Empty shell to finished car
 

I have finally gotten started on my quest to "rebuild" my car from scratch. Sure, I guess I am a glutton for punishment, but for me, a lot of the fun of owning a 928 is to work on it.

So, I thought I would start posting the progress pictures here and share the progress with the 928 community. This is my third 928, having owned a 1980 928, a 1986.5 928S, and this latest addition, an empty 1990 GT shell. Yup, empty shell. The plan was to restore the 86.5 but after completely stripping it down, I found too much frame damage to be financially justifiable for a rebuild. So with the help of Mark Benton of The Nine Source, I found a GT frame in great condition and will use that as a base for my "new" car. By the way, many thanks to Mark for the great service and honest business practice.

In a sense it will be a "hybrid car" since it will use a lot of the components from the 86.5 in a GT shell, but I am not building it for anyone but myself. It will get a sunroof delete and as you can see in the picture, the main panel has already been removed. That part was fairly painless. Now comes the fun part of drilling out all those spot welds :(

Paint will be House of Kolor, jet black with either an ice pearl or read pearl effect. If anyone has any good pictures to share of 928 specific black metallics, I might consider something along that route instead.

Suspension will be Bilstein's with Hypercoil springs (400/250 fron/rear). Dave Robert's front and rear sway bars (first batch several years ago) and most likely front sway bar reinforcements.

Brakes will be GTS front calipers/rotors and hopefully something bigger than the stock S4 brakes in the rear with my current 33bar bias valve.

Wheels will be 18" Fikse FM10's with 255's in front and 295's in the rear.

All fuel lines and brake lines will be brand new, most likely from Classic Tube. Was thinking of stainless steel, but I hear some people talking about fatigue issues with that setup, so will probably go OEM material.

Interior will be all black leather with grey carpet, Paul and Hans' window switch panel, and when available, the "Carputer" system.

Engine power....well, we shall see about that one, but around 430 for starters sounds good to me :)

Any suggestions and comments (good and bad) are greatly appreciated. I will do the prep and priming myself, but not adventurous enough for the color coat.

Cheers!
Carl Lindberg

What an excellent project! Best of luck with getting everything you need, and don't hold back on the photos.

Dave

Simply Beautiful. I'd look into sandblasting or acid dipping to REALLY start at the beginning. I did very similar and I am on 7 years.

Powercoat what you can - it makes assembly much more fun, and brings out some nice colors.

I painted the car before assembly - that has caused some issues with chips on the paint - but not much.

Look into this for wiring: http://www.isispower.com/

Don't forget about Aftermarket EMS.

Dave, thanks for the encouragement :) Will hopefully get a few pictures posted each month.

BC: Thanks for the links, looks really interesting.Have you used the ISIS setup?

I looked into the chemical dipping, and my 86.5 could have used it, but this GT shell is immaculate when it comes to the factory coating. There is not a single point of corrosion and after washing off all the dirt, the underside and wheel wells look factory new without a single break in the undercoating. The "outer" metal will be taken down to bare metal and epoxy coated inside and out.

Which EMS are you using? I used a TEC3r in my 86.5 and got 270 rwhp out of the stock engine. It was a fairly easy install, about 3 full days if I remember correctly.

Cheers!

that sounds like a fun project to me! wish i took my car down to that stage before i got it painted.....

Damn, that is one hell of a job.

Keep us updated :D

That's awesome!
Good luck on your project... will be following along. :)

Carl, you have some serious work ethic. You have already made a nice dent in prepping the chassis; sorry I didn't get it to you cleaner! Good luck, and I look forward to seeing your progress. Shoot me an email if you have any questions about the roof panel removal/installation.

Sounds like a GREAT project. I'm particularly interested in the sunroof delete process. Looking forward to hearing about your progress!

What are you doing with your roof panel? I noticed it is missing! There is three panels left at Porsche now, I bought the last non aerial roof the other day. Next year I will be making a mold for the carbon arimid replacement panel. It will be 5 kgs lighter and also the interior panel, it weighs 4.7 kgs and I figure making that with just wet lay up, (roof panel will be prepreg) that could save another 3 kgs and I will use alcantara to cover it.

If you are going to weld on a new roof panel, practice your mig plug technique, I must admit I hate welding the 928 body because of that gal, also be very careful of the fumes, they are very dangerous. I do have the glue (Valvoline) BMW use for their roof panels or 3M say their glue is just as good. If you use glue make sure you roughen the metal well with a course disc.

Greg

P.S that ISIS looks great!

Darn, someone stole my roof panel :)

Greg: I have a brand new non-sunroof panel from Germany sitting in the garage. Bought it quite some time ago, think there were about 5 remaining back then. Only thing missing is the interior headliner, but I hope to find a decent used one from a non-sunroof car. I plan on using the latest panel adhesive from 3M, talked to them awhile back, and they offer one with OEM/factory approved strength for non-structural assemblies. Can be used for the rear quarter panels as well (for those doing a GTS fender upgrade) but will need additional spot welds in the corners.


Cheers!
Carl

For your fuel lines stainless is not a good idea neither is copper ,
both work harden with vibration then crack. Mild steel would be OK but that corrodes.
The best hard line is Cunifer, i.e. copper/ nickel/ steel alloy but this is quite difficult to work.
Most modern cars including Porsches use Nylon 12. It is semi flexible so is easier to install
and will never corrode. Counter to intution it is also safer in a collision since it can stretch
and flex hugely without failing.
Nylon 12 tubing http://www.rubberfab.com/tubing_rf_ny_r_f.html
Fittings http://www.norgren.com/n/rail/chassisapps/fittings.html

I have not used Isis. I currently plan to as all wiring is gone on the car, and I am adding additional "items" to power. I think its a good system and only about 3 times as much. :)

I have bought and sold EMS boxes from Motec, Megasquirt, and AEM. I am waiting until the very last moment to actually get the one to use now. It looks like it will be the MSIII from megasquirt with sequential everything and tons of ad-ons and support. Another good option is Pro EFI 128, but the system is somewhat un-supported in a way, and sometimes seems like vaporware.

Don't dip if you can use the current coatings. I may do it on the 86 body I have if upon further inspection the coating is cracked in any spots. I should have done it on the 78 body, but I did not.

Carl, That 928 roller looks great. Dodge makes a cool, almost black metallic that you might like with a some pearl in it. Keep the verbiage and pics flowing. T

Very interesting, never thought of nylon for fuel lines. Thank you for the links, they will come in handy. I am curious as to the DOT position here in the USA regarding these lines. They are fully approved in Europe?

Cheers!