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Hi Rennlisters. I wanted to have this thread to document this car as I bring it back from the brink.
Brief history: Car was abandoned for at least 10 years at a garage. I bought it three years ago to be a track car but then got the 87 S instead. This one is going to my wife whom also is a big petrol head. During that time I have only gotten as far as pulling the engine and other various bits and have now begun to truly bring it back.
Over the winter I'll be rebuilding the engine which I have already started. It leaked from every seal but it did run before I took it apart.
I also just pulled some of the carpet as water was getting in due to a leaky battery tray. I've gotten a new cover for it and it survived a heavy downpour so that's taken care of.
Goal: Because this is a rare color (at least around here) we feel it needs saving. I've going to try to keep as much original as I can. I'm even going to clean and repair as much of the carpet as possible. Other parts I'll have to do is putting new sound deadening material in it.
I've got a long road ahead with this one but if I keep at it consistently I'll have it on the road by spring.
Absolutely *gorgeous* color- glad to hear you're saving it! Keep us posted on the progress- looking great so far!
Haha...thanks but make no mistake that body is in somewhat rough shape. No rust externally but man she was treated poorly. There's a minor dent in the back that I'll have to pull plus the clearcoat is toast. It is going to need a respray eventually.
Apart from doing some gutting before the snow falls I plan on working front to back thus the engine first.
Well I was cleaning the surfaces today when this happened. It wasn't there before but it just flaked right off. Clearly these was something wrong with this piece of the block like a stress fracture or something. Now I have to look at options. Get this repaired or just buy another engine and put my new parts on it. Thoughts?
Edit: I have an idea now to fix this when I install the pump as the rest of the block looks great.
Ugh, that blows. I've never seen that happen before. What are you going to do?
I will put some JB Weld on it when I install the pump and gasket while still soft. This will flatten the JB to the correct height.
In my before/after pic I see a dark spot where this flaked off. I suspect it was repaired once already. It still had the old style pump (original?) so maybe this was repaired at the factory and age caused it to flake.
JB weld will probably hold it, but if you REALLY want to do it up right, get it Tigged. Should not cost a whole bunch either. Won't be too hard if the entire block is empty. Block probably needs to be vatted anyway, thoroughly cleaned and freeze plugs replaced along with oil galley seals.. Engine shop can do this easily. BTW..FWIW, use grade 10.9 or better bolts when re-attaching the seat rails. '83s are prone to breakage of the original bolts in a crash. They are 6mm..later cars went to 8 mm. I'm right with you on my '83 resto project too.
JB weld will probably hold it, but if you REALLY want to do it up right, get it Tigged. Should not cost a whole bunch either. Won't be too hard if the entire block is empty. Block probably needs to be vatted anyway, thoroughly cleaned and freeze plugs replaced along with oil galley seals.. Engine shop can do this easily. BTW..FWIW, use grade 10.9 or better bolts when re-attaching the seat rails. '83s are prone to breakage of the original bolts in a crash. They are 6mm..later cars went to 8 mm. I'm right with you on my '83 resto project too.
Thanks for the seat rail tip...that's something I have not seen mentioned before.
The block was tanked and now I'm finishing the cleaning. I didn't get the freeze plugs done so good tip. I'm replacing every seal but not sure what you mean by the oil galley. Do you mean the pickup tube?
The reason I was not going to go the TIG route is the studs are still on and it would need to be ground back which could upset the height of that surface to the water pump. However as I should have the freeze plugs changed I'm hoping my usual shop could do this for me.
Dear Chris..there are plugs on each end of the main oil galley that runs down the side the block. This needs to be cleaned out to insure that there is no debris inside to foul your new bearings etc. They of have about a 12mm plug that is on each end of the galley . You can use a rifle cleaning rod and brushes to clean it out with some solvent or brake cleaner. Good luck.
Dear Chris..Looking at your pic some more of the chipped area, and since you are going to use JB on the damaged area, you might want to use a dremel tool and drill a small hole..into the broken area , staying in the casting, to give more surface for the JB to grip to and make a stronger patch. Just my .02 cents.. don't drill too deep.
Well now that I have much of what I wanted to do completed on the 87S I can finally get this car going this season. At last this weekend I'm going to start putting the engine back together.
11-04-2015, 02:11 PM
Blue 83 944 Restoration Thread
