Barney - old, fat & grey #84rney

#84rney So documented my 911 (Barney) journey on another forum and though it would be good to include it here: March 2011 Back in 2011, we were living in Vancouver Canada and stumbled across this mid year 911 which had been sitting at our  mechanics garage for 4 years (under tyres and car parts). Story went that the mechanics garage neighbour had an agreement that if he stored his 911 at the garage, the mechanic could use the neighbours shop's parking for customer cars. Once the neighbour moved out of that space, car had to vacate the garage and his wife told him to get rid of it. Previous owner had owned it for the past 15 years and when it developed some fuel injection issues, he basically never got around to fixing it so there it sat. I was able to pick it up for a good deal. It was in need of a bit of work to get it running but otherwise body was in great shape. Engine had a rebuild many years ago with all the upgrades done to make up for the shortfalls of the notorious 2.7 engine(chain tensioners, head studs etc) but was undocumented. Initial plans was to restore it to original. Fuchs and exterior was in pretty good condition, interior needed work. Few pics taken when we went to look @ it! April 2011 So mechanic where the car sat was not a porsche specialist and didn't want to touch the car anymore so he recommended another shop in North Van called Scan Automotive. I had it towed there and they did a bunch of work to get the car running. In summary, had to have the fuel tank drained, recoated and rust repaired as the car was sitting for so long. Few of the CIS components were replaced and compression tests done. Fuel lines had to also get replaced as the existing ones turned to mush. Car was running but was still a little rough. At the time, i thought it would get better as I drove it more. I remember driving across the bridge and almost rear ending someone as non power brakes operate quite differently to modern cars. Took a while to get used to as well as using my right hand to change gears. Looked much better in the sun! Pretty low for stock! At this point, the tyres on the car were about 20 years old and selection in the 15'' size was lacking. I ended up scouring craigslist and finding a set of genuine powdercoated 16x7 Fuchs for a good price. Guy i bought it off was building a VW bug and changed his mind about mounting these wheels. I was pretty stoked with the wheels and ran them for quite a while. I was worried that wouldn't fit and to be honest, it did rub if i hit a bump at speed but i didn't care. It looked much better. May 2011 I had a hefty bill from the mechanics and they still were unable to get it running lean enough to pass emissions. They wanted me to change the fuel distributor which would have cost me an arm and a leg so decided to get a 2nd opinion at another recommended porsche mechanic. He was able to lean the car out by making an adjustment to the WUR and I passed my emissions test. True what they say that rims really do transform the look of a car. April 2012 So rest of 2011 was spent just enjoying the car. Had a few electrical issues but other than that car was running ok. Highlight of the year, we decided to test it by driving from Vancouver to Portland. Did the Oregon Coast drive which to date is one of the best drives I've done. Miles and miles of coastal twisties. Heaters on this wasn't great but we were lucky to get warm weather during our trip. Mrs got to drive parts of the twisties. Up to date, if my odometer is correct, I've been getting 300 miles city driving out of a tank which wasn't too bad. It's a 80L tank i think? On this road trip, we got 550 highway miles which we were pleasantly surprised and there was some aggressive driving on the twisties. We ended up in Portland and got to watch a OKC / Trailblazers game which was epic. All up we did about 1500 kms and had no issues We were planning on moving back to Syd end of this year & will be shipping Barney back so decided to get the car in for paint as labour in Canada is a bit cheaper than Aus. Found a trustworthy panel beater(he actually ended up doing the RWB build in Van) as well so bit the bullet and decided to get some of the rust repaired and get the car repainted all in 1 colour (Sticking with purple). The clear coat on one side of the car was non existant so that had been bugging me for ages. Some pics of the process Passenger door had the most amt of rust before we started this process This is the piece that was cut out from the bottom corner Lucky smash repair had a good welder and repaired it properly by welding in a new steel piece rather than just use filler Suspension pan was quite rusted when I got the car. Battery tray was actually rusted through Had to buy a brand new suspension pan piece from Restoration Design and get a new battery tray welded in. They have done an awesome job on this! Spot welds used to repair rust pin holes in the fender Needed to buy some new headlights so bought czech made bosche genuine H4s. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v406/privatepang/1975 911s/NewH4.jpg i also wanted some new buckets as the existing seats were ripped. Oddly enough, I was offered a used passenger side GTS Classic seat from a guy in Brisbane. I bought it and had it shipped to our place in Sydney. Ordered similar seat from the GTS Classic. Used seat: June 2012 Went back to the panel beaters and progress was a little slow and he was running behind schedule. Also bought a few more goodies: Suede Momo mod 07 w/ momo hub (Still yet to install) Focal speakers to replace my 36 year old stockies. These were the only ones that didn't look so bling. Surprising how hard it is to find a pair with just black mesh Cassette was stuck in my existing blaupunkt so decided to replace it with a 90's CD player with AUX out. Didn't want one of typical sony xplods with crazy equalizer graphics. Seen a few and to me it doesn't look quite right in a 70's porsche July 2012 Colour came out better than expected. Its hard to get the right shade of purple as you don't want it to be too red. All up, we got 7 coats including clear and paint. Would have loved to do glass out but my budget didn't allow for it. Masking was done really well. Just stoked that my car is all one colour now rather than the matt finish on one side and gloss on the other lol. End to end process was about 4 months all up.

