Porsche 924 white

[Jim Bell]

I would have set fire to it. You're to be commended for seeing it through.

[Jimmycrackcorn]

I've always had a soft spot for one of these but I've probably missed the boat on getting one I can afford now.

[mercedade]

*applause*

 

SPEECH! SPEECH!

 

Inspiring work. I wish I was half as persistent/determined.

[brownnova]

My second biggest motoring regret is selling the 924 I had due to it rusting... Favourite car I have ever owned. Glad to see this one back up and running!!

 

(no 1 motoring regret... Allowing the brown nova to be scrapped as a stupid 19 year old!!)

[inconsistant]

Excellent news! When's the raffle?

Tip top effort! Free to help with the CX next weekend?

I've always had a soft spot for one of these but I've probably missed the boat on getting one I can afford now.

 

Boat not quite left yet. Turbos have shot up in price, standard 924s still affordable. A lot less £500 wrecks on their last mot about than 3 years ago when I was looking for one, but still possible to get a reasonable, useable one for £1500.

[inconsistant]

I wish I was half as persistent/determined.

 

I'm neither of those things, but I am bloody stubborn.

[inconsistant]

My second biggest motoring regret is selling the 924 I had due to it rusting.

 

They don't* rust because they are galvanised. It's a special type of galvanising that enables my mechanic/welder to take exotic holidays.

[brownnova]

Yeah the sills went on mine like yours... So mine must have had that same galvanising! Sadly without a tame mechanic who could weld, I was getting quotes of well over a grand to get the sills done, in hindsight I wish id tried a bit harder to find a more reasonable quote. It was put back on the road, the MOT expired again last week...

 

I've promised myself another one tho... By the end of 2016 I'm hoping!!

[inconsistant]

2016 is a big year for the 924, 40 years since uk launch. In the next 12 months prices are predicted to skyrocket GET ONE NOW DO IT DO IT DO IT!

[MikeKnight]

I've promised myself another one tho... By the end of 2016 I'm hoping!!

 

[spike60]

They don't* rust because they are galvanised. It's a special type of galvanising that enables my mechanic/welder to take exotic holidays.

Mine hadn't rusted at 34 years old. Battered and shonky yes, rust no. The 16v 944 I went to see was manky, sills made of anything except steel etc despite being 8 tears younger.

 

[inconsistant]

Overall 944s seem to suffer worse rust than 924s, especially around the structural/rear suspension bits in front of the rear wheels. I think because of the flared arches (especially rear) catching more crud from the road, and because I think it's generally accepted that late 80's steel was rubbish across the board, something about cheaper stuff from Russia. I might have made that last bit up though or read it on the Bullshit Facts* Thread.

[inconsistant]

Oops, despite my best* efforts this thread seems to have fallen 2 years behind. Again. I'll do the same as before and update it a month at a time. and then try to keep it up to date. Again. FFS.

 

So back to January 2016 we go, and the beginning of an exciting year for the Porsche 924, as it's 40 years since it's 1976 launch.

 

January 2016

What better way to start an exciting year than a sparkle plug investigation. In early Jan the mechanic popped around to have a look at the misfire. I thought it might be the Ignition Module, but then I'm totally guessing, so it's just as likely to be the carpet. He thought it wasn’t the Ignition Module (or the carpet) because if it was then the misfire would be on all cylinders. He suspected, without further investigation, either a sparkle plug was duff or one of my HT leads was damaged.

 

 

 

After some owners club forum discussion I decided to replace my (almost new) Beru plugs for some Bosch ones. These babies (4x Bosch WR5DC+) from GSF with 35% off so £10.50 with free delivery. were ordered and fitted. They didn’t cure the misfire but definitely reduced it and made the car more drivable.

 

A local 924 owner had a spare set of OEM Beru leads so I popped over to his and swapped them over to see if it helped. It didn’t make any difference. I recalled fitting a new set of Beru leads in 2014 so I’m glad they seem to not be the problem.

