Formula94lt1

I happen to like the look of the 86 and eirlier cars the best by far, but would much rather own an s4 because of its number of improvements. How interchangable is the body work? Only thing really needed would be a front bumper swap and rear bumper swap that I can see (I like either wing/spoiler setup equally so Ide keep the s4 wing). There would be some wiring dilemas with the different lighting I might imagine but I dont fore see it being too much of a dilema as long as the bumpers would fit....

jpitman2

The fenders are different - cut away at the bottom as the s4 bumpers comes back to the wheel arch - the other way has been done by cutting the fenders, but have never heard of this direction....

jp 83 Euro S AT 50k

FlyingDog

Rear pieces are completely incompatible. The lights are in the wrong place.

dr bob

Find a nice 86.5 car and get the later S4 style suspension and brakes in the classic body style. 288 vs 316 horsepower, but there are several options to increase those numbers on either car.

The rear wing on the S4 bolts to the hatch, while the rear lip spoiler on the early car mounts adjacent to and through the window trim molding. The lighting, as you point out, is different.


There are more than a few folks who consider the 86.5 the best of the classic style. Look for a 1986 model with a serial number greater than 1000, and you'll be good to go.

Formula94lt1

Yeah I know about the 86.5, looks like thats the ticket then... I was just curious.

Podguy

You can always put a S4 motor in the 86.5. But then you will not get the memory seats and a few other items like a better wiring lomb and just better quality finishings. The S4 was a big step up in quality control. They are easier to work on under the hood too. The 85-86 engine compartment is cramed full with very little consideration given to the mechanic.

You can change the front on the s4 by putting on new fenders, but you will need a new inner bimper and bumper shocks. Everything was different underneath, and while I have not tried it the old stuff should bolt up pretty easily.

You will have to remove the door and rocker panel trim and touch up the body with some under coating to match. UPOL brand is what Porsche used and will match.

The rear bumper is probably not so big a deal. Again you will have to add on some tails from the older body for the portion of the bumper that does not wrap around. That is probably not much of a job. Just cut some off an older car and weld them on. The under bumper and shocks will have to be changed and of course you will have to patch in the older wiring harness to the older lights. No big deal here as there are the same number of lights and the color codes should be the same. The bumperettes bolt to the older inner bumper and there is a hatch trim strip which should just screw in place.

You will of course probably be the first person to do this and will be depreciating the value of the car by a considerable amount.

I have a black 86.5 with an S4 motor that I am working on. At some point I will get the motor started and will write up what it takes to do a transplant. There are some subtle wiring differences and I have not tracked down the problem of the injectors locking open when the car is started.

Dan the Pod Guy