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I thought I would share my journey through the revival of an early 928 (still a work in progress). Ill work on this thread gradually in the coming weeks, sharing some fun and interesting learnings and finds from my archelology dig. Im still learning about these early cars, so please chime in with your comments about what you have seen from your own experiences. Ive decided to do a driver quality restoration, meaning I plan to drive this car on rallies, to cars and coffees, and general joy rides without fear of stone chips or the ocasional door ding (although Ill try to avoid those). Im not into garage art or collecting trophies ... I am into driving a 928 like God and Germans meant ... at speed and in comfort and style.
In March of 2017 I acquired a US spec 1978 928 #16 (VIN 9288200026). It checks some of my favorite boxes (yours too Im sure) ... 5-spd, black/blue pasha, no rubbies, no sunroof, and silver. However, this is the only car Ive ever purchased that was grossly misrepresented by the seller (dare I say lied ... most people are just ignorant, but in this case he sent old photos, didnt disclose damage repair to the fender and door, missing parts, and on and on). Regardless, I bought the car because of the boxes that were checked and brought it home. The trip home turned out to be a wonderful adventure of planes, trains and automobiles ... 928 style.
After seeing 10 year old photos and hearing about all of the wonderful maintenance and general condition of the car, we agreed on a price and I sent a deposit. A few days later, I boarded a plane with my neighbor Steve (recently retired and bored sitting at home being nagged by his wife to take on a more of the shopping and housework) for a trip to Pueblo, Colorado. Three and a half hours later, I met dubious seller and saw #16. It was not the highlight of my day, but it was not the lowlight either. Some angry words were exchanged ... actually many angry words, but the funny part was when I asked why this was not disclosed and that was not disclosed and you said this about this and this is not what you said and he said to me, "Are you calling me a liar?" and I asked, "How old were the pictures you sent??" and he went silent. In the end, I agreed to buy the car at little bit of a discount. I was planning to drive it home and Steve asked me, can we make it?? I said, I dont know ... maybe. At this time, the car ran, and I'd driven a half dozen 928s across country without a problem and thought this one might make it ... after all, the early cars are very simple. Pueblo is about 1400 miles from Pleasanton, CA so off we went at around 7pm.
The car ran well for about 200 miles ... the tired gearbox could be massaged through the gears and the engine was purring nicely. We stopped for some late night snacks and fuel somewhere in the middle of nowhere and I smelled fuel ... quite a strong smell of fuel. It was dark and I couldnt tell if it was a leak. We pulled over at the nearest hotel at the next town. We had arrived in Las Vegas! Las Vegas, New Mexico. Not to be confused with THE Las Vegas, Las Vegas, New Mexico is just another small town in rural America whose heyday had long since passed, but the people are wonderful (as they usually are in rural America). We got a room and decided to wait until morning to try and figure out what was going on. The next morning, I went out to try and start the car and a few minutes later, Steve walks out and tells me that we seem to have a leak. Well ... this was no small leak ... a large area around the front of the car was wet with fuel and I opened the hood to find a major fuel leak in the line from the accumulator to the cannister in the fender. Holy moly ... we were so close to becoming a Molotov cocktail!!!
By now, it seems like everything had gone wrong ... and now we had to figure out how to get home and how (maybe if) to get the car home. This is when things started to go right ... Las Vegas, NM doesnt have much, but it had an Amtrack station. A husband and wife who used to haul cars for me (recently retired) lived in Albuquerque. I called her up and she said, hello Dennis, Im at the hospital having my fifth grand baby! After sharing my congratulations, I asked if she and her hubby would be willing to come out of retirement and do one last haul. She said sure and said no problem, we can pick your car up in Vegas. Then one of the boys who worked the front desk said he would give us a ride to the Amtrack station and look after the car until it got picked up. So ... Steve and I boarded Amtrack and had a delightful ride across the New Mexico desert enjoying a cold beer and a hot dog from the diner car while we enjoyed the desert landscape at about 40 mph. While on the train, we booked a flight from Albuquerque to Oakland and we were home in time for dinner. The car arrived a few days later. Steve still talks about how much fun he had on our little Thelma and Louise tour of New Mexico.
Here are some pictures of the car:
Not bad, eh ... for 10 year old photos. And here are a couple of pics from Las Vegas:
And here is what it what she really looked like:
Not the end of the world, but it needed work (lots of work) and there were quite a few missing parts ... some of the really hard to find missing parts. More to come ...
