My first year anniversary with the best car ever

[black_box]

Just passing my 1 year anniversary with my $10k 2000 Box S and absolutely love it.

So far, what I have done with the car, all on my own, in order:

Changed water pump on the side of the road, in the middle of my first trip out of town (after owning car less than a week)

replaced spoiler motor

installed short shifter

installed bluetooth transciever

installed iphone mount

replaced peeling leather door panels

replaced e-brake microswitch

replaced brake pads / oil / plugs / filter / air filter

desnorkled

Took 10,000 mile / 2 month roadtrip across US and Canadian West, mostly camping out of the Boxster, driving super hard every day in the mountains (no tickets!), and visiting most of the famous national parks


Quietted a chattering muffler mount

replaced a rear wheel bearing

used a dremel to "recondition" (i.e. grind down) stripped rear axle nut threads

replaced plugs and coils

replaced front sway bar linkages

installed Michelin Pilot SS's (they are amaaaazing!)

fixing / repainting front clip due to parking scrapes / rock chips, replaced convertible top (amazing what insurance will cover if you just claim it )

Next up:

installing secondary cat bypass / PSE muffler hack

new brake rotors, EBC yellowstuff pads

PCA DE's

teach my girlfriend to drive stick

Great Eastern Roadtrip! NYC to Newfoundland and back!

While the car has needed lots of attention, I LOVE it, and wouldn't trade for anything (including a 996, which I almost bought instead), and for 10 grand, has been the best bargain I could imagine. Even after spending a day working on it, I can still say I've spent the day working on my Porsche, and then I get to drive it!


Fixing the water pump on my new car with my best friend's father in-law the morning of their wedding, right before I put on my best man tux!

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Beginning of the roadtrip, with the little bro in STL

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Catching up with old friends

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Utah!

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Wyoming!

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I lived out of my two trunks for two months

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And ate like this nearly every night

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One of my many hitchhikers

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[black_box]

Haven't you always wanted to do this?

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So much fun in LAla land!

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Yosemite!

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All good things must end, and after 60 days, I had to go back to work (car was fine, just ran outta time)

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Of course, there were way more pics from the summer, but these are featuring the Box

[ChrisZang]

Dude, way cool!

[AndyA6]

Awesome!! Thanks for sharing. And yes, some of the nicest driving roads are in Utah, ask me how I know

[nnewell]

I went through the tree in '04 , Did you do the drive from Leggett to the coast?
One of the best twisty roads ever.

Spring 2009 Porsche Early 911 run from Leggett, CA to Pacific Coast - '73 911T/SC - YouTube

[black_box]

No, I was in a rush to meetup with an old girlfriend in San Fran for dinner. I went down the 101 through Ukiah, which is actually great. The road was clear and cop free, and higher speeds (nothing reckless), those sweepers are good time.

My favorite roads in Cali were:

Ice cream grade / Felton Empire road north of Santa Cruz (super twisty, but really narrow)

Hwy 33 (and the roads coming off of it) through Los Padres Nat'l forest in Santa Barbara Cty, going from Maricopa to Ojai

[black_box]

I doubled back and blasted this road until I burned through the whole tank. It's 30 min north of Ojai.

[Uller God]

Excellent summery of events, thanks for sharing!

[black_box]

Holy Shift Yeah! to that

I drove oUT of Salt Lake City on 8th St. (or Ave, can't rmmbr) and took it up a hill and then all the way through the Wasatch range, through some July snow and through Star Valley Idaho all the way to Jackson Hole. Great visibility and prefect road for sustained 90+ for hours.

[clubracer6]

Very cool story and pics... Would love to be able to take a few months off to travel.

I just picked up a $10k Boxster S, haven't even driven it yet (getting a bunch of work done) but hope I am happy with it as you are with yours 12 months for now.

[black_box]

Yes, I know it was sort of a once in a lifetime thing and I'll probably never have that kind of time again.

The car and the trip were my 30th birthday gift to myself and looking back on it, I can't imagine a better one than to see the beauty of the north american continent in such a beautiful, exciting, and (all things considered) practical car.

As far as the $10k Porsche thing, it's a great deal IF you expect to get your hands dirty.

The type of person who regrets that kind of purchase is the sort that doesn't bother to learn how the car works, then freaks out when a little thing breaks (say.... a water pump when you're 150 miles from any pcar specialist) and panics, sending the car on a flatbed to a stealership and getting hit for another $2000 (what they estimated mine to be). I fixed it roadside for about $200 in parts, cheap tools and beer to pay off my assistant.

I recommend doing what I did.

Get to know the car by working through all of its systems. Every weekend you get, pick some area of the car to work on, inspecting, tightening things if loose, lubing, cleaning, changing fluids and wear items. You don't really know the history of the car if there isn't documentation, and the only way to know it was done right is to do it yourself.

I suggest doing it in this order, especially before doing any hard driving:

change oil
inspect tires (don't forget the spare!)
inspect brake pads, rotors, bleed fluid
check wheel nut torque
inspect underbody for broken plastic
use a crowbar to check suspension bushings, especially swaybar links

check all bulbs lighting up
change gear oil

wash car, detail interior and steam underbody, taking care to foil wrap electronics

[jdiba]

Awesome Black Box ! Great to see somebody enjoying their Boxster that much and to see all those places in it ! Great memories were made I'm sure.

[ToddPhilly]

Quick question - how difficult was it to replace the e-brake microswitch? I think mine is shot. If you put any weight (i.e. rest your arm on) on the e-brake while disengaged, the light will come on in the dash. Was thinking of replacing the switch. Difficult to do?

[thstone]

Very, very cool! Thanks for all of the pic's!

[black_box]

Originally Posted by ToddPhilly

Quick question - how difficult was it to replace the e-brake microswitch? I think mine is shot. If you put any weight (i.e. rest your arm on) on the e-brake while disengaged, the light will come on in the dash. Was thinking of replacing the switch. Difficult to do?

It was actually super-easy.

If you have the problem I had, and it was stuck in the OFF position and preventing the top from operating, and you want to cheat a little bit in the meantime, you can, with no tools, trick the car into thinking the e-brake is on by pulling off the lever cover, pulling out the plug from the microswitch and putting a paperclip into it. Then fix at your leisure.

[clubracer6]

Originally Posted by black_box

As far as the $10k Porsche thing, it's a great deal IF you expect to get your hands dirty.

I suggest doing it in this order, especially before doing any hard driving:

change oil
inspect tires (don't forget the spare!)
inspect brake pads, rotors, bleed fluid
check wheel nut torque
inspect underbody for broken plastic
use a crowbar to check suspension bushings, especially swaybar links

check all bulbs lighting up
change gear oil

wash car, detail interior and steam underbody, taking care to foil wrap electronics

I don't plan on getting my hands dirty, but have a great mechanic who is reasonable and I trust. I had it delivered right to the shop, for all new fluids, new belts, plugs, wires, brakes F&R, all new filters, new Bilstein HD's an alignment and details... Even taking the front bumper off to get all the debris out of the front radiators and ducting.. Finally an ipod adapter as well...

I know with 105k miles a clutch won't be too far off...