forloveandglory

Hello. My name is Kai, I live in Berlin,Germany and I was recommended to join this forum for some more knowledge about transaxle Porsches. So here I am and I might wanna start with the story of my 1978 Porsche 924.

In 2011 a friend of mine was looking for a classic car, he could use as a daily ride. He had no clue about classic cars at all and asked me for some help and support. While we were checking various options, I stumbled upon this Porsche 924. Sold in 1978 it was old enough to be a legal classic car in Germany (30 years minimum), this saves you money on insurance and taxes and allows you to enter city centres without having a modern engine with low emission.

As a good friend I talked to guy who sold it and we had a phone call for almost an hour. He owns various cool cars, an original Strosek Porsche 928 e.g., his wife didn't like the 924, so he gave it away. When I visited him for a test drive I fell in love with this car. Though there are three details, which would keep me from buying it. Normally. I don't like red cars. I don't like ATS Classic wheels. And I don't like those aftermarket glass roofs from the 80s. I bought it anyway, knowing this friend of mine would understand it.

This is how it looked in the beginning. ATS Classic wheels in a special Kerscher edition. 7x15" ET16 in the front, 9x15" ET-19 in the back. A bodykit that makes the 924 look more like a 944 and a front bumper that was a little special as well.







During winter 2011/2012 time somebody crashed into my bumper and ruined it. Finding this one again is pretty hard, so I gave it to a guy to fix it. He's building boats and knows how to handle this plastic stuff. Probably it would have become a mess, if I'd tried to fix it by myself.



Test fitted the original wheels for some fun. This is how it looks like.



Last summer I brought it into my workshop to make some serious changes to it. Last time it looked like this.



And the work slowly started. The broken bumper is off. The front axle is off. Some more parts are off as well. Well, not on this picture. But you can trust me.



Messing around with some parts I collected in the meantime. The scoop is from a 924 Carrera GTS and will become a part of the new look. The wheel arches on the other hand won't, since it doesn't really suit the car.




Collected some more parts and everything is coming together slowly. Took me more than a year to get clear front indicators and these were no bargain at all. But I had to have them on my car. The suspension parts are almost complette. Some old parts have to be refurbished before I can get everything back together.





In between I took off the rubber spoiler, since it was shrunken und out of shape.
Bought another big rubber thingy already, but I quite like it without it. Maybe I'll keep it this way.
944 script has got to go and maybe I should lose the black rubber part at the bumper as well.



I picked up these wheel arches.
I might need them in the future, since I wanna go for wider wheels.
They will need some treatment to fit.
But this will happen much later during this (very very slow) build.





Also I got my bumper back.
Looks like work in progress now but it's almost finished.
Only a little sanding needed, some filler and it's done.
Test fitted the white indicators again.
Love the much cleaner look.





And yes, there's something finished.
Something quite tiny though, but finished.
The connection rods between wishbone and stabilizer are ready to be used.
Added a stainless steel nut and washer, that's it.



Since I'm still undecided which colour it'll be, I was playing around with some stuff.
Maybe I should go for the Harlekin look from VW?



Than I cleaned all the bits and pieces to be ready.
Furthermore I assembled the suspension strut.
Still not on its wheels, but I'm getting closer finally.




I was going for a KAW set up.
I'm already afraid, I want some real coilovers in the near future.

Later I found the time to finish the front suspension.
So both sides are done and all my doubts were justified.
I built myself an off-road car. Bloody hell, that wasn't the plan.

Sure, it'll all come down a little more, but never the promised 50 mm.
It seems like there'll be more raw engineering skills needed to fix that.

Anyway, here are some photos.




Passenger's side.



Driver's side.




Inside.

Again I was messing around a little.
The driver's side plastic housing is broken, a good reason to test my idea.
Still needs some improvement but this is gonna look great in the end.



Finally something new happened with this project. I bought a second hand suspension for a Golf 1 very cheap, just for testing if it really works. And it does. So here we are with a -40 mm set up and I just ordered some brand new coilovers with up to -90 mm. It's gonna be seriously slammed quite soon. This how it looks than.



This how we started today:






Some moments later:











Took a couple of better photos too. There's a lot of work left, to make it look good and work at least a little bit. Anyway, enjoy the photos:













The massive rake makes it look like an 1980s Camaro with Hijackers in the back and a Confederation flag painted on the diff cap. This will be fixed soon. It has to be.

And I couldn't resist to test fit a backwheel on the front. It's massive 9x15 ET-19. Didn't remove the spacers so it doesn't work like this. And I'm not so sure whether I like it or not. We'll see what's gonna happen. (Crappy iPhone pictures for this test only.)









That's it for now. Sorry if there are messed up times during the text. I copied and pasted my stuff from another board.

odurandina

welcome to Rennlist. looks fantastic so far.

thanks for posting so much detail.

Nashio

Love those wheels. Also the fact you saved that bumper. Lots of hard work and I am so happy you shared this with us.

Arominus

Look for the small 931/924S spoiler, it will improve your aero significantly compared to no spoiler.

Dutchman

Cool project! Nice slammer. Now it's time to drop that back end. Not sure if it's adjustable like on the 944though...

forloveandglory

Thank you for the kind words, guys.
I really hope to get some advices here, when needed.
The German Porsche board is a dreary place for cars like mine.


Thanks. I love to see details myself, so I'm doing it for other readers as well.

Actually I'd have a problem without the bumper. The widened front fenders would looks crappy without it.

Either I go for the large one or none. Got a spare large one in my workshop. I'm still undecided and for now I care more about the looks than the practicality.

The back end is up next. Torsion bars are quite easy to handle, I took care of the front first, since I knew it'd be a lot more difficult. At the moment winter came back and it's quite uncomfortable in the workshop. Hope to get some spare time (and warme weather) soon.

Dutchman

Thinking about it. I actually did it with my 924 I sold last year. There is an udjastable plate on the rear control arm. Here's a picture with the back adjusted and a few front coils cut off

simxxi

nice pics and great job!

jtsporsche

Very nice, keep us updated

dillon410021

love the front bumper as well as how far the car has come.

forloveandglory

I'm gonna reindex the torsion bars, to get to the right height.

Thank you.

Thanks, I will.

Thanks. Hope to get it further pretty soon.

odurandina

the rear spoiler is a huge upgrade.

i also think the hood looks fine the way it is. i would leave it be.

just the fact that it is a '78 in such great condition is bolstered by the oem hood, not diminished by it.

how does it run ?

i had the same engine block in my first car (but only 1.5 litres of displacement), a '74 Audi Fox (i really miss that car).

forloveandglory

This is my spare hood. Kept the original hood untouched, so i can change it, whenever I want to go without the upcoming scoop.
Somebody restored the car someday back in the 1990s.
It runs great and I won't do that much on the engine.
A bigger throttle only. Have got it in the workshop already.

fred27

Hi Kai, thanks for sharing. It is a good looking car. I like the bumper and the deep dish of the wheels. Good luck with the rest of your build.

reno808

Cool story. Keep up the good work. Love the slammed look