Sept 2012 So car was completed the day before we had to leave Vancouver. Talk about a tight schedule. Here's a pic on the day I picked it up from the body shop Luckily after sitting for 3 months, car still ran well enough. I ordered a set of yokohamas for my stock wheels and reverted the car back to stock for our upcoming road trip around the US. We drove from Vancouver BC, all the way down the PCH to LA. We camped half the way down.. must have been weird for a few ppl seeing a 911 do some very light offroading Was lucky to go to the pebble beach concourse and parked on the green. Lots of nice cars there. Sand duning at the oregon/cali border Had a few fuel injection/over heating issues in North Cali. Was lucky to find a porsche specialist in Santa Rosa and he partly fixed the issue (ignition timing and distributor settings were off). Had to order a new fuel distributor and had it shipped to LA where I got TRE motorsports to fit it for me just prior to shipping it to OZ Jan 2013 car arrived safely in Sydney. Fortunately i've taken it to the engineer and not too much has to be done outside of new head light lenses , seat belts and speedo. O and I shipped my black wheels and seats back here so will hopefully fit those back on further down the track Edited 22September, 2016 by privatepang

April 2016 So fast forward 3 years and it's now 2016. Over the last 3 years, car was really a weekend warrior. Gearbox bushes had to be replaced. Also was kind enough to get a mate help with replacing my half shafts. Upgraded to turbo tie rods and rear shocks. Other than that, from memory didn't have too many issues. Car didn't like traffic too much and overheats if i sit for too long so that was a bit annoying as to the timing of when i could take the car out. Unfortunately my neighbour side swiped the side of my car. I was at a cross roads. Either it simply repaired and resprayed or entertain the thought of backdating and fattening the car. I decided to go with the latter route and embark on a RSR backdate. There are a lot of different options when it comes to flares but in my mind steel > fibreglass so decided to get a set of turbo flares which will be welded onto the original body. Other back date body panels will be fibreglass. Stan from Performance9 has been a champ to deal with. Test fit of the front flares Wheels have also been an extremely tough choice. I was tossing up going JDM wheels (RWB style work wheels etc.) but decided to try and keep it looking a bit more vintage. I ordered a set of custom rims from Lindsay Racing in the states. These are based off original fuchs. They measure 17x 9 in the fronts and 17 x 11 in the rears. Much wider than the stockies. Gotta love them dish Fronts Rears Got Nitto NT05s mounted today from St George. 255 x 40 x 17 for the fronts and 315 x 35 x 17 in the rear Ducktail also got delivered. Cant wait for it to get mounted Test fitted rims on the front. Super happy with the fitment and look. June 2016 Went to the shop to strip the interior as that's going to be repainted as well. Will leave it to the pros to take apart the dash as I didn't wanna break it.Tending towards leaving it as mostly naked interior. One of the rear flares has been welded on Cutting completed on the other side! August 2016 Progress was slow and steady but if you want a job well done then just gotta be patient. So during the month of august, all the flares were welded on and part of the car was being brought back to bare metal. Eventually the whole car will be brought back to bare metal. September 2016 So finally up to date. Few days ago, I went to check out the car again and some of the fibreglass parts have now been fitted. Cant wait to see all the parts on but I've been dying to see the ducktail mounted on the car and it doesnt disappoint. The last butt shot i took didn't really show the width of the rear flares or how fat the wheels are but here we go: Next up will be to fit the front and rear bumpers, mould the signal boxes to the front guards and get all the levels and panel gaps correct.

Awesome.. I recall reading your thread on JDMST. Good to see you continually improving it.

PLEASE say you're keeping it Aubergine in colour? Will be watching this one for sure

The widebody looks great, I've always been a sucker for a big booty.

Looking fantasitc. What are you doing for the front guards? Can you get repro steel extensions? Looks great at any rate

Great thread - and as the kids today say,  "looks amazing!"

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'Amazeballs' you mean. Like, you know, adorbs!

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Word on my offspring's street is that looks amazing has replaced 2014s amazeballs , which is rapidly following smashed avocado down the toilet. Whereas aubergine is the new superfood!

Totes!

Thanks guys. Yea was thinking of keeping the colour as its grown on me but it will be changing. Wont reveal as yet as deciding between a few options. Yea searched for metal repros for the signal box housing but it was looking to be really exxy and blew the budget so went with fiberglass and will get the body guy to epoxy it  into the front guards. Will let you guys know if that decision proves to be the right one.

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Can you please share your research material? I have seen the front indicator housings from Dansk, but I wasn't sure if they were complete?

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Boooooo!!!! ;-)

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Not sure what research material you are referring to but in terms of suppliers, AASE had a set. for about $1k USD. But they were hard to find to be honest and no metal ones were cheaper than that. http://www.aasesales.com/products/noloc-b52-340i-106452 They have another piece they sell which is a lot cheaper but the supplier was unsure if it would fit the newer guards. They are meant to be a repair/replace for long hood guards. http://www.aasesales.com/products/g0h-b52-i-s54-65f-106451 I ended up sourcing my FG set through Stan @ Performance 8 and they were about 1/4 the price. Btw thanks for posting your vids. I had a look at a few of yours and sent them to the bodyshop guy as he wasn't sure how to mount the front and rear bar. I still had the bumper shocks on the car and wasn't sure if they were still required.

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I believe there are long hood bumper shocks available, but they are pretty much useless with fibreglass bumpers anyway. You could try to make up some sort of impact bar system under the fibreglass, which I may still do, as there is very little now to stop an impact. I did put in the front strut brace assembly in mine partially to give me some more frontal impact protection if it came to that. Glad the vids came in useful. I have trolled through hours of youtube vids for info on some of those sorts of things myself. Edited 10September, 2016 by MFX

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Don't forget that the space saver spare actually contributes to the front end crash zone and was needed to get through some of the crash testing.

I also remember this from JDMST! I am jealous of that colour, then scrolled further down to see what more to be jealous of.

+1 fellow jdmst refugee love the direction this is taking (ok maybe not the loss of aubergine!) plans engine wise?

That rear end is sensational

looks mean I love it ..................

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Yea will be putting in a new motor. Still finalising a few things so won't disclose as yet.

Hi p-pang, been reading and checking this post with interest... Love your work or your wallet or maybe both!! I'm an RSR fan and interested in the flare option as I have an RS. I'm confused between 930 turbo flares, RSR flares and ST flares. There is evidently a difference in the shape (?) which I'm not quite across but wondering which are yours. What did Stan get you? Also, I hear that adding flares is a lot of work so was also wondering if you & your panel guy sussed out buying the full quarter panels to save all that cutting and welding... I have no idea what a whole panel costs but did you do a compare of $$ before  going the flare option? philby

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I can confirm that wether you go full quarter or just the flare, you are cutting and welding either way

Oh ok... Thanks MFX.  But surely, it's small compared to the flare option, no? So, the full panel is way more $$?

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To be honest I am not sure how far the replacement full quarter goes, but the factory one is folded with the roof to form the drip rail. I think cutting and welding in the flare is the easier way to go. From what I know, the original ST or RSR flares, were basically hand made, so they are not a set style. There are reproductions that are available, but I believe they are only the flare, so you would not have a choice but to cut and weld in. The main visual difference it seems is that the ST/RSR flares are more rounded than the 930 flares which have more of a visual angle in them. From what I gather they are basically the same width and many people like myself just go for the 930 style for ease of availability.

Thanks mate, helpful info. Btw, your car s looking great! ?

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Hey Philby, Yeah I struggled for a long time behind the 930 vs RSR style flares and due to the scarcity (and $$) of metal RSR flares, decided to go the 930 route. As MFX pointed out, the RSR is more rounded but the tapering is different as well. RSR seems to be more angled where's the 930 are more vertical. To be honest, i prefer the RSR flare in look but I was quite adamant about wanting to go mostly metal. During my research as well, people were saying that RSR flares from factory were all hand made so were all slightly different. That didn't play a part in my decision but was interesting. I also debated doing what MFX did with FRP RSR front flares and 930 rears but was worried that it wouldn't match. Now seeing MFX's video, I'm 2nd guessing that decision but overall i'm still happy. Other difference is that the 930 has a more pronounced vertical lip  I've asked my body guy to try and smooth out the lip. Hopefully he can. There's a good thread on PP that actually shows the differences between the lips with photos. In terms of quarter panel vs flare, I decided to go with flares as it was the cheaper option. Rear quarters are harder to source and still require welding. Figured more of the original body i kept on the car, the better. Yes fitting rear flares was a lot of work and took my bodyshop a long time. MFX did it in his video so if you want to see what it entails, recommend checking his youtube channel out. Edited 22September, 2016 by privatepang

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I am keen to see how yours come out, as it is already looking great. As for my fronts, I am pretty sure they are just moulded on 930 guards that have been extended anyway. The steel route you are going is better I think, I just took the easy way out If you want to see the real ones, check out my Le Mans video. The yellow ST in that is original, and in the Rennsport one the Gulf Blue RSR is also original. Stunning cars.

P-pang, thanks for your thoughts... Good info.

