Porsche 964 1990 C4 rebuild

Started by 80 Vert, May 20, 2018, 09:25:08 PM

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80 Vert

When I originally purchased the car I bought a bunch of seals and gaskets to tackle the plethora of oil leaks from the engine and gearbox which I never ended up doing. As a result I ended up with a bunch of double ups of quite a few things.
The upside of this is that I already had output flange seals and a side cover seal to be able to put the front differential together.
Glass bead blasted the output flanges and painted those, just need the input shaft seal to be able to mate it back up to the torque tube.

Disassembled and cleaned the torque tube, cleaned all of the dried out old grease from the shift mechanism and then promptly forgot how it goes back together! Back on Porsche PET to find an exploded view.
As much as possible reassembled and cleaned the boots but I need to order 2 ball socket bushes for the front shift rod to finish this off.


Typically with old cars the best way to restore is to take everything apart, throw a lot of it away and replace with new. Porsche is no different, although great quality when new they are still 30 plus years old and just plain worn out.
I'm at that stage where I don't want to leave any stone unturned hence I'm taking everything apart, inspect, clean and replace as needed.
Assembly time of some components can begin, rear arms vapour blasted, new wheel bearings in, hubs glass beaded and painted.




2019 Jetta GLI (USA)
2003 Jetta Coupe soon to be R36TT
1991 Golf GTI 2.0 TSI swapped
1963 Type 34 Karmann Ghia, turbo 2.0
1990 Porsche 964 911 Carrera 4
1980 1303 Beetle vert, under restoration

80 Vert

Double update today just because, this part has been in the making for the last 18-20 months and just is so damn close now.
My painter is painting the body this coming week!!!!
They did the final 800 grit stage and are happy with where it's at, originally we talked about painting the entire thing in one go and then re block the outer panels and flow coat it. This means a smooth as glass, no cutting, no polishing mean as finish off the gun but then Greig rang me last week and told me they would break it down in to more manageable chunks.
Getting around the entire thing while trying to avoid dry spray he felt was too difficult, if not impossible so now they will paint the under body, trunk, engine bay etc, back mask that and then paint the exterior. Bake it a few times and leave it to settle for 2-3 weeks, Then re block the exterior and mask it up to re paint the outside with a couple thinner coats of paint.
A lot of work but the finish is exceptional, hope to have the body back in the next 3 weeks or so all going well. The doors and other parts will follow over the coming months.

2019 Jetta GLI (USA)
2003 Jetta Coupe soon to be R36TT
1991 Golf GTI 2.0 TSI swapped
1963 Type 34 Karmann Ghia, turbo 2.0
1990 Porsche 964 911 Carrera 4
1980 1303 Beetle vert, under restoration

RS ZWEI

I love the paint stage. Its coming along great John.
1980 VW Golf GTI Track Car
1995 Audi RS2
2006 Skoda Octavia vRS Combi (manual)
2013 Renault Megane RS265 Redbull RB8
2014 Skoda Octavia vRS Combi (manual)

80 Vert

Thanks Nik, yep it's finally happening. It's been far too long.
2019 Jetta GLI (USA)
2003 Jetta Coupe soon to be R36TT
1991 Golf GTI 2.0 TSI swapped
1963 Type 34 Karmann Ghia, turbo 2.0
1990 Porsche 964 911 Carrera 4
1980 1303 Beetle vert, under restoration

80 Vert

With the body still away at the paint shop (1st stage painted now but not revealing....yet  >:D)  I'm tackling random jobs to keep the process going. The more I can get rebuilt and ready the better off I'll be once the body comes back.
Such is the case with the dreaded suitcase, decided to completely pull it apart since I had a new evaporator to go in, leaking or not it was going to be changed as I'm not planning on doing this job again as its fuel tank out to get at it. I was just thinking what a pain these are to get at but I'ts really no different to a conventional car having to pull the dash out to get at it.

Pretty quickly I could see the foam on the main flap and side flaps was toast. Removed all of the clips, both fan motors, all of the wire harness and the servos. My servos seemed to work the last time the car was together but they will be tested before it all goes back together. I am thinking of pulling each one apart though and at least cleaning the contacts due to them being a known problem part.
With everything out of the box I was quite surprised at the level of filth in the box, 30+ years will do that. It will need a thorough cleaning before any repair can begin.


