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My 1983 Porsche 944, Guards Red.

55K views 84 replies 40 participants last post by  James_R 
#1 · (Edited)
UPDATE

It seems as though like many threads on here, photobucket has taken my build thread down the drain and I have lost 9 pages of photos. To sum it up the photos were of component repair and other pretty uninteresting stuff. If you skip to page 9, it all resumes!

Skip to page 9

Update

Hello Chaps,

I haven't been on here much recently but thought perhaps I should throw this up on here. I've always suffered with the detailing side of things but do enjoy looking through here at other people's efforts.

I wanted to share with you my Porsche. For as long as I can remember I have been infatuated with Porsches, mainly the aircooled 911 but you may have noticed, they're darn expensive! The later water cooled 911's are a lot more affordable, still super expensive but they just don't seem to do it for me totally. I have looked at a lot of 996s, especially with the Gt3 areo pack but IMS, RMS, Bore score, they're all things that scare me! Anyway, I have also had my eye out for a replacement retro for the past few months since I took my Mk2 Cooper off the road but nothing had taken my fancy.

It all started on the bank holiday, I was laid in bed the Monday evening and thought I would have a browse through a few forums classified adverts. The first advert I saw was just 3 minutes old and was for a 944 and it was within budget. I jumped out of bed before realising that it probably wasn't a practical idea, however after my better half asking what I was so excited about she told me I would be a fool not to go and at least look at it. 5 minutes later I had spoken with the owner and we had arranged to go and have a look the following evening.

The advert showed this...






A very faded 944, sat for 3 years after the owner had passed away. I was a little apprehensive about what to expect, but quite excited at the same time.

I will update shortly what happened next.
 
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#9 ·
I nearly wrote guards link in the title bud I didn't want to not be able to edit it out at a later date.

The thing is, this is the most complete project I've ever bought. Kind of refreshing in a way.

That is really nice:argie: one tip if your are going to machine correct the paint, ensure you have lots of cutting pads, and I would only use cheap ones than using good ones like Meguairs one's :thumb: your going to get lots of paint residue coming off onto the pads, then you should be ok with normal polishing pads. Lucky guy:thumb:
Well thank you very much indeed.

My polishing experience is pretty much next to none. I've only ever used this forum for advice on basic cleaning methods. it seems as though I couldn't be in a better place for detailing advice.

Thanks again.

Subscribed!

Looking forward to updates already

:)
I am hoping not to disappoint

Take a look at this.

Thank you very much for that. Was a very interesting watch. It seems as though Guards Red is prone to this kind of problem as there are a few on the American forums that are super faded, they just seem to leave them though which drives me bonkers. I will have to do some further reading on those pads. I have to admit, my polishing knowledge is non existent!

A nice project! :thumb:

As Chongo has said do not buy expensive pads because they will collect o lot of 'dead' paint and polishing debri and will need cleaning/changing on a very regular basis, perhaps after every panel, and you can bin them when finished the initial 'cutting' phase.

Look forward to updates! :)

Alan W
Thanks for the suggestion Alan. As I said earlier my polishing experience is non existent so I will be looking for a load of advice from those of you far more knowledgeable than me.

I hope to keep the updates coming. I am very eager to get my first Porsche on the road.

Is that a US spec front bumper on it? Didn't think the UK ones had the little impact sections on them?

John
Thanks for the reply John. I just went and had a look because it's something I never noticed myself. It seems as though the early UK models did have these little impact pads but in most cases they were painted body colour, hence why I've never noticed them myself. The US market on the early 944s had much larger impact pads and they're almost always black. I will try and upload a photo later.

Either way mine are going body coloured eventually.

Oh update regularly please. Love to see the progress. Do like 944s.

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I will certainly try my best.

I have to confess that for many years i have been blinkered by the 911 in its various forms, I still am if I am honest and I seem to have somewhat of an unhealthy obsession with them and because of such I had totally over looked the 944, 924, 968 and other Porsche models like the boxster.

