1987 Porsche 930 "dirty"
Dirty: Prepping for Targa California (June 2013)
There is an old saying you hear quite often that “proper preparation predicts perfect performance”. The flip side of this is the warning that “poor preparation precedes pathetic performance”.
With these two thoughts in mind, I decided to get off my keester and into the garage to do a proper nut-and-bolt inspection of my 1987 Porsche 930 (the “Dirty 930”) to get ready for Targa California 2013.
The Targa California is an event “disorganized” by long time Porsche guru Dave Bouzaglou from TRE Motorsports in Van Nuys, CA. Dave was one of the miscreants roaring up and down Mulholland Drive in the 1970’s and still spends a great deal of time hooning around the back roads of the Golden State so he is a certified B-road expert. Each year he picks out a route for 100 or so of his closest friends to enjoy behind the wheels of all sorts of vintage motors with neat stops along the ways and bench racing gatherings in the evenings.
A big part of enjoying the Targa is having a reliable car that does not leave you sitting alongside a very peaceful country lane contemplating the nature of your mechanical travail. Even worse is having a mechanical problem that ends up with you performing Bikram yoga moves to extract yourself from a crunched car serenely settled in a select part of the picturesque California landscape.
So as not to end up in one of those states, I began the in-depth inspection of Ol’ Dirty to make sure all was in proper fettle. I have been driving the car almost daily for a few weeks to note any strange behavior but other than a squeaky A/C compressor (fixed by removing the belt) she ran as a properly sorted 930 of her era should. Boost was good, shifts were crisp, and the handling was its usual tricky self.
A good nut-and-bolter starts with the car in the air with its wheels removed and all the tender bits exposed to the harsh glare of an inspection light. The key systems to inspect are brakes, suspension, ignition, fuel, motor, transmission, and steering. Although the Targa does not run during the nighttime hours, you will also want to check your lamps and also ensure all the electrics that help with the weather are working well as the coastal route of the Targa can often serve up some unpredictable weather at times. I have seen rain, snow, mud, cows, and grasshopper swarms so make sure the wipers work well.
The first thing to look for while you are crawling around is any disturbance in the force, er, dirt that is usually under most cars. Do you see something that is too clean? Fluid leaking where there was nothing before? No fluid where there used to be a healthy leak? All of these things point towards something that is going to go ka-bang 15 miles south of BFE so poke, prod, and pull to see if you can figure out what might be amiss.
The next task is to put a wrench, screwdriver, or socket on everything you can see that can fit a wrench, screwdriver, or socket. Oil fittings, drain plugs, axle bolts, trans mounts, engine mounts, coolant hoses, and anything else that could loosen up and fall off should get a quick turn of the wrench to make sure all is snug. While you are touring around under bonnet you should also take a quick look at any belts to make sure they are not glazed, fraying or cracking. I failed to catch a leaky intercooler seal last year so I had an inconsistent idle and oil leaks all over the engine compartment that only stopped when I duct taped all the intercooler fittings together in the truest Ricky Bobby spirit.
Once all is well there, you need to pay attention to your dearest’s vital fluids. You should plan on an oil change, trans fluid refresh, coolant service, and brake and or clutch master fluid flush to get any crunky old lubricants or fluids out of there and filled with new to ensure all is well and ready for service. Dirty had just had an oil change with valve adjust and a trans rebuild within the last 300 miles so I mainly concerned myself with the brake fluid as coolant is verboten in an oil cooled ass engine Nazi slot car.
Once you have all that done, a nice bath and good cleaning of the inside is in order. Start the trip clean so you aren’t enjoying funky smells and grimy windows. The car will most likely come home filthy but at least you can begin the event squeaky clean and ready for fun. You should also find a stained old duffle bag than can hold some key spares like fuses, relays, oil, brake fluid, and perhaps other items that are known to crump from time to time on your particular sort of ride.
So, hopefully my prep was good and Dirty is now ready for 1,000 miles of the Targa California. Check @gearheadtourist on Twitter for updates-hopefully none involve a flatbed or pictures of me hiking along in the twilight with my thumb out…
Dirty: Belting it out (June 2014)
One thing that is often neglected in older cars is the seat belt assembly. Over time, the belts can become crusty and as they age they lose a significant amount of their strength and can snap in a big wreck. The retractor mechanisms also can wear out which could also be a disaster if the belt failed to tension as designed in a big impact.
When I first got my Targa (“Sally”) I notice the belts in the car were very faded and sun damaged. This made sense as the car spent its entire life in the desert between Scottsdale and Palm Springs. I found that the best supplier for new belts was Professionally Engineered Products which is also known as Go Westy since their main business is offering parts for older VW Westfalia camper vans.
Since then, the belts Go Westy offers have changed a bit and no longer can be used with the factory belt latches so to refit Dirty properly I was going to have to remove and replace the belt latches along with the belts and retractor assembly.
The retractor lives just under the trim panel for the rear quarter panels and is held in place with one 17mm bolt. I found both sides to be monstrously overtorqued and I needed a breaker bar to get them loose. They let loose with a mighty squeal so the torque value was way up there. Since these were the original factory belts I can only assume the factory set them that way but with old cars you just never know who has been in there. Since every bolt on this car has been seriously over tightened, I can only assume that Herr Overtorker may have monkeyed with the seat belts too.
Once the bolts are all removed, the assembly comes out fairly easily once the belt is threaded through the quarter panel trim. As they say in the book, installation is the reverse of removal but a pro tip is to make sure you don’t have the belt twisted the wrong way before you snug everything down. I had to flip the mounting on the floor as I did initially install it in the wrong orientation.
Now that the retractors and belts were done it was time to tackle the latches. This should have been easy with just a single bolt holding the latch to the seat frame but as sometimes can happen , the driver’s side was a bear to get done because the wiring harness for the belt alert light was zip tied to the seat coils with the world’s tiniest and least accessible ties. I ended up having to completely remove the seat to get this done. Unfortunately, the new receivers lack the proper wiring to have the warning light work but thankfully with the wiring unplugged the light stays off because of the design of the latch assembly that turns off the light by breaking the circuit when the belt is latched.
With the driver’s side done, I moved on to the passenger side which luckily lacked the wiring for the warning light so I was done in a quarter of the time that it took me to do the driver’s side because I did not have to remove the seat or fumble around with the wiring.
Dirty is now ready for the summer driving season and we can wheel confidently knowing that our safety belts are now in good order.