New owner - 04S project car
 

First time porsche owner and just picked this up as a project car for the winter. Fully loaded 2004 dark teal metallic boxster s with only 33k miles. As I've never worked on a porsche before I'm hoping you guys will be able to provide me with some technical support along the way!

Good looking low mileage Boxster. It doesn't look like that hard of a hit from the photos. Should be a fun winter project. There is a white tag pasted to the inside of the front hood. Looking at the hood I am guessing you'll be replacing it. Get that tag off & keep it. It contains the VIN color codes and option codes unique to your car.

Looks like a fun project. Any info on the state of the rest of the car? Codes, structure, etc. .

One way or another
 

They are all project cars

Thanks for the tip on the hood! At this point I don't know anything other than what can be ascertained from the pictures or pulled up from putting the vin through a free decoder (options, build date etc). Its about 2000miles away right now but should be arriving sometime thursday! Here's what I was able to pull up from the vin.

Nicely optioned Boxster too!

Wow, that's some sticker price for a Boxster! To see it the junk yard now is a bit sad but certainly a good resurrection candidate. This forum is a awesome resource. Good luck with getting her back on the road.

The price of living in Canada eh?

It doesn't look that bad and it's an S. The hood looks like it's salvageable, I would keep that on the car if possible because of the sticker. Good luck and the interior looks nice.

Tell me about it. I'm so glad I found this thing in canada. I was searching all over north america before I found this one and the exchange right now is brutal.

And thank you for the encouraging words guys. I know it doesn't look that bad but I've still yet to see it in person and I've never worked on a porsche before so I'm not entirely sure what I'm in for yet. I will definitely try to keep the hood though. Looks to me like it just needs a sanding and some paint.

welcome, where in ontario are you

That tag is under the rear trunk lid, not the front trunk lid on my Boxster :confused:.

I'm in Burlington.

The car is from alberta so I just called porsche of calgary and porsche of edmonton to try to get some service records. The calgary dealership was the only one that could find anything. They have records going all the way back to 03 but could only tell me the specifically what was done from 07 onwards as they purged all the information from the earlier entries. Between 07 and 2010 (the last entry they had) the car had routine oil changes and a new convertible top relay and new ignition switch put in. I'm assuming the car was sold around 2010 and whoever had it until now either serviced it himself or took it somewhere other than the dealership. Either way I plan to get a sellers package so I can find out who the PO was and try to get in touch.

Cool I just moved to Oakville. Im at Trafalgar amd qew right near the mall.

Previous owner probably started servicing the car at an indy. I was in Calgary and Edmonton and shocked to see so many german indy shops.

Dont bother wasting your time eith the usee vehicle pwckagr. Those only contain records of ontario owners and vehicles registered here as well.

Best bet would be carfax or car proof for vehicle's real history. Hopefully you find receipts in the glove box

I wasn't aware that it would only list owners within the province, but that makes sense. I'm hoping some ims work was done at some point.

I got hit like that (well actually I did the hitting) and the estimate stopped at $26k US and that was 10 years ago. Good luck.

The important thing to start out with is to see if the frame is straight (laser measurement or jig) and then what suspension components are straight or may need to be replaced. The cosmetic stuff is pretty routine.

A list or wrecking yards for parts is here at http://sites.google.com/site/mikefocke2/listsofsources

The insurance estimate was 19k cdn.It was delivered today and it looks much better than in the pictures. The hood and drivers side door are just really dirty (not damaged) and the interior looks pretty nice. I'll clean it up on the weekend and post some pictures. Visually, the frame looks straight and the bottom of the car is clean and dry. The only suspension component that looks like it needs to be replaced is a control arm in the back which is bent. You can't tell in the picture but it turns out the back drivers side wheel is a little crooked.

A friend has an 03 boxster (base) with an irreparable title (from a hit to the back) so the plan is just to swap over all the front parts I need and paint it. My only concern was that the center radiator on this car would damaged because if it was, the parts car wouldn't have it. But it looks intact so I'm pretty happy about that. The only thing I'll have to do is cut a hole in the bumper and pop in the center grille piece the S has.

