ProjectBoxster 1 | projectboxster

First things first. There were a number of issues that needed to be addressed so it seemed logical to start with the most important.

Repairing the rear window was our first priority. Keeping the rain out seemed like a good idea. Note the torn seam on the upper right side and the cloudy vinyl.	My wife Su was able to sew the torn seam and I spent lots of time cleaning and polishing the vinyl window. You can now actually see through the window now!	The self-canceling turn signal didn't self-cancel when I got the car. Very annoying. I bought a used replacement off e-Bay and installed it this way; The air bag comes off first...
The steering wheel comes off next... .	The plastic cover for the steering column is the next to go.. .	And finally it's time to remove and replace the combination switch and clockspring. The operation was actually pretty straight forward and it's a wonderful thing to have a properly working turn signal!
Even though the worn paint on the shift knob wasn't a functional issue, it still bothered me every time I drove the Boxster.	I removed the worn silver paint and polished the underlying black plastic. While I was at it, I also put a fresh coat of black dye on the leather boot. Big improvement! .	This is the shift knob and boot removed from the car and dismantled. I used the popsicle stick to gently pry it apart.
My first order for parts included a replacement for the missing trim for the right side bumper cover. You'll notice that it doesn't seem to fit quite right - more complete bumper cover repair is on the to-do list.

Another item at the top of the list was replacing the infamous intermediate shaft (IMS) bearing. This bearing is a known weakness of this generation of Boxsters and could cause catastrophic engine failure if it were to go bad. I enjoy working on my hobby cars, but the Boxster is not nearly as DIY friendly as the X1/9 was and I'm very aware of my limitations, so I took the car to Kraftwerks Performance to replace the IMS bearing with a LN Engineering ceramic retrofit bearing. Since the IMS bearing is located deep within the bowels of the engine and the transmission had to be removed to get to it, I had Jeff do a number of additional "may as well do it while the car is apart" items. These included replacing the clutch, replacing the (leaking) rear main seal, replacing the air-oil separator, installing a spin-on oil filter adapter, and a magnetic oil drain plug.

Once the most pressing maintenance issues had been addressed it was time to move on to other, less pressing but more fun projects.

The cabin air filter was obviously dirty and in need of replacement. As with all of the Boxsters hidden areas I've seen, there is absolutely no sign of corrosion!	To access the engine air filter one must partially open the convertible top, disconnect the back of the convertible top, then remove both the storage cubby behind the seats and the engine cover. With all that done it's easy to change the filter (in the box on the left).	My Boxster came with a black plastic wind blocker in the drivers side roll bar hoop but not in the passenger side. The mystery of what happened to it was solved when I found it's mangled remains beneath the convertible top mechanism!
Believe it or not, the passenger side marker light housing was half full of water when I got it! After cleaning and repairing the light, I decided to replace the bulbs with led's. Not only did I replace the marker light bulbs but also those in both trunks, the cabin, and the third taillight. .	Jeff at Kraftwerks Performance enabled the On Board Computer (OBC) function when he had the car to do the IMS bearing service but the key to making the OBC work involves installing a pair of switches and making a cable to connect them to the car's wiring harness.	The cable connects to the car's wiring harness on the back on the instrument cluster so the cluster needs to be removed to make the connection. This is the cluster's back as it's in the process of being removed seen through the windshield.
In the process of plugging the newly made cable into the car's wiring harness. Note the special Molex connectors on the ends of the wires. I felt lucky that I was able to find these connectors on e-Bay and was surprised that they were shipped from Latvia!	Simple spade connectors attach the cable to the e-Bay sourced switches. Thanks to the "101 Projects for Your Porsche Boxster" book and to the 986 Forum for information needed to make and install the cable.	This version uses two switches on the dash to scroll through the OBC's functions instead of a fourth stalk on the steering column the factory used although it works just the same. Even though the impressive sounding OBC doesn't really do much, making it work was a fun project.

My Boxster came with fancy Xenon headlights, but their plastic surface had yellowed and become rough to the touch. Although this may not have been severe enough to be obvious in the photos, it was still bad enough to make me want to restore them ASAP.

