Good news so far.

Hopefully you'll get rid if that musty smell and get it back to the OE "Crayola crayon" smell. Best of luck with this endeavor!

 

Shades of Mark Anderson's Cobalt GT revival! Rob Edwards' thread on that car is great reading and the 'after' was spectacular.

Used to be Mark would re-key a lock cylinder ... send him the key you want to use and the cylinder(s) and they'd all work with that key when he was done.

 

Yup... See ya Saturday.

 

True barn find for sure. What so many car nuts dream of.
If you have the resources and funds (and better-half support) to go to the extent of full-on restoration to original like Rob did, I'll bet you a beer you won't regret it.
Please keep us updated with your progress and more historical tidbits behind this car's past as you learn them.
The story behind a classic lends to its intrigue and its value - and makes for a great read!

 

Picked up a battery this morning and dropped by the shop on my way home. Hooked up the dash, turned the key (with pliers) and....





I feel pretty good about this number, I've been daily driving my S4 and feel like I'm doing it an injustice by racking up miles on it. At 115k I wouldn't feel the least bit bad about driving the crap out of the GT. If it drives. If it stops. If anything electrical actually works and it doesn't burn to the ground.

 

Here are some shots of the seats after one treatment. The garage is 45 degrees, I'm going to bring a heater by this week and see if I can get the conditioner to melt in a bit. Promising so far though.




driver's back



driver's seat

 

I think keys4classics will make keys from the codes.

 

I sent them an email, I'll have them make a short key at least. Would really like to have the full-on alarm key that matches the VIN. Maybe I'll make due with the short key then get an alarm key from Porsche once I get the Title sorted.

 

Ah nice work on the seats. And yeah, at 114K miles you are still within collector car range for a GT I think, but I would rather drive it too.

 

Those seats looked like mine after being stored in a humid workshop. I cleaned them first time with a dish detergent/water mix, using a toothbrush for the details. Then used a Magic Eraser, and saw more grime come off. The car stayed in that shop for a couple more years, and the mildew came back. Since it has been in my garage, I cleaned the leather with a Pinesol(citrus flavor)/water mix (can't remember the ratio), really getting the surface wet, and into the perforations. Then dried everything, and treated with Leatherique 1 time so far. The mildew stains are gone!

 

I had a great Friday night at the shop, having limited access to water I gave the old girl a sponge bath and hand wax. I vacuumed out the interior, ripped out all of the hacked-in after-market stereo and cell phone booster wires and glued the carpets and back-seat back in. I found lots of missing hardware during the process, but sadly still no key! The car is looking really nice, pictures soon.

On Saturday I pulled all of the plugs and ran a endoscope down each cylinder to check for anything horrible. Nothing horrible but there are some scratches on the cylinder walls. I poured Marvel's down each bore before putting the plug back in.

Regarding the scratches, I have no baseline for comparison, I'll post some pictures of that process, maybe an expert can let me know how bad these look. The proof will be in a compression test. I ran the endoscope down the breather holes to check the general condition of the timing belt, looked pretty good. Took the calculated risk to try to turn the engine over once I can ensure I won't be pumping bad fuel through.

I disconnected the tank fuel line in an attempt to drain the old fuel, nothing came out. The fuel cap had a broken red cover and therefor the cap was not tightened all the way, the gauge reads empty. I suspect that the fuel all evaporated out over the 10-11 years of slumber. I put about a gallon of fuel in, nothing came out.

With fingers crossed, I cranked over the engine to see if the in-tank pump would pump some fuel out, nothing. I'm going to use PB and some light torque to see if the tank pump will come out today. At over $800 for an in-tank fuel pump, this car will get a bypass should the pump prove irreparable. I have an in-tank screen on hand that I had ordered for my S4 but didn't need. I have a known-good S4 fuel pump on hand as well.

Will post again tonight with some pics.

 

Another highlight of Saturday was a visit by GeorgeM. We spent about 2 hours talking cars and 928's in particular. Nice to meet another Rennlist member and the owner of the concours version of my car!

 

Excellent progress!


Seth K. Pyle

 

Order a key using the VIN - worth the $80 to give it a try. If it turns out to be the original locks all around and the key fits then buy spares from keys4classics.

 

Oh if only... the Title is in limbo for probably 2-3 months. The applications are going in to NYS DMV (the last place this car was sold) on Monday or Tuesday. Waiting on the deceased owner's son to provide copies of his Mom's ID suitable for New York. If you want to have a good laugh, take a look at NYS DMV proof of identity requirements for Title and Reg:

https://dmv.ny.gov/forms/id82.pdf

You see (and I was born and raised in NY), according to NYS, the rest of the country (the POs and I are all in VA) is the third world and our Driver's Licenses aren't worth the plastic they're printed on. So now, in the age of identity theft, I have to obtain multiple forms of potentially dangerous ID (really? Health Plan Cards, Life Insurance Cards and W2's?) from a little old lady.

While I'm on the subject of NYS DMV, it is not possible to actually talk with anyone in the Title Bureau. They experience "higher than normal call volumes" every day, getting placed on hold or requesting a call-back results in contact with a general DMV mouth-breather who informs you that you need to talk to the Title Bureau then transfers you either to dial-tone, or to the general queue you originally called.

Edit: Oh yeah, and they don't work Wednesdays. What a nice job, two weekends per week!

(breathing heavy) </RANT>

Lol, there you have more info than you needed Roger!