Ger's 2003 Porsche Boxster S

[geraintthomas]

Originally Posted by RichRobby

Nice work. Car, as always looks great.
I pretty much copied you with the projector lights and DRL's. Touch wood no problem with the projectors yet but it will happen no doubt but I don't do many miles, especially at night.
Have a constant problem with the DRL's fitting. Used hot melt glue to stick and align them on the underside of vent fins but keeps coming detached. Haven't found a way of getting them right using another method and don't want to drill the fins. They don't fall of as there is a tiny cable tie holding them as well but it doesn't help for a firm well aligned fix.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

Thank you On a facelift bumper, put them on top of the top fin so that it squeezes itself into place. Before doing it, run a small line of Tiger Seal on top of the fin towards the back so that when you slide it in, it glues itself. Tiger Seal comes off if heated too so it's all fine.

[geraintthomas]

I spent last night re-doing the radio. I wanted it to look totally OEM Porsche, so I re-did the start up logo (which I'll take a photo of later).****

I also spent an hour designing all new white/grey icons in Photoshop to use for the apps, so they're all consistent. Which is perfect as Porsche's PCM stereo as a grey and orange theme, which is what I've done here.

Before/During:



After:



Also for some reason, Waze disconnects my WiFi as soon as it picks up a GPS signal, and while Google Maps works fine, it takes a while to load and it's not perfect for driving. So I downloaded an android app****called 'Offline Maps' and wow. Incredible sat nav, which you download the UK so that you can use it instantly. Exactly like you should in a car sat nav.

Here's the Offline Maps app:



Devil is in the detail while I wait for time to fix the AOS

[geraintthomas]

I've finished! It works!

I'll post up a video soon, but it's working f*****g beautifully.

In all, I've rooted the head unit and installed a different firmware to allow me much more access into the device to change things you can't normally change, including the boot animation (rather than a static logo, which took A LOT of effort), ringtone, icons, screen saver for idle, and so on.

Before:



After (keeping up with the theme of Porsche's orange and silver PCM interfaces):



And some screenshots:

Here's the startup animation:


Main screen:


Pressing the 'Porsche' icon will launch Torque with a custom theme (still working on it).

Torque 01:


Torque 02:


Torque 03:


When the screen is idle after 5 minutes of no use, the following screen appears. Touching it shows the interface again (great for night driving):


Pressing 'Navigate' launches the amazing 'Offline Maps & Navigation' app, with the UK pre-downloaded, so no internet is ever needed for sat nav guidance:




That's about it! All in all, it's totally transformed the radio. Much more flexible, much more Porsche-like, and all previous bugs have been removed with the new firmware.

This is all while it's been snowing, as I still can't fix my AOS!

[BRAN]

awesome job!
I always loved the amber

[geraintthomas]

Originally Posted by Silver'

Great work as usual Ger.

Perhaps it's just the photos, but it looks like there's a big fat blob of hotspot in the foreground of the driver's side, that's completely missing on the passenger's side? Is the perhaps not seated 100%?

Oh My God - total geek-gasm over the work on the head unit! This in particular, well done!



Make a video, offer the head units with your modifications on eBay and ca$h in baby. Worth a thought...

Nah it's just the photo, it's pretty even to be honest! I'll get a better one when it's static soon with the DSLR

Thanks for the kind words with the head unit. I'd offer it to people but not many people have these in their Porsche's as it requires quite a bit to work to fit. You have to perform some custom wiring to get the speakers to work (just put male ends onto some wires and plug them into the female plug individually) and you need a custom source of power from the fuse box, so it's not plug and play in any shape or form. If anyone did have this though I'd be happy to perform it, but they're worried about the work involved in fitting it.

I can't blame them, but think of what you're getting afterwards - a stunning looking touch screen head unit, with the panel LED's matched perfectly (RGB sliders to change colour), no external branding so it looks OEM, an OEM looking interface, all powered by Android, so it's capable of anything - sat nav, bluetooth, car diagnostics, cameras, etc. All for £200. Ridiculous value for money.

Originally Posted by BRAN

awesome job!
I always loved the amber

I'll be honest, I've bought all of the LED's, SMD's and soldering kit ready to change all of the interior lights (including the dials, switches, climate control, etc) to white as per the newer ones. I've done it on previous cars and it's not that hard when you know how to solder, but now I'm starting to enjoy the amber. I'm in two minds whether to do it!

[oldskool73]

"You have to perform some custom wiring to get the speakers to work ... and you need a custom source of power from the fuse box "

I've had 2 android head units so far and didn't need to do any of that. Maybe because I have an old Box without MOST? But the speaker and power/acc etc wires are all there already, just snipped the old connector off, crimped the wires onto a couple of standard ISO10487 audio/power plugs and plugged them into the new unit.

