Junkyard Goodies!

Went down to Upullandpay today and grabbed a couple of quick things for the Edgar, (what I've affectionately named this car, was my high school german name and given I've wanted this car since high school and it's german I felt it appropriate.) First was this turn signal and wiper control. Early in the restoration I fixed the speedometer, and odometer as the needle had broken off and in the process managed to have the spring fly out of the wiper control assembly at a million miles an hour. After looking for it for a hour or so, I gave up and pulled the spring from a clicky pen and inserted it, after trimming the spring to where I wanted it, it worked okay, but whenever I hit a pothole the wiper would come on! I decided that for 15 bucks one at the junkyard with the correct spring may work a little better!

Also found a new turn signal for $3.99. Pretty stoked as the original didn't work and the plastic mounts had became brittle and broken off leaving nothing to mount to the car and the inside reflective shield looked like this:

New front turn signal installed and ready to go.

Teardown as of so far

The work space, sort of tight, but it's what I have

Sorry for the lack of update guys, I've been continuing to work on the 944, but having some photo uploading issues with the computer during the teardown. Anyway I'll let you know where I'm at. The clutch now is totally gone, but luckily with the help of a friend we were able to push it into the garage in order to do it. But as you know, one project always leads to another and once we got the car up on jacks, I realized that the transmission was totally covered in oil.

She's an oily tranny!

The question then became whether to rebuild it or put a new one in. Having this be the first car I have ever worked on, I'm leaning toward putting a different one in as rebuilding a tranny seems a little advanced for my skill set. There is one at the junkyard just north of town that seems to shift fairly smooth and be fairly dry for 100 bucks. I'll just have to spend a day tearing that one out! We will see. Anyway as you can see the transmission is now out and off to the motor and bell housing where the clutch lives.

2.5 liter motor stipped. Wiring harnesses off, radiator fan shroud removed. Air intake off, anti freeze drained and vacuum hoses removed. Ready to lift pending hoist.

Unfortunately, the oil pan gasket has seemed to be leaking pretty bad and from the forums that I read replacing it was pretty difficult as the whole steering section of the car would have to come out. Knowing that I wanted to do the motor mounts, which seemed to be vibrating the car quite a bit when I first purchased it I decided that it would be best to lift the motor out where access to the oil pan, clutch, rod bearings and such would be much easier. So thats where I'm at with it right now. I'll try and do some more step by step tutorials as I begin to put the car back together.

A Poor Man's Porsche

So here's the thing a little about me and how I came upon this Porsche 944. It began this summer when I would get home from work and feel a little on the bored side of life and want something to do other than waste time sitting on the Internet. My birthday was coming around I had always wanted a Porsche 944. When I was 16 or so a friend of mine had an 86' 944 that was in pretty rough shape but was willing to sell it to me for cheap and I was stoked. However, momma didn't think it was the best idea for a 16 year old speed demon to own a Porsche as a first car (honestly can't say I didn't blame her)  so my brother and I ended up with a 77' Cadillac Sedan Devile, it was totally BA in its own right, especially after the plastic spinners, rattle can flames and 8 track player fully stocked with Barry Manalow albums. But my mind has always since drifted back to the Porsche though.

Fast forward 12 years later and all my talk about a 944 had gotten to my wife and bless her heart but she found one on Craiglist that we could afford and asked me if I was interested in going down to see it. Anyway a Sunday afternoon we went down to check it out, it was cheap a little on the rough side and not much worked except some rolling wheels, but it was soon to be mine and a project to boot. We scraped a little money from everywhere and soon I was driving this rattley old Porsche back to Denver from the Springs praying it wouldn't break down along the way.

 So here's the thing about me, before buying this car I haven't ever so much as changed the oil on a car much less tore one apart and rebuilt it. So this will be a blog about a complete and total novice rebuilding a car. I'll documenting on here all the repairs I do on her as I go feel free to read along if you want. Please be patient with posts as car parts are expensive and I have a pretty limited budget so repairs will be slow, however whether your a car enthusiast or not, I hope it will inspire you to do something you've never done before! Go out seize the day and stay tuned as I go through the oddessey of re doing this 944.