 

These two only live a few miles from each other but I don't think they've been running together at the same time yet:

 

 

 

 

 

Mechanic left it that I'd check sparkle plugs and leads and get back to him, so he can have a further look at the misfire. He's got wheel alignment equipment so I'll get him to do the track rod ends I bought a year ago but haven't fitted yet. I'd like to get al that sorted way before 92forty and maybe even spend some time tidying up the paintwork to make it look it's best.

 

What's 92forty you ask? It's the 924 Owners Club annual national meet up, but to celebrate the cars 40 years anniversary it's taking place in collaboration with Porsche GB at their dicking about with cars experience centre next to Silverstone circuit in May 2016. A bit of a knees up with the chance to take our cars on their handling track with one of their driving instructors. Should be fun.

[inconsistant]

Also in Jan 2016 was another Autoshite Essex meet up, this time the venue was the Halfway House on the A13.

An enjoyable morning, a nasty Little Chef retro breakfast and an uneventful drive there and back.

Entertainment laid on by the local travelling folk with their carriageway horseracing and general sense of tension and a feeling that things were about to kick off.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[inconsistant]

In an attempt to begin to tart up the car I decided to have a go at swapping over my ripped Pascha interior I got last year. 924s are notorious for torn seats, they go along the fabric/PVC joints usually, like the one on the right, below.

 

My drivers seat is OK but the passenger one has multiple tears on the base. The replacement one (on the left) had a good base and tears on the back. The plan was to make one good passenger seat out of the best bits. The photo makes them look like a different tone of brown but it's not noticeable in reality.

 

 

It didn't go very well. Even being really careful I broke the cover cap trying to remove it, and damaged the outer bit of the adjusting wheel with tool marks.

 

 

 

 

The next bit was easier, I twisted and removed the adjusting wheel. The plastic cover behind came off to reveal two big screws which came out easily.

 

 

 

 

Then I went to the other side and tried to undo the big screw. It wouldn't budge, and I tried everything I could think of, even some plusgas and having another go the next day. I started to damage the slot, so I gave up. And that's where I left it. Still not sure how to get any further with this.

 

 

I just swapped the whole seat over for 92forty. Still have to swap over the door cards for the better ones.

[inconsistant]

February 2016

 

And in another attempt to tidy the car up pre 92forty I decided to jetwash it. I knew I shouldn't have done. 

The blow over respray it's had art some point in it's like was so shite that the paint hasn't really stuck to the car at all. It's a bit like when leaves fall off a tree onto your car and the rain makes them stick. But in Alpine White.

Obviously and totally predictably, the paint came flying off the headlight covers and badge panel. The car looks worse than if I'd done nothing.

 

 

 

 

I thought I'd check the tyre pressures for the trip to Ace Cafe 924 get together in a couple of weeks. One of the tyres looked a bit low. Guess what? Two of the fancy black metal valve caps I got to smarten the car up had welded themselves to the valve stems, as aluminium and steel like to do. And one of them was the low tyre. 

 

 

 

Cheap eBay Aluminium Valve Caps: just say no!

 

 

I tried everything: pliers, wd40, plusgas, molegrips, losing my temper, and none had any effect. I was wary of damaging the valve so I swapped the spare over and popped down to the local friendly tyre place where they replaced the valve for me FOC, since I was getting a pair of tyres for the other car. He said to bring the other one in and they'd do that one too, as it was a 5 minute job for them as long as the wheel was off the car. Which was nice. 

Things I've learned: 

1. Stick to plastic valve caps, you fucking idiot. 

2. The car is rejecting any attempt to care about how it looks, so I shall try to be less bothered about it.

[inconsistant]

March 2016, and the 924 Ace Cafe meet. Car made it with no problems, to a good turn out of 924s on a fairly overcast day with the threat of an odd shower. Car looks nice from a distance,

I really liked the dark green one with the tartan interior and black wheels. Would swap for mine without a moments thought.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[inconsistant]

Still March 2016, I was invited to an event the following weekend run by TIPEC, The Independent Porsche Enthusiasts Club (as opposed to Porsche Club GB, the official, affiliated to Porsche, and explicitly 911 worshiping/924 hating club).

