2.5 Boxster 986

KevM

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KevM
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Banbridge
Great car so overlooked as a genuine fun run about, i would keep her standard maybe paint the calipers black with the white porsche decals, inside maybe red seat belts to break up the black a bit they can be done for 70 quid.

one of the things i missed going from a 986 to a 987 was the heater, the 986 was non climate and even on a cool day it was always toasty .
HTD

Yes, I will do them black and lacquer decals onto the fronts. I have ordered a gear knob which will likely be a nightmare to fit, but I have chosen one that’s visually close to 90’s VAG.

If I ever change the wheels, it will have to be the BBS GT3’s to suit the ambers.

The heater is great to be fair
 

m5lvyn

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1,638
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GT4
Awesome. Hard to believe its 22 years old.. where does time go!
 

NedHan79

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67
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Lurgan
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clio dci
Nice car, always fancied one but never got round to it.
It’s funny I see your car has the “lower” spec dash, as in no cd holders etc in front of the gear stick. That randomly is an upgrade many 996 guys are doing as the gt3s come like that. First I’ve noticed it.

As said many times already, health to drive.
 

KevM

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KevM
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Banbridge
Nice car, always fancied one but never got round to it.
It’s funny I see your car has the “lower” spec dash, as in no cd holders etc in front of the gear stick. That randomly is an upgrade many 996 guys are doing as the gt3s come like that. First I’ve noticed it.

As said many times already, health to drive.

I had been looking for the lower dash box for mine initially, & then reading on the Boxa forum, it seems to be the first thing guys are removing!
I suppose the cubby would be good to move the climate control panel to if I was fitting a double DIN at some point, but I have no intentions of doing that.

I have a real notion of changing the wheels to ‘S’ style alloys. The size would be the same & the difference is minimal but I have a thing against Convex wheels so I can’t really warm to my Turbines. It’d be a cheap change
 

NedHan79

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Lurgan
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clio dci
I had been looking for the lower dash box for mine initially, & then reading on the Boxa forum, it seems to be the first thing guys are removing!
I suppose the cubby would be good to move the climate control panel to if I was fitting a double DIN at some point, but I have no intentions of doing that.

I have a real notion of changing the wheels to ‘S’ style alloys. The size would be the same & the difference is minimal but I have a thing against Convex wheels so I can’t really warm to my Turbines. It’d be a cheap change


Some guys seem to be removing it simply to free up leg room.

On the wheels idea. Which wheels are you talking about? 18” sport designs like mine? They look really good on a boxster. Another option at reasonable money are 18” panamera wheels. Some 996 guys go this way as they a lot lighter than the sport designs and a fair bit cheaper too. Decent second hand sets on eBay starting around the £3/400 mark. Nearly bought a set myself simply for the weight issue
 

KevM

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KevM
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Some guys seem to be removing it simply to free up leg room.

On the wheels idea. Which wheels are you talking about? 18” sport designs like mine? They look really good on a boxster. Another option at reasonable money are 18” panamera wheels. Some 996 guys go this way as they a lot lighter than the sport designs and a fair bit cheaper too. Decent second hand sets on eBay starting around the £3/400 mark. Nearly bought a set myself simply for the weight issue

I like the 18” Sport Design, but the ‘s’ wheels are 17” & dirt cheap:

1594283125783.jpeg


Those & Red Calipers would be a wee bit of a facelift
 

jimc

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1,021
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caddy
i picked these up when i had my 986 with 4 brand new tyres for the price of a refurb but mine had 16's on it which had baldy tyres and needed a refurb
IMG_0802.jpg

IMG_0801.jpg
 

KevM

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KevM
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7,247
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Banbridge
I love those C4S/Turbo wheels but I dont think they’d look right on a pre-facelift car, certainly not one with ambers.

I changed the gear knob today as someone had stripped the leather off the last one.

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It’s a universal one, but picked one that looks quite 90’s VAG OEM so DFR. I’m not spending Hundreds on a genuine Gear knob

I fished one of the Cat heat shields out earlier which had detached and was lying on top of the exhaust rattling, and disconnected a drop-link, which cured another wee knock, so it’ll be a cheap solution at £16 each.
 

KevM

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KevM
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7,247
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Banbridge
I gave the car it’s first wash & clean up today. Me and the wee man went to the shop for milk & petrol & ended up at the top of Slieve Croob!

These wheels will probably just stay on it for a while.

A1BADA7B-47C5-4D58-BA4E-F9099BD67251.jpeg

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I can’t decide if I should do the calipers black or red though. I’m thinking just black again with new decals
 

Lyons

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76,927
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Texarkana
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X5 / 435D
Black or silver. I usually do mine black but did them silver on the x3 (as it’s silver too) and it looks good.
 

