h2pmr

way back on 1st of July 2007 the smoking ban in public places came into force over here in UK and i thought it a good time to quit so after a few weeks i needed somthing to keep me busy
having owned and maintained an S4 and a GT in the past and enjoyed both now was the time to find another GT in need of a LITTLE TLC with the possibility to do a few up upgrades over the comming months-i am a mechanic at a main dealer-not Porsche- and the boss lets me use the facilites at weekends etc-


so looked on ebay and found a couple,went to look at the first,looked ok drove ok and somthing deep down in me said buy it now.
2 days later and back at work i had my new 928 a 1990 GT in red with black leather with just over 100k miles,totally standard and was still looking good to me.


up on a 2 post lift and after a good check over i found i had bought a mechanically good but very rotten 928.
sills,rear quarters and part of floor where the handbrake cable goes through were rotten.
had a think over the next couple of days about what to do -resell it-part it out -weld in patches and just drive it -etc.
again something deep down in me said just do it properly.


back in 2007 when most parts were avalible the local OPC got an order for 2 new GTS rear quarters, 2 sills and a fixed roof skin+headliner
would not get the oppertunity to do it again so also got the shop to delete the rubbing strips and rear wiper and bought a jacquemond body kit,but kept the original front bumper on so it looked like a 928 should.

i stripped the interior out,bumpers off,glass out etc etc and pushed it over the road to our bodyshop and left it with them,went back a couple of weeks later and they asked for the paint code at which point i realised with only a little more work for the shop it could be any colour i wanted
lambo orange it was then

got it back a couple of weeks later and it looked stunning with the way the shop got the jacquemond outer sills and bumper blended into the genuine GTS rear quarters
took a week off work and reassembled the outside parts-all the black external window trims,rubbers looked ok with the original paint but not with the new paint so all were replaced-,and now on first name terms with local OPC parts manager.
and the paint part of the project was done

more to follow..

h2pmr

the next part of the project was the interior,as it was stripped for the painting it was just a case of removing weight from the unseen parts and refitting the interior so it looked just like a 928.

when i say"just" the time involved as those who have done it know runs into hours and hours and hours etc.

all the wiring for the rear wiper,int lights,remote boot release and all other parts i did not want was removed right back to the fuse pannel,all the sound deadening removed and starting from the tailgate all int parts cleaned,repaired and refitted,even the rear seat was masked and sprayed with orange interior paint

next for the weight removal was a pair of cobra front seats-the only part of the int not standard 928but look good to me
the only place i could find orange carpet back then-it was 2008/9 by now- was over in the USA and i got a company called Southbound over here to make some to OE standard-the fit and finish is still excellent to this day.

so int done,next onto the steering/suspension/brakes and custom exhaust
ALL components removed,cleaned and many new bushes/bearings later+bilsteinns and new genuine springs -CS springs for the front as they were still avalible back then-and all got reassembled.

again the length of time the above paragraph actually takes to do properly is many,many,hours
also had to paint over the original red inner wings-fenders for you guys-

gearbox,diff etc have allways been ok so only oil change needed.
so the mechanical parts are now sorted

only job left was under the bonnet.... in equal measure....more to follow

h2pmr

so under the bonnet was a totally standard 1990 GT engine -the orange paint only went to the edges of the wings so the engine bay itself was still the original red.

it was now 2010 ish and the project needed finishing
as i say in the first post i am a mechanic and it was about time i did some work on the heart of the beast.

also note the title of the thread

sooo i removed the engine and stripped the engine bay,removed the sound deadening and painted all the red bodywork black
next was fitting heat reflective material to the bulkhead and generally cleaning all and replacing anything that was needed/would be needed in the next few years,as i don'tlike doing things twice.

to the engine itself,i bought a second hand 1990 S4 engine-so i still had the original engine if needed-
i stripped the S4 engine right down to removing the crank-it was a good engine i just wanted to see if i could build one "from the ground up"
so every part was cleaned and cleaned again-new main and big end bearings,rigs etc were fitted and fresh cams installed and the whole thing was rebuilt.

all the parts that could be powder coated were done in yellow-was told orange could not be done back then.

again as anybody who has done it the cleaning of the inside of the powder coated parts takes hours and hours and hours.
and to top it off got a stage 2 supercharger from Carl

by this time i am on local OPC parts dept and Rogers christmas card list.

long story short fitted the engine,started it up running ok,drove it five miles still ok,fuel feed pipe leaked and this 928 was smoking for all the wrong reasons.

link below to the full extent of the damage

http://s244.photobucket.com/user/phi...07329357389627

being English i would describe my mood as being a little disheartened so took some time off all things 928...

more to follow.

