924Board.org

[MrMoMo]

Well folks, I finally had 'er out. Sunday was a great day, especially for late October. The sun was out and it was unseasonably warm. I have the "937" complete enough to drive, and had been out for a very short quick (up the block and back) jaunt early in the week.

I did a quick final check over to make sure everything was tight, checked my belts and hoses (found the upper rad to overflow bottle almost severed by the alternator fan!) Torqued the wheels and loaded up the tools & Jack.

The first quick shot was to the gas station, about 3km away - everything seemed fine, with a few nervous noises (not used to the sounds this car makes) but there were no issues. Got to the gas station and put in $20 (~20L). Popped the hood and re-checked everything quickly - nothing out of order anywhere - this is good!

Pulled out of the gas station and down the road, engine has now fully warmed up and everything seems fine - nice and smooth, no vibrations or anything odd. About 5km down the road the car infront of me braked, so I did as well. I noticed a slight change in cabin sound but couldn't quite pick up what had changed. (I had the sunroof out and both windows down - actually, neither window installed) I knew something was odd - then I figured it out. The trunk had popped. Pulled over and closed it again - perhaps It was not quite latched when I left the house.

Everything still going smothly, and I am getting used to the noises, and watching all the gauges like a hawk - nothing out of the ordinary. Pop, there goes the trunk again. Pull over - now I know something is not quite right here - but it's not a big issue so I continue. Getting closer to town I am now encountering traffic and traffic lights. First light I need to slow down for and pop, there goes the rear hatch again. This is starting to get a little annoying.

My destination was to be my parents house, to water their plants as they are out of the country right now. Since I had my tools with me I thought I would take a look at it when I got there. I began to wonder if somehow the brake lights were triggering the hatch release as it mostly seemed to happen when I stepped on the brakes. Pop, there it goes again, without stepping on the brakes. Got to their house and fiddled a bit with the catches, hoping that maybe if I extended them down they would hold a little better. Next stop was Home Depot to get some Acrilic for my headlight lenses.

No trunk pops all the way to home depot - great I must have fixed this! (or the roads in town are smoother!) Went in and got exactly what I needed. Hopped back in and set off to my next destination - a friends house who lives just out of town - you may have seen his 968 in my driveway in some pictures posted here. His house is about 20 minutes from Home Depot. I believe in this drive the trunk popped about 8 times. It was starting to get really frustrating, the last 3 times were all within 2km of his house, the final was within sight!! Really, I would much rather have this type of problem than something major, so I was still completely happy that nothing had gone wrong and I was finally able to drive my Porsche (Never drove it before I started the project!)

After leaving my friends house, again the trunk popped. At this point it was starting to get annoying - and I figured it was just my luck - from the 3 cars I used to build this one, I managed to find two good hatch lift shocks, which were actually capable of lifting the glass, and now I was wishing that they were not that strong!!... hey... wait a minute.... why not disconnect them? DUH! After a quick pop of the screwdriver (only had to disconnect one) I was on my way again, all the way home with no hatch pops!!

All said, I didn't have one single issue other than this - didn't have to use any of my tools (other than the flat screwdriver) and Logged the first 59Miles (~100km) without issue!

I now have a much better appreciation of "There is no substitute"

I am now preying that the weather we have been having will hold out a little bit longer, and let me get some more nice drives in before the cold weather/snow hits and I have to park it for the winter.

I hope you all get the chance to enjoy your cars once in a while, as much as I enjoyed mine on that first drive.




_________________
Bruce

-------------------------
'87 924S (project 937)
'87 924S parts car
'87 924S parts car
-Strewn amongst the other vehicular mass engulfing my property!

[Peter_in_AU]

That must feel great. How about a few more photos of the car?
_________________
1979 924 (Gone to a better place)
1974 Lotus 7 S4 "Big Valve" Twin-cam (waiting)
1982 924 (As featured on Wikipedia)

Learn to love your multimeter and may the search be with you

[924guy]

thats what its all about!! congrats and enjoy....
_________________
Eric
78 924
82 931 SE "smokey"
99' VehiCross
Y2K Honda Insight
http://www.cardomain.com/id/924Guy
Performance by Pasha

[skemcin]

Can we get a shot of your head lights?

Its an interesting conversion, I'd like to see a little more of it.

_________________
924.org (no time to complete)
9249206346 - 89k – new shifter bushings, belts, running well.
9249206347 - 8k – waiting its resurrection, no power at the fuel pump and fuse #7 blows w/power

[skitzo 4 snow]

nice.. great time of the yr to take it out also. enjoy.
_________________
another project car...omg

[MrMoMo]

Thanks guys...

I'll get a few more shots up soon, the weather is really crappy right now (downpouring). I plan on doing a full writeup on the complete build over the winter months, I'll post a link to it here.

There are a few more shots (poor quality) of the headlights in one of my earlier threads http://www.924board.org/viewtopic.php?t=23024
They are BMW E36 lights. - I have yet to make the lenses, but I hope to get that done tonight - I'll post pics of the lights once that is done. I did have to modify the nose panel, but nothing else was modified, so it would be easy to turn back to a stock front end just by swapping out the nose panel.

Hoping for good weather tomorrow so I can drive it again!
_________________
Bruce

-------------------------
'87 924S (project 937)
'87 924S parts car
'87 924S parts car
-Strewn amongst the other vehicular mass engulfing my property!