944-SPEC BUILD JOURNAL

by Chris Barrington


Installment 1 - Operation Street Car No More

In this stage of the build, or should I say un-build, the interior is getting stripped of all things unneeded. I only had time to remove the rear items in this installment, but the rest of the interior will be tackled later.

I started by pulling the rear carpet mat out and removing the spare tire. No instructions needed there. Next came the rear seat. Removing the sunroof aids the rest of the work immensely. The upper half of the seat is held on by two bolts between the rear seat mounting brackets and the frame; an open-end wrench and patience are needed here. Once the bolts are removed the upper seat back pulls right out. With that out, the rest of the trunk carpet can be removed. Pop out the clips near the hatch and yank; closing your eyes and holding your breath while yanking isn’t a bad idea either. The lower portion of the rear seat is glued down at the base and clipped on at the top. I pried the clips off with a small screwdriver and carefully broke it free from the glue little by little as to not tear anything (Does anybody want to buy a rear seat?!?). All the sound deadening should now be exposed. Disposable latex gloves and a respirator are recommended here. I yanked everything I could get off easily and when the entire cabin is stripped, I’ll remove the adhesive, glue, tar, etc from the shell. Call me crazy, but I want this thing smooth so I can paint it. I’ve drooled over too many factory prepared GT3’s to go with anything less (keep in mind I’m saying this prior to attempting to remove all the crap stuck to my chassis!).

If you’ve read the intro and are wondering why I thought the previous owner had amp(s) and sub(s), this should explain it:

I think I’ll remove that crap. Although, a “banging system” at the grid would turn a few heads right? RIGHT? No? Fine...

The stuff removed at this point came in at about 110 lbs!

Installment 2 should involve removing the rest of the interior and maybe even the dash. I guess it depends on how many beers I have...