So its been about 2 months since last update and it's been slow going. My fitter has been super busy but fortunately has been able to dedicate more time to the car as of late. Prior post, the smash repairer loosely fitted as many of the fibreglass panels on to make it easy to ship the car. As I've seen in many build threads, although the quality of the parts is pretty good, fitment has been challenging to say the least. A lot of cutting, and extending etc had to be done. Kudos to Jeff for doing it on his own but I'm pretty sure I would have failed miserably if i tried to DIY this myself. So first thing that had to be done was to use an airsaw to cut out the middle metal bar that sits just under the engine lid. Once this was done, he loosely fit the bar and as you can see, the sides were quite far off from where it  means the rear flares. Right side wasn't too bad but still needed work Left side fitment was a lot worse The ducktail didn't sit right either as where it mounted to the brackets wasn't level. We had a look at a lot of photos of RSRs (Thanks Raven for all the photos in thread!) and although some cars have the bar and rear flare completely flush, i preferred the look where it tapers out. Ducktail mounting points was also fixed up so it's now level The front hood was also not quite level and had to be cut and reglassed to make sure it was all level. Unfortunately the gas struts I have in there are also too strong as the glass hood is obviously much lighter than the steel ones so i'll need to order a new strut. The latch mechanism also needs to be modified as I ordered the custom hood that has the mounting point in the short hood position so it makes it a lot harder to open. I've seen how Jeff did it in his vid so may need to do the same but i'll deal with that a bit later on. Next up was the front indicator housing. I opted for the fibreglass add ons instead of going full steel here. It was considerably cheaper and end of the day, if i have an accident there, i don't think steel vs fibreglass would make much of a difference. Fitter had to mould it onto the front guards and the hard bit was extending it so it extends the floor flares. The pieces i got were for a narrow body car so this was unavoidable. Brackets also had to be built to support the indicators themselves. The stock window washer reservoir also had to be taken out as well as the back of the indicators on that side was hitting the reservoir. It never worked so wasn't too fussed to be honest. In terms of the front bar, I prefer the cleaner look of the ST front bar (using Jack Olsens car as an example) and struggled to source one locally. The best one that was sourced for me was through a supplier in Queensland. They extended a standard bar to give me the look I wanted and I was warned that it would need a fair bit of work to get it to fit right. Boy were they right. It's still being fixed as we speak but the initial fitment was way off. I dont have pics of the very first fitment but essentially the bar had to be shortened and slimmed down as it sat quite far from the body. My fitter sent me the pics this morning and it didn't quite look right to me. Anyway i was in a bit of a panic as I wanted it to look right especially after all the hassle its been to get the car up to this point. We compared it to more RSR photos (thank that thread again) and again there seems to be a fair bit of differences between each RSR pic but  weagreed on a similar approach to the rear where it tapers towards the flares so he cut the bar down again and will be extending it to the front flare but at least now the area in front of the indicator housing looks a lot better. That pretty much catches us up. I have mad respect for these fitters and didn't really appreciate how much work went into fitting these sort of panels. Hopefully the car will be heading back to the smash repairers in 3 to 4 days with a goal to get it ready for paint by the end of the year. We are already 2 months over the estimated completion date but everyone knows these things always run longer than expected! Til the next update. Edited 18November, 2016 by privatepang

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Son, PLEASE say you're keeping it Aubergine.

That looks like I was lucky. Most of my panels fit a whole lot better out of the box, so I didn't have quite as many headaches. Looks like you are getting there though, coming along nicely.

My panels fitted heaps better than that too. Maybe the moulds are getting a bit tired. My ducktail isn't from Mike but the bumpers and front guards/bonnet are.

It looks like the front bumper issue is that whoever widened it to fit the wider front guards, just cut it in the middle, moved the two pieces apart and filled in the gap, instead of trying to pie cut an stretch the sides out. Looks like it is sorted now, but a lot of work. Good perseverance though.

Thanks for the detailed update, p-p... Fascinating to see and also so excruciating to see all that time and money going into getting those panels right... Good luck. Just wanted to say appreciate the forum effort and admire the workshop efforts too of course.

Any news? Can I place another vote for Aubergine/Purple?

Sorry guys, it's definitely not staying aubergine. Figure it's not going to be an original car anyways so should pick a colour i absolutely love. Progress has been very slow going unfortunately. My arrangement with the panel beater is that my car takes a lower priority than his insurance jobs. To date, the car has been off the road for a year now so i'm really hoping to get it all done this half of 2017. Progress wise, my body panel guy finished all the fibreglass work. I'm not 100 % happy with the way the front bar looks but it's the best he can do. I still need to get the rubbers sorted for the front bar as well. So rest of work required will be stripping the car back to metal and getting the pre paint stuff done. Ive been told it'll be starting shortly so fingers crossed that we hit our target dates. Few pics: Car is now sitting on space savers as i don't want to damage the lindsay wheels during the paint process Edited 20February, 2017 by privatepang

The rubber and alloy deco trims for the bumpers?  If thats what you mean, get onto rennspd.com I bought mine from there. Cheaper price, cheaper freight than anywhere else and here within a week. Just make sure you get the early thin rubber ones, not the S style. They look horrid Also have the sill deco trims if you're fitting them

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Well part of me thinks that's a shame, and the other part says good on you for letting go of what you should do and embracing what you want to do.  These types of builds don't come along very often so you've got to go with what makes you happiest.

Bloody nonconformists! I'd love it to stay Aubergine,  yet Mr Chops hit the nail on the head

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Yeah funny that. I got the rubbers from rennspeed but they don't seem to fit properly. Rears fit fine. I sent a pic of the packagin back to rennspeed guys and they were confident it was the right one. O well. Will see what other options i have, O already have sill deco trims which i'll be re using. Yeah thats pretty much it. Hopefully wont have to do body work again. Was defintely umming and arring about it for a while as i wouldn't have had to respray interior but yeah made the decision and hopefully it all pans out.

