1985 Porsche 944

[broady]

Let me transport you back in time, not a long way back. But it will feel far. I was 22 (I think) making it 2012. I bought this car. Why start a thread now though? Well of late ive been involved in a fairly extensive restoration and want to have a decent log of it all. So I will start from the begining and bring this up to date over the coming months.



This is the day of collection 9/11/12. I had long wanted one. I had in fact been trying to buy one when I ended up with the fastback.

forum.retro-rides.org/thread/52833/1971-vw-type-3-fastback

This particular 944 has a few nice features which I rather liked. It has no sun roof, option sports seat, which are from a 911. And it was sold with the sports suspension option from new. The car came with full service history and the original bill of sale to a Glaswegian dentist.

Over all the car was in good order, the interior was a bit tatty and in need of a deep clean. The drivers seat had a small rip in the base, the dash was cracked and the shift boot and knob were non original.

[jjeffries]

Hi, lovely car.

I’m doing an ‘87 924S, much commonality with your 944. Here’s my thread if of interest and/or support of what you’re doing.

Best, John

forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-924-944-968-technical-forum/1046846-johnjs-87-924s-rehabilitation.html

[broady]

Hello,

How strange, I used to frequent the TIPEC forum here in the UK and got to know a chap call John Jeffries on there who had a 944. I will have a read of you thread in the coming weeks. I wont spoil what state my car is currently in. But only to say, I know every detail by now!

[broady]

The car was a bit lumpy at idle and not really knowing the engine I had a lot of learning too do. I use JMG porsche a lot in the early days. They offer great advice. The first thing I found was a split vacuum hose.



Replacing this improved the idle issue.

The car was given a deep clean over the winter. And in March 2013 it looks like this



That first year of ownership got quite invovled. I was incoently checking the oil one day only to find the mayo. So I was about to learn how this engine goes together very quickly. A bit parts order went in.



Over the easter weekend of 2013 I set too stripping and rebuilding.





While in there I thought it was worth cleaning this up a bit. Not going to town, but generally making is respectable.





With things a bit cleaner. It was time to start pulling it apart without fear of the dirt getting into the engine.





I also replaced the water pump and all the front end oil seals while I was in there. So all the timing gears came off.



And Then I found it wasnt all needed, the watercooled oil cooler had been leaking and thats where the mayo had come from after all.



None the less I got on with the job and after 3 days work, I had it all back together and running.

[broady]

A little further on then. Continuing 2013. The wheel lips needed a bit of polish. While not original I spent hours polishing flakey paint off.

A before



And some after









At the end of 2013 ebay presented a golden opotunity. A dash with a tiny crack and nothing else. For £100. I had to buy it.


A couple of shots of the crappy thing I was removing.





And this hole drilled in it for some reason or another.



Nearly a full days work to get it removed. Mainly as I wasnt sure what I was doing.



and just like that, back togher. You may also note that ive changed the gear knob and boot. from a mk4 golf. But better than what it did have.

[broady]

We enter early 2014 and I was trying to replace my strut top mounts. I was saving for a house and trying to be sensible ect. So the stuff from porsche suppliers was too expensive. As result a lot of researh I found that this was very similar, if not the same as a VW part of the period. I ordered some from America and theyve been on the car for 7 years and still going strong!



I removed, stripped, blasted and painted.





A little more fast forwarding. Now we get to the point where I had some cash to start playing with. I sent the wheels away for powdercoating and diamond cutting.






This left me with the wheel centres what needed painting. Having spent much of my youth building airfix kits, I had plenty of small brushes.





Not the highest quality, but presentable. That was all the car was treated to 2015. But on to 2016 it was time to improve some more.

The centre exahust section was some welded in bodgery.





A Dansk center section didnt half improve things.





I recall that during an MOT it was noted the front brakes were slightly out of balance. Still a pass, but as I wanted to start doing track days, it needed looking at. Front calipers were rebuilt and new hoses fitted.

A crusty lump removed.



Having my own blasting cabinet certainly paid for its self over these few years.



A nice new hose and pad fitting kit.

[jake899]

Great thread. Weird how I paid these no attention until about 5 years ago and now I’m fascinated by them. Yours is a nice example, post more please!

[broady]

They are an amazing car. I recall seeing one as a child following us. I turned around and was staring at it, the bloke put the lights on and they popped up. That was the moment I had to have one. Ownership has not disappointed.

