First Porsche!
 

Hello, everyone! I had been considering taking the plunge for several months, but couldn't find anything near enough to home to be a practical purchase. Lo and behold, this weekend a '99 986 white with 70k appeared at a local dealer.

Pre-inspection found a leaking head gasket, so I told them to get it fixed and I would take the jump. It's in the shop now, should have it next week in time for some nice 70 degree spring days. Very excited!

I would like to de amber the headlights, but it looks like on my model I would need new headlights. (Might have a hard time convincing the Mrs. that I need to drop $1k on headlights for the new car I just bought.)

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1619195017.jpg

LOL. Leaking head gasket.

I'm four cups in. ;)

Hi and welcome. My story is very similar, which is why I am responding. I looked for months, and found several 986's I liked but they were too far away. Then, a 2001 Base Boxster appeared locally at a reputable used car dealership. 75k miles. Lapis Blue. Savanna beige interior. Really nice combo. I went and test drove it and bought it on the spot. And like you, I want to de-amber the headlights, and about 100 other things as well. But I am pumping the brakes a little on big mods, for fear that my wife might kill me if I spend a lot more on it right away. So I have started really slow, and so far I have only exchanged the old, tired black Boxster trunk badge with a new silver one, and gotten new color center wheel caps. Good luck with yours and enjoy it all.

Haha great, Be safe from your wife, I also looking to go for proche but not able to find it nearby

Well, as it turns out, it wasn't a head gasket. (I'm still waiting for the return call from the shop, and don't know what it actually ended up being yet, but I had my doubts.) Parts are on order and hopefully, I will be cruising by the end of the week. Even the Mrs. is not a fan of the cracked eggs up front, but almost $1k upfront on cosmetics is maybe a little too much to ask, lol. I also need to replace the badge on the trunk because it looks like someone caught the bottom of the "B" on something and it's missing a tiny piece, but for $60, that's a cosmetic fix that is a must. Haven't even driven this thing to work yet and already I'm plotting how I am going to get myself into a 911, lol! Cheers everyone!

Hi, I was in your situation last year "01 986 S MT" and I can tell you it's a journey of joy and learning, in my case I had a leak in the gearbox (easy fix) however I had doubts of the IMS (learn abou it if you haven't) so I bought it and also the rear main seal (I live outside the US so need to import as local dealer has crazy costs). I lightly polished the lights but it lasted 6 months, now I will do it again but will try to lacke them and see.. (I have the xenon ones so it's expensive to replace), I'm focused on the mechanical side but doing some stetic improvements (I have 2 separate Todo lists Mech and Stetics). Enjoy.