Thought id share a little Porsche 911 project that I've been working on for a while. I was contacted by a good friend asking if I would go and inspect a back date 3.2 Carrera that a friend of he's had not long bought and knowing that I worked for a Porsche specialist for a number of years thought id be interested.
A date was arranged and I headed off to Suffolk to meet the owner and have a chat about the car over lunch, the car is a 1984 3.2 Carrera that had been backdated by a Porsche specialist called Retroworks, the owner wanted a few annoying jobs fixed so he could start using the car.
We went over to where the car is kept and at first glance it looked quite nice, the paint work wasn't perfect but on the whole it looked cool. Darren showed me the things that he wanted sorted but I suggested that it would be best for me to come back another day and do a full wheels off inspection and that way I could give him a list of my findings and we could go from there.
IMG_20200212_195328_644 by Scott Raven, on Flickr
IMG_20200210_120903 by Scott Raven, on Flickr
IMG_20200210_121825~2 by Scott Raven, on Flickr
IMG_20200210_154033~2 by Scott Raven, on Flickr
On my return the car was jacked up and the list was done, Darren had told me he had just given £75K for the car so what I found wrong was shocking considering the price of the car. Front wheel bearings noisy, bearing races damaged and hardly any grease, engine oil leaks, long bonnet been made from a standard bonnet with a bit of metal welded on, wrong bonnet slam panel and catch, washer bottle held in with foam, front and rear suspension in bad condition, fuel leaks from the tank, wings going rusty, rear 1/4s full of filler, all lights held in with self tappers, broken seat adjuster, old Moss alarm still fitted but not working, bad wiring everywhere, wrong screws holding the trim in place, front and rear bumpers being made of fibreglass and not steel and being held in with screws, gas struts on the engine lid and bonnet not holding up, door rubbers split, front shocks/legs fucked because the wheel bearings had worn the hubs due to bad adjustment, poorly made copper brake pipes etc etc......
I gave Darren the list and he's response was okay that's fine when can you do the work.
I started by removing the fuel tank and front suspension where it was stripped down for blasting and powder coating, all fixings plated and all bushes replaced with Powerflex heritage items to just improve things a little while still looking like factory rubber bushes.
The plan with the car is to get the car to a standard it can be driven and enjoyed, I will be stripping it down to a bare shell so the panel work can be sorted, sunroof delete and a bare metal repaint.
Once that's done the refurbished suspension can be bolted back and the rest of the car fitted up with other new parts like Singer style door mirrors and a set of back dated clocks so i had to be mindful how far I went with the car considering it will be come apart again.
IMG_20200222_173201~2 by Scott Raven, on Flickr
IMG_20200224_111041 by Scott Raven, on Flickr
IMG_20200222_175445 by Scott Raven, on Flickr
IMG_20200224_140758 by Scott Raven, on Flickr
A date was arranged and I headed off to Suffolk to meet the owner and have a chat about the car over lunch, the car is a 1984 3.2 Carrera that had been backdated by a Porsche specialist called Retroworks, the owner wanted a few annoying jobs fixed so he could start using the car.
We went over to where the car is kept and at first glance it looked quite nice, the paint work wasn't perfect but on the whole it looked cool. Darren showed me the things that he wanted sorted but I suggested that it would be best for me to come back another day and do a full wheels off inspection and that way I could give him a list of my findings and we could go from there.
On my return the car was jacked up and the list was done, Darren had told me he had just given £75K for the car so what I found wrong was shocking considering the price of the car. Front wheel bearings noisy, bearing races damaged and hardly any grease, engine oil leaks, long bonnet been made from a standard bonnet with a bit of metal welded on, wrong bonnet slam panel and catch, washer bottle held in with foam, front and rear suspension in bad condition, fuel leaks from the tank, wings going rusty, rear 1/4s full of filler, all lights held in with self tappers, broken seat adjuster, old Moss alarm still fitted but not working, bad wiring everywhere, wrong screws holding the trim in place, front and rear bumpers being made of fibreglass and not steel and being held in with screws, gas struts on the engine lid and bonnet not holding up, door rubbers split, front shocks/legs fucked because the wheel bearings had worn the hubs due to bad adjustment, poorly made copper brake pipes etc etc......
I gave Darren the list and he's response was okay that's fine when can you do the work.
I started by removing the fuel tank and front suspension where it was stripped down for blasting and powder coating, all fixings plated and all bushes replaced with Powerflex heritage items to just improve things a little while still looking like factory rubber bushes.
The plan with the car is to get the car to a standard it can be driven and enjoyed, I will be stripping it down to a bare shell so the panel work can be sorted, sunroof delete and a bare metal repaint.
Once that's done the refurbished suspension can be bolted back and the rest of the car fitted up with other new parts like Singer style door mirrors and a set of back dated clocks so i had to be mindful how far I went with the car considering it will be come apart again.