Apparently, front my reading, the 911 a fair few years ago was on the brink of being cancelled, and because of such a huge effort was put in to spur more sales on and a huge amount of focus was put into the 911 and it worked, thus focusing the lime light souly on the 911 models and detracting somewhat from the transverse Porsches. Please someone correct me if that is a total load of toot.

I have a few plans up my sleeve, and I would consider this car to be a "keeper" along with my mk2 cooper. So hopefully this thread can continue for a fair while after its on the road.

Thanks again guys.
 
#3 ·
That is really nice:argie: one tip if your are going to machine correct the paint, ensure you have lots of cutting pads, and I would only use cheap ones than using good ones like Meguairs one's :thumb: your going to get lots of paint residue coming off onto the pads, then you should be ok with normal polishing pads. Lucky guy:thumb:
 
#6 ·
A nice project! :thumb:

As Chongo has said do not buy expensive pads because they will collect o lot of ‘dead’ paint and polishing debri and will need cleaning/changing on a very regular basis, perhaps after every panel, and you can bin them when finished the initial ‘cutting’ phase.

Look forward to updates! :)

Alan W
 
#14 ·
Sorry to lead you into temptation there John!

It seems as though the past few years Porsches are going through the roof, as are a few select blue ovals and a lot of things that are considered "classic". I met a chap the other month who had an E-type coupe and had owned it for a fair few years, he told me about how he was incredibly apprehensive of spending £8,000 on what was considered at the time as an old jaguar, look at them now.

If you want to get into one I would say do it. I think time has aged the 944 well, much like many of the boxy 80's sports cars which a good few years ago I thought were hideous.

it is also speculated that due to the prices of the 944's totally bottoming out a few years ago many were broken out for parts, especially if they weren't very good. This means that the ones that are about now are the better ones of the bunch. I distinctly remember as a kid my friends neighbour had one, an early guards red auto on cookie cutters which had sat on his driveway for years, sadly he scrapped the thing in favour for an at the time new Corsa C.

I mean go have a look at some, what's the harm!
 
#16 ·
Thanks for sharing that video Paul. Was a very interesting watch and very relevant to my current corcumstance with my Porsche.

Hopefully in the next few days I will be able to get onto the paint side of things with a decent evaluation of state and condition. Like I said earlier, my paint correction experience is non existent and with this thread I am hopeful that I can get some pointed in the right direction.

Thanks very much.
 
#20 ·
Lovely bud :thumb: I will maybe get flamed for this statement but to me that generation of Porsches are real Porsches(924's, 944's , 928's & 911's) my dad had a 924S and I remember loving it, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with boxsters etc but to me they just look to soft compared to that era of Porsches, they all seem to look like 911's :rolleyes:

Canny wait to see how this progresses bud some plenty of updates please :thumb:
 
#21 ·
Thanks very much, I can't see any content there that would deserve a flaming.

The 924S is an excellent and sought after car from what I understand, I actually went past a specialist down in Portsmouth with work on Wednesday who had 3 924 turbos outside. Had to stop for a Photo. I like the 70's-ness in the 924 and I would have happily settled for one in my hunt for a potential Porsche. Throw a photo up if you've got one.

Thanks.
 
#22 ·
My first post just outlined a Porsche I had planned to go and look at, I hadn't even seen the car, so this is how my viewing went.

I left from Kent to East Finchley after work one evening. After sitting on QEII for 3 hours I arrived at the sellers house, 3 hours late. Thankfully the seller was super sound and he took me around the car.

Upon arrival at the vehicle it was obvious it had sat for a very long time. After talking with the seller he told me the car was his brothers, his brother had died in a motorcycle accident 3 years earlier and he had inherited the 944 and it seemed just awful. The seller confessed that he had tried to find some love for the 944 but it just didn't do it for him, that combined with needing space back he had concluded to sell.

Throughout the viewing I tried not to show my excitement at a Porsche that didn't run, was pink, hadn't moved for 3 years, had mould on the insides, with rust holes in it, but I don't think I did very well. We shook hands, had a good chat about motorcycles and dogs and a deposit was paid and I sorted out a recovery driver to collect it.

