1983 Porsche 944 NA Restoration
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ค. 2023
- This is my Australian delivered 1983 944 NA restomod. It has been an approx 20 month restoration, completed by myself in the back shed. The car was taken all the way down to its bones (just the shell) and everything has either been purchased new, reworked or restored. Clearly it owes way more than it is worth, but you cannot really put a price on your mid life crisis. I had help with the long block assembly and the gearbox, but the remainder was a long steep learning curve with heaps of support from many along the way. TH-cam is a saviour.
It has Koni sport shocks at each corner with a 3.5" lowered suspension stance consisting of a 30mm front sway bar and 19mm sway in the rear, 26mm rear torsion bars and 225lb front coil overs. It has late model modified castor blocks and billet front sway bar mounts. It has mild camber and toe settings as it basically a weekend road warrior, cars and coffee, here I come..
The wheels are fully forged Koya's, 18x9.5 rear and 18x8 front. They are skinned in Michelin pilot sport 5's, 265x35 rear and 225x40 in the front
The motor is a 2.5L NA with an augment Automotive Road/Race cam and an adjustable timing pulley. It runs a focus 9 computer and DME relay as well as a Lindsey racing MAF kit. The rest of the motor is basically stock, it is re-sleeved, with a few tickles here or there, sump pan baffle etc. It has a custom 2.25" exhaust using a rear muffler from flow-master, a delta 50 from memory. It has a very throaty sound, much angrier than its expected 4 cylinder burble. It ran 110 RWHP on a chassis dyno through its 3 speed Automatic gearbox. That's right it is an Auto, suits a lazy old man like me.
The body is painted in Nardo Grey with a deep black roof. It has a modified fibreglass 944 turbo front bumper with bespoke driving / fog light assemblies. The rear has a 944 turbo valance with a reworked euro bumper. It has 968 aero mirrors, 968 door handles and a reversing camera. It has a custom front guard graphics, including Porsche wing emblems.
The interior is a mash of the things that I like, and need. Android auto, 2x cup holders, wireless phone charging, red / black leather seats and door cards, diamond stitching, Porsche emblems, momo prototipo black edition steering wheel, arm rest centre console with storage, Air conditioning, power mirrors, push button start, glove box delete, custom fibreglass / leather dash. New edge bound carpets and a significant amount of 3d printed items to complete the look.
I hope you have enjoyed what you have seen. Thanks for watching
I would like to thank a few people who have helped me to create this car.
My wife the accountant, my kids, Lindsey racing, Paragon Products, 944 Online, Elephant racing, Augment Automotive, Speed shift autos, Nick, Tom, Steve, Rowan, Josh, and Aaron.
Cheers
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It IS a bit of a challenge, But taking each hurdle step by step is kind of rewarding, I DID think about the Turbo charging, But in the end it’s just another 944 Turbo…. With Surpercharging I’m HOPING to have instantaneous results and a very unique Porsche 944…. I WILL keep you updated as well as sending you some photos…
Really looks nice.
Over the top actually.
A forever car for sure
The 944 logo in the center actually looks pretty nice. In keeping with modern
Yeah I couldn't understand why all other porsche models seem to have their logos central, but the 944 for some reason was off to one side. It just made sense to me to move it to the middle
Beautiful car, I hope to see you post more content about it soon!!!
without doubt the best 944 i have seen. amazing job
Thankyou for your positive comments. At the end of the day I built it for me and my taste and if others also like it, then that's great as well. Cheers
Labour of Love indeed. Beautiful car, congratulations!
Thank you very much!
