to take pics of the event. Long as nothing wacko comes up I will be SURE to post some footage! My wife will be bringing her Escort ZX2, so we'll be doing autox together. Should be a blast!

(i love those porchses)

Have you seen the Euro Bumper for those?

The American Bumper...bumps just about ruins the lines of the car