On my drive home, which had a lot less traffic thankfully, I started to wonder if I had made the right choice. There were a lot of parts on the car that were damaged beyond repair and the whole prospect of trying to find these parts, let alone find some reasonably priced due to the Porsche badge on it was a bit daunting, however I did my best to suck this up with a "cross that bridge when we come to it" kind of attitude.

This is how it looked after my deposit was paid.



A few days later the car was recovered by my usual driver. He has recovered all sorts of junk for me over the years but for once he approved of this one. It was arranged that the car would be collected and dropped off to me at 9am. 10am came and went, as did 11am and there was no car outside. I got super concerned that something had gone wrong with the collection. 11:30am the truck arrived and the driver told me that it took him a good 2 hours to get the Porsche onto his truck! Seized good and proper. No extra charge though, good chap he is.



The car was seized pretty good and this was apparent during the unloading process. Took a fair bit of force to get it off that's for sure. But here it is in all its faded, non running, seized glory sat in the road annoying the neighbours.



I always seem to do this. Look at something through rose tinted glasses on a viewing. Once I had the car on my own property and I had a good few hours to look over things, it became very apparent, very quickly, that there was a huge amount of work involved in getting this vehicle decommissioned and to a standard acceptable for an MOT to be issued for it. However as my family said to me, at least this one has an engine in it, an interior and a set of wheels. Yeh, I've brought some right clunkers home before!
 
#31 ·
You are right, I got this back in May. Progress hasn't been phenomenal unfortunately but I have made some progress in various aspects of the car. Annoyingly other projects have got in the way but the decision has been made to get rid of the other distractions so I can focus on the Porsche a lot more.

Great project
Get this right and you will have a proper classic on your hands.
Thanks very much. I am hoping my best to get it right, this will be a huge learning progress at the same time.

Looking forward to this, keep the updates coming
I'll try and keep this as up to date as possible. With it being dark at 5pm now I can't imagine progress will be overly quick unfortunately.

Hopefully this can give you some inspiration; my good friend inherited his dads 944 and has kept it in top condition! His is garaged and only run in the summer now though.


[
Oh dear, that is phenomenal! Incredibly clean, very very nice, testament to the owner and his father.

The more I see the S2 front bumper the more I like it, however I do not want to stray too far from original with mine.

Do you know what event that was? Seems to be a nice selection of cars there.

Oh wow you have a great car there - looking forward to future and I think Red is a fantastic colour for these.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk
Thanks very much, it sure needs a lot of work however I am hopeful I will get it there. I'm struggling with the possible refurbishment options for some parts, but I'll post those areas when I get there and hopefully someone can suggest a viable option.

Thanks again guys.
 
#29 ·
Oh wow you have a great car there - looking forward to future and I think Red is a fantastic colour for these.

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#30 ·
The show car is a late model S2 or earlier Turbo (2 versions, different spoilers, 30hp more on later bridge spoiler version).

These are great cars, I should know, had 2, my current 1990 Turbo since 2003 and driven a total of 130,000m in them.

The killers will be:
Sills - by now many of them have rotted, if there's no rust from the outside take off the plastic vents and stick your phone on video inside to see the condition. Genuine ones will cost you £1000-1200 fitted and painted, pattern ones much less but they dont fit so well, therefore more fitting required. A hole in the sill is an MOT fail but you can fill them.

Engines are bullet proof, once you get it working, but you may have seals gone. Front main seal is hard to get to. Replace all belts as they will be too old - belt service every 3 years, irrespective of mileage.

Check oil in rear diff.

Pads, discs aren't cheap either btw. All are used in braking and these aren't light at around 1450kg.

Check drain holes in the boot and petrol filler cap. Lift boot carpet to see if that's OK. Water can sit on top of boot lip, check for rust.

Good luck with the mechanicals and body, there's loads of paint on them so you'll be OK there.
 
