The Sheik's 928
09-26-2017, 11:48 PM
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The Sheik's 928
Pearl, The 928 originally owned by a sheikh.
This car is a 1986 automatic ROW edition. It has a Euro S low compression engine with the 2.5:1 limited slip differential for Saudi Arabia. The paint and interior is what really sets it apart from most other 928s, however.
The outside is pearl white (a 911 option in ’86), L-947, Perlmutt Weiss (the paint code on the rear deck sticker is L999, which I understand just means custom) and the interior is full leather Can-Can Red. Even the luggage cover is red leather. The driver seat is the sport seat with the higher than normal bolsters.
As I was told, the original owner and man who ordered it is Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak al Nahyan, is a middle son of the head of the ruling Al Nahyan family in Abu Dhabi. At the time of ordering the car he was the Chancellor of Higher Colleges of Ministry (and probably in his middle 20’s). In 1991-1992 he sold the car to an American professor he had hired for the university who was retiring and returning to the States.
This second owner (I don’t remember his name) brought that car back and had it federalized in southern California. After that work was done the car was taken to Las Vegas and lived there in a parking garage until 2014 when it was put up for sale. Mileage averaged 2000 miles per year during this time.
The third was from Tempe, AZ, he saw the car in a Craigslist ad, negotiated by phone and then flew to Vegas met the professor. He spent the day with him going over paperwork he had and hearing the stories and then he drove it to Phoenix. He said he was petrified the entire drive home because the timing belt had not been changed in far too long. The drive was uneventful and he spent the next year and a half or so doing maintenance things. His son is a teenager and wanted a Jeep so they decided to sell the car and build a Cherokee and put the car up for sale.
I saw his Craigslist ad and happened to have enough money to finally buy a 928 and so I did, I am the 4th owner.
The red interior is almost over powering and the bolster and piping nearest the door were showing a lot of wear and so we decided to have the seats re-upholstered but with black piping this time and install black carpet to tone the interior down some.
The paint was starting to show its age also, paint was chipping along some of the edges and the previous repaint job was still showing as a poor masking job and a tiny chip of bondo was evidence of a previous repair to the front of the right fender. The car had been painted in UAE sometime prior to being sold the first time. At that time a painter friend of mine was out of work for health reasons and so we decided to have him paint the car and I would pay him something every other week when I got paid. At that time we also decided to clean up the body lines some by removing all the side marker lights (federalized ROW cars have 3 per side), the rub strips, the headlight washer nozzles, a short wave radio antenna (put on for official duties for the sheikh) and the rear spoiler.
While removing the front bumper cover we found that the entire bottom of it was broken beyond (reasonable) repair and the local Porsche recycler had a very nice S4 nose and pretty nice matching fenders (which I prefer) and so we went that way. We had hoped for a “scuff and shoot” and be done, but when Bob (the painter) started working on it, pieces of paint the size of business cards flaked off. Turns out there were two resprays and neither of them was well adhered to the original paint. Bob scraped both layers off with a single edge razor blade. While having the rear side marker holes filled we found more body filler on the right rear corner which may explain the second respray. As it turned out, the front fenders were from a car that had an engine fire and the flange where they bolt to the engine compartment rail was bowed outward on both sides. The body work was completed and the entire car was blocked straight and sanded to 500 grit in preparation for paint.
The paint is tri-stage with a light brown/beige base/color coat, white mica in clear for the pearl and then clear on top of that. While researching this paint I read that the original Porsche paint had finely ground mussel shells as the pearlescent portion of the paint. I understand that this pearl paint was a very expensive upgrade over the metallic. I don’t know what the material is today, but suspect it probably something man made.
Plans:
After the car is painted the interior will be stripped, cleaned, and re-insulated much like Carl has done with his Black Pearl, the car will be rewired but not as sophisticated as his. I will use a 23 station system from Painless, the guy who will wire the car (Jared) has just completed a 1969 Camaro with much the same set-up as this car has (more like Carl’s actually). I like the distributed power aspect of the Infinity/can-bus system and so am considering doing a partial system with dumb boxes on either end of the car for the lights. Jared used some user programmable Infinity boxes with the painless fusebox/ harness in the Camaro. This is in flux until I actually buy the parts and the wiring begins.
I have a Dakota Digital custom shop gauge panel to replace the original. This one will work with their GPS speedometer drive and the drive by wire throttle of the engine (yes, LS3, 430 hp) and allow electronic cruise control. The torque tube has new Black Sea bearings and the transaxle has been rebuilt (it didn’t need much at only 65k miles, but “while it was out”).
Was planning to cobble a Vintage Air AC evaporator box into the car until I saw Carl’s upgrade to his unit and have decided to follow his footsteps. Would prefer to get away from the factory control head and vacuum actuators if that is at all possible.
The axle shafts will be re-lubed and get new boots and will the steering rack. The rest of the running gear appears to be very good shape and so will be looked at in greater depth individually after the car is back together and running.
So, after all that, here are some pictures.
This car is a 1986 automatic ROW edition. It has a Euro S low compression engine with the 2.5:1 limited slip differential for Saudi Arabia. The paint and interior is what really sets it apart from most other 928s, however.
