JJJMCD

Hi everyone. I finally got around to taking some pics of my 1991 Carrera 2 cab. I have owned it for 16+ years and 60,000+ miles now. It has taken me on many adventures and I love it very much.

Although I showed it a few times at PCA events early in my ownership, I have found that I like to drive it more than sitting in a field. I do like doing "'meet and drive" and C&C events and did a bunch of the former when I lived in theWashington, DC area (I moved back to the NY area in 2009).

The car was sold new at what was then Manhattan Porsche in Rockville, MD and I bought it after the original owner traded it in on a then-new 996 cab in January 2000. It was bone stock when I bought it. As you can see from the pics below, I have done many modifications to it over the years.

Owning the car for this long, pretty much everything that can go wrong with a 964 has happened (sometimes more than once!), so I may have some useful information for other 964 owners. I have greatly benefitted from the many helpful posts here on Rennlist, as well as the talented mechanics at Autobahn Service in Fairfax, VA and Rennwerke in Elmsford, NY that have serviced it.

Here is a list of mods (I am sure than I have forgotten some of them):
- MA Shaw RS America replica whaletail
- Veloce 3.6 wheels
- Aero mirrors
- 993 door handles
- 993 convertible top
- DC Auto manual convertible top conversion
- Bilstein HD shocks with factory springs
- 997 seats
- 996 shifter **** and boot
- Porsche Tequipment parking brake
- Aluminum gauge bezels
- NH Speedo white-face gauges
- Aluminum pedals
- Carbon fiber dash kit
- Alpine ida-x305s iPod head unit with Rockford Fosgate amp and Rod Birch sub boxes
- Evolution Motorsports cone filter and billet aluminum valve covers
- Primary muffler bypass
- C-Brakes slotted and drilled brake rotors
- Porsche Euro RS airbag disable harness

Deserion

Looks great, thanks for sharing.

I'm curious about the 997 seats. I know they're pretty comfy, but how were they to bolt in and were the airbags removed?

JJJMCD

Thanks! The seats bolted-in with the Brey-Kraus adapters. See http://www.ogracing.com/brey-krause-r-9043-seat-adapter-porsche-oem-996-997-seats-to-993-964 (no affiliation).

You do need to swap the female seatbelt receivers from your 964 seats onto the 997 seats .

I didn't remove the airbags, but they're non-op since they don't have any wire with a signal from the airbag sensor. In any event, my airbags are disabled.

911Jetta

Best mod is the child seat! Pay it forward.

JJJMCD

Yes, indeed. My co-pilot Ryan has been doing runs in the 964 since he turned 12 months. He moved to the front at 3 years old when it was getting a bit tight in the back and he was getting bored staring at the back of the front passenger seat.

Also, when the top was down, it was really windy and sunny back for him there and I couldn't use the factory windstop.

I got the 997 seats because I could add to them the factory Porsche 997 LATCH seat base hook kit from the Porsche dealer for his child seat, coupled with the Porsche Euro 964 RS airbag disable harness to eliminate fear of the airbags going off. He loves it!

fftfk

- 993 convertible top
- DC Auto manual convertible top conversion

Great looking car! I have a 964 convertible and am worried about the top with all of the horror stories when they go bad. Mine works now but is all original.

Can you post pics/more details about the convertible top manual conversation/convertible top? Did you change to a 993 top and do a manual conversion? Or did you do one, decide it didn't work that well, and then do the other? If you have already answered these questions in another thread can you point me toward that thread?

I love my 964 but lose sleep over the top. Thanks for any responses.

tfitch03

FWIW: I loosened the big bolts attaching the motor to the frame and raise and lower my top manually as I am nervous about it breaking. I still use the switch for the power lock and unlock feature though.

JJJMCD

Thanks! I did the manual top conversion at the same time as I had the 993-style top put on. I had the dreaded main beam snap due to the rear motors getting out of synch, which was why I disabled the rear top motors.

I hated the motors in the windshield header panel because, at least 50% of the time, one of them would engage but the other one wouldn't. It was very stressful when the motors wouldn't engage properly when trying to put up the top upon rain suddenly starting.

The manual top conversion consists of (1) unscrewing the bolts on the motors that put the top up and down (easy to do) and (2) replacing the motors in the convertible top forward header panel with L-handles from a Targa and the inserts in the windshield header panel with those that match the rollers ends of the L-handles (a job for a professional - it took my mechanic 3-4 hours to do).

The manual conversion kit from DC Auto was around $400, most of which I recouped by selling my windshield header motors on eBay.

The 993-style top is from GAHH. Although it looks like a factory 993 top, the convertible top mechanisms are different for 993s and 964s, so an actual 993 top fabric set will not fit on a 964. It was around $1,200 for the top fabric, plus another $1,000 for labor. Installing the top is a job for professionals.

fftfk

Thanks!

BHMav8r

Also been thinking of this since I saw one at a P-car get together. Thanks for the info when the time comes.

Trader220

Car looks great. The 993 top just looks a lot cleaner than the original.

JJJMCD

Thanks very much! Yes, I agree. I prefer the traditional stovepipe front fenders, curvy rear flares and full size rear reflector of the 964 over the 993's semi-flachbau front fenders, 996-esq blocky rear flares, and miniature rear reflector (which I think looks a bit effeminate).

IMHO, the 993 style convertible top, door handles and teardrop mirrors are clearly superior to the clunky 964 two-piece top (with its useless zip out rear window feature), trigger door handles and flag mirrors.

I tried to take the best design elements of each type and combine them. I've been very pleased with how it came out and get uniformly positive feedback on it, even from 993 owners.