So another mini update. I've been slowly collecting parts for Barney and bought a Momo Mod07 years ago which i was planning on installing. Guess years went by and my tastes inevitably changed and when 9er posted a pic of the Jackie Stewart he repaired, I couldn't resist so decided to change it up and bought it from him. He did a great job and fortunately i was able to sell my mod07 to cover the cost of the JS. Got my 2.7 engine dropped as it was time to get the engine bay painted up. Few of you may have seen my For Sale thread. After reading a lot of your feedback, i've been in 2 minds about keeping/selling the motor and basically came down to allowing the price to dictate my decision. If I get close to what i'm asking, i'll sell it otherwise I'll look at keeping it After the engine was dropped, I had to go in and help strip out the rest of the random parts from the engine bay in preparation for painting it. Took a quick snap of the door being stripped down to bare metal. Plan is to do this for the whole car. Lastly, been tossing up a few colour options and after scouring the internet for RSR images as well as a lot of the pics that were posted in the RSR Backdate thread, decided on a colour called Grigio Telesto. Was able to get a sample sprayed onto a paint cup and mulled over the weekend about it. Had a look at it in different lights and I'm not convinced that this is the right colour for me. Doesn't look too modern/metallic. Edited 20March, 2017 by privatepang

I also looked at replacing my engine, as it would be much easier in some ways, to just drop in a 3.2, or 3.6 and get an instant hp increase without the hassle. But for the price of one of those engines, second hand, with no guarantee's, it left a lot to be desired. I am also looking forward to learning about building an engine. @Mike D'Silva just did his 964 and it looks like a really rewarding exercise. I say go for it, particularly as it is the matching numbers engine (it is isn't it?). You keep a bit of authenticity with the car which doesn't hurt either.

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Well I've actually got a replacement engine waiting to be installed once the body is done Built 3.2L twin plug courtesy of Stan @ Performance9 Guess now that cats out of the bag. Stan's been great to deal with and i've gotten the majority of parts for this build through him. About 8 months ago, a 3.6L 964 motor (with no history) came up in Melb for sale. I sent the link to Stan to get his feedback and it so happened that he bought back one of his ex race cars which he had sold some previous years earlier. He was looking to sell the motor and it fit the bill and i pulled the trigger. End of the day, buying a used motor is always a risk and Stan's reputation gives me a higher level of confidence in making this investment. This is what it looked like when it was sent to the mechanic This is how it currently looks: Cant wait to get it into Barney once the body is done. Edited 20March, 2017 by privatepang

Nice. Are they 3.6 inlet manifolds on there? A built engine that you know the history of is a much better option than just picking up something from gumtree.

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Yeah 993 pre varioram

Few goodies arrived today Was impressed with the quick shipping. Would have loved to get the pedals too but needed to keep it under the GST threshold

So getting closer inch by inch. As of last Saturday. guards, front rear bumpers, ducktail, hood have all been polyestered. Body guy was able to slughtly round out the top of the lip. I am not a fan of the vertical lips on the 930 flares so glad this was done. Next will be high fill then onto paint. Hoping to get body done by end of August and looks like we are on track. Been a long 1.5 years but the end is in sight! Edited 17July, 2017 by privatepang

Well done looking good. What do you mean by ' Body guy was able to round out the lip of the turbo flares. I am not a fan of the vertical 930 lips so glad this was done.'?

I know you are looking at changing the colour, and I understand you want something new. But damn that is an awesome colour when it is crispy... Nick, he is talking about the rear guards. On the original RSR's they were hand made, so they were a bit more rounded near the lip, as opposed to the later 930 rear guards which have a bit of a vertical area for about 50mm or so before they roll over toward the windows (if that makes any sense ).

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See attached for an example

^ nasty!

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Whats the wheels in this piccy  B45 Simmons? I wish Rotiform made a 15

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fikse wheels. i have a set. high quality, long wait time...

Damn i need to fix up the photos from previous posts. Stupid photobucket! Ok so been a little while since I've done an update. Since July, I've picked up my new carrera 915 with oil cooler and dropped that off at the mechanics to mate with my new motor. Once body is done, i'll be towing it there to get the drivetrain installed. Forgot to take pics of the 915 but it's a rebuilt unit from BWA which looked crisp. Back to the body shop. So mid September, I had to get the auto electrics taken out in preparation for painting the interior. Interior was all done few days later but i'm now rethinking my initial decision to run a naked interior... I'll likely look at putting in interior carpets. Edited 8October, 2017 by privatepang

Fast forward to the present day and the body is now painted. Bonnet, ducktail, doors front and rear bars still need to be done I was super excited to see if the colour would come out as I had hoped and i was blown away. Still needs to be cut & buffed etc but the shade of grey was perfect. I cant wait to see it in natural light. As you can see, the lips were rounded out a bit so you don't have the flat lip Signal box extensions were also done really well. They're actually fibreglass pieces joined onto the metal guards/flares. Took a lot of work to get it looking standard Edited 9October, 2017 by privatepang

What an epic colour selection!!! Love it!

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Let me guess, Rennspeed product?  Don't get me started on those bloody things! Just attached mine today after LOTS of mucking around. Never, ever again!! Otherwise, I love the colour mate, nice one

that colour (and the car) looks fantastic

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Dont think so. I got it off Stan @ Performance9 but unsure where he sourced it from.

loving that ,,,looks fantastic

Looks fantastic. Great stuff!

That's beautiful....go naked...not many have the opportunity & that looks so good.

Ooh yeah, the colour is awesome!!

Just a walk around i did in the booth. Edited 10October, 2017 by privatepang

Hot hot hot. Love it and very jealous you're at the paint stage. Congrats. Re the naked interior that's going to be really loud and echo'ee. Why not go an RS carpet set which is still clean but just takes the edge off the acoustics. Or tell me to HTFU!

