ProjectBoxster4 | projectboxster

Installing a backup camera was my first Boxster project for the cold months beginning 2019. Mind you, visibility out of the Boxster is really pretty good and it probably doesn't need a backup camera but the head unit I installed is capable of displaying a backup image and having it do so automatically when the car is put in reverse makes seem even more like it could be OEM.

The spoiler needed to be removed so that I could take off the rear bumper cover. .	With the bumper on saw horses I installed the camera. There was already a hole behind the license plate so I could run the camera's wires without drilling.	The mount for the camera I chose fits behind the license plate so the camera is nearly invisible. .
The wire from the camera was run into the trunk through a hole I punched through a rubber plug with an awl.	The wire from the camera terminates in a clever small connector. This is plugged into the included harness that runs to the front of the car.	The wire was run under the trunk's carpet then into the compartment that the convertible top folds into. .
The wire continues around the top edge of the convertible top compartment (tucking it under the plastic lining when possible) to the passenger side door frame.	This is the door frame next to the passenger's shoulder. The wire was run from here, down across the door sill, up the side of the passenger's footwell, and across to the head unit. Whew! Running the wire was the hardest part of the project.	For the camera and head unit to feel like they belong the camera needs to turn on automatically when the car is shifted into reverse. The wire with the "in reverse" signal is located under the driver's seat.
There it is, in the center of the photo with the blue cap. It was buried deep within the wire loom. .	I soldered a extension to the short wire I found and ran another wire from here to the back of the head unit.	I'm well pleased with the way this looks. You really have to look closely to see the camera.
See, it works! This is a screenshot of the camera in action.

Obviously enough, the driver's seat needed to be removed to access the wire for the reverse signal, so it seemed like a good time readdress that seat's finish. You'll recall that I had dyed the seats just a couple of years ago and most of the areas are still looking great the exception being the outside bolsters on the driver's seat. The dye didn't adhere properly to the areas of the seat where the original finish had worn completely through. My theory (that I can't actually prove or anything) is that these areas were not merely abraded away by previous owner sliding down the bolster into the seat but also partly dissolved away by lotion or sunscreen and that residue if that product prevented the dye from sticking. In any case, I dyed the affected areas again this time being much more aggressive in cleaning and prepping before applying the dye.

Getting ready to remove the seat. This is a fancy power everything seat and is quite heavy.	Here we go again.. The seat bolsters look nearly as bad as when I got the car.	Set up in the basement ready to dye the damaged areas.
This time I spent much more time and effort preparing the leather to receive the Leatherique dye. Let's hope this will allow the dye to adhere better!	Only the left side bolsters were dyed this time but the color still exactly matches the areas that I dyed last time, such as the headrest.	All finished. We'll see if the dye is more durable this time.

With the seat out of the car it seemed like a good idea to jack it up and do some maintenance underneath. As well as changing the oil I also decided to replace the spark plugs.

First plug out. I was pleased to see that it was the correct plug for the car. It wasn't in terrible shape but I still felt it should be replaced.	The second plug didn't go so well. One of the Allen head screws holding the coil pack was stripped out and my Vice-Grip couldn't get a good enough hold to make it turn. Oh no!	Luckily, the stripped screw was one of the few located such that I could drill directly down it's axis. The screw did finally back out after drilling nearly all the way through the thickness of it's head using one my dad's old left hand drill bits.
Moving to the other side of the block I was surprised to find a bit of an oily mess around one of the plug holes, apparently due to one or both of the plug tube seals failing.	After doing some research I found that removing the plug tube using a tool fashioned from a long bolt, a few nuts and a washer was pretty simple.	This is the fancy tool, easy to make with hardware I had on hand and it worked great.
Yep, the bad seal allowed oil to get into the tube as well.	New tube and seals ready to be installed. A good argument could be made for replacing all the tubes and seals but I just changed the bad one.

When I first bought the Boxster I noticed that the clear coat on the red brake calipers was peeling off and the red paint underneath was dull and faded. At that time I polished the dull finish and they looked pretty good, for a while. This time I applied a coat of gloss high temp clear paint after polishing. We'll see how well it lasts.

The original clear coat was long gone from the most visible parts of all four calipers leaving them looking dull and old.	Just polishing away the oxidation and applying a spray of rattle can gloss clear makes the calipers look nearly like new!

Here are a few more cosmetic changes I made over the summer...

