Above 1200 Sq/FT Freshy Fresh - Mountain High Workshop and Storage: 48x30
- Thread starter badonk
- Start date
Wokspaces above 1200 squarefeet.
Trapps
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Is the '81 Platinum Silver Metallic?
And for the record: keep the front lower valence as is and add a Duck, or original bumper and naked.
And for the record: keep the front lower valence as is and add a Duck, or original bumper and naked.
Last edited:
cccoltsicehockey
Well-known member
I would just leave it sit the way it is, even if not tracking it anymore. Duck would be the second vote, though.Alright! The '81 is just about prepped to make the journey. After putting the new fuel pump in (along with a filter and accumulator), she started up nicely. I've never really liked CIS fuel injection but I'm feeling much better about it now. I removed the megaphones and swapped a sensible muffler on it. I want to have heat in this car eventually so I'll likely get a set of SSIs with some kind of sport muffler. I wasn't comfortable driving on pretty old Hoosier R6s that had 4+ heat cycles. So I had the original phone dials that I can use for the drive. I not looking at the date codes on the tires! They just have to go 90 miles...
The brakes were squishy so I flushed the system with some new fluid. For good measure new oil and filter too. I do have a few oil leaks that I'll need to sort out - maybe head studs? I had plenty of fun beating on this car at the track so things like this are expected. It'll mess up my new floor!
I took it around the block, warming things up and just generally checking it out to be sure I'm all good. It is much faster than I remember. I had to double check my speed via GPS because I thought the speedo was off by 15 mph or so. This is definitely faster than the 3.2L carrera's I've driven in the past few years. Or at least it feels faster. This has the euro spec motor with 9.8 compression, larger intake runners and ports, etc. The end result is it's supposed to make 204hp and 197 lb-ft compared to US spec of 180hp and 175 lb-ft. That's roughly carrera numbers with more torque hitting a little earlier in the band. I don't remember what the corner weights were, but this car is probably 2550 lbs including about 100 lbs of ballast I had to run to make weight.
The headers and megaphones before
Took the muffler from my original '72 motor - was not easy getting to the bolts when on a furniture cart.
Needs a wash - and have to go to the DMV to re-register it. Just a tad expired.
Body wise, I'll go back to the original front bumper setup and relocate the oil cooler back into the fender. I will definitely remove the big IROC wing - maybe go duck or naked?
That double wide 4post I am shocked shows only 4.25in concrete required if Bendpak's dedicated concrete sheet is to be believed. Your experience definitely has me thinking about one.
gearhead1960
ALLIANCE MEMBER
...here's my vote...
Yes, I think it is platinum metallic. This car has had some prior (poor) body work. I can see drips around one of the doors and then some messy work around the engine bay. The front spoiler and iroc wing were rattle canned by me with the closest match I could find at the local auto parts store. Who knew those fumes would give me headaches?
The front lower valance hangs pretty low and I want a little more approach angle. Also plan to build (or have built) some bumper over-riders for the safari setup. I suppose I could do tubular over-riders that work on the IROC front bumper as well as stock. Either way I want something really clean and tidy. But for how I'm thinking I'll use it, I also want the oil cooler back up in the fender behind the headlight.
That's what is kind of fun with a car like this. Really going into it as kind of a blank slate, fun working within a tight budget (for now). I'm not preserving or ruining anything special or trying to make it into something super specific. I get to go where it takes me and if I don't like the outcome or a part of it, find the next direction and head there.
I also have to get a set of seats. In it right now are race seats (a Sparco Pro 2000 and Recaro something). Pictured were the original ones I sold - dammit - they'd be nearly perfect for what I want. I think cloth seats like this were only sold on euro cars and never spec'd on US bound cars. So I don't think I'll have any luck sourcing what I had. Currently I'm thinking I find a set of used ones that are beat up (likely leather), find a local upholsterer to make up a set of cloth covers, add heat elements to them for winter duty. Or, new leather sport seats are available for just under $7K a set, but no heat. Or a set of Recaro Sportster GT seats in cloth, also no heat. Or the Recaro Classic LS in pepita or corduroy. Lots of options.