#44 ·
Thanks for such an incredibly comprehensive reply and apologies for somehow missing it, not sure how I managed that.

It is nice to hear from someone who is fond of these cars and has an extended experience with them, going by what you've said is it fair to assume you still own a 944? If so, do you have any photos? Would be very interesting to hear more about it.

The sills on mine are solid however the internals are showing signs of corrosion through the door vent. I am a fabricator by trade and my second project is a "67 cooper which as we all know are partial to a little bit of rust here and there. As much as I don't want to, the sills will be getting stripped back, inspected and replaced where necessary. There are some small areas of bubbling around the boot hatch area but all are small and easily treated. To be honest it's quite refreshing to have something that isn't a huge rust bucket.

The drain holes in the boot and the fuel filler were very blocked, lots of miss and muck in there but they have been cleaned out. What is frustrating is the area under the front scuttle, where the battery is. My car when parked outside is usually parked with the nose up, this means the water runs down and pools in the upper bulkhead area, I can't seem to see any drain holes at the back there or am I missing them?

I was unaware of the rear diff oil, thanks for mentioning it and I will be sure to research how to correctly check. I will be throwing a new timing belt in, however the fact it's a Porsche, and all the other gubbins which have to come off in order to replace it I am left a little daunted by the process. However there is no fun or learning it giving it to a specialist to do, so I will be doing it myself before the car goes on the road.

Thanks again for your reply.
 
#32 ·
A bit of a poor update.

Once the car was home and tucked up my first port of call before the paint was to ascertain if the engine was in fact a runner or if it ever could be.

I don't know if I mentioned it earlier in the thread but the car was sold to me as a non-runner with the starter motor being at fault. I spoke with the seller about this at the viewing and he said that he called out a mobile mechanic who said the starter was goosed and needed replacing. In response the owner bought a starter motor and then proceeded to do nothing with it.

So with the car at home my first job was to replace the starter. Here is what it looked like to start with.



I whipped this out, very easy actually, just two M12 bolts and out it came. Here is a comparison of old Vs new.



Now with the starter motor out of the car I thought I would check the new one worked, very simple thing to so, Earth the body and then supply 12V to the perm and ign terminals on the solenoid. Sure enough as expected the new one worked. I did the same with the old starter and guess what, that also worked.

With this now discovered I threw the old street motor straight back in, wired it up and nothing. I checked the exciter wire and there was no feed, however looking closer I didn't know how I didn't notice it to start with, there was two excited wires!

Last year I bought a cheap vito because it wouldn't start, turned out to be no 12V+ supply to the excited which was then traced back to a cracked solder in an ECU, far too much work to repair so I just threw in a starter button. That seems to be the exact case here.

I traced the White wire up into the car and into a starter button very well hidden in plain sight.



I am very fortunate with some of my work colleagues, despite not working in an automotive industry they're all petrol heads. I mentioned this troublesome discovery to a chap and he promptly informed me that the ignition switches on the 944 are the same as a lot of golf items. He said the gold items cracked around the housing and the switch stopped working. A few phone calls with the Porsche part number returned quotes of £60+, I thought screw that, I'll give them a registration for a mk1 golf GTI and see if that works. £5 later and I had myself a new switch.

The problem with this switch is its only £5, but the whole steering assembly has to come out!



Once that was out of the way I could get into the switch. Here is a comparison. Doesn't take much to tell one is goosed!



With this done I got someone in the car whilst I took a reading at the excited wire. This meant that once connected up, the engine should crank over from the key! That however is going to be in the next update.

I have discovered from this update my word to photo ratio sucks, more photos are needed.
 
#38 ·
I always struggle with multi quotes but I'll try again!

Subscribed!

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Hopefully I can keep some decent progress going worthy of a subscription.

proper project :thumb:
Thanks very much, compared to its stable mates, this is a very tame project.

Long way to go, but still watching.
A huge way to go, thanks for the PM again. I want to achieve mechanical stability before I tend to the paint, don't want to have a well detailed fancy anchor that I can't drive anywhere.
 
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