Only 2 years!? Great work, it’s beautiful
Thanks for taking the time to view my car, I am glad you like it
Thank You for your swift response and for clarifying the Australian differences… PLEASE stay in touch as I’m in the process of Supercharging my 944 with a Procharger unit!!!! Nothing crazy just going from 158HP to around 215 to 225 to the wheels, Kinda want to stay in line with the 1989 Turbo range…🙏🙏🙏👍👍👍
good luck with your modifications, sounds impressive. The ROW cars have a higher comp ratio, 10.6:1. I believe. Far too high for a boosted option. Aussie rules basically do not allow anything that was not available originally, i.e we can turbo charge. but no superchargers though, but even with the turbo, you need to jump thru so many hoops to get it passed, we are very strict here on car modifications
Very nice car u done good job
Thanks 👍
I’ve got a ‘84 944 NA automatic. Its pampered…I love the car. What you’ve done to your car is absolutely amazing. I’ve never seen one done this well. I’m blown away. The pinnacle is your black top paint idea. Running it back to the rear glass is brilliant. My car is guards red but would trade colors for this grey in a heartbeat it fits the car so well. I’m jealous…well done mate.
Thank you very much for your kind words, much appreciated. Since this video was posted, I have finally had the rear hatch tinted, and I relocated a silver Porsche logo from below the rear lights to the top edge of the hatch on a black background, came up a treat. The tinting was a nightmare, two businesses had a go, many more said "NO". I believe tinting the rear hatch on one of these 944's, is the holy grail for window tinters, so it took 3 goes, lots of film to get it right or at least 98% right. I have just reworked to front suspension to correct the steering arms and lower control arm angles (they were angled up too much). Having the car lowered this amount, it had very heavy steering and a bit of bump steer. I've added extended lower ball joints from Noath engineering UK and elephant racing outer tie rod droppers, it was a bit of a fiddle with inner tie rods from a VW Jetta which needed machining etc. My goodness, it drives like a different car. The steering almost feels like power steering now, so light and direct. The car is away now having the final air conditioning hoses made, connected and gassed. Hopefully I will get it back early next week, just in time for our hot Australian summer temperatures. The only major thing left to complete is resolving the persistent oil leaks. There is one that appears to be from the lower balance shaft front housing, possibly the large o-ring? It is impossible to see exactly where, so it may be from the Welch plug at the front of the block or even a point from the dreaded oil pump. I hope it is not the oil pump again, as I have been chasing and fixing the oil pump leak since FEB 2023. The engine has been out and in a total of 5 times trying to resolve this. In the end, I machined the pump and used a bespoke 0.4mm gasket. It is probably the only 944 in the world that has a machined oil pump with a bespoke gasket driving around. The other leak I think is from the crimped joint from flex to hard line on one of the automatic cooler lines running from the gearbox to the front of the car. Unfortunately the gearbox will have to come out to repair this.
Thank you again for taking interest in my car. Hopefully I can get some more content together to share
@@djinstruments wow you’re still busy making this beauty more perfect!!! I’m struggling with oil leaks too similar to what you described. It’s very annoying for me. We’re coming on winter here so I hope to get some if not all of my oil leaks fixed by next summer. I’m replacing my injectors right now I’ve had one fail. I love your wheels and stance I’m running Porsche 993 Cup wheels 17x9 and 17x7 with two inch lowering with Weltmeister springs re indexed torsion bars and KYB all around. It handles great and rides stiff but decent. I’d like to switch to coil overs I think they would be better and easier to tweak if I want. I love hearing and seeing all the mods you’ve made on your 944 it’s my all time favorite.
I used the coil over kit from Paragon with new Koni sport shocks and hyperco coils. the front springs are 10" long 63mm diameter 225lbs to achieve the stance. the front bar is the M030, 30mm. I did modify the spring tree diameters to clear the wheels. I do understand your pain with indexing the rear. I think I had it up and down 3 times from memory. I still didn't get it just right. For ROW cars right hand drive, the passenger side sits approx 1/2" higher with the bars indexed exactly even both sides. The rear bars are solid 26mm with a 19mm sway bar. I have cheated and used the up/down adjustment bolt to tune out that last bit of ride height positioning. I will probably drop it again when I do the gearbox hose leak and set the height with the adjustment in the neutral position. My wheels are 18x10 at the rear and 18x8 front with 265 and 225 respectively. I modified the offset to fill the guards
@@djinstrumentsvery helpful information thank you so much 😊
incredible restoration, nicely done.
Thank you very much!
This is beautiful! Can´t imagine the work you put into it!
