Avior - 2001 Boxster build - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

aviorperformance · 12-21-2017, 05:59 PM

Hi everyone,

I wanted to share the life of my Boxster for my records and in case anyone has the same type of problems to fix.

My name is Alex and I do fabrication work for a living. My main work/business is manufacturing exhausts for exotic cars. On the side I do powder coating work more for fun than anything. This would be my 2nd Porsche car to date.

This Boxster was listed on COPART as a flood car. I live in Houston,Tx and we had some real bad flooding in most areas a few months ago. My friend owns a small dealership so my plan was to have her get the car for me. I literally kept an eye on this car for about 2 months before it finally had an auction date.

Before I viewed the car in person I noticed there was no "WL" mark on the side of it which in auction terms it means water line. The other cars that did get flooded have it and are really obvious they had water inside.

Time ran out for me to go see it in person but I went ahead and risked it bidding only seeing pics on the website.

Some things I noticed when I picked up the car.

-There is nothing wet inside
-There is NO odor at all of water or anything for that matter
-The interior was really nice , someone took care of this thing

I had no lug key, the fuse box jump point didn't do anything to open the frunk so I was stuck. Had the car towed home so I could start picking at it.

After a quick wash.

Then I got to the real work, driver seat was removed and yes the CLU had got wet! But if the car didn't stink how could this be? Well my guess is water came in thru the drain hole right next to the CLU. Not much but just enough to mess it up. All the owner and insurance knew was it didn't start and that was that.

I still couldn't open the frunk or trunk but my friend got the wheel locks off for me. From the back of the car I was able to reach the trunk release cable. Next I matched up the part # on the trunk DMU + the under the seat CLU and hit ebay. Managed to find a complete set of both boxes, matching key, cylinder lock and all for $450.

Today I put them all in and car started right up!! Yes I checked for water in the oil first and all that.

Quick pose with my 911.

To my surprise the car only has 53k miles. I already had an idea it was gonna be low because the oil change sticker on windshield said next change was at 58k.

I drove it briefly around the block just to get it out of my system. Once I got back to the shop I did notice a leak. Turns out the passenger side radiator is leaking or that's what it looks like. :ah: If I had to guess how it got damaged it's probably from the way they move cars around at the auction lot - with a huge fork lift!

Already took off the front bumper but didn't get time to remove the radiator for inspection.

I've always been a Boxster fan so I'm glad I finally got one.

Plans now are..

- Fix the leak
- Remove all calipers & powder coat
- Modify exhaust aka Fister mod or make a new one
- Install lowering springs
- Install new wheels

Thanks for looking,

Alex

BruceH · 12-22-2017, 06:24 AM

Nice find! What did you pay at auction if you don’t mind me asking? They are great cars, have fun!

jsceash · 12-22-2017, 03:11 PM

I've wanted to do this but am too afraid to take the chance. Good luck keep us informed.

aviorperformance · 01-10-2018, 02:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BruceH

Nice find! What did you pay at auction if you don’t mind me asking? They are great cars, have fun!

I will send you message with details.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jsceash

I've wanted to do this but am too afraid to take the chance. Good luck keep us informed.

Thanks. More updates very soon.

aviorperformance · 01-10-2018, 02:08 PM

I had a spare set of calipers before I bought the car. Went ahead and did them a orange metallic orange powder coat. Originally was thinking of doing blue but the orange in the side marker and the headlight is so dominant. Figured this color would blend in better.

Took all pistons and seals out then powder coated them.

Just placed it on there to get the idea of the look.

I'll get a better pic of the color in the sun, it is hard to capture the metallics in pic.

aviorperformance · 01-10-2018, 02:18 PM

These are my wheels I started prepping for coating, HRE 545. They're all sand blasted but need to tape the mating areas. Yes they get sprayed as separate pieces.

Going to do all silver or all gun metal metallic on them.

Lemming · 01-11-2018, 11:46 AM

Great car save. Any issues with getting a rebuilt title?

thstone · 01-11-2018, 09:18 PM

Cool wheels!

aviorperformance · 02-21-2018, 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lemming

Great car save. Any issues with getting a rebuilt title?

Not at all.

Quote:

Originally Posted by thstone

Cool wheels!

Thanks.

aviorperformance · 02-21-2018, 03:23 PM

I installed the calipers a while back but forgot to take pics. Here's how they looked after a rainy drive today, much better than the original dull grey.