Original subtitles

Welcome to Wheeler Dealers, where I show you how to buy,

restore and sell modern classics cars of my generation.

To help me, I've got my very own mechanic, Ed Chyna. We're going to be showing you where to get

the cars from and how to return them to tip-top condition for no more than a thousand pounds.

I'm going to be showing you where the best places

to find the cars are and how to source the parts.

Ed's going to be fiddling with the spanners and hopefully breathing

life back into these motoring icons like this stunning Porsche 924.

It may not have the enduring appeal of a 911, but this sleek sports coupé was a breakthrough

for Porsche. It bought the famous gold Stuttgart badge a step closer to the average driver.

I love the Porsche 924 because of its iconic

80's-ness. It defined that motoring period in time.

I love it because the 924 brought a new shape to our roads. Low-slung and well-proportioned,

it looked great whether it was parked on a drive or barrelling along a B-road.

But I love it most of all because it went like a train and never blew up

thanks to its bulletproof reliability. And that means it's still with us today.

In the mid-70's, Volkswagen and Audi joined forces and commissioned Porsche to design

an affordable mass-market sports car. They spent millions on development and testing.

But as the 70's oil crisis loomed, VW lost faith in the project and pulled

out. Luckily, Porsche decided to carry on and in 1976 the 924 was born.

Its styling immediately attracted praise. It had a perky

2.0-litre engine with 125bhp and a 5-speed gearbox.

With a near 50-50 front-to-back weight distribution, it was also great fun to Chuck around. But the looks and

ability didn't come cheap. In the UK, its launch price was a whopping 7 grand. That's 48 grand in today's money.

Nevertheless, Porsche sold plenty of 924's in the UK and they're still a common sight on our roads. A mint one like

this will set you back around 4 grand. My challenge is to find a going proposition for under a thousand pounds.

It's a tough call but I know just where to start.

Now, one of the best places to source your 924 is in one of the monthly

specialist magazines. There's Practical Classics or even Porsche World.

Now, I had a little flick through here earlier and I've come across quite a few 924's for

sale. Look at this one, 924 Carrera GT 81 in silver. But look at the price, 16,000 pounds.

But here's a cheaper one, 924 Special Edition 1977, two and a half grand. They're going the right way but this is the one for

me. Look at this, a wide plate, in-guards red, bodywork needs attention but good runner but listen to the price, 850 quid.

It's time to make that all-important phone call.

Hello there, I'm ringing about a car for sale.

If the seller answers which car, then you know you're probably

speaking to a dealer who's got more than one for sale.

What kind of conditions are you in?

Never rely on the description in the ad as sellers

can be a little bit economical with the truth.

Avoid cars that have been sitting on the drive waiting for some TLC. It's much better to

buy a car that gets a regular daily drive to work even if it does rack up the mileage.

Okay, bye bye.

This Porsche sounds good so I'm off to have a closer look. If you're looking for a poor key then my golden rules are to avoid

automatics, never buy a white or gold car and be aware of any 924 with a tired interior as it would have had a very hard life.

Must be Tim, how you doing? Nice to see you, it's Mike. It's not broken is it?

No, no, I'm just having a little tinker.

Yeah, it's worth just checking this chassis

number, so erm, 404601, 40446, yep that's fine.

Good, right now that looks alright doesn't it, it's nice and

straight under there actually, you have been tinkering haven't you?

Erm, right, body work, bonnet's in good shape,

all this is in good shape across the front.

This is going to have to be addressed, this quite nasty dent here.

It came like that. Did it?

Yeah, I'm no body panel expert so er, you

know, I'll just make it worse if I did that.

I'm not too worried about the dent, I'm more worried about this decal.

Yeah, the transfer, yeah.

I wonder how hard that is to get hold of. Right, let's open the boot.

Tim got the cover, for the sunroof.

He had 45 quid, you know, to buy these covers

and they're very rare, so that's nice to see.

Underneath, okay, new exhaust.

Yep, yep, that's a lot of money that was, that's nearly a week's wages.

Really? Yep, but worth it.

Right, this panel's shot is going to need a

little bit more than a dose of elbow grease.

Yeah, a little bit of buffing.

It's going to need more than buffing up. Right, got the dials, looks good.

Good interior, good seats.

Good, all the electrics work? Yep, everything works.