An open morning at Porsche OPC (‘Official Porsche Centre’ or ‘Dealer’) near Burgess Hill, where there was an interesting selection of Porsches old and new (including some new 2 litre 4 cylinder ones). The owner of the white 911 rally car was talking about it's history and restoration

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I chatted to quite a few folk there and they're all very interested in the 924. The main cheeky reason for going was that they were offering free inspections of older cars by their technicians on their ramps, but I think I was too busy drinking free coffee and eating free croissants as I missed my slot.

 

 

[inconsistant]

Moar March 2016 A week or so after that we went to Knole Park in Sevenoaks for a brisk spring walk. I half jokingly suggested that we go in the white car, and Mrs B surprised me by saying yes.

 

The conversation went something like:

Mrs Inconsistant: "It's sorted now isn't it, so it's not like it's going to break down or leave us stranded or anything is it?" 

Me: "Yes, it's fine, if I didn't think it would get us there and back I wouldn't suggest taking it".

Young Inconsistant: "It going to break down again isn't it Daddy?"

Me: "No. Thanks for the vote of confidence though son. I'm sure it's fine now."

 

It felt like a milestone had been reached after doing the head gasket last year and sorting the starting woes, as it sounded like Mrs Inconsistant had gained a bit of trust in the car again.

 

 

 

It turned out I was half right about the car's abilities, because it got us there OK. Getting us home was a bit more tricky. It started OK after the walk, then we went to the Whateverspoons in Sevenoaks for a coffee and cake. When we can out 45min later and I jumped in it turned over quite quickly, but didn't fire up. After 3 or 4 goes I did the usual amateur mechanic thing of opening the bonnet and giving stuff a wiggle as it I knew what the problem was, but still no joy. I though it might be a hot start problem and I remembered the Drive It Day two years ago around East Kent and the hot start bodge that we did to one of the 924s each time we wanted to drive off. We also did it when trying to get my car running before Brooklands last year, but to no avail. I had a bit of wire in the boot so Mrs Inconsistant turned it over while I poked it onto one of these wires and to the bodywork to earth the wire to the CSV. No idea really what I was doing but the jolt got it running fortunately.

 

 

It worked, so we headed home, and felt like a bit of a hero. Which was odd because Mrs Inconsistant was unimpressed overall. So I think I've sorted my cold start problem, and now I've got a hot start problem. Hurrah for old cars.

 

 

While I was having a look around back at home afterwards I noticed some lose wires. Fortunately we were home before dark and I didn't have to find out the hard way that the headlights wouldn't pop up. Wires re-attached, and headlights pop up again.

 

[inconsistant]

April 2016 

Last year I made a complete dogs bum of re-painting my cam belt cover, the hammerite went on really badly and I wasn't happy with it. I got hold of another cam belt cover and had another go. I've got access to a sandblaster and spray booth at work, so I did it over a couple of evenings.

 

Cleaned and degreased:

 

 

Sandblasted back to bare german 80s metal:

 

 

 

Hanging in spray booth ready:

 

 

Acid etch primer:

 

 

 

Couple of top coats of black satin:

 

 

 

Before and after fitting shots. 

 

 

 

 

I think the cam belt cover makes a big difference to how tidy the engine bay looks. It just needs a random number stencilled onto it in white now as they seem to have these from new an no one has yet been able to decipher them. I couldn't decide on a number so I've left it for the time being.

[inconsistant]

Still April 2016

The next small tidying up job was to replace my damaged clip on alternator cooling duct with a nice solid one. These are NLA and are hard to come by so can be pricey. I got one for £10 a couple of years ago and squirrelled it away until now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Small, easy significant win. Lovely stuff. I'm hoping, over time that lots and lots of small jobs like this all reverse the shabbiness of the car and help it look like a nice cared for example. It's fairly low mileage at 90,000 miles and with that lovely interior I think it's work putting the effort in. Ideally I'd like everything I do to the car not just fix it but make it better than it was. Slowly, gradually and eventually, obviously. Especially because it lives outside and is used all year around.

[spike60]

I had a bit battered but rustless 1980 924 for a while, sold in 2014 because I couldn't justify the work and money involved in the ( very heavy) clutch change. The way prices have changed since it would be worth doing the clutch and sorting its other 924 niggles now but not then, the only clutch kit available then was a Sachs at £630 and book time was about 7 hours IIRC. The car sold for that with a long test. I now have a 1989 2.7 944 with most of the 924 niggles plus a shit load of new ones, 944s rust much better in my experience. 

