From the front lines...
Calling it a day. This is day 2 in the M030 battle. Currently 3 corners are complete. The remaining rear strut is removed and in mounted in my bench vise ready for tear down.
The first problem was that the ball joint separator I got off amazon needed dremeling to get it wide enough, deep enough, and thin enough to use for a boxster.
The next problem is these "compensating rings" - spacers at the top of the strut. A renntech thread mentioned a 986 part # that is to be used. However, when I finally received them, the part had been superseded by a 987 part that was not 3mm, but 13mm! This in addition to the orange mark on the top of the front row m030 spring which is not of this world as far as my Bentley manual is concerned. A call to Sunset was not very helpful. They will order row m030 kits, but they do not install them and could not provide specs. Needing to finish this, I decided to just use my existing F/R 6mm spacers.
The next was my mistake. After assembling a rear strut I realized the top mount and bottom are clocked a certain way. It is futile to try to rectify this w/o taking apart the strut and aligning the center mount stud with the strut clamp seam. If you have el cheapo spring compressors this results in
The next concerns the rear struts. The Bentley manual calls for more disassembly than is required, and the "101 Projects" description for the rear only amounts to a caption in one photo. But the rear is much more involved than the front.
You need alot of tools to do this job efficiently. And it would be nice to know if a row m030 kit really contains all you need or not.