Old unit was a 2 year old Joying, new one is an octacore Xtrons with Oreo and it's a beast! Google Maps works fine, as does Assistant, can say 'Hey google, navigate home' and it fires up maps and starts reading out directions! Even has picture in picture so the map hovers over the radio or whatever.

Be interested in your custom Torque skin if you're sharing it when it's done?

[geraintthomas]

Originally Posted by oldskool73

I've had 2 android head units so far and didn't need to do any of that. Maybe because I have an old Box without MOST? But the speaker and power/acc etc wires are all there already, just snipped the old connector off, crimped the wires onto a couple of standard ISO10487 audio/power plugs and plugged them into the new unit.

Old unit was a 2 year old Joying, new one is an octacore Xtrons with Oreo and it's a beast! Google Maps works fine, as does Assistant, can say 'Hey google, navigate home' and it fires up maps and starts reading out directions! Even has picture in picture so the map hovers over the radio or whatever.

Be interested in your custom Torque skin if you're sharing it when it's done?

Of course, I'll upload all of my Torque dashboard/skin as soon as I'm done fiddling with it!

Yeah mine has the MOST setup so it needed quite a bit of bodging I was going to flash it and put Android 7 on it (and am still thinking of it) but the UI would totally change, and I'm not sure I want to have a different one as I really, really like this one.

[geraintthomas]

I’VE DONE IT!

I’ve managed to edit the Kernel and flash a custom start image, rather than the android one! I’m not talking about the boot animation, I mean the ugly ‘Android Lollipop’ image before the animation that you’re not supposed to change.

Lots of work, including literally re-writing numbers in the kernel and using a terminal on the device, as you can see:





Looks complicated, it absolutely was. But the result is this:

https://youtu.be/97NJs7Sxi08

Looks almost exactly the same as the boot of the 991’s radio’s.

I’ve also finished my Torque theme, for anyone who wants it:









And finally, it’s installed into the dash:



It’s brilliant. The screen saver where it just displays the amber ‘Porsche’ logo is really nice on they eyes in the night. I’m going to add a reverse camera and DAB soon (both of which the radio is capable off out of the box). I’m struggling to think of what this radio isn’t capable of now for the money it’s outstanding.

So that’s it in terms of the radio! I still haven’t had chance to fix the AOS or subframe, it’s just been far too cold, snowy or rainy. I wish I had a garage…

But yeah, if anyone wants the Torque theme, feel free to message me!

[Jgkram]

Can I just buy your car? Outstanding in every way.

[geraintthomas]

Originally Posted by Jgkram

Can I just buy your car? Outstanding in every way.

Well, if you were in the UK, then still no. Ha! But thank you for the kind words.

Guys, I've got all of the LED's and equipment to perform a whole amber to white conversion in the cabin (gauges, switches, etc). I've done it to previous cars, and am thinking of doing it to this one too as it would match the newer models, as they're all white. Here's what it would look like (quick photoshop):



Thoughts?

[Silver']

Originally Posted by geraintthomas

Well, if you were in the UK, then still no. Ha! But thank you for the kind words.

Guys, I've got all of the LED's and equipment to perform a whole amber to white conversion in the cabin (gauges, switches, etc). I've done it to previous cars, and am thinking of doing it to this one too as it would match the newer models, as they're all white. Here's what it would look like (quick photoshop):



Thoughts?

I'm torn, but given the modernising approach that you've taken all over the car, I'd say that this change would be in harmony with that general approach.

Perhaps I'm hesitant as my Porsche is the only Euro car that I've had and the orange colour theme I associate with Euro cars and their premium image.

[geraintthomas]

Originally Posted by Silver'

I'm torn, but given the modernising approach that you've taken all over the car, I'd say that this change would be in harmony with that general approach.

Perhaps I'm hesitant as my Porsche is the only Euro car that I've had and the orange colour theme I associate with Euro cars and their premium image.

Totally understand with your side of the argument, I wouldn't want to change it either if that was the fact!

I think I'll end up doing it, it would modernise it to no extent. Given all of the changes after I do it, it'll be hard to see that I bought the car for just £7,500 (about $10,000).

[geraintthomas]

Currently looking into creating my own red gauge faces too. It's easy enough if you have the time.

DIY gauges consist of 3 layers. The front layer is the coloured face, printed on transparent overhead projector film. The middle layer is extremely thin white diffused plastic that you can find on paper folders. The rear layer is another version of the face on transparent overhead projector film, but this time totally black aside from the areas that you'd want light to escape from. Very cheap to do, and obvious gains from doing it.

I'd be designing with the non-italic numbers (which are actually the front 'DDT'). Saves buying them from Porsche for around £300, when I can do it myself for around £20.
Will probably do it the same time as the LED's I'd imagine. I'd try it with mine first, and if it goes well, I'd be happy to design and supply to others.

