924Board.org

[Porsche77924]

I have a '77 924 that I inherited and found an '87 924S locally for sale that I would like to use as a donor car for parts. I'm wondering what parts, if any, are interchangeable. Specifically, can I use the hubs to do a 5 lug conversion? Can I swap one trans for another? Heads?

Any help would be appreciated guys, thank you.
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Stock '77 924 74XXX Miles

[curtisr]

Forgive me but, why not go the other way 'round? The '87 is a much 'better' car.
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World's worst welder.

[ideola]

There is not much that will be directly transferrable between those cars.

For the five lug conversion, there is no easy way to transfer the alu-based rear trailing arm setup from the 87 into the 77 because the 77 torsion carrier is unique to the very early cars. The only way to do it requires welding / fabrication on the 77 torsion carrier.

The front spindle-hub-strut arrangement should be directly swappable.

The trans is not easily swappable. In order to do that, you would need to drop the entire torque tube, trans, and shift rod arrangement from both cars, which also involves removal of the torsion carrier from both cars. Then, you would need to replace the clutch disc in the 77 with a clutch disc from a 86 Ford Bronco II, which will fit into the early manual clutch pack and allow the early car to accept the larger 25mm driveshaft from the 87 car.

Virtually nothing from the engine or exhaust will be transferrable.

Seats, dash, door cards, carpet and many of the interior bits are transferrable, but there are nuances. For example, the upper rear seat portion and rear quarter liners are different...you can get them to go into the earlier car, but the mounting points are different at the chassis, which will require some modifications. Another example, the center console is not directly swappable without mods because the HVAC unit mounts completely differently. Again, it can be done, but requires some ingenuity.

Very little from the HVAC system is swappable.

Sun visors will be a nice upgrade. The "smooth" rain channels are as well, but require a bit of fabrication to swap. The windshield trim and many of chassis seals, particularly around the doors are a big upgrade and are swappable.

Depending on the price of the 87 parts donor, you might be better off looking for a 5-lug equipped 80-82 924 or 931.
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erstwhile owner of just about every 924 variant ever made

[curtisr]

^^^+1^^

My understanding is that the body bits can be swapped although the sunroofs were not identical in size. I have removed the fenders from my '77 Euro 924 to put on an '87 924s.
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World's worst welder.

[fiat22turbo]

I think the Sunroofs are the same physical size, but the latches are different because the 924S/944 used a power solution, while the early 924 used a manual latching solution.

One can retrofit the power roof with the manual latches, but it requires some work.
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Stefan
1979 924 Carrera GTS (clone-ish)
1988 944 Turbo S (Silver Rose)

[Porsche77924]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

To answer your question curtisr, the car was my father's and when he passed away it became mine. There may be 'better' cars but this one holds a lot of sentimental value to me.

Thanks for all the information ideola. Sounds like it would be a lot more hassel than the car is worth. It's for sale in Cherry Valley (I see you're from N Illinois) and was hoping it would be a hole in one for parts.
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Stock '77 924 74XXX Miles

[ideola]

[Porsche77924]