Woodcutter

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31,236
I think the original wheels look great.

As for calipers, I would go black or grey. Having the same quandary myself at the moment, but I think I’m going to go black.
 

KevM

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KevM
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Banbridge
The window regulator came this morning unexpectedly early, so it’s been fitted, along with a new cabin filter. The old filter was probably older than my daughter 😆

I needed to stop the window rubber grabbing the glass, it’s probably the reason the last regulator failed. Most of the furry backing was gone from the outer window seal, so I had a roll of black felt tape. I gave inside the old seal a run with light sandpaper And degreaser, measured a length of the felt tape, dropped It into the gap and stuck it to the inside of the seal. Fitted the regulator & it’s done the job!



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jimc

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Great job on the regulator, how was the plastic when you removed the door card? im sure you know they leak water in badly if not sealed correctly, have you checked all the drain holes to make sure they are clear? (under bonnet and clamshell)
 

neil-c

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1,584
I did the exact same job on my 986 the other week. The window regulator broke during my test drive so I was able to negotiate some more off it with that happening. It was just bad luck for the seller - could have easily happened me the next day.

I made two mistakes when fitting it though - first I watched a video on how to remove the panels so I didn’t break any clips but the idiot who made the video broke a clip and didn’t mention it!! The bit of triangular plastic on the corner of the front window has two pop clips at the bottom and then it it slides up to release the top. I just followed his instructions and pulled it out straight. Thankfully the bit I broke off was quite big so I got it glued back on with some high strength epoxy. Then I set the window fractionally too low in the mount so although it goes up and forms a decent seal at the top there is some wind noise so the entire thing needs to come off again and lifted up a fraction which is annoying!
 

KevM

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KevM
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Great job on the regulator, how was the plastic when you removed the door card? im sure you know they leak water in badly if not sealed correctly, have you checked all the drain holes to make sure they are clear? (under bonnet and clamshell)

The drains were literally the first thing I did, as the car had been outside and the drivers carpet was damp. The two rear drains were perfect, but the fronts were under an inch of sludge. All cleaned and running perfectly now. The door membrane is spot on too.


I did the exact same job on my 986 the other week. The window regulator broke during my test drive so I was able to negotiate some more off it with that happening. It was just bad luck for the seller - could have easily happened me the next day.

I made two mistakes when fitting it though - first I watched a video on how to remove the panels so I didn’t break any clips but the idiot who made the video broke a clip and didn’t mention it!! The bit of triangular plastic on the corner of the front window has two pop clips at the bottom and then it it slides up to release the top. I just followed his instructions and pulled it out straight. Thankfully the bit I broke off was quite big so I got it glued back on with some high strength epoxy. Then I set the window fractionally too low in the mount so although it goes up and forms a decent seal at the top there is some wind noise so the entire thing needs to come off again and lifted up a fraction which is annoying!

One of my clips seemed to be broken from before, but the card is on well enough without.
Yeah, the job was easy enough to do, but setting the window is a bit of hassle, as it’s in the dropped position when the door is open. It’s a 2 minute job to pull the card off though and the two grommets at the very top of the door are handy for adjusting the glass.
 

neil-c

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1,584
@KevM is there a grommet to lift the glass up though? I only saw two adjustment screws before which move the window profile in and out so it lines up with the rubber seals but not one that moves it up. I was thinking I needed to move the glass up about 3-4mm up in the clamps of I need the window higher? That will mean it a whole airbag off, speaker out job.
 

KevM

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KevM
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Banbridge
@KevM is there a grommet to lift the glass up though? I only saw two adjustment screws before which move the window profile in and out so it lines up with the rubber seals but not one that moves it up. I was thinking I needed to move the glass up about 3-4mm up in the clamps of I need the window higher? That will mean it a whole airbag off, speaker out job.

Yes, it’s a card off job but handy. The profile grommets are under the door, but there are two at the top of so you can adjust the glass clamps easily enough with the window up. I don’t think you even need to open the membrane:

D26819AD-6991-4B0A-B929-DCCDE40B5A71.jpeg


I had to raise the front of the window a few mm and lower the back. If your glass is etched, I dropped the lowest row of dots into the seal. The window is dropped a few mm when the door is open. I set the card onto the drivers seat and closed it to check the glass level when it popped up to the roof seal 👍🏻
 

Cossers

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981
Look great! 100 times better than the faded calipers you had before!!
 

jimc

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caddy
Much better, it's all the little touches, watch the porsche beards don't get you for not having your centre cap pointing towards your valve :p
 
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