Congrats on making a deal for such an early car. She needs some love, but you sound like your equipped for the task. Love the way you unrolled your acquisition story. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post.
That’s a great story
BTW that seller did you a favor
That car needs you as much as you want that car
The procurement story is just part of your adventure
since Austin has responded this might lead to his assistance with a repaint
The 82 I am working on did not run and barely rolled and smelled of mold
This machine is in a way better position to be a driver
I suspect once you get started it’s going to be a lot nicer than your original plan .
I think they call it mission creep
Good luck on your path
Great backstory, Dennis!
I'm sure everyone is looking forward to the rest of the story... how the last 4 years has played out.
Been following on Insta... the transformation is impressive!
And to think that I missed out on all that fun & had mine shipped! lol!
Adventures are great, and there's nothing better than getting a new project & a road trip home. Glad you & the car didn't end up in a fireball!
Great color combo! Looking forward to following your progress.
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!!)
I remember this car when it was for sale. I had wondered where it ended up. I had sent the owner an offer on it and by his response he didn't care for it. I felt it was reasonable at the time but when I got back with him again he said it was sold.
Anyway, it looks like a great car to bring back! I look forward to your progress.
Any chance you know the production number of the car (tape under the glove box)? I don't recall what production number the US #11 car Rob sold was. Just curious.
Thank you for the opening comments! I will keep adding to this thread when I have time to bring the story current. Please keep chiming in with comments, questions, answers (to my questions, etc).
After I got the Molotov cocktail back home, the first thing I did was to figure out how and where the fuel leak was coming from. I traced it back to a failed accumulator, which is what I expected because of the hard start. What I didnt expect was that the vent line from the accumulator runs from the right rear fender well, through the engine bay along the fender, above the exhaust manifold, then through the fender apron to the charcoal cannister (above and forward of the washer fluid reservoir). The failed accumulator seemed to be delivering fairly large amounts of fuel through the vent line, which was leaking in the engine bay. I never rely on divine intervention to save my bacon, but I gratefully accept! Ive never been this close to becoming one of those guys who gets to share a photo of their 928 engine fire. After fixing that, the car started and ran pretty well and I parked it while I deliberated on what to do with my newly acquired project (much larger than I was originally anticipating).
2017 was kind of a busy year and I decided to offer the car to Hoi (he was also in contact with said dbag seller when I bought the car, but I saved him the hassle - ha). Around spring of 2018, Hoi decided against taking on this little project and once again, I was faced with a dilemma ... accept my responsibility to restore some dignity to #16 or risk it falling into the hands of someone who might turn it into a parts car or an art car (something I couldnt quite bear). About the same time, my 85 Euro suffered from a broken driver side camshaft and forever answered the question in my mind as to whether twin dizzy motors are interference engines or not. Mine is/was and it would require a proper engine out service for valve jobs and full engine reseal, which was a lot of fun btw. #16 continued to sit awaiting my fateful decision.
Sometime around fall of 2018, I decided that I would take on #16. The more I looked it over, the more I realized that although this car had a lot of needs (including a full paint job), underneath all the patina appeared to be an honest 100k mile car that wasnt overly abused. Compression numbers were good all around, the car ran pretty well (accept for one very tired gearbox and torque tube and there was very little corrosion (limited to the area under the rear spoiler, which had to go). I made a long list of parts I needed, and set about sourcing them. My goal was to bring it back to as close to a complete car as it left the factory, with all of the hard to find parts returned to their rightful position. We all know what some of those early parts cost, if you can find them: SS fuel cap, battery cover, original exhaust system, and on and on.
The hunt for parts began: fairly quickly I found an uncracked dash from a later car, which fits the early cars just fine, but the score of year, was an original and complete 78 car (#541) in August of 2018. Although this car appeared to have been a lovely original car 5+ years before I stumbled upon it, the past 5 years it had been in the hands of someone who didnt have the means to care for it. When I came across #541, it didnt run, had beef jerky for seat covers and had an accident with a forklift operator in the left from fender (pretty minor). But it had all of its parts in tact. I bought it and had it shipped from Walla Walla WA to home. #541 had its SS gas cap, perfect battery cover, perfect pressboard spare tire cover, original exhaust (although getting a little rusty on the pumpkin), original center console and Blaupunkt radio (and tuner that sits behind it), those crappy little door vents (that always crack) found in the early cars, a complete tool kit, steel jack, and ALL of the trim (interior and exterior). I had hoped that it had a good gearbox and torque tube - the seller said it was perfect (we all know how that usually turns out though, but I was hopeful). Along the way, I also picked up a recently rebuilt 79 gearbox, torque tube, clutch, bell housing and all the other accessories for a manual transmission swap (that too was a very lucky find for about $750). Was divine intervention still at work?? I dont know, but Im still grateful. By the end of 2018, I now had pretty much everything I needed to put #16 back to what I thought would be as close to original as I thought ... however, I had much to learn as began to turn the page to the next chapter of this little archeology dig.