The blemishes on the door pulls weren't very big but they still bothered me. I was able to polish away the spot on the passenger side pull (top) but the driver's side pull needed to be painted. .	Here's the pull sanded smooth and masked, ready for painting. If you're especially observant you'll have noticed that I had black door pulls installed while I was working on the silver ones. .	All finished - Much better!! .
The rubber like finish on the lid for the driver's door storage compartment lid was also flawed. .	The old finish was removed and the lid was then painted with rattle can flat black paint. .	There's nothing wrong with the simple and functional pedals that came with the Boxster. .
Why install aluminum pedals? Because they look cool that's why! .	The accelerator pedal and dead pedal are just screwed onto the existing pedals. Easy. Installing the brake & clutch pedals was a bit more involved.	All done. Makes the footwell look a little less like a black hole - I like it. .
It bothered me (at least a little) that the orange/amber turn signal bulb was visible through the taillight's lens.	I replaced the original bulb with one that has a silver coating. Note that amber was flaking off the original bulb.	Unsightly orange replaced by nearly invisible silver. I believe that this is an improvement but if you tell me that I'm silly for thinking so I won't argue.... .
Yes, the silver bulb is amber when lit.	The Porsche shields on the hubcaps were looking faded and worn so I installed new caps with bright and shiny shields. .	As with the hubcaps, the shield on the key fob was also looking it's age so I replaced it with a shiny new one.
Note the amber numbers and red pointer on this Torque app screen shot. I spent a lot of time making this theme for the app to approximate the OEM gages. The only problem is that the theme only applies itself about 1/3 of the time. Not sure why....

My wife & I like to have a cup holder for our drinks when we take trips and my Boxster did not come with any. Holding the lid of the storage compartment between the seats open with a mini-bungie and adding a open cell foam insert solved this "problem",

I made this cup holder shortly after I bought the car by cutting a piece of open cell foam with a X-Acto knife. It worked just fine but looked ragged.	The first step in making a replacement was to make a pattern based on the rubber mat from the bottom of the storage bin	The pattern transferred onto a scrap of open cell foam ready to cut. .
I thought I'd need to track down a laser cutter or hot wire tool to make clean cuts but my band saw did a very fine job.	A finish nail in a piece of scrap (we'll call it a circle cutting jig) allowed me to make round openings for the cups. The sides were cut freehand following the pattern.	This is the finished product. It works well and looks much better than my first try.
The center console's lid needs to be held open when using the cup holder. A mini bungee works well and is easy to stow in the storage cubby when not in use.	One end, obviously enough, attaches to the inside of the lid. The other end is attached to an eye bolt that I put at the back of the storage cubby.

It's no great surprise that another area of the stitching surrounding the vinyl rear window split open. The split is directly adjacent to the area that was split when I got the car. We repaired that split by laboriously sewing the seam with needle and thread. This time I used a sewing awl.

This is the newly torn seam. It seems obvious that the original thread is becoming old and fragile.	The sewing awl that I used had once belonged to my wife's great uncle Dave, who had passed away long before I met her some forty years ago. I doubt that it had been used between then and now.	This is THE tool for the job. It did take a while to get a feel for how it works but after that I was able to achieve better results with less effort than with the needle and thread method.
All done. Note how even the stiches are compared to the uneven needle and thread stitches on the right. Sure, I know it's reasonable to expect more of the original stitching to fail and that I'll need to replace the window (or maybe the whole top) eventually but I'm okay with the way it is for now.	The mechanic's creeper that I've used for years was also once uncle Dave's. Like the awl, it's a very fine tool.

Back

The spoiler needed to be removed so that I could take off the rear bumper cover. .

With the bumper on saw horses I installed the camera. There was already a hole behind the license plate so I could run the camera's wires without drilling.

The mount for the camera I chose fits behind the license plate so the camera is nearly invisible. .

The wire from the camera was run into the trunk through a hole I punched through a rubber plug with an awl.

The wire from the camera terminates in a clever small connector. This is plugged into the included harness that runs to the front of the car.

The wire was run under the trunk's carpet then into the compartment that the convertible top folds into. .

The wire continues around the top edge of the convertible top compartment (tucking it under the plastic lining when possible) to the passenger side door frame.

This is the door frame next to the passenger's shoulder. The wire was run from here, down across the door sill, up the side of the passenger's footwell, and across to the head unit. Whew! Running the wire was the hardest part of the project.

For the camera and head unit to feel like they belong the camera needs to turn on automatically when the car is shifted into reverse. The wire with the "in reverse" signal is located under the driver's seat.

There it is, in the center of the photo with the blue cap. It was buried deep within the wire loom. .

I soldered a extension to the short wire I found and ran another wire from here to the back of the head unit.

I'm well pleased with the way this looks. You really have to look closely to see the camera.

See, it works! This is a screenshot of the camera in action.

Getting ready to remove the seat. This is a fancy power everything seat and is quite heavy.

Here we go again.. The seat bolsters look nearly as bad as when I got the car.

