Restoration

Technical Information and Restoration Parts for the 928

After driving the 78 for a season while I finished the first phase on the convertible, I decided to go back through the 78 and fix up the final details. While the car is nice to begin with even with low mileage there are always a few items that are not perfect.

I always wanted to do a ground up restoration, but that is a lot of work. Better to take a very nice car and make it perfect - or as close to perfect as possible.

Under Carriage

The first place to start is the under carriage. Besides the normal grease and grime the fender wells at one point were sprayed with under coating. The brake rotors had accumulated some rust and the aluminum backing plates were pitted from weather and brake residue.

So the first set was to use some industrial degreaser and pressure wash the entire under carriage. After a couple of passes the bottom of the car looks pretty close to the way it did when leaving the factory.

Tar Undercoating - The undercoating was a bit of a problem. The pressure washer knocked some it off but not enough to look good. To remove the worst of the tar I used a product from Eastwood called Under Gone. (part number 31130z) Do not bother with the cleaner as it is just standard brake cleaner. The remover is a kind of foam over cleaner on steroids.

Do not confuse this step with the rubberized under coating that comes from the factory. The Under Gone will not harm the factory sound proofing. Even removing the residue of the added tar under coating is a task and required a number of pass with the remover and pressure washer. If the factory sound proofing has been damaged then Upol a German product available at some Body Shop Supply stores can be used to restore the sound proofing.

Brake Calipers and Rotors - Looking at the selection of odd caliper paint at Pep Boys and other places I was less than impressed with the color choices. Eastwood makes a caliper paint that is casting gray. (Part No. 10033z) After cleaning the calipers and bead blasting the rotors the paint went on very nicely leaving a finish that is near perfect.

Backing Plates - The backing plates are made of aluminum and probably would look best polished and clear coated - maybe on the convertible. Instead I bead blasted them and painted them black. Again Eastwood makes a chassis black that is neither too shiny or too flat. (Part No 10025z) A better way to go is probably power coating.

A little more scrubbing and then finished product: