some improvements as they happen:
so far i'm still in the clean up stage, washed the exterior and have about half of the interior scrubbed down. Long process as it requires repeated scrubbing, treating, drying, then doing it all over again until all the mildew spots are gone , gone, gone!
Some parts are also more fragile than others and require care. if you look at page one or below, snake skin photo, you'll notice a thick coating of mold on the shift boot.. most people would just update to a leather boot I suppose, but I like the old rubber style boot, and can use the $40 for better things (like fuel!) Ive been soaking it in laundry detergent and cleaning it with a soft brush. It still needs a bit more attention, and some bike patches (applied to the inside of the boot) to seal up some tears, but its looking better, I think It'll survive!
This little guy caused me allot of grief, but I guess he paid for it in the end. He found some nuts that didn't agree with him...(not a staged picture, thats exactly how I found it...)
Hatch Carpet is beyond saving, luckily Ive a spare in a box someplace...
So much for state of the art audio, I don't think Ill be winning any prizes with this antique...
Interior after several rounds of scrubbing...not bad eh?
The steering wheel will go, I've got a nice three spoke to replace it..next up, wiring and electrics. Removing all the after market crap, alarm, etc. clean all the grounds, electrical connections, and pulling the dash to clean behind it, lots of fun!
starting extracting some un-needed wiring today. I had installed all sorts of toys in car years ago. 6 disk cd player, high end (at the time) Kenwood head unit, cb, scanner, radar, etc... all junk now. Some of it was hastily installed before road trips, some I did a better job on.
much cleaner now, but still allot more wiring to pull , too hot today!
And some good news, initial inspection of visible brake hardware and suspension is very positive, some of the bolts are still shiny even! On some other, prodigious use of pb blaster will be required.
Who hoo, parts are starting arrive! 
more good news, I finally got around to draining the fuel tank.. hardly any sign of fuel degradation, and I've gotten more debris out of running cars tanks than this one had.
The rear tank to pump fuel line wasn't looking very happy 
Dug out the engine protection plate, needs some clean up and straightening. Although these came a standard item, very few remain as most people disguarded them to make working on the car easier. they are valuable for engine protection though, as well as aerodynamics.
Also took care of more wiring issues, though I still need to trouble shoot the fuel pump and lighting circuits. She now also turns over fine, and has spark. just as soon as i get the fuel pump wiring straightened, shell run (for more than a few seconds anyhow :) )
07/15: started on the front end service, massive downpour cut it short. Im am happy I got it apart today at least, as I found a few more issues that will be easy to address. first, its just nasty with corrosion, nothing a bit of elbow grease cant fix though. 
I also found a bad water pump to thermostat housing hose, this is a pita to find, and impossible to fix without removing the pump, so the search will start today for a new molded hose. I also found allot of corrosion inside the pump and hoses, once its back together a good flush will be necessary, but thats not really a surprise. 
Oh, there was a wasps nest inside the alternator cooling duct! luckily it was dead... 
Clean parts, Ill repaint before I reinstall.
Did I mention I found a brand new water pump in the hatch when i cleaned it out? must've bought it when i found the leak way back when, just never got around to putting it in. looks like ill have to assign a value to it though... 
The second set of parts came in on the 321st july, new fuel pump relay, the two funny water pump hoses, and an intake manifold gasket (just in case!)details are on page 4.
07/22/08: completed front end service, spent allot of time cleaning and removing rust. 
I even re-furbed the t-belt tensioner, it was rusty, but the bearing was good so wire brushed the rust off, un-seized the mounting bolt with some blaster and a bit of persuasion, and repacked the bearing with synthetic grease. It took quite a while but this is a budget build, and that saved me thirty dollars or so.
there are still some parts in front with rust and corrosion, those will be attended too, overall its coming along nicely, slower than id hoped, time is hard to find, but its getting there..
07/29/2008: No pictures today, but I had a little time and pulled the metal rad hose bridge out to sand and paint it.
Then I decided the upper mounting bracket needed some clean up as well. Unfortunately it uses the same bolts as the upper thermostat housing, and one 10mm bolt snapped. took much longer than I expected to get the bolt remnants removed. What little piece was left snapped again and had to be drilled out and re tapped. All worked out well in the end and is re-assembled. Picked up 10 feet of assorted vac hose from Lowe's hardware, cost about $2.50 total...
08/03/08: Actually had a few hours today to work on Fish. cleaned up and painted a few more brackets, ran new vac hose, including some plumbing type hose (hey, it was under $2, if it melts, no biggie, if not, I saved $20 on factory stuff. If i was going for a complete restoration, Id invest more, Im going for quick and cheap (but not shoddy)so there you go. I also replaces the distributer cap, rotor, spark plugs, air cleaner and fuel filter. ran into a few snags: the fuel filter didn't fit. these have ends you have to unscrew from the filter, than onto the new filter, one end didn't fit, my solution? I dug out a slightly used 931 fuel filter from my box o parts hoping the end on that would work, still didn't fit the new filter so i just used the 931 filter instead, should be fine. The vac amplifier collector was shot, i trimmed off all the deteriorated rubber, and with a bit of rtv and some hard plastic lines, rigged it up to work.
Also found cracks in the windsheild fluid container, split along the mounting points. I filled it with silicone for now, temp fix until i can source a new unit... 
08-27-08: Been a rough month, between massive tropical storms, daily rain, and very intense work schedule, I've gotten very little done. Though I did finally find an alternator belt asnd get that in, as well as finish up the cooling system. I also found the ignition coil out of spec, cracked a terminalwhile attempting to clean up the electrical contacts, luckily i had a spare and put that in, but haven been able to test it yet, still no start. ill check the cd module next, and take it from there. pics soon...
