Turning my 1982 Porsche 911 SC Targa to "the one i always wanted"

[CorsePerVita]

Figured since it's going to have a few projects going I may as well post them up.

Since I was a kid I always wanted one. It isn't a huge list, but a list of things I always wanted on a Porsche 911 and I plan on transforming it into that. Sold the 944 and bought this for my daily. Over the years I've seen things on them that just make me go "OHHHH" and "AHHHH" and "I WANT!" so now that I have the chance, I'm going to do just that.

The list of things it needs:

- Heaterbox hoses and lines
- High heat hoses need replaced
- Linkage fixes
- Wheel bearings
- Vacuum lines
- Tires... some tard put the wrong profile size and it was eating through the oil return line.
- Speakers, deck... they're old, and speakers are mostly blown.
- Targa and window seals. Old, worn, and not doing the best.

Things replaced thus far:

- Most of the heaterbox lines/hoses
- Most of the vacuum lines
- New tires...
- Wheel Bearings

Plans:

- Converting to Targa hard top (specifically, looking at a Carbon Fiber replacement, still doing the math to see if they're quality enough for consideration)
- Fabspeed 930 exhaust (probably with with resonator so it sounds nice, and not overkill)
- Trading out the original deck (yes, still has the ORIGINAL tape deck, and normally I would leave it be, but it's my daily, and i've left my 914 entirely factory original so this car is getting modified) to go with a nice sound system, nice speakers. I don't want to go sub and overkill, just some nice speakers. The fabspeed will add sound as it is... so with the resonator setup and a nice deck with speakers, should be fine. I just can't deal with blown speakers...
- Airbox pop-valve, don't feel like blowing up my airbox.
- CF or Fiberglass floor layouts instead of the OEM hardwood ones. They don't hold up all that great, and god forbid you get them wet, ever. They won't be in plain site but it'll be a nice improvement, and any weight lost is a good diet IMO.
- Carrera graphic work (hey it is a super carrera...)
- Polished engine bay and repainted parts. Planning on polishing everything from the fan down to the rest of the covers and repainting some parts to match the car. Going to stick with metallic silver to go with the themed paint of the car, sparingly of course since I don't want it to look like a big rolling blingy silver bullet... just hints of it here and there to look nice.
- Custom CF parts, brackets, mounts, etc. I am helping a friend who works in the aircraft industry with some website work, and we're doing CF parts for it in trade. w00t!

Pics to come as progress becomes progress!

[billygoat333]

I can't say enough about infinity speakers. I will never buy another speaker again. just my $.02 on car speakers lol. looks awesome!

[CorsePerVita]

I'm always open minded on opinions. I am not an audio specialist by any means. My last system sounded good but I also searched for opinions on products and wired it up right, too.

Thank you for the opinion, I'll have to dig a little and see what fits my car. Thankfully, one of the local audio and alarm system guys over here at one point owned a shop in cali and all he did was Porsches, Ferraris and other cars along those lines for audio and security so he was very familiar with the setup and said he'd have no problem finding out what would fit and work with my car. Pretty excited to get crackin' on the progress.

[altec]

Those factory gauges are pretty sweat. I like those.Those factory seats look nice too. Can't beat the condition for the age. I'm shocked the inside looks as good as it does with that top.

Nice car man!

[chevyboy_0]

I have always loved the whale tail Porsches, My grandpas boss has an '85 911 turbo in gray and he would let my grandpa borrow it every so often, and my Grandpa has a '58 356 Coupe.

For the speakers I have some Polk Audio, DB series in my Chevelle and they sound AWESOME!!! very full range from low to high, I was never impressed with the Sony or Pioneers because they were either to tinny or to low. But the Polks have a very nice blend of all the ranges. Or if you want to get really crazy check out Focal audio they are extemely high quality but with the quality comes price, in our show car we currently have a 2400watt 12 speaker Focal Audio setup and with the custom built panels they are mounted in to direct the sound through the car it sounds like your at a concert hall listening to an orchestra.

[Indybird]

I am going to follow this religiously. I can't wait until the next update.

Are you going to do anything to modernize it or is this a pure resto?

-Nick

[CorsePerVita]

Sorry I didn't respond to these.

