Engine is in.

There are always some interesting cars at Bero Motors when I stop in. For a car guy it's like being a kid in a candy store; you could spend all day watching them work on Volkswagens, Audis and of course, Porsches. Today was definitely "Porsche day" there, so our little project car was in prestigious company. Andre certainly has some neat cars on his lot: Audi quattro coupes, 911sc's, 944's, 928's, etc... But back to our little cabriolet.






Progress continues at breakneck speed. Frank, got the engine and transmission out of old "white" and into "red" in less than 24 hrs. That includes finishing up with the electrical harness removal too. While he was busy bolting up the Gti transmission, he noticed that the clutch was pretty much done...so a new clutch kit went in. I watched him install the short shift kit in less than 5 minutes. The kit is adjustable with 2 settings of throw reduction: 30% or 50%. We'll start out with 30% for now. It also features a weighted shifter linkage to take some of the slop out of the shifter.

Interesting to find out from him that this isn't his first transplant but rather his 3rd. Back in the day, his own vehicle was a 1981 Rabbit convertible with an Audi 4-cyl engine...apparently it was quite the little monster. Another interesting cabriolet transplant for a customer involved a diesel engine...hmm, pretty unique!



Frank admitted that he just loves this kind of project and it shows in his meticulous workmanship. The most frustrating part of it was not having both cars stripped down at the same time. Now that he's got the parts from both laid out on the floor, it's more like putting together a puzzle or building a model where he can pick the best parts from both.




The HVAC unit is in as well which necessitated installing some of the carpeting. The carpet starts to make the project look more and more finished. It's nice to see the clutch pedal and manual transmission shifter in there too.

The wiring loom certainly looks daunting, but one of the fringe benefits of this is that lots of extraneous wiring has been removed from past installs of various radios, fixed cellphones from the '90s and the remote/stealth radar detectors of the '80s. Of course, the various installers would leave the old wires in place and layer on more cables, fuses and various connectors for their installs...what a mess. Hey, maybe the car will weigh less now!

Old "white" is pretty much done giving up its organs now. It's sad to see it in such shape, but at the same time I'm happy that its soul will live on in "red".