Exhaust(ed) Replacement

Since I was on a tight budget and exhaust parts for this car are astronomical, I actually found a used exhaust on ebay for a good price.

It came in the mail and I began to work. To say the least, it was the toughest job I've ever performed on a car. The nuts and bolts all were rusted solid and already partially stripped. I ended up buying all kinds of tools and doodads and finally after about 20 hours the old exhaust was out and the replacement was in.

There was very little room underneath the car so I had to use small tools. Ryobi drills were the only drills that were small enough to maneuver. I had a cheaper Ryobi and bought a newer Lithium Ion drill shown below which came in a nice soft case to transport. I also used some pretty amazing cobalt drill bits from Rigid. After killing a few other drill bits I gave my pops a call and he said I needed some cobalt bits. Rigid were the only cobalt bits I could find and they worked great.

I looked all over the place for a small hack saw to cut the bolt off and the one I went with was a small Lenox with heavy metal blades. The salesman at Home Depot told me this brand was my best bet so I bought the saw and some blades and luckily it fit

In place of the old steel fasteners I installed stainless steel nuts and bolts so the next person who worked on the car would not have to go through what I did to get the exhaust off.

Seriously, I would like to never think about this again, I'm just thankful it's over. Here are some pictures of the process.

--M/o

Third Step: Body Work

When I bought the car, it had a small dent under the passenger headlamp that was ruining its appearance. Could I successfully pop this dent back out or would I need to fill, prime, and paint it? The answer turned out to be both.

I was able to pound out most of the dent with some mallets and clamps but there were still some areas that wouldn't pop out thanks to the solid sheet metal used on older cars.

So I sanded the area down with 320 grit sand paper and filled it with body filler. It took about 4 or 5 coats of filling and sanding to get the perfect surface I was looking for.

Since the nose panel and headlamp covers had so many stone chips I decided to sand down and prime them too. Luckily I had access to a spray booth because primer is highly toxic and should only be used in well ventilated areas.

I also filled and primed a few other areas of the car that needed attention including a spot by the passenger rear wheel and an area on the rear end. (There will be plenty more body work to come when I prepare the car for its new paint job.)

The results turned out great, especially given that this was the first bit of body work that I've done. Check out the results below!

--M/o

Second Step: Tune-up

It was obvious that the Porsche needed a tune-up based on some slight hesitation and lack of zip the car should have had. I went all over for the parts I needed based on price, quality, and convenience.

But before I could do any real work under the hood, I needed some new hood strut supports so it would stay open. I ended up searching on Ebay and found a pretty cheap pair.

Be careful when installing these on a 944 because there is very little clearance between the endpoints of the hood and the windshield. You'll see in the photo to the right how close the corner of the hood comes to touching the windshield (about 1/4 inch). When lifting the hood to install the hood supports, I cracked the driver side of the windshield without knowing. Terrible design Porsche! Luckily I had to replace it already so no worries. (click on any photo to enlarge)

For the tune-up, I started with Bosch Platinum +4 spark plugs which don't require gapping and have four ground electrodes for optimal access to the air and fuel mixture. They were not very expensive and I was confident that they'd do the trick.

Next, a new distributor rotor from PelicanParts.com. It was a quick and easy replacement and made a huge different in the car's performance.

Good ignition wires took some time to source. They are expensive but are vital to how the car
starts and runs. I found a link on one of the many member online forums to some good, cheap Magnecor 8.5mm racing ignition wires with a lifetime warranty. If they ever go bad, you can get a free replacement, what a great deal!

It's important to install ignition wires in the correct order so the car "fires" in the correct order. Other wise the car won't run right and possibly won't even start. Do this by removing one wire at-a-time and replacing that wire with the correct new wire. This way, there is no mix up.

After all was installed and ready-to-go, I started the car and heard a nice, healthy sounding rumble coming from the engine. I took it out for a spin and instantly I felt a better response to the throttle and much more power.

Tune-ups are completely underrated and should be done at the mileage stated in your owner's manual. All cars are different so refer to your owner's manual for all procedures. If your car isn't running like it used to, give 'er a tune-up! Any costs are worth it in the long run.

After the tune-up, I threw on some new windshield wipers because the car desperately needed them. Cost of two new blades was $10.68

Next, I replaced the cracked windshield. I was able to source 1 salvage windshield with the embedded antenna in the whole tri-state area. Apparently the windshields cracking from the hood is a pretty big problem with these cars. I drove all the way out to Medford Auto Wreckers on Long Island to pick up this $217 piece of glass and drove it home laid out over the passenger seat for an hour and a half drive. It was nerve-racking to say the least but luckily I was able to get it home in one piece.

