Poptop’s Sebring Project

[POPTOP]

I should have updated this a long time ago. But while the weather was nice I was working on projects. Today is the day, work closed, 60 inches of snow supposed to hit Buffalo. I put the Sebring on the road about 3 months ago to help encourage myself to work on it. My niece was also having a super hero themed graduation party, so I let her use it as a prop. She could operate the top lift, popup headlights and horn with the remote key fob.

on with the story......
I built some brackets for the new steering column

painted them

installed



Now I took my first drive around the block with the dash in this condition. It was the most horrible driving experience I have ever had. Without the black piece of carpet on the dash it acted like a heads up display. Trying to look out the windshield was like trying to look through a piece of frosted glass, I could not see anything and had to drive with the canopy up just to get back to the driveway. I would have never thought how important that little piece of trim was.

 

[POPTOP]

Made a quick cover up sheet metal panel for the dash

Painted and installed with some gages and some carpet on top so I can actually drive it

mounted seats and seatbelts. I am very happy with the way the seats match and fit the contour and style of the car.


bought and installed some rear view mirrors

 

[POPTOP]

I stripped as much of the chrome as I could on the rims and sidepipes ( chrome rims were pitted), did some body work on them and painted them black to match the rest of the theme.




I though the taillight panel needed to be blacked out as well, so it got painted. I wasn't ready for the new bumpers yet so the old one got put back on. It also covers a hole the previous owner cut in the back end to get at the A/C compressor.

Got rid of the hood pins and added some latches.

 

[POPTOP]

At this point things look cosmetically acceptable and I figured a day to tie in the new steering column and I will be driving. Not the case. When I got into the wiring I was appalled and wondered why this body never burned to the ground by now. Hot wires left snipped and dangling, wires twisted with no crimps or solder and only a small square of electrical tape folded over them. One wire was so Frankensteined together it changed colors 5 times from one side of the dash to the other, all just twisted together. So instead of driving it, I spend a month ripping out all the wiring and redoing it.

After I was done with the wiring I finally got to drive it and was amazed at the attention it got. I drove it for a month and loved it despite some issues. It had lots of blow by coming out the breather and not much power with a big mid range dead spot. It also leaked badly from the valve covers and pushrod tubes right on to the heat exchangers. I bought a new carb setup because the one on it was some Brazilian Webber from the 60s and I couldn't find a rebuild kit. I also converted it to a Petronix electronic ignition. These helped but didn't cure all its problems.

I had a weekend off and thought I would fix the leaks because the weather was starting to get cold and I was going to want heat in the car. This inspection turned into a teardown inspection which turned into an engine rebuild. I pulled the engine apart and found all the seals and gaskets were rock hard and the cylinder walls were glazed. I figured it had been overheated and I could hone it and put in a gasket kit and be fine. Then I got to cylinder number 4 and it had about 40 thousands worth of pitting on it. It must have sat with water in it for 15 years. To my surprise none of the rings were stuck, rusted or broken due to this.

So, new cylinders and pistons were ordered. And a month of rebuilding an engine started.

 

[CyCo]

It's a great looking car, and I'm glad you're back to posting about your car.

At this point things look cosmetically acceptable and I figured a day to tie in the new steering column and I will be driving. Not the case. When I got into the wiring I was appalled and wondered why this body never burned to the ground by now. Hot wires left snipped and dangling, wires twisted with no crimps or solder and only a small square of electrical tape folded over them. One wire was so Frankensteined together it changed colors 5 times from one side of the dash to the other, all just twisted together. So instead of driving it, I spend a month ripping out all the wiring and redoing it.

Sounds like my Eureka. I had the exact same thought, how it never became a molten pile of slag on the side of the road. Firstly, same as yourself, there were hot wires hanging free, most wires were simply twisted together with maybe some electrical tape over them. In a rare few spots they were soldered, but most often not. A few proper wiring connections were found, again, mostly not. And there was the same multi-piece length of wire found at several points. To further add to the conundrum there wasn't any alternator cable between the battery & alternator, with the headlights being directly wired to the battery. Result, headlights were brown and may as well have been rated at one candle power. Also the wiring was household grade wiring, not automotive!! And part of the 'loom' in the engine bay was from the guts of a computer, including a couple of the plugs!!

Hope you get the engine sorted soon.

 

[POPTOP]

Thanks for the encouragement, the engine is already back together and installed, but still needs some fine tuning.

When I went to take the engine out I left the fan and shroud on it, that was a mistake. I was taking out tail light bulbs to try to get enough room to drop it. I ended up having to twist it up on the clutch to get it to drop.

