Two good days and a bad one
 

Had two really good days with the Porsche before one bad day...

Good days:

Friday morning it was time to renew my registration and we passed safety and emissions with flying colors. I was planning on taking a long drive the next day so decided to finally upgrade the head unit so I could enjoy the comforts of bluetooth and apple carplay. Moved the climate controls to behind the stick and added a double DIN Kenwood unit. I was very pleased with the way it came out. I definitely prefer the look even though it meant abandoning my original intention of keeping as stock as possible.

Saturday, woke up early and took it out for a nearly 800-mile roundtrip drive from my home in St. Louis, Missouri to South Bend, Indiana to take in a football game at Notre Dame. My Boxster did the trip very well and I was very comfortable in it even though we drove through some snow and rain. I came home more in love with my car than ever before.

Bad day:

Sunday, clean the Porsche up from the road trip and head out to run a few errands and low and behold, I get backed into by a Jeep Grand Cherokee just hard enough to damage the front bumper and hood. The driver was nice though and her insurance will pick up the damage but man alive, I was supremely pissed. Car is drivable and fixable and of course no one was hurt and could've been worse but the situation is frustrating to say the least.

That is bummer, sorry to hear but like you said, it could have been worse.

back home
 

Picked my 2006 987 up from the garage today( Cavendish Porsche Long Eaton, Derby) after a g\box oil and filter change, coolant change and radio repairs( amp). So glad it is back on the drive. Many thanks for a job well done. :dance:

Just enough time today for a quick drive ;)

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Put the Blizzaks on for the winter ahead. We've already had nearly 24" of snow this season in the foothills of the Rockies so the Contis has to go off until April or so.


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Purchased it a week ago. Drove to Carmel on Friday to pick up a replacement hardtop (dark blue, will trade for metallic black). Put stain cleaner on a big carpet stain that I was worried about. It came right out. Cleaned the interior. Ordered a few replacement parts (hard top cam locks/frunk plastic moulding/few plastic rivets) and... Ordered Soul Performance exhaust on Black Friday.

Welcome to the club!

Bilstein PSS9 coilovers with Elephant Racing hub centric spacers installed (7mm front / 10mm rear). Front lowered 15mm, rear 10mm. Will install ER rear control arms and adj toe links next week so I can get alignment where I want it.

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Old Car Guy,

Car looks great. Where did you pick up the spacers?

Ted

Thanks Ted.

I purchased the spacers and longer wheel lug bolts (52mm front, 55mm rear) through Pelican Parts. I couldn’t locate any 55mm lug bolts for the rear (honestly I didn’t look very hard) so I cut 60mm lugs down. You have to be certain that the rear lugs are long enough but not so long that they interfere with the e-brake inside the hub.

At the marina...

Car looks good PW - nice, clean updates and upgrades.

How's the new home and countryside?

Not a photo background you had much access to in MO, eh? ;)

Thank you :)
Loving the new place. We have a really nice view of the Columbia out back, forest all around...I’m looking forward to some drives out to the coast this spring and summer! :D


Definitely not. I do miss the snow, though. :(


My son took all of the pictures. BTW. ;)

Installed my DCTMS steering wheel. Cocoa with silver stitching to match my 550SE interior. Really like the smaller diameter with increased rim thickness and flat bottom.

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I added the smaller flat bottomed wheel this spring and I love it.

A couple of weekends ago I finally got my "window won't drop" issue fixed on my passenger door. After much reading, it seemed like the regulator must be the problem, so I replaced that, but that didn't solve it.

While messing around with the door innards, I noticed that if you touched the latch assembly connector, the window would drop or raise, and sometimes the horn would beep. Gee, I thought, that doesn't seem right!

A new door latch later ($400 - my car has the factory security system) and it works perfectly now! That solves the last remaining issue that the car had when I bought it as a project four years ago.

Did you save the old latch?
I’d love to do a proper necropsy... :D

I just threw it out! My guess is a bad solder joint somewhere in the electronics inside the latch. I was more worried about it being a broken wire in the harness, but fortunately, the new latch did the trick.

It's nice to hear that you are liking your Kalama experience so far. Very nice that you have a river view of the mighty Columbia as it rolls along. FYI, the state song is "Roll On, Columbia Roll On". You are welcome!

When spring rolls around, you need to drive around Mt. St. Helens, where there are some spectacular views and roads. The drive from Cougar to Forest Road 99 is one of the best anywhere! I'll be happy to give you more info on awesome PNW drives.

Now that is a pretty steering wheel! I really need to get a 3 spoke for my 98.
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Installed my Toth spoiler cap. Very well made, paint matched well. I wanted to retain the possibly to easily remove the cap for rear bumper removal so I did not mount with the double sided tape. Removed the tape and installed with stainless self tapping screws.

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That looks really nice!

That looks great! Job well done.

Today I installed my new SOUL exhaust cutouts. Wow. They sound GREAT. I also installed some EAS wheel spacers front and rear. While I had the wheels off I took some time to clean and detail each wheel. Lastly I removed the factory carbon fiber interior door trim in preparation to fix where it has delaminated from the GRP backing. Oh... I also did some recon on the existing speakers so I can figure out what to replace them with.

Busy day!

