New to LA with a 987 looking for advices (garage, dye, keys)

[poulpy]

Hi,

i'm new to Los Angeles (transfered from Europe) and i bought a very nice 987.
i got 5 questions :

1. I'm looking for a good maintenance garage in the LA area (i'm living near Northridge but i'm fine going further if it's worth it) that won't overcharge me.

2. The car only came with 1 set of keys, so i want to make an extra, i've reached to a local porsche dealer and he asked for about 275$ total, is this too much ? If you have advices please let me know. I saw you can order some on ebay and get them programmed at a porsche retailer.

3. There's some light sparks on the seat leather, steering wheel as well as on some plastic pieces. Nothing too bad but i saw some nice restoration works and way too many different products on ebay.
My interior is "Tan" / Beige, do you have a recommendation (either a product to use or a place to get it restored for a fair price) ?
How to be sure it's the right color when ordering ?

4. Is there a maintenance product you would recommend the leather ?

5. Any piece i should pay special attention to for maintenance ? (driving belt has been replaced twice already), current milage is 77'000 miles.
Thanks for your help

[CraigM]

#4. Leatherique Rejuvenator Oil and Leatherique Pristine Clean - love it. I'm not a pro, but I was in charge of detailing/maintaining all vehicles when under my parents roof. Used many, many, many leather products - this is by far the best I've found. Completely changes old leather.
Detailer's Domain sells and explains how to use it - spread the Rejuvenator Oil on thick, let the car sit all closed up in the sun for several hours (I've even let one go 36 hours, no problems), then wipe it all down with Pristine Clean.
I used it on my Box when I got it, seats look new now, and they were pretty rough.

Do you have pics of the specific problems you are trying to correct? Maybe some more experienced with leather care/repair could weigh in.

[Topless]

These guys are pretty close and Dave will take good care of you:
TRE Motorsports

Also the PCA Z8 approved shop list is a great resource for quality repairs.
::: ZONE 8 - Porsche Club of America :::

[poulpy]

Thanks a LOT for the feedback, i'll call TRE to see if they can handle the replacement key as well.

[Richard G]

i have been using TLG Porsche they did a whole lot of work on my 1959 356 porsche and i am now taking my 1998 Boxster to them, Tony the owner and his son/partner Marco i mostly deal with Marco on my Boxster and Tony on my 356 great guys...... 13222 Raymer St, North Hollywood, CA 91605
(818) 982-7610......

[poulpy]

Originally Posted by Richard G

i have been using TLG Porsche they did a whole lot of work on my 1959 356 porsche and i am now taking my 1998 Boxster to them, Tony the owner and his son/partner Marco i mostly deal with Marco on my Boxster and Tony on my 356 great guys...... 13222 Raymer St, North Hollywood, CA 91605
(818) 982-7610......

Would they be able to "program spare key" ?

[Richard G]

i did happen to ask him about that recently unfortunately they dont do that....try looking around on the site there might be a thread on it to give you more of an idea about pricing and places that do it etc.... eventually i think i would like to have a spare on that. i was thinking of rarely using my remote key and just mostly trust in my non remote key ...here is some info on one of the threads here.......

http://986forum.com/forums/general-discussions/37212-how-program-new-key-boxter.html

[poulpy]

Originally Posted by CraigM

#4. Leatherique Rejuvenator Oil and Leatherique Pristine Clean - love it. I'm not a pro, but I was in charge of detailing/maintaining all vehicles when under my parents roof. Used many, many, many leather products - this is by far the best I've found. Completely changes old leather.
Detailer's Domain sells and explains how to use it - spread the Rejuvenator Oil on thick, let the car sit all closed up in the sun for several hours (I've even let one go 36 hours, no problems), then wipe it all down with Pristine Clean.
I used it on my Box when I got it, seats look new now, and they were pretty rough.

Do you have pics of the specific problems you are trying to correct? Maybe some more experienced with leather care/repair could weigh in.

Hi,

i've bought both products and while it did have GREAT result on the steering wheel, it wasn't so great on the seats, but i think i didn't do it right, could you give me some tips ? Here's how i did it :
- Hooverd the seats
- Applied Leatherique rejuvunator with my bare hands, really massaged the seats and applied generously.
- Left the car under the sun with windows closed for about 4h
- Vaporised generously Leatherique Pristine and used a "Supreme shine microfiber" to scrub (http://www.amazon.com/Meguiars-X2020-Supreme-Microfiber-Towels/dp/B0009IQZH0/ref=pd_sim_auto_16?ie=UTF8&refRID=1XV3KMFTP0WYD8HY9P6C) AND THAT's WHERE I THINK I DID IT WRONG => Should have i used a brush or a sponge to scrub ?
As the microfiber would dry the leather right away and it felt wrong.

Any tips is most welcome
Also there's some stain or nails damage that won't disapear, do you have tan / beige dye to recommend ?

[MitchSF]

I recommend colorplus.com. I've been using Soffener and dyes for many years, with great results. I tried Leatherique too, but I prefer Soffener. It's also much less expensive.

I purchased a key head from Sunset, and I used keysinthepost.com to cut the key. Believe it or not, and I didn't believe it, you take a picture of the key with your cell phone and email it to them. They guarantee it, and they made it perfect first try. A local shop programmed it at no charge while doing other work. They get a code from Porsche based on a number tag attached to the new key head.

[CraigM]

Originally Posted by poulpy

Hi,

i've bought both products and while it did have GREAT result on the steering wheel, it wasn't so great on the seats, but i think i didn't do it right, could you give me some tips ? Here's how i did it :
- Hooverd the seats
- Applied Leatherique rejuvunator with my bare hands, really massaged the seats and applied generously.
- Left the car under the sun with windows closed for about 4h
- Vaporised generously Leatherique Pristine and used a "Supreme shine microfiber" to scrub (Amazon.com: Meguiar's X2020 Supreme Shine Microfiber Towels (Pack of 3): Automotive) AND THAT's WHERE I THINK I DID IT WRONG => Should have i used a brush or a sponge to scrub ?
As the microfiber would dry the leather right away and it felt wrong.

Any tips is most welcome
Also there's some stain or nails damage that won't disapear, do you have tan / beige dye to recommend ?

Nope - that's how I did it. On a 2 year old DD convertible I got great results with about 6 hours in the sun, on the Boxster I ended up letting it sit basically 2 days. Maybe try again for longer? Was it nice and hot out? Were there sections that had soaked it all up, or was the oil still gooped everywhere - I had to reapply a couple times to a very dried out section in that newer vert.
What about it didn't turn out well?

[CraigM]

Just remembered, I also gently scrubbed the Boxster seats down first with the leather cleaner and a shaving brush, as suggested by Larry of Ammo. Check out /DRIVEclean on YouTube for his videos. My seats had been used for many daily gym runs in the past, so I wanted to have a head start getting all the sweat and crap out of them. May make a difference.