Oh and thanks for all the boxster resources you've put together mike. I've got them bookmarked on my computer.

Nothing like diving into the deep end of the pool on your first Porsche ! Good luck with the rebuild. Was this sold with a salvage title ?

Unfortunately yes, but I didn't buy it to resell it and I plan to keep it for a while so it makes no difference to me. I gotta say though, all I've done with this thing is sit in it and I think I'm already starting to fall in love with it!

where are the pics

Does your friends car have black seats and a roof hes interested in selling

The car is absolutely filthy so I'm going to pull it out and hose it down tomorrow and I'll take pictures then. And yes! everything is for sale on it (except the parts I'll be needing!). I'll get in touch with him for you and see what he wants for those things. Its a black on black 03 boxster base.

Pics as promised! Super happy with the way it cleaned up. Never would have guessed it would have cleaned up this well based on the original pictures. Damage doesn't look bad at all either. Literally just looks like someone disassembled it to check for structural damage didn't bother putting it back together. In fact, I found the original radiator and AC condenser virtually undamaged in the front trunk with all the hardware.

http://oi67.tinypic.com/1zggmm0.jpg
http://oi63.tinypic.com/23k5a48.jpghttp://oi67.tinypic.com/2hyc3ko.jpg
http://oi68.tinypic.com/24vijp3.jpg

If there was a hit strong enough to bend wheels and control arms, are the mounting points true?

If the estimate was done, do you have access to it to see what they felt needed to be replaced?

I'd get those verified before I'd put any serious time or serious money into it. Looks beautiful from the right angle though.

I tried this before as I bought a salvaged car from COPART in the USA. In order to obtain a rebuilt title in Canada I needed to either produce the original repair estimate and receipts for the purchase of items needed to complete the repair, or a letter from the insurance company that they were not wlling to release that information.

I eneded up with the letter, as I tracked the info back to the insurance company. Luckily my former car had an insurance slip under the seat that wasnt removed. They however declined my request for the estimate due to PRIVACY ISSUES.

Glad you got the cooling parts tho. Looks good from here

All the suspension components where the damage is are 100% intact and the wheel is perfectly straight. Its actually the back drivers side wheel where the track rod is broken. Clean snap in half with no damage to any of the mounting points or any nearby structures.

edit: and I already got a letter from the insurance company that the MTO approved of!

No kidding! I almost fell out of my chair.

Keep posting updates! Lots of interest in this project. :cheers:

Nothing much new to add this weekend. Haven't got many of the parts yet so I've just been using the downtime to clean things up a bit. Figured I'd clean the frunk out and wipe up all the plastics in the cowl area and behind the bumper. Also took the rear intakes off and cleaned inside them and started claying the rest of the car. Rad/condensor assembly and track rod should be going on this coming weekend. Then all thats left to be done is installing the fender, wheel liner, bumper, and headlight.

http://oi66.tinypic.com/2v1vtxg.jpg

http://oi67.tinypic.com/25g8euc.jpg

It looks like a pretty easy project to fix since nothing real serious appears to be damaged.

I would check for codes before running the engine. You need a durametric or one of those cheap Chinese "PIWIS" cables to look at some of the primary Porsche codes.

It is a fantastic opportunity to put some performance suspension, HID headlights and other parts into it if you are so inclined.

You should read these forums for ideas on where you want to take this project.


PS: Born and raised in Oakville, but I left for year round Porsche driving weather :p

Ray

Yeah I'm really happy with how minor the damage appears to be. Buying a smashed up porsche from half way across the country could have turned out much, much worse. I already have a pretty modified s/c mini cooper so the plan is to keep this car a little more mellow! That being said there are definitely a few things I plan to change, namely the shifter to the 997 version from all the good things I've read. If there are any other cheap, simple mods like that I'm all ears. I have a bluetooth OBD2 adapter and the torque app on my phone but never even thought to hook it up yet. Good call.