Aaannnd today I installed my hard top pin locks and put the hard top on.

Installed Ben's Short Shifter Kit
 

Last night, while waiting for my Immobilzer to return from ECU Specialists and while the drivers seat was out of the car, I installed Ben's Short Shifter Kit. I read all the posts here and it wasn't a very difficult job. I ordered the "make it easy" kit from Uniwerks and Chris was great to work with as he answered many of my questions. I received the shifter already installed in the housing. I removed my center console and old shifter in about 45 minutes thanks to all the posts and videos here (I love this Forum). Once the old shifter was removed, the only prep work I had to do was to remove and reinstall the shifter cable attachment guides. Installing the new unit was a breeze but when I first put the shifter cables back in place, I couldn't get the shifter into reverse. So, I had to adjust the shifter cables in the guides a bit. Works like a champ now. I am wondering if there is a shifter alignment tool for the 986. Here is the link for the 987 alignment tool but I didn't want to order it in case the housing wasn't the same:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Porsche-997-Carrera-987-Boxster-Cayman-Shifter-Bridge-Lock-Installation-Tool/192892873334?hash=item2ce94faa76:g:rGwAAOSwgYlcuHh x

I haven't driven the car yet because I am having my Immobilzer fixed at ECU Speciallsts. Once I get it back together I will report back. I do like the feel of it though while sitting in the garage.

Thanks to Chris at Uniwerks for the assist and to all those that have posted on removing the center console and the shifter housing.

On to the next winter project - stupid foam bits are spraying out of the vents.

Received my custom upholstery from Classic9 Leather. Beautiful Napa leather in cocoa brown with silver grey stitching. Micro perf in the center section as original. New driver side bottom plastic seat frame, suspension mesh and foam with new heater element have also arrived. I’ll also be stripping and repainting the sport seat backs in GT Silver Metallic to match the factory interior pieces and the exterior. Probably the last of the big cosmetic mods (he said once again). I’ll start the project after the holidays.

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Classic 9 products are second to none...your seats will look stunning sir!

PS... the Joe Toth spoiler looks great. My next purchase.:cheers:

Thanks Seal and to everyone else for the comments on my latest round of mods. Taking this season to get the car right before it leaves next fall for its 3.8L engine upgrade.

With 112k miles on the odo, I was at a decision point this year regarding selling the Box to buy a low mileage Jaguar F Type R coupe or Cayman GTS, or spending additional $$ on the Box to create something personalized, refreshed and relatively unique.

Glad I decided to continue the journey with the Box, we already have a lot of history together and I pretty much know (and have touched) every nut, bolt, nook and cranny (what is a ‘cranny’ anyway??) on the car.

Nice mod with the Toth spoiler.
I have it at home as well, but haven't mounted it due to the fact that you have mentioned.
So your solution is absolutely the same that I am going for :D

Thanks for the inspiration!

Hi K, you’re welcome! Not sure this mounting method will work on the gen 1 Thoth spoiler but I’m please with it for the gen 2.

Some additional points on the mounting. My clearance between the spoiler and trunk lid was too tight for the screw heads when the spoiler was up. I was able to grind down the stainless steel screw heads, retaining enough material to still be able to securely tighten the screws. I didn’t want to counter sink the the front screws because I wanted to retain as much of the spoiler material as possible.

For the underside rear edge I was screwing directly into the fiberglass so I used coarse thread screws, was really careful not to over tighten them and put a dab of clear acrylic on the screw heads. The front screws really do most of the work securing the spoiler and the bottom screws mostly snug it up so it should be ok for the long haul. I’ll keep an eye on it and mod in some threaded inserts or something if needed.

Rear suspension upgrade is finished. Combined with the Bilstein PSS9s, the Elephant adj toe links and lower arms give me all the adjustment I need for street. Ended up 10mm lower rear, 15mm lower front with 10mm spacers rear and 7mm spacers front. Very conservative but it’s the look I’m going for. Might drop the entire car another 5mm.

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New PCA plates. Gives it an extra 5HP. ;) https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...d002d050e9.jpg

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Is that their 987 spoiler? It looks fantastic!

A few days old, but added a smoked third brake light a local Boxster-er gave me for helping work on his. :)

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Hi Chris, thanks! It’s the 986 ‘gen 2’ spoiler for MY 2003 and 2004.

That. Looks. Great!

Thanks Starter! Hard to believe it’ll be three years in February since I brought her home.

Looks like some sort of Dual sport next to your Box
I started dual sporting, have had the privilege of having a ride-able state forest 15 miles away
Like the addition to the spoiler. I always wanted to do something similar when I had the Boxster

Thanks KK, the spoiler addition worked out well.

The dual sport is a 2013 Suzuki DR650 with 715 miles on it. I’ve got a gazillion mod parts for it but the project keeps getting pushed to the bottom of the list. I started riding dirt in the late 60s and it has always been my favorite type of riding.

The plan was to ride the TAT after I finished the mods but who knows if that will ever happen :) Life keeps getting in the way.

Funny you say that I'm eyeing up the TAT as well. I ride a KLR650. I hope to do MABDR maybe 2020 as a warm up
Where do you ride up in the NE?
I have been cutting my teeth and working my way through the sands of the Wharton State Forest