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944 Turbo Mini Restoration

To be honest I cant remember on the vat/duty but i dont think so because they were second hand parts ? pretty sure i was around £400 for everything in the picture design 911 quoted £457 for one of the small brackets :eek: so it was an absolute bargain for all the parts and as I say they were in as new condition.



It was augment automotive I got the bearings from looking at my thread they were £70 they also offer a rebuild service for the torque tube
 

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Well and truly down the rabbit hole then :grin:

Awesome work as usual. A credit to the forum :thumb:
Never forget although this end of the site is pretty quiet this stuff will help others for years to come.
 
Gazc2 said:
To be honest I cant remember on the vat/duty but i dont think so because they were second hand parts ? pretty sure i was around £400 for everything in the picture design 911 quoted £457 for one of the small brackets :eek: so it was an absolute bargain for all the parts and as I say they were in as new condition.



It was augment automotive I got the bearings from looking at my thread they were £70 they also offer a rebuild service for the torque tube

Well I couldn't argue, a pair of torsion bar carriers and right side trailing arm including postage for £300. Roger even said he'd refund the difference if the postage was cheaper sending them all in one package. They look brand new and mine look like they are fit for the trash tbh :sad:

Pity they didn't have a left side trailing arm, there was a Porsche specialist in the UK selling an NOS trailing arm last year. I waited too long with it in my watch list and someone else snapped it up for £150. Learnt my lesson so snapped up these as they will come in useful even if I get my existing ones cleaned up.

Main problem with mine is the alloy corrosion, some of the threads for the brake caliper mounting are exposed as well...

I've found the bearing part number off rennlist for the C3 torque tube bearings and they are £5.83 a piece from a bearing supplier in the UK.
6006 2Z/C3 - https://www.skf.com/sg/productinfo/productid-6006-2Z/C3

Thinking about going for the fancy ones from the US (Super Bearings) that are heavy duty or possibly the 9products ones from Europe. Will see how the bearing carriers are when I pull them out of the tube.

Chief said:
Well and truly down the rabbit hole then :grin:

Awesome work as usual. A credit to the forum :thumb:
Never forget although this end of the site is pretty quiet this stuff will help others for years to come.

Yes firmly in mad hatter territory :floor:

If I can keep up the pace though I should be done before I retire :grin:
 
I suspect most of the transaxle cars will suffer from this alloy corrosion quite scary to see how bad they gft one of my trailing arms below
 

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That is quite alarming :help:
 
Chief said:
That is quite alarming :help:

Yes, mine aren't that bad but couldn't pass on some shiny new parts :D
 
Smaller update from me today and possibly the omen of bad news a bit further down... :sad:

So made some progress on my gearbox oil cooler. I managed to remove the worn out connecting piece from the end which connects to the oil pump. I took it along with my waste gate to a local tool shop (Mac's Tool Shop in Bromyard) and they were able to mill me a replacement piece and also removed the broken bolts from my waste gate :thumbs:









After that little success I continued with the clutch and flywheel removal today. Also took a picture of the almost empty rear underbody (fuel tank will be dropping down at some point to check and replace hoses).



3 of the 9 pressure plate bolts had rounded off so I had to drill those out. I got some Sealey left hand drill bits from Amazon which worked great. Instead of completely taking the head off they also undid the bolt once it had released the tension.



Looking at the clutch and pressure plate I can see a big 34 with 12 96 stamped. So looks like my clutch was replaced some point after week 34 of 1996. Wear was almost up to the rivet heads so I'm hoping the flywheel can be resurfaced as they aren't cheap either.





The flywheel came out much more easily BUT I noticed a problem. The crankshaft appeared to have a lot of end play.





I got out my dial gauge and got a repeatable measurement of 0.84mm...

The wear limit in the WSM is 0.40mm so I'm over twice that... which I guess means that the thrust bearing is completely worn out...

I assume this is also why the RMS leak is sooo bad...

I hadn't planned on doing an engine rebuild also but looks like that is where this is heading. No point fitting a new clutch etc and putting everything back as it is best done now whilst everything is apart...

Now I need to consider my options... and probably continue restoring the rear end so I can get some wheels on to move the car around for engine removal..
 
Since the last update I have been working on the torque tube rebuild and also got some parts vapour blasted locally.

First off removing the drive shaft from the torque tube was very hard. I obtained 3m of 20mm metal conduit from Screwfix to use to knock out the torque tube. This diameter allows the end of the steel conduit to rest on the spigot at the clutch end of the drive shaft. The drive shaft is hardened so the soft steel metal conduit will not damage it.

