Got the Compound and Polish a few days ago, today was the day!
Here's the car after compounding it with the DA.
Here it is after polishing with the DA
Here it is after ceramic coating
Hard to get a reflection picture in a silver car, but here ya go
Car needs to "cure" inside the garage for another 24 hours. My plan is to do the same process on my Golf R. It took me 7 hours for everything, washing, clay bar, compound, polish, ceramic coat. Paint is super, duper slick now.
My new steering wheel came in today, woot! Had it custom made, perforated leather on the sides, smooth leather on the top and bottom. The rim is much thicker and it has a flat bottom, which I really like as I have more knee room and the narrow, delicate rim of the original wheel was too small for my hands. Time to install it!
First, unhook the battery with a 10mm wrench and let the car sit for 15 minutes to allow the charge to dissipate.
Now locate the two T27 bolts that hold the airbag into place. They're really buried in there, make sure you have your torx bit totally seated before you start cranking on them. These bolts are captive, they won't fall out. When they're totally out of the airbag, the airbag will easily pop off.
Using a small flathead screwdriver, pop off the yellow harness connector from the airbag and place the airbag someplace safe, with it pointing up.
Now you have to remove the two spade connectors from the steering wheel surround.
Now use a 24mm and remove the nut holding the steering wheel in place. This is really easy with an electric impact. Make sure the wheel is pointing 100% straight. Put the nut back on loosely and now pull on the steering wheel to pop it loose. With the nut on you keep from punching yourself in the face if the wheel pops off suddenly. Remove the wheel and put the new one on, feeding the airbag harness through the hole on the right hand side.
Put the washer and retaining nut back on and torque to 35 ft lbs. Hook up the two spade connectors and now plug the yellow connector into the airbag, it'll snap into place.
Now tighten the T27 torx in, snug is fine, torque spec is 7 ft lbs. These are kind of a PITA to get started, just be patient.
Enjoy your new steering wheel!
That wheel looks great and very ergonomic
Where did you get the wheel from? My Dad's 987.1 S needs a better steering wheel.
Looks nice! Is it from Dallas Customs? I had one from them on my 987 Cayman and was a huge improvement over the stock skinny one.
This car gets better and better!
In reply to PMRacing :
Got the wheel from Carbon Fiber Mafia. I found them because they do steering wheels for Mk7 VW's like my Golf R
New plates showed up today!
Seriously, how fast is this mofo? It has to be crazy fast
In reply to OjaiM5 :
It's a whole different level of fast compared to my previous cars. Without me trying, so driving maybe 5/10's it hits close to 140mph on the back straight of High Plains Raceway. That's with me braking at the 3.5 marker vs the 2 marker like I usually do. I expect it to hit closer to 150mph when I start feeling more comfortable with it.
What impresses me the most is just the durability of it. It never runs hot, it always runs well and it's a really comfortable car to drive. No bad manners with an overly heavy clutch, or jumpy throttle etc.
The Germans know how to make a competent car.
It's something I struggle to explain to someone who hasn't experienced it but I love how they just work even when being beaten.
Like how the Taycan can do repeated launches and not lose pace while the Model S starts slowing after a run or two.
I'll stop there. This is a fun build to follow!
Got out to an auto-x this year! Finally! Ran with the Porsche Club, got 8 runs in. My fastest run was my last one at 44.1 seconds, which gave me a top ten finish. The fast guys were significantly faster than me and were running the course all in 1st gear. Car did well, didn't really feel like I had a ton of grip, was sliding around a ton!
Trying to drive it more neatly just yielded much slower (by 2 seconds) times, so I just tossed it around. Annoyingly it looks my tach signal to the TraqMate still isn't working, grrr! I'll have to look into that more and see why...
Got some pics of my car at the auto-x!
Today's the day I'm going to get the tach input to show on my video's. I verified I have a proper tach signal showing on the traqmate itself, I just need to get it to show on the videos.
Another PCA'er helped me and there's a spot on the software traq studio that you have to check for rpm enabled. I figured that would make it work on my older videos since the data should've been logged but no love. I decided to make another video today and see if that works.
Went out and plugged everything in and I couldn't get it to power on. After checking every fuse in the circuit and plugging/unplugging everything it still wouldn't work. Finally plugged it directly into the battery and it still wouldn't work. Flipped the polarity and it did. WTF? Ok, hook it back up to normal to my cigarette lighter and it still doesn't work. Argh! Flip the polarity again and now it does. Ummm, this is how I had it setup up to being with?! Serious ghost in the machine stuff here.
Ok, power on, set it up to record and drive up and down the block a bit. Then come in, plug it into the laptop, fire up the traq studio software and RESULT!!!