Another update for those that were following the solar part of my thread. My electric bill at this point is just the connect fee plus tax - $39.83 a month. In May my panels generated 1,518 kWh, my house used 842. So that means I banked 676 in the month. I doubt I'll consume much more in the colder months since I have gas heat and hot water. The heat tape in my gutters hasn't been hooked up yet so that's the only extra load I'll have when winter sets in. I think I'll use more electricity in the summer if I need to turn on the A/C. We'll see...
They clear the bank at the end of March and pay out any excess in the bank at wholesale rates (currently $0.064/kWh). I had built up a little bank already by then so I got a check for about $20. My guess is my bill will stay at the minimum all year long and every year at the end of March I'll get a check for a couple hundred $$$, offsetting the monthly connect fees and taxes.
Overall I'm pretty happy with the setup. In hindsight I'm also glad I added the batteries...mostly because power companies have been cutting power during high wind/fire danger situations to help minimize the risks. The configuration is messed up but I'm working to fix it. One battery charges from solar, the other from the grid. Ideally they both charge from solar so I can endure a power outage for quite while since on sunny days I'm making far more than I'm consuming. So the batteries basically act like a backup generator - when they are hooked up to the house properly.
They clear the bank at the end of March and pay out any excess in the bank at wholesale rates (currently $0.064/kWh). I had built up a little bank already by then so I got a check for about $20. My guess is my bill will stay at the minimum all year long and every year at the end of March I'll get a check for a couple hundred $$$, offsetting the monthly connect fees and taxes.
Overall I'm pretty happy with the setup. In hindsight I'm also glad I added the batteries...mostly because power companies have been cutting power during high wind/fire danger situations to help minimize the risks. The configuration is messed up but I'm working to fix it. One battery charges from solar, the other from the grid. Ideally they both charge from solar so I can endure a power outage for quite while since on sunny days I'm making far more than I'm consuming. So the batteries basically act like a backup generator - when they are hooked up to the house properly.
And yet more for the home networking and security geeks. The Unifi setup is working flawlessly...zero complaints. The networking stuff is rock solid. The comcast/xfinity reliability is not. It is down here and there a couple times a month. Sometimes just for a it, sometimes for longer. Fortunately, Unifi has a few options available. Yesterday I installed a 5G backup device. Plugs into any POE network port (I used the POE switch in my workshop) and it gets 5G service over T-Mobile. The device was $99 and I bought a 10GB/year data pack for $60. It is used as a backup/secondary internet and cuts over automatically, switches back when Xfinity is restored. I'm only 1 day in so haven't truly tested it yet but in theory I'm all set.
The camera security is great. I record everything all the time so I can go back at night and see why the dogs were barking at 3:30 am (they heard coyetes howling). I've also done things like building an integration into my Home Assistant server that allows me all kinds of flexibility. For instance when a car comes up the driveway and crosses a line - the Ubiquiti camera can detect that and send an alert through the Ubiquiti app. But I can take the a step further and trigger an action in Home Assistant. Right now I have it play an alert sound through all the Sonos speakers in the house - that way we know someone is arriving even when watching a movie, sleeping, out working in the shop, etc.
The camera security is great. I record everything all the time so I can go back at night and see why the dogs were barking at 3:30 am (they heard coyetes howling). I've also done things like building an integration into my Home Assistant server that allows me all kinds of flexibility. For instance when a car comes up the driveway and crosses a line - the Ubiquiti camera can detect that and send an alert through the Ubiquiti app. But I can take the a step further and trigger an action in Home Assistant. Right now I have it play an alert sound through all the Sonos speakers in the house - that way we know someone is arriving even when watching a movie, sleeping, out working in the shop, etc.
cccoltsicehockey
Well-known member
I really wanted the 5G back for my system but didn't want to pay for 5G internet monthly. I had no idea you could buy yearly per GB packages. That is awesome and I am going to have to look into that then.
Audio alerts for vehicles entering the driveway is a great idea. Going to have to see if I can get that up to play through my Google Homes that are in every room. Long term I need to get something that lives completely local. I want to switch to the Home Assistant voice boxes but it's going to be a costly conversion with 10 Google Homes to replace.