Electric windows, headlamps, stairway's important.

Oh yeah, they're nice, they come up and down.

It's alright actually, yeah, I mean, on the face of it, it is

exactly what I'm not looking for, because it's too much work.

But that's what's good about it, I quite like the fact that this old girl,

because it is a Porsche after all, this old girl, we can bring it back to life.

Other than driving it, making sure it starts, stops and

goes in a straight line, I might have a deal with you.

My first drive of the 924 for many, many years, pulls nicely

through the gearbox, into third gear, into fourth gear.

Keep an eye on the gauges, make sure the temperature's going up,

oil pressure's good, mechanically these cars are bulletproof.

A lot of the parts are Volkswagen Audi, so to get bits for it is a doddle.

It actually feels really nice, I've got a

big smile on my face while I'm driving this.

We could have found a little minter here, it's going to

take a little bit of work to get the bodywork up together.

But that's fine, it says all the right things doesn't it, Porsche.

When you walk into a pub and throw that key ring on the table and people

ask what you're driving, and you say you've got a Porsche sitting outside.

They think you're a man of means, little do they know you're

driving around in something that costs less than a thousand pounds.

Now that puts a smile on my face, I don't know about yours.

There is a knocking coming from the rear, but this car's just recently had a new

exhaust system fitted, and I just don't think they've put the exhaust system on right.

And that's easily rectified really, but the

good news is that's a good bargaining point.

I might be able to get a couple of quid off, just for that alone.

850 quid he wants for it, it'd be nice to get it a bit cheaper, I'll try my hardest.

Exhausting, I forgot what it's like to drive a car without power steering.

It's heavy, I think you were lying about your

mechanical skills, actually it drives alright.

A big rattle down at the back coming from that exhaust.

Really the only problem I've got is this

paintwork that's going to really need addressing.

How much did you advertise it for?

I put it in the paper for 850.

I reckon there's a good couple of hundred quid to spend on it, so 650 cash.

So middle way, 700?

700 quid, it's not the middle of me, but I'll

have a deal with you. Fantastic, yeah nice one.

Brilliant, a Porsche 924 in good mechanical Nick for just 700 quid.

I'm very happy, but what will my mechanic Ed make of it?

After all, it's him who's got to do all the donkey work of putting it right.

For a start, this paint is very very tired, and

I mean a bit of teacup is going to sort that out,

but you really aren't going to be able to do that with this then.

No, it's had a little bit of accident damage here, I was well hoping

that you could sort of paint underneath the line and replace a decal.

You might want to do that, that wouldn't be so bad actually.

I know the decals are going to be hard to get, but I'm sure we can source one.

Well what about these wheels?

Well the wheels, I think the easiest thing

with those guys is they're looking very untidy,

just have them shot blast, make them all shiny

and it'll really smarten up the side of the car.

Shot blast? Yeah, lots of little dots, lovely.

Really? And that'll bring them back up? Yeah. Fantastic.

Right, it's had a brand spanking new exhaust system at the rear,

but when I drove it, it was rattling and banging away underneath.

That's probably really easy to fix, I reckon it's just a bad

fitting or whatever, so it should be really easy to do that.

Right, round here, looks like we're going to have to repaint

this side of the car, because the paintwork's gone there.

Actually no, I have a cunning plan, we could actually mop this.

Mop it? Yeah.

You know how you might Polish a floor? Yeah.

Same sort of thing, much much smaller, and you can actually cut away

the bad paint on the top here and get through to the real colour.

I thought all this white was the white undercoat underneath.

No, it's just where the paint's gone bad because of the sign

and because of the road dirt and all that kind of stuff,

so literally we can cut through that, hopefully

that's the red, so that'd be really good. Fantastic.

So we can save on money there.

Inside, the dashboard I was a little bit worried about, it's got some cracks in it,

but I think finding a replacement dashboard for one of

these is going to be expensive, so I think we'll leave that.

The radio has been ripped out, it needs a blanking plate for

that or even another stereo fitting environment to Chuck it in.

Other than that, it just needs a general cleaning

sign, I was quite happy with the interior,

and the good news is, everything works, all

the switches, knobs, buttons, everything works.

That's great. Happier? Yeah, less work I think on that one. Good.

Alright, there's the keys, good luck with it, I'll catch up with you soon.

This is the Porsche which Mike has very kindly bought for us.