I´m thinking about buying a Porsche 944 and converting it into a 944 "safari", with a roof tent for vacation.
I’ve seen some 944 Safari builds bring pretty nice value on the market lately.
WOW, congrats!
thank you for your positive comments
Great job! Interior is overdone for my taste, but the overall execution is mint. I’m looking at 944’s and want to do a 07K swap.
thankyou, appreciate the positive comment. Good luck with your future project, they are are great car
Nice touches to make the car fully your own. Did you own the 944 for some time and then decide to refresh/upgrade, or was it purchased with the intent to build out to your specifications?
I bought the car from Adelaide as an as-is where-is rough runner in sep 2021. Had it shipped to me in Queensland. Drove it off the transporter into the back of my property, albeit running very rough. Began full disassembling the next day. Finshed it in july 2023
Nicely done. Did you remove the sunroof or did it not have one?
Luckily my car was built without a sun roof. So no leaks
I wan't to do this to a porsche 924 with custom interior and everything. Any way you could say how much this has cost you roughly?
Looks brand new 944
Quick Question. What did you use to modify the shift lever? Looks like a custom cover and an upgraded knob??
That is a 3d printed creation using the old porsche logo from the deleted glove box lock. I also remoulded the base detail to blend into the centre console shape. I used 3D printing on a lot of the interior alterations
@@djinstruments that’s great thank you 😊
Where can I find a euro rear bumper.
Nice ride, I tinker a bit with my '87 928 but it's a complicated car . if I was to do your full project I would be choosing a more basic vehicle.
Beautiful color… I don’t think I’ve seen a car look bad wearing Nardo Grey. What you running in place of the factory AFM?
Yes, that was always going to be the colour choice, Nardo grey with a black roof from the beginning, never wavered. I used a lindsey racing maf kit the same as you did. It worked out well for me, with no issues. Running +3 fuel and -3 timing. My opinion is that your channel is the pinnacle in 944 content, hands down. You should be very proud of your efforts. Your information has helped me immensely along the way. Thankyou.
Happy to share q&a with you anytime. I think we share a common interest. I am an engineer, so I have a reasonable dose of common sense which helps with a rebuild of that size. Thanks for viewing
@@djinstruments Nice! Yeah, your car turned out great, it looks like a top notch rebuild with lots of attention to detail on the little bits inside and out. Very cool! Thanks for the feedback on my channel, I’m glad it helped out. Cheers!
Beautiful restoration and I love the improvements you made for your needs, I’m the owner of a 1987 944 N/A with the automatic transmission as well. I simply love it. Have you replaced your Flex Plate Dampner yet??? Also was that car always a right hand drive?? Seems odd to have the hood release on the passenger side, I guess Porsche did that for ALL the 944’s Now enjoy your FINE work and post some more photos….👍👍👏👏
Thank you for your kind words. The car is currently off the road again, I am having difficulties with a leaking oil pump. Lets say I have become an expert at engine removal and replacement, I think I could do it with my eyes closed. One of the very few parts of the car that was in excellent condition at purchase time was the recently replaced damper plate, So lucky for me, as in Australia these are very expensive, North of $3k. Hopefully it will last a while longer yet. My car was an Australian delivered car in 1983, so it has always been RHD as this is the side we drive on in Australia, The non USA cars are known in Porsche lingo, as ROW cars or Rest of World. The RHD cars have a different DME and Fuse box location to those found on USA LHD cars. Mine was also special in that no Australian cars were delivered with factory fitted Air conditioners. This made deciphering factory wiring diagrams a challenge. At the time in 83, there was a luxury car tax threshold that was exceeded by cars with the air con fitted ex factory, so the Australian dealers fitted aftermarket air conditioners into the cars when they landed in Australia to avoid paying the extra tax. This negatively impacted the leg room and seating position in the passenger seat. This was the driving factor for the glove box delete in my car, to make room for an air conditioner that did not have a major impact on passengers comfort i.e The wife.
You ruined it
1 month into my resto / modifying - sees this.... throws keys in the pond
Thanks for the positive comments. Tough road, but worth it in the end. Keep going, they are great cars and worth the effort