924 Turbo tidy-up parts required

[DaveO90S4]

Hi all, I am in the early stages of tidying up a 1981 Saturn Metallic 924 Turbo that I have just bought.  There is quite a lot to do, but i am in no rush. 
 

Below is my current to-do list. If anyone has any of the parts I need - ir can put me in touch with snyone in Australia with good condition used parts - then please let me know

 

thanks

 

DaveO
 

Porsche hood crest

All external rubber

Brown rh interior door escutcheon

Gear shift bushes

Turbo rebuild kit

Headlight hinge welded and put back on

Materials to repair cracked dash

New berber rear seat upholstery

Under bonnet heat shield required

165x15 space saver tyre required

Correct rear boot struts required

Fix electric mirrors

Fix lh electric window button

Fit correct pax seat inhex seat bolts

Panel beat front valence and refit ( or replace)

Refit front bumper

Get radio working

Inject 2-pak resin to fix rear spoiler

Replace cam belt

Gurney underneath on hoist

Replace rear hatch pin and threaded sleeve

Bolt and collar to afix spare tyre

Headlight motor dust cap

CIS rubber fuel lines

Valspar PPG. Saturn Metalic

Boot lock rubber surround

Rear hatch pin rubber inserts

Oem engine stickers

One window wiper nut cosmetic cap

[brian in buddina]

Dave

Post up a few photos of your new project. 
 

Brian

[micknine01]

Colour combo sounds like my old car.
Did it come from perth after a road trip from Airlie beach nth Qld 😃? 

[DaveO90S4]

Could be the same cae. Has ceryainly spent time in WA. And SA. Now n Qld. Already when in the way to looking much better. Cheers. Dave

Sorry about all yhe typos. Using mobile phone without reading glasses

[micknine01]

43 minutes ago, DaveO90S4 said:

Could be the same cae. Has ceryainly spent time in WA. And SA. Now n Qld. Already when in the way to looking much better. Cheers. Dave

Sorry about all yhe typos. Using mobile phone without reading glasses

Cool, would love to see a photo

[DaveO90S4]

Hi all,

I will certainly post photos - but will hold off until I am pleased with what I've done.

I must say I have had no responses what so ever to my above list of odds and sods needed. I'll keep checking in...

Cheers

DaveO

 

[SteveF]

Hi DaveO,

Welcome to the forum.  Great choice on a Porsche and as others have said we would love to see some pictures of your car. Honestly we aren´t fussed on the condition and love to see how things progress over time. 

You are certainly in the right place to check for parts and Iḿ sure if any member of the forum has something that you need on your list, they will sing out. I have some spare engine bits and pieces if required. You can also keep an eye on local Gumtree/Ebay etc. In my experience I would recommend checking for some of the items with Porsche directly. You may be surprised to see what is still available. Alternatively you can look at overseas suppliers in the US (Pelican Parts, Auto Atlanta etc.) & UK (Woollies Workshop) & Europe for items however you do get stung with the shipping costs. Having just bought allot of parts over the past year for my 924 turbo I mainly used Pelican but it really depends on the part. Some are very part to find and no longer available. If you know the part number from the PET just type it in a google search and details should come up.

Looking at your list, most could be found via the above sites. I have some suggestions for a few items.

Materials to repair cracked dash - There is a company called Dash Doctor in VIC who do these. You just need to send them your old dash and it comes back new. I think the cost is around $600-$800 from memory.
New berber rear seat upholstery - Try werk924.com in Germany. They have lots of different fabrics including berber. Another member on here recently purchased their pasha seat covers and was very happy with them.
Fix lh electric window button - I would recommend checking and cleaning the contacts here to work out where the issue lies. I had this issue recently and in the end purchased some brand new ones which was cheaper and less fiddling around.
Panel beat front valence and refit ( or replace) / refit front bumper - If you are located in Sydney I can recommend a painter to help with this.

I also have a fantastic mechanic, again in Sydney, who just did my engine rebuild and helped with putting together my car after repaint. Awesome knowledge and he also has a collection of parts.

I hope that this information helps and feel free to reach out if you need any assistance. Good luck with getting things going again. Looking forward to seeing the pictures.

Cheers

Steve

 

[DaveO90S4]

Hi all - and thsnks SteveF for your informative reply. 
 

here are some photos of my 924 Turbo. 
 

