The Poor Woman's Porsche

[Kenz]

Oh my, what a huge difference! Mockup shots just didn't prepare me for that. Looking great, we need rolling shots asap, so get that slave cylinder swapped out!

Thank you so much!! I agree, I wasn't prepared either but I really like them. Slave cylinder is in just gotta bleed it and the rear brakes. I have bigger tires for the rears en route!

Looking good on the AREs

Thank you!

Looking great, I love the front, maybe a little spacers in the back and a bigger tires and it's perfect for me.

Thank you! Yeah I ordered two tires, mounted them to test fit. We are moving these wheels to the front. I have larger tires for the rears en route. If they aren't quite right, I'll put some spacers on, too.

Impressive work!
Are you doing it by yourself?

Thank you! A little of both, I guess? I had a local shop do the new timing belt, water pump, and oil seals. The radio, coilover install, and slave cylinder we did ourselves. I do what I can but I don't have the strength my boyfriend has! Plus, he knows a lot more than I do. But we work together and I'm in the garage helping him when he does the heavy lifting.

Thank you all for the love! Slave cylinder is in just gotta bleed everything and get new tires. Hoping to have things going soon enough.

[DawsonLiri]

Looking great, I love the front, maybe a little spacers in the back and a bigger tires and it's perfect for me.

[hinrichs]

Looking good on the AREs

[Fruttolo]

Very nice, but I'd love to see it even lower on smaller tyres instead of bigger ones

[gnmzl]

Oh my, what a huge difference! Mockup shots just didn't prepare me for that. Looking great, we need rolling shots asap, so get that slave cylinder swapped out!

[Kenz]

Torsion bars are removed and coilovers are installed all the way around! Got two of the wheels fully built with new hardware and valve stems. Here they are!



Going to stick with this tire size in the front and go a bit bigger in the rear. But so far, I'm loving it!



Can't wait to change the slave cylinder and get this thing moving.

[Kenz]

If you have any interest in some clear front blinker lenses, PM me.

I'm swapping my front end over soon and won't need mine anymore. I'd be happy to send them to you for whatever they cost to ship which shouldn't be much at all.

That would be lovely! I will PM you. Thank you so much.

[RoyaleWithCheese]

If you have any interest in some clear front blinker lenses, PM me.

I'm swapping my front end over soon and won't need mine anymore. I'd be happy to send them to you for whatever they cost to ship which shouldn't be much at all.

[Pete82]

I ended up buying the 20v cq so now have two projects, that one's getting full s2 treatment and other bits. I'm still getting stuff for the 944. I bought a rs2 exhaust manifold for it last night for the 20v 5 pot turbo conversion so it will slowly get there. I should have the new car and the engines delivered in the next couple of weeks so I can start working on it.

Nice progress with the 944, it might be worthwhile swapping out the dash section of loom if yours is that bad? I'm sure someone would break one and sell just the loom. Maybe plyhammer parts has it already.

[hedmisten]

Can't wait to see the updated photos with the RSs.

[Kenz]

What's been going on with the old Porsche, you might be wondering?

Well, a lot. Kind of?

So, I was puttering around the ol' Porsche 944 Facebook group (which is delightful, I must add) and I saw that people were going nuts over this radio on sale on Amazon. The little guy was a Blaupunkt radio with bluetooth and pretty good sound quality for just $12 bucks. The original 944 radios are Blaupunkt, so I thought it would be perfect. Putting a new radio was on my list because my current radio (an aftermarket, early 90s Sony from the PO) would shut off and grind like a demon was living in it about 80% of the time. I figured: "Hey, on sale radio? Everyone loves it? Plug and play? I'm in."

Wrong.

When I got the radio, I was super excited. I ran to my car to pop off the current radio and a mess of electrical tape and botched harnesses exploded like confetti out of my dashboard.



Blue and black spaghetti, anyone?

So, I decided to cut everything down and start from scratch. The big issue is that the PO put an aftermarket security system in, as well. So, once I finally got everything mostly wired up, the car alarm would go off the minute I reconnected the battery. Also, the security system has an immobiliser, so the car is pretty much useless when it goes off. The wiring for the security system is really intertwined with the original wiring, so it's really hard to remove. I can't figure out where it is or how to remove it or turn it off. It's a mystery.

After sitting on this issue for a week, I figured out how to bypass the alarm and got the radio working. It's not pretty, and I probably traded one rat's nest for another, but at least the radio is working and now has bluetooth and all that fine stuff.