This photo shows how much headlight's surface had yellowed.	The first step was to wet sand to smooth the headlight's rough surface.	The surface is now smooth after being wet sanded with 325 grit paper.
Moving on to 400 grit paper. Next I used 3M's headlight renewal kit.	I've had good results with the 3M kit in the past but have found that using the wet sanding steps first makes the project go more quickly.	After the final sanding/polishing steps, showing a great improvement but still not quite right.
I went over it again with increasingly fine grits of MicroMesh sandpaper and polished it again. Refinishing the headlights took tons of time but made a big improvement.	Before on the right, after on the left. Much better (even if it's hard to see in the photo). While the headlights were out I replaced the fog lamps with LED's and wired them to function as daytime running lights.

Back

Repairing the rear window was our first priority. Keeping the rain out seemed like a good idea. Note the torn seam on the upper right side and the cloudy vinyl.

My wife Su was able to sew the torn seam and I spent lots of time cleaning and polishing the vinyl window. You can now actually see through the window now!

The self-canceling turn signal didn't self-cancel when I got the car. Very annoying. I bought a used replacement off e-Bay and installed it this way; The air bag comes off first...

The steering wheel comes off next... .

The plastic cover for the steering column is the next to go.. .

And finally it's time to remove and replace the combination switch and clockspring. The operation was actually pretty straight forward and it's a wonderful thing to have a properly working turn signal!

Even though the worn paint on the shift knob wasn't a functional issue, it still bothered me every time I drove the Boxster.

I removed the worn silver paint and polished the underlying black plastic. While I was at it, I also put a fresh coat of black dye on the leather boot. Big improvement! .

This is the shift knob and boot removed from the car and dismantled. I used the popsicle stick to gently pry it apart.

My first order for parts included a replacement for the missing trim for the right side bumper cover. You'll notice that it doesn't seem to fit quite right - more complete bumper cover repair is on the to-do list.

The cabin air filter was obviously dirty and in need of replacement. As with all of the Boxsters hidden areas I've seen, there is absolutely no sign of corrosion!

To access the engine air filter one must partially open the convertible top, disconnect the back of the convertible top, then remove both the storage cubby behind the seats and the engine cover. With all that done it's easy to change the filter (in the box on the left).

My Boxster came with a black plastic wind blocker in the drivers side roll bar hoop but not in the passenger side. The mystery of what happened to it was solved when I found it's mangled remains beneath the convertible top mechanism!

Believe it or not, the passenger side marker light housing was half full of water when I got it! After cleaning and repairing the light, I decided to replace the bulbs with led's. Not only did I replace the marker light bulbs but also those in both trunks, the cabin, and the third taillight. .

Jeff at Kraftwerks Performance enabled the On Board Computer (OBC) function when he had the car to do the IMS bearing service but the key to making the OBC work involves installing a pair of switches and making a cable to connect them to the car's wiring harness.

The cable connects to the car's wiring harness on the back on the instrument cluster so the cluster needs to be removed to make the connection. This is the cluster's back as it's in the process of being removed seen through the windshield.

In the process of plugging the newly made cable into the car's wiring harness. Note the special Molex connectors on the ends of the wires. I felt lucky that I was able to find these connectors on e-Bay and was surprised that they were shipped from Latvia!

Simple spade connectors attach the cable to the e-Bay sourced switches. Thanks to the "101 Projects for Your Porsche Boxster" book and to the 986 Forum for information needed to make and install the cable.

This version uses two switches on the dash to scroll through the OBC's functions instead of a fourth stalk on the steering column the factory used although it works just the same. Even though the impressive sounding OBC doesn't really do much, making it work was a fun project.

My Boxster came with fancy Xenon headlights, but their plastic surface had yellowed and become rough to the touch. Although this may not have been severe enough to be obvious in the photos, it was still bad enough to make me want to restore them ASAP.

This photo shows how much headlight's surface had yellowed.

The first step was to wet sand to smooth the headlight's rough surface.

The surface is now smooth after being wet sanded with 325 grit paper.

Moving on to 400 grit paper. Next I used 3M's headlight renewal kit.

I've had good results with the 3M kit in the past but have found that using the wet sanding steps first makes the project go more quickly.

After the final sanding/polishing steps, showing a great improvement but still not quite right.

I went over it again with increasingly fine grits of MicroMesh sandpaper and polished it again. Refinishing the headlights took tons of time but made a big improvement.

Before on the right, after on the left. Much better (even if it's hard to see in the photo). While the headlights were out I replaced the fog lamps with LED's and wired them to function as daytime running lights.