hacker-pschorr

Lorelei found out about the new car when she walked into the garage on Friday and wondered which one magically turned red. She's leaning towards "Sophia " as in Loren - a classic red head.

I never thought I would buy a 928:

1. Red
2. With pin stripes
3. Another L-jet
4. Much less all three in one car!!!

With no sunroof and lack of spoilers I was able to overlook the above three. I like red cars, just never thought I would buy one and the pin strips work with the spoiler-less body and tan interior. The wheels have to go, that skinny rubber just looks silly IMO. I'll be installing the 8.5" wide phone dials that came with my 79 (that I've never used).

I've known about this car for many years, I only saw it for the first time a year ago when it appeared on the showroom of Page Auto. The list of what it needed was quite long, which is why it sat there for the past year.

The woman I purchased the car from flew to California in the early 80's and drove this car to Green Bay. Sometime in the 90's she sold it to her business partner and she purchased it back a few years later.

Shortly after she initially purchased the car it developed an issue with the clutch. She found an import repair shop that specialized in German cars called Page Auto.
This is the first 928 Jim Page ever worked on circa 1984.
This 928 was the beginning of all the 928 shenanigans that takes place in Green Bay, which includes Jim's extensive history working on and modifying these cars, Twin Turbo Todd being introduced to them, Tim Murphy of Murf928 and myself...... Plus many others.

I now own:

• My fathers first Porsche (the supercharged 81)
• Jim Page's first 928 (the 79 track car)
• This 80

The good:

• Repainted sometime in the past 15 years. It's not a 10/10 concourse winning paint job mostly due to the obvious tape marks in the door jams (which should be able to wet sand away) and some slight over-spray I can also fix. Otherwise it's look spectacular.
• Front seats reupholstered in 97. The lower cushion looks a bit overstuffed, but the leather is in great shape.
• Extensive stack of receipts
• Shifts like butter
• Lower "frame" pieces that are crushed on so many cars due to incorrect jack usage are perfect
• Borla cat-back exhaust installed

The bad:

• I purchased the car without a test drive - clutch / trans were a big "what if"
• Brake warning light is flashing - no power brakes
• HVAC system is not working. Repair order notes the head unit is bad, the one from my 81 should be the same for testing
• Once I got something to happen with the HVAC the fan is making an awful noise. It would be nice if this is the same unit as my 79 since I plan to remove that one anyway
• Needs tires
• Odometer is not working. I do not suspect the mileage is far off due to the repair order history and the mileage changing and noted on those invoices
• Sat for the past year and she drove it maybe 500 miles in the past 4-5 years
• Rack leak. It was flowing out when I first started it up, sucked out the contents of the reservoir and refilled with the Lucas sauce, that appears to work for now
• Radio is stuck on some country station, speakers sound fine
• Fuel lines have seen better days. The shorties on the injectors were replaced in 97 along with the injectors, the rest look original

A few of the larger, more recent invoices that came with the car:

• New injectors installed: $867.52 parts; $250 labor (Zimbrick Porsche) - 1997
• Timing Belt / Water Pump: $1,436.41 parts; $818.75 labor (Zimbrick Porsche) - 1997
• Rebuild transmission: $2,383: (Zimbrick Porsche) - 2000
• Replace steering rack: $644.70 parts; $152 labor (some shop I've never heard of) - 1999
• A/C converted to R134 - total parts / labor $1,700 (Not sure of this shop either) - 2004

The unknown shops are not in Green Bay. The second owner did not live around here, another part of the state.

On Thursday the plan was to bring the car home. Checked all the fluids, battery was on a charger.......fired right up. Some lifter ticking, not surprising after sitting for a year.
Once the engine was warmed up, suddenly steam rising out of the hood. Kill the engine, open the hood (already popped....shocks bad) the passenger side cam tower is covered in coolant. Pushed back into the shop, try again on Friday.
Using a pressure tester I quickly discovered the problem is the coolant sending unit, it wasn't very tight. Once removed, cleaned it up and installed.....started the engine and waiting, no more leaks.
Made the leisurely drive home with two bottles of water, tow strap, fire extinguisher, and my brother in law following behind. Other than the lack of power brakes and horrible tires, the drive was uneventful. I sort of forgot how torquie even the US 4.5 is in stock form. Pulls really nice.
The only mods will be to the exhaust, 85/86 manifolds and a high flow CAT and possibly the Eibach springs I have sitting on a shelf somewhere.




Without further ado.....photos:

BC

Ah, Green Bay in the spring!

PorKen

Nice!

Still too many options for my taste for an '80, though. Rubstrips, headlight squirters, rear wiper, M480...

The Deputy

Congratulations, on the new acquistion.

Brian.

docmirror

Nice, should be a good driver once the AC issues and a few other bits are sorted out.

Only changes I would make are short-shifter, rub-strip delete, and rear wiper delete. Clean lines

soontobered84

It's a slippery slope.

Congratulations!!

hacker-pschorr

Picky, Picky, Picky.....

Definitely cutting down the shifter and removing the wiper.

As for the rub-strips, once it's road worthy I'll be taking the '80 to my paint guy to see what he thinks about doing that job. That would make for a good winter project.

I do not have any more on the horizon, nope....not for a while.....

FBIII

Nice car but the pin striper must have downed a few shots when he got past the doors.

Emo993

Hacker Pschorr....I have a new (old stock) full set of Cool Carbon performance brake pads, front and rear. I ran the first set in my 82 928, later sold car and still had these on the shelf. There free, pm me your address and my next trip to Door county I'll drop them off. Best, Mark

The Fixer

Nice complete car with good paint and no sunroof. Nice.
I like red 928s.
Good luck with it.

hacker-pschorr

Must be something you are seeing in the photos since those who have seen the car in person have commented on how nice the pinstripe work is.

Wow, very cool. Thanks!!
The car does need brakes. Fluid might be original...... PM Sent.

upstate bob

PO of my 79 changed to the short shifter. I probably would have left the old long stick but he did a good job of it and so it stays. Wiper? that giant arm looks kinda kool back there.

linderpat

Guys - for those with the old buggers, leave the long shifter - it really is great - look at the distance from the steering wheel to the shift ****. With the long shifter, it's as close as it is on a Carerra GT. That's why they made it long, to allow a short grab distance and an incrementally faster movement from the wheel to the shift **** while driving fast and shifting up and down frequently (such as while racing). Plus it make it somewhat easier to shift - you know, the longer the lever, the easier the motion. I think Porsche succumbed to popular pressure dealing with aesthetics rather than function when they shortened up in later years, as the car became less sporty and more grand tourer.