944J

what's the cost for a salvaged 951 or 968 suspension to swap in a 1985 944?

how difficult is it to swap out/in?

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same question for the interior...

i want to rip out the entire interior and put in a new dash, possibly with a digital speedo, i've seen custom dashes like in that blue 968 turbo from napa, california...

how similar are the door internals (motors, etc.) between the early and late cars?

what about the AC and heater? what else would i have to put back in the car if i took out everything?

the goal is to make a stripped down and more modern interior...

i'd put in new seats, carpet, dash, door panels, maybe headliner, maybe take out the rear seats...

do 1985 944's have forged internals?

white924s

depends a lot on how much you do yourself/have done professionally.

for reference, over the past year or so, I've slowly engaged in a similar project (replace shocks, sways, brakes on my 924s, convert interior to black w/ aftermarket seats), and its not cheap, especially because I had to get a custom-made headliner (non-sunroof car). I don't have the receipts in front of me, but my suspension work was ~8 hours of labor (i think...maybe a little more dealing with seized bolts) and the interior was well over 20 hours not even including the headliner

The dash is a big job to take out/put in, and its even more complex if you're trying to swap in aftermarket components, but it can be done, definitely

V2Rocket

rods, crank, and pistons

Jfrahm

Is that still true in 1985?

-Joel.

V2Rocket

all the cars have forged cranks and pistons, but the early cars were the ones with forged rods too. some will tell you that only some of the 85 models had them but when i had my engine apart mine were forged.

MM951

FWIW, my 83 block had different pistons then both my 84 n/a and moms 86 n/a. I think only in 83 were the n/a pistons forged

944J

ive heard the '83 na story, i wish there was a way to verify it.

i'm not going to be getting a pretty custom vinyl headliner, just that thin carpet that i can glue in myself (if it even needs to be done)...

i'll def be doing all the work myself.

what about putting a late na door panel (interior) on the early doors? are they they same motors and can splice the wires and door handle?

will i have to mess with the indexing bar across the rear of the car's suspension? i've heard that is a pain, or will i just have to jack up the car and remove the trailing arms and bolt the late model trailing arms back on?

what is the exact difference between:

late NA rear trailing arms
late turbo "
968 "
early "

same question for the front suspension:

late NA front suspension
late turbo "
968 "
early "

reno808

i have coilovers lsd 944s tranny for sell pm if your interested it will all t he parts will fit your car

Tom R.

i have 951S/S2 sways coming out of my car as we speak. will sell them for a fair price. add konis and you are about where the the turbo is suspension wise. just add brakes.

as for the interior....

944J

so what am in for ripping out the dash in an 85? to put in a more modern dash?

Rock

There is so much different stuff. This has been covered before.

The dash wont fit without serious modification, let alone converting the cable driven speedo to digital. Then youve got an entirely different heating/a.c system.


Youre less money and time down buying a later car.

944J

people always say its cheaper to buy a later car/turbo, but it's just not true, do the math.

sillbeer

its true. the parts will nickel and dime you to death. the dash isnt a bolt on. The a/c and heat are all different. the early cars are cable driven as well as the speedo, the late cars are all electronic. you are welcome to try, but let me tell you, if it were easy, everyone would do it.

944J

you can get two cars a nice 85 and a wrecked 86 for under $2k...

Legoland951

This has been covered before as mentioned by rock. Yes its cheaper to sell the early car and buy a late one. The conversion process would cost $3000 labor alone as your door insides are different for the door panels. The dash, center consol, carpet shape (in the tunnel section), instrument cluster wiring/cable, complete a/c and heating system, etc. If you pay someone for electrical work just on the dash alone (different fuse block configuration), you would be paying someone over $1000 alone to figure out which wires go where and how to convert the signals (mechanical rpm mph cable to electrical pulse generator for the speedo + calibration). Its probably easier to change the transmissions. I have seen a converted interior using the early ac/heating system where the controls are relocated in the glove compartment (no usable glove compartment) and not all of the instrumentation work. If you can buy a 85 + 86 parts car for $2k, I am sure you can find an 85.5 car in similar condition as the 85.1 for less than $2k without the hassels of the conversion.

Long time ago, I tried changing over the interior piece by piece starting with the seats, which was easy. Then the door panels were installed but then I found out that the doors won't close and there is a bulge in the door panel so I smashed the door panel section which sticks into the dash sides to make it close and got a grinder to cut metal in the door. I also replaced the carpet to find out one of the cars have a narrower tunnel for the torque tube. The last thing I did was to make the power seats work by adding wiring. After that, I looked at the dash and associated work and said it just was not worth my time so I bought a 1985.5 for about the same amount I sold the early car for.

All in all, if you want to convert everything over (doing it right), you have to replace the entire interior including the heating system, complete wiring in the car, cut and weld to place the fuse box, and replace both doors. This is not even getting to the suspension. Simply put it, I wouldn't even do a half assed conversion (like the one mentioned above) and charge less than $3000 labor for the interior alone so imagine what a good conversion costs in time and $.

Yes anything is possible but why do that when you can sell your car for $2.5k and buy a 951 that needs a little work for $4k and do 1/10th the work? I could have everything converted properly (exact convertion including the windshield) if my life depended on it but anyone with the skills to do it right will waste $15k labor that they could be making working on something else with that skill.