New member with stupid project!

[Swaggoner]

Hello everybody!
I’m Scott and just “rescued” a 1987 944 Turbo for my recently widowed neighbor. My first Porsche project! It was her husband’s car and was supposedly running when parked in 1998! Good news, it is straight, complete, original, and was garage parked, so it’s rust free, with surprisingly good paint, and from receipts, it looks like the husband had a good bit of maintenance completed in 1998. Water pump, belts, hoses, brakes pads, the basics. He started the process of stripping and refreshing the phone dial wheels, and well, I guess life got in the way... He never finished the wheels and it hasn’t been started since 1998. In fact, it hasn’t moved since 1998, until my son and I pushed it to my garage. So I purchased the car, stripped and powder coated the wheels and crossed my fingers that the brakes weren’t rusted/locked up. We got lucky and with just a little persuasion, it rolled.
So...it’s in my garage and I’m building my plan... We are replacing timing and balancer belts, pulleys and tensioners. Probably water pump too. I expect the fuel system will be a varnished mess, so I’ll probably drop and clean/seal the tank and move forward from there... I’m sure all the filters and fuel pump are toast, as well as the rubber fuel lines. I’ll use this as an opportunity to replace and reroute the fuel lines away from directly over the exhaust manifold. Despite nearly new pads, the Brake rotors are heavily worn, so I’ll replace the rotors, overhaul the calipers, and probably will have a leaky master cylinder to deal with too. And the ABS cables are literally crumbling as I touch them as well! Cooling system is a mess too. Lots of corrosion on upper hose connections. Also Corrosion at the crimped joint on the radiator, so new radiator and hoses throughout. And the list just keeps getting longer....
Any advise and tips greatly appreciated!

[blueline]

Now that's a story!

Sitting 26 years with a full list of needs but nevertheless a gorgeous Porsche. Can't tell for sure of course, but from the pics it looks as good as the day it rolled off the showroom floor eleven years prior to being placed in its garage mausoleum.

Question from simple curiosity - how many miles on the car?

Anyway, lots and lots of great folks here who can advise and share their experiences with the marvelous transaxle Porsches of that period.

Meanwhile, welcome to Carpokes Scott!

PS - I like the wash bucket.

[Tom]

Welcome aboard! Love the back-story. Sounds like you are prioritizing all the right things -- fuel lines, timing belt, brakes, etc. Might put a little oil in the spark plug holes in case the rings are sticking to the bores. Very much looking forward to seeing this car come together. We have a world of 944 experience here, collectively, so if you have any questions or part-needs along the way, we live for stuff like this.

[grasmere]

Lol nothing stupid about it, in fact it looks finished

[gruhsy]

More pics of whole car.

We might spot something that needs attention

[P_Coastal]

Welcome to Carpokes @Swaggoner .
Quite the Story behind that car …

[Stormy_Monday]

pretty cool

[Swaggoner]

Thanks for all the positive feedback. I’d be lying if I didn’t say that this project feels a bit overwhelming at this point! Also, I’m discovering that there aren’t any inexpensive parts on this old girl. Heck, a water temp switch is $60. 127,000 miles on the car, but only about 200 feet in the past 26 years! Great tip on a touch oil in the cylinders. In the past, I have used Sea-foam or Berrymans to loosen stuck rings on SBC’s... Any issues with those products?
So, if you guys would recommend your favorite parts sources, new and used, and sources for special tools, I sure would appreciate it.
Thanks again,
Scott

[Grenadiers]

You’ll need a flywheel lock when doing the belts. New rollers if that’s not on your list. Also, replace the oil pump sleeve and assorted parts with that. Double check the torque requirements when installing. Clark’s-garage manual is the go-to source for support.

[Thom]

Replacing the belts without locking the flywheel is doable but on an engine that has not run for that long I would want to remove all front pulleys and replace the o-ring and main seal, and this requires locking the flywheel.

Congrats for tackling this project and for saving a car that looks pretty healthy.