No fancy pictures this time, but I washed and waxed my 986 last weekend. I haven't been driving much while working from home, and it's been 100° F during the day. So I got up at 5:30AM, picked up a coffee, and went for a top down drive through the mountains, and exchanged a wave with a 964 Targa who was also out for an early morning drive. I might have to start doing this everyday! :cheers:

Cut polish complete. Makes a big difference to the look of my ocean blue metallic. Amazing how this colour changes in the light.

Also insured it. Looking forward to some nice drives. But 1st I'd better get an alignment done after all that winter suspension rebuild. Expecting a lot of improvements in driving feel after all that work.

Put the stock shifter and shift boot back on. Previous owner had installed a Ben's short shift kit with side lever upgrade. I never had a chance to feel the stock shifter until today and I'm not upset!

Might consider parting ways with the other shifter (full assembly) but I think I need a spirited driving day to be confident.

Interesting. I have Ben’s SSK with billet side lever, and I much prefer it to stock - which I thought felt to long and rope-y. Ben’s kit also just about eliminated the side to side slop. But, to each his own!


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Installed new front hood struts and now my frunk hood won't slam on me yay !

Replaced new front control arms and new tires
 

Last week nstalled new front lower control arms, bushings for arm link and new tires plus alignment.

more pics
 

more pics of work done last week

What about those bushings instead of rubber? Hows the ride now?

ndfrigi, where did you get your bushings? Thanks.

Is it ok to mix bushing materials within the linkages? If it is, are there any advantages to doing so where we could improve the handling but not negatively impact the ride quality?

Hi @morgal48, @willw and @jgkram,

Originally I’m only replacing the front lower control arm and also trying to find a standard bushing only for control arm link, the only thing I can find is this Polyurethane bushing for less than $40/pair.
After removing the original control arm link bushing, I noticed the Polyurethane bushing is not exactly fitted to the arm. So after doing a little research, looks like this bushing is a replacement only for EPS brand control arm link.

https://youtu.be/O57sPjCW7YQ

So what I did is to modify the control link by using a step up drill to fit the polyurethane bushing.

The ride seems okay for now since it was only installed last week and driven it only to side streets and freeway.

When I replaced my suspension about a year ago I looked into the bushings as a cheaper rebuild of my control arms instead of replacing them. There is some history that turned me off and I replaced them because the bushings tend to turn the arm into a spring as the u-tube says and one guy had his arm actually break due to the stress.

I finally got around to replacing my AOS. I ordered the parts like a year ago when I started getting the occasional puff of smoke on start, but always had the "this looks like an annoying job" block. Last week, the occasional small puff turned into a gigantic cloud. The job was not bad at all, even with the crappy hose clamp pliers they had in stock at the auto parts store. The bottom hose had a huge gash down the side, which I'm sure didn't help things.

Car is much happier now though, wow.

Installed new Rein transmission mounts. Took a total of 2 hours and was very happy to find out that the plate and the diagonal braces came off and re-installed easily without a fight :D

Here's one 'dead' mount next to new one, old one was not even straight, but leaning to it's side all the time:
http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1596558014.jpg

Left mount installed and another removed:
http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1596558158.jpg

This shows how much the old mount allowed the transmission to hang down compared to when the new mount was installed:
http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1596558207.jpg

Cleaning day
 

Cleaning day.
http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1596590321.jpg


http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1596590383.jpg


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Holy Moly that is shiny!! What is your process?

Man, that is one nice looking car! Makes me more proud to be a Boxster owner knowing that somewhere under all my scratches, dents, peelings and worn out top lurks a beauty if I can only coax it out. Well done, well done.

Just normal waxing and knowing when the light is right. The guards males it easy.

Looks good! @JBauer What top is that?

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1596831556.jpg

I picked up my car from the port of Baltimore and drove it to our new place about 90 miles away. It ran great and it felt good to be behind the wheel again. We did hit a massive thunderstorm so the top stayed up the whole way, unfortunately. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to go for another drive when I can put the top down.

