[}{arlequin]

it's fun to brainstorm but there's also plenty of other people running rsr's. maybe just look around the mothership or racer's group to see what their solutions look like

[Jazzbass]

Update 26.June.2007:

Lots of progress made, which is why no updates recently. I've been in the garage working. Big post, because lots of stuff happened.

Last week I started the wiring re-do part of the project. With the gas tank out and moving the battery, I took the chance to clean up some of the wiring. In the process, I completely removed the factory alarm system, most of the HVAC system, and the fog lights. The nice thing about 911 wiring is how modular it is. For example, I thought originally I'd have to make a "bypass" for the factory alarm, as it supplies power to the DME relay. It turns out the alarm system has it own harness, and when you trace it back to the fuse box, you can remove it. The connectors that it unplags from plug into their "non-alarm" locations with no issues. Easy peazy lemon squeezy.

So, for all the systems I removed, I either removed and labels the entire harness, or, if I had to cut a branch off the main harness, I installed some of the connectors I had left from the TD rewire. In this way, I can put the car back to having the alarm, HVAC, etc, with almost no problem. Nice. As a part of this effort, I removed the fog light circuit (because the right is removed for air flow to the oil cooler and, well, I think fog lights are useless to begin with) and rewired the relay into my windshield wiper circuit. Now, I can turn off the wipers with a dash switch when I'm on track, which is nice because I tend to hit the wiper switch accidentally. And for you safety nazis, the entire relay-off circuit can be bypassed simply by putting the WW fuse (#7) back in the fuse box. The end result is a lot less BS behind the dash. Before and after:





OK, funny story time. In 2005 a bunch of Dorkis went to Mid Ohio. Great trip. One night after the DE several of us (}{, Pari, RL, Eli, Charlie, me) went for steaks and beer. One the way to the steakhouse, my car fills up with smoke. I freak the f**k out. Pull over into a gas station and start yelling for a fire extinguisher.



}{ gives RL his extinguisher, I start looking for the problem, everyone else stands around and cracks wise. I look. And look. And Look. Nothing. Nothing in the trunk, nothing. One of those Porsche mysteries, I guess. Next day the car is fine, and I never have a problem again. This week, working with the underdash wiring pulling out the HVAC stuff, I find this:



Yikes. Well, that's one more mystery solved. That wire goes to the ashtray light. It somehow shorted out and got really, really hot. BTW, it's one of those "not fused" circuits Porsche seems to like so much. WTF? Anyway, I just removed this circuit since its pointless. That made me think about the dash lighting circuit, which is much more expansive and also not fused. So, I bought an inline fuse holder and fuse the circuit where it comes out of the light switch.

Later last week Charlie came home from VT and after some welcome home drinking, we got to work. Hungover. Lots of fun. But we got shit done. The first thing we did was re-install the rear glass. In 2004 I took all the glass out to redo the headliner. After a day of getting pissed off trying to reinstall, I slapped the windsheild in and took the car to a glass place who "knew how to do old Porsches". They charged by the hour and figured it'd be a 4-5 hour job. I asked the to reinstall the windshield because I had a small gap on the inside (OCD, remember?). I came back at the end of the day and 8 hours of labor later I found: the rear quarters were in right. The windshield had been removed and reinstalled, now with a BIGGER gap, and part of the trim was now exposed. The rear window had been installed WITHOUT the trim and with the gasket UPSIDE DOWN (the defroster wires sticking out of the upper right instead of the lower left).

Anyway, I've since reinstalled the windshield correctly (took me 45 minutes). Charlie and I installed the rear window WITH trim. The process went smoothly and start to finish took 2 hours - that's total prep time with making sure the trim was straight, prepping the seal, installing and setting the seal correctly.



While the rear glass was installed wrong, there was some water leakage in the left rear seat area. I pulled the sound proofing to find some surface rust, but nothing too bad and nothing that can't be taken care of with a little POR-15. BTW, this car has been INSIDE for 2 months now, and the sound proofing was WET. So, if you have a leak, its sitting in the sound proofing right now, rusting your car away. Just an FYI. Also, if you've read about guys removing their sound proofing for weight savings and saying stuff like "holy crap! must have been 50lbs!", you probably thought the same thing I did: "BS! No chance it's 50lbs. These guys are being a little optimistic". Well, let me say - it's not BS. That shit is HEAVY. It's unreal how heavy it is, actually.



