New owner - 04S project car

[boxxster]

First time porsche owner and just picked this up as a project car for the winter. Fully loaded 2004 dark teal metallic boxster s with only 33k miles. As I've never worked on a porsche before I'm hoping you guys will be able to provide me with some technical support along the way!

[Chuck W.]

Good looking low mileage Boxster. It doesn't look like that hard of a hit from the photos. Should be a fun winter project. There is a white tag pasted to the inside of the front hood. Looking at the hood I am guessing you'll be replacing it. Get that tag off & keep it. It contains the VIN color codes and option codes unique to your car.

[NewArt]

Looks like a fun project. Any info on the state of the rest of the car? Codes, structure, etc. .

[Pdwight]

They are all project cars

[boxxster]

Thanks for the tip on the hood! At this point I don't know anything other than what can be ascertained from the pictures or pulled up from putting the vin through a free decoder (options, build date etc). Its about 2000miles away right now but should be arriving sometime thursday! Here's what I was able to pull up from the vin.

[Chuck W.]

Nicely optioned Boxster too!

[Porsche9]

Wow, that's some sticker price for a Boxster! To see it the junk yard now is a bit sad but certainly a good resurrection candidate. This forum is a awesome resource. Good luck with getting her back on the road.

[NewArt]

Originally Posted by Porsche9

Wow, that's some sticker price for a Boxster! To see it the junk yard now is a bit sad but certainly a good resurrection candidate. This forum is a awesome resource. Good luck with getting her back on the road.

The price of living in Canada eh?

[joecal]

It doesn't look that bad and it's an S. The hood looks like it's salvageable, I would keep that on the car if possible because of the sticker. Good luck and the interior looks nice.

[boxxster]

Originally Posted by NewArt

The price of living in Canada eh?

Tell me about it. I'm so glad I found this thing in canada. I was searching all over north america before I found this one and the exchange right now is brutal.

And thank you for the encouraging words guys. I know it doesn't look that bad but I've still yet to see it in person and I've never worked on a porsche before so I'm not entirely sure what I'm in for yet. I will definitely try to keep the hood though. Looks to me like it just needs a sanding and some paint.

[GTA_G20]

welcome, where in ontario are you

[Joe B]

Originally Posted by Chuck W.

There is a white tag pasted to the inside of the front hood. Looking at the hood I am guessing you'll be replacing it. Get that tag off & keep it. It contains the VIN color codes and option codes unique to your car.

That tag is under the rear trunk lid, not the front trunk lid on my Boxster .

[boxxster]

I'm in Burlington.

The car is from alberta so I just called porsche of calgary and porsche of edmonton to try to get some service records. The calgary dealership was the only one that could find anything. They have records going all the way back to 03 but could only tell me the specifically what was done from 07 onwards as they purged all the information from the earlier entries. Between 07 and 2010 (the last entry they had) the car had routine oil changes and a new convertible top relay and new ignition switch put in. I'm assuming the car was sold around 2010 and whoever had it until now either serviced it himself or took it somewhere other than the dealership. Either way I plan to get a sellers package so I can find out who the PO was and try to get in touch.

[GTA_G20]

Cool I just moved to Oakville. Im at Trafalgar amd qew right near the mall.

Previous owner probably started servicing the car at an indy. I was in Calgary and Edmonton and shocked to see so many german indy shops.

Dont bother wasting your time eith the usee vehicle pwckagr. Those only contain records of ontario owners and vehicles registered here as well.

Best bet would be carfax or car proof for vehicle's real history. Hopefully you find receipts in the glove box

[boxxster]

I wasn't aware that it would only list owners within the province, but that makes sense. I'm hoping some ims work was done at some point.

[mikefocke]

I got hit like that (well actually I did the hitting) and the estimate stopped at $26k US and that was 10 years ago. Good luck.

The important thing to start out with is to see if the frame is straight (laser measurement or jig) and then what suspension components are straight or may need to be replaced. The cosmetic stuff is pretty routine.

A list or wrecking yards for parts is here at http://sites.google.com/site/mikefocke2/listsofsources

[boxxster]

The insurance estimate was 19k cdn.It was delivered today and it looks much better than in the pictures. The hood and drivers side door are just really dirty (not damaged) and the interior looks pretty nice. I'll clean it up on the weekend and post some pictures. Visually, the frame looks straight and the bottom of the car is clean and dry. The only suspension component that looks like it needs to be replaced is a control arm in the back which is bent. You can't tell in the picture but it turns out the back drivers side wheel is a little crooked.

A friend has an 03 boxster (base) with an irreparable title (from a hit to the back) so the plan is just to swap over all the front parts I need and paint it. My only concern was that the center radiator on this car would damaged because if it was, the parts car wouldn't have it. But it looks intact so I'm pretty happy about that. The only thing I'll have to do is cut a hole in the bumper and pop in the center grille piece the S has.

Oh and thanks for all the boxster resources you've put together mike. I've got them bookmarked on my computer.

[rfuerst911sc]

Nothing like diving into the deep end of the pool on your first Porsche ! Good luck with the rebuild. Was this sold with a salvage title ?

[boxxster]

Unfortunately yes, but I didn't buy it to resell it and I plan to keep it for a while so it makes no difference to me. I gotta say though, all I've done with this thing is sit in it and I think I'm already starting to fall in love with it!

[GTA_G20]

where are the pics

Does your friends car have black seats and a roof hes interested in selling