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


http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1596590448.jpg

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