As I was about to take the car out for a spin after the install, something more troubling happened. The clutch stopped returning on it's own. I was freaking out. A clutch install on these cars is really expensive and tough to do. However, I checked the car and it looks to be just the slave cylinder. I went back on my notes from Eurofed, and they had mentioned to me that the slave cylinder was on its way out. So, new slave cylinder, master cylinder, and hosing are en route. I'm planning on installing this weekend, as it doesn't seem too difficult. Here's hoping!

Since the car is basically a paper weight right now, Ben and I decided this was the perfect weekend to look removing the torsion bars. It was super expensive to have someone do it, and everyone I talked to said it can be done, it's just a pain in the butt. And, well, it is! In order to get to the carrier with the torsion tube to pull out the torsion bar, you have to remove the axles, disconnect the brakes, and drop the entire rear suspension. Lord! It's a mess. Once you drop everything, the torsion bar slides right on out. We got one side done and reassembled, though!



And, of course, spun them allll the way down and test fit those AREs.



One more side to do, then new cylinders, then bleeding pretty much everything! Hopefully we will be good after that. I'm still learning when it comes to working on my own cars, and this has been a great experience. The car is a pain in many aspects, but hopefully the pay off will be well worth it.

Also, I've got to just brag on the 944 a little bit.

I took the 944 to Alpine VAG fair a few weeks back and man, it was awesome. The car took the drive from Atlanta to Helen easily, which didn't surprise me. It handled the five hour round trip from hometown just fine, too. But finally getting to experience this old grandpa of a car on those mountain roads was something special. This thing totally shines on those curves!

When I got to Helen, I found out that Ben's S6 had broken down upon arrival. Our friends' b5 a4 shattered it's diff carrier on the way in, too. So, between a group of five of us in our cabin, the 944 was our only working car. I'm not kidding! Ben took the 944 and drove two hours round trip to pick up our friends to bring them to Helen. The next day, they used the 944 to make several trips to Autozone to get parts for the avant. The 944 never complained once. I was pretty proud of it!



My 944 was one four 944s in Helen that weekend. There was another red NA, and then these two beauties!



On the left is an NA with a snub nose (or Wolf mod) and a fresh coat of some dark purple paint. Really lovely car! The one on the right though, is something really special! The guy who owns it lives a few hours north of me, and I'd never met him in person. He's owned, literally, 133 Porsche 944s! His teal turbo with huge fender flares and fiberglass spoiler is a total delight. It was amazing to see it in person!

Anyways, that's all I've got for now! Hopefully the 944 will be back in tip-top shape here soon.

Thanks!

~Kenz

EDIT: I missed some really nice comments. Thanks everyone for loving on my guy!

I know what you mean, they are good cars but still suffer with the "poor man (or womans) porsche" stigma. Kinda why i'm still struggling to find the love for mine so far. I keep thinking is it worth it or just save up and go the 911 way but I fear those are way out of reach now price wise.

I know exactly what you mean! I definitely go from being madly in love with it to being like WHY did I buy THIS? I'm learning to love it. I'd never driven (let alone owned) an older car, so it felt so... slow when I first got it. Apparently almost all older cars are slow, though? Haha. It's not as peppy as my ST, but it's still a lot of fun if you give it the chance. I would love a 911 as well. If you are willing to deal with fried-egg eyes, the 996 is stupid cheap(comparatively). I'd love to sell my ST in the future for a 997. But shhh don't tell Ben that.

The foxbody of Porsches. LOVE THESE!

Oh my goodness that's a fantastic way to describe them! I love the Foxbodies, so I'm all about that comparison haha. They are interesting but fun cars!

[debags]

The foxbody of Porsches. LOVE THESE!

[Pete82]

Can't wait to see the tires on the AREs, that's going to look fantastic. Seems like 944s get overlooked as projects a lot, but they look great slammed on mesh wheels.

I know what you mean, they are good cars but still suffer with the "poor man (or womans) porsche" stigma. Kinda why i'm still struggling to find the love for mine so far. I keep thinking is it worth it or just save up and go the 911 way but I fear those are way out of reach now price wise.

[DawsonLiri]

Damn, those ARE looks right at home.

[bwwaaaa]

Can't wait to see the tires on the AREs, that's going to look fantastic. Seems like 944s get overlooked as projects a lot, but they look great slammed on mesh wheels.