I am here to introduce myself, since I popped in and started up a whole bunch of discussion about IMS bearings I figured I should let you know who I am.
I started with water cooled Volkswagen in the early 1990s, and by 1996 I switched to air cooled Volkswagen vans. I avidly read all of the sermons of Bob Hoover, if you have never heard of these I would recommend them most highly. His main point is that you are the mechanic in charge, you should think for yourself, and don't blindly accept the status quo as the right way to do things.
From 1996 to about 2008 I put close to 200,000 miles on two Volkswagen vans, a 1971 and a 1961. The 1961 had a 1641 dual port blueprinted Balanced, dual webers that I built with my own two hands and could cruise at an indicated 80 without overheating. In 2008 I took my last Volkswagen van road trip, from St. Louis to Washington state to chicago back to St. Louis.
From there I jumped into autocross with a Lotus Exige S, then a Toyota MR2 spyder. Did most of the work on both these myself. Lots of customization, and fun mods.
I guess what I'm saying is, I have a broad base of knowledge in both motorsport and practical application. I really have a lot of fun with this stuff and feel I am well not an expert, at least not a complete dummy. There are plenty more mechanical escapades, I left out some stuff for brevity sake.
My first foray into the world of Porsche is a 2002 Boxster S. It has 114,000 miles on it at purchase, not much more now because it had a full load of problems when I got it. Two rear wheel bearings, an entire suspension, and many other parts later, I have learned the value of low mileage and a prepurchase inspection with a Porsche. I bought the car off craigslist, long distance, and with no test drive, I got what I deserved.
However, I don't regret my purchase a bit. I bought the car significantly below retail, and have been able to put it the way I want it with all new parts and many upgrades. If you put my labor in as a cost, I am way behind, but I feel it has been a valuable learning experience and I would not give it up. If you just count all the parts, I'm probably getting close to matching retail purchase price of an excellent example.
Below are a few pictures of the car as it sat when I bought it and some of my upgrades.
Hello to all, I hope my contributions here will have some value.
Silber
Linear Mode