It's supposed to be a sports car, but its sporty looks are

really being let down by the condition of the bodywork.

There are a number of jobs I have to do. The passenger

door has a dent in it and needs to be replaced.

There's a dent in the rear quarter which needs to be filled,

and I'm hoping that a good teacup is going to

bring this bodywork back to its former glory.

So let's get going straight away.

Here we have the dent in the rear quarter. It's not that

bad, all it needs is a bit of filler and a bit of paint,

but before I can even start that I need to remove the trim and the dacal,

and the best way to do that is with a hair dryer or a heat gun.

Now, to pull out the dent from the side of

the bodywork, I'm going to use a slide hammer.

It's a cheap, readily available tool, I fitted it with a screw,

I'm going to drill a hole into the bodywork,

wind in the slide hammer,

and bang out the dent.

It might seem a bit drastic drilling into our lovely car,

but it's a cheap way of pulling out dents. You just need a bit of courage.

A few knocks with the slide hammer and the dent simply pulls out.

Well, the dent's out, but there's still a bit of

distortion which I can knock out with a body shop hammer.

Well, that's as good as it's going to get, but before I can add any filler,

I need to grind back the paint to bare metal and weld up the hole.

I've filled the hole, I've removed the paint, now I can put some filler on it.

This is just standard body filler, it's great stuff,

costs about £10 a tub and takes about 20 minutes to go off.

So while I'm waiting, I'm going to have a look at the damaged passenger door.

A new door would be very pricey, so I've sent Mike off to get his hands dirty

and try and find me a replacement in a salvage yard.

Our 924 needs a door and it needs a couple of wing mirrors.

Now, I phoned round a few breakers and one of them

on the phone says he specialises in Porsche parts.

He says that he's got a couple of doors and wing mirrors,

and more importantly, they're red, so they shouldn't need painting.

I just met him and he pointed me down in this

direction to this Aladdin's cave of doors.

So follow me, look, we've got one here for a Golf,

one for a Rover, one for a Vauxhall, one for a Ford,

but in amongst this is a very rare find.

This is a door for a 924 with a wing mirror attached, in lovely condition,

doesn't need any paint, it's just a bit dirty,

but behind it is this, the near-side wing mirror for the other door.

He says the other door is in amongst this pile

here somewhere, so I'm going to have to dig it out.

These doors are going to be about £100 each,

this wing mirror is going to be about £60, which does sound like a lot of money,

but to buy them new would cost an absolute fortune.

So I'm going to go and see the guy now and see if I can work out a better price.

How are you doing, mate? Is that all you need?

Yeah, not bad. You've got a couple of 924

doors down there and a couple of wing mirrors.

I need one of the doors though, how much are they?

We want £100 each for the doors and £60 each for

the mirrors, but I'm sure we can have a deal.

Okay, well I only need one door, so I'll give you £75 for one of the doors,

near-side one and £50 each for the mirrors, £175.

That sounds good to me, mate.

Top work.

Filthy. Top work, though.

That's good. What a great door.

It's really straight, no signs of any repairs.

Mike's done us proud.

Now obviously I can't fit the new door until I've removed the old door,

but if you have access to a trolley Jack and a plank of wood,

you can support the weight of the door while you undo the bolts.

I also need to remove the door cards to gain access to any wiring

that needs to be disconnected before I have a go at the bolts.

I've just undone the two bolts that hold on the door strap,

to get better access to the four bolts that hold on the door.

But while we're here, these holes are slotted,

so if I go round the bolt heads with the scriber,

then when I come to put on the new door,

we've got a much better chance of fitting it properly first time.

It's always a bit nerve-wracking offering up a new door.

Will it be okay?

All I have to do now is feed the hinges into the holes

and then line up the bolt heads with the score marks we made earlier.

Connecting up all the electrics for the door mirror

can be a bit fiddly, but the hard part is making

sure that the door opens and shuts cleanly.

Once that's done, you're laughing.

Well, that's the last bolt done, so now the moment of truth.

Does Mike's second-hand door actually fit?

Fantastic.

With the door now fitted, I can get back to the quarter panel.

Now, the filler's dry, but I can feel it's a little rough.

and doesn't blend in with the bodywork, so the next stage is a little laborious.