I cut the conduit down to 2m and started of with the 1m piece until I had knocked the shaft far enough through the torque tube.

It took plenty of pounding with my sledge hammer to get the shaft past the first bearing. I actually hurt my hand pretty bad just from the motion of hitting the steel conduit. Once it was past the first bearing it moved much more quickly and on the second evening of trying to get the shaft out it came out.





I ordered some aluminium suspension parts from Retro Automotive products in the USA as they were a great price and looked like NOS to me even though they were listed as used. Postage was really reasonable and they even gave me a refund as the postage worked out cheaper than anticipated. The parts also arrived quickly (in 5 days), they were actually in the UK in 2 days, they just spent ages sitting at Heathrow.

Left & Right torsion bar mounts
Right M030 rear trailing arm (unfortunately they didn't have a matching Left to go with it)



I also took my gearbox, current trailing arms and stub axles to the vapour blaster for cleaning and blasting. I was really pleased with how they turned out, he even painted the centre steel section on the gearbox for me. All I need to do now is get the steel parts re-treated and the gearbox resealed with the repair kit from Porsche.









 
Spent a few hours straightening the cooling fins on the gearbox oil cooler.... :floor:



Continued working on the torque tube rebuild - I ordered the following bits -

  • 1. 16mm Threaded Bar
    2. 10 x M16 full nuts
    3. 5 x M16 Form G washers (17mm x 50mm x 3mm)
    4. 125mm x 125mm sheet of mild steel (3mm thick)
    5. 16mm blacksmiths drill bit (stepped)

Traced the bolt holes at the engine end of the torque tube carrier onto the metal sheet and drilled out one at each corner.

Then drilled a central 16mm hole in the sheet to pass the threaded bar through.

Followed the instructions on Clarks Garage, I used an old hand sanitiser bottle to apply a line of engine oil to the threaded shaft for lubrication.

After this I squirted neat fairy liquid at each end and a good amount through the shifter bracket mounting holes, then also sprayed a soap / water solution into the tube using a small spray bottle.

Then used my electric impact wrench and it pulled the bearings out in a few minutes! :bounce:





Used some blocks of wood to step the metal sheet away from the torque tube flange when the bearings got to the end.







As you can see most of the grease has come out of the bearings, 2 were quite dry and noisy, 1 not so bad and 1 still felt OK.

Now I have to decide how much money I want to spend replacing them, I definitely don't want to have to do this job again though!

I've seen some suppliers listing C4 bearings by SKF in the right size, so just need to decide if the bearing carriers and inner sleeves are worth it or if I need to get the whole lot...

Looking at the inner sleeves for the drive shaft I think two of them have cracks in but are still solid.

I have the earlier type bearing carriers that are stamped together, the outer rubber doesn't look too bad (the pictures look bad as they were covered in fairy liquid and grease).

Can anyone recommend a good paint to use for the torque tube once I've had it blasted? I don't fancy powder coat due to it being close to the exhaust. I guess a good chassis paint would be good? Will probably use a brush paint (Eastwood or Frost?).

Also wondering if painting it silver would help with the heat (instead of black)...
 
Back once again for the restoration Porsche... :floor:

So since last time I've fitted the new aluminium end-piece to the gearbox cooling loop. After researching various epoxies and putties I ended up using some standard JB Weld. Made sure I cleaned the surfaces as well as possible and used a large amount of the stuff. Firmly seated the end-piece to the pipe and cleaned up the excess.





Cleaned the inside of the torque tube with a home-made pipe cleaner :thumb: consisting of an old broom handle, used soft drinks bottle, old chamois and some methylated spirits.



Cleaned up the rear side of the engine with some brake cleaner just to make it look tidier.



Finished up removing all the torsion bar mounts from the body / chassis. I used a normal house hold scrubbing brush to dry clean the dirt and mud of the chassis. This worked really well and the plastic bristles didn't damage the factory underseal.

Chassis is in pretty good condition, does anyone know what product Porsche used for the beige rubber type coating? Where I'm tidying up some bits of surface corrosion I'd like to use the same product if possible as it has done a great job of protecting the car for 32 years.





 
Finally split all the bearing carriers and cleaned everything.

Got some new delrin bushings and rivets from Augment Automotive and made a start on filing down the rivets to fit in the bearing carriers.