Good luck with yours.

 

 

 

 

[inconsistant]

Still April 2016

Another quick tidy up job... I bought a new rubber surround for the boot lock about 18 months ago, but for some reason I thought at the time that I had to remove the lock to fit it, so I left it for when I had to re-adjust the hatch pins and lock and would have to take it apart. While washing the car a big chunk of the old perished one fell out and it suddenly became obvious that it was just a push fit, so I removed the remaining bits of the old one and pushed the new one in.

 

Another small but significant win. Excellent!

 

 

 

In preparation for 92forty I gave the areas of missing paint on the badge panel a quick wipe over with abrasive paper and then brushed on a couple of coats of Kurust, because that's what I had in the shed.

 

 

[inconsistant]

I need to do some touching up on the paint, but can see that spraying a car, especially blending the repair into existing paintwork is a completely different from spraying an object like the cam belt cover I did. My car's had a terrible budget respray job at some point, but that's actually worked out OK as it means I'm not so precious about making a mess of it and there's less pressure to make any repairs perfect.

 

When I got the car I jet washed it and the sill stickers and rear =p o r s c h e= decal under the rear lights flaked off taking some of the paint underneath with them, leaving bare metal. Two years ago I sprayed a bit of white primer over the patches just to cover the metal and to make the car look a bit better for the 2014owners club national meet. I decided to have a little tidy up before 92forty and got some L90E Alpine White mixed up.

 

First the rear corner, gave it a bit of prep, a bit of white primer and then some top coat.

 

 

 

And that's about the peak of my achievement as it all goes downhill from there. Just to reiterate, my aim with this was to make my car look white in any photos it might appear in at 92forty. 'Good from afar, far from good' sort of thing.

Drivers sill next. Here's what it looked like before:

 

 

White, but not quite right white.

 

 

That's better, at least it's the right white. Unfortunately when I pulled the newspaper off the masking tape pulled some paint off of the drivers door. Doh!.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So disheartened I sanded it back to metal and slapped some touch up paint over it from a bottle with a brush inside the lid.

As a temporary touch up the brush and bottle worked OK. White is quite forgiving, especially if you squint. I decided that I'd use the touch up bottle for the headlights and badge panel.All those dark dots on the headlight covers are where the paint has come off, so you can see what I'm up working with.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It looks like a cat had walked through a tippex spillage and then wandered across my car, but at least it was the right colour. I've got some rust on the bottom front of my drivers wing, which I slapped a bit of white over to make it look less bad while I sort out getting it repaired or replacing the wing with another one.

 

 

Overall a good day of bodging and making do. As it got dark I stood back and admired my handiwork:

 

 

Next day I gave it a clean and polish and overall it looked OK and ready for the fast approaching 92forty.

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, when I'm driving it I don't get to see the rubbish paint job, I get to enjoy this view:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As everyone knows, pascha the interior for winners. 

It's the best interior out of all the interiors available for the Porsche 924, especially with matching pascha doors. And that's not just opinion, that's fact. OK, I accept that an early tartan interior comes a close second, and some of the tweed ones are nice, but pascha is where its at. Especially in brown.

[loserone]

This is amazing.  

 

What's more amazing is that Mrs_L1 likes them too, so with any luck I'll have one in the garage stacked up with the 405 in Scary's yard in no time

[barrett]

Great to see his thread back in action. I can't remember if I ever commented here before, but this is one of the best things on AS I reckon. It's more entertaining, better written and more interesting than 90% of shite in old car magazines I reckon, and has fully converted me to 924s. Great stuff.

[brownnova]

I've promised myself another one tho... By the end of 2016 I'm hoping!!

Damn. It's nearly 2018 and I haven't fulfilled this....

[inconsistant]

May 2016

So it’s May already and only a few weeks to go until 92forty so I called the mechanic to get the issues sorted before the big day, but he was on hols and by the time I managed to book the car in to get the poor running and poor starting looked at he was booked up and couldn't do anything until the week AFTER 92forty. Bugger. Oh well, sure everything will be ok... 