It involves more filler, a bit of primer,

a bit of sanding, a lot of Patience,

and eventually, once we've got a mirrored finish, we can put on some red paint.

Okay, that's the priming done, and I've just

finished off with a bit of wet and dry paper, and now it's ready for paint.

The thing is, I can't get away with painting just this area

because it would never blend with the rest of the panel.

The only way to do this properly is by painting the whole of the rear quarter.

Now, that's not as bad as it sounds because to prepare this panel, all we need to do

is give it a bit of a key with a scotch pad.

Take your time masking up,

because paint has a habit of getting everywhere if you're not careful.

Take special care around black seals.

Time spent doing it right now

will save you hours removing excess paint if you get it wrong.

I've got a good key on the bodywork,

and I've just wiped over with some solvent to get rid of any contaminants or dust,

and now I'm finally ready to paint.

Getting a great paint finish is all about Patience.

If you rush the process, then you're heading for disaster.

I'm working in a well-ventilated workshop,

but if you're doing this kind of work in a small garage,

then make sure you wear a face mask at all times.

If you're doing this at home, be careful not to put

too much paint on in one go because it will run.

It's an amazing transformation.

After five layers of paint, it's now a really strong, deep shade of red.

Pulling off the masking tape is the moment of truth.

Finally, we'll be able to see how the panel blends with the car.

That's such an improvement, you'd never know the panel had been damaged.

Definitely worth the effort.

The final job on this bodywork is to try and bring this dull paint back to life.

Now, our budget won't allow a full respray,

so I'm going to use what's called a mop and some compound,

which is rather like a high-speed teacup,

and I'm hoping that it's going to bring our Porsche back to glorious red.

Look at that, you can see the difference already.

That's after.

Sports cars are all about first impressions,

and the first impression I got with this car was really, really poor.

There was a big dent on the passenger door,

there was another big dent on the rear quarter,

the bodywork was horrible, it was all flat and

nasty paint, but after many, many hours' work,

this car is really beginning to look the part.

The Porsche's bodywork now looks fantastic, but these are really letting it down.

The tatty wheels are by no means past it, they just need to be refurbished.

First of all, I need a bucket of soapy water and a brush

so I can give these wheels a damn good clean.

Originally, Mike and I thought we'd shot blast the wheels

and take them back to the alley, but that costs

around £50 a wheel and we just don't have the money,

so this is quite a cheap fix.

With the muck removed,

I can see that the paint on the centre is worn.

and is quite badly corroded.

Before I do any repainting, I need to have a go at the

rim with a scotch pad and some body shot renovator.

The body shot renovator is basically a fine grit

paste which helps me cut into the corrosion.

Before I paint the centre in satin black,

I've got to mask up the rim and the tyre.

Make sure you mask the wheels properly because it's a

very fiddly job to remove any excess paint from the rim.

And now it's time for paint and I'm going to use satin black cellulose aerosol.

For wheels, we need about three coats of paint

followed by a couple of layers of lacquer to seal the surface.

Once again, you need Patience with this kind of job.

Don't rush.

Let each layer dry before you spray the next one.

Some jobs make an instant impression and this is one of them.

A couple of hours work and our Porsche will look a million dollars.

What a transformation!

A wash, a Polish and a bit of paint

and this alloy looks as good as new.

It's going to look great on our Porsche.

I'm very excited because behind this door is Ed.

Now, the last time I see him, I gave him that very sorry looking Porsche 924.

but he's halfway through the restoration

and he should have done some work by now

and I've got a little present for him.

So, let's see how he's getting on.

This can't be the same car.

Ed, how are you fella? Good to see you.

Not too bad, isn't it?

Look at this.

Is it hard work?

Very, very hard work. I have blisters on my hands.

Listen, when I gave it to you, it was already a peach of a car in the first place.

Anyway, show me what you've done.

This looks good.

The first thing is the bonnet.

It's really, really shiny, really polished

and it took hours and hours and hours of the old tea cutting, lots of polishing.

It's just hours of work.

So, all that blooming, all that milkiness

we had in the paintwork, you just polished it away.

See, I told you it weren't hard work.

Just look at this door.

Same colour as the car.

It was only a hundred quid, about that.

Was that good?

That's good, that's pretty good, yeah.

It took me a lot of time.

Excellent. And was this a sign with a nasty dent?

Can't even see it, which is a good sign, but it was just here.

