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I've got a duplicate thread on the Pelican forum but to get maximum eyes on issues, I'll catch everyone up here...
No stranger to old Porsches here. I've owned many 924S and 944. Also been through a couple 914s. Co-owner on a track Boxster and now I'm into my second Cayman daily driver. But I've been lurking and peeping at 928s and this one just kind of feel in my lap.
It popped up on Craigslist without a price and a very sparse description. I suspected it was a diamond in the rough and when I went to look at it - yes sir! So a retired carpenter had bought it from his landlord who had left it sitting for 17 years in a warehouse. The landlord had a mechanic working on it and got tired of waiting (and paying) and decided to sell it to his tenant.The mechanic had found rodent damage to wiring and had done some repairs. I saw a new fuel pump, fuel filter and spark plug wires. The grey interior looked pretty rough with a lot of dust but when I pulled back the front seat covers a bit - I could tell the leather was holding up really well. The car had a new battery and I put the hot lead back on it and the dash is lighting up, headlights raise and turn on, turn indicators and even the OE radio is making noise.
The exterior looked pretty good with original paint Garnet Red Metallic. There's a couple small dents in the left front fender but nothing major. No broken windows or mirrors although the drivers exterior mirror is loose on the stalk. Seals look really good for the age of the car with only the drivers window scraper showing cracks.
The owner tells me the mechanic couldn't get it to crank with the ignition key but had bridged the starter and it turned over a couple times. And now I'm thinking this could be a fairly easy fix. The purchase price is $2200 and I have to admit, that's a good buy even if it's a non-runner at this point. So I tell the man I'll be back Saturday with cash and a trailer.
So today I arrived to pick it up. Two of the dry rotted tires won't hold air but that's okay - I've got a wench in my trailer. I did jack the front end up, remove the belly pan and put a ratchet on the crank pulley. I spun it around a couple times and there's plenty of compression. Meanwhile the seller gets that mechanic on the phone and he confirmed the repairs I observed. He says he dropped the tank, dumped the fuel and it didn't look too bad. That has me optimistic the injectors and fuel lines aren't clogged (nothing a little Techron won't fix). Anyway, I get the car loaded and back to my garage.
Note that I found this one only about 20 miles from my house. I've traveled hundreds of miles to buy Porsches in much worse shape!
Unloading with the bad tires was a challenge but eventually I was able to roll the beast into the garage. First thing was put on some 15" wheels with good tires off my 931. This 928S came with BBS 16" and I like those.
Next I'm cleaning the interior and that's when I realize just how special these 928s are. The craftsmanship is far superior to 924 or 944. This 928S has the all leather option and it's literally leather everywhere! The dash has some deformation around the vents and one bad crack on the instrument pod but otherwise - no cracks or tears. I'm using leather cleaner conditioner and will probably go over everything a couple times. The carpets aren't too bad. No signs of interior water leaks. Dry floor pans. I found the owners manual and the original dealer price sticker! $52,817 for this car to the original owner from Porsche Audi of Broward.
So my next step is to replace the timing belt as I've got no idea how old that is. There's no contact using the key but I suspect that because it's the alternate key and this car has factory alarm. I'll be reading up on how to disable that tonight but for now, I very pleased with my latest Porsche rescue!
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Yesterday I prepared for changing the timing belt. I dropped the cracked and sun-baked chin splitter, brake ducts and fan shroud. That is the first fan shroud I've seen that splits in half! Bravo Porsche engineers! I also pulled the air filter, cold flow intakes and air distributors. I found the rodent damaged wires under the air filter. It's a harness branch with 3 red with stripes wires. No sign of what those attach to. Also noted extensive gnawing on the under hood insulation pad. I should have the timing belt on Wednesday. While I'm waiting, I'll probably pull the front seats and give the carpets a good shampoo.
