Evening Gents,
Here I go with another
On the 15th February 2014, I was browsing eBay when I came across someone selling some items I just had to have. The holy grail of 996 seats, a pair or Genuine GT3RS/Clubsport Nomex Recaro's.
I was familiar with these seats, again from Mark's GT3 and they are just great seats, completely hugging and stiff but surprisingly comfortable for long journeys. They rarely come up for sale though and when they do they are quite often the leather ones that were spec'd by people with comfort models years ago. The Nomex ones are like rocking horse poop.
The seller had also listed his Tequipment Roll Cage (with fitting kit) and a pair of 6 Point Scroth Harnesses. Excitement overload then! Ha.
I loved the feel of being in Mark's Clubsport, the look of the interior and how the seats held you in place while driving. I HAD to have these! So after quite a few phone calls and emails, we managed to agree on a price, and a bloody good price at that might I add!
The guy had bought a 996 Turbo, the seats, cage and harnesses came with the sale, but he had no intention of fitting them and wanted space in his garage so eBay'd the lot.
Next was to sweet talk my boss into lending me the van so I could get down there. The seats etc. were down in Wales. The guy selling them had just left to go on holiday the day we agreed the price, so when I went down I'd have to sort out collecting them off of his mate. It's a good 4 – 5 hour drive from Newcastle.
I arranged collection with the guy on a Saturday, but unfortunately for me, he was going out for the day and wouldn't be back until late evening. I wasn't happy leaving it till the following week in case I missed out on them. I was Speaking to Mark about this dilemma, to which he replied, oh, that's fine I'm in. Err what? Turns out Mark had a heating oil tank to collect from Derby, since it was on the way, kind of.
So after a trip to Derby 'on the way" we headed cross country towards Wales. We arrived there with plenty time to spare so stopped off at a local pub for a few glasses of coke to pass the time. An hour or so later, we met up with the guy at his unit so we could follow him to the other guy's house where the seats were. It was dark well before we got there, so the only way to inspect the seats etc, was in the back of the van with the little interior light on. Everything looked good so handed over the cash, loaded everything on to the van and headed off.
Now we were just going to get a travel lodge or something and drive back Sunday morning, but we both felt quite fresh-ish so decided to just make for home. Long day mind.
The next day we unloaded the van and put the seats etc, in my shed, that's when Mark noticed that some of the seat pads weren't right, the pad that your backside sits on was a different material to all the others. It wasn't Nomex, and after opening it up the foam part wasn't genuine either, it was the same on both seats. The backside cushions off both seats must have been lost or stolen and someone had just made something to fit in their place.
It wasn't a big deal to me about the cushions, I knew I'd be able to buy the parts from the Porsche stealers, so I was straight on the phone to them on Monday morning.
Now I should have known they wouldn't be cheap but the prices quoted were ridiculous! God dam Porsche tax! If you could see the size of them! The Foam Pads were £57.19 plus VAT EACH!!! For a bit of moulded foam! and the Nomex Covers £190.00 plus VAT EACH! Holy Jesus! But, needs must, so it had to be done. Couldn't wait to get them fitted in the car, but I had other things to take care of first.
This shows how big the covers actually are
On 04th March 2014 (87,849 miles) the car was due its yearly service, so it was time to wake it up from hibernation and get it down to Nelson Porsche for that, rear brake pads, anti-vibration shims, fitting kit and a check over.
This time the car came back with a few little issues, but nothing that was too serious.
- AC System pressure low
- Slight leak from between engine and gearbox
- PAS Hose crimp on steering rack corroded
- Rear tyres close to legal limit
- Recommend coating all brake pipes
- Slight play in rear toe links
- Advised brake fluid change
- Rear brake disc drill holes blocked
- MAF Sensor fault recorded in fault memory
All this was to be sorted although not urgent, so at the next service would be acceptable, apart for the tyres of which I had already bought. The MAF fault was reset at the time, this was possibly on from when I changed the air box over.