It was quite a bit of work, you know, to paint the whole of the rear quarter,

but it came out alright.

You obviously sent this off to a professional to get it done.

Thank you very much.

It looks amazing. Very, very smart.

Now, the last time I see these, Ed,

I noticed a bit of cleaning up.

It wasn't even too hard either.

Bit of a scouring pad around the outside,

my key and some paint.

Told you it wasn't hard, didn't I?

Now, there's something missing in the middle.

Yeah, they broke when I took the wheels off, unfortunately.

And I did say I was going to bring you down to present.

I know you was expecting cream cakes,

but I actually got you the insert.

That's not a bad ticket. That's nice.

Thank you very much.

The work's going well, but are we on budget?

We've got just £1,000 to spend.

I paid £700 for the car.

Savage body parts sent me back £175.

Paint and other materials cost about £40.

So far then, we've spent £915.

That doesn't leave much for the mechanical work that Ed's got planned next.

Question is, will we come in on budget?

Well, it kind of looks finished,

but there's still plenty of work to do.

We've got to tinker with the engine, fiddle with the exhaust pipe

and work out why the handbrake doesn't work, which is a bit of a worry,

but not the kind of problem that Nick Brown has.

He's got a Porsche 924,

so I went and met him to discover the joys of a well-sorted poor man's supercar.

Looking over at pristine 924 gives us a really clear idea of how ours could end up.

Nick, as a kid, I had a picture of your very car on my bedroom wall.

It was a very special car for me back then,

but what made it a special car?

I think because it was the first affordable Porsche.

It was the entry-level Porsche.

It was the Boxster of its day, if you like.

Now, what first appeal do you use to buy a Porsche 924?

I was in a pub in Chiswick before Christmas, about three years ago.

Came out and there was this car,

looking a bit forlorn, saying for sale 1,800 quid.

Got the price down a bit.

The car was mine in two days.

Fantastic. So you bought the thing on a win?

Sort of, yeah. I mean, it just looked like the right car at the right time.

It looked like it would be fun to get restored

and it's a Porsche at the end of the day.

Bring us bang up to date.

What's it like to live with in terms of modern motoring?

Terrific. Very practical car.

I do about 6,000 to 8,000 miles a year.

Take her to France, take her up to Manchester,

take her down to the coast, take her to the supermarket every Saturday.

Terrific. Apart from anything else, there's a lot of space in the back of the car.

Now, you keep referring to your Porsche 924 as she.

It's just a car, isn't it?

No, she's got character.

I was thinking of her maybe like Porsche out of The Merchant of Venice.

She's great fun to drive.

A lot of spirit and she's got to be a woman, a very fine lady.

She obviously needs a lot of love, care, fettling and attention.

What about servicing and parts?

Not a problem at all really.

The Porsche Club Great Britain and the owner's register have been very helpful.

A lot of the work I've done is by a specialist in Manchester.

A lot of parts are available second hand but also being a German car,

they were always required to supply spares for

10 years after the car went out of production.

So you can usually pick up what you need at a pretty reasonable price.

Right, now what about problem areas?

I'd say the major problem for me personally living in central London is insurance.

She's my only car and I don't have a garage.

Surely you can get some classic car insurance?

You certainly can. In my case I'm paying

something in the region of 12 to 1400 a year.

But if you have a car like this as a second car,

you could get it down many hundreds of pounds less than that.

And again, the register and the club can be very, very helpful in

pointing you towards the right brokers who can arrange those deals.

Now, this is obviously a labour of love. You love your car very much.

I'm glad he got it insured. Do you trust me enough to let me have a go?

Well, I think my heart will be racing a little,

my pulse will be beating a little bit faster.

But yeah, go on, enjoy. Thank you very, very much.

On the way we go!

Now the differences between our car and this car are huge.

The steering is very light and very nimble.

You can feel everything that's going on underneath the front wheels.

The brakes are good, they're nice and sharp.

The gearbox is snappy.

It's got a grin factor and it certainly puts a smile on your face.

It's putting a smile on my face.

This one has had nearly £11,000 spent on it, keeping it in this condition.

I've got nowhere near that kind of money.

I've had to buy the car and find the parts and

get it all repaired and up together for £1,000,

which is a mighty challenge.

But I reckon I can rise to that challenge.