The photo of it on the truck was pre delivery before I saw it. The other photos are in my shed / workshop where the tinkering has begun. Engine bay cleaned up, upholstery and carpets cleaned up. Getting to know what needs to be done. I aim this week to lower the transaxle to access and replace the rear transmission bushes. Same part number as my 914, so I am familiar with the task.  I read that on the 5-speed dog leg boxes the trans has to be removed to access these bushes. But but but in order to remove the trans the bush has to be disconnected. So i am thinking that a ‘partial’ removal - no need to unbolt torque tube from transaxle, no need to unbolt rear central shaft clamps etc, but support and lower trans to access the coupler. I think there is probably enough lateral ‘play’ in the rear axle(s) to lower the trans a tad such that I won’t have to unbolt any of the cv’s. Anyway, I’ll try this first. If no go then can get more stuck in. Focusing on the more important , simple and cheap things first. Repaint in due course. Cheers. DaveO
 

 

[SteveF]

Thanks for sharing. @901er I think this is your old car.

[micknine01]

1 hour ago, SteveF said:

Thanks for sharing. @901er I think this is your old car.

Yep sure looks like it.

@DaveO90S4 I hope the previous owner told you of his adventurous 5000km drive home to perth, turned out to be a cracking car (I never actually registered it during my ownership) 

[DaveO90S4]

There is ‘evidence’ of this trip😀😀😀

[DaveO90S4]

Hi again. Just a 'heads up' about my rear shift bush replacement task.  Shift shaft and cast coupler now removed from car. I did not undo CV joints nor torque tube bolts nor central shaft clamps. I supported the transmission, removed transmission mounts and lowered it as far as possible. Then I gently wedged the transmission over to the right hand side. That gave me access to the locking screw to undo that. Then inside car I disconnected shift rod from gear shift lever - and tied a pull string to the front of the rod. I then tried to pull the rod with coupler attached rearward, but was thwarted by the rear passenger's right thigh seat belt anchoring bolt protruding into the tunnel. Removing that bolt gave me just enough room to wiggle the whole shaft out. Picking up new bushes today. Will clean underneath, paint exhaust and hopefully put it all back together tomorrow. Bushes in the rod I removed, you ask?? What bushes!! Ha ha.

 

Progress!

 

Cheers

DaveO

[Dreamr]

The bushes were so far gone in mine that while in gear, you could move it from the left side to the right side of the lever tunnel ... and that's in every gear!

 

New bushes fitted and I pretty much had to learn to drive it again .. it's soooo different!  😅

 

 

[DaveO90S4]

Yes. I am expecting substantial improvements. Some time ago I bought a 1984 911 Carrera at a decent discount because the owner had been quoted $15,000 plus for a gearbox overhaul dye to the appaling shifting. $75 worth of bushes and a bit of time and shifted beautifully. 
I’m reasonably confident of similar improvements with this project - will do the front four little bushes too. 
 

cheers

 

DaveO

[DaveO90S4]

OK. So I picked up the two rear coupler bushes from Porsche Centre Brisbane and inserted one in the coupler. The pin (12mm diameter its full length, so zero to negligible wear) is a rattling fit in the bush, which when installed has an ID of 13mm.  Is this 'slop' to reduce vibration or is it too loose?  I can easily 3D print a 12mm ID, 13mm OD shim to fit around the 12mm pin and slide into new 13mm bush. Or I can simply 3D print new bushes with 12mm ID (using PLA+).  Thoughts welcome.

Thanks

DaveO

[DaveO90S4]

Executive decision made. Have 3D printed two bushes that fit properly. Will install these. If they fail no big deal now I know how to remove the shifter rod and coupling without removing transmission.  Anyone else want some 3D-printed PLA+ bushes that fit better than OEM let me know.  I can send the 3D print file to you.  Cheers  DaveO

[Jaffar]

Dave,

I noted this a while ago. They all seem to have a bit of slop, does not matter where they come from.

I got hold of some bronze bushes to pick up the slop. So far, so good.

Cheers.