I'm going to keep the carpet out for a while to make sure there are no more leaks. Also, installation of the roll cage will need the interior out, so no biggie. BTW, all that orange stuff is glue, not rust.

That reminds me - looking for a large crimping tool I went to N&S Rentals - the local machine rental place that's also an Ace Hardware store. Turns out they stock POR products, and you can buy individual cans. Every 6 mos or so there's a post about where to buy them locally, so this is good info. N&S Rentals in Germantown MD.

So, wiring wise, I got all of the harnesses removed and blocked all the holes in the dash. There were 14 open holes from the trunk to the cabin by the time I was done. Half were from removed wiring, the other half from removed HVAC, mainly A/C. The big holes I used some thin AL sheet to cover, but most of the little ones got a couple of layers of foil tape. I love that stuff, even more than duct tape. The battery wiring is completely re-routed into the smuggler's box. I decided to do it the hard-but-better way and ran the fuse/ignition/DME wires through the drivers footwell to the smugglers box instead of just looping them in from the trunk. In doing so, I ran another 10ga line to the fuse box to support the high wattage headlights. Now, both the main battery run to the engine and the fuse block wiring enter the smuggler's box at the same point, where they run together to the kill switch:



As an aside, the highlight of my OCD day, however, was discovering that the spare 21mm body plug I ordered from Porsche (@ $0.37 each) fit the holes left from removing the fog light and defroster switches PERFECTLY. I got these plugs when I placed my fuel line order, mainly to plug the holes in the front wheel wells left by removing the pad wear sensors that Carreras have. I ordered some extras, just in case. The fit and look like a factory delete option. If you're OCD like me, you'll understand the simple joy I felt.

While I dicked around with wires, our own Dorki founder Charlie S stopped by to help and did a shitload of real work. In two days he adjusted the valves on the engine, cleaned intake ports and reinstalled the injectors, installed the heat backdate (which was a PITFA because of spark plug rerouting and duct fitment issues), installed rear monoballs into the trailing arms then installed the trailing arms, torsion bars and spring plates, set the ride height, and fabricated the following: new battery mount, kill switch mounting plate, and cover plate for the engine sheet metal for where the A/C bracket used to be. IOW, he was a tad more productive than I was. His work on the engine was particularly nice:



That's it for now. There's a bit left with the battery relocate, but now I move onto the brake system. Reinstall the master cylinder, finish making up my new brake lines, fab up the brake holder brackets, and so on. The goal is to have the car on wheels by next Monday. We'll see how far I get.

[hoophead]

Very nice work.

Can I buy your engine ?

You probably figured out the secret to installing the windshield and rear glass: run the twine/wire/whatever around the seal twice, so when there are 2-3" of seal that didn't pull over the lip, you get a second chance.

Also, you may want to check the seal at the upper corners of the windshield. This has been gone over before in another thread, but my understanding is that new windshields don't fill the upper corners as well, which leads to water leaks. Judicious application of black RTV inside the seal and body all along the upper edge and sides (put the tip of the applicator under the lip of the seal) will take care of it.

[Jazzbass]

Originally Posted by hoophead

Can I buy your engine ?

I'll trade you

[hoophead]

Originally Posted by Jazzbass

I'll trade you

Only if I get to pick the donor car

[TD in DC]

I can't believe you toyed with the idea of selling your car. It is too clean and too known to get rid of. Maybe you take it for granted now, but will be enamored anew now that you are doing all this stuff to it. I wish we could trade cars for a session or two, but I don't think you will be able to reach the pedals in mine

[}{arlequin]

zing!

[TD in DC]

Originally Posted by }{arlequin

zing!

I was actually being serious, I would love to let Chris drive my car if only the seat adjusted, regardless of whether he let me drive his. (Of course I would buy it if I broke it).

[BlackTalon]

Jazz -- Awesome project! The only thing I've seen that was more impressive was when TD completely rewired his 944 a couple months ago. Hopefully you consulted him for some pointers!

[}{arlequin]

there isn't a smiley that's good enough for that comment dd...