Set up in the basement ready to dye the damaged areas.

This time I spent much more time and effort preparing the leather to receive the Leatherique dye. Let's hope this will allow the dye to adhere better!

Only the left side bolsters were dyed this time but the color still exactly matches the areas that I dyed last time, such as the headrest.

All finished. We'll see if the dye is more durable this time.

First plug out. I was pleased to see that it was the correct plug for the car. It wasn't in terrible shape but I still felt it should be replaced.

The second plug didn't go so well. One of the Allen head screws holding the coil pack was stripped out and my Vice-Grip couldn't get a good enough hold to make it turn. Oh no!

Luckily, the stripped screw was one of the few located such that I could drill directly down it's axis. The screw did finally back out after drilling nearly all the way through the thickness of it's head using one my dad's old left hand drill bits.

Moving to the other side of the block I was surprised to find a bit of an oily mess around one of the plug holes, apparently due to one or both of the plug tube seals failing.

After doing some research I found that removing the plug tube using a tool fashioned from a long bolt, a few nuts and a washer was pretty simple.

This is the fancy tool, easy to make with hardware I had on hand and it worked great.

Yep, the bad seal allowed oil to get into the tube as well.

New tube and seals ready to be installed. A good argument could be made for replacing all the tubes and seals but I just changed the bad one.

The original clear coat was long gone from the most visible parts of all four calipers leaving them looking dull and old.

Just polishing away the oxidation and applying a spray of rattle can gloss clear makes the calipers look nearly like new!

The blemishes on the door pulls weren't very big but they still bothered me. I was able to polish away the spot on the passenger side pull (top) but the driver's side pull needed to be painted. .

Here's the pull sanded smooth and masked, ready for painting. If you're especially observant you'll have noticed that I had black door pulls installed while I was working on the silver ones. .

All finished - Much better!! .

The rubber like finish on the lid for the driver's door storage compartment lid was also flawed. .

The old finish was removed and the lid was then painted with rattle can flat black paint. .

There's nothing wrong with the simple and functional pedals that came with the Boxster. .

Why install aluminum pedals? Because they look cool that's why! .

The accelerator pedal and dead pedal are just screwed onto the existing pedals. Easy. Installing the brake & clutch pedals was a bit more involved.

All done. Makes the footwell look a little less like a black hole - I like it. .

It bothered me (at least a little) that the orange/amber turn signal bulb was visible through the taillight's lens.

I replaced the original bulb with one that has a silver coating. Note that amber was flaking off the original bulb.

Unsightly orange replaced by nearly invisible silver. I believe that this is an improvement but if you tell me that I'm silly for thinking so I won't argue.... .

Yes, the silver bulb is amber when lit.

The Porsche shields on the hubcaps were looking faded and worn so I installed new caps with bright and shiny shields. .

As with the hubcaps, the shield on the key fob was also looking it's age so I replaced it with a shiny new one.

Note the amber numbers and red pointer on this Torque app screen shot. I spent a lot of time making this theme for the app to approximate the OEM gages. The only problem is that the theme only applies itself about 1/3 of the time. Not sure why....

I made this cup holder shortly after I bought the car by cutting a piece of open cell foam with a X-Acto knife. It worked just fine but looked ragged.

The first step in making a replacement was to make a pattern based on the rubber mat from the bottom of the storage bin

The pattern transferred onto a scrap of open cell foam ready to cut. .

I thought I'd need to track down a laser cutter or hot wire tool to make clean cuts but my band saw did a very fine job.

A finish nail in a piece of scrap (we'll call it a circle cutting jig) allowed me to make round openings for the cups. The sides were cut freehand following the pattern.

This is the finished product. It works well and looks much better than my first try.

The center console's lid needs to be held open when using the cup holder. A mini bungee works well and is easy to stow in the storage cubby when not in use.

One end, obviously enough, attaches to the inside of the lid. The other end is attached to an eye bolt that I put at the back of the storage cubby.

This is the newly torn seam. It seems obvious that the original thread is becoming old and fragile.

The sewing awl that I used had once belonged to my wife's great uncle Dave, who had passed away long before I met her some forty years ago. I doubt that it had been used between then and now.

This is THE tool for the job. It did take a while to get a feel for how it works but after that I was able to achieve better results with less effort than with the needle and thread method.

All done. Note how even the stiches are compared to the uneven needle and thread stitches on the right. Sure, I know it's reasonable to expect more of the original stitching to fail and that I'll need to replace the window (or maybe the whole top) eventually but I'm okay with the way it is for now.

The mechanic's creeper that I've used for years was also once uncle Dave's. Like the awl, it's a very fine tool.