Carrera S Restoration Thread

[stanuk964996]

Lovely thread. Wish I had the quarter of your DIY skills!!

And shows the finished result with eibach perfectly.. not too low. Not too high. Basically perfect.

Thanks - that's much appreciated! I was thinking I hadn't updated this thread for a while so glad it is of interest to people!

Progress has slowed a little since going back to work but still managed to do a few nice jobs.

I saw a tip of the Friends Green Porsche YouTube channel about these gaskets for the door latches. The Porsche parts have a thin piece of plastic between the latch and the bodywork, this VW part is a nicer thick rubber/plastic gasket and (obviously) is a perfect fit.

This is the plastic OE Porsche gasket:

The new ones clip on easily and, despite being thicker, made no difference to the door action.

I used the opportunity to spray a little Dinitrol down into the sills, not sure how effective this would be but it can't hurt to get something down there...

Once fitted, with a little copper slip on the bolts, it is a tidy little job done.

 

[stanuk964996]

My next task was the keys. My existing key shell was pretty tatty, and I only had one key with the car. I bought a new 2 button key shell on eBay for £25 and the new crest from Type911 for about £8.

Changing the parts over is relatively easy, except for the transponder for the alarm/immobilser. This is glued in so not easy to get out. I worked around the outer edges with a hobby knife and after about 5 minutes careful cutting I was able to work it loose.

The new key was a bit trickier, however. I ended up just buying a new key head from Porsche for about £160. The key blade from Porsche was £40 and a few weeks wait from Germany. I managed to source a key blade from https://www.keysinthepost.com/ for £20 based on a photo of my old one. The fit is perfect and exactly as the original.

Programming of the new key at Porsche was £85 and also a few weeks wait to book it in. But I popped down to my friendly Indy and, as a loyal customer, he kindly coded the key for me for free!

I now have two brand new keys and, with my replacement service book and owners manual I have picked up, I feel like the car is getting back some provenance.

Next step in this regard is to get the first two stamps added by Porsche Centre Cardiff, but I'm waiting until COVID is over and either the post is more reliable or I take a blast down there to give ther car a drive!

I'm still missing two recent services carried out outside the dealer network. I've tried calling the garages where the car was MOT'd - as it was with the same owner the last few years, but not managed to find out where the work was carried out. Somewhere in London or the South East. I did try Tower Porsche, but apparently they don't keep records of the cars they service, which I found a bit odd...! Hopefully I will find out one day.

 

[stanuk964996]

My last update is something I have been wanting to do for a while. As the car has had a full recent respray, the paintwork is in excellent condition. However, I've noticed even with the minimal miles I have done, a couple of stone chips on the front bumper. Not wanting this to get worse I thought a PPF of the front would be a good way to protect the car.

My local place quoted me £400 to do the front bumper (without wrapped edges). I didn't think was too bad but I also spotted these cut to template kits from Aliath: https://www.aliath.co.uk/

They did a kit for the 997 which was very reasonable so I decided it was worth trying for myself! As the 997 has the fairly prominent clear stone guards on the rear, it didn't feel wrong to have a clear bra type PPF on the front.

The kit comes in a tube and the film is made by Oraguard.

I was a bit unsure how to fit this but watched a few YouTube videos to help and buoyed by my 'success' with the rear arch guards, I was happy to give it a go!!

At this point I was fairly sure it was going to go fully pear shaped. But the film is really clever stuff and the instructions and guide on which points to work with first really helped.

First I lined up the hole over the towing eye. Using plenty of slip solution (water with a few tea spoons of Johnsons baby shampoo), the film is easy to work into place. A little bit of heat from a hair dryer and a squeegee edged in microfibre is all you need to work the film into position. Keep stretching the film using the heat to the next point on the guide.

The heat shrinks the film around the contours of the bumper. It was getting a bit late by the time I finished but this is the best shot I could get in the dark.

I did notice, due to the cold weather and damp conditions, some misting under the film during the following week. I was worried this would not disappear but, the use of a fan heater to dry out the moisture seems to have worked great. If I look close there are a couple of areas where a tiny spec of dust has become trapped. Luckily these are all low down or out of sight and overall I am well pleased with the result and the protection I now have from stone chips. I still have the wing mirrors and headlights to do but might wait for slightly warmer temps before doing these!

 

[Steve Wright]

Good write up and helpful information thanks.

 

[stanuk964996]

When I first started looking for a 997 I was sure I would fit a GT3 front end and maybe an aero kit rear spoiler or duck tail with some BBS wheels, etc. However, now I have the car I have become quite attached to the clean lines of the standard front bumper but still felt it could use a little something.

There are quite a few front lip spoilers on the market but many don't suit the lines of the car unless you go for the rest of the kit, which isn't what I wanted to do. Rinnspeed were a company that made a nice subtle kit for the 997 but have since stopped producing it. I managed to track down a company that make a replica of the kit and bought the front bumper which was quite reasonably priced.

Fitment was quite good and I will give it a coat of plasti-dip when the weather warms up.

With the front sorted I thought the back needed a little something so I bought some exhaust tips from Top Gear. At some point I will get the full system but as I already have the bypass pipe it sounds pretty good anyway. Getting the offside exhaust off was a bit of a git, with the predictable rusted bolts but a fair bit of 'persuading' and it eventually came loose.

This is how she is currently looking:

 

[DRZ911]

Car is looking great. :thumb:

Keep up the good work. :lol:

 

[Sean-B]

Looking lovely that is. Just got that splitter myself it's so good for the cash.

Exhaust tips look very bling.

 

[tom_nieto]

Love it. I'm not normally a fan of front splitters, but that's really nice and subtle. I won't be getting one as my drive is too steep!

Keep it simple and I think the 997.1 ages very gracefully. I'm genuinely starting to prefer the pre-facelift bumper.

 

[robro911]

When I first started looking for a 997 I was sure I would fit a GT3 front end and maybe an aero kit rear spoiler or duck tail with some BBS wheels, etc. However, now I have the car I have become quite attached to the clean lines of the standard front bumper but still felt it could use a little something.

There are quite a few front lip spoilers on the market but many don't suit the lines of the car unless you go for the rest of the kit, which isn't what I wanted to do. Rinnspeed were a company that made a nice subtle kit for the 997 but have since stopped producing it. I managed to track down a company that make a replica of the kit and bought the front bumper which was quite reasonably priced.

Can you give me a name for the splitter supplier please



Fitment was quite good and I will give it a coat of plasti-dip when the weather warms up.

With the front sorted I thought the back needed a little something so I bought some exhaust tips from Top Gear. At some point I will get the full system but as I already have the bypass pipe it sounds pretty good anyway. Getting the offside exhaust off was a bit of a git, with the predictable rusted bolts but a fair bit of 'persuading' and it eventually came loose.

This is how she is currently looking:

 

[scarletboarder]

Very interesting. I've done some of the same fixes and have added to my list with some extra ones you've done. Cheers! :thumb:

 

[paul_mck]

where did you get the splitter from mate looks great?

 

[stanuk964996]

where did you get the splitter from mate looks great?

https://unqshop.com/porsche-911-front-splitter-bumper-lip-spoiler-valance-add-on-,f,11,number,480235

They seem a bit disorganised and delivery was slow but it came and was all good in the end.