2003 Porsche Boxster S

[geraintthomas]

Heaveho said:

Yeah, I knew I should have charged him more for them.............just kidding, they went to a good home.

Haha, at least you know they'll be well looked after

Thanks again for them, they've totally transformed the car.

[geraintthomas]

Having driven the car with the brakes bedded in, I struggle to explain how astonishing they are. The pedal is hard, brakes are progressive but solid, you can tell if you buried your foot onto the pedal you'd stop harder than if you hit a wall.

Very happy! £300 for all Pagid discs and pads was a very good deal indeed.

Off to Silverstone on Sunday to watch the Le Mans Series and will be taking the Porsche with my Dad. First long journey since buying the car in November, so it'll be a good test for long distance MPG.

[geraintthomas]

billzeebub said:

An enjoyable read. The 986 Boxster is sensational value currently. It is my firm belief that the good cars will be much sought after in a few years, especially in light of the later cars move to electric steering and turbo charging etc. I love the analogue nature of it and am currently on my third 986.

Well this is the thing. The Boxster S does 0-60 in 5.5 seconds, and a 996 would do it in 5.1. That's 0.4 difference, and it's arguable when it comes to performance and preference between the 996 and Boxster S. Two more seats, but no rear boot. Rear engine and hard top, but no mid-engine balance. Etc, etc.

The fact that you can have this sort of full fat Porsche performance for £7.500 blows my mind, so I had to have one. No doubt my next car will be a 911, but it'll be a close call between a 987 Boxster S.

cb1965 said:

I tried Pagid discs on my SL and they worked well enough but made the brakes squeal after a few hundred miles, eventually forked out for OEM and no more squeal. Glad you are having success with them as they are definitely better priced than the OEM ones.

Car is lovely btw, a great purchase.

If they squeak I'll pick up some OEM plates to fit into the pots so that they take the squeak away, along with some red rubber grease. Should be okay then!

[geraintthomas]

Here's the inside of the fronts by the way:



Horrendous!

Drove to Silverstone on the weekend to see the 6 Hours of LeMans Series. Superb day! 3 hours to get there, 3 hours back, around 330 miles in total and I did around 31mpg. Not bad going at all

Anyone else go?

[geraintthomas]

Found that my brake lights are coming on a little late. Not by much, but enough that they don't engage when I brake lightly.

The brake light switch under the pedal is apparently the culprit, and cleaning it fixes it. Although if it needs replacing it's only £10.

This weekend I'll be cleaning the throttle body as I've got a very slightly rough idle. Not much, but you can feel it when sitting in the car and you can see minor changes in the needle. It feels like a bad spark plug (but it isn't). It hasn't got an idle control valve as it's got an electric throttle, so the throttle body opens slightly to idle the car instead. Over time when the throttle body has gunk built up on its butterfly valve, the air is slightly restricted at idle. So this should clean it. Plus, it's always good to keep on top of these things.

[geraintthomas]

I've just realised that the Boxster takes 9L of oil for an oil change. 9!!!

[geraintthomas]

ProSpeed Exhausts in Cardiff, £130

[geraintthomas]

Got some wheel nut covers:

Before:


After:


I also ordered some caliper decals to replace the faded ones on the calipers, but had quite a lot spare.

I decided to place one of the larger ones on the wind deflector (sorry for the average photos):







And now onto the caliper. Here's one of the faded ones:



Removed the remains using Meguiars Ultimate Compound and a soft foam applicator:



Applied the decal:



And finished:



Far better.

And seeing as I had a few more spare, I uhh... decided to go one step further.

The door sill in the passenger side has an umbrella well for a small umbrella, which I've already got in there. Seeing as I refuse to pay £80 for an original Porsche umbrella, and seeing as I had some decals left over... you can see where this is going.









Shh, I like it.

[geraintthomas]

Diesel Meister said:

Great to see a good car getting the love it deserves

Appreciate it I've had a few people ask "Why don't you get an old car as your daily and keep that for weekends?". People might have different point of views on this but I'd hate to do that.

The car is quiet, comfortable, plush and has the performance where needed. It's got incredible build quality too, so why on earth would I want to use anything else? If I don't use it, parts on the car don't get used, which means they don't get lubricated, they dry up and fail.

Put two Porsches together from 2003, one with 20,000 miles and one with 80,000 (like this one), and I can guarantee you the 20,000 one will have more problems.

They're meant to get driven, and that means they're meant to be loved I try my best.

[geraintthomas]

thatguy11 said:

Way to stick it to the man with your "Porsche Design" umbrella! Porsche are having a laugh with their branded items prices anyway

Haha too right, their prices are ridiculous.

[geraintthomas]

Decided to refresh the interior leather as it was looking quite shiny and oily.

Before:


After:


Before:


After:








Bit better.

[geraintthomas]

TheLordJohn said:

Got a lot of time for someone who leaves their car in gear
Car looks great, interior looks great; top effort.

Thanks always the safest way! Normally it's in reverse but I was cleaning it.

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..

Cheers! Exhaust mod was the best thing on this car, it sounds like a 981 with the active sports exhaust on. It's unbelievable!

Lol, check my twitter account (I'm @geraintthomas, he's @geraintthomas86, and he mentions me in his book lol)

dxg said:

What products did you use on that steering wheel? That's a job I've got to face soon...

AutoGlym Leather Cleaner with a soft brush, dry with a microfibre, then use a Flash Magic Eraser lightly. Works brilliantly.


I managed to give the car a good coating of HD Wax this evening.

















And a better one of the wind deflector decal:

Edited by geraintthomas on Tuesday 3rd May 12:13

[geraintthomas]

Medic-one said:

Looks great!

Really enjoy your updates on this car.

