2003 Porsche Boxster S

[geraintthomas]

Wet sanded with 2000 grit and then polished back up with Meguiars ultimate compound.

Before:


After:


Shocking difference! They look and now feel like they've been professionally refurbished.

[Fresh Prince]

You're doing a fantastic job with your car there. My 987 S is the same colour scheme as yours. Keep thinking I need to tidy up the car cosmetically, might try a few of the things you've done with the interior and wheels. Bravo.

[geraintthomas]

Fresh Prince said:

You're doing a fantastic job with your car there. My 987 S is the same colour scheme as yours. Keep thinking I need to tidy up the car cosmetically, might try a few of the things you've done with the interior and wheels. Bravo.

Thank you if you ever need any help, give me a shout.

[Fresh Prince]

geraintthomas said:

Thank you if you ever need any help, give me a shout.

Thanks - I will do, could always do with some tips and advice!

[geraintthomas]

Made a start on the headlights earlier. Bought a dremel and a metal mill bit, and got to work. Didn't have much time to work on it but I got over half way through the first headlight at least.



I'll finish it tomorrow, and will sand & polish it back up to a shine. Should look identical to a facelift headlight then.

The plan after that is the same - to open them up, fit a projector lens inside, and to seal them again. They'd then look like facelift litronics, but made for a fraction of the price.

And then I thought, while I've got them open, what if I change the colour to the inserts? Now this is what I was thinking. The Carrera GT has black inserts with projector lenses. Many cars have black inserts with projectors as the inserts are obsolete and don't need to reflect anything while a projector lens is present. Even the new 991 GT3 RS has black inserts.

As you can see:


And this is someone's retrofit, like I'm going to do (minus the yellow indicator), but with black inserts:


I quite like that. Here's what they look like on black Boxsters:




So that's what I'll be doing. They'll be turned from pre-facelift egg yolk reflector headlights, to facelift modern black insert projector headlights. Very cool!

[Piersman2]

geraintthomas said:

Now the the car's clean, do you guys think it suits the darker wheels?

Is that a bulge at the top of your rear tyre? Could be the light but seems to be there in one of your previous posts as well. Can't say I'd be happy with that, I'd be wondering when the blow out was coming.

[geraintthomas]

Piersman2 said:

Is that a bulge at the top of your rear tyre? Could be the light but seems to be there in one of your previous posts as well. Can't say I'd be happy with that, I'd be wondering when the blow out was coming.

st I keep forgetting to get that looked at. Well reminded and well spotted.

Is this always bad news, or could it be nothing?

[Piersman2]

geraintthomas said:

Piersman2 said:

Is that a bulge at the top of your rear tyre? Could be the light but seems to be there in one of your previous posts as well. Can't say I'd be happy with that, I'd be wondering when the blow out was coming.

st I keep forgetting to get that looked at. Well reminded and well spotted.

Is this always bad news, or could it be nothing?

I'm not sure. Some will say it's always bad news and about to blow and kill you, several children and a few unlucky kittens in the ensuing fireball. If you go anywhere near a tyre shop they'll say it needs replacing.

If it was me, and I was only using the car to pootle around town I wouldn't worry too much unless the bulge starts to get bigger.

But how often do we use out Boxsters to just pootle around town!

I'm afraid for me it would just constantly niggle and nag , the "whens it gonna go?" would stop me driving the car properly and I'd be checking the bulge every time I walk passed the car just in case it was getting any bigger. Like the sword of Damocles!

Get it changed, it's a fault in the tyre wall and in theory could pop any time without warning.

[geraintthomas]

Piersman2 said:

I'm not sure. Some will say it's always bad news and about to blow and kill you, several children and a few unlucky kittens in the ensuing fireball. If you go anywhere near a tyre shop they'll say it needs replacing.

If it was me, and I was only using the car to pootle around town I wouldn't worry too much unless the bulge starts to get bigger.

But how often do we use out Boxsters to just pootle around town!

I'm afraid for me it would just constantly niggle and nag , the "whens it gonna go?" would stop me driving the car properly and I'd be checking the bulge every time I walk passed the car just in case it was getting any bigger. Like the sword of Damocles!

Get it changed, it's a fault in the tyre wall and in theory could pop any time without warning.

Thanks for the honesty

I'll get them replaced soon. Cash is a little tight what with moving house lately, and needing to service the car next month, but I suppose it's extremely important. I'll look right into it.

[Podie]

Darker wheels look better than I expected. Not a fan of black wheels,
But I think the anthracite suits the car well. I do enjoy your updates - keep 'em coming.

[sparks_E39]

geraintthomas said:

st I keep forgetting to get that looked at. Well reminded and well spotted.

Is this always bad news, or could it be nothing?

It's probably just the tyre that's damaged, could of been anything. Best bet is to get it changed. Lovely car by the way, a lot of Boxsters of this vintage appear to be somewhat tired by now, yours looks pretty much showroom fresh

[geraintthomas]

Podie said:

Darker wheels look better than I expected. Not a fan of black wheels,
But I think the anthracite suits the car well. I do enjoy your updates - keep 'em coming.