[DaveO90S4]

I was watching the ‘Harry’s Garage 2022 Wrap-Up” episode yesterday - Harry was pretty scathing about factory OEM ‘quality’ parts for older vehicles. I have now reinstalled with my own no-slop bushes and it feels very German - niceundtight. 
 

underseal rear end and rewelded and vht-painted exhaust to go on tomorrow. 
 

plus lh headlight cover to reinstall - the alloy pivot bracket was broken so I made another and that now goes up and down properly. 
 

then back on to the 928 engine - fixing cam box oil leak, new water pump and timing belt, new steering rack bushes and new engine mounts. 
 

I generally get all my Porsche parts from Roger Tyson at 928srus (in Texas). Excellant chap to deal with and his prices are very competitive. While 928’s are his core business he can supply 924, 944, 968 and other model Porsche parts. 
 

Regards to all

 

DaveO

[bergerac]

Nice car! I just missed out when 901er sold it in Perth last year. There was a white one that went really cheaply around that time too

[DaveO90S4]

Thanks. Will be a nice car after a bit of TLC I hope. Shift bush job now all done. Also undersealed the fuel tank and rear valance. And painted muffler with VHT while it was off. Not sure which of the many to do tasks to do next, while waiting on seat fabric and carpet. May have a go at straightening the kerb-damaged front valance. 
 

Cheers

DaveO

 

[DaveO90S4]

Hi all. Quick update on the tidy-up project. 
 

All suspension components cleaned up, undercoated and painted black. I have cleaned calipers and checked pad thickness (all ok) but have not yet done anything meaningful with brakes. May not need to. 
 

New carpet ordered - 10 lineal metres. In a roll, not cut to shape or moulded. Plus  four matching floor mats, which are trimmed and finished. 
 

All wiring gone through and all electrics - except one item - now working. The one electrical item that is not working is LH low beam. I have traced the fault to a break in the low beam power wire between the no. 1 fuse and the three pin bulb socket. Over the next few days I will install a low beam headlight relay and a high beam headlight relay, with the relays switched using the existing and functional RH headlight power supply wires. This should improve the headlights, put less current through the headlight switch and fuses, and will bypass ond overcome my LH low beam headlight problem. 
 

Have cleaned all inner guards to expose original paint. No signs of rust, damage or repairs which is nice to see

Have scrubbed and scrubbed (and scrubbed) all four wheels  and they now look much better (car is presently sitting on four front 928 wheels  205/50 16” with 65mm offset. Back ones clear very nicely  Front ones clear the shocks by less than 1mm - but ok for pushing around the shed)  

I think I may have fixed the airconditioner too. I found a disconnected earth wire running from the ac pump.

Next tasks are:-

1 Headlight relays

2 Replace one underbody aftermarket rubber fuel hose with correct steel fuel line

3 Redo carpet  

After that I am pretty well at the end of the cheap diy stuff, and will have to think about  more expensive stuff like getting minor dents repaired, front valence repaired and possible car complete repaint (and new rubbers etc).  And also have a serious think about the engine condition and turbo condition.

And in my spare time replace the water pump and cam belt and one cam block gasket on a 928 and put that engine back in.

Festine lente!

Cheers

DaveO

 

 

 

 

[bear924]

A little late... however in regards to:

All wiring gone through and all electrics - except one item - now working. The one electrical item that is not working is LH low beam. I have traced the fault to a break in the low beam power wire between the no. 1 fuse and the three pin bulb socket. Over the next few days I will install a low beam headlight relay and a high beam headlight relay, with the relays switched using the existing and functional RH headlight power supply wires. This should improve the headlights, put less current through the headlight switch and fuses, and will bypass ond overcome my LH low beam headlight problem. 

 

I've just had this exact problem, so I thought I'd post for someone reading in the future.  With mine, the issue was the pin in the fusebox had disconnected from the bus within the fusebox.  The pin was obviously running hot.  I'm currently waiting for a replacement pin to see if I can repair my fusebox (of course the only supplier of the pin I could find in Aus was out of stock so my 20c pin is coming from the US with $20 postage). 

While there, it was obvious that other pins were running warm (even though the LH headlight seems to be a common failure point from my research).  I'm currently working on the assumption that the heat was generated by poor contact between the fusebox male pin and the female connector pin.  I'm going to give all my pins a clean up .. especially the others which look like they may be running hot.  It might pay to check this if you are working around your fusebox as getting it out with dash (and air con) in place required a number of choice words of encouragement.