In other news I washed the car for the first time since ceramic coating it. Holy Schnikes! Seriously, just wow...
I've never seen water just bead and fall off a car like that before. Far, far exceeds any wax I've ever put on a car. Made washing it super, duper easy.
Did a favor for a friend last Friday and picked him up in Colorado Springs after he dropped his car off after selling it. He has a 996 turbo too with (I think) a fab speed exhaust on it.
It was an hour drive away, mostly freeway traffic in 6th gear from 2-3000 rpm. That's the zone where my exhaust is the loudest. It doesn't drone but it's markedly louder there, it's much more quiet 3000rpm+.
Soul sent me some collectors, they said to insert them into the lower X, with the small part of the collector facing towards the exhaust flow.
Today was the day. Racked the 911 and took off the tips that attach to the lower X. I had to spread the flanges a bit on the collectors but I got a good pressure fit.
Same thing for the other side, then put the tips back on.
Initial thoughts on start up is it seems more quiet. Plan is to drive it to work tomorrow and then this weekend and see.
Soul sent me 4 collectors so I still have two more I can put in the upper part of the X pipe if I need to.
Drove to work this morning and the car does seem quite a bit more quiet. I'll see how it sounds on the way home, hopefully this does it...
Car does seem a bit more quiet, so those collectors do seem to be helping some. Went mural hunting this morning!
Also managed to get switch my track day from today to tomorrow, so got the car ready. Installed PFC race brake pads, pulled the spare out, put the front tow hook in, etc. Charging up the GoPro now, will go out and bed in the brake pads later tonight when there's less traffic.
lastly, I need a opinion poll. The wheels on the car are BBS RS-GT's which I like. They're 8.5F, 11R and my plan was to have the centers powder coated gold this off season. Then a set of FikseFM10 9F, 12R popped up on Rennlist. I can probably sell the BBS' for close to what the Fikse's will cost me. The Fiskes aren't in perfect shape but they're in good shape, I'd say similar to the BBS' current condition.
So, thoughts? FIkses or BBS?
*whispers* they look the same to me.
Which is lighter/stronger/better? The last GRM issue was eye opening regarding wheels.
edit: just saw the size difference. Hard to say
Think I'm going to stick with the BBS and have them powder coated gold this winter.
In other news, went to the track yesterday! 30 minute sessions, had a great time. The brake upgrade was awesome, they worked amazing! Had brakes for days, lots of bite, good modulation, brake pedal feel didn't change the entire session or day.
I did put a ton of heat into them, turned the calipers burgundy!
Friend got a pic of me on track...
Another friend left early and I was able to grab his garage spot. Woot!
However he's gonna cost me money. He had the new Garmin data system in his car and its amazing. I'm definitely going to get it next spring and I've listed my current traqmate system for sale.
Came home sweaty and tired but took the time to bust out the pressure washer to wash the PFC brake dust and tire clag off the wheels. If that stuff gets wet it cements onto the wheels and you're screwed! I about finished off the rear tires at this event, I was spinning the rear out of corner exit and sliding around a bit. I'm curious to see my track times, I need to plug the traqmate into my laptop and do a data dump...
i prefer the Fikse's lack of fasteners but it kills my OCD that the valve stem isn't symmetric to a gap in the spoke design *or* to the lug pattern. so my OCD says BBS. my sense of style says gold centers will look like ass on a silver car, i'd go with charcoal, graphite, etc, or maybe rad throwback with something crazy like pink or orange.
and for the love of all that is lovable, please align the center caps with the lug pattern!
In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :
LOL! I don't even look at where the center caps are. A friend has gold center BBS wheels on his silver 996 and I really like the way they look. Very old school...
In reply to docwyte :
one of us has money for a german flat6tt, the other can barely afford a SBC. carry on.
Car is looking great.
I would keep the BBS. I would not PC the centers just because I would be afraid of them breaking afterwards at a track day. Gold would look killer though.
What did you like about the Garmin?
In reply to Slippery (Forum Supporter) :
How would the powder coating make them break? The heat used is pretty low and lots of wheels come powder coated from the factory that made them.
The Garmin was just really slick. the camera had great resolution and is quite small. It's easily hidden behind the rear view mirrow, which means I could leave it installed all the time. The interface shows you your different lines in each corner and which line is fastest, along with your braking points and which way you braked into the corner was fastest. It automatically stitches the video in with the data and creates everything.
On track it shows you your lap times and puts together a predicted fast lap. Right now it doesn't incorporate an OBD2 dongle but the unit does have bluetooth, so I'm hoping that they do add a wireless OBD2 dongle to grab things like RPM, temperatures, etc...
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