Nice looking garage, though, Rob!

 

Ouch! Sorry to hear about this Rob. Hope you get it fixed without too much expense.

Good luck

 

Very nice. Does it have built-in appliances?

 

Absolutely not! It is car space only. Actually, the lawnmower & other garden tools are in there at the moment, but only until I get the new shed!

..and thanks for the garage compliments!

 

On the question of manual conversion. Personally I think this is a good idea because it removes quite a lot of weight. I know one person who has actually done this. However parts problems may well be an issue. I know for a fact that many of the original parts are no longer available and 993 parts are used. In the end somebody will have to speak to an expert on such conversions and see what can be done. I think a cab roof company could quite easily come up with the goods. Maybe there is a market for a conversion kit. I never really understood why the roof was made electric in the first place.
Ciao,
Adrian
964C4

 

Update:

Porsche Sutton Coldfield tell me that the broken part is called the folding top bow and is available at pcgb priced at £361.49 plus vat, plus several hours labour to replace.

A friend (Boxster S owner) recommended Soft Tops in Coventry, so the car's going there on Tuesday for them to look at.

 

Sounds promising, Rob.

Roll on Oulton. Not literally, obviously!

 

Depending on the repair costs, and whether the roof canvas needs removing to change the part, it may be economic to change the canvas at the same time...and I've tracked down a new roof (I think I'll move to 993 style roof unless you lot convince me otherwise!) for US$560.00 and $65 shipping.

www.cabrioworld.com

Talking about it on Rennlist has been good therapy!

 

Rob, have you tried breakers such as Porschapart and Douglas Valley?

Just a thought...

 

ouch bad luck, looks like last sunday really was jinxed.!!!

 

Rob, sorry to hear about this, its always a pain when something stupid (and expensive) like this breaks. As the others have said, this is a known problem, some of my other 964 Cab friends have had it as well.

 

robmug:

It's been awhile since this happened to me, but it appears that one of your B-pillars snapped. The same thing happened to me on the passenger side.

I chose to attmept repair myself, since I only had a small tear in the roof fabric, right at the B-pillar. My tear didn't look too bad, I didn't have the funds for new fabric, and I don't drive the car in the rain (unless it rains at autocross). Disclaimer: I do not repair convertable tops for a living, nor do I have any experience beyond this repair!

I'll try to describe what I did from memory, as it has been over a year. Plus I am at work, and easily distracted! I don't know if anyone recommends doing this, or has a major problem with it, but all I am trying to do is relate what I did.

The repair is tedious, but attention to detail is required if you want the roof to look decent when you are finished. On the panel by the rear speaker, there should be a plastic "plug". When this is removed, you will have access to the Bolt that secures the B-pillar to the drive mechanism. You can loosen this bolt (one on each side of the car), which essentially disconnects the roof from the raise/lower mechanism. I then CAREFULLY raised the roof (by hand) so that it was almost closed, taking care to not tear the fabric any more. It helps if there are an extra set of hands to help.

Once the roof was in the raised position (it need not be locked in at the windshield), I carefully removed whatever hardware was necessary, and lifted the fabric so that I could get access to the hardware around the B-pillar. Again, use caution so that you do not tear the roof anymore, at least if you are going to try and reuse the fabric, even if only temporarily. Also make sure that you make note of where all of the hardware you remove goes, so that you can reassemble it.

Once the "fabric" is peeled back, and the panel containing the rear speaker is removed, you can start to remove the B-pillar. This will require drilling out a few rivets from the "bow" portion of the frame for the top. I believe all of the other hardware was straightforward.

When I has the B-pillar removed, I was able to have mine welded, as the break was pretty clean, and almost all of the material intact. Also, another person who had this happen said he ordererd a new B-pillar from Porsche, but did not expect to recieve it in his lifetime. I have a friend who is an excellent welder. He told me that the B-pillar was aluminum, but he did not give me specifics beyond that. At any rate, he was able to weld it. After a good coat of paint, it was ready to be reinstalled.

After welding, I reversed the process and rebuilt the roof. It will require some rivets, to reconnect to the "bow", as well as some contact cement to resecure the top to the frame.

Seeing at how common this seems to be ( I have heard of at least 4 or 5 others with similar failures), I wish I had taken the time to write down what I did step by step, and take photos. But I did not.

I kept my roof "semi-automatic". I use the switch to secure/unsecure the top from the windshield, but I never tightened the bolts which connect to the drive mechanism of the top. So once I unlock the top, I have to lower it by hand. So far, no problems.

And I haven't removed the drive motors to save on weight.

If you have any questions, I'll try to remember specifics, but I can make no promises since it has been over a year.

Ron

91 C2 Cabriolet
85.5 944 NA

 

Ron

Thank you; that's been really helpful.

I hadn't thought of welding the beam...I'll make enquiries. I too will investigate repairing the fabric.

And of course once I've repaired the damaged roof, I still have the issue to deal with of what caused the roof to fail & become damaged in the first place...(I assume either motor, transmission or cable on the right hand side)

 

Rob, I've got the former owner of my car sitting here now, he had exactly the same problem with my car, took the part off and had it welded at a specialist alloy welders, it cost £30!!

 

.....this is why I'll never buy another rag top again. When I had that sissy little 4 cyl BMW Z3, I was just loved having a convertible. Of course everything was under warranty. Now I've got a 13 year old cabriolet and have sunk the money into it to repair the roof properly, but never again!