I have a tool collection better than most professional garages but when I went to take the clutch off I had no socket to fit the bolts. They almost looked like a torx head but sharper. Turns out they were a triple square socket (so its called). Shopped around and could find nothing locally, no craftsman, no local car stores had them. I ended up ordering a set from rock auto and they ended up taking about two weeks to show up from California. Bought new cylinders and pistons for a bit over $200 and got my gaskets and was ready to do some work. I pressure washed all the grime build up off the engine and while waiting for the sockets I would hose down the block with degreaser every day. By the time my tools showed up The block and heads were spotless, but still had some oil staining on them so I decided to give them a coat of high temp paint to make the oil easier to wipe off later.

new cylinder and pistons installed

Short block back together

Someone said they thought the factory heat exchangers sat too low for them to use. so here is a picture with them sitting in place

They are about even with the oil sump

You could even reverse them and have them face forward if you wanted.

 

[POPTOP]

Since I had the block looking so good I couldn't stop there and had to sandblast all the tin and fasteners and paint them. Since I usually drive myself nuts trying to figure out if a certain hole took the long or short bolt so I did this, and then painted them right on this piece of cardboard.

Putting it back in was a breeze without the fan and shroud attached

you can see how much tighter it gets with everything in place

 

[letterman7]

I didn't catch in the first couple posts that you have a type 4 engine. Nice. The heat exchangers facing forward into the side pipes worked really well. Even though they reduce your ground clearance, keep them - the header pipes will gain you horsepower.

Looking good so far!

 

[POPTOP]

I have been keeping my eyes on craigslist for 914 parts for my car for a while. I wanted those style heat exchangers so I can loose the bus ones, and when I pulled out the engine I noticed the thermostat and bracket was missing and the linkage was bent which may have contributed to the overheating on my Sebring.

Two weeks ago a complete car popped up about an hour from me and I snagged it for $500. The owner took it off the road in 1983 with it still running and started pulling it apart and working on it as a project and it has been sitting in his garage since. It also came with a brand new set of big bore pistons and cylinders still in the box. I still haven't looked through all the totes of parts that came with it.

Nice rims all the way around too

turbotail spoiler wasn't what I expected. It looks like it would be hard plastic but it was spongy like a soft dashboard.


heat exchangers are in excellent shape and exhaust too.


I know what I am using for gauges and controls now

even the seats are nice with no rips

I spent last weekend seeing if I could get it going. Put a battery in it and it turned over but wasn't getting any fuel. All the fuel lines were hard as a rock so I threw a few new sections in and the rest of them started leaking like a soaker hose, so I changed them also. Then no spark, turned out there was a jumper wire someone put on that was shorting out the coil so I fixed that. Then to my pleasure the engine roared to life, with a little wheezing and coughing on the way. I was surprised the fuel injection system still worked. Didn't smoke at all but when I revved it up the exhaust started to glow orange, so I assume bad valves or leaky injectors. Now I just need to find a space to keep this as I pull parts off of it. If not for the rot on the unibody I would be tempted to drive it for a winter car, it also came with a set of studded snow tires.

 

[ydeardorff]

Sounds like a great score!
Congrats! This probably saved you a ton of cash in the long run.*thumbs up*

 

[CyCo]

914, one of my favorite Porsches.

 

[letterman7]

Cool! I don't see a whole lot of rot on that car, but photos are hard to tell. Just parting it out will net you some additional bucks - list the shell on the Samba and I'll bet you could get a grand or more for it. If it's a 5 speed, I'd almost be tempted to have that rebuilt and the differential flipped to put into the Sebring. It's almost a bolt-in proposition and you'll have better gear ratios to play with!

 

[Brett Proctor]

Sure hate to see that car parted out.

It deserves to be restored not dismantled.

It's been a long time since I've seen one of those on the road.

Brett

 

[POPTOP]

If you saw it in person you would know it needs to be a parts car. All the mount points for the critical components are crumbling. When I lifted it up one of the front jack points just crushed to dust and pushed right into the floor. My guess is it would cost $10,000 to turn it into a $5,000 car. That would not be the kinda return on my money I am looking for.

 

[RangerBEH]

That's awesome for 500 you can't go wrong. It will be a fun car when finished. I got a set of those seat for my sterling they do look comfortable!

As for the turbo tail just think of it as an alpha wing on an f18; designed to flex at high speed / high g-force, lol

 

[POPTOP]

If it's a 5 speed, I'd almost be tempted to have that rebuilt and the differential flipped to put into the Sebring. It's almost a bolt-in proposition and you'll have better gear ratios to play with!

You now have me doing some reading on how to do this. I did find myself looking for mid engine sand rail kits even though I have too many projects as it is.

 

[ydeardorff]

Type 1 VW Transmission to Porsche 5 Speed Conversion -

 

[letterman7]

That's a pretty good step by step. The extra steps that they mention in the article is flipping the ring gear, which is actually fairly easy - both side plates come off, ring gear comes out of one side and back into the other!

 

[Thomas Boni]

That windshield looks amazing! I really want my glass to look that nice.

Wow that's what I want for mine too