The Dirty 911: The Project Begins...

I have a friend who can buy a car with a rod out the side of the engine and after a wax job and a vacuum clean the car is miraculously good to go!

Me, I am the opposite, if it sounds like a loose rocker, it turns out to need a new engine and body shell!

yeah gotta love it. I bought a 1988 Saab 900 turbo the needed brakes and a clutch. got it home and bleed the system and it was good to go. still driving on the same clutch 4 years later

Today was another productive day.

The final step to a smooth throttle linkage was the pedal cluster. They were pretty crusty and so I removed and disassembled them. I sandblasted the painted stuff and used the wire wheel on my bench grinder for all the machined and plated surfaces. Then I painted, lubed and reassembled everything. I had ordered new bronze bushings, but when I got everything apart, the plastic ones were fine so I reused them and sent the others back.

Before:

After sandblasting:

I'm not the only one who polishes bolts, right? (And this, for a car that will probably find its way to eBay in a couple of weeks!)

Painted (Rusoleum Hammered Black), greased, reassembled and waiting to go back in the car:

The pedal cluster is now the best looking part of the car and it cost nothing but time, since I already had an opened can of spray paint. I have a nice pair of used pedal pads from the owner of another 911 (also me), so I'll put those on as I get everything back in its place. In the course of doing this part of the project, I discovered a broken clevis on the clutch cable that was poorly bolted in place as a temporary fix, but I also found a new clevis and clip in the glove compartment, so I installed those as well.

Unfortunately, I probably won't get another chance to work on the car again until Tuesday. I've really been enjoying this.

What's your shop rate to come fix all the little crap on my 944?

Javelin wrote: What's your shop rate to come fix all the little crap on my 944?

Unfortunately all of the "It costs nothing but time" fixes become really expensive when you're paying by the hour.

Woody wrote: Today was another productive day. The final step to a smooth throttle linkage was the pedal cluster. They were pretty crusty and so I removed and disassembled them. I sandblasted the painted stuff and used the wire wheel on my bench grinder for all the machined and plated surfaces. Then I painted, lubed and reassembled everything. I had ordered new bronze bushings, but when I got everything apart, the plastic ones were fine so I reused them and sent the others back. Before: After sandblasting: I'm not the only one who polishes bolts, right? (And this, for a car that will probably find its way to eBay in a couple of weeks!) Painted (Rusoleum Hammered Black), greased, reassembled and waiting to go back in the car: The pedal cluster is now the best looking part of the car and it cost nothing but time, since I already had an opened can of spray paint. I have a nice pair of used pedal pads from the owner of another 911 (also me), so I'll put those on as I get everything back in its place. In the course of doing this part of the project, I discovered a broken clevis on the clutch cable that was poorly bolted in place as a temporary fix, but I also found a new clevis and clip in the glove compartment, so I installed those as well. Unfortunately, I probably won't get another chance to work on the car again until Tuesday. I've really been enjoying this.

You're not the only one -

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

BTW - I've become a huge fan of the Rustoleum Professional line for restoration stuff like this. Lays down really nice, and is tough when it dries.

DILYSI Dave wrote: After:

I actually recognize those. I had a set of them too.

<blockquoteAfter:

Nice work! How much work was it to put the steering quickener on there (ie. did the splines match, or was there some fab work involved)?

Also - one small note - I have seen the older 911 plastic bushings on the pedals jam - on one occasion they jammed the gas pedal at WOT. i know you are flipping this one, just something to consider.

fifty wrote: <blockquoteAfter: Nice work! How much work was it to put the steering quickener on there (ie. did the splines match, or was there some fab work involved)?

Thanks. Lots of fab involved. It somewhat complicated it by insisting on retaining the tilt mechanism, but the finished product was worth it.

fifty wrote: Also - one small note - I have seen the older 911 plastic bushings on the pedals jam - on one occasion they jammed the gas pedal at WOT. i know you are flipping this one, just something to consider.

No worries. The gas pedal bushings are bronze.

i have been trying to put a steering quickner on my 90 vett but had not been able to find room till now . never thought of the top thanks

On Sunday, I got an unexpected day of work in on this car and made more progress.

I've had the wheels off a few times, and the brakes were pretty crusty, though they barely had any wear on them.

I decided to take everything apart for a refresh. I'll drop the rotors into the sand blasting cabinet to clean them up and then send them to NAPA to be turned. There's a lot of material left on them.

Since the fronts mount behind the hubs, I'll drop the hubs into the parts washer and then repack the wheel bearings when I remount the rotors.

The pads, both front and rear had at least 90% of their material left on them, but the shims were really rusted. Fortunately, I had a near-new set of rear pads with shims that I had removed from another car. On a whim, I checked Advance Auto to see if they sold Porsche pads. Surprisingly, they had front pads in stock locally for $9.99.

So this is how the car sits until I get the rotors back.

More progress, though I finally had to start spending some money.

I sand blasted the rotors and then took them to NAPA to be machined. As I mentioned earlier, they looked terrible, but had a lot of material left on them. They cost $15 each to be cut. Unfortunately, I hadn't gotten the hubs into the parts washer yet when the guy from NAPA called to say that he needed them to get the fronts on the brake lathe. So, I brought them down dirty and when I picked them up, he suggested that I not unbolt them since they were now nice and true. I guess I'm stuck with pretty rotors on dirty hubs. I'll repack the wheel bearings before I install the fronts, but they had to order the two seals at $7 each. They will be here in the morning, so I was only able to install the rears, which I did, after cleaning and lubing the parking brake mechanism.

