2000 Porsche Boxster S - Viola

[Ray Singh]

gryphon - its good to hear from you. Yes, she is a good replacement to the 944. My trip to Stuttgart did quite the opposite of fuelling my enthusiasm for the car. The museum was horrible (IMHO). Just plate glass trying to sell you the latest cars, aftershave made by Porsche, tea cups.....I just didnt get on with it.

However, eary morning drives to work with the hood down has enthused me about the car again. It will never be as capable as the B3 and always will be a comprimise, but over 4k rpm, she sings and puts a smile on my face.

Let me know once the 944 comes back from 'holiday'. I might be keen on a 944 for a few months.

[Ray Singh]

Not much of an update except that I cleaned up Viola and took her out for a Porsche Boxster meeting at Cotswold Airport today.

A great time was had.




Got home, cleaned her up and tucked her up for winter. Ctek is helping her sleep and a good coat of Autoglym is looking after the paint.

[Ray Singh]

Wow - thread recovery after around 6mths!!

Boxster alloys going in for refurbishment tomorrow at Pro Alloys in Melksham. I am a stickler for originality, but the diamond cut outer lips are a royal PITA to keep looking good and a little road salt will ruin them.

I am opting for a slightly differnt look.....

Orignal:

New look:

I would welcome thoughts.....

[Kron]

I like it, but would want to see it Photoshoped onto the car from a distance, j7st for a bit of context.

My only worry would be that the diamond cut rim might look a bit too "harsh" against the black paintwork either side.

[westbay]

Prefer the original finish ...

[edwardbear]

Sept 1, 2020 21:54:43 GMT Ray Singh said:

Wow - thread recovery after around 6mths!!

Boxster alloys going in for refurbishment tomorrow at Pro Alloys in Melksham. I am a stickler for originality, but the diamond cut outer lips are a royal PITA to keep looking good and a little road salt will ruin them.

I am opting for a slightly differnt look.....

Orignal:

New look:

I would welcome thoughts.....

They’ve done a great job there. I think the slightly darker wheel will work better with the cars colour.

[79cord]

Remembering Porsche's original show car copper wheel centers might add more interest?
A dark metallic grey would also soften the contrast with the silver rims as an intermediate choice.

[Ray Singh]

Ok, i went for light anthracite inner part and a silver lip. In the UK diamond cut alloys don't last long due to the road salt.

I should be able to post pictures of the finished results next week.

[Ray Singh]

So I did it. All £630 of it. [Still Crying]
But they do look great.

Anthracite centres with silver rims and barrells. Centre caps matched. I hope that this painted finish will be more robust than that diamond cut previous finish which is suseptable to corrosion and rust with the salt on the UK roads in Winter.

[Ray Singh]

Have some arty shots! I loved driving this old girl today..... The super rare Viola metallic colour of the car really pops in the last of the summer sun. The darker wheels emphasise the purple too. I am really pleased.





Now i am in love again, I want to spoil her. Anyone know what i need to fill this gap above the radio?

[Ray Singh]

Maximum "Pop" of purple...

[Zagato]

Looks like the strip under the radio would fit above it too?
Can you buy that piece separately or is it part of the dash?

[duggers]

That's where the cup holder goes on my facelift '04. Picture is before I finished fitting the head unit so switch blank is in and the Cd holder is replaced with a storage unit.

[Ray Singh]

My other car - the mighty Alpina is going for paint on the 7th Dec, whilst there i have asked the paint shop if they can spray the centre console of the Boxster.

Since I had the car, the centre console has an unsightly case of chicken pox.

A closeup look at the paint:





Water in the paint - poor prep - so i have been told.

So today, I managed to remove the centre console in about an hour. A nice Sunday job actually, some time alone in the garage.

So much trim comes off, its scary and I was careful not to damage anything.

As it was:





You can see that the paint has bubbled - poor spraying previously allowing water to remain in paint under the laquer.


During the removal:



I had to remove the 'T' piece in front of the gear lever to remove the console. My handbrake is a "MOT pass" 3 clicks!


I have decided to paint this Viola Metallic the same as the body colour of the car. I look forward to putting this back together and seeing how it looks. More posts soon!!

[Ray Singh]

Feeling very down in the dumps during the last couple of weeks. Nothing but work and sleep. So i decided to fit the recently sprayed centre console into the boxster. It took a bit of remembering how to fit it all back together but with the help of the boxster forum, its all done.

One plastic part seemed to be the LHD version so i have ordered this.

In an Eastenders style - I will make the big reveal later this week, but here is a little tempter...

[Ray Singh]

Update (05.03.2021)

Painted centre console fitted. I like it, subtle and classy.



What do you think?

[Ray Singh]

Update 22.05.21.

I've been slowly buying parts i need to get the air con working in the car. I knew that this did not work, when i bought the car but was not overly bothered as if it got too hot, open the roof, innit!!
However in my older age, i just want everything to work and also sometimes it is too hot to have the roof off - please feel free to laugh at me...

The air con rads were changed just before i bought the car, but at a service in 2019 Cotswold Porsche showed me holes in the aluminium pipes running the length of the car. These had corroded and had holes in, letting all the air con gas escape. Since then i have been gaining know how and parts.

OPC Swindon have supplied the two pipes and the sealing o rings for a smidge under £250 and I bought an air con drier canister and o rings from design 911. Together with an oil filter and oil, i am ready to fix this once the weather gets better.

OPC Porsche Swindon contacted me last week, the 986 Boxster is now officially a classic and Porsche have allowed me to be part of the Porsche classic club. I got a really nice metal membership card, booklet and a pair of number plate surrounds. You get 15% off all parts and a few free washes each year and a magazine twice a year. Not bad for free.
I spent today, between hail and rain showers fitting the plate holders to the car.

[Ray Singh]

A bit of an update as the last post was May.

I have been using the car as well as my Alpina as dailies. The Boxster is great to get to my office in East London - although the dreaded ULEZ extended itself out in October.

Viola and friend at the London Excel centre earlier this year:


One evening whilst on the A12 the car started to hesitate under throttle and then randomly stall. I was terrified as the whole of the A12 is a double red line zone and the last thing i wanted was to bring London to a stand still by breaking down in a tunnel.
No EML light came on and my poxy £30 amazon special code reader found nothing wrong.

I took the car to Cotswold Porsche independent specialist today and £167 later, they fixed the issue. I thought it might be the MAF, but they took this out and checked it. Whilst it was not the OE Bosch and Bremi unit - it was still doing its job. A visual inspection revealed a corroded hose clip causing an air leak. New clip and hey presto the car ran sweet all the way home. Its amazing how quickly you can loose faith in the car, and then how quickly this can be restored.

The only downside of fun drives in the winter are of course, that you have to clean the car:





i will clean her up and then swap her over for the Alpina for a week. Her holiday home is a barn local to me

[shalmaneser]

just FYI but I believe all 986's pass ULEZ, you just need a certificate of conformity from Porsche as the emissions details are not recorded as standard for pre '00 cars. My 996 is a W reg and is ULEZ compliant.

Have a read here:

911uk.com/viewtopic.php?t=137704&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

[75swb]

Great to see this being used properly. I'm quite tempted by one myself, but have no real need!