2003 Porsche Boxster S

2003 Porsche Boxster S

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Discussion

LordHaveMurci

12,034 posts

168 months

Saturday 26th November 2016
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Considering bore score etc I'd be worried about blocking the rads, probably just paranoia.

Looks great though, love your attention to detail.

ManOpener

12,467 posts

168 months

Saturday 26th November 2016
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So many of those DRL kits look incredibly naff and actually age the car, but those look so OEM and really modernise it.

Escy

3,906 posts

148 months

Saturday 26th November 2016
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LordHaveMurci said:
Considering bore score etc I'd be worried about blocking the rads, probably just paranoia.

Looks great though, love your attention to detail.
I agree, lots of the engine problems like cracked heads seem to be traced back to cooling issues, these lights (which look nice smile) are blocking a large area of the intake for the side radiators.

geraintthomas

Original Poster:

897 posts

106 months

Saturday 26th November 2016
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FELIX_5 said:
I've been following this thread with interest, as I fancy scratching the Boxster itch at some point. Really like your attention to detail. There seems to be a lot of hate on here for aftermarket DRL's, but those look like a really neat fit and could almost have been fitted from the factory, good work!
Thanks. I bought decent Cree LED ones as most people buy the cheapest ones they can buy, with multi-LED strips and they look blue and terrible. These are high quality ones.

ManOpener said:
So many of those DRL kits look incredibly naff and actually age the car, but those look so OEM and really modernise it.
Cheers biggrin

LordHaveMurci said:
Considering bore score etc I'd be worried about blocking the rads, probably just paranoia.

Looks great though, love your attention to detail.
Escy said:
I agree, lots of the engine problems like cracked heads seem to be traced back to cooling issues, these lights (which look nice smile) are blocking a large area of the intake for the side radiators.
I had this in mind, but these lights are a lot smaller than they look - the profile of them is quite small and they don't block that much at all. Cheers for the concern though smile glad I wasn't wrong in thinking about it too lol.

LordHaveMurci

12,034 posts

168 months

Saturday 26th November 2016
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geraintthomas said:
I had this in mind, but these lights are a lot smaller than they look - the profile of them is quite small and they don't block that much at all. Cheers for the concern though smile glad I wasn't wrong in thinking about it too lol.
As usual, great attention to detail thumbup

LanceRS

2,171 posts

136 months

Saturday 26th November 2016
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Unless you have just been on the M40, you have started something here. I've just seen a first gen, black D
Boxter with DRLs mounted about there.
I didn't get to see the plates properly and it looked too dirty to be yours.

geraintthomas

Original Poster:

897 posts

106 months

Monday 12th December 2016
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LordHaveMurci said:
As usual, great attention to detail thumbup
Many thanks smile

LanceRS said:
Unless you have just been on the M40, you have started something here. I've just seen a first gen, black D
Boxter with DRLs mounted about there.
I didn't get to see the plates properly and it looked too dirty to be yours.
Haha, could well have! I've only seen 1 other Boxster 986 with them, but they had cheap ones.

I've just bought new rear lamps. Decided to go for LED's, with a smoked top to match the black paintwork. The cleaner lamps modernises it to no extent.

These are the lamps:



Old ones:



New ones:



Together:



New lamps at night (brakes):





And what they look like in the day:







Very pleased with the way they've turned out.

lewisf182

2,084 posts

187 months

Monday 12th December 2016
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geraintthomas said:
Haha, could well have! I've only seen 1 other Boxster 986 with them, but they had cheap ones.

I've just bought new rear lamps. Decided to go for LED's, with a smoked top to match the black paintwork. The cleaner lamps modernises it to no extent.

These are the lamps:



Old ones:



New ones:



Together:



New lamps at night (brakes):





And what they look like in the day:







Very pleased with the way they've turned out.
God damn that looks good! Has to be the best looking 986 out there? Congrats!

squareflops

1,808 posts

182 months

Monday 12th December 2016
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great read, just noticed on going back to the beginning of the thread that you're in Cardiff too, ours look very similar! Well mine does to yours when you first bought it anyway!

I'll wave if I see you around smile

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

alec.e

2,149 posts

123 months

Monday 12th December 2016
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I agree with the above, this is not helping my want for a 2000s era Porsche!

geraintthomas

Original Poster:

897 posts

106 months

Monday 12th December 2016
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squareflops said:
great read, just noticed on going back to the beginning of the thread that you're in Cardiff too, ours look very similar! Well mine does to yours when you first bought it anyway!

I'll wave if I see you around smile

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Awesome! Shame you didn't say sooner, a few weeks back me and 6 other Boxsters went to mid-wales and back. We'll have to go for a drive smile

Yours looked exactly like mine did! Any plans?

alec.e said:
I agree with the above, this is not helping my want for a 2000s era Porsche!
Go get one! If you need any advice, let me know smile

geraintthomas

Original Poster:

897 posts

106 months

Monday 12th December 2016
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So after aiming for a more sleek, aggressive but still OEM approach, I've finally nailed the look I'm going for. The 987 Black Edition was something I didn't even know existed until earlier today.