Absolutely everything removed from the box I treated it to a chemical cleaning and pressure wash. Had to scrub a few places pretty well to get it clean. Did both top and bottom parts of the box and set those aside to dry for a while.
Once semi dry I had a go at getting the remnants of the broken screws out, 3 very rusty screw heads broke off when trying to get the box apart. One could probably just leave them as there's just so many clips holding the thing together.
Tried quite a few tools but there's barely anything left to grab hold of.
In the end I heated the plastic with a propane torch to soften it and then grabbed the rusty screw with a sharp pair of cutters freeing the screws at last.



The evaporator looks really dirty but does not appear to be leaking. I'm not taking that chance so a new one's going in. They quite commonly leak and even if tested ok who knows in a few years I'll possibly be doing all of this again so no thanks. Replace it while I'm here.

Main flap and side flaps need new foam. For many years now I've used headliner material which is foam backed with a woven layer and that has worked very well for me over the years, plus I have loads of offcuts from doing my own headliners in Golf's and others.
Then it's just a matter of cleaning the old foam off and gluing new stuff on with contact glue.
The side flaps I drilled apart, new foam pieces cut to size and riveted back together again.
While I was there I also took the right angle drive gearbox for the main flap apart, cleaned it and reassemble with new grease.



Para rubber had replacement foam rod to seal the box halves together as well as self adhesive EVA foam extrusion to make a couple needed gaskets with.
Almost ready to put this thing back together, a full days work to disassemble, clean, replace and put back together.

Now the rest of the box could go back together the way it came apart, blew out each fan motor with compressed air (lot of dust came out)
New A/C o'rings on the TX valve, reassembled the wire harness and servos completing this overhaul for now. The entire car will get new o rings everywhere along with a new drier and compressor.
My compressor actually sounds really healthy just spinning it by hand but decided early on a new one is the way to go, I want the A/C to work and amazingly a brand new compressor was only 400 bucks delivered form Rock Auto.

   


2019 Jetta GLI (USA)
2003 Jetta Coupe soon to be R36TT
1991 Golf GTI 2.0 TSI swapped
1963 Type 34 Karmann Ghia, turbo 2.0
1990 Porsche 964 911 Carrera 4
1980 1303 Beetle vert, under restoration

80 Vert

#125
Did a job for a friend machining some new adapters to repair his Boss 302 wheels that someone had machined the center bore out of taking with it the piece that the cap clips in to. That at the same time yielded just enough material to make the power steering block off plate for my engine. The pump is driven from the RH camshaft and since my new cams do not have a provision for that drive I can block that off.
Bit of lathe and mill time later we have this, could have just bought one but I'd rather make things where possible.

I did then spend an obscene amount of time making a really nice filler piece for the engine tinware which once finished and fitted I realized was 100% completely wrong. I hadn't taken in to account my valve covers and coil pack so start again I'm afraid.
Don't have my billet valve covers yet so this will need to wait a while.

Being that the body isn't far away I really need to get A in to G and start looking at the wheels it will need to sit on, back many moons ago I made the rear wheels from some 16x6 genuine Fuchs turning those in to 17x10.5 using BBS RS barrels, lips and hardware but I never made the fronts.
I had planned 17x9 for the front and these "should" fit from my measurements I made back then so we'll see. The rears fit as you saw at the beginning of this thread.
Lathe already warmed up from machining other bits I started cutting, first the rims were cut off a pair of 16x6 leaving just the center hub. The factory wheels are forged so are incredibly strong and ideal for converting to 3 piece.
Early on when starting the rears I did consult Lance at Arrow wheels and he confirmed what I suspected, will be no problem doing what I was thinking.


Then its a matter of machining the diameter down so that the old valve stem hole goes away and starting on the flanges where the lip and barrel will locate, once these are done I'm using 32 BBS RS bolts to bolt each wheel together.
While my lathe is big it isn't really big enough to handle anything more than 16" rims which is lucky because once the rims are cut off I'm only working with the centers and the lips are just being put on to check the fit of the flange. All working out so far.

2019 Jetta GLI (USA)
2003 Jetta Coupe soon to be R36TT
1991 Golf GTI 2.0 TSI swapped
1963 Type 34 Karmann Ghia, turbo 2.0
1990 Porsche 964 911 Carrera 4
1980 1303 Beetle vert, under restoration

McDoof

Thinking outside of the box a bit. Nice work.
NZ New MK5 GTI - Tuned by HSP Tuning
NZ New B6 Passat Variant 125kw TDI 4motion
MK7 GTI - Tornado Red

80 Vert

Cheers, still along way to go but like the direction it is going.
Back on the wheels, having machined the outer flange its on to the inner where it needs to locate in the barrel.
Annoyingly this measurement is slightly different by 1.5mm but by the time I reconfigure the lathe with a different cutting tool all my prior settings are lost.
Problem with that is I don't have a large enough measuring device to measure accurately and I cannot test fit the barrel while the center is in the machine. You don't really want to be removing the center for test fitting purposes as getting it all to run true again can be a headache, in essence the whole thing needs to be cut in one go and then removed.
In the end I used a large set of calipers set to the size I need and cuts in 0.2mm increments checking the size as I went with the calipers.