 

The big weekend: 92forty

Friday, and it was my birthday, and a lovely hot day. Maybe a bit too hot. I had the day off work and after meeting 2 other 924 owners at the A3 for a convoy up to Silverstone we turned onto the M25 to be greeted with the gift of four lanes of crawling stop start Friday rush hour traffic, and it was only 3pm. The next bit of the journey turned out to be a strong contender for the least pleasant hour and a half of driving in my life. 

M25 J10 to J16, I reckon about 20 miles, took an hour and a half and was 90 mins of crawling stop start traffic. Definitely not the ideal environment for a 31 year old car. It was really hot: both windows and the sunroof open sort of hot. My car had a suspected hot start problem that had caught me out a month or so earlier and because of the poor running (fine when the traffic is moving, lumpy when idling!) and the hot weather it felt like it was try to stall every time I slowed to a stop and took it out of gear. I had to blip the revs for fear of it stalling. I was scared of stalling because I feared it wouldn't start again because of the hot start problem. I stayed in the slow lane just to be on the safe side, it's reassuring to have the hard shoulder close by just in case.

 

As we crawled on the oil light started to lightly flicker as I came to a halt, the revs dipped as it found idle speed and over the 90 mins the flicker gradually turned into coming on for a couple of seconds as I came to a stand still. The temperature gauge started to creep up to half way and beyond. With the windows down and lots of outside traffic noise l couldn't hear if the fan was kicking in. I didn't want the car to stall and I certainly didn't want the car to overheat. I was stressed and I was sweaty. 

The car eventually did stall a couple of times but re started immediately. But I couldn't hear that it had started because of all the traffic noise around me. I was really sweating from the stress and the heat. I was using that old car driver's hypersensitivity to noises but I couldn't hear if the car was actually stalling because of the outside noise. The temp gauge was still on the wrong side of 12 o clock so I put the blower on hot and fan on full to bring the temperature down. I was sweating even more. I did the opposite of what I wanted to do and put the windows up so I could hear the engine better. It was even hotter. I was even sweatier and the clutch was getting heavier with each stop and I wished I was in any other car but this one.

 

We crawled in the slow lane of 4 lanes of solid traffic. To avoid stop/starting too much I crawled in first and left as much space as I could in front in the hope I could just coast in 1st gear. Other newer cars just filled the gap and I had to stop quickly. At the point where the M4 peeled off to the left I found myself in the middle lane of 7 lanes of traffic with no hard shoulder to, er, lean on. Where there was previously a hard shoulder there was now 3 lanes of drivers doing 70+ as they escaped the gridlock and headed towards the M4. The 3 lanes on my right were at a standstill like us. Windows up, sunroof shut, heater on, temperature up, the car stalled and wouldn't restart. My worst nightmare had happened. I felt like I've not felt in a long time. The last hour had been leading up to this and I'd done all I could to avoid it, but it still happened anyway. 

Thanks for nothing car, I hate you and what you're putting me through. Hazards went on to let the other two know that things weren't as rosey as I'd have liked them to be. Then on about the 6th or 7th go and with the starter motor slowing at each attempt... it started. From then to the M40 I kept it at 1500 revs regardless of whether we were moving or not through the rest of the stop start and used the handbrake to slow down. The heater on full power kept the engine temperature OK and the traffic gradually started to crawl a bit faster and I even got into second gear a couple of times.

The speeds slowly picked up once past the M4 and as we turned onto the (free moving) M40 I've never, ever, been so pleased to see a bit of open road. Windows came down again, temp gauge dropped to a steady quarter and mph went up to the naughty side of 80 and stayed there as we made progress in convoy up the M40 to our turn off.

 

 

We found the Silverstone Porsche Experience centre, saw something exciting being reversed off a trailer behind an old Saab, met a couple of chums and found our hotel. By the time we got to the pub just down the road my t shirt had dried out and I'd stopped shaking. The moment that first birthday beer hit my lips the weekend changed for the better. And not just better but absolutely awesome. From the worst journey ever to the best car related weekend ever. We had a hint of what to come when we got back to the hotel and saw that the car park was over run with 924s.