The outside is pearl white (a 911 option in ’86), L-947, Perlmutt Weiss (the paint code on the rear deck sticker is L999, which I understand just means custom) and the interior is full leather Can-Can Red. Even the luggage cover is red leather. The driver seat is the sport seat with the higher than normal bolsters.
As I was told, the original owner and man who ordered it is Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak al Nahyan, is a middle son of the head of the ruling Al Nahyan family in Abu Dhabi. At the time of ordering the car he was the Chancellor of Higher Colleges of Ministry (and probably in his middle 20’s). In 1991-1992 he sold the car to an American professor he had hired for the university who was retiring and returning to the States.
This second owner (I don’t remember his name) brought that car back and had it federalized in southern California. After that work was done the car was taken to Las Vegas and lived there in a parking garage until 2014 when it was put up for sale. Mileage averaged 2000 miles per year during this time.
The third was from Tempe, AZ, he saw the car in a Craigslist ad, negotiated by phone and then flew to Vegas met the professor. He spent the day with him going over paperwork he had and hearing the stories and then he drove it to Phoenix. He said he was petrified the entire drive home because the timing belt had not been changed in far too long. The drive was uneventful and he spent the next year and a half or so doing maintenance things. His son is a teenager and wanted a Jeep so they decided to sell the car and build a Cherokee and put the car up for sale.
I saw his Craigslist ad and happened to have enough money to finally buy a 928 and so I did, I am the 4th owner.
The red interior is almost over powering and the bolster and piping nearest the door were showing a lot of wear and so we decided to have the seats re-upholstered but with black piping this time and install black carpet to tone the interior down some.
The paint was starting to show its age also, paint was chipping along some of the edges and the previous repaint job was still showing as a poor masking job and a tiny chip of bondo was evidence of a previous repair to the front of the right fender. The car had been painted in UAE sometime prior to being sold the first time. At that time a painter friend of mine was out of work for health reasons and so we decided to have him paint the car and I would pay him something every other week when I got paid. At that time we also decided to clean up the body lines some by removing all the side marker lights (federalized ROW cars have 3 per side), the rub strips, the headlight washer nozzles, a short wave radio antenna (put on for official duties for the sheikh) and the rear spoiler.
While removing the front bumper cover we found that the entire bottom of it was broken beyond (reasonable) repair and the local Porsche recycler had a very nice S4 nose and pretty nice matching fenders (which I prefer) and so we went that way. We had hoped for a “scuff and shoot” and be done, but when Bob (the painter) started working on it, pieces of paint the size of business cards flaked off. Turns out there were two resprays and neither of them was well adhered to the original paint. Bob scraped both layers off with a single edge razor blade. While having the rear side marker holes filled we found more body filler on the right rear corner which may explain the second respray. As it turned out, the front fenders were from a car that had an engine fire and the flange where they bolt to the engine compartment rail was bowed outward on both sides. The body work was completed and the entire car was blocked straight and sanded to 500 grit in preparation for paint.
The paint is tri-stage with a light brown/beige base/color coat, white mica in clear for the pearl and then clear on top of that. While researching this paint I read that the original Porsche paint had finely ground mussel shells as the pearlescent portion of the paint. I understand that this pearl paint was a very expensive upgrade over the metallic. I don’t know what the material is today, but suspect it probably something man made.
Plans:
After the car is painted the interior will be stripped, cleaned, and re-insulated much like Carl has done with his Black Pearl, the car will be rewired but not as sophisticated as his. I will use a 23 station system from Painless, the guy who will wire the car (Jared) has just completed a 1969 Camaro with much the same set-up as this car has (more like Carl’s actually). I like the distributed power aspect of the Infinity/can-bus system and so am considering doing a partial system with dumb boxes on either end of the car for the lights. Jared used some user programmable Infinity boxes with the painless fusebox/ harness in the Camaro. This is in flux until I actually buy the parts and the wiring begins.
I have a Dakota Digital custom shop gauge panel to replace the original. This one will work with their GPS speedometer drive and the drive by wire throttle of the engine (yes, LS3, 430 hp) and allow electronic cruise control. The torque tube has new Black Sea bearings and the transaxle has been rebuilt (it didn’t need much at only 65k miles, but “while it was out”).
Was planning to cobble a Vintage Air AC evaporator box into the car until I saw Carl’s upgrade to his unit and have decided to follow his footsteps. Would prefer to get away from the factory control head and vacuum actuators if that is at all possible.
The axle shafts will be re-lubed and get new boots and will the steering rack. The rest of the running gear appears to be very good shape and so will be looked at in greater depth individually after the car is back together and running.
So, after all that, here are some pictures.
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09-27-2017, 07:54 AM
#11
Rennlist Member
Yeah, with as unique a car as it is and as much as you're spending, I think I would have gone back to as close to stock as possible. Except for the rub strips. Good call dumping those hideous things. It is absolutely your car, and I support your right to do what you like with it. And it can always be put back just as easily if you ever change your mind. There are no ends of early noses out there.
In the meantime, you have a worry-free driver. Enjoy it!
In the meantime, you have a worry-free driver. Enjoy it!
09-27-2017, 09:09 AM
#15
Damn, that car was amazing.