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Thx. Yeah i'm looking to buy a carpet set but just trying to source one for now. I'll at least have the option either way.

http://www.rennspd.com/P_Detail.asp?PID=766&Task=STD

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That's the carpet set I have. I have pictures in my build thread if you want to see fitment. It wasn't too bad, not perfect but you can make it work.

looks awesome Nick-it looks so good you may not want to track it... looks awesome Nick-it looks so good you may not want to track it... looks awesome Nick-it looks so good you may not want to track it.. looks awesome Nick-it looks so good you may not want to track it..

Over the weekend, I went and fitted the wheels back on the car. Paint looks lighter than when it was in the booth so keen to see what it'll look like under natural light. Had a scary moment where I wasn't paying attention (was trying to take photos) and the car jack pole sprung up and almost hit the car... my heart missed a few beats... auto electrician also started to put the wiring back in the car and this week the rest of the parts will be getting painted up. Once that's done, it'll be interior, glass and and car should be ready to make the journey up to Autowerks to get the drive train installed. Getting there ! Wheels are Lindsey Racing 17x9 fronts running 255x40 & 17x11 rears running 315x35 Edited 16October, 2017 by privatepang

Trust me on this. Make sure you cover every panel when installing any glass, especially the rear quarter windows. Been there, done that, had a cry at dinging and scratching new black paint! ??

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Point strongly made

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O i'm not going to attempt that myself. Will leave that to the pros

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Why not, the front window is so easy.......

apologies for my stutter

So had to get the auto electrician to come back in and reinstall the electricals and get an auto trimmer guy to come back and install my new headliner. Left it to the pros as the last thing i want is a saggy headliner... reinstalled the interior and the body guys fitted up all the panels. Unfortunately when the glass was taken out, the moldings were bent so hunted around for a windshield guy that would be willing to take it on and smooth out the bends. No luck so far... That last bit aside, car got buffed out and loaded onto the tow truck today to make the trip up to Gosford to get the drive train installed as well as a few other bits to be completed. My mechanic reckons he knows someone that can fit up the windshield without having to buy new moldings so fingers crossed. First time Barney has seen the sky in almost 2 years and hopefully the last time he'll be on a tow truck! (doubt it...)

Got rake? ? Nice one fella, car looks fantastic. Great feeling after they've been in hibernation for so long. A Good window installer should be able to sort your trim pretty easily, as mine were buggered, yet turned out fine

That's some aggressive tread pattern in those rears!!!!!

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Just a thought, but maybe you could try a paintless dent removal guy to get the mouldings straight again. You will still need to fit the window yourself, or get a window guy to do it afterwards though.

Great progress and looking fantastic??

Since the last update, car was towed up to Autowerks in Wyong where they are doing all the mechanicals. Simon has been great to deal with and I highly recommend their shop Under fender front oil cooler has been installed. Although most RSR builds have the front mounted coolers, I personally prefer cleaner ST style front bar so went with this option. Being a 75, had to source a set of used oil lines as well We also made the decision to go with adjustable rear spring plates to avoid the effort of mucking around with torsion bar adjustment I have no photos of the wiring but the loom had to be extended so the motec could be stored in the cabin rather than in the engine bay. Once that was done, heat soak padding and engine bay matt was installed and the new motor was fitted Kids came to see Barney for the first time in the shop and were super excited. Race muffler that came with the engine was trial fitted but call was made to get a new replacement as I prefer dual pipes and am worried this race exhaust would be excessively loud. I'll be putting it up for sale in the coming weeks if anyone's interested Opted to go with the Dansk sports muffler. Looks awesome and waiting for some metal straps! Simon had to make some adaptors to get it to fit with my headers. My starter motor needed upgrading too so ordered the high torque starter from Rebel Racing which should have enough juice. Also had to order replacement flanges for my rebuilt gearbox so that I can re use my half shafts. After that, there will a few little things but hopefully only a few weeks from getting Barney back on the road. It's been a long 2 years but i'm sure it'll be all worth it soon enough.

Went to check Barney out again and got Simon to start up the car. Will need to get the motec tuned but it was a huge relief to hear it rev freely. Loving the note of the dansk sports muffler too!

Unreal mate... I almost forgot it used to be aubergine.. almost! Looks great.

So June update, interior is mostly installed. Running majority of it naked. Flange on my rebuilt 84 gearbox doesn't match up with my half shafts so we had to get them sent away to get them modified and waiting on that prior to a tune. I have those uncommon self leveling struts as well so the new inserts I bought don't fit... thinking of a cost effective solution to this.. mostly likely scenario will be to get Koni to modify them to suit as you can't buy the required inserts anymore. Latest ETA will be next month! Fingers crossed.

So car is pretty much done but still needs a tune. I couldn't wait and went for a short test drive to just get a feel for it. Going to be interesting post tune as car currently doesn't like it under 3000 rpms. Will need to get used to driving it all over again and hopefully not burning out the clutch lol

Who are you going to use to tune it?

Super impressed mate - sounds awesome too!

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Autowerks is going to dyno tune it for me but it'll just be a basic one as I've run out of budget for a full tune.

well done Nick! looking forward to a sunday morning targa down the Old Pacific Highway!