And I reckon with a little bit of spit and Polish and hard work,

we can pull our little beauty up together and we can

get it looking halfway between what we've got and this.

And if I can just achieve that, I think I'll be a very happy man.

And at the end of the day, I'm going to have a Porsche for not a lot of money.

Back in the workshop, Ed's hard at it.

Now he's going to have a go at doing the handbrake.

Something that needs to work properly if the Porsche is going to be road legal.

Mike complained about a dodgy handbrake on this Porsche

and that would normally lead me to look for either stretched handbrake cables

or perhaps bad adjustment on the shoes inside the drum.

Now my instinct tells me it's neither of those.

Because this handbrake handle is clearly broken.

I'm going to need a 13mm spanner to undo the two

bolts that hold the handbrake handle onto the car.

Once I've removed these, I should be able to pull

the whole handbrake mechanism out from the car.

Well, there it is.

Now you can see, somebody's had a really bad go at trying to fix this.

It's all mangled and mashed up and stuff.

Now, they only cost about 15 quid for my breakers,

so I might as well just get another one and replace

it rather than trying to fix this one again.

Well, this is our new one.

Here's the old one and you can see there's no damage on this side.

It's not mangled or mashed.

It's just all fine, so I'm going to put that one back in.

Now, when I was taking this apart, I noticed that the

handbrake light switch, just here, is actually broken.

And very handily, they're the same as a Volkswagen Van.

So all I have to do now is just replace that.

And then when the handbrake's up, a little light on the dashboard will work.

Now, of course, when I put the handbrake back in,

I need to remember to put this little hook

back into the cable carrier of the handbrake.

Jobs like these don't seem very exciting, but

the handbrake is an essential safety requirement.

It has also been a cheap fix for me.

If the cable had gone or the drums weren't functioning,

I would need to spend far more than 15 quid.

Well, that's definitely working.

And now, I've even got lights on the dashboard too.

Moving on, it's time to get on with the exhaust.

Now, I'm not happy with the noise the Porsche is making when I start the car.

What I can hear is the exhaust smacking

against the inside of the transmission tunnel.

Now, it's not particularly dangerous, and it's not going to cause much damage,

but it is a major annoyance, and it could lose us the potential sale.

So I'm going to have to fix it.

The exhaust is something which is very awkward to work on unless you've got a ramp.

Because it's really dirty and rusty under here, it's

well worth wearing a pair of goggles if you've got them.

I've had a good look at the exhaust system, and it

turns out the last half is practically brand new.

Now, I think what's happened is when they

fitted it, they just rushed the job at the end.

And what's happened here is the silencer is actually hitting on the bodywork.

Now, of course, you don't want your exhaust to touch the car anywhere,

which is why it's isolated with rubber bushes.

Now, all you're going to need to do is move this back by about 5mm,

and I think the problem will be solved.

What I'm going to do here is undo the exhaust new bolt,

and the rear one which holds the back box on,

and then I'm going to just nudge the whole exhaust backwards a bit.

And now for my adjusting tool.

It might seem pretty severe knocking the exhaust around like this,

but it's the only way to move it, and it won't

be getting damaged when I'm doing this either.

I think that's it.

Well, there's no sign now of anything touching anything else, which it shouldn't.

All I have to do now is do up the bolts.

Cool.

Excellent. That annoying noise is now gone.

Now, I know it was a small fault, but to

me, fixing that has made all the difference.

I've just popped the bonnet to have a good look at the engine,

and everything seems in really good condition.

It recently had its cam belt changed, but is not sure when its last service was,

so I'm going to give it a really quick service by changing

the oil, some filters and the spark plugs, just to be safe.

Before I start anything else on the service, I tend to drain the oil.

Draining the oil is a messy job and takes quite a while,

so while it's draining out, I can sort out the air filter.

Well, it's not too dirty, but it's worth changing now it's out.

So I'll just get rid of that.

If an air cleaner gets really dirty, it can restrict the airflow into the engine.

This affects the air-fuel mixture, which can make the car run really badly.

A light service like this will cost around £100 from a garage,

so it's well worth having a go at it yourself.

Now I'm going to change over the plugs.

There's four of them, they're down here, and they're a long way away from my hands.

Spark plugs are often something you can get away without changing,

but for £20, it's worth it just for peace of mind.

