Thread Update, the first since Feb 19....
Not much has happened really, but enough to do a little update.
First was something I'd done towards the end of 2018, a very easy job to do really. When I fitted the PSE switch in the dash it was the only 'matt" black switch, not glossy like the MK1's. So, I bought a full set of Mk2 matt switches to replace them. Not a massive change, but for what it costs I think it's better that they all look the same....
Old Ones
New Ones
Next, I started toying with the idea of different wheels. With mine being currently non genuine, I fancied something that was. I've always loved the MK2 GT3 Wheels but they were just silly money. So I then bought a set of MK1 GT3 wheels, 8's and 10's to go on but never got around to fitting them. Not too long after that I got the option of a newly refurbished set of MK2 wheels for a very good price. I went from having one set of wheels to three....
Make lovey ornaments if nothing else
Thing is, for me, they just didn't suit the car. The rears looked ok, but the front just looked wrong. The wing shape is different 0n the 996.2 which is why they look so good on them. In the end I just sold them on, £400 loss in 2 months, but at least I'd had a set and I now know I'll need a MK2 if I want those wheels again. I don't know if it's just that I'm used to the black wheels or what, but both Mark and I agreed that the car just looked a lot better on the black wheels.
Black
Silver
I still have the MK1 wheels to try, but I'm waiting until I need tyres before going down that route.
Next nice little addition was a metal wiper delete bung I bought from a 911uk member, looks and feels a whole lot better than the larger plastic one I'd previously had fitted. It has the 'angled" rod that makes it fit perfectly. It came supplied painted in my colour too which was a bonus.
This next little mod was something I'd saw in Marks MK1 GT3 CS. The rear seatbelt slots were covered as there were no seats and saying as I'd removed mine, I wanted to replicate this. I had a few pieces of leather left over from when I retrimmed the dash so it was just a matter of finding the time to do it.
I made templates out of thick 3m protective film
Then applied them to the trim pieces
Contact adhesive leather to trim piece
Finished article
Early 2019, I spoke with Wayne Schofield at Chip Wizards because I wanted the have the car checked over and running right. He advised me to have a new fuel pump fitted as they tend to go weak over the years, which I did, among other things like plugs, coil packs etc. But even after all the pre-emptive measures to have every possible faulty item checked or renewed, the car still couldn't be setup.
I'd bought a brand new genuine Seimens VDO fuel pump (which I'm told are an OM item) from Euro Car Parts, but when on the dyno the fuel pressure was dying off towards higher revs, so it must have been a faulty unit, the problem is, I'd had this fitted about 13 months before actually going to Wayne's as he was just too busy to fit me in.
When I got home and queried this with ECP, they said couldn't help, refund or replace as it was out of warranty..... Great, thank you ECP. In the bin that goes.
Only way forward at this point was to buy one direct from Porsche, hoping they wouldn't supply a faulty one too.
When I next get to Wayne's I hope I won't have the same issue again and I can have the car setup properly. I decided to wait till its service early the following year to have the new one fitted as I wasn't going to be using the car and I also didn't have the time to get back down to Wayne's.
When my car had the retrim by Cobra seats, they changed the interior from grey to black. The only thing they didn't change was the carpet in the front tub. That was quickly rectified with a nice little cheap set from the good old bay.... Only £20 delivered and it was in brand new condition.
Old
New
Next was down to Nelson Porsche for a minor service, fuel pump and a few other little items. The car was given a clean bill of health.
So, next was Carbon fibre wing mirror covers. Genuine ones are as rare as hen's teeth and also an absolute fortune. Only 2 options, those stick-on covers, although stick on, they are carbon fibre, but then I'd need to paint the covers black so that looking from inside the car the faces weren't silver. And from the ones I've saw didn't look very good when fitted. The only thing I could think of was having them Hydro Dipped.
I'd seen a set that someone had done on eBay a few years or so ago which I thought looked pretty good, but he wanted something like £300 for the pair which I thought was a little steep.
I managed to find a good pair of covers that I could have dipped so that if they came out looking bad, I still had the original ones to leave on.
But as luck would have it, they actually turned out pretty good considering, there were a few issues with having them dipped, basically the whole thing needs dipped 360 degrees and this isn't easily done. So, the only way was to have one side dipped and then the other dipped separately but having to try to match up the pattern as best as he could. After a few attempts, this turned out too hard for him to do, he just wasn't happy with the join lines so he started all over again, but sprayed the fronts black, dip the rears in Carbon (that's most visible anyway) and then blend the fronts up to it. Not a bad price of £80 considering the work he put into them. Maybe one day I'll readdress the wing mirrors.
I had to purchase the new lower wingmirror flaps as the old ones had dried out and the clips had gone brittle and snapped, but there only a little over £5 each from Porsche.
Last job done that brought me right up to date is again, something from Marks Mk1 GT3. The Werner Fire Extinguisher.
So, when I managed to get my hands on one, I then set about thinking how to fit it.
Do I do it properly and have mounts welded onto the floor pan so it sits in the right place ??? Do I have a bracket made in a kind of 'T" shape and fix it to the two front seat mounts then come up with a way to fix it at the long end of the 'T" ??? After a discussion with my welder mate and also Mark, we decided that both those ways weren't the best, didn't want to weld my floor pan, nor have to put holes on my carpet.
There is a bracket available on eBay, a KAP Industries design which is in a 'U" shape and only uses the front seat mounts so the extinguisher would run parallel with the front of the seat. Problem is that that bracket is only designed to work with a small extinguisher, only 1Kg I think. The bracket was only 3mm thick so I'd need something stronger to hold a 4Kg Werner
I got my good old friend Mr Potter the welder back around to measure up for me and off he went. Few days later he turned up with exactly what I was after. Although, we'd discussed using 5mm thick metal bar for the bracket, but he'd made it from 3mm, just like the KAP Industries one. I decided to give this one a go saying as he'd gone to the trouble of making it for me.
Forgot to take a pic of the bracket before fitting
Although it's only 3mm thick, it actually fits really well with barely any movement at all, only a tiny bit over big bumps. For now, this will do me as its more of an aesthetics thing anyway. But Mark has said he'll machine me a proper bracket using 5mm plate in the coming weeks/months, most likely years though knowing him ;-).
Other than little bits of paint work, the car is pretty much finished, nothing else I want to do to it. Obviously servicing and general wear and tear will need done, but that's it, 9 years ownership and its almost done. (I could have had it done a whole lot sooner if it wasn't for Mark) ;-)
As usual, if I can be of help to anyone with any of the jobs I've done, just drop me a message.
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