During the holidays at the end of 2018 I began my first major step in the project ... putting in a transaxle and torque tube to replace the tired gearbox and noisy torque tube in #16. My son was home from college on winter break and it was time for a little lesson in auto shop. He has an 85 928 that he bought with his own money (added to my jalopy budget I gave to each of my kids in high school) that we had been maintaining and upgrading during his high school and college years. He was ready to take on something more interesting than a timing belt and a subwoofer installation.
We pulled #541 into the garage and proceeded to drop the transaxle and torque tube together, which minimizes the chance of damaging the input shaft or bearing. Its a little easier on early cars because the rear suspension doesnt have to be fully removed and just pivots around the front mounting point of the lower control arm after unbolting the cross member and a few other bits (exhaust, clutch, trans mounts, shock mounts, etc.). There are other write ups on dropping a transaxle and torque tube assembly so I wont bore you here. After doing the same to #16, we were ready to install the assembly from #541. Okay ... this was a big roll of the dice. Transaxle from a car that didnt run going into #16 ... the only evidence that it was a good transaxle was a young guy in Walla Walla who said it worked perfectly (and wanted to sell it) and an inspection after removing the top cover (but I am no Greg Brown and I dont have enough knowledge of these gearboxes to tell if something is wrong, short of obvious damage to the visible parts). The torque tube bearings seemed good and we proceeded to install. After getting it into place (and after upgrading to the larger, later ball for the clutch release lever - that wee ball snapped very easily), I discovered that the short shaft and clamp didnt quite fit. Out came the PET and it turns out that the first 54 US cars used a different length central shaft, torque tube and clamping sleeve. Fortunately the clutch/bell housing are the same (except for the tapped hole for the release lever ball.
This little exercise taught me the lesson that I need to check the PET every single time I consider replacing a part ... any part. Fortunately I had plenty of parts between #541 and the transaxle, torque tube assembly and clutch from the 79 I bought.
After spending the better part of a weekend dropping two trannys and installing one, and learning all the details and differences between #16 and later cars, I could R&R a transaxle/torque tube/clutch pretty fast. This was good because once we had the gearbox from #541 installed in #16 and took it for a test drive, it became immediately apparent that the perfect gearbox from #541 was not so perfect. Oh f######. And we got to do this one more time ... out with the bad gearbox and in with the rebuilt 79 gearbox. This time it took about 4 hours to get everything out and another 4 hours to get everything back in. By now, I had gotten more comfortable with a short prayer and finger/toe crossing before test driving ... divine intervention still accepted but not expected. This time I was pleased to discover that the gearbox from the 79 had indeed been rebuilt and shifted wonderfully both up and down through the gears (did I mention it was a limited slip?). #16 could now be driven without fear of being engulfed in flames or without making painful grinding sounds while trying to find the next gear. Here is the original transaxle that I intend to save for a possible future rebuild should I or someone else decide to re-install the original box.
Also during the holidays of 2018, I installed an original 78 exhaust system to replace the crappy ANSA exhaust. I also replaced the parking brake handle, which appear to have lost its outer padded vinyl or ABS shell - does anyone know if these early cars just had a painted metal parking brake handle? And I replaced the quarter glass trim molding because the original was a little beat up. I believe they are supposed to be black, but I kind of like the brushed metal look once the black finish disappears after 40 years. Let me know what you think.
It was also at this time that I discovered #16 had different backing substrates for the door cards, interior quarter trim and tool kit tray. Its a rigid white material that appears to be fiberglass or some other hard plastic that is far more durable than the press board used for later door cards and interior quarter trim (or the cheap molded black plastic used for tool trays). I wish later cars used this, particularly for door cards as they tend to deteriorate around the pins that snap into the doors. This rigit white plastic or fiberglass seems as rugged and durable now as it probably was 44 years ago.
08-14-2021, 03:25 AM
The Revival of #16 1978 US Spec 928
). 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!!)