Want to get rid of the Bens's shifter?

Much has been wrenched and done to the car in a year of ownership. Now the car feels real good and solid.
Took it on the track at Kymiring (Finland) on Fri-Sat and on Sunday to local Porsche Club (PCF) slalom at the airfield - fabulous weekend!
Tire pressures for the track took some dialing, but looks like I found a good balance now with 1.8 Bar at front and 2.3 Bar Rear as cold pressures.

Can't wait end of August similar weekend to come :dance:

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1597043357.jpg
http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1597043425.jpg

New top
 

I had a new top installed with a glass rear window

I will have one available soon if you're still interested.

My headlights both have the dreaded burn-in. I picked up a passenger side headlight for 100 bucks from a FB marketplace seller. Looked in decent shape without burn-in.

For 100 bucks there had to be something wrong with it. And I found it last night. One of the small plastic headlight retainer socket/tabs is broken. I'm going to try to epoxy it and see if that can work.

I must say, these little units are exceedingly complicated! I can see why they sell for so much. But it does make me ask why they needed to make them so complicated!

Because they are designed by German engineers!

Original owner had passed along a wooden stick for the frunk/bonnet to hold it up. Last night I swapped out the struts... oh man, you really need to let up the frunk slowly now!

Today, based on the custom speakers mounts for sale thread, I looked at my front left dash speaker. Actually looked really good, which isn't surprising as I think this 2001 has been inside most of its life, never rained on, and possibly never looked at sideways.

I did get some 18" Cayman S II wheels from someone on the 6speed forum. Going to weigh those and maybe get that 944 website data updated!

That shouldn't be. Where did you get the struts?

I dropped major coin, like 30 large, for the Stabilus brand!

Just checked, they work fine from a fully closed position. I guess right after installation I pulled the hood down a foot and it seemed to want to pull pretty hard.

Easy job for sure, no reason to live with bad struts.

Replaced the front motor mount...that took care of the vibration that I felt in the seat. There is still some vibration felt through the steering wheel above 73 mph. I found that my right front mag is slightly warped. Hopefully it will be repairable. Finally, also replaced the spark plugs while in there.

Completed a coolant tank replacement.

Worst job I've had to do so far. Congratulations!

Then you, my friend, are a BAD-A$$! ;-)

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Starting to wrench
 

Today was the “replace” the ignition switch olympics!!!! I noticed that when starting the switch wouldn’t “Return” from the start position, and it prevented the wipers and headlights from coming on.

So after looking at numerous videos from YouTube, i decided that today was that day.

I had already ordered some stuff so that I could take care of a few things (ignition, brakes, fluids, etc...)

I found out that i am not as limber, or svelte as i used to be, therefore the lying on the drivers seat with my head under the dash, wasn’t gonna be a good position for my 54 year old back :), so I took the next step, and just removed the driver’s seat.

Still required some contortionist skills, but after a lil bit, the switch was replaced.

As Jay-Z once said..... I’m on to the next one...

Drove it up the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. What a blast!

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1597691221.jpg

Removed 27 lbs of aftermarket stereo equipment mounted to the front of the frunk. What does that equate to on a 45+/- second autocross course?http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1597870492.jpg

After having a stroke in late April, losing mobility on my left side resulting in lots of physical therapy, and now being able to do the install in under 6 hours, heck yeah! I even put in an hour of seat time driving the 5 speed!

You are a better man than me! When it is time to swap out the tank, it is going to my indie :D That’s awesome :cheers:

Replaced the AC/Heater Blower Motor under the dash. It was making a bit of humming noise when running at lower speeds.
Found a used assembly from a wrecked 996 with only 26K miles on it for $45. The recycler had units from 986's but they were wanting $95. for those. I wasn't going to question the pricing, the part numbers are the same, for 996 and 986!
Removing the old unit and installing the new took less than a hour. I found that the bearing in the old motor was wobbly and well worn after 22 years of almost continual running. The replacement runs smoothly and no humming when running at low speed!