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Hey everyone,
I just wanted to introduce myself, as my profile says I'm Adam 23 from Stafford and have not long ago brought my very first car and what a car...
85 C 944, early dash, all electrics working (except the rear heated windscreen but thats nothing major) even has the sunroof cover still. Massive history inc 13yrs stamps at a porsche garage.
I'm really keen to attend meetings and turn into a bonified enthusiast so please help me along the way [:D]
I look forward to speaking to all nuts and hopefully becoming nutty myself!

Ad

P.S. Is it possible to change my old square dash to an oval dash? And if so how much trouble is it?
 
Welcome and what a nice car to have as a 1st car, good colour too. mine is my 2nd car.
Hope you enjoy yours as much as I enjoy mine.
 
Welcome. First Porsche at 23! not bad. I had to make do with a 1.3ltr Astra at that age. Anyway for meets keep an eye on your regional forum as well as this one. And as for swapping your dash - well in my three or so years on this forum i've never heard of it being done. I'm sure it is possible but would require a hell of alot of work as I think just about everything behind the dash including the heating system, is different. So you'd have a job re-wiring the electrics to suit the different gauges, the plumbing for the heating system etc. And ultimately i'm not sure if the bulkhead behind the dash is different as the windscreen and windscreen surround is different on the early dash models, so a late dash may not even fit without modification. If I were you i'd just enjoy what you've got. Happy motoring.
 
Hi Adam, congrats on the purchase.

I've never heard of a square to oval dash upgrade either. I have changed my own oval dash after the originl cracked and it was not too difficult a job and took less than a day, but everything slotted in and out easily. Yours would be different as just the mass of wiring connectors will be different for a start.

Check the electrical connectors on the rear hatchback struts. These often corrode and the HRW will stop working. Some aftermarket struts don't even have the contacts, so it could be as simple as that
 
Ive put an oval dash into an early car ,you have to change everything including the steering column (and re-drill the holes),make brackets to bolt the dash to the body,cut some of the dash away at the sides , to get the clocks to work you have to remove the printed circuit and hard wire every bulb/ gauge and to get the speedo to work you will have to remove the electrical one and cut the back out of the speedo pod and fit a mechanical one out of a 924 so the colours match !!. A job i would'nt do again ,to be honest it would be easier to sell your car and buy an oval dash model.
 
I quite like the early dash. It looks more like a sports/super car should. The oval dash just looks like a dash on any 80's+ German car. Granted I'm not overly keen on the Madonna bra glass the the primary gauges and would have to change them.

By far the biggest advantage of the original dash is you can easily fit after market gauges. If you've never had a STACK tacho you've never lived. They are truly lovely pieces of kit. So much so I have thought at length how I could include one in an oval dash. I haven't yet come up with a satisfactory solution that wouldn't look pants, but you could do a straight swap and be the envy of all around you.
 
Thanks alot for your advice guys! I had thought it would be a huge job to change the dash so I wont bother, it is still a nice piece of work. I will look into some after market gauges thuough, as I too don't like the conicle glass.
So if anyone knows of any reputable gauges and dials to change to please don't hesitate to tell me.

Cheers
Ad
 
Hi Ad

I bought a set of alloy bezels that fit round the existing clocks. Think i paid around £30.00 on ebay for 3 larger ones for the instruments and 3 smaller ones for the centre console guages. They look pretty smart and really lift the interior and don't in my opinion fall into the naff 'maxpower' type of mods done by some. I actually prefer the look of the olde worlde dash of the early cars in a kind of retro 70's way.

Welcome to the world of 944's, it's great!
Simon.
 
i went out of my way to find an early model cos i dont like the oval dash board. clocks look sexy on the port hole dash
 
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