For those that don't know, the plastic interior on 97-99 is different from 2000-04. They're mostly the same ,but the 00-04 interior plastic pieces have a coating on them that give a flatter finish. I'm guessing Porsche started doing this to give the Boxster an updated look. When new the 00-04 interior does look better, but the problem is that it scratches if you even look at it wrong. It doesn't take long for the 00-04 interior to look beat up. Heck, it only took my dog 30 seconds to scratch the hell out of my center console and door flap. I'm not a fan of the 00-04 interior.! Needless to say my interior needed to be rehabbed. I was going to originally paint all the interior pieces body color using the 97-99 interior because it doesn't have that coating. Well as paint day got closer, I got lazier and decided to use the 97-99 pieces as they were. I did try and experiment with the interior pieces before putting them on. I coated them with Turtle Wax's trim restorer. It says on the bottle it's not for interior pieces, but I used it on the interior of my Dodge Ram and it made the interior look brand new. I put it on my truck six months ago and it still looks great. I wish I had before and after pics. The plastic was chalky and faded before I used the trim restorer. Now it looks like it just rolled off the show room. It's a little shiny at first, but that quickly goes away after a few days. I had such good luck with the restorer, I thought I would try it on my boxster parts before installing them. I figure worse case scenario is I would have to reinstall the interior plastics from another car.
Here's a pic of three A pillar trim. Far left is untreated 97-99, middle is 97-99 with the turtle wax restorer and the right is the 00-04.
The problem with 97-99 interior is the color. It has a grey tone to it that can clash with other colors. It's so much more durable that the 00-04 though. The good thing about the 00-04, is that it matches almost any interior color. I'm hoping the turtle wax interior can bridge that gap. Here's a pic with most of the pieces put back.
