Porsche 944: Actually there is a substitute

[sparkydog]

Originally Posted by 67ChevyRedneck

Does anyone sell a dropped one to lower the car (mustang)? Maybe for a racing application? 3.5" is a lot though... but it would be extra cool to include some GM parts instead

From the little bit of time I've spent on this the answer is yes there are 2" drop spindles in the aftermarket but they are for use with upper A arms not for the strut style like what I have. They are also about $800-$1000 for the pair.

[sparkydog]

Continuing to prep for engine bay surgery. The Mustang donor bay is a little leaner now. I drilled out the firewall panel spot welds and popped it off and have shaved off the upper fender "horns". This is about as much trimming as I will do for now.

The 944 can't be cut on until I can reinforce the nose and floorboard area so that it can survive the trauma of losing the firewall and most of the bay.

So I created an "exoskeleton" to help keep the fenders and grille area stationary. It is my sincere hope that this effort was total overkill and that I didn't need to do it. However should I accidentally kick or nudge the Porsche over the next few weeks I hope my weird cage will keep it all aligned. How do you like my high tech design drawings?

[hgs_notes]

Well done. One of those things you do "just in case" because it's much harder to go back and undo somethings.

I'm getting antsy to see that porsche firewall and engine bay cut out now.

[Frizzle Fry]

Looking very familiar

[sparkydog]

Look what was on the top of my order confirmation from Rock Auto!

[Zoomin]

That's either very cool or very creepy.

[Jonboy]

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

Well done. One of those things you do "just in case" because it's much harder to go back and undo somethings.

I'm getting antsy to see that porsche firewall and engine bay cut out now.

The car looks scared of it with the headlights up, too.

[sparkydog]

Originally Posted by Zoomin

That's either very cool or very creepy.

Agreed! Even more creepy because the parts weren't for the 944 they were for other stuff. But either Google or the NSA probably owns Rock Auto by now.

Originally Posted by Jonboy

The car looks scared of it with the headlights up, too.

Now that's funny! I'll try to remember to put the 944 to sleep before I start cutting. When it wakes back up the bad stuff will be all over.

[sparkydog]

The final steps before surgery were to weld in some reinforcement to take the weight of the car and transfer it into my support stands without deforming the floor, or even worse - deforming the A pillars. Then it was on to marking out where my cuts would go. On the dirty sections where I was not able to use tape or a sharpie I used spray paint.

[sparkydog]

The surgery went well. The 944 was a little groggy afterwards.

[sparkydog]

Now there are a whole lotta places where I can cut myself!!

[sparkydog]

Now I've got braggin' rights for taking a sawzall to a Porsche!

[cAlvis165]

Originally Posted by sparkydog

Now I've got braggin' rights for taking a sawzall to a Porsche!

[sparkydog]

I trimmed off some more metal from the Mustang side of things. Now it's tucked up into the 944 enough that I can plan out how I'm going to mate them up.

[sparkydog]

I also began work on what will ultimately be a next gen reference jig for locating the axle and spindle centers. Righty and Lefty were too flimsy and kept me from being able to open the doors of the 944. So I have made two pipe things that hang below the floorpan. Then unistrut channels on each side. The tops of these side rails are setup to be 10" below CL of the axles & spindles. I still need to rig them up so they clamp onto something and can be removed/installed repeatedly without loosing location. Then it will be time to measure measure measure and remeasure. Once I trust my measurements and locations I can proceed with final trimming of the suspension and figure out how to graft and weld.

[sparkydog]

Over the past few weeks life has tried to interfere with my play time - but I have managed to make a little progress. The exoskeleton has grown more complex and is now part of a 3-point positioning jig that is holding the Mustang front end up inside the 944. There are 3 all-thread bolts - two on the front and one up into the trans tunnel. These allow me to level and raise the Mustang piece as I slowly trim away the metal for fitment.

[sparkydog]

The Mustang stuff is now about 2" shy of final placement in the vertical direction. You can see the shots of the floor area where the Mustang and 944 floor ribs almost line up with one another. Also a confusing shot of the forward area of the frame horns (up near the headlights) - trying to show how much wider the Mustang frame is - they pass along side each other.

[hgs_notes]

Once you get this set into position and tacked up do you think that will be the hardest task completed and downhill from there? Or are there other higher hurdles to jump yet?

[NONHOG]

You don't care so much for the easy stuff!
Very impressive!

[bnoon]

I'm no Porsche purist by any means, but dang son, you done fell off your rocker!!! LOL! Have fun welding!

[sparkydog]

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

Once you get this set into position and tacked up do you think that will be the hardest task completed and downhill from there? Or are there other higher hurdles to jump yet?

Yes I think this front end/engine bay remodel is the hardest part. Followed closely by rear end if I end up doing something that retains the Porsche torsion bar setup.

Or an easy-ish rear end if I do the Ford 8.8 straight axle.

[sparkydog]

Originally Posted by bnoon

Have fun welding!

I guess it all depends on your reference point. This project seems like less work than Halfbreed by a long shot. I don't mind welding when it's in places where nobody is going to see it. Halfbreed probably had 100 feet of exterior body panel butt welds. To me THAT is too much work (now that it's behind me).

[sparkydog]

Originally Posted by NONHOG

You don't care so much for the easy stuff!
Very impressive!

Yyyyyyyep to that!

My full user name should be: Sparky "The Road Less Traveled" Dog.

[Frizzle Fry]

http://inventory.racperformance.com/...Texas/1461318/

[sparkydog]

Thanks for the link Frizzle!

Time for a wordy update with no pictures.

The Mustang front end is ready to weld into the Porsche. Even though I’ve already measured things 4 or 5 times I wanted to do one last set of measurements. Since I also want to study the 944’s OG rear suspension for possible integration with the Coug IRS – I decided to mount the 944 rear back up into the car and get the swing arms at stock ride height. This would allow me to study the rear IRS and give me a solid reference for measuring before tack welding in the Mustang front end.

A 944 had shown up in the wrecking yard so I harvested a few parts off it. I took the rear shocks, drained their oil and then welded them up at stock ride height so I could hold the rear swing arms in the correct position. The 6X944 guy told me how to disable the 944 torsion bars without removing them and now the rear end is set in solid for various mockup tasks.

The 6X944 guy also set me up with a disassembled swing arm, rear hub and bearing so I could take some measurements for re-creating them in Solidworks. At the same time I blew apart the Cougar rear end and did similar measurements. At this point I made an encouraging discovery. The Coug rear hub bearing and the 944 rear hub bearing have the exact same ID’s and are within 3mm of the same thickness. (Also the 944 bearing is the beefier of the two.) This means the Coug rear hub can be assembled directly into the 944 swing arm and bearing – which means the Coug axles then fit into the hybrid swing arm. If I can design an easy adapter bracket for the Coug brake calipers to the 944 swing arm then I will officially commit to this scenario in the real world. This is because the only major expense would be to have the Coug axles shortened by about 1” each.

So over the next few weeks I’m doing two projects. First is to get the Mustang front end welded in, some wheels bolted on and have it back on the ground for a trip to the alignment shop for confirmation that things are square. Second is to complete the 3D mockup of a hybrid Coug/944 rear swing arm and decide which way to go with the rear suspension.