Barney's finally home. Been a long 2 years but was all worth it when I put my foot down and felt the difference. As Simon @ Autowerks put it, Barney is cranky on idle but comes alive on the revs. Few niggly bits to get sorted out but at least he's driving.

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Love the colour! What Diameter rims are they?

Congrats mate, car looks a bewty!!!

Stunning.....just stunning. Congrats mate.....I hate you ? ?

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17x9 and,17x11

Looks great. I am very jealous.

Pretty sure I saw Barney at the park up in Cronulla on Sunday? Looking great - and loving the child seats!

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Yep we were there. Brought the whole family with scooters prams etc in the frunk. Kids were more enamoured by the face painting than the awesome cars there

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Mine too... Although they enjoyed the free flags, X-box racing game and $20 toy cars!

Has there been anything like the Sydney event in Melbourne?

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Yep. 20 years ago for the 20th celebration.

A few IG shots from the concourse

Really didn't do the car justice but was fun nonetheless. PCNSW Motorkhana Practice Day

So it's taken a while to get a tune done as I ran out of budget but took a long time debating if I should save up  to replace the 20 year old Motec M8 or to fine someone to tune it. In the end, found Phil Armour from Armour Motorsports and he mentioned he learnt how to tune back in the 90s on the M8  and it would be good enough to run my car. Ended up taking the car to him back in July and he was shocked at the way the car drove pre-tune. Suffice to say, post tune, car drives more way nicer rather than a grumpy rotary. Night and day. I do miss the race car like burble but its so much smoother now and power is way more linear. Highly recommend Phil as he's a no bs type a guy and super knowledgeable. Power unfortunately wasn't quite what i was expecting but i think i had crank HP in my mind instead of ATW power and end of the day car has more power than i need right now. Making 228 HP ATW , 200 FtLb Torque

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Nick, Don't sweat the numbers as the Yanks often quote Dynojet numbers which are very liberal and often then add 15% to the wheel reading to indicate a crank number.  Very disheartening if you are wanting to compare a Mainline reading for example.  At the end of that day, if it goes like a rocket, it is! Oh, you might find your torque figure is actually closer to 200ftlb rather that 680.... PS: Still think this is the best titled thread on PFA!

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Ah woops! Thanks for the pick up. Appreciate the feedback

That looks like a decent power output at the wheels. Remind me what the engine is again?

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3.2 twin plug

there you go....I thought it was from a 964

The 3 stud inlet stubs makes it look like its got 964 heads.  Have the 3.2 head inlets been re-drilled?

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as one user put it when describing "US horsepower" " USHP originated in the United States, hence the US, but over time, through the internet and instant global communication, its use has spread widely around the globe. Although often perceived as a unit of measurement, USHP can best be described as a variable, as there is no fixed conversion factor of USHP to kW, PS or HP. The convention of shortening the unit “USHP” to simply “HP” in written and oral communication leads to further confusion, since 1USHP is never equal to 1HP. In most cases it’s possible to determine if the power described is USHP or HP from the geographical source of the given measurement; if the source is located within North America it will most likely be a figure in USHP, even though it is reported as HP. If the source is outside of North America, then further assessment may be required to determine the actual units being used. Attempting to establish an approximate conversion of USHP to HP can be problematic, since the USHP is indeed a variable, and there are many factors that influence the final numbers presented as a measurement. A comparative survey of published dynamometer results from North America (confirmed to be USHP), compared to those from Australia, Germany and the United Kingdom, (confirmed to be HP), for comparable engines and vehicles, in both modified and un-modified states, has shown a considerably wide range of variation. Whilst it is difficult to plot a trend that encompasses all influencing factors, variations as slight as 1USHP = 0.96HP, right up to 1USHP = 0.68HP, have been observed." 🤣

If the yanks can’t work out what a meter is,  how can they be expected to be able to calculate horsepower 🙄

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To be honest, i have no idea whether it was re drilled. Bought the motor in it's current configuration.

Mini project today . Have had a fire extinguisher I've been meaning to install so gave it a go. Ended up installing it on the seat frame so it moves with the seat. Not the prettiest solution but better than rolling around.

