Wisconsin Joe

Presuming original paint, and that the little things up by the valve stem are spiderwebs (or similar), those actually look pretty good. That's pretty much what they are supposed to look like.

Inside the rim is often a nasty accumulation of brake dust, road crud, and that sort of stuff. I'd use a good degreaser and a bristle brush.

hacker-pschorr

Is there a known paint code(s) for wheel colors?

I've been toying with the idea of body colored phone dials for the copper / brown 277.

Rob Edwards

https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...finishing.html

The master says Silbermetallic #936, per Porsche Classic.

EMan 928

Lol. Looking forward to seeing you at Frenzy!

Tom in Austin

Jim's reproduction phone-dials would be perfect on this car, wouldn't they?

Rob Edwards

Two inches too big, and maybe too wide, but at some point we'll have to fit my set on Minerva, just for grins.

William A

The goal for this car was and remains after inspections to keep it as original as possible. Short term goal is to have the car functional at
Sharktoberfest '15. '14 was depressing w/o a Shark!

So while the fuel tank (with its '77 date!) gets a much needed boil out, the plan is to replace the tie rod ends and ball joints. Thanks to Anderson, I am hopeful to find the correct aluminum ball joints for these early cars.

Fuel distributor and warm up regulator will be sent out and refurbed.

Thanks to all for the well wishes, encouragement, and input! Much more will be needed before this is over if I am to remain somewhat sane.

bureau13

I thought the aluminum ball joints were a safety issue? Didn't the factory recommend correcting them? Surely no one will ding you for originality because you used safer, factory-recommended replacements?

William A

Good point, and we explored the pros and cons. My understanding is that they are only a safety issue when used worn where metal/metal leveraging forces can cause an understandable failure. Within specs, they are fine.

If my information is wrong, I certainly don't want to take chances with safety.

bureau13

I'm no expert, but I have heard stories of them coming apart with no warning. I'm sure they were old, however...

soontobered84

I don't believe you will find anyone reputable who will sell you aluminum ball joints.

GregBBRD

Saw your car, for the first time, this morning.

Very cool project.

I'm doing the mechanicals on #242, right now. Challenging to keep them as original as possible, while making them reliable and safe at the same time.

If you aren't going to ever drive it very far or very hard, I think a good set of aluminum ball joints would be fine. I'm not sure I'd run it at 100mph with them, but from the garage to Sharktoberfest it should be fine. That being said, I've never left a set of aluminum ball joints in any car which I touched the suspension on...there's not enough liability insurance available for any shop to do that!

You've got the right idea. Remove the entire drivetrain and start cleaning. Getting that thick grey paint off of the transmission will be the hardest part of the whole job! While the engine is out, do the head gaskets/weld up the corrosion on the heads/change the studs. This stuff will be in terrible condition and it is a great move to "halt" the aluminum oxidation now, before it gets worse.

Rob Edwards

I was wondering about that, it has the correct early (thick) tranny mounts on it but who the hell painted the trans? Weird.

karl ruiter

When I got my first 928 it had broken a front ball joint. I ended up changing the whole unibody for several reasons including the fact that they cut the top off the car with the jaws of life to get the PO out. Please, please change them to steel. Please. Its like refusing the put on new fuel lines because you want to keep the car original.

The Deputy

Looking forward to following your restoration.

My aluminium ball joints on my 78 are tight, 98K, and I kept the aluminium ball joint out of my 78 parts car...just so I would have an extra set. If I were to make it a driver, might swap them out for steel.

Good luck,

Brian.