986 Base Boxster Build (with a little trailer thrown in)

Greetings, keeping this one in the grm family. Purchased this 1999 986 base Boxter from tedroach (Ted) several days ago. I bought it one hour after the ad came up...

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/cars-sale/1999-porsche-986-boxster-5-speed-manual-4000/158088/page1/

...who bought it from Pimpm3 (Jeremy) a year ago. I wanted it then but couldn't swing it. Sold in a couple of days. https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/cars-sale/1999-porsche-boxster-5-speed-150k-4300-florida-min/142294/page1/

Picking it up this Tuesday! WOOHOO!!!

Throwing this little trailer project on here as it's just a freshening up of a home built tilt bed 5x8. Very sturdy, surface rust, well built as far as I can tell. Plan is to check the axle bearings, probably just brush on some new paint, and new tires. Looking for a welder so maybe change the setup around a bit, see if I can fit a small car on it a la European style.

Boxster Plans

- Get it home, play with it and assess it for a while. During this time I will be building a single car garage/shop for it so I will be asking for suggestions there, too. Next..

- Either lighten it, mild tune or...

- Road rat. Major weight removal, mild tune, suspension extreme but streetable. Build it to handle as well as possible instead of to fit in a race class. Mostly street, a little bit of autoxing for handling development, and trackdays. Everything centers around corners.

I just bought this today... newbies together..

Cool to see all the Boxster threads lately. I guess they've become the new 944/924 for the GRM crowd. I'm anxious to see what you learn!

Cool, Billy, have fun!

nderwater, lot's to learn, never really considered a Porsche except for the 914. How do you like your 987? I used to live near the Galleria btw, and several other areas near you. North of Athens now. 

Fortunately theres AAZCD's, Javelin's, and other's threads here to learn from. I've been watching a ton of videos on YouTube and joined 986forum (been a week and they have yet to activate) and Rennsport. I need to acquire a shop manual and some other publications. Any used ones out there, I'm interested.

Road Trip! Ready to roll. I rented from a small dealer from across the street. A large UHaul place won't rent a car carrier for the Ranger.

It's new pad until garage is built. Yes, it's tall enough for a lift but narrow.

I bought a 2002 986 S in july. Still have my thread being typed up... I cannot find a way to easily upload photos and it's driving me bonkers. 

I need to resize all of the images and cannot find a simple way to do so. 

Relevant and amusing ad I found in my search for a cheap Boxter. 

Mad Ratel, did you get your photos to resize ok? They look fine on your thread.

Made the trip to tedroach's house today, arrived around noon and back home aound 4:30. Not so bad. Ted was great to deal with. Danke je, Ted!

Ted, It came off a lot easier than it went on, found a nice upgrade. A plastic piece did pull off in front of the front tire but it snapped back into place.

Tucked in for the night.

Until today I had never driven a Boxster. After getting home I ripped around on a bunch of curvy and hilly back roads for a few hours. Let me say that for $4,000 there's a hell of a lot of performance in that thing. Someone on here recently stated that they are easy to drive fast. So true. The learning curve is fast, as is the confidence attained.  It has 150k miles so it's a bit worn all around with lots of tightening up and refreshing to do as expected. No surprises except it's a better driving car than expected.  Even just refreshing it as stock would yield a beautiful driver. But a new suspension, pull 300 lbs off, add 25 whp - this will be a blast of a project.

Glad that you made it back without incident and that the car stayed in the GRM family. I am sure you will have a lot of fun driving it. I will be following along!

I love driving Boxters. They make everything else seem so heavy and numb. 

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

I have yet to track or autox my new car, but I find the driving experience very familiar -- anyone who's owned a Miata, S2000 or BRZ/FRS will feel right at home behind the wheel of a Boxster.

Thanks for everything, Ted. I hope you start a thread for your Dutch adventure - a whole new life. I was reading that they have four official languages, English being one of them so you are good to go. And the Dodge will be a real head turner over there!

Seth, being used to very light cars the 986 feels quite heavy to me and the steering is also. But it's solid and the faster it goes the better it feels. The confidence at speed is contrary to a much lighter car if that makes sense. I had previously dogmatically under rated the Boxster. And the sound is way better than expected. I am seriously thrilled (with it's potential) and it's just a base model.

Hasbro, your thread encouraged me to quit whining, put a work project or two off and post. I had thought I had saved it but ended up with just the briefest of details.  

The car's handling is decent. It's very sluggish/heavy compared to the 911 I grew up driving but that car had 250 rwhp and weighed 2600 lbs with my dad in it. (and a ton of upgrades).

I need interior bits for my car so if you get a parts car that might have thigns you dont need LMK.  

In reply to Mad_Ratel :

If you or anyone else has an owner's manual or any other manuals, I'm interested. I keep texting Ted on how to do stuff.

Relevant and amusing ad I found in my search for a cheap Boxter. 

There are too many dreamers on here man.$1000??That will get you a rusted out non-running tore up Porsche 924 with a Audi mini-van motor.

That is... fairly accurate.  

Ok, making some progress. Drove about 1,000 hard miles the first week on back roads and it's still in one piece despite my thrashing it - encouraging. The state maintains these roads out here to a high level; they are smooth and well engineered. The car is loose and tired but is a blast to drive. Lots of suspension, linkage, steering, etc., stuff to tighten up. The motor feels great but I have nothing to compare it to.

According to stats the 99 986 base weighs 2,822 lbs. I have pulled off about 300 lbs. so far and have been pleasantly surprised at how much there is to still take off. I need a new scale and will list weights eventually. The short term goal of -350 isn't far off and 450 lbs. (2370) long term is definitely doable. 