The next few paragraphs are all just about the wheel refurb and hassle I had, so feel free to skim through if you just like the pics. :wink:
It was now time to find somewhere decent to do this refurb for me on my wheels, and I looked around at a few places that were local to me. I was recommended to visit 'The Wheel Specialist" in Westerhope by a friend I know through work. They are about 10 miles away from both work and my home, so I went down and spoke to the manager one Saturday morning about what I was after and the quality of workmanship I was after to which he replied 'don't worry, all our work is top notch, honest guvnor!"
I probably should have ran at this point but after seeing some of the examples in the showroom I thought this is the place for me. So on the 19th March 2014 I left the wheels there to be refurbished.
A week or so later I got the call that they were ready to pick up, but unfortunately I couldn't get there as I had no transport. (I get a van to go to and from work but one of the lads uses it throughout the day). So I ended up giving the young lad from work the cash and got him to pick them up while he was out. I asked him to check them out for me and if all seemed good then pay the man and bring them back. This was a very stupid thing to do! But I was sure they'd be perfect.
When the young'un got back to the depot with my wheels, he said the wheels were mint, and to be fair they looked that way on first inspection. Or at least until I started fitting them back on the car, I noticed that on a couple of the 'V" spokes there was a kind of over spray look to them right where the spokes split off at the bottom of the 'V" shape.
This was at the opposite end to the valve hole, That's where they hang the wheels from when they're being painted.
What had happened was, because of the shape of the wheels, the painter should have knelt down and sprayed up into the spokes from below, he didn't do this though, so there was kind of bare aluminium with a little over spray.
I got straight back on the phone to the manager and explained what was wrong, he said he was sorry and to bring them straight back around and he'd have them sorted a.s.a.p. I spoke to my boss and explained what had happened, so he let me leave early to catch the place before it closed. I got there and showed them what was wrong and he said to leave it with him and I'll have them redone.
'REDONE" He said!
Two days later I got the call that they were ready for collection, I didn't want to make the same mistake again so I said I'd be round the following morning for when they opened at 8am.
They brought the wheels out and put them straight on my van, I picked one up and straight away noticed that they'd only touched them in with a bit of black paint! I called the guy over straight away and asked what the hell was going on? this is taking the pi55! I've paid for a full refurb, not a half arsed 'tarted up" refurb. Now after I'd called his workmanship 'shoddy" he started being a little bit arsey with me, he took the wheels back and said he'd contact me soon after he'd sorted them 'properly" this time.
'PROPERLY" He said!
So you'd think at this point he'd have just refurbed them from scratch? Oh no! not this guy.
Instead of stripping them back down and doing the job properly, he had just rubbed down the rough powder coat in the grooves with some wet and dry and then touched them up again, you could see the difference in the colour.
At this point I couldn't believe how bad this 'so called" Wheel specialist actually was. Because I'd already handed over my cash I knew I'd never see that again so just took my wheels away as my car was up on axle stands at my work unit. I'd told my boss it would only be there a week tops. It had already taken over 2 weeks to sort the wheels, by which time, to be fair, my car was kind of in the way.
I had to get them back on the car and get it moved. I had every intention to kick up a fuss with the 'boss" but just never got round to it. Again, stupid, I know.
I was always going to be changing the wheels at some point, most likely the GT3 Sport Designs, so these will end up being dumped in my shed and probably never to been seen again.
Now this is only my experience with 'The Wheel Specialist" in Westerhope, I've heard of plenty people who've had an excellent job done by them, maybe they just didn't inspect their wheels like I did, but to be fair, I'm one of those people that if it's going to go wrong, it'll go wrong for me. Maybe it's that I'm just too much of a fanny? Who knows. :hehe:
Next it was time to fit the Seats, cage and harnesses. Myself and Mark headed down to my works depot so we could work inside in case of any rain etc.
We had already removed the rear seats a few weeks before.
Then we removed the front seats.
We'd both heard of a few nightmares people have had when fitting the Tequipment cage, but we watched a video on you tube showing how it was best done and it went in no problem at all. I'd even go as far as saying it was easy.
Then it was the seats which just slot right into place. We then bolted them down. After this we fitted the seatbelts and harnesses and what a massive difference it made.
That was pretty much all that was done in 2014, Mark had bought a new house at this point and it needed pretty much everything you could think of! So the car had to take a back seat for a while.
More to follow. As ever thanks for reading. :thumb:
Craig
Crazy !