I had NJ Auto Glass come to my place and install the windshield in about 40 minutes. They did a great job and took the old, broken windshield with them. Not many companies will install glass that you bought from somewhere else but they were happy to do it. They charged me $125 for the installation. Together the windshield cost me $342. Much cheaper than buying a new one for over $500 plus installation.



The totals so far:

$2500 cost of car
$417.55 new tires
$115.92 tune-up
$10.68 wiper blades
$342 windshield + installation
$3386.15 total

Tune in for the next 944 job: Body work!

--M/o

Why won't Americans buy American cars?

What's the last American made car that you wanted for under $30k. Okay, maybe you like the Mustang or Camaro. Aside from these exceptions to uncool American cars, what else is there???

I mean, have you seen recent tv ads for GM? What's with the "let the better car win" crap? What has GM won in the past decade? Maybe Motor Trend "truck of the year," and lately those Motor Trend awards have been going to foreign cars. Seriously though, why won't Americans buy American cars?

Let's start by breaking down the competition for GM, Ford, and Chrysler. GM offers plenty of cars between $15-30k. Take for instance the Chevy Cobalt starting just under $15k, and the Pontiac G6 starting just under $20k, and the Saturn Aura starting just under $23k. There are plenty more to choose from but the problem is they're all basically the same car and they're not very desirable cars.

So who are these cars for? GM has 42 SUVs and trucks, 18 sedans, 8 coupes, 4 convertibles, 2 wagons and 1 hatchback. That's right 1 hatch! Out of hundreds of cars and trucks to choose from there is 1 hatchback and 8 coupes.

The Saturn Astra is the only hatchback GM has and the Volvo C30 is the only hatch that Ford has to offer (I still don't consider Volvo a Ford). Personally, I like both but would I buy either? The last new cars I was looking at were affordable hatches, coupes, and few (sport) sedans. I had very little choice of American hatches in a sea of VW GTI's/Golfs/Beetles, Mazda 3's, Honda Civic Si's and Mini Coopers.

Which coupes do GM, Ford, and Chrysler have to offer? Okay here goes...So who are these cars for? That's what the GM marketing team needs to ask themselves. What competitor cars are similar but better and possibly cheaper?! Don't get me wrong, I am not just criticizing to hate on the US Auto industry. I want to see it improve and I'm sure there are plenty of Americans out there that would agree.

Ford: Mustang & Focus
Mercury: 0
Lincoln: 0
Chevy: Camaro, Cobalt, Corvette
Pontiac: Solstice, G6
Cadillac: XLR
Saturn: Sky
Buick: 0
GMC: 0
Chrysler: 0
Dodge: Viper, Challenger

Okay, the Corvette, XLR, and Viper are out of my league along with most people. The Focus, Cobalt and G6 are ugly, not very sporty and cheap looking. So I have the Mustang, Camaro, Challenger, Solstice and Sky to choose from. As much as I like the Camaro, I probably would never buy one because of the price and sheer principal. The day of the muscle car was over 30 years ago. If I want a muscle car I'll go buy a '69 Camaro for the same price and have a piece of automotive history.

I like the Mustang more because ford has incorporated a modern aesthetic that doesn't necessarily into the muscle car category, plus I like the design better than the Camaro aside from gaudy chrome wheels. The Challenger is just too retro for me. And the Solstice & Sky, well they're cool looking cars but what's the difference between the two?

Within my price range I had the Mustang, Camaro, and Soltice/Sky to choose from in the American market. Get ready for the competition now...Audi TT(Germany), VW Eos(Germany), BMW 1-series(Germany), Honda Accord coupe/Civic coupe/S2000(Japan), Nissan Z/Altima coupe(Japan), Hyundia Tiburon/Genesis coupe(Korea), Mazda Miata/RX-8(Japan), Mitsubishi Eclipse(Japan), Scion tc(Japan).....If you increase the budget by $5k there are a mess load of other imported cars to choose from.

I was also looking into a few affordable, sporty sedans. In the American market there are only the Volvo S40 (not American to me) and the Cadillac CTS which costs more than a BMW 3-series.

