On the way back…New HINGE!

Here at 924S944.com, we took the last six weeks off to get a new right knee installed.  The short story is that four hours after surgery they had me out in the hallway with a walker walking!  Rehab and recovery is quite a process, but it has been six weeks of ice, heat, physical therapy, walkers, canes, exercises, stretching, and other such torture.  My rehab is on schedule, there have been no setbacks or ancillary injuries, and the zipper scar down my kneecap is healing nicely.  Modern medicine is a great thing when you consider that when my 924S was built, this “fix” hadn’t been invented yet.  Now I have titanium and delrin implanted in my leg – the implant was glued in with the medical equivalent of JB Weld and the incision put back together with Super Glue.  Amazing.

The big no-no in this recovery has been “Don’t Fall Down!”  The new knee is susceptible to damage while the body is trying to figure out what to do with this “stranger in the room.”  And in most cases, if I trip and fall and do damage to the knee at this point, it cannot be repaired.  Permanent damage.  Or to put it another way, I would be totaled and sent to the crusher.  Even after three months of what is considered complete recovery, kneeling on the concrete in the shop is not a suggested activity.

So I am slowly and carefully getting back to the shop and back to work.  The surgeon gave me a “release” to do whatever I wanted to do “within reason,” cautioning me “Don’t do anything stupid.”  Apparently he doesn’t know me that well, but it’s good advice anyway.

My working time limit at this point is a maximum of two to three hours a day in the shop.  The leg muscles are adapting to the new longer range of motion, and I still have to visit the physical therapist three times each week for an hour of bend-and-twist-and-stretch-and-cry each session.  But progress is being made and things are getting easier and better every day.

The comment that I hear most frequently is people saying, “I had that done two years ago.  I wish I hadn’t waited so long.”  Well, I elected to have my surgery when the mobility and pain started to get in my way, not after living with it for years and years.  So I am glad that I had it done now.  Yea, it hasn’t been fun, but I heal faster now than I will ten or fifteen years from now.  This was a good decision.

So what has been happening over the past six weeks or so?

For about ten months we have been casually working towards the purchase of not one but two 1988 924S Special Edition cars located about as far away as you can get, Oregon.  The seller has owned these two for 12-13 years, they are nearly stock, complete, running and driving cars that need some restoration and rescue that we do so well here.  The cost to ship from Oregon to Central Florida was about $3300 for two cars, and they arrived in great shape after two weeks living on a truck trailer and touring the country.

We have transferred title, insured and tagged both cars and are in the process of going over each of them to determine what needs to be done.  They will both be offered for sale once we put them back to original, as-delivered condition including new upholstery in the correct (replica) grey striped cloth.  Any and all deferred maintenance will be completed, and we are seriously considering replacing both of the (cracked) dashboards with new ones.  The wheels will be powder coated with new tires installed; belts, fluids, seals, and such will be renewed with all new brakes including master cylinder, rebuilt calipers, new rubber lines, and new rotors; new clutch master and slave cylinders; renewed air conditioner systems; period-correct Blaupunkt cassette radios, working, of course; and whatever else the cars tell us they need.  While we will not necessarily put them into Concours-winning condition, they will run, drive and look like they did when new – a really nice driver.

A few weeks ago a nice lady from the Orlando area contacted the Florida Citrus Region Porsche Club through the website contact page asking for help selling two Porsches.  One was a very high miles 993 and the other was a really nice 1986 944.  It so happened that a friend of mine from high school, Greg, was looking at phasing away from Harley Davidsons and into something else, like a 924S or 944.  We made plans to meet and look over the cars and see if we could help her sell them.  Greg, Nort Northam and I got in the truck and went for a visit.

The 993 is not our “cup of tea,” but the 944 was beautiful.  It had been repainted in the original paint color Zermatt Silver, LY7Y with a black interior.  The car came from the factory with a few options, one of which was Fuch wheels.  It showed 74,500 miles, and according to the records only drove about 4,000 miles in the previous twelve years.  And there were no cracks in the original 1986 dashboard!  Greg bought that one on the spot.  We changed the tires, the fluids and such and Greg is now part of the 944 fold.

Nort looked over the used-up 993 with 217K miles and the oil leaks on the floor.  He is interested and they may make a deal on it, but we have put out the word and will see if we can’t help her sell that one, too.  However, it needs everything starting with a fresh engine rebuild, suspension refresh, interior and paint.

With a little down time we were able to put together 924S944.STORE, an online store to sell various used 924S and 944 parts that we have accumulated over the years.  We have parts cars as well as “loose” parts that some may be interesting in buying.  Our online store works like Amazon.com where you can browse and search for parts, choose what you want, click and buy.  We ship as soon as possible.  Some items even have free shipping!  Take a look and come back often as we are adding more and more inventory every day.

That’s about it for the moment.  Keep ’em running!