Those factory gauges are pretty sweat. I like those.Those factory seats look nice too. Can't beat the condition for the age. I'm shocked the inside looks as good as it does with that top.

Nice car man!

I like the interior, the gauges I definitely love. For some reason the era of all the P-Cars I love.

I have always loved the whale tail Porsches, My grandpas boss has an '85 911 turbo in gray and he would let my grandpa borrow it every so often, and my Grandpa has a '58 356 Coupe.

For the speakers I have some Polk Audio, DB series in my Chevelle and they sound AWESOME!!! very full range from low to high, I was never impressed with the Sony or Pioneers because they were either to tinny or to low. But the Polks have a very nice blend of all the ranges. Or if you want to get really crazy check out Focal audio they are extemely high quality but with the quality comes price, in our show car we currently have a 2400watt 12 speaker Focal Audio setup and with the custom built panels they are mounted in to direct the sound through the car it sounds like your at a concert hall listening to an orchestra.

I ended up going with JL in the front, the JL i got for the rear didn't fit, ended up going with Polk in the rear. Haven't got the head unit in yet. Have to do the timing belt on my wife's car tonight (snapped, oh yay!) thankfully not an interference engine. If there is time I'll wire the head unit and stereo tonight.

I am going to follow this religiously. I can't wait until the next update.

Are you going to do anything to modernize it or is this a pure resto?

-Nick

Bit of both. Plan on removing the A/C (storing it in case I ever want to put it back on of course) for weight reasons. I want to keep most of it original but I don't mind doing body work. The interior though I totally dig so I don't plan on doing much inside the car. Seen too many of them get butchered, don't plan on butchering the car. Definitely want a nice sub and system in the car, so aside from that will likely leave it be after that.

As to body work I don't know if I really want to do much, I like the body style. Love the targa top. I am on the fence between sending my original top in for a rebuild/refurbish or if I want to dump the money on a carbon fiber or fiberglass top. Unfortunately, the aftermarket CF/Fiberglass targa tops are a DIY project (no joke) and require tearing the original top apart and using it for parts. A NEW targa top from Porsche is $10,000. So if I bork the one i've got I'd end up having to buy a used one because there's no way in hell I'm spending that much on a targa top. The CF tops and Fiberglass tops are a fraction of the cost, about $500 which is the same to get the original top refurbished.

I need to sleep on it for a few to figure out what I want to do.

I do plan on running through the engine bay and polishing/cleaning/painting some things to make it more presentable as well.

Once it warms up and i can ride my bikes to work i'll probably get the engine and tranny out and clean it all up and get to it.

[CorsePerVita]

I installed a new stereo in my car today. *When I saw the nest of wires... I went *:o

Really... they just used a bunch of connectors, and then got lazy enough to twist the wires together.

I couldn't for the life of me figure out why the speakers randomly went in and out, turns out the screw holding in the back seat was screwed INTO one of the wires accidentally.

What a hackjob.

Soldering iron, happy helping of solder, 2 layers of shrink wrap per wire, and taping/bunching the wires together properly and the result was very happy.

I'll get some pictures of it when it's daylight outside. *I even stapled the upholstery back together where the original factory staples had failed near the speaker, so it's nice and tight now.

Finally, the 911 has tunes! Wait till you see the pics of the old crap that was in the car...

Each segment was wrapped and labeled. *In this case, the 12v constant and 12v ignition wire. *I inspect the wires, all were pliable and the copper was clean, tested for continuity and resistance was fine so I reused the wires on them. *

Here is before the wires were all segmented, just soldered at this point with double wrap on each wire.

Before completely wrapped, but you can see the shrinked and soldered wire on the left (my side) and the original wiring (right side).

Oh sweet... let's install front speakers and not replace the rear speakers. *Who seriously leaves speakers like this in a car? *The new polks next to it.

The super cheapo crappy speakers (red left) and the new JL Audio speaker (right).

And of course, always lay down a matt when you install it, do it right.

More pics once it's daytime, these were taken when it was light outside, I was still working on the stereo at 8:00ish..

[Blibbax]

Man, that is a really nice car. Subbed, and good luck

[CorsePerVita]

Thanks man!

Here's the deck, sorry for the mess on the floor, still have wiring stuff from last night.