Hello Folks! Wanted to get more involved with other 944 owners this year and actually do some events/runs so decided to join the forum with the intention of becoming a Member at some point.
My mum has had 2 944 N/A automatics and while i've always liked them, I really made my mind up after stopping in by the Porsche Museum on the way home from my banger rally to Rome last year. I bought my 944 at the end of last July from a bloke in Kidderminster, then drove it back to Aberdeen. There were a few niggles and a clunk which I originally suspected engine mounts turned out to be a clutch. In for a penny in for a pound I thought and put the car in for a clutch and belts also. 99% I always do my own work to cars and have done plenty of belts/clutches, but I was needing a car asap and I figured a clutch job was probably a bit out of my depth as a driveway mechanic with limited room! The car itself was quite cheap however so I wasn't too annoyed. Its a 944 Lux and has 173,000 but a monumentally packed service history. The amount of receipts and stamps is ridiculous. Its had a respray in 2011 and its had a full black leather interior. Its got the toast rack and front lower valence, as well as the 23mm front arb and 14mm rear arb. Its been chipped and has a heaps of stuff i've done to it that might take a bit of time to list. I run about with no carpets because the hatch/sunroof circuit is playing up and I got fed up of removing the carpet to check the rear relays. Plus I love the noise so its just ace.
But anyway in between then and December I have done loads of jobs in order to make this quite a fun little car. I'm a keen mechanic and quite confident to tackle most anything to be honest. In mid December I bought a BMW E34 for £500 odd as i'm using it in a banger rally in August. Decided this was the perfect opportunity to take the Porsche off the road and fettle it over the winter. The plan is to get the car back on the road some point in the first week of March and to do the North Coast 500 in it. Something i've wanted to do for ages
Anyway here is a bit of progress in pictures. Most of the stuff i've done has been mechanical so it hasn't really changed visually. That's soon to change though!
On the way home after I bought it:
Went from Kidderminster to Glasgow to pick up a set of cookies, because its an 85.5 effectively and has the early offset. The twists on it looked awful. Then drove like this back to Aberdeen.
And a few of the car in the week I took it home..
And then I started doing work. I am really OCD about cars and i'll go out of my way to find something that needs doing... and within the next month this all happened...
-Replaced oil cooler housing seals etc. to stop leak.
-Replaced both engine mounts with proper hydraulic ones.
-Oil and filter change with 15w40 semi synth.
-New Plugs
-Coolant change
-New air filter
-New shift bush and gaitor (Absolute pleasure to shift now as opposed to having a floppy gearstick)
-New front discs and pads
-New sunroof seal
And then I just fell in love with it
So its now chipped, and has loads of new bits. I was using it every day, through the snow and the cold, but then after buying a BMW E34 to do a banger rally to Romania next year, I decided to use that as my car and take the Porsche off the road for some much needed fettling. In reality it didnt 'need' much, but there was loads of stuff I wanted to do. So I wrote a list and got going.
- New rear discs and pads. Bleed whole system with new fluid. Bought a gunson eezibleed kit for this. Perhaps this is the tool I need to make me able to tolerate brake bleeding.
- Gearbox/Transaxle oil change. B&Q were selling the exact oil I needed for £1.50 a litre on clearance. So I bought 8 Bottles. So that should be a big improvement.
- All front ARB and hanger bushes, along with making my own ARB stiffener brackets. Surprisingly bought all the bushes from Porsche much cheaper than online.
- Both aux belts
-Remove gauge cluster, fix odometer, fix lazy speedo and LEDs for the gauge cluster to blind me.
- Do the bolt through the shifter mod
- Fix bootlid/sunroof situation. I've narrowed this down to a dodgy power wire only supplying 6v instead of 12v to the relay.
- Momo steering wheel from a mk1 mx5. I think they are the best feeling wheel i've ever used. Ended up swapping the air filter that came on the 944 for one off a mate, so effectively free! Although £60 for a boss.
- Possibly tyres....
And for the most recent update.....
Finally started work on the porsche the other week. I've actually been relatively organised and written up a list of crap that needs done. First two on the list were pull the gauges out to sort my odo not working, as well as freshen up the connections a bit, and replace the ARB bushes. As I suspected the odometer gear had stripped all of its inner teeth due to age so I managed to get a new one from Germany.
Also, the main light ducts for the gauges are basically clear pieces of plastic painted chrome. Over time the paint wear away and the dash is just dim. Used some clear glue to stick some tin foil shiny side in. Did the 'stand in a dark cupboard and shine a torch in the hole' test and it does appear pretty bright. Its got 3 new LED bulbs going into it too which will make things a lot nicer, and hopefully not so tanning-studio-esque. I suppose I'll know once I can bung it back into the car! Also before I can fit the new steering wheel, I wanted to get a new set of stalks as I have narrowed my washer motor low power mishap down to the stalks themselves not giving a good connection. I've bought a new stalk module thing from a bloke on here (who I have incidentally bought quite a lot of parts from actually and is a very nice bloke called Pete) but his stalks decals are pretty worn. The units are rivet sealed so using my new fancy dremel I drilled out the rivets and took everything apart. It is VERY fiddly but it'll be worth it to have a clear set of decals right?
I finally got my 'free' steering wheel too. I had swapped this for the dodgy carbon air filter that came on the car. Its just a standard momo from an MX5 but I love them so figure it'd be perfect for the Pork. Bought a Momo boss, which although expensive, is awfully well made. Plus seeing as it is attaching my steering wheel to the car, which is probably vital in some way, I thought I should probably make sure I get something decent. I bought a plain black horn button too. Bolted it all together for a looky see and it looked too plain so I hacked up one of these 'porsche drivers collection' stickers that I stole from the coffee table in the Porsche Centre when I was waiting for bushes. Looks quite cool but will probably change it later for something a bit more me. And yes, it is leaning up against a big stash of bits for the car.
Then! We move onto the ARB. This was interesting. I unbolted it from the car and took it into the garage. Turns out my front ARB is 23mm, instead of standard 20mm. I also have a rear 14mm anti roll bar which means I have Porsche 'sports' suspension. Sounds naff but it means I dont need to buy thicker stuff which I was going to do before I found out! The bushes didnt look too worn on the car but once I took it off it was clear that they were quite shagged and squished. I then found out that the centre bushes were actually for a 20mm ARB. 3mm smaller than they should be, but just rammed on and used. You can see how splayed out they are in the photo. I bought all new bushes from Porsche (which were cheaper than online by the way) and painted everything with my favourite brush on black paint. They look excellent and I just need to make stiffener brackets before I can bolt it back to the car. I'll show the brackets once I make them.
Also had time the other day to replace the gearbox oil. Wasn't nearly as dirty as I imagined but fresh oil wont do it any harm! Next update will most likely be finishing the interior, ARB on, new belts on and possibly a couple of handy DIY mods!
