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Sorry to hear about your misshap. You should have stopped imediatly as you felt/heard a wobble...still would have not saved you from a TT rebuild but maybe the shock of a breakdown. Happy to hear you made it afterall and you're not completely demoralized about this.
Indeed. One of the lessons: When going far to pickup a car, arrange a trailer.
I have had 924s and 944(just for breaking tho) and all i could see on the 944 was more stuff...quality is the same to me....the 944 just has alot more stuff on it while the 924 is simple.
What i can point out is that the 1980+ 924s dont rust almost at all while the 944s do...especially the later ones....so for me thats a quality drop.
Perhaps it is an age thing. It's such a trip looking over this car, I recognize all of the shapes & concepts, but merely have another version of the same basic car. I'm sure anyone who has an early model of any car and compares to the next generation, if many designs were retained, would get a similar sensation.
I honestly have not compared the 944 to the 911 models from the seventies for instance. Perhaps if I did I would find the quality about the same as this 924. Really don't know but am curious. These cars were priced pretty low back in the day compared to other p-cars & I suspect these areas are some of the places where the manufacturer saved money:
Where I notice the biggest comparing the 78 '24 to the 88 44 is in the plastic things you touch... door latches in & out, steering wheel, outside mirrors, shift ****, the plastic tray around said shift ****, the seat belts, the firewall weather seal, the density of foam in the seats, the plastic **** on the headlight motor, the window rollup handle quality.... also the weather stripping on the windows seems better on the late 944. Later car larger, more pronounced parts.
Under the car, the suspension arms look cheaply built, are they the same quality as the early 944s?
Please forgive me if I've offended. Merely initial observations by a non-expert. To me the major up side is these cars are lighter and easier to work on. It's like Porsche gave these cars lightweight racing interior components right from the start.
I'd like to inspect an early 944 and compare to my late model, perhaps it's the finest combination and compromise between.
The front stamped steel control arms are the same as the early 944. They may look cheaper, because they are cheaper (in a $$ sense). You can get them new for very little from VW parts suppliers and rebuild them easily.
The interior is also 90% the same as the early 944, different gauges and whatnot. If you refurb the dash, which I'll assume is cracked, you get back a lot of quality in the interior. Late 944 ebrake handle bolts up, it feels more substantial than the old style one. Nothing you can really do about the plastic really except keep it nice (although there are some parts you can replace with brushed aluminum or steel such as the shifter insert and sun visor clips, lmk if you want pics of them installed in a brown early interior).
What are your plans with the car? Given the lengths you took with the '88 944 haha.
Brother at times I think about dropping the 944S engine and suspension, wheels & brakes in.
But in the past whenever I do crazy stuff I ALWAYS regret it.
They pretty much all are by this point. The 2 924s I had years ago already had cracked exhaust manifolds. I had one welded successfully when I rebuilt my engine. You'll need to find someone who can weld cast iron, apparently there is some technique to getting it right. I seem to recall there was a difference between the early and late manifold, the change happening somewhere around 1980? The late ones have more support webbing and seemed to be stronger if I recall correctly.
Thanks brother. The car was pushed back into the parking line up. Now I need to make room in my personal garage to begin the "real work"... you know, pulling the torque tube & check out the clutch. Repair whatever I come across. I'm also nervous about it needed a head gasket ('cause I think I see slobber but that could be from old coolant & grime). Are 2.0 VW engines known for head gasket failure?
So this has forced me to make a decision about what to do with Wilson the 944. Because I only have room for one car at a time.
I have sold some hot rod stuff off (headers, ported head, both Jon Milledge cams, Wilks ECM, strut bar & upper "uni-ball" strut mounts, strut bar, Bilstein rear shocks). I was planning on parting the whole car out, but sales have died down, and lets face it, I still love the car. And hell, I have new winter tires! Tis the season.
924s look great in two tone combinations. The 2L engine is not notorious for failing head gaskets but if you have a cooling issue the gasket will fail eventually.
In any case, many times you can get away without any machining and just replace the headgasket which is quite inexpensive. (loving the 924 for that )
You have some super rare items on that 924 except itself as a 77 in such good condition and a two tone paint scheme
-left mirror at least is original 77 equipment(i think the car might have come out of the factory without a right one and somebody added one later)
-that rear hatch without a spoiler or wiper is also quite rare(do i see no strut on the right side? you have to take good care of this hatch so it does not delaminate...so no side pushing closing please)
-early front wings without side repeaters
-no sunroof model which are rare
-being an early car it probably has the dolomite grey dash instead of the black one used on later cars...the early dash cracks less(if not kept for years in the sun)
-that arm rest is the early rare version
If the header is cast iron it can be welded with a nickel rod (it is up to the welder if they use 55% or 99% nickel electrode). If it is cast steel a 7018 electrode or 70S-6 wire can be used. All up the the welder on process and base material though.
Perhaps it is an age thing. It's such a trip looking over this car, I recognize all of the shapes & concepts, but merely have another version of the same basic car. I'm sure anyone who has an early model of any car and compares to the next generation, if many designs were retained, would get a similar sensation.
I honestly have not compared the 944 to the 911 models from the seventies for instance. Perhaps if I did I would find the quality about the same as this 924. Really don't know but am curious. These cars were priced pretty low back in the day compared to other p-cars & I suspect these areas are some of the places where the manufacturer saved money:
Where I notice the biggest comparing the 78 '24 to the 88 44 is in the plastic things you touch... door latches in & out, steering wheel, outside mirrors, shift ****, the plastic tray around said shift ****, the seat belts, the firewall weather seal, the density of foam in the seats, the plastic **** on the headlight motor, the window rollup handle quality.... also the weather stripping on the windows seems better on the late 944. Later car larger, more pronounced parts.
Under the car, the suspension arms look cheaply built, are they the same quality as the early 944s?
Please forgive me if I've offended. Merely initial observations by a non-expert. To me the major up side is these cars are lighter and easier to work on. It's like Porsche gave these cars lightweight racing interior components right from the start.
I'd like to inspect an early 944 and compare to my late model, perhaps it's the finest combination and compromise between.
Thats an early to late 944 thing. The 85.5 was a big jump in switch gear quality. The A-arms, eh the steel ones are fine and cheap to deal with vs the late ones.
12-02-2015, 07:55 AM
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