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I've been a member for sometime here, and have been slowly modifying my 1989 C4. Thought I would put a build thread together as it all comes together.
I purchased the car from another member here and had it shipped from N. Carolina to SoCal. Car was used on the track quite a bit.
During the first year I focused on basic maintenance. After the oil was changed, rear wheel bearing replaced, cv boot replaced, and car was detailed it was time to fine tune the suspension.
I ordered Chris walrod front bushings, 993 front drop links, Powerflex rear bushings, and adjustable spring plates.
The car already had Bilstein adjustable struts with H&R reds, H&R 28 mm sway bars(Way too big), wevo engine mounts, frunk strut bar, and safety device roll cage installed. With rear half of cage installed.
While browsing the parts forums I found a damaged GT3 center muffler for free,but I just had to pay shipping. I had my welder fix it up and adjust some QSC headers I purchased.
Some carbon fiber exhaust tips were purchased for the GT3 Muffler along with proper mounting straps.
The exhaust sounds nice, but after 2 years the loudness is getting to me. I'm working on some valves opening up after 3k rpm exactly like the GT3 setup, so daily driving will be more enjoyable. Also trying to get the car CA smog friendly so I may consider some high flow cats in place of valves.
Next up was to replace the momo with something newer that fit the car better. I really liked this new momo wheel and the deep dish is perfect.
Spent some time fishing near Point Dume, perfect table for some breakfast.
The engine bay needed some love so I removed the heater blower and heater tube because of the heater less exhaust. Also installed Uni foam filter. Rennine heater block off plates installed
Body wise the car was loosing parts left and right as I sold off old parts to members and replaced them with lightweight parts. This included the Rennspeed fiberglass ducktail and many GT-racing parts. The ducktail needs much work to make it fit correctly.
During a family camping trip to Sequoia/Kings Canyon I had my lovely GF win a bidding war on a replica gambella front bumper. I sort of want to backdate my car though, so not sure if this will make it into the end result. Maybe for a year then backdate it.
I really liked the singer style headlights sold on the forums here and purchased a pair with gloss black rings. The rings will be chromed in black chrome or powder coated gloss black. The paint is chipping off currently.
GT-Racing parts came in and work will need to be done to make it all fit.
Rear fenders came in from Restoration Designs. I need help finding a quality porsche shop to weld these on correctly.
After welding fenders and side mirror holes up I'll be stripping car for paint. During this process I'll have the headliner replaced since it requires windows to be out anyways. Also need some rust repair done under front windshield.
The car is probably as ugly as its going to get currently, but May should be the turning point.
1. Does anyone know if fiberglass headlight buckets are safe to use? Or should I replace them with metal buckets? The GT-Racing turbo front fenders came with fiberglass.
2. Anyone know of a good shop to weld on some Turbo fenders in SoCal? I want them looking perfect.
3. Can anyone point me in the right direction for alcantara headliners? I'm thinking black or a cream. Interior will be black and chocolate brown similar to this singer style. Just the color scheme not the actual interior.
That is an awesome parts list. I don't know any specific shops that do the kind of body work you are looking for, so sorry I can't help you there. I have been performing a wide body conversion on my car for quite some time though. I'm a couple yrs into my project and am now entering the home stretch. I have a build thread on this site which might give you some pointers to help guide you a bit through the process. (The evolution of flat nasty). This is a very big and very expensive job you are getting into. Some of the parts you will need are difficult to source and quite a bit of patience is needed. Welding them on in many ways is the "easy part", the tougher part is doing it well so that you don't end up with a rusty POS in 5 yrs. I would make sure you have your bumpers you want beforehand as alot of test fitting with the bumpers is needed to make sure both sides match and fit properly after welding. Don't forget about all the little braces. Gaskets, fender liners, undercoating, ect tat will be needed.
Good luck, I have really enjoyed my build process but if I was paying a 3rd party to do it I would have 3-4x the value of the car in the build costs. This is definately an expensive upgrade and probably crazy expensive if your paying someone else to do it.
Nice list. This will be awesome once it's done. I'm in the same boat trying to finish the car slowly. I decided to finish the interior first so I can enjoy driving the car this year. Wide body will be next winter, I hope.
Are you happy with the fender flares?
Would you recommend?
If you ever get sick of that exhaust set up I'm your guy. I haven't heard of qsc headers.. Who sells them? The whole set up is headers and mufflers correct?
Thanks and good luck with the build.
Good call on the bumpers, I didn't even think about that. Would be hard to get perfect fitment without rear bumpers aligned.
I'm happy with the rear fenders and front fenders, but the front fenders being fiberglass need some work.
The QSC headers are from a company called QSC, they sell a lot of porsche stuff. The setup is Headers to muffler!
Looks fantastic. I had seen your exhaust pics before, do you think there is enough room to run cats and the valves or will you just run cats? Nice find on the font bumper.
I don't think I can run valves+cats+muffler. So it will most likely be cats or valves. Cats would make smog much easier and save me $$ every 2 years. P
I wanted a lightweight build all around. The front fenders being fiberglass are completely replaced whereas the rear flares are welded on. Fiberglass can be bonded on, but I didn't care for that.
Let me take a pic of the underside tomorrow for you.
Pardon the dirty, oily mess, but here is my setup currently. Headers to muffler. I wish my welder used proper piping for the upper y pipe instead of rushing with smaller diameter and flaring it out at the end. The wrap ends there because I have an oil leak and didn't want an even bigger mess on my hands. Also it hides the welds nicely lol.
...I purchased the car from another member here and had it shipped from N. Carolina to SoCal.
Car was used on the track quite a bit.
Ian's old car? Tracked with him a couple times before he sold it. Super, super nice guy.
Sorry for the random pictures below, but fun to see the many different lives these cars lead with each owner.
Audio was driving me nuts so I went ahead and installed Infinity 60.11CS 6.5 Component speakers up front along with the new tweeters. In the back I have a 10" Infinity Reference 1000S. Amp is 435w 4 channel, but I have it running a 3 channel system. It works perfect and make the super super loud exhaust fade away when rocking out. The enclosure I made myself. It will be covered in the original back parcel leather but with an added Black Walnut wood trim. This is not the final product.
Everything is really rough right now, but thats because the car is getting ready for body work and paint. Interior is also torn apart. Headliner started to sag a bit after we had a week of 100+ degrees.It will be replaced with a beige perforated leather headliner. The front door cards and rear side panels will also receive work.
Rear bumper fitment also needs adjustment. My GT3 exhaust sticks out further than a stock muffler, and requires the bumper be trimmed on the bottom. Mock up looks good though. It still needs to be trimmed up and pushed in another 3/4-1". The exhaust will be replaced down the road because I want to add 100-200 cell cats and reduce how far the tips stick out.
Overall I have tons of parts and tons of work to do!
i would love to convert my car to wide body. Thanks for sharing. I have seen a few threads but I haven't taken the time to understand all of the details. Question for you... When you weld on the rear qtr panels, do you need to cut the stock fenders to ensure a proper fit? I am trying to visualize what the inside of the wheel well will look like. Are you planning to get the turbo liners and how will they get fastened? I would like to see a pic of the inside wheel well after the welding. Then another one when you add the liner (assuming you are). Thanks again. Good Luck!!!
04-21-2016, 03:31 AM
Widebody C4 Build