The rubber outers for the bearing carriers are reusable.

I managed to get 4 new SKF 6006 2Z C4 bearings from bolton bearings on ebay for a good price.

As you can see the original bearings out of the torque tube were also C4 made by INA, I've seen reference to C5 bearings on rennlist but not sure where that information perpetuated from as mine are clearly C4.

Also picked up a pilot bearing while I was at it (6202.2RSR from FAG).





I was going to get the rear brake calipers rebuilt by Pro Calipers but as he doesn't offer painting services anymore and I don't trust the other companies (lots of poor feedback on different car forums) I'm doing them myself. So started the stripping process by removing the spring plates and pad retaining clip. I've also left the pistons in place but covered them with gaffer tape. Will get these blasted (possibly soda blasted), and then pickup a VHT paint kit. I've already got the new Porsche decals ready to go.

Surprisingly the spring plates came off pretty easily, I had them serviced several years ago by Promax so that must have helped. I also spent ages cleaning out the head of the torx screws with brake cleaner and a plastic brush.





Since the photo I cleaned up the spring plates and retaining clips with Bilt Hamber Deox Gel so they are back to a shiny stainless steel finish again.
 
I then had a couple of international parcels arrive, one from Poland and the other from Germany.

My existing exhaust heat shield from the back had completely rotted so when I saw this shiny example on ebay I snapped it up.



Konrad from rennlist was making a batch of billet torsion bar mounts so I ordered a set from him and I'm extremely happy with the quality of them, can't wait to get them fitted.



Most recently I finally removed the fuel tank which enables me to start tidying up the little bits of surface corrosion on the chassis before reassembly.



After a good wash with brake cleaner and then some Bilt Hamber Surfex HD.



And revealed under the fuel tank the original colour of the chassis underseal / paint that was applied at the factory.



Which brings me right up to date.

Spent a couple of hours chipping the rust scale away from the inside of the rear valance / exhaust mount. Unfortunately the bottom of the valance is pretty rotted and the repair section is NLA from Porsche. However I think I've managed to find one available as NOS for a decent price. I bet everyone has a similar looking rear valance. Someone has a rear section from a cabrio listed on ebay and the corrosion looks almost identical to mine.









So then got out the angle grinder and abrasive discs from Norton Blaze. They ripped through the underseal and deposited it mainly on my arms and head and all over the garage floor :sad: I also used a variety of wire brush attachments on my cordless drill to get into the tight spots.

The corrosion on the rear valance looks limited to the area just above the exhaust so I think it must be from the condensation and heat. New valance repair section is on the way from The Netherlands and I've just asked for a quote from the body shop to get that done (something I can have done whilst rebuilding the engine).















Does anyone know of the beige undercoat product that was originally applied by Porsche? I'd like to use the same product if possible as it has done a great job of protecting the chassis and has lasted 32 years.
 
Gazc2 said:
A lot of hard graft going on :thumb: good opportunity to fit a short shifter on the gearbox http://only944.com/partscatalog/only/shortshifter/, those torsion bar brackets look the business

Already sitting in my parts box ready to fit :floor:

The old one had been replaced but was still terrible, I'm doing the mod to the gear shifter up front as well and using the 968 plastic bushes.
 
Wow it has been some time since my last update!

I was very burnt out on the car and left it sitting in the garage for a bit whilst I got on with other things.

Before then however I did manage to make a little more progress which I hadn't posted.

Firstly I took most of the nuts, bolts, and other metal fittings I had removed to the local electroplating company. They did an amazing job, I'm just annoyed that they couldn't get the original finish. I believe originally Porsche would have used cadmium plating but this is now restricted in most countries due to it's effect on health. So the plating company used yellow zinc plating which isn't anywhere as colourful as cadmium but I'm sure it will be fine.

BEFORE



AFTER



I then spent many hours sorting through the now jumbled up nuts, bolts, and washers to work out where they came from. Luckily it wasn't too hard with a set of engineers callipers and the Porsche parts database to hand.

Back to work on the chassis, having cleaned up a bit more it was time to use some chemical treatment to remove the remaining corrosion that I couldn't get off with mechanical methods. Some Bilt Hamber Deox Gel spread liberally on the corrosion and held in place with paper towels and cling film.



Left for 48 hours to do its thing it leaves a nasty rusty coloured liquid. Before removing this I give it another go over with the wire brush to remove any loose rust particles.



Then a good washing with some degreaser and finally some slow drying panel wipe before primer.



 

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