10/01/2008: After quite a bit of "multimeter work" I finally tracked down the ignition problem, a cut wire! Today, after many, many years, Fish STARTED!!!!!! And she runs GOOD too! Unfortunately its too late for the GRM Challenge, as I've still got a long "todo" list before shes streetable or even remotely competitive, BUT I've crossed a big hurdle, I now know she will run, and well, and it made my day! more in a few days, I may not be competing at the GRM Challenge, but Im still going! (video will be up page 6!)
10/06/08: yesterday , The car moved under its own power for the first time in better than five years! I backed her off the trailer and into the driveway so i could start on the brakes and fine tune the engine.
While today, I was finally able to get under the car. The bad news is that the front calipers are seized, and there is a pin hole leak in one of the brake hardlines under the car. So im going to have to find calipers, probably rear backing plate and drums, and assorted hardware, and replace the brake harlines that run under the car. One brake line down, one to go..only one was leaky, but the other looked just as bad, I'm not going to take any chances, replacement is cheap insurance.
The good news is that after dialing in the timing , finishing up the cooling system, and cleaning a few more grounds, she purrs like a kitten, revs up to the 6k red line with no problem, and sounds strong! I also was able to adjust the clutch, and now the pedal is strong there as well. doesnt look like ill need to replace it, so thats very good news for me, but time will tell.
10/14/2008: Change of Direction! - Now going with the five lug late model conversion. I lucked into a cheap parts car, an 84-944 (see "frankenporsche" ) more info soon...
10/26/08: this weekend I was able to pull the strut assemblies from the 84-944 parts car, and install them on Fish..
Goodby old 4 lugs....
Hello Five Lugs and Bigger brakes/Rotors...
Now I have to do the rears... but ill need a few day for my back to recover...
11/02/2008: say goodbye to the rusty four lug rear hubs!
actually, though they looked horrible, they were in really good shape internally. and if you have a 924, you need the castilated nut removal tool pictured above, those nuts are torqued to 250 ft pounds, breaker bars will break, that tool is the key to success.
In with 944 rear hubs, kept the bilstein shocks, the sachs from the 944 donor car were shot, and Bilstein= Good!
11/11/2008:
pace has slowed a bit due to stripping the parts car, but I did finish up the e-brake raplacement, where i had to remove the main cable, and re-run a new one. In order to do this correctly, it requires removal of the drivers seat, which of course the bolts were rusted in. Had to drill them out, and will now have too fab up new seat mounting plates. In the end its a good thing, as the result will be safer, stronger seat mounting points.Im also not very happy with one of my seat belt mounting brackets, and will need to replace that seat belt.
I also started attacking the rust surrounding the windshield, after removing the trim. I seem to have caught a break here as its not nearly as bad as I had expected, only a bit of pitting and surface rust. The hardest part is removing the vinyl tape covering off the moldings, which I thought was a good idea back in 96 or so...I havent decided if ill properly paint them or leave them shiny aluminum with a bit of a patina.
And I Still have some cleanup work on the five bolt conversion, still need to re torque the left rear bolts, and the front suspension bolts, replace one ball joint on the right front, and adjust one tie rod end on the right front.
Also have one brake line to couple, ran out of parts , but the lines are almost all new now, just need to join one section together, and bleed out the air, and should be good to go.
progress continues, abit at a time.. this was supposed to be a simple "just get it going" mission, its turning into a bonafide hod rodding effort...pic soon.
11/15: SETBACK...alternator seems to be burning up and the clutch cable, or pivot arm popped today, better now than in the middle of an event or a road to nowhere at least. So hiccups are to be expected, after all its 30 years old! On the up side, replaced the bad balljoint ($25) theyve gone way up in price. had to drill out the original rivets that held the bad one to control arm, cleaned it up a bit more while I was at it...
, and front brake pads($24) today, tie rod wasnt in the cards though, need a better tool...
11/18/2008: spent a little time trouble shooting the clutch and alternator issues. alternator is definately seized up, fortunately i have a spare from the parts car, Ill need to change the pully but otherwise i think it will work.
As for the clutch, turned out to be less severe than I thought. clutch itslef seems okay and the cable is good as well, the problem is the cable ends, which are replaceable. theyre little plastic dodaads and are worn out, one finally snapped. those little buggers take allot of force, and apparently very well, after all, it appears to be the original cable and ends, and its 30 years old, theyve seen allot of action..i just need to find a new set, and a spare set as well...or fab up a metal alternative.
11/25/2008: finsihed removing the alternator today, and figureed out why and how it seized up. the back of the alt has a unique cover, designed to funnel air and keep it cool, since its so close to the exhaust manifold. seems the critters found it a nice cosy place to build a nest : 
all that debris and nutshells werent very good for the alternator, rebuild is certainly in order, unless i can make the guts from the parts car work...
And I was finally able to get the seats out of the parts car as well, need some restitching, but i like the way theyll look, and I was able to save some of the same fabric from the rear seat of the parts car for patching, stuck it in the car to see how itll look.
the old seats are split as well, so either set will need to be restitched..the fabric usually holds up okay, the thread doesnt. but Im diggin the Porsche script seats more, and I should have enough extra material to make a new cover out it for the casette box cover that goes between the seats..
Page 1: Bringing it home after almost 8 years.
Page 2: archived pictures
Page 3: work log
Page 4: Build expense log
Page 5: Build plan