So seeing as we're in lockdown , thought i'd do a general update to get this thread up to speed. So barney spent about 2 - 3 months of 2020 off the road unfortunately. First it was the bearings in the distributor that was causing it to run horribly, i thought it was a tuning issue so on the way back from the tuner (who fixed the bearings), on the M4 and the car basically broke down. Had to get it towed to my local mechanic as none of the other shops were available. Long story short, had to get the pressure plate machined, leaks were coming from a few places but main one ended up being rear main seal letting go and puking oil everywhere. Unfortunately motor  and tranny had to come out of the car a few times before it was properly fixed. Super frustrating and 2 clutch plates later we finally got it sorted in the end... Fortunately once it got fixed i was able to go on a few drives We did a quick drive around Putty Road, across the punt and back via Hunter Valley, Gosford Old Pac. Was lucky enough to run with a few mates, 3 of which had a 986 Boxster, 991.1 Carrera GTS below and another with a Cayman GTS. Surprisingly i was able to keep with the pace. Back end of the 2020 wasn't too eventful. Come 2021,, before having to head back to work early Jan, decided to take the family to Dubbo. I test fitted the pod thinking we may need the additional storage but yeah it was super ridiculous and i'm sure not all that safe... we made do with just the frunk and in cabin space for the 4 of us (packed very light). I ended up buying generic autobarn roof racks based off another member off here and its a pretty good fit however i still need to get some rubber to protect the rails. Will also be using the bike rack if its just me going for a ride but yet to actually do this. Yet to test this at speed but will report back when i eventually do. We took off from Sydney and fortunately it wasn't too hot.. (no aircon). First stop Katoomba for a quick lunch then drove through torrential rain with downed trees. Suffice to say modern cars were stopping on the side of the road due to the amount of rain fall... You could barely see 1.5 metres in front of the car and my wipers were not keeping up to the task so had to take it super slow. We finally made it to Mudgee by the end of the day. One of the more stressful drives i've been on. Following few days we just chilled out around town and hit up a winery which was super picturesque. on the 3rd day we started our drive to Dubbo and i gotta say the country roads are super fun and the kids had a ball at the zoo. Super  neat town and we'd be keen to go back and check it out. On the way home, we decided to break up the trip and hit up Bathurst and that was my first time there! Couldn't pass up driving Mount Panorama (embarrassingly the first time i drove it, went the wrong way lol.). After Bathurst , straight shot home and wow Mount Victoria is fun to climb, pity with the  low speed limits... Overall believe we did about 850 k's on the trip and car handled it well. Unfortunately, a few months ago, someone keyed my car along the rear quarters so got that all fixed up a few weeks ago. Think we're caught up now! Here's to more adventures once lockdown ends...

So since I let go my fixed back GTS Classic seats years ago, been on the hunt for decent replacements. Although I absolutely love the Recaro Pole Positions, with the kids still being able to fit in the rear it wasnt an option. I resigned myself to the stock seats that I had to constantly gaffa tape up to stop it from ripping further. After years of searching, i finally found a supplier in melbourne (GTX Garage) who has a trimmer that imports classic recaros and retrims it. As i was quite particular about the specific LS (with the right size bolsters) i wanted, I had to be patient til the right one popped up but in the end super stoked with the results and service from Nick at GTX. For those of you looking to install Recaro LS's, the 911 rails fit, you just need to drill bigger holes on the rails to mount the rail to the seat. Here are the before and after pics Oh and these were the donor seats

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They look amazing! Would love some in my Dato. Will check him out!

Not really worth an update to be honest but hey if anyone wants to know how steel wheel nuts look Vs original worn aluminium nuts

Been super happy with my front seats and up to this point, I've had kids booster seats in the back but now that my girls are getting a little bit older, thought it was time grab my rear seat cushions (with 50 year old disintegrated horse hair) out from storage and get a shop to create a new pair of cushions in the same houndstooth material as my front seats. Here are the results. I decided against re doing the back rests as I quite like having it broken up otherwise it's a bit too much houndstooth for my liking.

Wow been 3 years since I've done an update. Let's catch us up a little. 2024 Had a clutch cable go me just as I was pulling into Chatswood Westfield. Got my local mechanic to fix it but clutch cable needed adjustment after which I tried to DIY the adjustment and ended up snapping 2 of the clutch cable brackets trying to tighten it so gave up and went to BWA . Should have just done that from the beginning... Other than that decided on a few mods. First was to replace my Jackie Stewart wheel. I love this wheel but the leather is coming loose and at some point I plan on getting it restored. Decided to replace it with the trusty prototypo which took me a while to get used to as the feel in your hands is a lot skinnier compared to the JS. We also do an annual camping trips with the kids and this year decided to do sports car camping at Glenworth valley , got a few odd looks from other fellow campers but the 911 handled with ease. I've since taken this on 3 other camping trips, just need to pack light for the family. This was now approaching back half of 2024 and in preparation for a bucket list item in 2025 decided to install sound deadening. My initial thoughts of a naked interior didn't age well and after doing this , long road trips are way more enjoyable. I used to feel exhausted after long drives, I still do a little bit but its way better.

2025 Bucket list item for me was to take the family on a roadtrip to Tassie. Pre kids we did a big trip in Barney down the west coast of the US as shown on the first page of this post and I look fondly at those times. This trip we had to wait for the sweet spot where kids were old enough to enjoy the trip but not too big that they couldn't fit in the back. Lucky we were able to convince 2 other families to come in their sports cars. We started out in Sydney and made our way to Geelong via the coast then got on the Spirit of of Tassie and did davenport Launceston and Hobart. Found a few Targa Tassie routes as well and gave that a go. My only regret was not having enough time to do the bay of fire, we got a small taste test by going to Swansea but we will definitely be back. Kids did a great job documenting the journey as well Only other thing that happened in 2025 was taking the car on the track for the first time as luddenham. Only managed a 1.03 which is bad and to be honest too stressful. I've since started to track a NC mx5 instead which has been more enjoyable as the stakes are a lot lower

My wife and I drove from Townsville to Melbourne several years ago in our 993 C2 then on the ferry over to Tasmania. What a blast.  The west coast is one of the best drives I've done. Long curves undulating hills and no traffic.  Would recommend it to anyone.

We'll let you visitors keep doing those well publicised roads, and keep the really good stuff for ourselves 😉