MainePorsche

You've done such dedicated and quality work - darn shame.
Stiff upper lip there English.

h2pmr

so after some time away from 928's and having an English stiff upper lip-most of the time-
i had to start the painful task of stripping anything fire damaged off-nothing had got through to the interior of it so it was just from the windscreen foward.
"just" was looking on the bright side of life

i bought another 90S4 for all the parts i needed and set to stripping that out,then sent the orange one to the bodyshop.
when it came back it looked just as it did before the fire,the bodyshop did an increadible job of blending the paint in.

so after many more hours-days of fitting it out it was back to just needing an engine.

so i thought i would go down another route and get a 6L short motor i.e crank,pistons and rods built up into a block from the US

so after a little wait it arrived and i rebuilt it with different heads special cams and again powder coated all parts that could be powder coated from the engine from the 90S4 i had bought above.

note the use Greg's fuel pipes,if only i had used them last time..

installed it with another of Carls superchargers-the original had fire damaged bearings,i even managed to get the radiator and water pump for the intercooler all mounted under the drivers side fender splashshield-another of those jobs that you think will only take a couple of hours but ends up taking about 15.

again long story short fitted the 6L motor-pictures are of the 6L engine- started it up and it ran
again being English i would describe it as "not quite what i was expecting"

so took some more time away from 928's
last part to follow

AirtekHVAC

Jeeezus!

Totally fantastic. You are a skilled individual! Way to go! Can't wait for the rest of the story.

syoo8

My brain has been melted by your loss- and perseverance.

You do incredibly beautiful work. It is very inspirational for the rest of us.

Please post pics of your 'final product' which will undoubtedly be gorgeous!

Hang in there!

h2pmr

so it is now late 2013 and i am sick of looking at this 928 and not able to drive it.
so i bought another S4 engine to fit into it-i could have used it's original engine i removed about 4 years ago at the start of the under bonnet project but GT engines can only go up in value...

although i don't like doing things twice-and this is the third time- i set to stripping this engine down to the crank and rebuilding it from there up,taking the same care as i did on the first engine and doing it this way i can say i have fitted every last nut,bolt,clip and wire to everything under the bonnet.

if it f@@@$ up it will be just down to me

still takes me about 60 hours from a crankshaft in my hand to lowering the engine into the vehicle,whic includes valves being ground in,how long does it take the masters at it?

anyway another long story short i removed the 6L engine,removed all the powder coated parts etc and fitted them onto my rebuilt 5L engine and fitted that back in.

i did not take many pictures as all i wanted to do was get it finished but the first picture has the 6L on the left stand and the second is taken after 1,000 trouble free miles+http://s244.photobucket.com/user/phi...46700307127071

dipstick is the same as the gear **** pictured somewhere above


started it up and it had a bad misfire,thinking the worst i checked compression-ok,wiring and timing ok,finally found 2 of the new injectors had 15 ohms resistace but just did not want to work,fitted 2 new injectors and now had all 8 cylinders firing and NO SMOKE from the exhaust or from under the bonnet....

so after 7+years i now have the car of my dreams as a young boy

have now done 1.6k miles of trouble free motoring,has had it's first oil change and just needs a good shark tune

so it is today,i would be out driving it but this is England and its raining so i will just have to have a warm beer...

it looks amazing,it sounds even better than it looks-with X pipes GT resonators and the custom RMB pictured above,it goes even better than it sounds and the best part is i built it all myself.
although thats just MY opinion.

THANKS TO:
my Boss David Hayton-who lets me work on my car anytime after hours/weekends-i started working for him 28 years ago when 4 of us made up the total workforce and has now grown into http://www.davidhayton.co.uk/

Roger Tyson-928 parts guru

Local OPC -Porsche center Kendal

Porsche-for still being able supply most parts for a 24+year old car

the many people on this list who can answer most things 928 related

Angus Fox for creating 928.org in the UK another valuable source of people who know 928's


so the last line reads:

some 928 projects DO get finished

cheers
Phil

FLYVMO

Excellent work, and the attention to detail is amazing! Congratulations on reaching the "Done" stage.

Cheers!
Carl

h2pmr

http://s244.photobucket.com/user/phi...88868234953593

is of the 6L build but the same was done on the 1st and last 5L engines i built.

i have kept a running total of the hours i have spent on it from first collecting it back in 2007 untill today,which is scary and sad at the same time.
i also have a final total of ALL money spent on it which is just really scary....time for another warm beer i think.

cheers
Phil
90GT orange

worf928

Awesome work. I feel for your initial loss. Kudos to getting back up on the horse after it threw you.

Did you diagnose the failure that led to the fire? You wrote 'fuel feed pipe.' Which one? Was it new?

Captain_Slow

Sooo....did this multi-step-multiple-repeat-steps program help you stop smoking?

Amazing work. I really like the Lambo orange on the 928. Great story of you and your boss working all these years, and his support and friendship is as inspiring as the project itself.

h2pmr

i should have said fuel return pipe,it was new but i wanted a single pipe that did away with the A/C cooler,was made by a local company.
i went back to them to ask about compensation they said along the lines of
a) you fitted it
b) prove it
c) the second word is off

Greg made a bomb proof one for me

need another warm beer just thinking about it

cheers
Phil

h2pmr

well er well i well i was er waiting for this but er well.....

i can say i DO NOT smoke when the bonnet is up,and the 928 does not smoke at all.
that sort of counts...

Captain_Slow

LOL...

Well...honestly, after the fire I was thinking "this is going to make him smoke more!" I don't smoke, but I'm sure I'd have started drinking more warm beer