You'd be surprised what you do via Home Assistant. My Sonos devices show up as media_player entities which allow me to push the audio out. While the Google Homes can't run locally, you could still use HA to push sound/music to them via Google Cast. So that'd be an intermediate step until you eventually move off the 10 Google Homes. I think they show up as media_player entities as well.
cccoltsicehockey
Well-known member
Yes you are correct, they do show up as music devices. I have an action to make my doorbell play through all of them already so shouldn't be hard to create a speech alert for the driveway as well. Adding the cellular internet back would actually be a good middle of the ground work around to prevent losing access to Google servers if the primary internet drops out.
Trapps
ALLIANCE MEMBER
I think he used Autoweave...who I have used before to restore and leather wrap the dash in my '72, and they've done work on my brother's interior. Great work that likely can't be beat in Denver but their current lead times and pricing might have me trying to find alternatives...
Yes indeed! Autoweave seems to be almost caught up at this point. Our mutual friend who just rebuilt his SC motor is getting his Land Cruiser seats recovered by them soon and I only brought him in there to meet Ron a couple weeks ago.
You could also try the place near Evans/I25 - I don't remember who, but was told recently that they're inexpensive, fast(ish) and do good work
I'll probably have a Sunday morning Gruppe thing at my house soon, or just stop by if you're driving past
Great to see the new house progress
Makes total sense. And I think the whole point of this one is to do exactly that - drive the snot out of it. It won't be worth much or pretty so I won't care too much about how it is treated.
The patient has arrived at the new shop and I'll gradually start pulling race stuff out of it. Then it'll take a little time to load it up with snot on a tight budget. The drive went pretty well. I thought I could hear the tires moaning a little at speed and my alignment was set up for 17s with 225 front, 245 rear. It wanders quite a bit with these 15s and old 195/215 tires. I'm also surprised at how low it looks and how far things tuck into the fenders with these wheels. I've done some research on safari style AT or MT tires for this and my guess is I'll be happy to have lots of fender space.
The Clear Creek County sheriff dept was patrolling the climb up Berthoud pass - one guy clocking at the bottom and then I caught another driving my direction partway up. While I did pull the antenna up and check the radio (which works, with a CD player!), one thing I didn't check before getting on the road - turn signals and brake lights. I'm not sure any of that was working today so I'll add that to the list as I pull off the race gear - race transponder, data logger, cool suit system to name a few. I hope there's a market for some of this old race stuff.
Time to go give it a good bath.
ned911
Well-known member
When I converted my '72 back to street from race car I didn't even bother with a radio. That little 4" speaker in the dash just doesn't cut it and I wasn't going to add speakers.
My 914 has a great little sound system.
My 914 has a great little sound system.
Someone makes a speaker insert for the dash location that has two small speakers. I did that, then added door speakers in my '72 with a sub and small amp under the passenger seat. The amp has a tuning mode that helps balance the sound between the speakers and I think the sound is alright. I did the same amp and sub in my Urq and am pretty happy with the way it turned out. I haven't made any stereo config decisions yet on the '81...but I do have a Blaupunkt Bremen sqr 46 dab radio that looks period correct but has bluetooth, etc.
Nolift911
Well-known member
My 02. Since you didn't ask.
No radio/speakers. Easy. IF you have to have music - Air pods/phone. If the engine and muffler are making glorious noises no need for another sound track - plus how many other cars do you have that have music - right tool for the job.
Leave the wing - you have a cage - make it street friendly - Recaro SPG's - get rid of everyting else. Its a fair weather car.
Then call thes guys - https://russellbuiltfab.com/ Black fender flairs - just bolt'em on, black headlight trim rings, black mirrors.
Got to have these wheels -
Baja Wheel - Russell Built
The BAJA ONE and BAJA LITE. The perfect blend of classic Porsche Fuchs and European rally.
russellbuiltfab.com
All your ideas are here -
Sportsman Safari Kit - Russell Built
We’re thrilled to announce our Sportsman Safari kit for Porsche 964 models, now available in a kit form for you or your trusted shop to install. This
russellbuiltfab.com
Flares, wheels, lift, tires - DONE. Fabricate your nerf and safety bars at your will. Fun welding project, rattle can black. Hit the fire roads, grab your Go-Pro and hoon for therapy in the evening via sunsets. There are a metric F ton of killer roads like that around you.
And by the way - the hardest part is done - SLICKTOP!
Enjoy.
Pouring another...
