1982 Alpine White Porsche 924 (now two-tone white\red)

[russmw]

Hi

Having dipped in and out of here for the last year few years I thought it was about time I posted my car. Two years ago I decided it was time to buy a toy and having spent many years with VW ownership my new toy had to be German but now the years had ticked by a little it didnt feel right going back to a GTI and I fancied a new challenge. I spent some time looking at options then stumbled across the Porsche 924 so started to look into them. It quickly became apparent they ticked all the boxes so the hunt was on!!

3 weeks later I was on my way to Fareham to pick up a 1982 Porsche 942 in alpine white having won it on ebay. The car came with tax and 10 months MOT so in theory it should be a usable state. As I turned into the close this awaited me




I handed over my cash and jumped in ready to drive home. It soon dawned on me that I was just about to do an 82 mile drive in a 30 year old car I knew nothing about! After getting some air in the tyres and fuel in the tank we headed up the A34 in a car which wouldn't idle correctly, had dials which acted more like a compass and an exhaust that droned like mad but at 10pm I arrived home with no dramas - surely a sign that I'd done the right thing??

The next day was spent evaluating what I'd bought once I got its started as it wasn't keen on cold starts. The next few weeks consisted of washing, clay bar work, polishing, graphic removal and painting. Soon the car was looking more reasonable.

[russmw]

At this point I started to look around for some history of the car and found it had previously graced this forum in the hands of mt2man;

retrorides.proboards.com/thread/137267/1982-porsche-1999-seicento-abarth?page=1

I spent the following 9 months removing & cleaning or replacing majority of the car and the following MOT got rewarded with a clean pass with no advisory's. During this time the engine also got its fair share of attention cosmetically with polished inlet manifold, alternator and various other bits



Inside got a damn good clean and the correct steering wheel fitted along with a more appropriate head unit



Following this I've spent many hours getting the car to a reasonable condition and picked up spares including a set of 5 Porsche spiderweb alloys, the correct rear spoiler, brakes stripped and cleaned all round, new top mounts, replaced rear shocks, gearbox seals & oil replaced, fuel tank flushed & new pumps etc along with normal servicing so she's looking ok and running really well.

[russmw]

I went to the Porsche National this year at Althorp house and followed my neighbour up in his 911 which was a fantastic day out and my car made it into one of the PCGB publicity photos even though its a case of 'where's wally'

[baggabones]

Nice! Can't beat a 924

[peter96]

Like it. Always had a soft spot for the 924. That looks like a really good example. Really like the wheels.

[GT4ME]

Looks good, those x spoke alloys are lovely.

[russmw]

Thanks for all the comments/complements. Just spent the evening under the car replacing the accumulator and the fuel lines either side after "quickly" removing the screw on the bottom of the old one to see if it leaked whilst hunting down a hot start problem. Sure enough it leaked so I popped the screw back in which wouldn't seal correctly so a small tweak and it threaded :-(

Old accumulator off, found the fuel lines in a horrible state so ordered all bits required and fitted tonight. Any guess on which bit leaked?? The fuel pump input which I hadn't even removed!!! Bit more tweaking and its good to go.

Got tickets for bicester Sunday scramble on the 20th so looking forward to that before its sorn for the winter.

[mt2man]

That's my old car! had great fun in it! Ended up swapping it for a mk1 caddy though haha, great to see you've looked after it

[russmw]

Sept 10, 2015 17:53:15 GMT mt2man said:

That's my old car! had great fun in it! Ended up swapping it for a mk1 caddy though haha, great to see you've looked after it

I bought from the guy who you got the caddy from as he couldnt afford to insure it which made me the 10th owner but it turns out most of the previous owners are within a few years of each other as I found out earlier this year.

I had an email though forums.tipec.net/ from a guy saying he used to own my 924 in 2008 and would like to buy it back as it was his first Porsche for which he also sent photos to me to back it up. Turns out his Dad is the principle manager at Dick Lovett BMW in swindon where the 924 had come in as a PX so his dad gave it to him - I have no intention of selling it but he said if I ever do he'll buy it.

From what I can work out he sold it to a mechanic from Swindon Porsche centre, who sold it on, then later sold to mt2man complete with a Fiat, he px'd it for the caddy then I got it = 6 owners in 5 years!!

As it didnt stay with anyone for long I can appreciate it didnt get much TLC..... until it got to me

[Mercdan68]

Very nice looking car, always liked the shape , well bought fella

[russmw]

Right, after a winter tucked away it's due back on the road next month. I had a problem at the end of last year just before the tax expired where it wouldn't start after a good run which lead to if breaking down :-(

After some investigation it turned the coil in the distributor was breaking down and not sending a "fire" signal to coil. £22 and an hours work it was back up and running, just in time for the tax to expire.

Over the winter I've replaced the rear wheel bearings and other small bits, refurbished the brakes and generally tinkered.

Desperate to get on and drive it now!! On the plus side I have tickets for Porsche club gb show at Silverstone in July, can't wait!

[arsonist]

I'm generally not a fan of porsches but this looks beautiful. Your work has clearly paid off, looking very nice indeed!

[russmw]

Clearly an eternity since I last posted on here so a 'quick' 2 year update.

Major point is I decided that taking it off the road for the winter was a mistake as it clearly doesn't like not getting used. Each time it came back out for spring something was broken so the car now stays mot'd, taxed and insured all year round and gets used whenever possible but avoiding times when the road is salted or really wet. I've managed to get 3k miles on her over the last 2.5 years.

Cosmetically the biggest change is she's now two-tone. I got a bit bored of the white but wanted something that was offered by Porsche and more importantly reversible so decided to vinyl wrap the bottom half red. Having never done this before I started on the sides as the panels are easier to work with then went from there. Few mistakes on the way but really happy with how it turned out.



Mechanically I decided to do the clutch late last year. Many horror stories about how hard it is, car needs to be 6 foot off the floor, cant do with just one person etc. I put aside 1 hour a night and on the garage floor with a few trolley jack\stands got on with it. There's nothing to complicated with the job and 14 hours of work later it was done. The clutch I removed has a manufacturing date of July 1981 and still had loads of meat on it so backs up the 78k on the clock which is nice.

Also visited various PCGB events and pistonhead sunday services which were all great so looking forward to 2019 events.

Last area not touched too much on the car is the interior so looking at getting the seat re-trimmed and interior generally tidied. Also want to get the wheel re-done in silver and not black\polished face this year plus drive it as much as possible!