Thanks very much

sparks_E39 said:

It's probably just the tyre that's damaged, could of been anything. Best bet is to get it changed. Lovely car by the way, a lot of Boxsters of this vintage appear to be somewhat tired by now, yours looks pretty much showroom fresh

I really appreciate it, that's the condition I'm aiming for.

But, it's not good news.

I've finished dremelling, sanding and polishing, and it looks like this:





Not good at all. I didn't have a depth guide so I did it all by hand, and this has made the surface uneven. I can't seem to sand and polish it to a reflective shine at all. So there we are, it's fit for the bin.

At least it was a spare that I bought for this very reason. If I want the projectors, I'll have to do it to my main headlights. Good thing about that is the indicators are already clear. Bad thing is that they're very expensive, and I don't think I'm brave enough to split them open. So it looks like this headlight project may have to be sacked off. I'm gutted

[Joe..]

Some great improvements - shame on the headlights, the idea sounds very smart.

I too can't believe what a bargain they are right now!

[geraintthomas]

Joe.. said:

Some great improvements - shame on the headlights, the idea sounds very smart.

I too can't believe what a bargain they are right now!

Well interestingly, the headlights may be okay.

I didn't think I could do much to them as I thought the plastic would be way too thin after already dremeling it, but look at the thickness that's left:


Loads. So knowing this, I took a file to it and spent just two minutes on one area. Here's the result:

Before


After


Far smoother. I'll sit there for a good half hour and it should be nice and smooth. After this I'll wet sand it again, and then use a machine to polish it back up. May be able to use these lights after all!

Aside from this, I replaced the rear O/S inner driveshaft boot. It must have passed the MOT but I have absolutely no idea how, it was in half! Unless it's split after it.

Interestingly though, I didn't go for a normal boot. I went for a bailcast split one. Like this:



Yes I know, they're rubbish and they'll split, etc. But look online and you'll find people who have spent time doing them, they've turned out to be fine. And for £10, it's worth a punt. If it splits, I'll just buy a proper one and spend the time doing it properly. The reason I went for the universal one is because I've never taken a driveshaft off a car before, so I was a little skeptical. I'd be able to do it but, for £10, I'll try this one first.

Installation was great. Cut it to size and it fit fine. You get special adhesive with it and the boot has a tongue on one edge and a groove on another, which slot together to make a perfect seam. I made sure it was perfectly clean, wore gloves, then glued it. I can't tell you how strong that glue is. Put it this way, I trimmed a little more off the boot while it was on the driveshaft and after it was glued, and I thought "I'll just pull it at the glued seam to take it off the driveshaft". Using both of my hands, I couldn't pull it apart. I had to cut it with a scalpel.

So yeah, this boot isn't going anywhere. Quite happy with the result, you can see the glued seam at the bottom:



I'll just see how it goes but so far so good - have driven quite a bit with it and it's still perfect.

[geraintthomas]

Here you go guys, decided to demonstrate how strong this is on a cut off piece from the CV boot.

Here's a piece from the actual boot


The groove


And the tongue


The glue. No idea what this is, but some sort of crazy glue.


Plenty of glue in the groove


20 minutes after gluing


And to show how strong it is, check this video out. I couldn't pull it apart:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pr3hFfvfVo

So there we are. There's is absolutely no way this CV boot is going to split.

[gowmonster]

did you lose any greese when the original split? or any containments get in?

[Buff Mchugelarge]

Good job OP
'Simply popping out' a driveshaft can be a giant pita so as you say for £10, why not?

[Piersman2]

Nice little write up, thanks.
Do you have a link to the kit you bought? Both my CV boots have looked dry and about ready to crack up since I got the car two years ago. I've been expecting them to fail the MOT but must still be whole, but they're not gonna last for ever. This kit looks ideal to replace them when that day comes!

[geraintthomas]

gowmonster said:

did you lose any greese when the original split? or any containments get in?

None by the looks of it, plenty of grease on the joint and didn't seem to be contaminated. Think I got lucky.

Buff Mchugelarge said:

Good job OP
'Simply popping out' a driveshaft can be a giant pita so as you say for £10, why not?

Exactly with how strong that glue is, I can't see why it wouldn't last.

Piersman2 said:

Nice little write up, thanks.
Do you have a link to the kit you bought? Both my CV boots have looked dry and about ready to crack up since I got the car two years ago. I've been expecting them to fail the MOT but must still be whole, but they're not gonna last for ever. This kit looks ideal to replace them when that day comes!

Of course:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/282023276006

Just cut to size, place around and secure. Make sure it's very clean and the join is nice and flush, and as you can see in the video, it'll be incredibly strong.

[SebringMan]

PorkRind said:

Contrary to what a few others have said, i quite like the grey interior.. The exhaust mod looks pretty sweet. Insert some joke about cycling..

Like the gentleman above I also like the grey interior. Black does make things a little dark and should the AC ever fail the car seems to become a sauna in the summer, but I am biased .

It looks like a lovely car. Have fun with it. It will be interesting to see how you get along with the CV boots .