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A few other interesting details of the early cars - anyone know when these transitioned (I dont)?
SS gas cap - was on #541, now on #16
Vertical home position for the ignition key (and the interior mechanism is different too - more later)
Star-shaped interior door lock ***** and bearing/round trim - they snap onto a plastic retainer with 4 plastic features. All 4 were intact on the passenger side, but only 3 on the driver side. I later replaced these with the round ***** and kept the star shaped ones for safe-keeping until I can get some new retainers 3D printed or fabbed.
Cross car / strut tower braces are steel and bolted on using hex head cap screws
Looking forward to lots of details and pictures of this one. I just started working on VIN 9288200079. Does this make it US car #69?
Yes, I believe your car would be #69 (for the US). The big question I have is where yours and mine fit into the overall number/sequence of 928s made. Quite a few Euro models were made first before the US spec cars began to roll off the assembly line (or limitied production/hand built line). My car has quite a few prototype and other components that were short lived before Porsche made rolling changes to improve the design.
Does anyone have details on where the US spec cars fit into the overall 928 builds? I believe #16 has an October 1977 build date.
Great story Dennis, and damn, that seller is a dirtbag (I hope he is reading this). The car is in good hands now. You're the right guy to bring this special early example back to what it should be. Will be following! By the way, I have a pretty good database of pictures from Blumaxx, which is an unrestored example and has all labels, etc as from the factory. If you need any pictures, let me know. If I don't have it, Alex may be able to help. Blumaxx is a good reference car for some of these things (I miss it!!)
Hi Ed - it would be extremely helpful if you could share your photos. If you have them uploaded to the cloud and car share a link, that would be great and if you see something in my pictures that is different from Blumaxx, please point it out and share. Still cant believe its not in your garage ...
Yes, I believe your car would be #69 (for the US). The big question I have is where yours and mine fit into the overall number/sequence of 928s made. Quite a few Euro models were made first before the US spec cars began to roll off the assembly line (or limitied production/hand built line). My car has quite a few prototype and other components that were short lived before Porsche made rolling changes to improve the design.
Does anyone have details on where the US spec cars fit into the overall 928 builds? I believe #16 has an October 1977 build date.
Not exactly sure but I would guess it is somewhere in the 300 - 400th 928 built. Have you checked to see if there is a piece of tape under the glove box with the production number or stamped into the rear hatch under the trim? The very first 12 cars were built back in February of ‘77.
Not exactly sure but I would guess it is somewhere in the 300 - 400th 928 built. Have you checked to see if there is a piece of tape under the glove box with the production number or stamped into the rear hatch under the trim? The very first 12 cars were built back in February of ‘77.
I need to check under the glove box again. I dont recall seeing it when I had the interior out of it to replace the dash and I didnt see anything under the rear hatch trim.
Yes, I believe your car would be #69 (for the US). The big question I have is where yours and mine fit into the overall number/sequence of 928s made. Quite a few Euro models were made first before the US spec cars began to roll off the assembly line (or limitied production/hand built line). My car has quite a few prototype and other components that were short lived before Porsche made rolling changes to improve the design.
Does anyone have details on where the US spec cars fit into the overall 928 builds? I believe #16 has an October 1977 build date.
This is the number under the glove box of VIN#9288200079 dated 12/77 this car is mostly untouched. Hope this is helpful.
These early cars with the vertical home position have a different cam that connects the ignition lock cylinder to the ignition switch. The early cams are NLA and in #16, when I turned the key it would not engage the circuit to start the car (i.e., when turning the key to start the car, nothing happens when the key is fully turned clockwise). Bubba had wired a push button to bypass the ignition switch but thankfully only minor de-bubba work was required. I still had to make a small adjustment to the cam to allow it to engage the ignition switch (Ive had to do this on all but one of the OBs Ive owned. To do so, I use channel locks and vice-grips to twist the shaft on the aluminum cam a couple of degrees. Im always afraid Ill twist the cam in two, but it seem to be soft aluminum and some very gentle persuasion is all that is needed. ignition switch assembly - notice the small cut made with a hacksaw to lift the pin up to allow the lock cylinder to be removed - the cam can then be removed after pulling out the lock cylinder ignition switch assembly cam - required a little twist to get the splines to turn the ignition swtich to make electrical contact cam
This may not be clear from my description ... it took me a while to figure this out and may explain why some mechanics cant seem to figure out why the ignition switch is not working on some OBs. Ive never had this issue on any 80+ cars, but seems to be a common issue with 78-79 cars (at least the ones Ive owned).
I was also surprised how good the flex circuit appeared on the back of my cluster. Unlike other early cars that show significant deterioration of the flex circuit, #16 looked near perfect. Even the odometer gear (in the working odometer) seemed to be made of a more robust plastic than the biodegradeable gears of all the pre-89 cars Ive owned.
And wouldnt you know, 6 months after putting it all back together (with all lights and gauges correctly working), my odometer stopped!! Ill report back when I find out why.
By now, it was March of 2020 and I dont have to tell you the meaning of this date. There wasnt much in the way of silver in the Covid clouds, but one sliver of benefit was the shelter in garage order (an added measure put in place by my wife at the thought of watching TV all day together). I now had time and lots of it ... it was time to lean into #16 and get some work done.
After returning the ignition switch to proper function with the use of a key, it was time to pull the center console and dash to see what other gremlins were lurking. Did Bubba decide to rewire the main loom or central electrical panel?? No signs of an aftermarket alarm (thank heavens), but how badly was the aftermarket stereo hacked or did rodents check-in to this hotel for a while?? Well, I was thrilled to find very little else disturbed from these fine German engineers and craftsmen had put in place in 1977. The electrical panel was clean. I replaced all of the fuses and all of the lighting came back to life - note: whenever you get an old 928, spend a few bucks and an hour replacing ALL of the fuses with correctly rated ones. Even though they might look good, oxidation frequently renders the circuits non-functioning.
Out came the old center console and after market radio. I chased down all the factory wiring for the radio and interior lighting (such as the ashtray), went through all of the vacuum actuators, vacuum lines, HVAC control switch(es), replaced light bulbs and on and on. Out came the old fossilized and cracked dash, and then in went the crack free dash I sourced (came from a later car, but bolted in nicely), Blaupunkt tuner (separate from the head unit), a very good center console from #541 that included a proper Blaupunkt head unit. I bought a new radio installation kit (with new ***** and face plate), still available through Porsche at the time for $22 P/N 928-645-121-01 (but recently NLA). Getting it all back in was straightforward except for hooking up the temp control cable (correctly complained and cursed about extensively elsewhere - I concur). Hooking up the vacuum block to the back of the HVAC switch requires some patience and dexterity (neither of which I have much of) ... I put the console partially in place but sticking out a bit, then I attached the vacuum block and then fully seated the center console. I also refinished the pod using Evercoat 632 (with short strand fiberglass), SEM 399853 texture coat and finished in SEM 15013 Laundau black. I retained my original glove box door.
This is great stuff Dennis- I had the same issue with the ignition switch in #21- I bailed and just re-tumblered a later ignition cylinder to work with the original key. Didn't think about just modifying the cam, good thought!
08-17-2021, 04:49 PM
). The car is in good hands now. You're the right guy to bring this special early example back to what it should be. Will be following! By the way, I have a pretty good database of pictures from Blumaxx, which is an unrestored example and has all labels, etc as from the factory. If you need any pictures, let me know. If I don't have it, Alex may be able to help. Blumaxx is a good reference car for some of these things (I miss it!!)
