LABOURMANIFESTO

Two Porsches – and numerous other vehicles – between them ensure that Chris Horton is always busy with one task or another, but his resolution for 2018 is to concentrate, as time and funds allow, on those aspects that will really make a difference to the

The round-robin e-mail from the editor was brief and to the point. ‘Morning, chaps. I’d like to get something into the next issue from each of you about your project cars. What you’ve been doing lately, but also what you intend to do soon.’

OK, Steve, how long have you got…? My to-do list grows ever longer, but these days I’m trying to be a little more focused than I have in the past. To concentrate on those areas that have a direct bearing on the cars’ longevity and/or their day-to-day driveability.

Taking the 924S first – because that’s the one in use at the moment – that will mean imminent replacement of the camshaft and balance-shaft drive-belts. It’s six years since I bought the car, and while in mileage terms I am probably within the belts’ likely lifespan, I have no idea when they were last changed.

Anyway, the car is provisionally booked in to BS Motorsport, and I’m planning on making one of my how-to stories out of it. I would do the work myself – as I did on the 944 – but it’s a pain to have to keep stopping to take the pictures. We shall also be replacing the various rollers, and ideally the water pump, although given the likelihood of one of its M6 securing screws or studs breaking, as happened when I tackled the 944, that’s not something I’m hugely looking forward to.

Next item on the agenda will be the body. There are a couple of rust holes that need attention to prevent them becoming worse – and, rightly or wrongly, the car is a keeper as far as I am concerned. The most obvious is at the base of the right-hand front wing, where mud has accumulated (oddly, the other side seems fine), but there is also a small crusty area behind the left-hand rear wheel.

A few days before Christmas I called in at Greatworth Classics near Banbury in Oxfordshire, to see what they reckoned about the job, and proprietor Angus Watt and his body man came up with a list of all the other issues it would make sense to tackle at the same time. Since then, sadly, I have been hit with some rather large domestic bills, so I’m hoping they might be able to do the wing(s) and that other small hole in isolation.

Inside the cabin I am increasingly frustrated by the cracks in the top of the fascia. This is such a common problem that I am convinced Porsche could justifiably add it to its growing list of remanufactured parts. You used to be able to buy quite convincing stick-on moulded plastic covers to hide the damage, so perhaps that will be the answer. It will be the ideal time to replace the speedometer, too, which again like so many has a non-functioning odometer.

The seats, as you can see (below), are little short of wrecked. Unsurprisingly a number of people have suggested a full retrim, but I’m wary of that, again because of the likely cost. I have no trackday aspirations for the car – although I do know how much fun these transaxle models can be out on the circuit – but I think I might go for a pair of the most comfortable and affordable race-style buckets I can find. And they might have the added benefit of improving the driving position.

I want to do something about the door cards, too – yet another disaster area, thanks in part to 33-year-old materials that were never that good to start with, but also to what must have been several ham-fisted removals and replacements over that period. In an aircooled 911 it’s easy – the flat inner face of the door makes a perfect mount for a simple piece of Rs-style trimmed hardboard – but here the shape of the panel is such that the only answer would be to mould something in GRP and then perhaps cover it with a suitable fabric. Anyone got any helpful suggestions?

I continue to be impressed by the little Blaupunkt radio I fitted two years ago. I don’t use it a lot, but sometimes it’s useful to listen to traffic reports, or even the so-called news. I had a few reception issues with the wingmounted aerial – another item scheduled for replacement – and the tiny built-in speakers are hardly the last word in hi-fi, but they cope well with the overall racket you have to expect from any car of this type and vintage, and I’m thinking of buying another unit for the 944.

But by far the most dramatic improvement I have made recently cost me nothing. During a trip in December the windscreen washers stopped working. My first thought was to refill the reservoir, but it turned out that the main feed pipe up the right-hand side of the engine compartment – that horrible, hard-plastic stuff reinforced with criss-cross threads – had fatigue-fractured where it bends each time you open and close the bonnet.

My first repair was with some silicon tubing bought via Amazon, but this didn’t address the long-standing issue of the inevitable delay between operating the washers and any liquid emerging from the jets (and during which time the wipers are dragging themselves across a dry windscreen). The solution came from a derelict Ford Fiesta, from which I snipped the similarly flexible pipework, complete with a couple of tiny non-return valves. Sorted.

As for the 944…well, that’s been resting over at Auto Umbau these past months, and the MOT has now lapsed, so I’m expecting a few issues with that, as winter turns into spring. I’ll let you know, anyway. PW