Because we don't have a red one.

In reply to AAZCD :

That dark crusty stuff on a "sausage" is flavor.  I'd love to install that thing on my S, so I can hear it.  The Dansk mufflers I put on my 996 made a big improvement to stereo free driving enjoyment. 

I spent a couple hours in the morning and again in the afternoon cleaning up the Dansk. I'm at work, waiting for actual work, so it's just a productive way to pass the time. I hadn't taken a picture of the bottom side of the muffler, but it was coated with burnt black paint.

I used some acetone and a scraper on the worst parts, then a nylon wheel and 3M pad on a sander.

It looks pretty much like a normal muffler now. Tomorrow, I'm planning to use a Dremel on some of the smaller spots, then work towards more of a polished finish. There's one weld on a bracket that needs to be repaired. The rest of it is in good shape.

That's going to come out great! I'm pretty sure both brackets have hairline cracks.

I found some original "before" pictures that Hasbro had emailed me:

After cleaning, removing some of the spots with 'Rust Gel', and some polishing, it's where I want it now. A good shine for stainless, but not mirror as if it were chrome.

Awesome! How many hours total and what did you polish it with?

Hasbro said:

Awesome! How many hours total and what did you polish it with?

I did it over three days, spending a couple hours in the morning and a couple in the afternoon. I'd guess about 12 total. After the paint and heavy stains were out I mostly used steel wool. Started with some Brillo pads and worked down to 0000. In the end, I went over it with a wool polishing cone-thing on the end of a drill and old toothpaste for polish.

The Dansk muffler is going to go on this car, but first I want to fix the basic problems. It looks like the oil leaks are fixed, but there's still some coolant getting away.

I had thought that the problem was related to the oil cooler and hoses to the coolant tank. I finally got the kinked coolant hose replaced. That part of the system looked good. I could have replaced all of the clamps and hoses while I was there, but the others don't seem to be having a problem.

When all the parts were back together, I went to a car wash to rinse the underside of the engine and transmission. With most of the residual oil cleaned off I drove the car for about 30 miles; carefully at first keeping it to about 3K rpm, then doing some good runs up to 6k rpm after I gained confidence in it.

All was going great until the coolant temp light started blinking, indicating a low coolant level. Only about a mile from home, I continued - keeping an eye on the temp to make sure it didn't rise. Back at the garage, I found that the tank and associated hoses looked good, but coolant was on the plastic 'belly panels' forward of the engine. There's probably a bad hose going to the radiators or heater core. I plan to address that later this week. ...and that's a great opportunity to replace the fuel filter.

I think the leaks are fixed now. One of the main coolant hoses from the engine to the radiators had a hole that leaked under pressure. The fuel filter is tucked in where the coolant hoses go forward, so it was easy to replace while I was there. I drained some fuel into a jar to see how dirty it was. Glad I replaced it.

I drove it around town and took it to work tonight. No sign of leaks; oil or coolant. Looking down from my office... That's a lot of red.

There's plenty of things to take care of next. Too much to list to make the car 'right', but for now the only thing I feel urgency about is replacing the rear tires. I kind of like the 16" wheels on it and will probably keep them. Most likely I'll find some inexpensive daily-driver tires to make it safe and swap a set of 17s on if I ever feel the need to 'drive beyond' the cheap 16s.

AAZCD said:

I'd try to explain why I bought *another* Boxster, but this is GRM.

In summary, it sat on Craigslist for a month at $3,000. Someone had to buy it and apparently nobody else was stepping up.

I don't like to negotiate on a car without having seen it, but due to the distance and the seller being pretty straightforward about the condition, I made a $2,500 offer as: $1,200 for the car and $1,300 for the hardtop. No Challenge plans for it as of yet, but I like to keep options open.

Burger and onion rings are done now, back on the road....

I want to go to this mythical land of low dollar Boxsters.

I'm still planning to keep the 16" wheels assigned to it. ...but I realized that I have a set of 17s with tires that are getting dated (about 5 years old), but still have some good miles left on them. I swapped them out today.

I plan to keep the 17s on it for a couple months now and run the car as my primary daily to see how it holds up.

Not bad for $2,500 and a couple weekends worth of work. Still lots of stuff to work on: rattles in the track arms, no power steering, cracked and missing plastic underneath, window/top issues. Yes it's old with lots of miles and some lumps and dimples, but for a fun, no-cares roadster that I can take a dog along in, it's perfect.

While I was out today I made a video. Just a walk around and short intro to the car:

Playing with the headlight covers that I got from Hasbro. They're black and I wanted to see how they looked on the car before I committed to painting them red.

Here's the plain black frames for the Clark Kent look:

...not quite the look I want. How about red? A quick color edit on the computer:

Not quite my style. It divided up the lights too much and distracts from the contours of the car. What if I fill in more of the spaces, move the turn signals to the corner?

