Newbie with 944 project

[beeRS]

Hi All,

I've been watching this forum for a few weeks now and thought its about time I said hello! I've owned a plain old 924 2.0 N/A for over a year now and loved the handling - but not the engine. I always thought it would be good to try a 944. so, when a rough one came up at a price I could afford I snapped it up. Its a 1990 registered 2.7 Lux (very late registered).

Unfortunately, its in need of quite a bit of TLC; I have compiled a list of following areas of concern;

• Loads of rust at bottom of O/S wing
• Small dent in N/S rear wing
• A million stone chips in front spoiler/bonnet/badge panel
• Several parking dings (door/bonnet/rear panel front wings...)
• electric windows not working
• central locking not working
• sunroof stuck
• O/S door check strap broken
• clutch pedal loose
• brake lines corroded
• heated rear screen not working
• interior trim falling apart (parts missing & damaged)
• seats well worn and ripped (rears OK though)
• mystery oil leak

On the bright side;

• I paid very little for it
• It does have an MOT!
• drives and starts well
• Has had recent cambelt, tensioner & waterpump change

The aim is to blitz these jobs and have a reliable daily driver on the road by New Year []. I know most will think I'm mad for taking on a 944 that really should have been broken for spares, but I'm fairly handy in the garage and whilst things are quiet at work I could plough the jobs.

I'd like to know what modifications and improvements you guys would reccomend along the way whilst I'm fixing it up. Also what should one of these (a 2.7) be worth when its in good condition?

 

[DivineE]

I'm rather confident that your worst problems (the electrical ones) will all be a very easy fix relating to earthing from the passenger door and probably the little plastic clips that work the central locking (about 50p from Porsche) they'll know the ones - little plastic ball joints that wear over the years and then pop off constantly until replaced.

Rust: plenty of guys on here with pictures of what you'll find on the cills and an easy fix if you know what your doing (I don't). Not uncommon so no biggie.

Clutch pedal loose. Hmmm probably play at the end of travel due to failing hydraulic cylinder. I recently posted how to do this in breif somewhere. Easy but irritating job takes about an hour and costs about £100 including fluids

Most importantly though!! Congratulations on taking the plunge Really pleased for you and hope you have as much fun as I did with my lux. If you've any further questions as you look deeper into things. Post them up and I guarantee someone here will have done it before. These cars are fairly pretictable and usually share the same faults

 

[Suffolk944]

Mad maybe - but a glorious madness nonetheless []. Welcome aboard and yes there is plenty of advise (almost all of it good ! ) to be had on this forum. As for mods - not too much that can easily be done to a Lux, maybe a aftermarket chip ? Wont give you much more power but will smooth it out across the rev range. Probably best to ensure the suspension is in good condition, that the alignment is correct (makes a huge difference to these cars) and that the brakes are tip top, only then will the true abilities of your new toy will become apparent.

As for value for a good 2.7 hmm I will make the first stab at £2500 (perhaps a tad more ?) though am sure those who know Luxs more than me will have a better idea.

 

[pauljmcnulty]

As for value for a good 2.7 hmm I will make the first stab at £2500 (perhaps a tad more ?) though am sure those who know Luxs more than me will have a better idea.

Personally I've given up with values.....[&o]

Let's look at it another way. If you want a 944 then you want a 944. Period. Give up on the old "but for that much you could buy a second-hand Focus RS", because we all know it. We want a well-built RWD car, with occasional rear seats and half-decent luggage space. Parts must be readily available, plenty of specialists and help from clubs, forums etc. It's got to give people like me, who want the lowest budget but the best car, to find that compromise. Can anyone really suggest an alternative?

I'd say that a decent Lux will give you years of fun for less money than anything I can think of. If you're thinking of selling then you will lose pretty much anything you put into it, if you want to keep the car for years then forget budget, and spend anything that it needs.

How about this. Can anyone think of a comparable car that, excluding petrol and Club membership but including everything else, to include servicing, depreciation, insurance and tax etc. would work out at less than 35p per mile? That's what my Lux cost over five years and 20K miles, I'd expect that buying a Kia on the scrappage scheme and running it for the same time would work out more expensive. [8|]

 

[Diver944]

ORIGINAL: pauljmcnulty

if you want to keep the car for years then forget budget, and spend anything that it needs.

Amen to that brother [8D]

 

[beeRS]

Cheers for your support all.

I've totted up all the work (and mods) I want to do and it it comes to about £4K (including the purchase of the car). That's a lot for a 2.7! but I love driving it and I think I'll keep her for some time!

The kind of mods I have in mind are; poly bushes, Koni dampers, Spax springs, Cup alloys, 26.8mm front A.R.B. Does this sound like a good suspension combo?

 

[ChasR]

ORIGINAL: beeRS

Cheers for your support all.

I've totted up all the work (and mods) I want to do and it it comes to about £4K (including the purchase of the car). That's a lot for a 2.7! but I love driving it and I think I'll keep her for some time!

The kind of mods I have in mind are; poly bushes, Koni dampers, Spax springs, Cup alloys, 26.8mm front A.R.B. Does this sound like a good suspension combo?

Dampers wise I'd be tempted to look to the Gaz coilovers, and 968 M030 ARBs. I'd stick the car on genuine bushes all round, with Poly bushes on the ARB.

 

[DivineE]

+1 on the 968 M030 option. To be honest I think you'd have too much traction for the power even if you got it back to top health on some slightly wider rubber.

Maybe its just be but if I get more traction I always feel like I have less power! I like the ballance to be right.

 

[beeRS]

ORIGINAL: ChasR

I'd stick the car on genuine bushes all round, with Poly bushes on the ARB.