Last edited:
Trapps
ALLIANCE MEMBER
10:30am...I knew I liked you!
I'm running the Bremmen and have nothing bad to say about it. Great aesthetics and decent sound quality. The color mathching is sugar on top, I landed on R: 11, G: 2, B: 0.
Hard to miss with Jeff's $0.02, but Phone Dials also came in 16" and might look awesome on your project while affording the tire sizes you want.
Slicktop lol. The only way!My 02. Since you didn't ask.
No radio/speakers. Easy. IF you have to have music - Air pods/phone. If the engine and muffler are making glorious noises no need for another sound track - plus how many other cars do you have that have music - right tool for the job.
Leave the wing - you have a cage - make it street friendly - Recaro SPG's - get rid of everyting else. Its a fair weather car.
Then call thes guys - https://russellbuiltfab.com/ Black fender flairs - just bolt'em on, black headlight trim rings, black mirrors.
Got to have these wheels -
Baja Wheel - Russell Built
The BAJA ONE and BAJA LITE. The perfect blend of classic Porsche Fuchs and European rally.
All yur ideas are here -
Sportsman Safari Kit - Russell Built
We’re thrilled to announce our Sportsman Safari kit for Porsche 964 models, now available in a kit form for you or your trusted shop to install. This
Flares, wheels, lift, tires - DONE. Fabricate your nerf and safety bars at your will. Fun welding project, rattle can black. Hit the fire roads, grab your Go-Pro and hoon for therapy in the evening via sunsets. There are a metric F ton of killer roads like that around you.
And by the way - the hardest part is done - SLICKTOP!
Enjoy.
Pouring another...
There you go trying to get me to spend money again...must resist...easy! I hear the no radio thing all the time. I like having both engine/exhaust and radio.
The cage is a pain in every way - great for safety on a track with 5 point harnesses and a helmet. This car will likely never hit the track again. Cage has gotta go. Same with existing Recaro SPG and Sparco Pro 2000 seats. Same with the detachable steering wheel. I want the civility of recliners with heat, seat backs the fold forward for rear seat/shelf access, etc.
Russell Built looks legit but I think they do all their stuff for the 964 chassis. Some good ideas there but I'm going simpler and not a $100K build. More like $15K all in after selling off race parts. That's suspension, exhaust, wheels, seats and other missing interior parts (sunvisors, seat belts). A good driver that'll get me down the dirt roads to mtn bike trail heads in the summer or to the ski hill in the winter.
Lots going on. I spent some time over the weekend pulling some of the race gear out. I've also put the car on the lift and been inspecting things. The oil leaks from sitting seem to have sealed themselves up. The nose cone of the transmission is leaking - that'll be a pain to fix. The reinforced sway bar mounts I put on are looking great.
I built this car back in 2007/2008, started the build in Denver then moved the car to Calgary (work) to finish it. And with nearly 20 years under its belt comes a foggy memory. I know I'm the one that wired all this stuff in and its easy to pull individual pieces out. But after removing the data logger, the transponder, and the emergency kill switch I have 3 decent sized power leads that I can't figure out. I know I made them but they go into what looks like a factory wiring loom. Oh well, more digging to do. I'm amazed at the used pricing for some of this stuff. New transponders apparently are only sold with an annual subscription so what I have is worth something. The data logger is still solid - and the 20+ year old laptop still works (barely) so I could extract the license file.
I also was down at my old shop organizing and packing stuff up. I had some 26" mtb rims hanging on the wall with some tires...calling @Nolift911 as you might be the only one other than vintage bike collectors that need this stuff. Other vintage stuff --- our CD collection! Those are keepers although I don't have anything that'll play them in the house. The 200 series has a cd player as well as my M3. Just some early calculations but I easily see over $10K in car parts I can sell. Of course that goes into the safari build.
Scrounging FB marketplace, I ran across two sets of seats that were interesting. A friend was selling a perfect set of factory sport seats that came out of a 14K mile 930. Too rich for me and while perfect, not cloth and not heated. Can't justify that kind of coin and/or tearing into seats that nice to make what I ultimately want. Then another friend had some nicely used non-sport seats that will work great for now. Picked them up this morning - so now I'm willing to pull both race seats out and begin tearing into the cage. I think I can wake these seats up a little with some leatherique. I've also seen a few companies that offer sport seat conversions so eventually I may go that way, recover with something similar to my original cloth sports seats and add heater elements.
