James-NZ

Hi guys!!

I am very happy to be able to report I have finally found a 944 that ticks all the boxes for me, the search has been long, living in New Zealand there are only a limited amount of 944's here, and, picking through the cars that come up for sale has taken me over 2 years to find the car that suits my requirements. I have purchased an ex UK 1989 2.7, it is in excellent order and has a very good service history, the paint has seen better days but the interior is very close to immaculate.

I have a few things planned in the near future to get her to where I want her and then once that is all taken care of I will work through and long term list of tidy ups and mods. First on the list is paint correction and wheels, maybe suspension.

I bet you guys like photo's so here are a few of the 944 on its 450 mile run home, in the pouring rain for most of the trip.

Grandpa#3

Hello James, A Big Welcome to you and your car. Beautiful countryside you had on your trip. Look on the past maintenance pulled to see when the tensioner pads were last changed. If one of the plastic pads breaks you have an expensive head replacement. Buy a cam cover gasket and pull the cover to check the pads, one on top and one on the bottom. They are located in the center with the chain over the top of them. If they look like old chewing tobacco stain they need to be replaced. Better to be safe than sorry as the pads are cheap compared to buying a new head. When were the Cam and Balance belts last changed? We use a rule of thumb of 30K or 3 years, whichever comes first. I'll post a link of the tensioner pads when I find it.

http://www.944online.com/cgi-bin/for...num=1209471555
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Thank you, Mark. My bad!! Must have had my head up and locked tight. Old dead brain cells acting up again.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Cheers,
Larry

Mark944na86

Larry -- this is a 1989 2.7, an 8V. Only the 16V S and S2 cars had the timing chain and tensioner pads.

Obsessed

Congratulations James, great looking car! I know what you mean about finding a good 944 in NZ, I watched TradeMe (for US readers: the eBay equivalent in NZ) for quite a while before buying mine 3 years ago. You probably got a good price, I'm amazed at how much prices have come down since I bought mine. I was looking on TradeMe recently and there are S2s and 968s for less than NZ$15K, but there was nothing like that under $20K when I was looking.

I'm in Hamilton too, so if you want to meet up sometime to talk 944s or whatever just PM me. There are a couple of other 944s I've seen around in Hamilton but only very rarely, and never when I've been driving mine. (In 3 years of 944 ownership, except for PCNZ events I've never seen another 944 while driving mine!)

You probably already know all about Steve Rasmussen and Europacific at Pirongia (http://www.europacific.co.nz/). They're a great bunch of guys and know their 944s, and I've had nothing but good service from them.

I don't know if you're already a Porsche Club member but they organise some fun events and have a great magazine. I've been on quite a few of the events and nobody has yet asked why I've brought a Mazda to a Porsche Club event

One more thing: you might like to "register" in this thread.

black944 turbo

Very pretty collar. Congrats, I always love the look of the euro N/A cars.

J1NX3D

Hi James, welcome to 944 ownership I know of your car, it came up for sale not long after i got mine a few years back and I was disppointed as I was holding out for a 2.7! from what i remember the PO of your car used to take it to PCNZ events.

I have a friend in Palmerston Nth with an '88 the same colour. He also has cup 1's which look nice.


in addition to europacific theres also Paul at Autobahn in Levin, he trades under Autobahn on trademe.

Then theres all the vendors online, prices of buying parts from the US usually justifies the freight costs. Check out the sponsors for rennlist for some good sites.

roman944

such an awesome color! congratulations!

Tovrin

+1 love that color, beautiful car!

alordofchaos

Nice! +1, better looking than the US cars

James-NZ

Thanks for the warm welcome guys, nice to see some Kiwi's among us.

I know Steve at Euro from my 911 days, he is a huge asset to the Porsche community, I took the car out there for a visit on Tuesday, I was amazed he remembered me after 3 odd years, great guy.
I am not a member of the Porsche club at the moment, I will be sorting that shortly.

Looking forward to shopping for parts online.

StoogeMoe

Love the color!

Hope it gives you many years of enjoyment and pleasure.

GTSilver944

Nice car. I'll be in Auckland for six months, I might have to stop by and say hi.

James-NZ

Thanks for the positive and warm welcome guys!!

I spent 5 hours touching up chips then buffing and polishing her last night. The paint was in very poor condition and required some aggressive compounds to remove the years of poor washing techniques. I am still not happy with the finish but it is considerably improved from how it was. I will have the front bumper, gaurds and bonnet sprayed and while that is being done I will have the sills repaired also, but for now it is coming along nicely.

I started with 3m Perfect it III extra cut then moved to Perfect it III glaze, then a quick run over with swirl remover and a final treatment of Meguiars NXT just to seal in the work so far. My intention is to go back over the car with Perfect it III and take care of the few areas I am unhappy with then autoglym will be applied starting with Super resin and then superior shine to bring out the depth in the paint. I am starting to really like this color, there is a nice violet perl that has started to come out with the gloss.

I have shortlisted 3 styles of wheel, now I just need to make a decision on which one, first is the fairly typical "turbo twist", nice wheel but has been fitted many times before. The GT3 RS wheel, very nice and quite unusual on a 44 but I feel it doesn't gel with the shape so well and finally an aftermarket wheel that is very nice but is not keeping with the Porsche family of wheels.

Thoughts and pictures of different rims fitted to a 44 are very welcome and would be great to help me make the decision.

Kevsporsche944

Nothing like a Fuchs rim.

J1NX3D

Hi James,
My friend Simon is thinking about selling the wheels on his turbo. He just had them refurbished last month and he's not sure he likes the colour. It's an '86 so the same offset. I could let you know what he decides if you're interested?