The 12V socket is bang in the middle of the dash. If you have a phone charger plugged in, it will keep getting kocked every time you change gear. But on the centre console there is a series of small buttons. I had a blank in one place. I decided this needed to become a USB charging port.



This has worked quite well ever since.

Next stop was to take it on a track day. My local track at blyton part, which is only 6 miles away.

The weather gods werent happy that day and it was pouring down, so much so it was more of a trundle round for most of that day.







Unfortunately at one point, I ran out of tallent and slid into some hay bales. The only damage was some scuffed paint luckily.



A bit of paint work later and it was smartened up again. The rest of the year was spent driving and enjoying it. I didnt book another track day until Ocotober 2017, This time at Cadwell Park. Again a stones through from my house. Very lucky to have these two circuits near to my house.

While not the most exciting things you will ever watch. Heres the 944 round Cadwell.







There are as few photos, but they're blury or out of focus. So the videos will have to do. The good news is, no off track fun this time.

[broady]

Twice in one day!

I noticed that the front bumper/spliter was wobbling about, I had a look in the IPC and saw I was missing some brackets.

I got hold of some and had others made.



I cant remember where I got the righthand one from but I used it as a pattern to make the left.

Several coats of paint later and repeated on the otherside



This piece sat between the lower wing and bumper.

[broady]

While elbow deep in the fasty resto forum.retro-rides.org/thread/52833/1971-vw-type-3-fastback

I was out for a drive in the 944 and noticed the oil pressure gauge started to flicker during acceleration.



Very minior I know. But still 0.5 bar drop when I put my foot down was odd. Oil pressure is RPM related, it shouldnt have anything to do with throttle pistion. There might be small changes due to the load. But a "dumb" instrument in the car shouldnt be seeing such details.

I swapped the sender unit and tested the guage. All was well with those and the problem persisted.

I bought an oil pressure guage and carried out a series of tests.

First of all I plumbed it in and had a look from cold.



As you can see the pressure rise isnt smooth with RPM. Id noticed what I though might be a bit of a clack on start up. Maybe big ends needing a second to recieve oil.

I also got a loan of a 1 piece oil pressure relief valve. Mine had the original style which Porsche themselves did away with in the 80s.

Heres the new valve installed.



Micro fluctuations but its following the RPM more closely.

With the engine warmed up it seemed to revert back to its scatty self.



You can read the full story here forums.tipec.net/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=23463&sid=cf7b3bc5e48f575448794e43a83ad5d5

I got hold of a set of big eng shells from germany at sensible prices and installed them. Things were better, but still it had its moments. I also bought a new pressure valve and away we went. It has been happy ever since.



The pressure increases with RPM.

[broady]

Many more miles of enjoyment ensued in 2018 and 2019. I was mainly focused on the teething issues with the fasty. Once little upgrade that happened but with out photos, I installed a set of bilstein B6 dampers. This made a big difference to the ride as it turned out the ones I removed were the original dampers at some 165000 miles old.

Then 2020 did its thing, so by the summer I deciced it was time to play out again. I took it to blyton again for another track day, this time with new dampers. I was there with a couple of a mates, one of which has a turbo beetle. Which was great fun and he wanted me to have a drive and see how it performed. He was too scared to push it himself.







The porsche and the beetle were a reasonable match. But I followed easily just to get some footage of how stable it was. And you can hear all that boost.





I was then treated to a run in the bug. The sound on the video is rather quiet compared to the real deal. And it wasnt my car so I wasnt ringing its neck as I know how much the engine cost!



And last of all, a small video off board.



it was a great day out and the car was faultless. But you can see in this photo, the bubble in the rear of the sill. In the coming posts you will see what this leads too.

[broady]

We enter what was going to be a small tidy up for the sill and a few small rust blisters. But A strip and repaint. A nice project over the winter of 2020 2021.



I ripped the filler out to see what I was really dealing with.



The otherside didnt look as bad, but was made of so much filler!





Once id seen the extent of it, it was clear the full rear end needed stripping, so I got underneath as was immediately met with a crack in the torque tube.



Gearbox out, this was a bit of a fight as the muppet before hadnt fully tightened the shaft clamp, so it had vibrated along so you couldnt undo the pinch bolts. Meaning there wasnt enough room to slide the gearbox back to lower it. I had to dent the spare wheel well to get it out and then flatten it later.



Next out was the fuel tank. A tight fit, but its out.



Next up, was to drop the rear axel. This was a challenge as I met so seized bolts.



