Now that the Porsche has passed its smog check and it is officially registered, the restoration can begin. Before I work on the engine and mechanicals, which is something I understand and have some experience with, I have decided to venture into the unknown by starting with the interior. I have never worked on restoring the interior of any vehicle, so this should be an interesting experience.

From the moment I purchased the 968, my plans and goals for it have been evolving. My initial plan for the interior was to leave the Pioneer touch screen head unit installed, as it seemed like a nice fit for the vehicle. Once I received the vehicle, I noticed it was not installed properly. The unit was not very secure and there was a birds nest of wires behind it. I have decided to bring the car back to basics by removing the touch screen unit with the plan to install a single din, unit. I’m not the type of person that needs all the most up to date technologies. Reliable proven technology with only the features that are needed, not ones that are only used for the first week of ownership, is what I prefer.

I started by removing the center console. The previous owner did inform me that some of the attachments are broken and suggested the center console be replaced. Removing the center armrest/glovebox exposed a couple broken mountings. It looks like the previous owner cut away some sections of the center console to fit the usb and ipod wires that ended up breaking the attachment points when forcing the wires to fit. This issue was augmented by the use of a generic double din housing for the Pioneer unit, as it removed the stock Porsche radio housing. The center console is supposed to be hard mounted to the stock radio housing that is then hard mounted to the dashboard. This further confirms I should go back to the single din radio. Before removing the head unit, I had to remove the black plastic center cover that holds the shifter boot and the row of switches. The access to the back of the connectors was very limited as it seems that the wires are short or hung up on the radio. Each connector has four tiny plastic clips, two on top and two on the bottom. I used a thin screwdriver to pry then up and wiggled the connector off. I was happy not to have broken any of the clips, although one was already broken.

I unscrewed the head unit and was able to easily pull it out of the center console. The mess of wires was now exposed but I was in luck. The previous owner used a wiring harness that mounted to the factory harness, meaning there were no permanent modifications to the factory wires. After some sorting through the wires, I was able to remove the aftermarket wiring harnesses. The GPS antenna, microphone, and amp output remained which will need to be removed later.

With all the components at the center console removed, I found that the drain hose for the ventilation unit was broken. This is likely why there was more coolant leaking from the heater core than the catch pan in the passenger foot well showed. The coolant was partially leaking out of the vehicle at the drain hose and partially running down the foot well directly into the carpet.

Next I went to remove the black plastic fascia’s that houses a majority of the switches on the dashboard. One of the primary issues I discovered was the lack of dashboard lights when the headlights are on. Doing some research online suggested that there may be an issue with the dashboard light dimmer. The dimmer is essentially a potentiometer that varies the resistance as the nob is turned. If there is a fault in the switch, the switch may have a very high resistance preventing any electrical flow, causing the lights not to illuminate. To remove this switch I need to remove the plastic facias. Sounds simple enough, but it has proven to be more difficult than expected. There are several screws, some hidden, holding the plastic covers in place. I used the Auto Atlanta website for the diagrams to help me find all the screws. After removing all the screws I started to pry the plastic away. Something seemed to still be retaining it in place. There is always that worry, especially on older cars, that if a fragile part is pulled to hard it will break. That is the feeling I had. I double checked to make sure all the screws were out, and I pulled a bit harder. Some of the plastic fascia un-stuck itself from the dash, but it was obvious there was something more holding it back. I read a couple forum posts and they stated that the steering wheel needs to be removed. Seems a bit odd that for a switch replacement, the steering wheel would need to be removed, but so be it. I went forward with removing the wheel, which required the removal of the airbag. I removed the two torx screws securing the airbag to the steering wheel and slid the unit out. There was one connector going to the back of this very beefy air bag unit. I have to say, there was a slight adrenaline rush when I went to remove the connector. Seeing that an airbag is essentially a controlled bomb, you might understand my worry when I went to pull the connector. Reading about the airbag removal on Clark’s Garage, it was mentioned that the battery should be disconnected at least 30 minutes before removing the airbag. I have had the battery disconnected for weeks, since its being drained by what I suspect is the alarm, so there shouldn’t have been any worry. I pulled the connector, and no kaboom. Good. With the airbag removed, I now have access to the single nut that holds the steering wheel in place. Sadly, the nut is a 24mm (or 15/16”) and I did not have that socket in my toolbox. Instead of stopping there, I decided to see what else I can remove from the dashboard.

I noticed that the GPS antenna from the radio along with the microphone were routed through the central ventilation vent. This persuaded me to remove the central vent. There were a couple screws around the gage cluster, and a couple hidden within the blades of the vent. Once they were out, the assembly slid out with ease. This made removal of the microphone much easier as it was wedged in between the blades of the vent. In addition, the GPS antenna was now exposed.

This surprised me as I expected the GPS antenna to be one of the antennas located on the passenger side of the windshield. That just meant I had a new surprise awaiting me when removing those antennas. As you might expect, I couldn’t wait to see what those antennas lead to. More surprises?  Bring it on.