Posted March 3, 2020 by kingroon3 Comments Cosmetics

Refurbish, Refresh & Refine

It’s far to say that any time you take ownership of a Classic Car, there will be Jobs that need to be done. The majority of Previous Owners have a list of things they just hadn’t gotten around to, hadn’t noticed or lived with.

My 968 Sport has a great history, and a great Service History, having had regular if not daily usage; mileage sitting at ~163,000 when I took ownership. That means a lot of door opening, switch flicking, window winding, hatch releasing and seat adjusting. These areas required immediate attention. Overall condition of the 968’s interior was great though with plush carpets, undamaged leather and unmarked plastic trim. The Seats having received a retrim at some point and a swap out of the Nomax Sport seats in favour of Big Bolster units.

My local Mechanic, Andy, has one of those Histories that makes him one of the best; he has worked on pretty much every car on the road. Jensen, Ford, Skoda, Austin, Aston Martin and thankfully a lot of Porsche. He built a 944 Track Car from the ground up a few years ago for a local Porsche enthusiast [whose G Series 911 Andy now maintains] so knows his way around the 968. He got stuck in. The Window regulators had suffered some [a lot of] corrosion with the Lifters totally shot, the Boot/Rear Hatch Release mechanism [electrical on the Sport] had gummed up and [moments before collecting the 968 after this had been completed] the Hamilton & Palmer Immobiliser decided to give up the Ghost..

It’s an Old Car, it just needed a little Re-loving..

Locking Mechanism in Both Doors required a Refresh too..

The 968 was previously owned by renowned and respected Porsche Specialists Hartech. They purchased it having serviced it for a number of years, knowing it to be a solid and well kept example, to use as a Back Up to their race car 968. Rather fortunately [disappointingly?] it never played the Understudy role since the Race Car never failed or suffered anything mechanically disastrous. It was for this reason and purpose that when I got the 968 it had a few modifications to hone its Driving Potential; Aluminium Radiator, Upper and Lower Braces, and a conical Performance Air Filter.

As part of the Refinement, I decided to revert these modifications and take the 968 Sport back to Stock. The Brakes also received attention with new Disk, Pads and Braided Hoses all round, as well as new Fluid throughout. And after all that Work, the 968 Sport was Back to Right, and looked bloody lovely..