So Jerry - yes I will be at the dinner Friday and will already have my car in for work at Dan's shop where Rich plans to go for you to do his install Friday. Let me know if you can bring another set??

Alan

 

I put nearly 5 sets of these GTS Liners together and took four sets with me to the Phoenix area this last weekend. The justification for the trip was to pick up the 80 Euro S 5-Speed I had bought in Mesa off Craigslist, but the real substance of the trip was the installation of what turned out to be the installation of three of the sets in actually two GTSs and one S4, but which has the GTS "Butt" grafted on. The recipients of these three sets are Rich A. Alan, and Dan H, aka S4ordie.

This turned out to be a different approach to what I had anticipated as some "field testing" and that is very fourunate, I think. The installations turned out to be very enlightening. Of the three cars, the installations were not the same in any two of them, and I suppose that means that of the four cars involved, including my GTS4, none of the four are the same. I am not sure how to identify the differences, but I found that with a little in-the-field-fabrtication the liners could be made to fit all of them. The one almost major exception was on Dan's 91 where the right outer liner half had to be adjusted to the point of now requiring a patch to relocate the slot in the rear that is intended to clear the joint between the bottom of the metal opening and the top of the bujper cover. Fortunately I think I still have some scraps from which I can cut this piece and send it to Dan for his moving the notch himself and glueing the patch in place with ABS Glue.

One common thing that I found myuself doing to all three sets of liners is grinding more clearance in the bottom rear of the right inner half in order to clear the Fuel Tank. I'm going to change the form to accomodate that adjustment in all of them as a result.

To my amazement all the brackets fit very well and worked out just the way they should. That is with some minor adjustments I made in the forming of a couple of them just before I left and which I did not have time to test in my own car.

The result is that The liners in these three cars are the very first in captivity; and also to my amazement, once fully installed, which I have not actually done before even in my car, these are so very solid when in place, fit so very well, and when they and can be viewed without the wheel mounted look very much like they were actually made for the car.

It took me, with some help from Rich and Dan W, nearly five hours to install the first set in Rich's GTS, then nearly two hours to install about two-thirds of Alan's leaving the remainder for Dan W. to finish up. These cars were both on the lift. However on Saturday morning it took me, with Dan H's help, nearly five hours to install his working with the car up on jackstands and my butt on the ground or a short stool. Therefore I think the installation time will be about 3 to 4 hours with a lift and 4 to 5 hours without.

I don't know how to deal with the minimal additional fabrication that I am now sure will be required for the final user or his installer except to include some further explanation in the already extensive instructions.

I hope Rich A. will add two or three of his pictures of the final installation in his GTS to a response to this post since I was too busy to take my own pictures. He may also have something to say about these himself.

I will be starting a new thread about the availability of these and will also be trying some additional testing along with the production that I will be starting now.

 

Jerry,

Great news. I'd seen a comment from Rich on a non-Rennlist communication that they were installed, and that very slight modifications were required. He seemed pleased with the result.

Looking forward to hearing more. Happy Easter to all, (AND - so glad Jerry didn't post this tomorrow as one of the annual "928 six speed transmission" threads!! - Ha).

Gary Knox--

 

Great news! Better a 3-5 hour install before I would consider an original from Porsche.

BTW We need pictures!!!!

 

To follow-up on Jerry's post, Dan and I commented that these liners are so stout they will increase the rear crash rating of the car .... they are solid. The multiple mounting and fastening points creates mean they'll last a good long time even in extreme conditions.

There is enough difference in the build of these cars that custom fit makes sense ... 3 - 5 mm difference between my '93 GTS and Alan's '94 GTS in some places.

I'm so pleased ... my GTS is now back on the road and the PSD unit (freshly flushed) is safe and secure.

Thanks SO MUCH Jerry!