Some sporty sedans that I was looking at were:

Mitsubishi Lancer

Mazda3
Mazda6
Volkswagen Passat
Acura TSX
Subaru WRX/STi
Nissan Sentra SE-R
Saab 9-3 Sport Sedan

Why doesn't GM or Ford offer sporty little sedans? Why is there no Audi A4 killer in the American line-up? I think it's pretty simple. Develop a car to compete with the best sellers and sell it for less, believe me GM, Americans will buy it! And sorry, the Chevy Malibu is too Motherly and big for me, and the Ford Fusion is just plain boring.
What happened to cool American cars or just nice cars in general?

Here is my list of cars that GM, Ford, and Chrysler(which is not American owned anymore) need to at least try to compete with in order for Americans to buy:

Toyota FJ-Cruiser: The Ford Flex was a good attempt at creating something new but a completely different car. Not very utilitarian.

Subaru WRX/STi & Mitsubish Lancer EVO: Subari has an image. Rally, sporty, compact. What image does GM or Ford have? Ford offers the Focus RS in Europe but not here. Let's see it!

Mazda Speed3:Pontiac has the vibe...just change the face of it, give it a sport-tuned suspension, add a supercharger and call it a day.

Toyota Prius & Honda Insight: If you noticed, the best selling hybrid in America is the

Toyota Prius. Why not the Fusion Hybrid or the Malibu Hybrid? It's because they are half-assed. The Prius is it's own car as well as the Insight. The Fusion and Malibu are just different versions of what's already available. Give it a whole new name and body and they'll sell a ton. Or if you want to be different, make a hybrid V8 Mustang.

Volkswagen CC: GM and Ford better answer to this as soon as possible because this car is going to

change Volkswagen's position in the United States for good. Volkswagen is going to be the Toyota that everybody wants.
I can think of hundreds more that GM and Ford need to be competing with but this is a great starting point.I want to buy American and I think it's vital for our economy but I don't want the reason I buy one to be that I'm

"patriotic." I'm a human being/consumer that wants the best product I can find for the best price so why settle?

It seems as if GM and Ford (and many other American companies) think the only U.S. consumers are between the ages of 40 and 80, live in the suburbs with 4 kids and a dog and like big, bulky, heavy cars that can't go around a turn without massive balance issues. That may have been true 35 years ago but look at all the imports on the roads these days compared to 35 years ago.

If Volkswagen/Audi, Honda/Acura, Nissan/

Infiniti, Toyota/Lexus/Scion keep making better cars than U.S. auto makers there will be no U.S. auto makers left.

So please GM and Ford...open your eyes and give us something desirable!

And if you think that Ford and GM are incapable of much cooler cars here are models available in other countries that we don't get here.

--M/o

First Step: Tires!

If you remember, the 944 had some rotting tires when I bought it so the first and most important thing to do was to put some good shoes on it. I took it to STS in Fair Lawn, NJ (the town where I bought the car).
I had never been to STS and actually went there just because it was nearby. I dropped the car off during the day and picked it up later that evening.
I chose the Federal SS-657's high-performance and all-weather because this is the type of car that can be driven any time of year (aside from snow).
One great thing about this 944, it came with locks for the lug nuts so the wheels can't be stolen. I left the manager with the keys to a car that I didn't legally own yet and went to get the it registered while I awaited my brand new tires.
The Federals turned out to be a good choice, very little road noise and they fill the wheel well nicely. I've tried hard to get these tires to slip, spin, fishtail but they stick to the road all too well. That combined with the limited-slip differential this car handles like a charm and laughs at curves for even trying.

STS gave me a pretty good deal and some goodies came along with the purchase. I got a 10% discount coupon for my next purchase, free alignment check every 12 months, free flat repair for the life of the tires, and free rotation for the life of the tires. Not a bad deal!

After the car was home and parked safely, I went straight to the sink, filled a bucket with soap and water, and went at the wheels to get them nice and shiny. After drying them off, I applied some Turtle Wax to protect from brake dust and corrosion. It's a good idea to do this before winter to protect your wheels from sand and salt. It will also be easier to clean them later since brake dust and dirt don't stick well on wax.

I threw some Turtle Wax tire shine on the tires and they were good to go. When applying any wax, grease, or slippery liquids, be sure not to get any on the brakes or brake rotors if you'd like your brakes to work.
So the 944 has some new kicks for a grand total of $417.55. That plus the cost of the car I've already spent $2917.55!

Next: tune in for the 944's tune-up!

--M/o