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Greetings! This is my first attempt at a build thread and we will be documenting the work we're doing on my youngest son's 1987 924S.
Background on the Car
I purchased it in 2012/2013 for my oldest son when he was 13/14. Here's both boys shortly after the car was purchased.
They were mutually excited and both put time in on buffing out the forever fading guards red paint.
They even spent time repainting the wheels....
The 14 year old may or may not have driven the car in a parking lot
But it was sent to storage due to space constraints at the town house, my two boys and I lived in.
It received essential work over the years for my older son as his interests were always other things (Golf, Surfing, Fishing, Country Music, 4x4s and other teenage stuff).
So he learned all about changing the Clutch Slave, Fluid changes, brake bleeds, pulling the dash to replace AC line and install LEDs in the cluster, stereo install and the beauty of a tow truck when you're stuck on the side of the road (a couple of times).
Son Number 1 enjoyed the car we called the "Red Bomber" and MOST importantly learned some car maintenance skills and the ability to drive a 5 speed (which is a dying art amongst the youth!)
No sooner did I put a car cover over the "Red Bomber" did Son Number 2 start to talk about it
She looked pretty good in the pursuit of all the interests...
But keeping the Guards Red paint good looking was a real chore...
In a period of 2 weeks about 1 year ago, she bit back and a small hose ruptured leaving my son stranded in front of school. After that was fixed, the fan switch in the radiator gave out and the clutch died.
Son number 1 moved into my Cayenne and I bought him a Toyota Forerunner to get him to and from college which he started a few months ago.
No sooner did the "Red Bomber" get covered with a car cover and parked in a corner of the driveway did the then 13 year old, Son Number 2 start talking about it and asking...
Could that be my car?
Well, after discussion and asking what would keep him MORE INTERESTED in the car than his brother had been, he said...
"Well, I'd really like it MORE if it was BLUE"
So, I said, if you show me you're willing to work on it then we'll turn this into YOUR car. (deep down, I wanted to do everything I possibly could, within my skills and maybe acquire some new skills in the process )
I should also mention, now that Son Number 2 is 14, he's not the 5 foot tall 10 year old that he was. He's 6' 1", 245lbs and plays on his Varsity Football team as a freshman!
First Order of Business:
Do something neither of us has done before - Pull the Engine
Above you'll notice Son Number 2 getting after the intake but you'll also notice the Guards Red paint gave out.
We took the Engine Out as I wanted to reseal the engine, maybe replace the bearings on the bottom, clean up the motor and paint engine compartment flat black for the impending color change!
With the Engine out on a stand and my spending most of my time working on projects with my 1990 928 and Son Number 1's Toyota 4Runner, we started to explore the Vinyl Wrap Color Spectrum.
WOW! There are a lot of colors to choose from and I had no less than 20 Blues for Son Number 2 to look at.
A decision was made for Gloss Blue Raspberry. I ordered enough that we could do a test wrap of the header panel on the nose of the car.
We're excited about the color!
Since this is ONLY a test panel, I wanted to sand through the pretty BAD paint on the Header Panel to see what effect it would have on the vinyl.
The car didn't get much love for a few months (too hot to work on cars in Summer in Florida!)
But we did get a matching Blue Key ring for this P-Car. All of the P-Cars in our house have coordinating key rings (OCD, I think!)
As with everything, I wish we could have moved at a quicker pace BUT fortunately time is on our side since the 15th birthday is in March 2018 as our nearest "DEADLINE".
Lots of life happened between the test vinyl wrap session and the work in this update.
I got remarried; Son Number 1 graduated high school and went to college; Son Number 2 started high school and has been playing/practicing with his football team nearly non-stop.
Preparing for the Blue
I'm no expert on vinyl wrapping but we are going to be preparing for the vinyl wrapping for a few more sessions.
To start, we wanted to remove all the lights, bumpers and exterior trim.
We also went after the entire interior.
The reason for taking this down so far, is we're going to flat black all the visible painted surfaces so we don't have to be PERFECT with the Blue wrap.
This will also let me get the driver's seat re-stitched, allow for sound deadening and give better access to the full reinstall/replacement of parts of the stereo.
The below is gives a view of the flat black we're applying in the engine compartment, which we'll also do in the door jambs, hatch area, etc...
A great story. Thanks for sharing it. Sigh, I had similar hopes for my youngster... No luck. He doesn't have any interest in getting his license. "It's BMW for me, dad: bus, metro or walk."
That's a shame @curtisR. We just received a BUNCH of vinyl. That was inspiration enough to remove the rear windows, the side molding (with lots of wet sanding), the side mirrors and a few more bits.
We're likely 2-3 weeks out (probably Thanksgiving Break) from starting the Vinyl Wrap. Between now and then, we have some parts of the car body which need attention AND we want to flat black all the door jambs, engine compartment and anything which MIGHT not get vinyl.
I'm getting ready to place a BIG order for all the window, door, mirror seals as we really want this to be right.
So, we've put in some time over the last few weekends getting ready for the events over our Thanksgiving Break (his break from School and my break from work).
We sprayed the rest of the engine compartment and the jambs (Door and Hatch) with a Satin Black paint. The prep work for this step was crazy as we had to strip all the goo/crud/whatever built up around the doors and hatch. Plus we had drop as many movable items in the engine compartment to give ourselves access to paint.
We also hit the black trim (rockers, pillars and windshield trim) with Flat Black.
And Junior is still smiling Next update should show some "Holiday Wrapping" and the changing from "old" Guards Red to Gloss Blue Raspberry.
Nice work! Painting all the jams, under hood, etc. black was a great idea. Keep it up!
Thank you very much! Our skills are evolving to the point where we weren't quite satisfied with the results from our first fender and we re-did it, today.
My 14 year old was happy with the progress we made (about 60% done) and so am I.
The plan is to finish body work and wrapping before the Christmas Break. I take a couple of weeks off at the end of December every year so I'll split my time between interior work and tearing down the engine to get parts off to the Powder Coaters, etc...
It's been a great journey so far with my kid. I highly recommend it
Hey Trey, I like the wrap idea and the color, where do you buy the material?
88 rebuild
I bought a 88' 944 with a rod knock, ended up rebuilding entire engine, just installed it and got it running and tagged a couple months ago. I bought a couple of used engines until I found one with a good block, If you need any parts I may what you need! -Lou
Hey Trey, I like the wrap idea and the color, where do you buy the material?
88 rebuild
I bought a 88' 944 with a rod knock, ended up rebuilding entire engine, just installed it and got it running and tagged a couple months ago. I bought a couple of used engines until I found one with a good block, If you need any parts I may what you need! -Lou
Hey Lou!
I bought material from MetroRestyling.com. I think it was about $300 for the wrap and the associated tools (felt squeegees, magnets, etc...)
Will definitely keep you in mind if I run into engine part needs. First engine tear down/re-build here.... was optimistically looking to just re-seal the engine. We'll see
10-23-2017, 01:57 PM
1987 924S Build Thread : Deep into the Blue
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