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964 Targa - 10 years in the desert (parking lot/garage)
I'm encouraged by others in this Forum to start a thread on my Targa rebuild while simultaneously intimidated and impressed by the phenomenal restorations I've read about here. I'll say two things about this thread for those who want to follow or not:
1. This is a kind of barn find story without the barn. I bought the car after it sat for 3 years outside in a parking lot.
2. I bought this car with the intent of restoring on a budget and driving it.
I bought this car 6 years ago and moved it from outside to my garage with the original thought that my son and I would work on it together during breaks and after he finished college. The deal was he would have to work on it if he wanted to drive it when finished. No sad story here - the kid decided to go to grad and then med school. Time to work on the car doesn't exist so it sat.
Fellow targa owner here working on a resto myself. As I’m working to DIY it all, taking my time, and have a great time learning all things 964 big or small. You will have a blast, look forward to following along.
Just the kind of car I always end up buying... I can't afford and don't really want a creampuff. Seem to love the sad puppies with good bones. Get in at the right price then lavish it with all the things its been missing! Look forward to your progress.
So for starters - I bought this car for a little more than the storage bill (remember 964 values were pretty humble 10 years ago). It had not run for about 4 years at the time and it spent another 5 years in my hands without being started. Before its long hibernation, someone had installed an elaborate and ridiculous stereo in it that someone else had attempted to steal. Those events had a negative impact on the interior - which also needed some attention.
Last year I pulled the plugs oiled, the cylinders, turned the engine over by hand, pumped the maple syrup colored gas out of the tank, installed a fuel pump, and got it to "fire" up. It ran VERY rough but I was able to confirm a working electrical system, clutch, and transmission.
For DIY 964 owners - I found the shop that gets much of the cast offs from Singer. They have parts from over 200 964's and are great to deal with. I'll reference the stuff I'm getting from them as it comes up. I might short my own supply chain here but the source is Autobahn Parts in CA. The guy to call is Mike at 619-444-3229.
For DIY 964 owners - I found the shop that gets much of the cast offs from Singer. They have parts from over 200 964's and are great to deal with. I'll reference the stuff I'm getting from them as it comes up. I might short my own supply chain here but the source is Autobahn Parts in CA. The guy to call is Mike at 619-444-3229.
Autobahn is somewhat local to me and I visit them whenever I’m looking to find certain parts. Mike is awesome to work with and he lets me sift through the parts to find what I’m looking for. I seriously doubt you’ll short yourself on any parts unless its an exterior / interior body panel you’re trying to find in a unique color. He has a huge amount of 964 inventory.
Post up more pics of your car when you get the chance.
Here's a quick example of my introduction to Autobahn Parts - and know I'm just a customer - no affiliation. I needed rear interior and front passenger parts for my car. You've seen the befores above. Here are the afters for $290 with parts from Autobahn.
Getting a bit of a boost from the better looking interior got me enthusiastic about the mechanical issues. I also wiped the car off to examine the paint (more about that later) and ran an Autocheck to verify a clean title (found a way to get a single Autocheck report for $5 instead of $25). Though I was able to get the car running on my own - I got realistic about my ability to rebuild the engine after putting a scope through the spark plug holes and getting a look inside. I used a $35 Depstech scope that uses your tablet or phone for the screen. Nice scope for low dollars. Here's where lemons become lemonade. The CV outbreak had cancelled the early season race events which freed up some time for my mechanic of 20+ years Midwest Eurosport. I Ioaded the Targa in my trailer, took it to their shop and had the car back in the trailer - engine out - in 2.5 hours. I don't mean to sound like a commercial for all the sources I'm using, but some of this information can be really helpful if you're looking for a source. I had a Harbor Freight scope that was twice the money and had a head that was too big to fit inside the spark plug hole of a Porsche engine. A garage buddy gave me the lead on the $35 scope. It was great information and right on time.
Looking at the engine out of the car made me wonder whether my budget had just gone up as the engine came down. Since I plan to keep the car - I'll reveal my original "goal" budget was $25,000 - including the acquisition costs of the car. We'll see!
Love Mike at Autobahn! Another vote for him. Great tip about the scope. Can you post a picture of the image quality? Have an older milwaukee scope that isn't quite doing the job for me.... Guessing you can use it look around corners and the like as well...
I'll post some images from the scope if I have any saved. As for the engine - the car has only 61,200 miles on it but the engine suffered from time in the "desert". It showed pretty serious leak down in one cylinder - though all the cylinders had compression of 100 lbs. +. The goal with the engine was to get it running well without going crazy. As luck would have it - we discovered a broken head stud, early generation cylinders and heads that had NOT been updated and fuel injectors that could not be cleared of enough hardened sediment to flow test. Decided to replace all the head studs and get a full used set of the updated cylinders/pistons from Autobahn for $500 and a set of used injectors for another $120. All of this will go in for flow checking and machine work to rebuild/update the heads/valve job, etc. The crank and engine internals looked amazingly good so I decided not to split the case but had new rod bearings installed. We also discovered a little pitting in one of the cam lobes. Autobahn was able to supply a clean used cam for the costs of having the original corrected and ground. The original cylinders and pistons look ok but since we had the engine apart we decided to upgrade to the later cylinders. I now have a full set of 3.6 pistons, cylinders, and connecting rods, plus the right side cam left over if anyone is looking. I also have the rear seat backs for a 964 turbo in saddle color that will need to be recovered. I never knew the turbo seat backs had larger side bolsters to match the sport seats in front until I compared them side by side with the ones for the Targa.
I used a $35 Depstech scope that uses your tablet or phone for the screen. Nice scope for low dollars. I don't mean to sound like a commercial for all the sources I'm using, but some of this information can be really helpful if you're looking for a source.
Welcome and nice Targa project. Thanks for posting your sources, very helpful but damn you, there goes another $35. .
04-22-2020, 12:09 PM
964 Targa - 10 years in the desert (parking lot/garage)
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