Better, but kind of looks like I'm trying to cheaply make the Boxster look like an older 'classic' style Porsche. I really don't mind the "fried egg" headlights. How about cutting the covers back. Make them more of an outline to enhance the original shape of the lights?

...and add teeth!

...still uncommitted.

Yuck.  All of them.

In reply to docwyte :

I'm not a fan of the fried egg lights but I've never seen a cover configuration that isn't worse. I wonder how hard it is to convert to 996.2 lights.

In reply to dps214 :

I think the covers highlight the areas that you're trying to cover. So you draw even more attention to the headlights...

dps214 said:

In reply to docwyte :

I'm not a fan of the fried egg lights but I've never seen a cover configuration that isn't worse. I wonder how hard it is to convert to 996.2 lights.

I've seen a couple headlight conversions to the 996.2 and it was basically a front body swap with bumper cover, fenders, and lots of little things: 986 to 996 Front If I had a wrecked front end on a 986 and a rear-collision 996.2, I'd do it. In this case I have a ~185,000 mile 986 and some scrap parts I took in trade. I was just playing around to see if it's worth putting on this car, or setting aside for a future project. ...but while we are thinking about a 996 front on my Red '97 let me post this, which I do think is a tasteful mod:

I just had a cup of coffee and a couple chocolate chip cookies. I'm going to head outside now and see if the Dansk muffler wants to be an easy install this afternoon before the caffine and sugar buzz wears off.

^I like those.

I don't care for the red either. I liked the headlights on my black car, why don't you try them on one of your black cars. The rears (matching the car color) would look good on any color as they're just the outline and make them more diminutive.

I like these but they are retro;

$2,500.  Jeez. 

That 996 front with the turbo front bumper is more attractive than it has any right to be.  Butches things up quite a bit!

The coffee and cookies provided enough momentum to get the Dansk installed, but it took a lot longer than I expected. Most of the exhaust bolts were rusted and frozen. I needed lots of penetrating oil and patience with the wrench.

By the time the job was done, it was dark outside and I was late for dinner.

Most of the muffler is hidden under the bumper and I don't have a good 'before' picture. The difference is subtle, but I think it's a big improvement. A short skirt with just a bit of butt cheek showing.

I've been enjoying the car, taking care of a few little things as I get time. I made a short video of what a failing water pump looks like while I was doing a replacement. For a replacement pump, the people I trust all recommend a Pierburg pump. Water pumps are not a part that you want to shop for the cheapest....

Today I got the AC working. The clutch bearing on the compressor was worn out. The proper thing to do in this case is to take the car to a shop and have them install a new compressor, then evacuate and recharge the system. In my case, I've got a couple old compressors on the shelf from cars that I've scrapped and I figured there was nothing to lose by taking about 30 minutes to just swap out the clutch. Cost me nothing, no gasses were released to the atmosphere, and the AC works great now.

Next I took a look at the front suspension. It has felt a little loose. With the front jacked up and wheels off the ground, I rocked the wheels. There was obvious play at the ball joints. The rest looked pretty good except for the left strut being covered with greasy dirt. I decided to go ahead and use parts from a 2002 S on it. I thought of transplanting the whole wheel carrier with the strut, but I want to go back to the 16" wheels on this car and I don't think they fit well with the S model brakes.

Now that I have those springs and struts on the front, I probably need to swap the rear springs as well to keep it all balanced.
Future work; I want to figure out why the power steering isn't working. There's plenty of fluid and no obvious problems with the pump or leaks. I don't really mind the ride with manual steering, but I don't like having it broken unless I know why.

I've been spending my 'garage time' other cars and just driving Red for a while. A few issues have cropped up that want attention.
Running the Toyo track tires on the street has encouraged me to push the car a little harder. The extra stress finished off any remaining support that was left in the engine mount. That does not feel good accelerating out of a corner. I'm sure that the center is completely detached now. I only have one good mount left on the shelf, so it's time to buy a couple new ones. Thinking of the Powerflex Polyurethane bushing at FCP Euro.

The fuel gauge is starting to fail. It randomly drops to empty while I am driving. I need to pull the assembly out of the tank and see what the issue is. Not urgent, but important.

Urgent: The horn started going off at random times. Yesterday at a stop light it started honking and would not quit. There I was in the middle of town at a traffic light in my little red Porsche honking at 'everyone'. Finally, I grabbed the airbag and held it just right and the horn quit. It is not an uncommon problem on the old 4-spoke wheels. I fixed it last night.

The rubber bushings that mount the horn bracket wear out. The sagging bracket causes the contacts to meet and honk the horn.

With the bracket removed I filled the worn bushings with a silicone sealant and put a weight on it to reverse the sag while it dried.

Nice find and decent price for the bushing. I'll do mine soon, too.

AAZCD (Forum Supporter) said:

Wait a minute. Boxsters have an access panel behind the seats so you can get to front of the engine??

I would kill to have one of those on my 914. Now I want a Boxster.