Check it out:







That's kind of what I'm aiming for. The rear lights have some similarities with my newer ones. Those satin black tail pipes, matt black rear badge, and even the gloss black wheels could look great on mine.

These are my wheels but in gloss black:



Gorgeous. I'd want to get lower suspension (10mm) first before doing the wheels as a big wheel arch ruins a gloss black wheel, but I think these could look lovely.

When I refurb the wheels black, I'll do the inners silver and will put a very thin silver line on the edges, like the 987 Black Edition. Here's a Cayman with similar style wheels - black faces, silver inside barrels and a silver rim.



Ohh yes.

geraintthomas

Original Poster:

897 posts

106 months

Tuesday 13th December 2016
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I've also been playing around with ideas for the diffuser. I've never liked it as it seems a little fussy, so I'm making more of a feature of it.

See the newer ones?



Same shape, except they're matt black and plastic. It's a nice contrast between the paintwork and bringing out the exhaust area. Makes it look purposeful too, so I'm going down the same route.

I've photoshopped it up roughly, but I've done the following:

- Fins sprayed matt black
- Exhaust surround matt blakc
- Exhaust tips satin black
- Bypass pipes (and exhaust backing plate) black, to hide them
- Honeycomb grill behind the fins

Here's the difference:





Makes it look a lot newer in my opinion, and very easy to do. Will get round to doing it when the weather's good

GrantB5

572 posts

87 months

Tuesday 13th December 2016
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Love this, keep it up! Taking some years off too.

Heaveho

5,279 posts

173 months

Tuesday 13th December 2016
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Hi, Geraint, dunno if you recognise my username on here, it's Andy that sold you the alloys early on in the year. You've never mentioned it, so maybe it's not something that bothers you, but one of the first things I do with mine ( bought another in the summer! ) is to fit OPC plates. Just helps ( in my opinion ) the appearance to my eyes. Porsche Newcastle only charged me £20 the pair, and said that if I cracked one drilling it, they'd make me another free!

The car looks fantastic, all the best.

geraintthomas

Original Poster:

897 posts

106 months

Tuesday 13th December 2016
quotequote all
GrantB5 said:
Love this, keep it up! Taking some years off too.
Thanks very much! smile

Heaveho said:
Hi, Geraint, dunno if you recognise my username on here, it's Andy that sold you the alloys early on in the year. You've never mentioned it, so maybe it's not something that bothers you, but one of the first things I do with mine ( bought another in the summer! ) is to fit OPC plates. Just helps ( in my opinion ) the appearance to my eyes. Porsche Newcastle only charged me £20 the pair, and said that if I cracked one drilling it, they'd make me another free!

The car looks fantastic, all the best.
Ah hey Andy, hope all is well? smile

Now that's interesting. So Porsche will give you their plates with your reg on? What kind of things are on the number plate?

Heaveho

5,279 posts

173 months

Wednesday 14th December 2016
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Hi, all good here, thanks. The plates are nothing special, other than having the name of the dealer written on them ( Porsche Centre Newcastle, in my case ), but for someone with an eye for detail, it's worth having, especially at the price they charged me, as said, £20 a pair. They replaced the plates that had something like TK Motor factors written on the bottom of them, which I found offensive! Perhaps unsurprisingly, when I was living in Southampton last year the dealer local to me then charged me £36 for the same privilege, maybe proving that the north/south divide is alive and well!

geraintthomas

Original Poster:

897 posts

106 months

Saturday 17th December 2016
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Heaveho said:
Hi, all good here, thanks. The plates are nothing special, other than having the name of the dealer written on them ( Porsche Centre Newcastle, in my case ), but for someone with an eye for detail, it's worth having, especially at the price they charged me, as said, £20 a pair. They replaced the plates that had something like TK Motor factors written on the bottom of them, which I found offensive! Perhaps unsurprisingly, when I was living in Southampton last year the dealer local to me then charged me £36 for the same privilege, maybe proving that the north/south divide is alive and well!
I may actually get round to doing that, would love that detail on the plates smile Thanks for that!


Finally redid the rear badge in black.

Took the badge off the car



Put 1mm pad tape on the back



Cut around it with a scalpel to have a neat edge



Sprayed in matt black





On the car





Showing the rear lights up close



And while we're on the subject of lights...







Apologies for the filthy car!

At night:







Very happy with the way the car's turning out smile

geraintthomas

Original Poster:

897 posts

106 months

Thursday 19th January 2017
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Some more photos of it up to date with its DRL's in place and after a well deserved winter clean:













Going to replace the rear control arms in a few weeks time as they're starting to knock a little. Common fault, they're only £65 each so I'll buy one for either side and will get to work when the weather dries up a little.

squareflops

1,808 posts

182 months

Monday 30th January 2017
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Liking the interior lights addition dude; quite fancy that myself.

This exhaust mod is something I'm seriously considering too. Charlie has built a few exhaust systems for me before so know his work is great. How does it sound on a run? Is it at all intrusive? We do pop over to France quite a bit so want to avoid a drone at cruising speeds but yours does sound fantastic compared to standard. £130 is a bargain from Propseed!