Fairly certain I'm good to go, zeroed the lathe and took the center out, couldn't resist a quick test fit. Then there were 3 wheels!!!
Man these things are going to look ace in RSR finish. Really loving how they are coming together.

Last one cut completing the set, test fitted that one as well and looks all good to me.
Final thing left is to drill the 34 holes for the BBS bolts that will hold them together.
For this I used the outer lip, carefully marking and drilling 2 holes so that I can then bolt the lip firmly on allowing the rest of the holes to be drilled.
Still have to paint strip these two centers before I can start looking at anodizing them, seems the best solution is to vapour blast then clear anodize to achieve the desired results.


Final sizes they worked out to are 17x10.5 rear and 17x9 front. Not entirely sure I'll squeeze a 9 in the front but if it doesn't fit it will just be a matter of finding a pair of slightly narrower barrels.








2019 Jetta GLI (USA)
2003 Jetta Coupe soon to be R36TT
1991 Golf GTI 2.0 TSI swapped
1963 Type 34 Karmann Ghia, turbo 2.0
1990 Porsche 964 911 Carrera 4
1980 1303 Beetle vert, under restoration

le mans


80 Vert

Thanks Jon, I'm really happy with them so far.
2019 Jetta GLI (USA)
2003 Jetta Coupe soon to be R36TT
1991 Golf GTI 2.0 TSI swapped
1963 Type 34 Karmann Ghia, turbo 2.0
1990 Porsche 964 911 Carrera 4
1980 1303 Beetle vert, under restoration

the phantom

are you going to leave them all alloy colour, or paint the areas around the wheel nuts?
Land Transport New Zealand, taking the fun out of driving since August 2008

80 Vert

They will be similar to this, all detailed. RSR finish is a matt frosted look, looking in to anodizing next.
2019 Jetta GLI (USA)
2003 Jetta Coupe soon to be R36TT
1991 Golf GTI 2.0 TSI swapped
1963 Type 34 Karmann Ghia, turbo 2.0
1990 Porsche 964 911 Carrera 4
1980 1303 Beetle vert, under restoration

the phantom

Quote from: 80 Vert on July 18, 2022, 01:40:45 PM
They will be similar to this, all detailed. RSR finish is a matt frosted look, looking in to anodizing next.


very nice
Land Transport New Zealand, taking the fun out of driving since August 2008

80 Vert

#133
Back on the engine for as long as it lasts, need to completely revise what I did here before. Had a feeling the muffler sat too high when I originally did this so some weeks ago I took some measurements off a friends car to get an idea where the bumper sits in relation to the muffler can.
Unfortunately I was right and cannot afford to wait making the exhaust until the engine is back in the car so onwards we go.
Not such an issue since I have to make new headers anyway, going 3.8L, cams, GT3 intake and MoTec were never part of the plan but sort of crept in as it often does.
Anyway, to make new headers the muffler needs a home. Got the rear tin and engine support back from powder coat so those were installed first.
My rear muffler is 997 GT3 and seems like it hasn't done much work but was fairly dirty so I had this great idea to polish it haha (roll eyes)
Many hours later we went from this:

To this:

Cut off the mountings I made years ago to start again, made some new ones so that I could place the muffler and get some measurements in relation to where the bumper will sit. Fairly certain that it is sitting correctly this time I made the rest of the mountings to bolt the bracket in place.
Ended up going with stainless tube flattened on the end to have something sturdy that still looks ok. Need to finish grinding it up but this will do for now.


Factory straps hold it all in place nicely, headers next.
Unfortunately it doesn't look like I can re use the factory heat shields on the engine as these come down too low but since I have a good set and a broken set I'm thinking of cutting reliefs to clear the pipes in my bad set. Not sure how critical it would be to retain these or not but it seems like many delete them.
The pipes in to the muffler with the vacuum gate valves I can re use, everything else has to be made from scratch.
Bought some nice head flanges and a bunch of 90, 45 and 180 degree stainless bends to start the project with but I'm also still waiting on valve covers to come in so have decided to park this again until I can fully close up the engine first.