I've just removed the spark lead, and I'm going to do

these one at a time so I don't get the order messed up.

This may seem pretty obvious, but you don't want to do this when the car is hot.

You'll probably burn yourself, and you'll also

run the risk of over-tightening the spark plugs.

I need to put a spark plug back into the head

to make sure you don't cross the threads.

When you buy a new spark plug, chances are the gap is actually already set correctly,

but to be absolutely sure, you need to measure it with a special Gauge.

On a Porsche, the gap needs to be between 0.7 and 0.8mm.

If you're not sure of the gap, it's worth checking in a manual.

That seems fine, because I want to put it straight back in the engine.

That's the second one done.

Another sooty spark plug.

Anyone who likes fiddling with cars can do this.

It's just a bit oily and a bit fiddly.

I could do with a little more room, I think.

And the final sooty spark plug.

And the last lead to be connected.

Okay, that's the spark plugs done, so now I'm

going to change the dizzy cap and the rotor arm.

To be fair, this rotor arm isn't in very bad Nick at all.

But again, they're so cheap, it's worth changing.

You don't need to get a rotor arm from Porsche.

I got this one from a local auto store for about £7.

Now for the distributor cap.

Now if you look closely, on the outside it looks reasonably new.

But on the inside, you can see loads of corrosion on all the terminals.

Whereas on this one, it's all shiny.

So again, it's so cheap, it's worth changing.

As with the spark plugs, you want to make sure

you get the right leads onto the right plug.

And so here, you want to get the right lead onto the right terminal.

All done.

Altogether, I've spent less than £50, but it'll make the car start and run better.

Well worth it.

Now it's time to fit the oil.

As I usually do, I'm going to fill up the oil filter before I put it onto the car.

Synthetic oil, like the stuff we're using here, is more

expensive than normal oil, but it's much better for the car.

Putting a little bit of oil on the o-ring helps to make it seal properly.

And of course, the drain plug.

Sometimes impossible to remove and easy to lose.

I've even seen sawn off spark plugs used in here.

Putting too much oil in is almost as bad as putting too little in.

When you put too much in, you can end up having those

pistons trying to smack the oil around in the sump,

which actually could do an awful lot of damage,

and you can end up trashing the engine just as

badly as you can if there was no oil at all.

Just like any potential buyer, I'm going to do a final check of the oil.

It's at the right level, and it's clean.

Well that is our mini service finished.

It's nearly there now, the bodywork and mechanicals are done.

Finally, I need to get the interior sorted.

So you've bought your Porsche, it looks great on the outside,

and here, you're going to have your driving experience.

Now, if it looks as shabby as this in your interior,

you're not going to want to do too many miles.

There are, however, a few inexpensive things that I can do to spruce this up.

Take this gear stick for example.

It's seen a lot of miles, it's tatty and it's torn.

I'm just going to replace it with this brand new one.

Okay, I managed to get the boot off,

and now there's a little metal pip I have to

remove before I can remove the knob itself.

It's a nice and easy two minute job, and it makes all the difference.

Unfortunately, our budget doesn't stretch to a brand new steering wheel,

but this leather one can easily be reconditioned

with some leather cleaner and some leather cream.

I'm using silicon free cleaners because I hate that

sticky and shiny residue that looks really cheap.

Look at that dirt, it's disgusting.

Compared to all the jobs I've done, this is one of the quickest,

but it'll play an important part when selling the car.

While I let that soak in, I'm going to get on with the rest of the interior.

Another finishing touch, it's time to put the porche

decals on I had to remove when I painted the door.

These are aftermarket ones as original porche decals are impossible to find,

but they're reasonable value at £27 and it's an easy job.

It's actually quite satisfying too.

Now don't worry about sticking over the shut lines,

because you can always cut that off afterwards.

And now it's time to remove the application paper.

Take your time doing this, get it wrong and you'll

see the mistake every time you look at the car.

For the other side, I've got the technique down perfectly.

Easy does it. Nice. It's looking very tasty.

Now that really does save porche.

And that's it, it's finished. Let's have a look at what we've achieved.

We bought a tired 20 year old car,

severely in need of some work and it's completely been turned around.

The hardest part was finding a porche at the right price.

The rest of the jobs went quite smoothly and

could definitely be attempted by an enthusiast

with a garage, a workshop manual and some basic tools.

