Ger's 2003 Porsche Boxster S

[Dualist]

While you where changing the coffin arms you should have fitted polybushes, I did mine a couple of months ago and it completely transformed it. Handles like nothing before, but girlfriend says she needs to wear a sports bra when she's in my car now

[geraintthomas]

I'm quite skeptical about stiffening it too much as I'll be getting adjustable coilovers anyway. It's still a daily so I don't want it annoying or uncomfortable to drive - with coilovers, I can stiffen it up or soften it as I please after that I can always consider it if I'd like it even harder.

So I've bought a load of stuff to get the car into a perfect condition the way it is before I go upgrading it.

In the next few weeks it'll have:

- Refurbished alloys (same colour but silver barrel)
- New heater blower (current has a small whine)
- Windscreen machine polished to eliminate wiper marks
- Windscreen scuttle resprayed matt black
- Stone chips repaired with Chipex
- Headlights machine sanded & polished
- Re-fit DRL's from behind the vents (with the bumper off)
- Clean starter motor (has a donkey sound sometimes on start-up. Very common)

I've got genuine 'PORSCHE' lettering for the rear boot which I'm going to spray matt black, but I'm toying whether or not to put it on. If I do put it on, I'd want a smaller 'Boxster S' badge as the 986 & 987's badge is quite large. I could always 3D print one though...

[geraintthomas]

Had another productive day. The Boxster S badge started to suffer from paint peel, and the 'Compound' side stickers were getting a bit old. Took them both off and machined the paint underneath so that it was debadged and ready for what I planned to do next.

A friendly forum member offered me genuine 'P O R S C H E' lettering badges in exchange for some headlamp seals. I took them, resprayed them matte black, and put them on the rear. They look AWESOME.

Measuring up with fishing wire



And voila!









Instead of the Compound stickers on the side, I decided to go down the 981 style route and have the model designation on the sides.

These were bought from ebay, and while the 'Boxster' is perfect, the 'S' isn't the style of the original 'S'. It's almost there, but not quite right. I've got a friend who will print the actual one, but in the mean time these will do just fine!





They make up for the fact there's no 'Boxster S' badge on the rear.

Muchos better going to put the DRL's back into the bumper in the next few days.

[Robbe986]

[QUOTE=geraintthomas;543562]Had another productive day. The Boxster S badge started to suffer from paint peel, and the 'Compound' side stickers were getting a bit old. Took them both off and machined the paint underneath so that it was debadged and ready for what I planned to do next.

A friendly forum member offered me genuine 'P O R S C H E' lettering badges in exchange for some headlamp seals. I took them, resprayed them matte black, and put them on the rear.

The Porsche lettering on the rear looks really nice :-)

[BruceH]

The lettering looks great, very nice

[geraintthomas]

Thanks guys

[That986]

Originally Posted by geraintthomas

with coilovers, I can stiffen it up or soften it as I please

Common misconception about coilovers there. You can adjust height and maybe damping but the spring rate will always be the same.

[geraintthomas]

Originally Posted by That986

Common misconception about coilovers there. You can adjust height and maybe damping but the spring rate will always be the same.

Dampening adjustments are on most coilovers which stiffens or softens the ride though the damping of the shocks hence the dials on top of the struts of most coilovers

[That986]

Originally Posted by geraintthomas

Dampening adjustments are on most coilovers which stiffens or softens the ride though the damping of the shocks hence the dials on top of the struts of most coilovers

That only controls the movement of either the compression or rebound of the shock through the valve in the shock body itself. You can slow or speed the movement but it won't change the ride quality.
It's the spring rates and how they're wound which affect the ride. Too stiff a spring and you'll bounce everywhere, too soft and you'll wallow everywhere and no amount of damping adjustment will get that back. Think of the damping as fine adjustment.

For daily driving I wouldn't be putting coilovers on.

Good explanation here: How A Coilover Works - Super Street Magazine

[TrumpyAl]

+1 for not treating adjustable suspension as something that you are likely to tweak more than twice.

They can be useful for stiffening up dampers a little when you are on a known smooth surface (ie for a track day), but for the most part the adjustment is there so that you can dial them in to work with your chosen spring rate. My understanding is that even models with adjustable preload offer very limited real-world adjustment to spring rates. One of the great advantages to aftermarket coilovers is that you have a wide selection of spring rates to choose from - usually far, far more options that are available to work with a factory setup. But in practice this advantage is rarely exploited on a road car as you'll almost always end up with a very similar spring rate to what the aftermarket offers as a 'sports' option.

Perhaps consider your options for adjustable swaybars before committing to coilovers.

I've also observed that coilovers seem to be one of the lasts mods performed before someone moves the car on. I'm really not sure why, but I have my suspicions.

My 2c worth

[That986]

Originally Posted by TrumpyAl

+1 for not treating adjustable suspension as something that you are likely to tweak more than twice.

They can be useful for stiffening up dampers a little when you are on a known smooth surface (ie for a track day), but for the most part the adjustment is there so that you can dial them in to work with your chosen spring rate. My understanding is that even models with adjustable preload offer very limited real-world adjustment to spring rates. One of the great advantages to aftermarket coilovers is that you have a wide selection of spring rates to choose from - usually far, far more options that are available to work with a factory setup. But in practice this advantage is rarely exploited on a road car as you'll almost always end up with a very similar spring rate to what the aftermarket offers as a 'sports' option.

Perhaps consider your options for adjustable swaybars before committing to coilovers.

I've also observed that coilovers seem to be one of the lasts mods performed before someone moves the car on. I'm really not sure why, but I have my suspicions.

My 2c worth

Most people put on coilovers never get them set up properly or buy the wrong ones in the first place. They're great for track and race cars but for your average guy a complete waste in all honesty.

[geraintthomas]

Gotcha.

When ordering the coilovers, you can order them with certain spring rates. May have to do a little research into finding the standard spring rates and getting something close to them.

I'm popping into a friends 986S soon with the coilovers I'm looking to buy, so I'll let you know how I get on.

[That986]

Originally Posted by geraintthomas

Gotcha.

When ordering the coilovers, you can order them with certain spring rates. May have to do a little research into finding the standard spring rates and getting something close to them.

I'm popping into a friends 986S soon with the coilovers I'm looking to buy, so I'll let you know how I get on.

Spring rates are everything, even down to how the spring is wound (linear or progressive) will affect the ride.
Also if you go with a harder spring you can lower the car more but then you run the risk of not having enough shock travel to dampen it.

Lots to look at.

[geraintthomas]

Re-did the DRL's but took the front bumper off to do them. They're now fitted far more securely, further into the bumper, one notch higher, and are on angles to make them straight on.

Before:



After:







Looks much more OEM now. Love it!

[That986]

You might want to re-size them.

[geraintthomas]

Originally Posted by That986

You might want to re-size them.

No, they're literally absolutely fine as they are thank you.

[That986]

Originally Posted by geraintthomas

No, they're literally absolutely fine as they are thank you.

The pics are enormous. I'm on a 25" monitor at high-res and i'm scrolling.

[geraintthomas]

Originally Posted by That986

The pics are enormous. I'm on a 25" monitor at high-res and i'm scrolling.

Oh! I thought you meant the lights.

I can't edit the posts anymore sadly.

[geraintthomas]

Fixed. Sorry about that.

Annoyingly, the replacement DRL has become faulty too. It lasted all of 10 minutes before 3 of the 5 LED's turned bright blue and burned out. Waiting for yet another replacement now...

[TrumpyAl]

It makes a surprising difference with the new angle! I like.