993 restoration

[911hillclimber]

This is all too too woolly.
We want a project plan.
What are your intentions?
I will be very interested to see what you have in store for this car and after a year and a wifey influence too you must have a game plan?

Just what do you do to a 993?

[Ferry Man]

This is all too too woolly.
We want a project plan.
What are your intentions?

Quite right, we need a plan.

The plan is: paint it blue with a black interior.
And any good customiser - as you would know - needs an artists rendering to inform and motivate all the specialists involved.
So, I commissioned one of the nations foremost automotive illustrators to set the target for the transformation.
And here's the best I could do. But it's pretty close to what I want.

[sladey]

Great stuff - looking forward to this. Other than the colour will you be making any other modifications?

[Ferry Man]

OK, some specifics.
The car will not be an RS replica. The car will retain the delicate narrow body look (no wide arches).
There will be no rear spoiler/wings, no deep front bumper, no side skirts.
It will have a full interior, no stripped out racer for this car.
I will clean up and enhance the elegant styling of the car where I can (i.e. no headlamp washers, delete rear badging, delete rear wiper, etc).
I will fit new wheels.

[Ferry Man]

I wanted a bright colour. Speed Yellow is very nice on a 993. Guards Red should work but doesn't really seem to suit a 993.
Blue though looks great.
A factory blue for the 993 was 'Riviera'. Another blue offered was 'Turquoise Blue'.
I'd discounted the recent Miami Blue, which is nice but I considered a 'fashion' colour that hadn't yet proved itself with longevity.
So, here's a few sample colours I sprayed up:



From left to right: Riviera Blue, Mexico Blue & Turquoise Blue.

[jamie]

First 928 resto on DDK! Excited.

[Ferry Man]

First 928 resto on DDK! Excited.

Has he not gone yet?...

[Ferry Man]

The turquoise blue might look good in California but with our dreary skies it's far too dark.
Riviera Blue is wonderful but it does have a lot of white in it. It's quite pale.
Mexico Blue is a fantastic Porsche colour with history in abundance. It's a very popular PTS selection that works with all generations of Porsches.
I'm going with Mexico Blue.

[Ferry Man]

I'm going with Mexico Blue.

I wanted to get that in early to save loads of debate.

[Ferry Man]

So, I’d purchased a great car for a bargain price. It drove fantastically and I began to wonder about the sense of pulling it all apart for restoration.
We took the car to Wales for a long weekend and as we drove back home along the M4 the engine blew up. Just like that. BANG!

[sladey]

Don't believe it - you paid that RAC Lorry just to make the story more interesting

[Ferry Man]

Now, I had always planned to fully rebuild the engine so it shouldn’t have distressed me but - trust me - it hurt. I’d been vigilant on the dials, oil pressure, oil level, oil temperature, everything was fine. And then it let go. I dipped the clutch, coasted to the hard shoulder and called the RAC. Bless them, they believed my diagnosis “no trust me, it’s terminal” and sent a truck out. In fairness the recovery vehicle was there within 10 minutes and they dumped the dead car on my driveway without fuss.
But of course 993 engines don’t fail. They are bulletproof. Aren’t they?
And it happened on my watch. With me at the wheel. What had I done wrong? I was simply cruising down the motorway at a steady 70mph, engine under no load. Why such a catastrophe?
Lyn though couldn't understand why I was worried about a damaged engine, it was an engine that was about to come out for rebuilding anyway. But still...

[radioboy1]

Do love a resto story, keep going….

Story time

[Ferry Man]

So, the plan is:
I will strip the car.
Redtek will be tasked with rebuilding the engine & gearbox.
Early911 undertake the painting.
Finally I will put it back together.

But meanwhile I will need to track down a black interior.
And whilst I do that I can put any engine issues to the back of my mind...

[KS]

Out of interest, do you know what in the engine went bang?