The Porsche 924 is finished and it's a real peach.

Ed's completely repaired the dent in the rear panel.

The alloy wheels have been given a new lease of life.

The exhaust has lost its annoying rattle.

The passenger door has been replaced.

And the panel finished off with a few coats of Guards Red paint.

And finally, it's had a mini service.

So what's the damage?

Our complete spend on parts was £310 plus that on some of the items.

Add that to the £700 purchase price and the Porsche owes us just over a grand.

But now it's worth hundreds more.

Not bad going.

Ed, looks fantastic. I can't believe it's the same motor.

Thanks very much. It isn't the same motor.

I've done the wheels. I've done the engine. I've done the handbrake.

I've done the interior. I've done all the body work.

I've been a very busy boy.

You have, haven't you? Is it ready to go?

It's very ready to go. Take it for a test run.

You're fantastic.

Well, Ed's really done us proud. He's totally transformed the car.

Even on a grim day like today, it feels so much better.

The steering's sharper. The brakes are sharper. They seem to work better.

It goes up and down through the gearbox nice.

It pulls quickly in all the gears.

It really is a total transformation.

The exhaust rattle's gone as well, but he just noticed that.

It really has done a splendid job.

But what really has made the difference is Ed's

turned this car from being quite anonymous.

Nobody really noticed you driving down the road in it, to a thing of beauty.

Now it turns Ed. People are smiling. People are prepared to wave at you.

And really that's what owning a Porsche is all about, turning heads.

Now I can't think of another car that you'll get that kind

of fun and that kind of excitement for about 1500 quid.

And that's exactly the money I want for this.

Amazing, isn't it? We can be proud of ourselves.

Our car has gone from being a has-been to a must-have.

But how do I turn this transformation into a profit?

Well a good idea is to sell your porky in the summer,

because the 924 has a roof that comes all the way out and slots neatly into the boot.

And buyers love the sun beating down on their face.

Secondly, be realistic with your price. I could ask up to £2,000 for this motor,

but then I could spend a long time waiting for the right buyer.

So I'm going to advertise it for £1,750.

And remember to factor in the cost of re-advertising.

You could spend a lot of money just trying to get top dollar for your car.

And finally, choose your market very carefully.

This kind of car attracts buyers who are prepared to travel.

So there's no use advertising it in your local free sheets.

Go for the big selling motoring weeklies instead.

The Porsche has attracted a lot of attention and this guy seems pretty keen.

He's had a test drive and now he's having a poke around under the bonnet

and he seems to know his stuff. So I could be in for a bit of a grilling.

Wish me luck.

How you getting on?

Yes, we've done quite a bit of servicing.

We've done the oil change, we've done some plugs, we've done the air filter.

The battery looks pretty new. It's got a fairly new coil on it, distributor cap.

It's pretty tidy under it. It's been well looked after.

Yeah, it all looks in order. So have you done much to the interior?

Yeah, quite a bit actually. We've validated it, I've replaced the gear knob.

But more importantly, everything works.

Porsche electrics are usually bulletproof and this one's no exception.

Everything works.

Yeah, it's good in here, Si, because it's got the original fifth alloy wheel

and this bag here is not just a bag, this is a cover.

They're quite rare actually for the sunroof.

And it stops it getting scratched.

Yeah, really good. I've looked at a few of these cars now and this is a tiny one.

We're here. We're on the way then.

It's nice and tidy on the body work. It's been lovingly careful.

It's got the electric mirrors, which is really good.

Original Porsche decals as well.

And another thing about these cars is they do suffer

quite badly with stone chips across the front.

But there's no real stone chips on this, this is quite nice.

The alloys are in good Nick.

So it's alright, isn't it, fella?

Right, how much do you want for it?

£1,750.

It's got a couple of scratches on it, couple of

little bits and pieces. I'll give you £1,400 for it.

No, it's an old car, Simon. I'll take £1,600 cash.

I've got £1,500 in my back pocket and it's yours.

Hold out your hand. You bought it.

Wicked. The 924's off my hands.

£500 profit and a motoring classic that's staying on the road

when it might have otherwise been heading for the crusher.

In fact, I reckon it's going to be well looked after.

That's what I call a bit of a result.

That's it for this edition of Wheeler Dealers.

Join me again when I go in search of another modern classic in need of some TLC.

Tala!