It’s been a while since my last update. I’ve basically done nothing to the Mistress since the club’s car show in late Sep. That’s partly due to getting my CSS ready for the rescheduled Indy DE in mid-Oct, a massive landscaping project, and polishing / detailing a friend's beautiful Atlas Grey Cayman S. And while this update doesn’t comprise a humongous change, it is a major hurdle none the less.
Key
To refresh your memory, I ordered a key from a 928 specialist in NC back in early June. I couldn’t order the key until I had a valid title. It was only supposed to take a few wks but hadn’t arrived after 2 mo. I contacted the lady I’d dealt with and she said she’d been updating me thru email but it turns out she had my addr wrong. She apologized and said it was taking longer than normal to get the keys from Germany. If it made me feel any better (it didn’t), there was supposedly someone else waiting longer for a key than me. I then received a couple of update emails saying I was still on hold. Then radio silence.
Fast forward from late Aug to two wks ago. I called Porsche of Omaha to ask how much they’d charge for a key. It was $50 more than the NC specialist but they’d be sending my VIN info to Atlanta to have the key cut and it would probably be 4 or 5 days to get it. Sure. But I told them to go ahead and order it and I ponied up the $$$. This was on a Fri just after lunch. I immediately called NC to cancel my order. As usual, I got voicemail and left a msg. Then also sent them an email stating I was cancelling and wanted them to verify they received my email. Not surprisingly, I never heard back from them.
The following Tue morning I got a call from PoO and my key was in. Wow! I was told by the parts guy that I needed to bring the Mistress in to have the key calibrated to the alarm system. Hmmm…, I didn’t know that was necessary but I guess it made sense. The first opening they had was the following Mon, Nov 2, so I booked the appt. I thought about waiting to pick up the key until Mon but decided I wanted to do some work with the key over last w/e, so I picked it up last Fri.
It didn’t look any different than the valet key I had. Interesting.
I have the rear liftgate lock removed b/c the valet key wouldn’t open it. I tried my new key in the trunk cylinder and it wouldn’t budge it either. OK, so that ended my w/e attempts at doing work. I was hoping the key would work in the trunk lock and I'd be able to put the trunk lock back in.
Sun I charged up the battery and Mon morning hooked it up. Slid the new key in and turned it over. The engine cranked right up, which was impressive since she’s been sitting for 7 wks. Drove to PoO and was met by the service mgr. As I tried to shut the engine off, the key wouldn’t rotate to the off position. I didn’t want to strong arm it and break the key off. The SM hopped in and got it to shut off. He thought there might have been a stuck tumbler, in which case would mean this might be a different cut than my valet key. I said I was there to get the key and immobilizer calibrated. He mentioned something about some procedure where you started & stopped the car multiple times and w/in seconds of each other, but since my car started with the key, he said the immobilizer obviously recognized it or it wouldn’t have started. So my trip only cost me time but no $$$. When I got home, the key was a bit stiff turning it off, but it did shut off.
I checked the owner’s manual to see if it described the alarm procedure, but there was nothing about having to calibrate it. I haven’t checked RL or posted a thread there asking about it. I think I’m going to get some lock lube for the ignition and the trunk lock. If that doesn’t work on the trunk lock, I’ll see if a locksmith can “unlock” the mystery.
I sent a pic of my key to my friends in NC and stated I’d gotten a key and didn’t need them to get one. I got a response back saying they thought I wanted to cancel my order when I talked to them on the phone in early Aug, so they cancelled my order. I'd threatened to cancel the order when I left a vm because I wasn’t hearing from them. Once I actually heard back from her and found out the email updates were going to the wrong addr, I stated I was fine with them continuing the order. I haven’t gone back to verify, but I’m sure I had a couple of email updates on the order from her after that conversation. Not feeling so bad about spending the extra $$$ with Porsche of Omaha since they were able to get me a key in short order w/o all the drama.
Paint Imperfections
While the Mistress shined up nicely for the car show, that doesn’t mean she has a perfect complexion. She’s been repainted once and it wasn’t a high quality job and she has a few chips. I added to the imperfections when I was fixing the sunroof. I had it set too high and got a scratch in it when I retracted it into the roof and rubbed against a support bolt. I lowered the sunroof a tad and Dremelled off the excess bolt, but the scratch remained. And the final imperfection is on the passenger qtr panel. It looks like at some time a metal rake fell on it and left 6 or 7 claw marks. I bet the previous owner said a few choice words when that happened. I bought a bottle of DR Colorchip but hadn’t tackled the paint project. We’re experiencing an unusually nice week of weather right now, so I decided to attack the paint. I never have luck doing the conventional way DR Colorchip recommends – fill the chip, let it dry for 5 min, then dab and smooth it out with their version of thinner. I always end up removing all the new paint I put in the chip with the dabbing procedure. But I have had luck by filling the chip, letting it dry, and then wet sanding the spot with 1500 grit sand paper. Once it’s smooth, hit it with some rubbing compound, then swirl remover, and finally with polish. Takes some nerves of steel not to go too far, but with luck it will look like new. So this afternoon I filled the chips, the sunroof scratch, and the rake claw marks. I tried to take a pic of the claw marks, but the rest of the paint on the qtr is so shiny, all you get is reflection and can’t see the marks. After letting the paint cure, tomorrow I’ll get out the sand paper and a bucket of water. Hopefully it works. That may allow her next owner to not have to paint her right away. Fingers crossed on it working out favorably. My next update will have the ‘after’ pics.
Happy (?)Anniversary
I realized Wed was the 1 yr anniversary of buying the Mistress. It’s been an interesting yr and I’ve learned a lot about sharks in that time. I’ve gotten her to the point where I could sell her, and looking back at my original posts, said my goal was to get her running and then sell her on. 928s are very cool cars and while I’d like to keep her, I don’t have room. I kind of thought about selling her after the car show but never put out any ads. However, I did have an idea for selling her. I contacted Mike Brewer (the real Wheeler Dealer) via FaceBook to see if he’d be interested in buying her. The work that’s left would be right up Ant’s alley and Mike & Edd did a 928 restore in one of their early seasons of Wheeler Dealer, so I thought there’d be a chance Mike would bite. But I never heard back from him. I tracked down an email addr for Ant and sent him an email a few days ago. But I also ran across a story on the net that said Ant will be leaving WD and there’s only 3 episodes left with him as Mike’s mechanic. So that might be why I haven’t heard anything from either of them. But hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained. It would have been cool to have them finish the restoration of the Mistress.
For grins, I did a search for 2009-2015 Boxsters & Caymans – the mainstay of my normal WD searches. Prices are still sky high and there was nothing available that fit my parameters for mileage, price, and needing maintenance. I don’t want to buy a high priced car, have the bubble burst, and leave me holding the bag on an overpriced car in a depressed mkt. So it’s making more sense to keep working on the remaining shortcomings of the Mistress this winter. She’s not going to lose value like a normal WD car and anything I do should add value, increasing my asking price when it’s time to sell. Looks like she and I will be spending more quality time together. Unless something changes in the next 7 wks, 2020 will mark the first time I haven’t bought a WD car in a calendar yr for maybe 10 yrs. But I sold 3 cars for friends (in record time to boot) and if everything goes well tomorrow, assisted my sister with selling her 2012 370Z. So I tallied 3.5 sales this yr, which is a record. Crazy yr all around. What does 2021 have in store?