 

 

The 924 Owners Club is very good at punching above its weight and pulling off brilliant events.It was a bit of a coup getting Porsche GB to host it, after many years kind of ignoring the 924 bit of it’s model history they have realised that the front engined bit of their history had a growing interest around it, and along with the 40th anniversary of the 924 the 928 is forty soon, so they’ve started embraced the ‘transverse engine’ bit of their past in a big way and 92forty was the first event to recognise it. 

 

 

 

I was staggered at the number and variety of cars that came. I took photos of all the 924s there (just over 100), I drank as much complimentary Porsche coffee as my system would handle and ate as many complimentary Porsche Croissants as I could hold politely before I took my car out on an early slot for a few laps of the Porsche Experience Centre handling track which was very probably the highlight of the day especially at a bargain price of £15. I was fairly certain I was the fastest around the track by miles, setting an early lap record that wouldn't be beaten all day. In my head. It did feel fast though and everyone else I watched from the viewing platform on the roof definitely looked so slow so it might be true

 

 

It was great to be able to really push the car around corners in a way that I wouldn't dare to on public roads for fear of being thought an anchor. I was really impressed how controllable it is at the limit, even with my duff rear shocks, my worn anti roll bar rubbers and my flat spot at 2000 rpm which made balancing the car with the accelerator a bit tricky. I must be some sort of awesome driving god to have overcome all of that lot.

 

 

 

 

 

The highlight of the day for me though was the backwards 924 that was brought over from Holland (towed by that Saab) by Oskar de Kiefte. I'd seen it on the web and thought it was interesting.

 

 

 

 

To see it in the flesh and to be able to chat with the artist/designer/engineer and his partner about the project was a real treat. Unfortunately, as you can hear in the vid, it wasn't running properly which was a shame because it was brilliant. Genius even. But flawed genius which is the best sort of genius. It's not often that you can chat to other car people about Buckminster Fuller and the Dymaxion car and get excited conversation rather than blank looks. I then had a good look around all the assembled 924s that came and the undoubted highlight of the day was spotting the lovely tartan interior in this nice early blue one:

 

 

 

I’d read with interest about the Shonky Rocket on RetroRides and followed what Steve had done with the car to keep it alive. Seeing that the Shonky Rocket had made it to 92forty was definitely the highlight of the day for me. I was full of admiration for the trials of the car against all odds and it was good to meet owner Steve and have a chat on the roof while a pack of angry E Type Jags were doing laps of Silverstone behind us.

 

 

At the other end of the automotive scale there was the awesome and incredibly rare (17 road going examples built I think) 924GTR, which was strangely alluring for such an ugly brute of a vehicle, and the clear highlight of the day for me. This was a road going version of the 924s that raced at LeMans in 1980 and has an incredible 375bhp all from a 2 litre VW van engine, positioned at the wrong end and cooled by the wrong stuff, apparently. It felt a bit like meeting a sexy expensively dressed celebrity… intriguing but ultimately a bit disconnected from the rest of us. And I wouldn't mind a go.

 

 

 

 

 

And the 924 Martini restoration in progress was really interesting, it was good to talk to the chaps who were doing it about what they were doing, and good to see a 924 stripped down to the shell, making it a bit easier to see what was, or what should be, behind the trim and stuff I could see on mine. It was like seeing x ray pix of your car. Great for trying to understand how it might come apart when needed.

 

 

 

 

There were some other fine Porsches gathered, a pair of 924GTSs, an, er, 550 I think it is, and a load of 924s outside, of which mine was clearly the bestest. I headed home later in the evening and the car was spot on, the journey was a relaxing and drama free 2 hours with no traffic at all. Hard to believe it was the same roads as yesterday. 

 

 

 

[Felly Magic]

Looks like you have had a real rollercoaster of emotions, the Silverstone bash looked totes amazeballs, and I bet you could hardly stop grinning there. Top thread, and keep us all in the loop, and re most 911 owners that look down on the 924, the 924 has better weight distribution thus on the twisties, very possibly handles better

[stuboy]

good pics