J.Ho

My new to me '88 should arrive tomorrow. It's going to be an amazing, rare like new car that I intend to DRIVE and enjoy. Excited about being back in an air-cooled.

I'll post more pics once she shows up. Here's her story:

1988 Porsche 911 Carrera
VIN: WP0XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
51,131 miles
Certificate of Authenticity (COA)
Numbers matching car
Grand Prix White (Paint code P5)
Interior: Lipstick Red Leather
Restoration by Orbit Racing

OVERVIEW
When this car first arrived to the Orbit Workshop the customer asked us to change the rear shocks and front strut inserts with new Bilsteins, replace the fuel lines on top of the engine that are known to leak, and give the car a good cleaning. Before we knew it we were doing a complete undercarriage restoration. Once the engine and gearbox were removed we noticed that the undercarriage of this car was in very good condition. Even though this is a low mile car, it is still a 29 year old car and all those years on the road made it a dirty affair down below. The chassis of the 911 Carrera is fairly well protected against rust but many of the small brackets and hardware underneath the car were showing signs of corrosion. After removing all the suspension from the car, oil lines, A/C lines and everything else the entire bottom of the car was steamed cleaned then prepped to paint in high quality automotive paint applied with a spray gun. The results are fantastic; the car looks virtually new underneath and when we assembled the bottom of the car every single piece of hardware or bracket was either replaced or restored to stop the corrosion. The following is a brief description of some of the work we did to the car.

ENGINE
Major Engine Out Service: Adjust Valves/Plugs/Belts/Filters/Cap/Rotor
Replace all fuel lines on top of engine
Send out fuel injectors for flow testing and cleaning
Removed Exhaust and replaced all rusted hardware and exhaust gaskets
Replaced all the exterior gaskets and seals around the engine
Engine Sheet metal was stripped to bare metal and powder coated black
New Head Temperature sender
New Crank position sensor

GEARBOX
The gearbox was completely disassembled, inspected and cleaned. We replace the synchros, differential bearing, the pinion shaft four point bearing and all gaskets and seal. On assembly all critical dimensions were checked and set with Porsche factory tooling by Master transmission builder with 30 years of experience. No short-cuts were taken, this gearbox is good to go.

SUSPENSION
All suspension components removed
All suspension parts stripped to bare metal and powder coated
New Wheels bearings front and rear
New Torsion Bars 22mm front and 28 mm rear
New front Bilstein strut inserts
New rear Bilstein shocks
New front turbo tie-rods
All the rubber in the suspension was replace with new factory parts
All suspension fastners were either replaced or restored
Exacting assembly with full alignment

OIL SYSTEM
The factory oil cooler lives under the right front fender and the oil cooler lines run down the lower right side of the car. All the flexible oil lines were replaced, a new oil thermostat, the solid oil lines were stripped and repainted, and the oil cooler ultrasonically cleaned. Upon assembly all brackets and fastners were either replaced or restored. The result is beautiful, and clean oil system that is ready for another 30 years of service.

AIR CONDITIONING
After so many years the A/C in these cars needs complete replacement. The original rubber A/C hoses that go from front to back of the car become hard and porous, the evaporator becomes clogged with debris and corrosion and the dryer is also timed out. We replaced the complete air condition system in this car from front to back – using a Porsche factory evaporator, all new rubber lines, and a new dryer. In addition we replaced or restored all the hardware securing the A/C in the car. Not going to tell you that this A/C system blows ice-cubes but it is back to being the best it can be. 


CHASSIS
There are no signs of collision damage anywhere on the car. We have been around every area of this car and have not found anything that could be thought of as rust in the uni-body. We were very careful to apply a generous coating of rust prohibitor and/or anti-seize compound when the suspension was installed. We have just repainted the front of the car for cosmetic reasons only, to repair small chips and some scratches. The lower rocker covers and rear bumper was also resprayed for cosmetic reasons. We left all the original undercoating on the bottom of the car because it was in excellent condition, after it was cleaned it was profession spray painted just as it was from new.

MORE TO FOLLOW
New front rubber “smile” with all new hardware
New Clutch disc
New fuel lines running thru chassis
Lowered ride height per new customer request
Installed Bisimoto Muffler for new customer
**edit - New Altenator
**changing tires to different brand/tread

Amber Gramps

Sounds like they did everything to your that I have done to mine with the exception of the tranny....then I went full retard. You are going to love this car. You will want a Steve Wong or MaxHPKit chip to realize the full potential of the Bisimoto pipe. Love mine.

misterwaterfall

When you say Bisimoto pipe, are you talking about this exhaust set up?

J.Ho

That sounds awesome I'm up for that and possibly to shelve the factory wheels and get something beefier in the rubber walls and wider.

J.Ho

This one

sjgreco

Your car is stunning. I have an 88 white turbo-look with Burgundy interior, all original also. I would love to have it refreshed like Orbit did your car, unfortunately I live on the west coast.

J.Ho

Getting to them is the easiest part really. Call Ken at
www.steeltoycarriers.com

Ken actually hooked me up with them to begin with, and has done several transports for me. Including taking my 991.2 up to Soul Performance in PA for R&D of an exhaust system.

sjgreco

Thanks, funny thing, the former owner of my car had the car in St Petersburg, Fl. when I bought it a few months ago. I had it shipped to Northern California, wished your post was earlier. I was interested in getting the car sorted and have the under side detailed, the rest of the car is excellent. The exhaust you installed, is it SMOG compliant. In California SMOG is required every two years unless 1975 or older and does it improved performance.

Rick-A-Shay

Suggest you contact the mfgr of the exhaust with this question. Fabspeed ran into this issue with their exhaust packages that some Cali folks wanted to put on their later cars. Visual inspection is part of the certification and you are required to go to a "Star" certified station.........

I get a letter from the ARB every few years offering $1k to buy and shred my stock '88 as it's a "gross polluter". Only shredding done is their letter!!

Amber Gramps

Guys, the Bisimoto Pulse Chamber passes the visual inspection....or at least mine did. It does not delete the cat, it's just an oddly shaped muffler as far as STAR goes.

YES, it improves performance dramatically. Bisi did multiple dyno pulls with my car on his dyno. He did stock chip/stock muffler, stock chip/Pulse Chamber, MaxHPKit Multi-board/Pulse Chamber, then played with different settings on the Multi-board. When we switched to his pipe, Bisi showed a gain of 17RWHP. When he then did a pull with the Multi-board set at "91 octane" IIRC his dyno showed a gain of 29RWHP!!!!!... Guys are showing similar results with the Wong chip. I've since switched to modern 4 spittle injectors and sent drivability and power off the chart.

As far as the restoration work goes there are loads of competent shops in California. Remember, a majority of Porsche's production was sold into California so every good wrench has at some point worked on an old 911. All it takes is a relationship with a good plating house like I've got.

J.Ho

A few more photos of car being worked on at Orbit. One shot shows the interior of the car before the new carpet went in.

Looks like I'm taking delivery Wednesday now as they wanted to do a bit more tweaking and different tires.

J.Ho

A few more during test drives at Orbit

evilfij

Congrat! Wonderful color combo. GP white looks great with colored interiors. I may have left the chips and original paint but that undercarriage is amazing.

Spyerx

Good shop. Orbit refreshed my 964 (see signature) right before I bought it and messed it up :-)

mooty

i am in CA but know rodger at orbit. the man knows his stuff and is **** retentive. he gets it right.
worked on my 964 (spyerX's now), my long hood and serviced my most recent 964.

very good job on your 88 restoration