kawi825

Was just wondering how you snuck the cable into the box without and ugly jump but looking at mine it's very close like you said. Going through old posts- you've made great progress.

j.kenzie@sbcglobal.net

Hi Brian,
This looks like a wonderful restoration. The carpet and dye looks fantastic. I have done quite a bit of Leatherique dyeing, and it is not easy to get it right. I do want to pass on some advice, and I hope you take it as I intend it. You seats are letting you down. The foam blocks and side boltsers do not look right. If you have any money in the budget, buy the proper foam for the blocks and have a pro do the seats. You have nice covers and the rest of the interior looks great. Unfortunately that good work is accentuating the shortcomings on the seats. You have brought it so far, if you can manage it, let a pro finish the seats.
Just my two cents. I mean it as a constructive comment, and have great admiration for your work taken as a whole.
Good luck,
Dave

medipedicman

Thanks Dave. I get what you are saying. BIG TIME. I am/was so tired of seeing the seats sit outside of the car for 16 months. I just wanted to get them together and get the project rolling again.

I am the chief cook and bottle washer for a bedding factory, so access to different types of foam contributed to this problem/experiment. I can swap out the foam type or thickness any time. While the seats and seams are pretty ugly, they sit better than any I have ever owned.

Once I get the rear seat delete completed I will bolt them down and see what I think at that time. The term "restoration" never once crossed my mind. There is nothing significant about this year/model/vin. I am just trying to take a tired/worn out and neglected car and make it cool to drive/own again. As in most cases, "Cool" is very subjective and can be interpreted lots of different ways.

Thanks again for your thoughts. I guess I am flattered that anybody even reads this old thread anymore.

The Fixer

Brian you are doing a great job.

I have had experience with these 928 seat coverings (vinyl) and can tell you that they get very uncomfortable in the warm months even with the AC running.

I never realized how much better leather breaths even with the perforations in both materials.

So i would just add that you may want to simply 'live with them' as-is and not worry that the fitment is loose as i think you will find them uncomfortable as i did.

How great it would be if the central seating surfaces were offered in the striped fabric or pasha..

Anyway good show and good luck with the audio work!

Dean_Fuller

Did you add the memory foam over the Dacron? Or the Dacron over the memory foam?

You may consider replacing just the inserts with a cloth like the euros did. I would think it would help with the heat issue.

medipedicman

Dean, the memory foam that I used in the seat are only in the four center rectangle.On the passenger I used a 2" PC on non memory foam in the front rectangle, but could not really see any difference. On the driver seat I used the 2.5" memory foam on all four sections. The front section has a long thin strip of Dacron down the front, all the way to the base. I used that to help transition the two layers of foam and the cover.

I used more downforce on the driver when attaching the center section, before pulling the sides over. On the bright side..... The seats look great in the car. All of the things that we notice on a table and under fluorescent lighting seem trivial in the car.

The Fixer

It looks great Brian, just sharing an idea for others..

Vinyl seats do get hot and uncomfortable after driving a while.
They just don't breath.
Probably why Porsche did the cloth inserts with vinyl bolsters.

Dean, I was thinking the same thing:

To start with the vinyl recovering kit and having an upholster

add pasha or other cloth seating surface inserts.

medipedicman

We reinstalled the clutch today with resurfaced discs and smoothed out plate. We reinstalled the slave, bleed it and then put the starter back on. Everything shifted great on the jack stands and while the idle was very high we decided to take it around the block for the first time in a couple of years.

The 79 was in the garage and facing the road. We exited right, which is downhill. Powered to 3000 rpm in first then engaged clutch as we approached a stop sign. Left the completed stop in first gear with no issues and slowly powered up to 3000 rpm and engaged clutch to shift to second. That is when we heard a loud rattle/vibration from under the shifter.?.?.? It kind of freaked me out so I did not attempt to complete the shift. We rolled for several hundred feet. During that time we noticed that the noise was only present when the clutch was engaged. I had moved the selector to neutral thinking we would just coast to a stop and with the clutch pedal up there was no noise but every time I engaged the clutch the noise would return.
At that point our momentum had taken us as far as it was going to so we faced walking back to the house and returning with the truck and a tow strap or just try to make it work. I engaged first and once the clutch was released it ran fine. Then going up hill at 3000 rpm I tried second. When the clutch was engaged/depressed the vibration noise was very loud. The trans shifted into second with no drama or grinding and when the clutch was released there was no more vibration.

This is my first clutch job and my buddy/helper is a gifted mechanic but no 928 specific knowledge or experience. Where should we start? With the car now back on jack stands we tested the slave cylinder again and it functioned properly. I will remove the starter, the slave, and the lower bell housing at some point this week. BUT, from there I have no clue where to even start. The man who rebuilt the clutch for me said that the throw out bearing was NLA from sachs or he would have gotten one for me. Could this be an issue with vibration? I see them on ebay for $35 all the time and I am sure that Roger could provide something for me.

I hope someone who reads this has a BTDT moment and can share some knowledge.

Thank you in advance

BTW: I was/am thrilled that we made it around the 1/2 mile block. It was very encouraging to see all of the work over the last two years start to pay off.

medipedicman

Look what came in the mail today!!!!
Ordered on Wednesday and received on Friday.

Excellent service from Roger

medipedicman

I am proud to say that "Black Betty" is back on the streets. For those that have followed this thread you know it has been a challenge of priorities on many fronts these last few years.

I removed the clutch today to replace the throw out bearing. The symptom was loud noise vibration when clutch was engaged. I hit a wall in trying to remove the clutch assembly today and pulled out the factory manuals to get info and inspiration. It did not take long to discover that when it was re assembled a few weeks back we had failed to install the release bearing sleeve. I guess that was pretty important but since I had already bought the throwout bearing I went ahead and changed it out and then made a point to use the release bearing sleeve on re assembly.

The shifts are silent, not quite smooth yet, but very quiet. I would say after sitting for a couple of years she might enjoy some new fluids.

The car has not been on the road in two years so insurance and tags have taken a backseat to life, but I hope to take it out on the road this week and enjoy her for an evening of fun.

Thanks for everyone's help through the entire ownership process.

medipedicman

I took her out to the Auto Zone to get a new battery, the gas station for 5 Gallons of premium and finished it off with a car wash to get two years of dust off of her.

Ordered 4 Nexen N3000 Tire 255/40ZR17 to mount on the cup wheels next week.

Progress is sweet.

Dean_Fuller

Lookin good Brian.

Jadz928

Well done, Brian! Go do some driving.

medipedicman

Lots of fun progress this week. Dean has completed the pod recover for me (thanks again), new shoes, and big progress on rear seat delete. I came up a couple of yards short on the material though. I still have the front face plate to cover and the two bottom flat pcs that channel the sound from the speaker.
Simple design with no additional storage. The emphasis is on speaker placement and amp concealment. I have wired the rear speakers to the amp and have studied the wiring diagram from the manual to get power to the new head unit. I had plans to incorporate a A/F mixture gauge to the center console but time and other priorities have taken that off the table.
I hope to have the interior together in two weeks.

A local buddy has gifted some track time to me. I have never had this car out on a track and am nervous about the tech inspection. I have ordered some new steering rack bushings, engine shocks, and front ball cup from Roger and plan to work on the mechanical stuff, to include a new OPG prior to the inspection on Friday Sept 12th. There is no way they would let this car on a track in its current mechanical condition.

Dean_Fuller

Its coming together nicely Brian.

See you Thursday.