Why poly bush only the ARB's? what about the front wishbone fronts and the rear trailing arms? Is there no benefit in doing these? I was also thinking of using the newer type bushes for the front wishbone rears from the 968. Anyone tried these?

 

[Eldavo]

The 968 front arm rear bushes are considered an excellent upgrade and one that is on my to do list after reading the thoughts of those who have already done it.

 

[Eiger]

Hey! Hope you enjoy your 944.

Doing the work makes you love it even more ( I took a similar route to you) - even if there's a fair amount of hair pulling.

Check the relay for the windows - £36 from Porsche to replace and got my windows working again.

Are those 16" Teledials?

 

[ChasR]

ORIGINAL: beeRS

ORIGINAL: ChasR

I'd stick the car on genuine bushes all round, with Poly bushes on the ARB.

Why poly bush only the ARB's? what about the front wishbone fronts and the rear trailing arms? Is there no benefit in doing these? I was also thinking of using the newer type bushes for the front wishbone rears from the 968. Anyone tried these?

The stock bushes are renowned for lasting very long. And from other forums, I understand that on lower arms, Poly bushes are not even as stiff as OEM bushes (say on Peugoet 205s/306s where racers will use genuine OEM bushes or a bearing conversion for racing in over Poly.

On an old classic like the BL cars, the poly bushes are a drastic improvement in refinement and handling since the bushes in those cars were poor back then, and now (as I found) the quality of bushes varies so much (I've seen bushes fail within thousands of miles on an MGB before...), something that is not quite a problem on the Porsche and a number of other modern cars.

968 Castor mounts can be found on Hartech's website at www.hartech.org.uk They cost me near £90 (delivered to my door in that price) when I got them and they take 30 minutes a side to replace. It may be worth giving EMC a call too to see what they can do ( www.emcmotorsport.com ).

I'd say that those wheels look like 15" Teledials.

 

[beeRS]

16" Teledials - I wish! They're only 15" ones.

Thanks for all the tips and contacts. Surprised about the OE wishbone bushes being better than poly ones!

After a lot of work and head scratching I have completed all the mechanical repairs (apart from the headlamp washers - can't seem to get them to work []). Now it's time for all the cosmetics. Bit by bit I am going through the whole car with a fine tooth comb and perfecting everything. It's really got out of control now, as I'm putting far too much effort into getting everything just perfect! but it'll be a nice one in the end. Will post some more pics soon.

 

[barks944]

Nice one, its very satisfying when everything is working just right.

 

[Mike_Pollock]

Headlight washer are a pain. The usual thing is for the pipe to become disconected sort of in the back of the bumper - extremely difficult to get at, so to keep the windscreen washers working, the headlight pipe gets blocked up!
I,ve got small hands and wrists, waited for a hot day, just got my hands in to reconnect the pipe.
Mike

 

[944 man]

The HRW not working is probably caused by the fitting of incorrect hatch struts. Theyre sided and if you dont fit the correct left and right handed struts to their respective sides youll suffer from a number of electrical gremlins...

 

[Jonny944CS]

Surprised about the OE wishbone bushes being better than poly ones!

A well designed bonded rubber bushing (i.e. the late 968 bushings) will always out-perform a poly-bushed alternative in the long run.

The reason why automotive manufacturers stick to bonded rubber bushings, even on perfomance models such as the gt3, (although a few v. expensive sealed rose joints are now starting to appear in serial production with the advent of laser welded seams) to my mind, is this:

Bonded rubber bushes, by design, twist during articulation.
Poly bushes, by design, rub during articulation.

B.R. bushes have no moving contact surfaces, friction is therefore at or close to zero, increasing the life of the part and allowing the suspension to move through its range of travel without any stiction or degradation in location. This is why, for example, workshop manuals always advise bushing bolts are only finally torqued-up with the car on its wheels on level ground, as the bush effectively acts as weak torsion spring.
The suspension designer has enormous scope for fine tuning the amount of rubber and shore hardness to suit all applications and loading conditions, from a 900kg Polo right through to a GT3.

A polybush on the other hand will wear slowly over time loosing location and gaining stiction as the installation lubricant dries up and or becomes contaminated with road grime.
That said, one place where I could see a poly bush may be beneficial would be on the front drivers side inner ARB mounting . A 944/68 with a leaky power steering hose would be a good candidate, as polyurathane would be much happier dealing with hot oil spay than rubber. Though perhaps that is not the best way round to approach that particular issue.

Rambling now..., am I making any sense? Not so sure []

 

[beeRS]

Thanks for that explanation of poly vs rubber bushes. Guess that's why you have to use silicon grease with the poly bushes, and why they squeek when the lube dries up.

 

[beeRS]

Just a quick update on the bodywork progress. In general the bodywork is good, apart from a large amount of rust on the O/S front lower wing. I decided to tackle this my self;

I had no idea how bad the rust would be till I remove the paint.

OK, It's bad - but not beyond repair[]

I dont believe in rust remody chemicals, the only way to get rid of rust is to cut it out!

It took a while, but I fabricated the repair patch using carfully bent flat steel sheet using the N/S wing as a teplate and mirroring all the pieces.

A veiw from inside the wing

Finished repair took about 5 hours and cost about £1 in materials. Now it's ready for a skim of filler and the complete wing is due for a re-spray (along with other parts of the car).

Normally, I would have given this type of job to a bodyshop, but I have decided to do as much as I possibly can myself and what I can't do I will try to learn. I draw the line at painting two-pack though! It'll go to a local body shop for paint.

 

[944 man]

Squeek like an absolute bast*rd! []

Im extremely impressed by your fabrication there.