If anyone has cut a roll cage out before I'm open to advice. I bought some welding blankets to help protect what I have of an interior and the glass. I'll mostly use a sawzall and I have my angle grinder on hand with a cutoff wheel as needed. I *think* I need to pull the rear quarter windows to get good access without damaging things. They had to come out to put the cage in. Installing those windows is...not fun.
And on Sunday I may make the drive to Denver and see how @kwyjibo is doing and the upholstery on his conda green 911 restoration came out.
Back in 2008 = building in Calgary
Factory sway bar mounts. These often tear with big sway bars and/or track use.
Cut 'em off
Cast mounts, welded on, years later. Patting myself on the back for job well done.
G2X red data logger/display
Starter pile of stuff to sell. 7R cases. 993 exhaust and heater system. 26" wheels for friends.
New/used seats!
I built this car back in 2007/2008, started the build in Denver then moved the car to Calgary (work) to finish it. And with nearly 20 years under its belt comes a foggy memory. I know I'm the one that wired all this stuff in and its easy to pull individual pieces out. But after removing the data logger, the transponder, and the emergency kill switch I have 3 decent sized power leads that I can't figure out. I know I made them but they go into what looks like a factory wiring loom. Oh well, more digging to do. I'm amazed at the used pricing for some of this stuff. New transponders apparently are only sold with an annual subscription so what I have is worth something. The data logger is still solid - and the 20+ year old laptop still works (barely) so I could extract the license file.
I also was down at my old shop organizing and packing stuff up. I had some 26" mtb rims hanging on the wall with some tires...calling @Nolift911 as you might be the only one other than vintage bike collectors that need this stuff. Other vintage stuff --- our CD collection! Those are keepers although I don't have anything that'll play them in the house. The 200 series has a cd player as well as my M3. Just some early calculations but I easily see over $10K in car parts I can sell. Of course that goes into the safari build.
Scrounging FB marketplace, I ran across two sets of seats that were interesting. A friend was selling a perfect set of factory sport seats that came out of a 14K mile 930. Too rich for me and while perfect, not cloth and not heated. Can't justify that kind of coin and/or tearing into seats that nice to make what I ultimately want. Then another friend had some nicely used non-sport seats that will work great for now. Picked them up this morning - so now I'm willing to pull both race seats out and begin tearing into the cage. I think I can wake these seats up a little with some leatherique. I've also seen a few companies that offer sport seat conversions so eventually I may go that way, recover with something similar to my original cloth sports seats and add heater elements.
If anyone has cut a roll cage out before I'm open to advice. I bought some welding blankets to help protect what I have of an interior and the glass. I'll mostly use a sawzall and I have my angle grinder on hand with a cutoff wheel as needed. I *think* I need to pull the rear quarter windows to get good access without damaging things. They had to come out to put the cage in. Installing those windows is...not fun.
And on Sunday I may make the drive to Denver and see how @kwyjibo is doing and the upholstery on his conda green 911 restoration came out.
Back in 2008 = building in Calgary
Factory sway bar mounts. These often tear with big sway bars and/or track use.
Cut 'em off
Cast mounts, welded on, years later. Patting myself on the back for job well done.
G2X red data logger/display
Starter pile of stuff to sell. 7R cases. 993 exhaust and heater system. 26" wheels for friends.
New/used seats!
Last edited:
ned911
Well-known member
I've got Smart Racing bars on one of my '72's that I used to race. They are the size of a baseball bat. Car corners very flat, occasionally it will lift the inside front wheel.
Yessir! That's one of the areas that I might need to change. I'm leaning towards a coilover safari conversion from Elephant racing. They spec it with their RSR adjustable sway bar package (I think these are the same as the Tarrett RSR) which I think has much thinner bars. I assume the safari setup will need to be softer and I don't have much adjustment range left to soften the Smart Racing bars. It looks like Jerry Woods now sells the bars under their name in 4 sizes. I just measured my rear ones and they appear to be 28.6mm? Anyhow more digging to do there to see if I can salvage the bars I have. I bought them a long time ago and had them on my '72 before I tore it down to restore it.