Rich
'93 928 GTS Cover Girl (with new skirt)
'87 928 S4
'79 928 rescue
'79 928 Euro track beast

 

Since my car is still in the shop for other work I haven't actually seen these yet...! (installed while it was there). Still we did have a nice Dinner Friday night with Jerry - a pretty good turnout - something like 7 928's and about 16 attendees - Rich set it up and knows the final count? great to see some good friends - we haven't got together for a while...

We did discuss having a desert gang meeting soon without needing someone from out of town as a catalyst... Rick and I will work on this next one...

I'll take some pictures of mine after I get it back - but they'll just be post install pictures... Hopefully Rich & Dan have some during install pictures...

Alan

 

Great job, Jerry! Especially on the brackets lining up—I was afraid there may be differences through the years. Looking forward to your “Now Available…” thread

 

Yea! Jerry, you will have to make a trip down here to install them in my '94 for me!

 

Here are a couple of Rich's pictures of the liners installed. I'll probably use these adn a couple of others for the introduction in the new thread.

 

The legacy of Jerry Feather continues to grow!

 

I am interested to see if it reduces the decibel level at the rear which is the whole purpose of the full wheel liner. Hard plastic will make a lot of noise with road debris and water. Porsche used a different material along with closed foam sound proofing to reduce road noise in the rear of the GTS. Protecting the PSD was already taken care of with the flat panels in the 90/91 cars. Interested to hear (no pun intended) noise feedback in a variety of situations.

 

???

 

WTF? Bot...

Jerry these will be fantastic!

One question though. With your knowledge and experience in plastics, would you ever consider developing new coolant/washer fluid tanks with plastics that won't discolor easily? I'd pay for it!

 

Looks great, Jerry. When these become available, will all of the associated clips and hardware be included with purchases? I apologize in advance if you have already answered that question earlier in this thread.

 

Good question, Austin. Actually everything will be included with the kit that will be required for the installation except a drill motor and possibly an angle grinder with a coarse sanding disc in case some plastic must be removed for fitting as I had to do with all three of the sets I installed in AZ. However, I have just made some minor changes in the forms (yesterday) that I hope will alleviate the need for that.

That means that all the u-nuts and proper screws are included, together with the two-piece plastic connecting clips, and there are some plastic pieces included that need to be glued on to double places where the installer will need to drill some mounting holes, and the glue is also included. I have included a devise for locating where to drill four of the blind holes, a devise that I have to make. There are a couple of drill bits included; and there is a 1/4 inch ratchet with a short extension and extended 5/16 or 8mm socket included together with a same size combination end wrench that is needed for two mounting points. Then there are two #2 phillips screwdrivers that are used like drift punches to align the connecting holes to mate the inner and outer halves, besides setting a couple of screws. There is also a round file included in case any of the mounting holes need to be moved either in the plastic or in the aluminum mountiung brackets. I didn't have to do much of that with the first three installs, but I think I did move one hole.

Another thing that I am thinking of adding to the kit is a unibit from 1/4 to 3/4 inch because there are two holes that need to be located in two of the brackets that I have tried to put in in advance, but which I found need to be in different places, but not the same different place, so they will have to be located and drilled in the field, and they need to be about 5/8 inch for clearance for the back side of two of the connecting clips.

Finally, but I am probably leaving something out, I have made a special tool out of a pair of HF pliers to is use to pull the center pin out the the two piece connecting clips because the clips are reusable and will need to be removed whenever the liners must come out. There is a picture of these modified pliers a ways back in this thread I think. Those will be in each kit and should stay with the car together with the extra clips provided, because they still get destroyed fairly easily going in and out. I have to fabricate them in my mill and belt sander.

I think I will also include some latex/nitrile gloves to use with the ABS glue, and a small throw-away brush becasue the glue dobber is kind of messy to deal with here.

One other thing that is handy for the installation but which I have not included is a nut driver in either 5/16 or 8mm (the same size) and it is just a little handier than the socket wrench provided for some of the mounting screws.

There is a full-page list of kit contents and tools provided with the installation instructions.