Around July 2021, my father helped me purchase a 1977 Porsche 924 2.0l Coupe for what would be my first car. My dad is really into Porsches and owns a 930, so of course I wanted to follow in his footsteps and be like him. At first the car seemed quite fine, it was able to make itself back to our house on its own power albeit with a good amount of misfiring, but it seemed like it would be decently easy to get it to running order. Well fast forward however many years its been and it still sits torn apart in my backyard, waiting to be fixed. Once we started working on it, we realized the fuel system is an absolute nightmare because the car sat for almost 12 years with a full tank, and the fuel lines, Bosch MFI, and injectors were all majorly clogged from rust. For the first couple months of owning it, I worked on it intermittently with my dad, but soon fell into a majorly depressive episode that took priority over a lot of things in my life at the time including the car. It sat for some time, until I began trying to work on it meandering through Senior year finals, homework, and social life. (I’m currently 18, was 16 when I got it) Lately, for around the past 6 months, I have been trying to put more effort into the car. We dropped the transaxle, refinished the fuel tank, took out many of the old hoses and stripped bolts, redid the ignition wires, distributor, took off the rusty exhaust, treated some of the rust on the body, and refurbished the brake booster. The past year there has been much more effort put into the car, however I still can’t help but feel bad for neglecting the car. It always eats away at me making me feel guilty and torn up over the fact I could be doing so much more at such a faster pace. Even though later as of writing this I’m going to try and pull the engine, it still never feels like I’m doing enough. I know this sounds like a long convoluted story just asking for pity, but for the longest time this has been something eating at me. We’re hoping the car will be running in the next few months once we put everything back together, but man does it feel like I’ve let myself and my father down with just how long this has been taking.
I’ve built a race car…to do so has tested every parameter.
Long term project…do one system at a time…over time. Research, source the part…don’t be afraid to buy a tool, or special tool.
Marathon, not sprint.