986 Porsche Boxster to 981 body update conversion

986 Porsche Boxster to 981 body update conversion

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Discussion

Beaker77

Original Poster:

77 posts

112 months

Tuesday 12th January 2016
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W12JFD said:
Absolutely tremendous idea - my only thought is that perhaps some more power may be appropriate!
Agree W12JFD, all part of the plan in the guise of an Audi V8 engine conversion, but that will be another story...

Beaker77

Original Poster:

77 posts

112 months

Tuesday 12th January 2016
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griffter said:
At first I thought "oh no, some deluded optimist is going to ask where he can buy the 'bodykit' and then get torn to shreds". Cost would exceed that of new 981, 'updating'-all-the-rage-in-the-80s-on-911-horror-stories, it'll never be worth what you paid for it etc. And the lone sympathiser agreeing that the 986 drives better and the 981 looks better, so why don't porsche offer a drive in, drive out service etc.

But your proposal, your progress and the background in your photos convinces me you are crazy, in a good way!

Good luck. Spyder conversion next? 986 coupe?...
LOL, classic! Funny you mention 986 coupe because if you think this is crazy, I have something a little less 'subtle' lined up for when this is finished which will evolve this into a 981 Cayman body with a few other 'enhancements'...still early days though but should be fun.

Hard-Drive

4,076 posts

228 months

Tuesday 12th January 2016
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Wow...that's batst mental, and absolute fair play to you if you can pull it off!

I have to say the slight deal breaker for me is the Audi engine...any car that's been re-engined with a different make somehow doesn't "work" for me. Rover V8 in a Series 1 Land Rover, VW Beetle with some madly modified flat four pushing out hundreds of horses, 996 turbo in a 986...all good. As soon as it's a Subaru in a Porsche, or an Isuzu in a Range Rover Classic, the car loses a bit of "soul" IMHO. Or if it's an iconic engine config, e.g a flat 6 becomes a V8, or a Cobra kit car is built with a V6 rather than a V8.

But as I said, fair play to you, and do please keep the build thread updated as it's an awesome project nonetheless! thumbup




Escy

3,907 posts

148 months

Wednesday 13th January 2016
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Hard-Drive said:

I have to say the slight deal breaker for me is the Audi engine...any car that's been re-engined with a different make somehow doesn't "work" for me. Rover V8 in a Series 1 Land Rover, VW Beetle with some madly modified flat four pushing out hundreds of horses, 996 turbo in a 986...all good. As soon as it's a Subaru in a Porsche, or an Isuzu in a Range Rover Classic, the car loses a bit of "soul" IMHO. Or if it's an iconic engine config, e.g a flat 6 becomes a V8, or a Cobra kit car is built with a V6 rather than a V8.
There are plenty of family ties, they share lots of the same components. The V8 in the Cayenne is basically an Audi engine.

What transaxle are you planning on using with the V8?

Beaker77

Original Poster:

77 posts

112 months

Wednesday 13th January 2016
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Hard-Drive said:
Wow...that's batst mental, and absolute fair play to you if you can pull it off!

I have to say the slight deal breaker for me is the Audi engine...any car that's been re-engined with a different make somehow doesn't "work" for me. Rover V8 in a Series 1 Land Rover, VW Beetle with some madly modified flat four pushing out hundreds of horses, 996 turbo in a 986...all good. As soon as it's a Subaru in a Porsche, or an Isuzu in a Range Rover Classic, the car loses a bit of "soul" IMHO. Or if it's an iconic engine config, e.g a flat 6 becomes a V8, or a Cobra kit car is built with a V6 rather than a V8.

But as I said, fair play to you, and do please keep the build thread updated as it's an awesome project nonetheless! thumbup
Hey Hard-Drive, I actually agree with you in many respects. My plan is to stick with the 3.2 for the Boxster project, however the upcoming Cayman project will definitely not be a mild Sunday driver so needs something more dramatic (plus I do love the sound of a V8!).

In an effort not to be totally sacrilegious, I choose the Audi V8 over the (heaven forbid) chev LS2 (which is actually an easier engine to work with with 400HP out of the box), however in the spirit of the point you raise, the Audi engine feels more appropriate as it does come from the same family (VAG) and the transaxle is actually an Audi unit so does that count ;-)

Beaker77

Original Poster:

77 posts

112 months

Wednesday 13th January 2016
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Escy said:
Hard-Drive said:

I have to say the slight deal breaker for me is the Audi engine...any car that's been re-engined with a different make somehow doesn't "work" for me. Rover V8 in a Series 1 Land Rover, VW Beetle with some madly modified flat four pushing out hundreds of horses, 996 turbo in a 986...all good. As soon as it's a Subaru in a Porsche, or an Isuzu in a Range Rover Classic, the car loses a bit of "soul" IMHO. Or if it's an iconic engine config, e.g a flat 6 becomes a V8, or a Cobra kit car is built with a V6 rather than a V8.
There are plenty of family ties, they share lots of the same components. The V8 in the Cayenne is basically an Audi engine.

What transaxle are you planning on using with the V8?
Our posts must have crossed Escy, using the Boxster S transaxle.

Beaker77

Original Poster:

77 posts

112 months

Monday 18th January 2016
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Hi guys,

Have made some progress with mocking up the doors, side skirts and rear end now. Next steps will be fixing rear bumper and lights, then after some more work on the doors it should be ready to start building out the internals on the panels for a nice factory type fit onto the 986 shell ready for final finishing and mould creation.