Many thanks

PorkRind said:

Ah, I watched a similar method on ammonyc YouTube channel earlier. Hats of to you for putting the work in. You've got a fantastic motor! Did you get it checked for bore score etc pre purchase?!

Thanks very much! I'm glad people can see the work I put into it. Sometimes I feel like I work on it loads but, when I write down what I've done, it doesn't amount to a great deal... but then it must do as it stands out in the quality. No pre-checks, aside from a database check to see its history. I looked around the car and engine quite closely before buying it, and decided I'd just take a plunge!

Greased my brakes today as they started to squeal a little - I forgot to grease them when I installed them. Oops!

While the wheels were off, I decided to try to remove the years of brake dust/fluid stains that were on the alloys.

Before (this was AFTER I washed the wheel!):


After:


Before:


After:





They're not perfect inside, but they were a nightmare to get clean. I had to use a mix of AutoGlym Custom Wheel Cleaner, 2500 grit wet and dry sandpaper, and Meguiars Ultimate Compound. They're far better, and seeing a clean alloy wheel barrel through the spokes is far more attractive!


Back wheel:


Front wheel:


Much better, you think?

[geraintthomas]

Polarbert said:

Definitely. I used to spend ages getting my Clio 182 wheels off and cleaning the insides of those. I'm tempted to do my Z4Ms wheels but as I live in a flat I don't have easy access to anywhere to do it.


Oh and also theres the fact that I could take the wheels off if I wanted as the car doesn't have an emergency jack and I dont have a regular one to hand.

I need to invest in a bunch of new detailing stuff, new towels etc. I'll pick up a wheel woolie when I do, they're supposed to be brilliant.

[geraintthomas]

Nothing much to report, just been running the car as usual. But today I decided to install some ambient footwell lights that are on when the lights come on. This mimicks the ambient light found up by the dome light, and bathes the foot wells in a very dim orange glow. When you open the door, a brighter light turns on.

Here's what was needed - wire, two bulbs, and a soldering iron:


Made a loom (testing it with a battery)




Then wired the positive into a 12v feed that the parking lights work from, and grounded the negative.

Done!

Footwells when you open the door (like before):


And now when you're driving at night:


Sorry about the quality, didn't have a tripod for the DSLR.

Very happy

[geraintthomas]

One of my alloys wasn't in the best condition, with curbing and lacquer peeling causing dirt to permanently show. I decided to give it a quick blow over with the spray cans. Only took an hour.

The alloy as it stood


This is the problem with it. This is as clean as I can possibly get it


Rubbed down the bad areas


Primer


First coat


Second coat


Lacquer


Finished


Looks much better on the car.


But then, just my luck, I dropped the wheel brace and it chipped the paint


Oops. Will go over that part another time, can't be bothered at the moment!

Either way it's far better now. To be honest I should have rubbed the whole alloy down as it's left a few areas a little 'bobbly' from where stones have hit the wheels over the years. But still, for an hours work I can't really complain.

Got me thinking though. What do you guys thing if I colour the wheels in anthracite?

[geraintthomas]

Thanks to Polaris (over on 986forum.com) for coming up with the AutoTop Arduino modification, I spent the day doing just that.

Got everything ready. Resistors, transistors, wires, arduino board, etc.


Complete. Looks a mess, but essentially it's something you plug into the switch harness, and the switch plugs into this, so it sits in the middle.


Wired up


And a video showing it working!
https://youtu.be/9JIRxSIefpA

Over the moon with it. This, coupled with the modification to allow me to do this on the move without the handbrake is brilliant. Approaching a roundabout in traffic? No problem - don't have to hold the button, stopping the roof to change gear and continuing the roof. Just one click and I'm done. Also when setting off in the morning, I can just buckle up, click, and start driving

The whole thing cost about £30 including the board and required parts.

[geraintthomas]

I've had this week off work, hence why I've had so much time to wire that damn thing up. I found some cans of primer, lacquer and three tins of anthracite from when I had my last car - I bought them to re-spray the wheels anthracite but never did.

And then I thought, f*** it. I'll re-spray the Porsche wheels anthracite to see how they'd look. It may update it quite a bit, and if I don't like it, I'll just re-spray them back to silver. Simple. I've got tones of primer, spray (both anthracite and silver) and tons of lacquer, so I can re-spray them back for free if need be.

In total this took me around 3 hours, from absolute start (getting all the things from the cupboard) to complete and everything tidied away.

Washed and ready to go


Rubbed the curbing and chips back


Primer is primer, no need to photograph.

First coat


Many coats later with lacquer


Also Did the centre caps


And finished.


And on the car








All done with spray cans. Please excuse the car too, it's filthy.

They need another couple of coats of lacquer to make them ping even more. I'll take them off one evening in the week to give them a quick blast of lacquer. I'd do them on the car but it'll probably run as I'd want to coat it quite thick.

What do you guys think? Yay or nay?

[geraintthomas]

LordHaveMurci said:

Silver for me, sorry. Great job once again though

I'm glad for your honesty thanks!

TheLordJohn said:

Wheels look fantastic

Cheers bud

CaptainSlow said:

+1 Much better than before

Thank you! I hope so, if not I'll whip them off and do them in silver again hah!

[geraintthomas]

Buff Mchugelarge said:

I think they look great, they're not too dark.
Id love to do my wheels but fear I lack the skill and patience
How long do they take to dry between coats, and how many cans did you use?

Large cans (will check the ml for you), one can of primer, one of lacquer, and two of colour. That's absolute minimum but you want two of primer and two of lacquer just in case, and it gives you peace of mind.

It's not hard at all to do! Time between coats was about 10 minutes so not loads. I did two wheels at a time so it cut that down as I was doing one wheel while the other dried. The key is to do light squirts with the cans in light strokes. Too much in one area and it's messed up.

I'll write a little tutorial if you want