"Joe6pack" (joe6pack)
02/04/2016 at 11:30 • Filed to: None
6
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"Joe6pack" (joe6pack)
02/04/2016 at 11:30 • Filed to: None | 6
| 4 |
I want to apologize for taking so long to follow up my previous post. I could not upload photos to my blog. I tried three different browsers before finally giving in and emailing the Kinja help desk. All seems to be working now.
Previously, I introduced you to my new project 1987 Porsche 944 purchased off of Craigslist for $600.
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One of the things I plan to share with you as I go along is the money spent. Keep in mind I am cheap.....I am super cheap.....I am so cheap that when I open my wallet it creaks and bats fly out. I will spend hours searching for the best deal I can find and will reuse parts whenever possible. Thus, your mileage may vary.
That said, here sits $720:
That’s $600 for the car and $120 for towing to my house plus tipping the driver.
Top Tip: Always tip your tow truck driver.
If you’re like me, when you buy a project like this, you go from “This is going to be ok, it’ll all work out” to “I can’t believe I just pissed away $700+ bills, this is a disaster, what have I done?” and back again. I would walk out into the garage, stare at it for a few minutes, poke around a bit, and then go back inside.
Eventually, however, you have to go to work. One of the the first steps on a project like this is assessing your baseline. Because I was told by the previous owner that the car was parked due to a leaking water pump, I was relatively confident that the engine would turn. However, before trying to spin it, I removed all the plugs and sprayed WD-40 into the cylinders and let them soak for awhile.
While that was going on, I began cleaning. One of the advantages to storing a car outside on concrete is that most of God’s creatures will shun it as a place of refuge. This is especially true if there is a nice warm house/garage nearby as mammals like warmth. However, there are a few creatures that seem to gravitate toward a car stored outside. They are our eight-legged friend the spider and his pal the wasp. I lost count of the wasp nests, spider webs and icky little white cottony things things that hold baby spiders that I removed.
Another thing we have here in Georgia in spades is pollen - particularly of the pine variety. This poor car had seen 12 seasons of pollen and had a thick crust of it in most every crack or crevice. Fortunately, the interior appeared to have largely been spared any intrusion by either flora or fauna.
After the initial cleaning, I returned to the engine and was able to verify that it would turn.
Next came that @#$%^&* water pump.
Replacing the water pump on a 944 is a cumbersome, mildly expensive yet well documented process. I will spare you the step by step, but will instead give you a few of the pitfalls I encountered. Once I had removed all of the covers, belts, rollers etc., to actually get to the pump, the fun really began. The water pump is held on by several 6mm cap screws and in my reading I was warned that one or more could break during removal. Well, I managed to break three of them. Once this occurs, you are pretty much hosed and must resort to all of the various techniques available to remove a broken screw. Ultimately, I spent the next week and a half drilling out these three cap screws. It took a week and a half because I could only work after work and I kept having to run to Home Depot for more drill bits. I had to remove the fans from the radiator and I purchased a right angle adapter for my Dremel. I probably went through a dozen drill bits and I swear those screws must have been made out of stainless steel. In the end, the holes were pretty mangled and I wound up using Helicoils to repair the damage which, of course, required drilling the holes even larger. I estimate that I spent $150 on drill bits/adapters and I already had the Helicoils. I did manage to get a pretty good deal on a rebuilt water pump - $67.46 with free shipping from an outfit called Euro Auto Works in West Covina, CA. So, with the new water pump installed, I am now up to +/-$1,000 including $65 worth of hood and rear hatch shocks from Pelican Parts to keep the hood from falling on my head while I worked. By the way, the old pump was firmly seized and would not rotate at all. The impeller had dug into the housing rendering the pump un-rebuildable.
Next up is a complete engine front re-seal.
RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
> Joe6pack
02/04/2016 at 11:39 |
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I’ve bought waaaay worse cars than that for more. Nice woik.
AutoSavant
> Joe6pack
02/04/2016 at 11:54 |
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I enjoy projects like this. Nothing more satisfying than bringing a car back to life. Good luck!
ShutUpandShift
> Joe6pack
02/04/2016 at 11:55 |
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What's the saying again?........Give a man a Dremel..... teach a fish??? Anyways, awesome tool! Where would we be without them?
boredalways
> Joe6pack
02/04/2016 at 12:43 |
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“That’s $600 for the car and $120 for towing to my house plus tipping the driver.
Top Tip: Always tip your tow truck driver.”
You are a gentleman and a scholar