Trev450

6,314 posts

171 months

Monday 18th January 2016
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Beaker77 said:
In an effort not to be totally sacrilegious, I choose the Audi V8 over the (heaven forbid) chev LS2 (which is actually an easier engine to work with with 400HP out of the box), however in the spirit of the point you raise, the Audi engine feels more appropriate as it does come from the same family (VAG) and the transaxle is actually an Audi unit so does that count ;-)
Speaking of which, don't know if you've seen this:
http://www.planet-9.com/987-cayman-and-boxster-mod...

Dan911

2,648 posts

207 months

Monday 18th January 2016
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Beaker77 said:
Hi guys,

did I hear something about LED rear lights are a problem to retro fit?

Looking good..

Beaker77

Original Poster:

77 posts

112 months

Tuesday 19th January 2016
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Trev450 said:
Beaker77 said:
In an effort not to be totally sacrilegious, I choose the Audi V8 over the (heaven forbid) chev LS2 (which is actually an easier engine to work with with 400HP out of the box), however in the spirit of the point you raise, the Audi engine feels more appropriate as it does come from the same family (VAG) and the transaxle is actually an Audi unit so does that count ;-)
Speaking of which, don't know if you've seen this:
http://www.planet-9.com/987-cayman-and-boxster-mod...
Thanks Trev450, haven't seen that one, interesting read.

Beaker77

Original Poster:

77 posts

112 months

Tuesday 19th January 2016
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Dan911 said:
Beaker77 said:
Hi guys,

did I hear something about LED rear lights are a problem to retro fit?

Looking good..
Yes, LED lights are a challenge because they have their own CAN bus controller and requires some creative 'reverse engineering'.

dom9

8,040 posts

208 months

Wednesday 20th January 2016
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Subscribed - Great project!

Ozzie Osmond

21,189 posts

245 months

Thursday 21st January 2016
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Escy said:
What transaxle are you planning on using with the V8?
Beaker77 said:
Our posts must have crossed Escy, using the Boxster S transaxle.
Surely the V8 torque will rip that transaxle to pieces? I would think it might be 25% above the transaxle's rating. Lotus always had dreadful trouble trying to find transaxles for their V8 Esprit and had to restrict engine power for that very reason.

Beaker77

Original Poster:

77 posts

112 months

Friday 22nd January 2016
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Ozzie Osmond said:
Escy said:
What transaxle are you planning on using with the V8?
Beaker77 said:
Our posts must have crossed Escy, using the Boxster S transaxle.
Surely the V8 torque will rip that transaxle to pieces? I would think it might be 25% above the transaxle's rating. Lotus always had dreadful trouble trying to find transaxles for their V8 Esprit and had to restrict engine power for that very reason.
I think it will be ok, there are a few I know of in the states running around with more powerful chev LS engines using these transaxles. That being said though, it does have a lot to do with how you drive it! I will fabricate a decent oil cooler which will help too. I suppose proof will be in the eating...


Edited by Beaker77 on Friday 22 January 16:45

Digitalize

2,850 posts

134 months

Friday 22nd January 2016
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I'm honestly shocked with how well this has gone so far.

scotty_917

1,034 posts

221 months

Wednesday 27th January 2016
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As I have one of the first 986 3.2's delivered in the UK, I'm not looking to chop or change anytime soon. However, similar to earlier posts, I wish your project all the best and I too am very surprised with how well the conversion seems to have gone, thus far! Bookmarked!! thumbup

Beaker77

Original Poster:

77 posts

112 months

Thursday 28th January 2016
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Digitalize said:
I'm honestly shocked with how well this has gone so far.
Yes, it's coming along nicely Digitalize and I'm happy with how it's looking so far, but building out the internals and final fitting and fettling will take some time to do it properly as I want a factory type fit.

Beaker77

Original Poster:

77 posts

112 months

Thursday 28th January 2016
quotequote all
scotty_917 said:
As I have one of the first 986 3.2's delivered in the UK, I'm not looking to chop or change anytime soon. However, similar to earlier posts, I wish your project all the best and I too am very surprised with how well the conversion seems to have gone, thus far! Bookmarked!! thumbup
Thanks scotty_917, I can understand that as we want to keep some nice original 986's on the road and there will likely develop a good market for these over the longer term, but there are a lot of unloved 986's out there that are being out of their misery so I feel I am just giving them a second life!

Beaker77

Original Poster:

77 posts

112 months

Thursday 28th January 2016
quotequote all
So I have been assessing the options for the LED lights. As @Dan911 previously alluded to there are significant challenges with retrofitting factory LED lights (which are controlled by the CAN bus) to the older analogue systems. There are two options I am considering. Either use a programmable micro-controller with an analog-to-digital converter to convert the analogue signals coming from the 986 to simulate the digital CAN bus signals to the 981 lights, or replace the internal LED drivers in the 981 lights to an aftermarket driver with analog control. In an effort to explore the second option I needed to disassemble a tail light to investigate if this was feasible. Not wanting to butcher my nice new shiny 981 tailights, I had a Panamera light (which uses the same systems) that had a crack in the lense so I pulled that apart to see what might be possible. I thought you might me interested in what these look like inside.







Long gone are the days when you could just replace a light bulb!





Edited by Beaker77 on Thursday 28th January 07:33

cirian75

4,245 posts

232 months

Thursday 28th January 2016
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holy crap !

so its a whole unit job if too many fail.

anyways, you Sir are mad and I salute you.