The suspension has become more springy and the height is up but that's unavoidable for now as the next three months will be without expenditures. 

Anyone recognize this aftermarket stainless muffler? Each header runs straight to a single cat so I figure - 20 lbs., possibly more? It's louder than stock, especially without the sound insulation from around the motor but it's a nice loud.

This 986 is for pure cornering pleasure. No shopping, no traffic driving, no racing class to abide by, just cornering at it's best while being street legal. Some autoxing and trackdays when it's ready ($). The ac stays, I think. We are having a record hot September here and ac is still essential. Getting it to 12 lbs./1 whp would be great, stock is 16.6, although I'm more interested in mildly tweaking it and fine tuning on a dyno than actual whp - get the torque as nice as possible.

There's no need for trunks so there's lots of room to play with re-routing air flow for cooling and aero. 

Any suggestions are most welcome. 

Air filter, a little neglected.

Down to just below 2,500 lbs., -325Lbs. Plenty more to go to get to Miata weight! 

Basic side body shape. Intake cowls will get cut back and have a flat wrap around front - track version.

Similar to what I want to do but will be slightly more finished and with aero work through the trunk.

Can you guess what this project is?

Trailer

This black snake lives in my back yard and she is very welcome. There is also an eastern Kingsnake around. There was a small rat snake on the front porch the other night.

Trailer is re-wired, bearings greased, lower profile tires to lower a few inches. Not sure when it gets repainted, starting a garage build real soon. pic soon.

If you haven't already found it, check out this discussion about manual steering racks: http://986forum.com/forums/boxster-general-discussions/31007-steering-rack.html

...and update your build every now and then. 

Anyone care to hear my advice?  You want one of these.  Get it now!!!  One day AAZCD is going yo be rolling in 914 dollars.  914s used to be free too.  That's one reason I'm jumping on the needs much love 944 S2.   Ever price a rare S4 928?  Boxsters will only go up from this point.  

AAZCD said:

If you haven't already found it, check out this discussion about manual steering racks: http://986forum.com/forums/boxster-general-discussions/31007-steering-rack.html

...and update your build every now and then. 

 

Sorry, I don't have much to update. I was using four storage units but had to reduce down to two. Business-wise this is a good thing but everything is stacked with little room to wrench. I have been researching a lot and have been active on 986Forum as you have seen. Tried to snag the BBS Sport Classics that guy is selling for $400.00!!! but he doesn't want to ship, dammit. Looking for a square set up, 17x8.5", will probably go with new Jongbloed 750s, the Boxsterspec wheels. 21 lbs. Why the heck someone can't make some wheels equivalent to 949Racing 6ULs is beyond me. Maybe initially find some oem rear wheels for the fronts to get things rolling.

Bought a new 101 Projects For Your Boxster and a used Bentley Service Manual (used, $50).

Oh, forgot, removed 295 lbs. so far. I weighed by 5 lb. increments. If it weighed 9 lbs. I marked it as 5 to avoid any disappointment on the final total. 

The next step will probably be some midrange RaceWorks coilovers($1300) and SPC lower arms (700) and adjustable toe arms. Tarret and Elephant are just too out of sight for now. That will at least get me to the right height and approximate alignment. 

Here are my new "legal" bumpers. I asked a local sheriff if they would be ok and he said no problem. 2 1/4"pvc, fits snug into the old bumper shock holes. They'll hold me until the bodywork.

Jon, these are some interesting exhausts from Patrick Motorsports and would be easy to replicate something similar down to the Magnaflows. Add some turn downs. What do you think? Is there any way to eliminate the drone on a lightweight system?

https://patrickmotorsports.com/collections/exhaust-turbocharger/products/exh-986-bsr-ms

I'm removing everything possible under the trunk so...

It's official, I DON'T like working out of a storage unit. No room to manuever.

Better than Christmas! Thanks, Jon!

The pipes will be used to develop a full exhaust similar to Patrick Motorsports exhaust in previous post.  They are for spec racing so perhaps small secondary mufflers will be needed before the magnaflows to eliminate sub 3k drone? The tips will be about 12"higher so will clean up underneath for better aero flow. The wheels are oem 17x8.5 rears to use up front for a square tire set up. 

Greased bearings, "new" tires, painted wheels on trailer.

What's taking my time this week; new gate controller. A guy who rents from me is a commercial electrician and is saving me 3 or 4k on this job. Better controller, too. I'm his gopher on this job. Last week planted 63 tree saplings. About 300+ more to go. Need to start a planting build!

Exhaust pipes

Pulled off the Dansk - 28.4 lbs., other stuff - 7 lbs.

Put on Jon's pipes - 7.4 lbs.

I'll call it -25 lbs. removed, 

Total removed - 305 lbs., 11% of total, goal 17 - 19%

THANKS JON! Pipes sound great! Will need a little softening but will hold me for a good while, frees me up to do other stuff first. Still has the two cats on and stock headers. Only thing for now will be trying a couple of down pipes to take some of the edge off. Dropped them lower in order to keep the bumper.

Used 1/3 of a tank today testing things out. Definitely a smiley day. Although it's very easy to burn 1/3 of a tank in this thing. Full on heater in 44 degrees and no roof was rough but worth it. No jacket, need to dress warmer.

Next project; switching lights out for all clear replacements and adding a Xenon kit. Opinions on Pedro's kit welcome.

Following cause I can't afford one, so I live through you guys...

Awesome! I'm glad that the stuff all made it there okay. I think it even looks better than having that fat Dansk hanging there. I might have to build myself another 'muffler' like that. Just watch out for your shins.