Have you put the car on jacks, removed the under panels looking for leaks? especially the area between the engine and transmission where a leaky IMSB or RMS would show?

For a mere $500 or less you can put on the Top Speed exhaust and 2nd cat delete.
Once you hear that sweet sporty grumbling you will be driving it with the radio off, top down through underpasses a lot more. ;)

I also like what an underdrive pulley did for my 01 S. Gets you another 5hp and saves wear on the power steering when winding up the engine.

You owe it to yourself to take the Porsche auto-crossing or racing at least once and taking a Porsche performance driving school is well worth it and lots of fun, plus you'll meet the local Porsche enthusiasts and make some new friends.

Welcome to the slippery slope. :)

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm really tempted to put an exhaust on it but it would have to be something very subtle and mature sounding. I've done the whole loud exhaust thing and just don't want to be putting up with any drone. Taking it to the track at least once would be something I plan to do somewhere down the road.

pjq, all I've done at this point is crawl under it with a flashlight and everything looked dry from what I could see. I will however be taking a better look when I get around to changing the oil and tranny fluid.

Got quite a bit done today. Replaced the rear track rod and got the rad/condensor assembly put back together. Engine was running perfectly fine until about 10-15 mins into running the new coolant in (I was following the instructions where you open the bleed valve and get it hot enough to cycle the fans on and off a few times) the CEL started flashing and the engine started running really rough. I pulled code P0303 (cylinder 3 misfire) from it. It only did this for a minute or two, by the time I pulled it back into the garage and went to shut it off the engine started running normally again and the CEL stopped flashing. Any ideas? Maybe I just let it get too hot sitting there? The temp gauge never went much past 80 though. Otherwise everything was fine. No leaks where I put the rad on or anything.

http://oi66.tinypic.com/2gxk7sp.jpg

Alright so I tried to look around a bit under the car thinking that maybe I would find something wrong with the cylinder 3 coil or injector and I found this random loose hose with a bit of wetness at the end. For reference, thats the axle in the foreground and I was looking from the rear of the car. The first pic is sideways, it should be 90 degrees to the right so the hose points downward. The second pic is looking straight up at it from underneath the axle area.

http://oi64.tinypic.com/9zq5ir.jpg

http://oi68.tinypic.com/2h56x42.jpg

Any ideas? I know when I was running the coolant in when it overflowed it drained out onto the floor in this general area. But if this is just trunk drain for the coolant and oil adding area I don't see why it would have a hose clamp on the end of it. Any ideas?

Looks like tank fill area drain hose to me. Pour some water into the fill area with someone watching or plug with pencil then pull. As far as hose clamp.......ask PO?

Looking around on the web, I'm pretty sure its just the coolant overflow hose, which makes sense. Still doesn't answer why there would be a hose clamp would be on the end of it though. That made me think it was supposed to connect somewhere. No idea who the PO is so I'm figuring things out as I go.

I remember seeing that car on Copart. What did you end up getting it for, if you don't mind me asking?

I'm looking for a nice project for the winter too. Looking for a 2000+ Non-S 5-speed, if you know of anything around. I'm in Ontario too.

Never heard of copart until now but I got this through impact. Paid somewhere between 4 and 5k cdn for it :)

Only other boxster I know of in the area is the one a family friend is parting out. Its an 03 non s that was hit in the rear. Pretty much everything but the back bumper and trunk is intact but it only has the transmission in it, no engine. He'd like to sell the front clip whole so if you find something that is smashed up in the front then it might be of use to you.

B6T, just had a flash back to My '88 Mazda 323 turbo days lol Nice handle

Nice! I've had two 323 GTs, a GTX, and a Festiva with a B6T in it. Maybe one of the 323s was yours? Who knows, they are super rare.

I've always enjoyed the whole small car/big engine thing. I recently swapped a 2.7tt into an '04 Audi A4. So I know the 2.7tt pretty well now. As luck would have it, I picked up another engine a few weeks back, which brings me to the Boxster forums looking for a roller... :)