Update on paint, body is awaiting flow coating, doors, bonnet and rear lid are painted first round. All plastic parts like mirrors, front bumper, side skirts are primed. Rear bumper will wait till the engine is in and I'm able to modify that for the center exit tail pipes.
2019 Jetta GLI (USA)
2003 Jetta Coupe soon to be R36TT
1991 Golf GTI 2.0 TSI swapped
1963 Type 34 Karmann Ghia, turbo 2.0
1990 Porsche 964 911 Carrera 4
1980 1303 Beetle vert, under restoration

80 Vert

#134
Yet another change of attack, seats this week.
The car is getting a pair of carbon buckets custom upholstered in leather with white French seam and black suede inserts.
That was all fine and dandy till I decided that I wanted to change the inserts to MK7 Golf GTD tartan, brought the material back with me from England way back in 2018-2019 and has been sitting around ever since.
With any upholstery I'm not confident to try I give it to Ian Goodwin car upholstery whom I've been using for 20 years or more and he's always managed to do what I'm after which isn't always easy.
At some point I also decided I wanted an embossed Porsche crest in the headrest so I had an embossing tool made, talk about adding complication.
Tool duly arrived and since I don't have a heat press another way had to be found. Did a bunch of trial and error on scrap bits of leather, cold pressing, wet leather cold press, heating the stamp with a torch etc.
Nothing really worked fabulously until I glued a piece of leather on the back, heated the tool to 80deg c and pressed it. That was the result I was after.

Messing around with scrap leather is one thing but on the seat cover I have one shot, that's it. If it gets messed up the entire panel has to be un picked and replaced. To say I'm nervous about doing it is putting it mildly.
Started off measuring to find the middle of the head rest but of course with anything hand made its more a case of putting it where it looks right rather than relying on measurements alone.
Fairly happy with where it was I used masking tape to mark the place where the stamp needs to go once heated.

Well, unfortunately my one attempt turned in to a disaster, uneven press, not deep enough etc. Basically the worst case scenario.
Lots of oh sh.. oh sh.. and furious pacing around in a mild panic as to how I'm going to fix this mess.
Started to look at how the panel could be replaced but soon realized that pretty much the entire cover would need to be taken apart to repair / replace that one piece.
It's done now and no good so no matter what I do it can't really get much worse. Carefully taking my time lined up the stamp again in the same place and re pressed it, still not really what I was after but it improved it.
Put the cover back on thinking I'd leave it at that but no, I can't accept it.

More thinking and pacing around, the cover came off again and I think I know why it came out how it did. The leather cover has scrim foam sewn on the back of it taking up a lot of the compression. I decided to remove the foam (to be glued back later) then try again.
This time in the vise, piece of steel either side and clamped that for a good few hours. Thankfully the center marks I'd made making it fairly easy to line up the stamp again.
That seems to have done the trick for now but we'll see how it fairs over time, I certainly won't be doing the other seat before I'm confident this is the way to go.
Tartan inserts in this does look the way I'd envisaged it to be but was it worth the stress....

2019 Jetta GLI (USA)
2003 Jetta Coupe soon to be R36TT
1991 Golf GTI 2.0 TSI swapped
1963 Type 34 Karmann Ghia, turbo 2.0
1990 Porsche 964 911 Carrera 4
1980 1303 Beetle vert, under restoration

dubstar

That looks great.  Even on super close-up of the photo.  I like the understated tartan too.
"I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying."

80 Vert

Thanks, yeah I looked at all the different tartan cloth out there and bought MK6 and MK7 GTD with me but the MK7 stuff was the best choice being white / silver / grey to tie in with the white stitching.
2019 Jetta GLI (USA)
2003 Jetta Coupe soon to be R36TT
1991 Golf GTI 2.0 TSI swapped
1963 Type 34 Karmann Ghia, turbo 2.0
1990 Porsche 964 911 Carrera 4
1980 1303 Beetle vert, under restoration

schattenblau

Great work.

What brand/model seats are those ?

80 Vert

Not much has happened in the past couple of weeks, no clear plan come Saturdays meant time wasting instead of working. Been crook as well and the body still isn't back.
Plus I've been naughty and purchased another project which has taken a lot of effort to find a solution to ship it here from overseas.
All the components are painted now, just waiting for the shell to be flow coated.
2019 Jetta GLI (USA)
2003 Jetta Coupe soon to be R36TT
1991 Golf GTI 2.0 TSI swapped
1963 Type 34 Karmann Ghia, turbo 2.0
1990 Porsche 964 911 Carrera 4
1980 1303 Beetle vert, under restoration

le mans

Sorry to hear you?ve been unwell. Hope you?re back to full health soon. Exciting news about the new project - looking forward to catching up with that one.