Porsche Centre Vaughan’s Laurance Yap hosted a lucky group of UCR enthusiasts for a tech session on their restoration of a classic Porsche 924 Turbo for entry into the 2023 Porsche Canada Classic Restoration competition. Dave Draganac is the well-qualified Porsche Classic technician doing the work and the session picked a moment in the project when the bodyshell was ready to be shipped out to the body shop, and all the removed hardware was neatly laid out on the floor and on racks. Wow that’s a lot of removed hardware and Dave had a calm confidence about the work ahead, although the schedule to have the project done by the end of August seemed tight.
The car was a bit sad and neglected when it came in but Dave quickly got the engine fired up and after an intensive cleaning of the underside the major components of the car were removed from the body. It was interesting to hear the careful process of assessing the appropriate restoration work needed for each vehicle element including engine, transmission, body, brakes, suspension and interior, and a surprising amount of hardware could be reused, limiting replacement parts expense.
As the work progressed Dave was ordering the new parts that would be needed and the importance of sourcing parts becomes apparent. Porsche offers a surprising number of parts for these classic cars, and at prices competitive to other suppliers, but specialist knowledge is important to keep costs down. Equally important is the technical training not only to use the factory technical information but also to use learned skills to make good judgements and move the job forward. Removing the engine was a good example of this and Dave described the experience of getting the engine out and his plan to get it back in.
These are great cars and it was nice to see the expertise PCV have to maintain and restore them, both in-house and through their affiliates and network of appropriate industry suppliers. Once again UCR thanked PCV (formerly Pfaff) for their hospitality and their enthusiasm for the cars. </>
