Restoration Wednesday, 1987 Porsche 928 S4

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14 months later and I can finally say, I drove my 928 S4. When I bought the car in October of 2013, the car literally went around the block before being put on the trailer and shipped off to my mechanic’s because it wouldn’t stay running. And we all know how long it sat with Stephen, no offense. Friday, I drove the car home about 45 minutes down the freeway where I took it up to 100 mph then on the back roads stomped it to 60 mph. The tires are a bit out of balance and the auto tranny shift down cable needs to be tightened to get 3rd gear drops under hard acceleration, but no matter. For a guy that hates red and automatics, I softened to the sounds of 32 valves pushing 300+ horsepower. The overall driving experience compared favorably to my ’78 euro spec 5 spd. The look, pure Porsche.

The bugger, and there are always buggers, happened in the garage during the polishing process. I rubbed down the headlight bucket and lens to clean the dirt road off, the roads were dry all the way except near my house, as the lens tumbled off the front of the car and shattered on the cement. The glass was apparently cracked all the way around the seal and just being held in by friction. My rubbing set it free. Price of a new Bosch H5 headlight? $400. Ouch. I did find one used for $175 shipped but it still wasn’t the punch I was looking to take so soon after the beating I took on LH computer and MAF rebuilds totally about $1000. These cars are simply not cheap.

The little gear pictured on my desk is supposed to replace the stripped ones on my passenger seat. They were ordered through Pelican, have 928 parts numbers and according to the parts diagram looked to be the perfect match. They are not. If you look closely you will see the opening to put the gear on the shaft is considerably smaller than the shaft itself. I’m going to have to call around to find the right pieces. I think Pelican might be a dead end at this point. I’ve also started pulling apart the interior to clean, fix and tidy. More about that in a couple of weeks. Right now I’m thoroughly enjoying owning a piece of my teenage car culture youth when the Testarossa and 928 S4 were the super cars of their day. It’s hard to believe 1/2 of that super car history with 5.7 sec 0-60 and a top speed of 165 mph is parked in my garage. And it’s red. Guards red.

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