924Board.org

[Porver9two4]

Some time ago the heater fan died in my early 924 N/A ... I knew it was a pita job to replace it owing to the need to remove the heater box to get the fan out (not wanting to do it the 'easy' way by cutting the ribs out from the top). I am now slowly starting to surface from the iceberg of a job this has become!

Around Christmas I set to and started on whipping out the dash to get to the heater box - all straightforward stuff that progressed pretty much as expected.
UNTIL I found the carpet in the passenger footwell damp to touch... strange, I thought A little more investigation found the insulation underneath the carpet sodden wet - yep, I have a leak

Before long my car looked like this:-
[/img]

Digging around revealed I had the dreaded rotten battery box . I knew it had been repaired before I got the car and the repair looked sound but when I tickled it with my air needle gun it dissolved into rusty flakes.... as did the drain tube and some of the bulkhead... poop. Only one thing for it, time to break out the cutting discs and get on it.....



GULP

Still, before long I had managed to replace all the rusty, nasty stuff with this shiny new metal:-



and rebuilt the drain tube



Once I was satisfied ALL remaining corrosion had been dealt with, all the metal cleaned up, rust converter used on any light surface rust and the whole lot had been primed and sealed, I used some seam sealer to replicate the factory sealing and added some top coats in the correct Guards Red, followed by Waxoil into the cavities. I am happy with the finished job - it's an all steel repair which won't trap water under the battery and runs correctly to the drain tube. Hopefully it will be good for another 30 years



Whilst the car has been apart I have taken the time to completely overhaul the heater box - cleaned and re-foamed the matrix, re-foamed the flapper, stripped, greased and rebuilt the sliders, changed the fan for the one I snagged from the wreckers yard (which I had rebuilt in preparation) AND gone right through the wiring loom, cleaning corrosion off any spade terminals or renewing them as required, cleaning all the earth stars and renewing any spades as needed, checking and replacing all the dash and instrument lights as needed ... and so on... and so on... a comprehensive refreshing!

I have also steam cleaned all the carpets (which have come up like new!), cleaned the seats and dash and re-sealed the windscreen vent ducting on the dash. I am going to take this opportunity to upgrade the stereo too.

It has turned into a mini-restoration! My car should be a significantly nicer place to be though - I have a chance of the heater actually clearing the windscreen with some efficiency now that it is all sealed up properly!
I still have the coolant system to flush back and forth before I refill with fresh antifreeze and a couple of other jobs, but I have started this year by getting significantly more intimate with my 924 than I had intended to... and do you know what?

I have really enjoyed it

[Fifty50Plus]

Outstanding job!
_________________
1979 924 NA race car H-Prod SCCA
1982 924 NA race car - Sold
1981 924 Turbo sold
1982 924 Turbo sold
1972 911 E race car - traded for Cayenne Diesel
1975 914 1.8 Building for H-Prod SCCA

[924RACR]

Nice work.

Unfortunately, the battery box repair on my Turbo wasn't as thorough, and so now I have to go back in, clean it up again, seal more thoroughly, and so on...
_________________
Vaughan Scott
Webmeister
'79 924 #77 SCCA H Prod racecar
'82 931 Plat. Silver
#25 Hidari Firefly P2 sports prototype

[peterld]

So nice to see someone do that job properly......Well done.
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80/81 932/8 ROW