It was in a very poorly way, this has clearly been well over due and hidden by under seal.







Realising the state of the bushes, ive decided to go to the powerflex heritage range. As some of the genuine rubber ones are very expensive. So trailing arms were stripped ready for poweder coating.



Then on to the full rear beam.



There was a lot of bimetalic corrosion here, which meant the bolts holding the mounts would not turn. I worked and lubed as much as I could. But a few snapped.







One of these ally fellas had corrodeded quite badly. I didnt know it yet, but when I sent it too the blasters, not much came back.



And when trying to remove the torsion bars I struggled, only to find that someone had soldered one in for some reason.



A little action shot of pushing bushes out so I can send it for cad plating.



While I was doing all that, I taken the torqure tube to be welded. And it had returned in a much better condition.



I stripped the clamps off and then decorroded the whole thing.







I then stod in the garage for a few months, waiting for me to walk into it!

[motardman]

That is a LOT of work!

Loving the updates, please keep them coming.

[broady]

It gets into far more "a lot of work". I'm currently self isolating so ive got a bit of time to do some updates for you all.

[75swb]

Now this is getting interesting!

[broady]

Lets have some more interesting then.

The gearbox mounts are like finding wooden horse you know what. And the rubber has debonded from the metal.



Ive had to spend some time working on these, ive blasted these and researched a good glue. I need to get some photos.

I also managed to get hold of a good pair of these outter mounts for the rear axle.



So before we get back to the running gear, lets have a look at that body.

The rear exhaust hanger had to be cut out and blasted. It was a bit feathery.





The lower edge was so patchy that I decided it was easier to just remove it and make a new piece.





Then came the rear corner, it was covered in seam sealer.









As id never planned on doing a thread, I'm a little light on photos. But heres the montage version.









A good coat of dinitrol after a thorough going over with strip discs and wire wheels. Then lots of degreaser.

[broady]

Onwards, I forget what sits on this mount, but as you can see I cut quite a lump out. It was the same on the otherside. New metal went in and it was sealed.



Moving forwards, the back of the sill. Where this was all supposed to start and finish. I cut them open and saw what fresh hell awaited.









The previous bellend had only gone and plated over rust. Rather than doing a proper job. this had just promoted the rust and given me a job and a half to do! This was around mid January 2021. I had expected to have the welding done in around 6 to 8 weeks worth of evenings and weekends. Little did I know it was going to be 6 to 8 months!

Time to get choppy, first of all it was to sort out the suspension monunt.







Inside the rear arch, the lip just about all the way around was no longer metalic.





Lots of lovely curves to try and deal with. Which without a strinker was hard to make. A few body dollys and a hammers.I got pretty close. I was never aiming for perfect, just for respectable and solid.













And finally a coating of tiger seal.



Next step was to rip the interior out, having realised that the floor and the sills were going to need work.



Wanting to refit the tank and reclaim some garage space. I worked on the other rear arch. it was in a similar state.







Again starting with the suspension mount.







It was a case of just keep finding the holes and filling them back up.



The rear of the arch.



Finally dinitrolled.



To end on a high note, heres the replacement sills and strengthening ribs.

[broady]

Lets put a little bit back together then. Tank had a good clean inside an out, dressed any surface rust. I had the straps powdercoated, and put some fresh padding on. Then cleaned up everything else. Filter out of the tank and new gaskets.









While I had been doing all the previous, the plater and powdercoaters had been busy repectively.




Here is the feathery edge that I mentioned earlier.



I got hold of another and had it blasted. its not perfect. But is much more useable.





My car was also missing all of the exhaust heat shields. I hadnt even realised until I found some broken tabs with bolts through them. I then had a look in the IPC to see what should be there. So ebay to the rescue.



After a good blast and plenty of paint. While one has some pin holes, it will do. I can always replace it later when budget allows.



A rear axle build awaits. Bushes at the ready.









These are two small spacers which fit between the ally and steel tube. These are well past there best, so I made replacements from a piece of bar I had kicking around.

The torque tube, with a new shift rod insulator was installed, then the support. Followed by the rear axle.



It was then the turn of the back end to have even more bits bolted back on.









Brand new rear discs go on and then dropped on its wheels.





And that gets us to May 2021. This is the point where I had expected to have the car back on the road. But as you can see, ive hardly started!

[ToolsnTrack]

I would say you have more than started. Nice progress!!

[nickduncan]

From that last comment I get the feeling this is going to get worse before it gets better.
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