Spent some time today re-creating the dials from scratch in Illustrator, so they're vector based.

They're not accurate until I get scans of my actual faces, but I can tweak them to fit when I do.

Ones I've made so far:

GTS 01 (my favourite):





GTS 02




GTS 03




Boxster S




GT4




Just need to take apart my gauges, scan the faces, re-create them accurately and do a test print to ensure they're correct, then print and create them!

I think this with the LED overhaul in the interior would make such a difference.

[BRAN]

Yup, do the conversion and switch the gauge faces to GTS01
+1
But remember, Orange on Red is difficult to see.

[geraintthomas]

Originally Posted by BRAN

Yup, do the conversion and switch the gauge faces to GTS01
+1
But remember, Orange on Red is difficult to see.

It's what they have though:



May have to choose a brighter orange...

[BRAN]

oh ja, well those, too, but I meant the needles


What about black and green like the OLD old old 911s? If you could catch that old style and match it with the other gauge faces, that would be awesome.
I think a cool mix of both styles would be Über!

Kinda like this:

[geraintthomas]

Originally Posted by BRAN

oh ja, well those, too, but I meant the needles


What about black and green like the OLD old old 911s? If you could catch that old style and match it with the other gauge faces, that would be awesome.
I think a cool mix of both styles would be Über!

Kinda like this:

Awesome idea, but I love the white

I may re-paint the needles actually so they're white. Good shout on that...

[geraintthomas]

Replaced the AOS! And HOLY COW, the difference is immense! All issues have been fixed, car idles stunningly (can barely tell it's on if listening to music), performance is great, response is awesome... all fixed.

And then I went and did something stupid.

This LED conversion, thought I'd make a start. Took the dials out and pulled them apart successfully. Started to de-solder an LED and the amount of force it was taking me to get the single LED off was ridiculous. It got to the point where I hadn't damaged said LED yet, so I had the chance to stop and put it all back together - so I did. I'm not doing the upgrade, it's far too risky damaging the board.

Put it all back together and I seem to have broken my rev counter. The needle is very loose and doesn't react at all anymore. Tapping on the housing bounces the needle, so looks like I've buggered it. I've already placed an order for new dials. As I'm changing them, I've gone for the DOT-Matrix dials (the ones with the proper LCD panel on). It's a direct replacement, and it'll let me upgrade to the on board computer and cruise control in the future. I'd do it now but it'll cost me a lot of money all at once, so that'll have to wait.

Replacement dials were £100 on ebay.

Ah well. Win some, loose some. I do everything myself so this was bound to happen wasn't it! At least the car performs stunningly.

[geraintthomas]

And voila, dials replaced!

The newer dot-matrix display gives a lot more information now, even without the extra stalks! Seatbelt, dimmer amount, key in ignition, temperature, etc.











I'm going to fit the extra stalk, but I'm waiting until a 4-stalk one appears as I'll get that so that I'd have cruise control too. With these newer dials, cruise control is built in, so they just need wiring in from the stalk and enabling. Pointless buying the 3-stalk one as I'd just have to swap it again when that time comes. They're rarer than hens teeth though.

Mileage correction is happening Wednesday - £80 to correct it back to the ECU mileage.

Nice having the new display though

In the meantime, I've taken out the faces to my old dials because I'm going to scan them in.



I know I said I wouldn't do the face upgrade, BUT there's a company in America (whitefaces.net) that do faces that slip over the needles. They also take custom requests, so I'm going to see if they can make mine. They have Boxster ones already but not of the 'S' variant. I was thinking of making some but put a slit at the bottom as I'm not risking removing the needles again, but that wouldn't work for the fuel and temperature gauges. Will need a think.

I had a look in my old projector lenses too, and found out why they started to dim.

Here's the reflective bowl:



And here's the inside:



It's just coated silver. You can see it peeling and burnt off completely! Obviously these are cheap £15 projectors, the same as the ones I've just put in. My new ones will eventually go the same way, so that'll be the time I invest in Morimoto projectors.

That's it for now

[geraintthomas]

I've just thought of a wicked idea.

I can't change all of the dial faces, but I can change the centre one. Notice how small the gap is between the bottom of the needle and the bottom of the dial? There can be a tiny slit there which you'll never notice, which is how you can slip the new face on.

The beauty of this? I only have to print a singular face - the colour face on transparent paper. As I'll be re-creating the face using the scans of the original, I just need the block colour printed on a transparent sheet.

Like this:



Keeping all original holes, so slipping it over the original face would then look like this:



And because I have spare faces, I can keep testing until I get a perfect fit. Once it's done, pop open the dials (easiest thing in the world to do), slip the new one over the old, and job done!

Some more colours:







So yeah, going to try that ASAP! Will scan in the dials tomorrow and should be able to print them by this weekend!

If this works, I'll have the template for re-creating these for anyone - a very easy upgrade!