Porsche 944: Actually there is a substitute

[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.

[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!

[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.

[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.

[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 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).

[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.

[sparkydog]

Look Ma! No exoskeleton!

The Mustang front end is now fitted and tack welded in. In a week or so I will tow it to the alignment shop. Hopefully they will confirm that I did a good job of measuring and then I can proceed with finish welding and several gussets.

[sparkydog]

I came up with an easy solution for fixing the Stang's taller strut towers. I'll just cut big holes in the hood, duct tape some coffee cans over the holes, spray paint them red and call the car Hell Boy!

[sparkydog]

I machined up two fake bearings that are the same size as the 944's only undersized so I don't have to press them in/on anything. I'm going to lay claim to being the world's first (and probably only) person to assemble a Cougar axle, hub and brake into a 944 swing arm!

(I'm still just playing around here but definitely warming up to the idea of doing this for real.)

[Restrorob]

Originally Posted by sparkydog

In a week or so I will tow it to the alignment shop.

Sparky...... Ya gotta get a pic of the alignment guy's face when you roll up with this thing !

[hgs_notes]

Looking sorta like a car again. Instead of coffee cans, use a pair of hood scoops and call them brake cooling vents.

[Frizzle Fry]

So glad you're leaning toward keeping the IRS Influenced by the new Mustang..?

[sparkydog]

Originally Posted by Frizzle Fry

So glad you're leaning toward keeping the IRS Influenced by the new Mustang..?

Influenced by the Frizz! It was your suggestion back a few posts. It stuck with me.

[Frizzle Fry]

Right on man. Looking forward to seeing your implementation. Looks promising so far.

So what the heck are you going to do about the strut towers? Section them down and run lowered springs?

[sparkydog]

Originally Posted by Frizzle Fry

So what the heck are you going to do about the strut towers? Section them down and run lowered springs?

Yes. My next task is to come up with a clever technique to section and lower the top of the towers without changing the compound angle that they sit at.

That or the Hellboy option.

[NONHOG]

Originally Posted by sparkydog

That or the Hellboy option.

Slightly smoother than Hellboy? Bit of a "euro" look. just a thought.

[sparkydog]

The trip to the alignment shop is this coming Friday. The 944 is loaded on my tow dolly and ready for the field trip! I made up some quick "push bars" so that we have something to hold onto when we push it up onto the rack at the tire shop. Check out my hillbilly steering linkage! (Temporary of course - Not safe for the real world.)

[sparkydog]

Checkup at the alignment shop went very well. All was within 1/10's and some within 1/100's of a degree. As an engineer I know that 1/100th of a degree is outside the accuracy of the gear and the vehicle but none the less - always nice to see that small of a number up on the digital readout!

Hope to make great progress in 2014. Have a Merry Christmas everyone! See you next year.