The rotors looked a little better after sand blasting and machining. It's hard to believe that these are the same rotors that I started with.

I didn't want the hats to rust, so I masked them off with some junk mail and sprayed them with 2000 degree engine paint.

Damn! You're like a magician. I wish I had the skill to do what you're doing. As someone pointed out above, I'd be in the expensive b/c I'm paying by the hour camp.

I bought some more parts today.

When I was tracking down the fuel delivery issue last week, I discovered that someone had already changed the fuel pump. Unfortunately, the job was never completed and I needed to find a mounting bracket for the pump, as well as the large stone guard / skid plate that protects it. I suspected that it might be in the previous owner's garage, but I didn't really want to go back to New Jersey to retrieve it. I also wasn't crazy about talking to him again, because I was sensing a bit of seller's remorse when I loaded the car onto the trailer. Fortunately, PartsHaven sells both new and used Porsche parts, so I got the stone guard for $35, the bracket for $5, plus an oil filter, some fuses, a spare relay and some mounting hardware.

While waiting for these parts and the oil seals to arrive, I turned my attention back to the pedals. It always struck me as odd that Porsche used wooden floor boards to make the angle between the steel floor pans and the front bulkhead. Eventually, these get wet and start to fall apart. Your options are either find a good used one, a new ABS replacement ($70), or a pricey (and blingy) Rennline aluminum one ($125).

My floor board was obviously beyond salvation, as it had started to delaminate. I was able to separate the plies and get one section that was nearly intact. I plan to use that as a pattern and cut my own out of some scrap aluminum.

Stay tuned...

This is my favorite thread on GRM right now. I like it even more than my build thread!

Keep rolling on this please. You're touching on so much of the stuff that has kept me from buying a 911. I'm starting to see that it's really possible to buy and fix one of these without writing huge checks. You're the best kind of enabler.

Woody wrote: I didn't want the hats to rust, so I masked them off with some junk mail and sprayed them with 2000 degree engine paint.

You owe me a new keyboard!!!

Today was a mixed bag...

I started off the morning with a trip to NAPA to pick up the new seals that I ordered for the front wheel bearings ($7 each). NAPA would later prove to be my favorite auto parts retailer of the day. (I say this in spite of their insistence upon featuring Michael Waltrip in their unwatchable television commercials. Who directs those things, Bob Fosse? It's time to man-up and get someone like AJ Foyt as your spokesman; someone who will punch me in the throat if I even think about buying parts at another place. For god's sake, you're an auto parts store.)

Here's a shot of my parts runner parked in front of the NAPA store. They can use this in their new ads. Note that the car is still wearing its snow tires:

Anyway, with the new seals in hand, I returned home to clean and repack the wheel bearings, reinstall the hubs and rotors and finish the front brakes.

Cleaned, but not yet repacked:

Special installation tool for the new seal:

When I initially removed the front hubs, I counted 16.5 turns on each of the locking nuts, so that's what I used as a guide when I was putting everything back together. Smooth and tight.

At this point, the project came to a screeching halt.

As I mentioned earlier, I bought new front brake pads from Advance Auto. When I went to install them, I discovered that they were much smaller than the ones that I had removed. I compared them to the ones that I had removed from the rear of the car and they were clearly rear pads. I checked my receipt and and it said "Front". I cleaned up my tools and went back to the store. The clerk confirmed that the part number was wrong online and told me that the correct pads would cost me an additional $10. As a bonus, the right pads weren't in stock and he'd have to order them. So, in summary, the front brakes would cost me $10 more than I had expected, require three trips to Advance Auto to get the proper pads, and kill my progress for the rest of today and most of tomorrow morning.

Attention Advance Auto Customer Service Department: Angry letter forthcoming.

With my spirits sufficiently squashed, I decided to take the rest of the afternoon off.

NAPA: 1, Advance Auto: Zero

Love the Cayman! Is it an "S"?

Yes, it is an S, but I should add that I really like the base Cayman and I would wholeheartedly endorse them to anyone who is thinking about one.

Thanks to the previously mentioned debacle with Advance Auto (online error, the guys at my local store are great), I finally managed to get the front brakes back together. Unfortunately, it took me three trips to the store and cost me twice what I had expected ($18.99). As a bonus, I did get to work in the cold rain, rather than the warm sunshine that we had yesterday afternoon.

911s have some of the easiest brakes you'll ever work on. To remove the pads, you just push out the two pins and remove the retaining spring. The pads slide right out. It makes it easy to swap in new pads in the pits at Le Mans or Sebring. If you've ever done brakes on a Volvo or Mercedes, it's the same procedure. It takes longer to jack up the car and remove the wheel.

I had also planned to change the brake fluid, but I will postpone that job until the sun comes back.

Since the rain has forced me indoors, I turned my attention to the wooden floorboard, which had seen better days.

I was able to separate the plies and found the best of the five. I glued the bits back together to use as a pattern.

I traced this onto a piece of thick scrap aluminum that I had won years ago on The Price is Right.

I cut the outside shape and then used a hole saw to rough out the interior cuts.

I finished it up with the jigsaw and then cleaned it all up with a flapdisc on my angle grinder. It's not perfect, but it's much better than what I started with. I just need to find someone with a Rennline floorboard who can measure the angle for me so I can add the final bend.

Man, that's trick. You need to open up a resto shop...

The car would have been much faster if you would have used a "Speed Limit 70" sign instead.