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Hi all, I’d like to give a quick introduction to myself and my project which is named ‘Gary’. I came into 928’s in a roundabout way which will take a little explaining. Skip forward past the blue text for more info on the car. This preamble might … amble.
So Gary, the name sake of this car, was my parent’s neighbor in St. Louis. We moved in next door to him when I was 4 years old. Gary was a high powered lawyer in town. He used his degree in Mechanical Engineering and his law degree to the fullest extent and was extremely successful. When we moved in with our insane family (six kids ranging from 2 to 13) we probably sent the poor man into convulsions. Gary was single, no kids, and spent his spare time restoring his century old house. I think the spectacle of the horde of screaming, wild, unleashed kids must have been something to behold for the poor guy. Gary got married not long after that to a lovely woman who brought along her two kids to add to the mix. I don’t think he ever had a quiet evening in the three decades since.
Gary was a private and quiet guy, but he always made time to talk to me about my harebrained schemes to build motorcycles out of chainsaws and whatever other insanity I could come up with, took me bird hunting with him, and gave me advice when I needed it. I always thought he wore a smirk permanently, but looking back, I realize that smirk was just there when he was listening to my insanity.
I left St. Louis when I went to school in Virginia. When I came home for Christmas break there were backhoes and all sorts of men working on knocking out the side of his carriage house. When I sided up next to him I asked why all that was going on. He just said, “Bought more cars … need more room.” That’s a man after my own heart.
He had an interesting collection: a 12 cylinder, 6 speed BMW 850; a 12 cylinder BMW 7 series for his DD, a 6 cylinder E-Type convertible, a 911 Carrara 4, a BMW K1200RS, and an 82 928. He bought the 928 from a business partner of his who had put the car out to pasture behind his house. Gary thought it deserved better and stashed it away in dry storage.
Over the next 20 years he amassed an incredible collection of parts in preparation to restore the car. In all honesty, I think he enjoyed the hunt even more than the act of working on the car. I can’t say that he turned many wrenches on the 928 but it’s clear that he thought about the car every day. I have a giant box of receipts for the parts that he found. He probably bought something every week for two straight decades.
Anyway, a year or so ago Gary was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. He wasn’t given much time to live, and he wanted to take care of what he could before his time. I came home to see him last fall, scared that I wouldn’t get another chance, and he offered me the 928. He knew I had the ability to get it brought up to snuff and wanted to find it a good home. I don’t have a garage at my place here in Seattle and didn’t know much about the car, so I tried to decline. He convinced me to think about it for a while and asked me to get back to him. I did just that, and thought that I couldn’t say no to a man that meant that much to me, and I knew the project would be fun, so I set about trying to find a garage space to work out of and told him that I’d be honored. Of course, the more I researched about the car, the more I realized what an underappreciated vehicle it is. There are a lot of firsts here, and the engineering is wonderful. I think the best part, to my nerdy brain, are the gorgeous diagrams in the manuals. Wow. The work that went into them is gob smacking.
I did eventually find a space to split with a good buddy of mine and had the car shipped out here last winter. My dad followed that up with a 20-foot trailer loaded to the absolute gills with parts. I started working on getting the toasted interior out of it and sent him updates, which made him terribly happy. I wanted to start a thread on Rennlist at that time, but I knew he was on here as well, and I thought it would be sort of depressing for him to see that, so I held off.
Gary passed away a couple of months ago at home with his wife nearby as peacefully as he could have hoped. He was a good man. A proud veteran, a great step-father, an accomplished career, and an adopted uncle to the six kids from next door. Damn, I wish he was still here. He would have really enjoyed this.
With that tribute out of the way - onto the car! Here she is, as delivered, on Alki Point with my six year old peering out the window:
After that I got her situated in her new home and commenced working on the very stinky interior. The car got wet (shocker here in Seattle) before it could get to the new place, so I had to gut it before the rot set in.
A bit of time passed and I didn't get a whole lot of work done, but this week my wife and kids are out of town, so I really got to dig in. Here's my progress for the last couple of days:
Next steps are to empty the engine bay of everything so that I can respray. I'm going to try to figure out which parts should be painted and which should be CAD plated and will get that done. The motor is going to get refreshed with timing gear, injectors, and a whole bunch of gaskets.
After that, I'll move on to the torque tube, transaxle, the dinked up shift linkage, and the suspension. From there I can work on getting fresh paint on her and then get the interior installed.
More updates to follow. With a 3 and 6 year old and a busy job my time in the shop is limited, but I'm trying to keep some momentum.
Welcome Walt (if it is you name). Thank you very much on that very touching story to the origin of this car. Please keep us updated on your progress with this very important piece of machine.
Great intro Walt and a fitting tribute to a good guy. Gary I'm sure is watching down at your progress and this time with a smile, not a smirk on his face.
Where in Seattle are you? I am in West Seattle and working on getting my first 928, an '84 that I bought a few months ago, up to snuff.
@hlee96 - Thanks for the nice welcome. I appreciate it.
@GT6ixer - I'm in West Seattle too - Morgan Junction. My shop, however, is waaaaaaaaaaaay out in Duvall. Let me know if you need a hand from someone in the neighborhood. I'm happy to help out.
I'm only a few miles south of you off of 35th near Barton. There are a few of us new owners in and around Seattle recently. Maybe we can set up a get together soon and shoot the scheisse?
I'm in Woodinville. So West Seattle is way out there. Duvall, however, not so much!
Hey you now own one of the greatest GT cars of all time, built to easily and quickly transport you to places that are way out there. But yeah, I am up for meeting in a central locale.
Enjoyed the story about your cars history. Gary would be pleased at the progress so far. These cars are a never-ending journey...so buckle yourself in for a long haul...and enjoy the ride. Plenty on knowledgeable folks here that can help you get to your destination.
SO please tell more about that big green camo truck in the garage thats not your daily driver
That's my buddy's rig. It's a Volvo C303 that he bought as military surplus from the Swedish. It runs the standard Volvo 3 liter straight 6, has portal axles, and is a hell of a lot of fun. We're going to do the brakes tomorrow to get her back on the road for some wheelin.
I spent another great day in the shop today. It's great to actually have some time to spend concentrating on a non-work project.
I managed to get the front bumper off, which was way more difficult that I expected. I suspect there's a trick to getting the innermost nuts off from behind the headlights, but I don't have internet access out there to mine the hive-brain, so I just had to slog through.
After that, I got the fenders pulled off which was mostly uneventful besides dumping the entire washer bottle worth of fluid down my front. She looks a bit like a wet cat now, eh?
I also started doing some degreasing of the accessories. There's something north of this poor A/C compressor leaking a ton of oil, so that will have to be addressed. I think that's in the neighborhood of the oil pump, which should get resealed when I do the timing et al.
Before:
After:
Still needs lots of attention, but I didn't have the parts washer available, so that will have to wait. Speaking of the AC compressor, do folks normally have them rebuilt, look for NOS, or something? I guess before I do that I should figure out how to bench test it.
Otherwise I spent time cataloging all of the rubber bits that need replacing in the engine bay. The answer is ... all of the them. I don't think there's any hose or gasket that doesn't need replacing. I'm also starting to realize that I'll be getting more stuff plated than I expected.
I'm also doing some noodling on the hardware. I know I can have to original nuts and bolts plated along with everything else, but is it easier, or smarter, to buy new? Maybe I'll need to do an inventory to see if there is commonality of sizes.
08-05-2016, 11:21 PM
Project ‘Gary’ – 1982 Wine Red/Black
But yeah, I am up for meeting in a central locale.