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I'm always amazed at the stuff under these old Porsches seats when I pull them. This one had a complete waste bin for acorn shells under the drivers. About 2" deep! Then passenger side gave me some real problems. It would only move about 2" front and back with the electric motor. It was in the back position so I was able to extract the front seat rail screws but even after pulling the drive cable off the motor and turning each with vice grips - it would bind up. So I sprayed the rails and threaded rod really well with PB Blaster and started working it back and forth. I discovered that one slider was ahead of the other and that was contributing to the binding. If you spin the manual hex and the gears slip - you're only moving the outboard side, which I suspect someone had done. I was finally able to get the seat all the way forward to remove the rear screws and pull the seat. Another factor in the binding was the threaded rod was somewhat corroded (Coke spills or mice urine) and general funk stuck in the threads. So after cleaning that off with brake cleaner and lubing well, the passenger seat appears to work as well as the drivers. I vacuumed the floor pans out and this weekend I'll do multiple carpet shampoos and condition the leather seats before re-installing.
I'm also going to defeat the Porsche alarm system while the seats are out and do a thorough inspection on the wiring panel. There will probably more chewed wires back there and it's so much easier to work with the seats out.
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yes you got a diamond in the rough.
with the seats removed your halfway home to a new carpet kit, Rob Budd in MI could get that.
Of course you could wash the old stuff in cold water and tide and it will come back to life.
Goodluck with the project, make sure you change the coolant via the block drains and new fuel lines
That 928 looks like it has a lot of possibility. Of course, they all do, at some level.
The thing in the Original Post that is most intriguing to me is the "wench in the trailer." I have often thought of putting a cot in my trailer for those trips I have made to retrieve a 928, to use for some sleep, particularly when I drive until too late at night to find a motel, then I could just catch a few winks in the trailer. But having a wench back there also could make the trip much more interesting. I couldn't tell my wife about her, of course, and where to keep her in between trips might be a problem, but again . . . . .
Congrats on the score! I too bought a "diamond in the rough" that hadn't run in about 10 years. Looks like you know your way around cars so that will keep the cost down, but I'd still budget around $5K to get it to a reliable driving state.
Replace all of the flexible flammable fluid lines, fuels, PS, ect. Lot of unfortunate fires due to 30+ year old rubber. Also do a search here for "Top End Refresh". You likely need to replace all of the vacuum lines, have the injectors cleaned (google Witchhunter), cap and rotor, plugs, etc. Contact Roger at 928sRus (don't bother with his website, email and phone work best). He has 95% of what you'll need in new parts. For everything new try 928 International.
Good luck and I look forward to following the resurrection!
I dived into the belt replacement having almost all of labor day week off from work. That removing the belts was mostly routine but some surprises this being my first 928. The complexity of belts, pulleys, etc. is fairly intense. Going by the shop manual I locked the flywheel off at what I thought was TDC (nice markings on the crank pulley, not so much on the camshaft sprockets). Anyway, when I relaxed tension on the timing belt, the camshafts moved off the marks I had scribed on them (having not found the factory marks). That had me puzzled and concerned. It took me a while to figure out that it was valve springs pushing the cam off. Later that night I found an excellent write up for 32 valve 928 timing belt. So those marks are on the backside of the cam sprockets, crap. And... you've got to set the crank shaft plus 45 degrees to get all the valves closed. You think they would have written that into to the shop manual. So yesterday I put the old timing belt back on, making sure my scribed marks lined up, released the flywheel and got the crankshaft spun to plus 45 degrees. Then made another set of camshaft marks for the REAL TDC and plus 45. I'm going to re-build the belt tensioner as the boot was completely toast. I'm also replacing the water pump and tensioner pulley. Most everything else looks pretty solid on the front of engine. I did drop off the starter and alternator at a local shop for cleaning, testing and rebuild (if needed). My experience with cars this age is those are going to fail soon after getting the car running so might as well just knock that out.
So while I'm waiting on parts for the belt project, I also strip out the map tray and glove box to get to the alarm module. Not knowing exactly the location, I found a massive mouse nest inside the console. Sucked that crap out with a shop vacuum and observed no apparent damage to wiring in there. These mice must have had a good food source and didn't develop a taste for wiring insulation. Located the alarm module, disconnected and jumped the pins on the plug. Turned ignition on and the instrument panel looks much better without all the warning lights on.
Once I get everything back together, I might attempt a start. Although the idle control valve is disconnected, I should be able to get the engine to fire up briefly with ether. That would be a real confidence booster!
09-02-2017, 08:35 AM
My 1st Super Car 928S
