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Craig's Ownership Thread - Project 996

Hi Mike,

i've not really had a chance to test them properly yet. The drive back from Marks was good, even though i've not yet had the geometry set. it was only a 10/15 mile drive home and i was taking it easy, as i do every time its been to pieces, even though i check every nut and bolt twice, you know..... just in case. :hand:

Once it's had a proper set up, i do have high hopes for them, but I think i'll find it hard to feel a massive difference between the KW's and the Ohlins on the road as the KW's are still an excellent piece of kit, but hopefully once it's been to Centre Gravity i'll be able to give a better rundown on how the Ohlins are performing.

For now though, i think being able to adjust the ride height without having compressing the springs which make for a harder ride instantly makes them better in my opinion :thumb:


I'll gladly report back once i've had it all sorted.


Thanks

Take it easy

Craig
 
Thanks,
looking forward to hearing your views.
 
I read your whole thread last night, certainly lots of work and dedication gone into it. This for me sums up the enthusiasm and passion that we all feel for our cars etc also good to hear you are working with a mate, makes it much more fun. I have just bought a 996 cab and will try to emulate some of your work, not to the same standard maybe :sad:, I once tried to recover some Range Rover seats :? enough said methinks
After all this work dont get bored and sell it as you will most probably regret it
only had mine a short time but, and to quote JM30 dont they get under your skin, I find it hard not to go the long way round and just give her a little boot :)
Keep smiling
 
Hi stemilion,

Sorry, I thought i'd replied to your comment already.... My bad :frustrated:


Any petrol head will put time and effort into their car, fortunately for me, i'm quite good with my hands and was working as a mechanic for a few years which gave me the confidence to do most of the jobs.


Having Mark help is excellent, someone elses hands and eyes can help a lot !! There's been a few times where one of us has forgot how something went and the other has remembered, the company is also good too :thumb:


These cars do get under your skin, when i bought mine it was already immaculate, i could have just maintained it and used it and saved myself a load of money. But the more i used it the more i wanted to make it better. I ended up replacing nearly everything on the car even though it was all in excellent working condition.


As for selling it, if they ever go up in value to the point where I can break even then I might let it go and start again. But I think it will be a long time before their worth £35k.... ha.



Thanks for reading mate, good luck with your car !!! This forum is full of descent people who are happy to help, so any questions or problems you may have whilst doing your car just post it on here and someone will be along to help in no time :thumbs:


Take it easy

Craig :grin: :grin:
 
Hi guys,


Ok, so it's been a while since I updated my thread so thought I'd give it a go while I have a bit time on my hands.


There isn't much to report this time. I've not really had much chance to use to car as I've had other commitments.


The car as it stands now, apart from paint, is pretty much 99% done. I booked in with Centre Gravity to have it fully setup. Once this is done, come the end of August it'll all be finished.


Since the last post its been for a service with other little odds and sods done while it was there, the main thing was the new gearbox internals as its cleared up the creaking from dipping the clutch when it gets warm, I can't begin to tell you how annoying that was.


The other thing is the stainless manifolds. Now the quality of all the Top Gear stuff is excellent, I can't fault it, but unfortunately fitting these were a step too far. Although its not as bad as when I had the bypass pipes fitted, on idle when the valves are open on tick over it's got a nice sound, but whenever you put your foot down it's just far too loud with a disappointing 'hooligan" sound, when driving around 4k revs it's just stupid loud like there aren't any boxes on at all. When on quiet though it's totally the opposite, you can't hear anything but the induction roar when you floor it, which is good as that's the exact reason I wanted the option to put them to quiet, for long motorway drives or at night so I don't annoy anyone, but on loud I was hoping for a slightly louder Porsche PSE sound. Unfortunately, not the case.


From how descent it was before the manifolds were on and how good Marks sounded with just stainless manifolds, standard cats and stainless boxes, I had high hopes for getting these on to see what it sounded like !!! As with everything I do though, nothing but problems..... Back to the drawing board I guess. The quest for the right sound continues.


I have spoken to Alex about this, he actually rang me one Sunday afternoon in his own time and he is more than happy to help me get to the bottom of this which really is decent of him, but then I'd need to get the car down to his workshop for them to take a look at, Problem is they are quite a distance from me. So I'm torn as to what to do..... I don't want to remove anything as it all looks excellent and what with also wiring in the boxes to the dash switch, do I try some other back boxes or let Alex cut mine open and stuff some extra wadding in to quieten them down a bit when valves open ?? Who knows for now, I'll worry about this another time as it doesn't stop the use of the car and I can just leave the valves closed.


First thing I done last year after getting it back from its service was a new handbrake leaver. A scripted one came up for sale at a mere £25, so I just had to get that. It was in grey but then I was only interested in the aluminium piece and the plastic sleeve it sat in.


Mark had previously bought one of these and we had a bit of a nightmare separating the handle from the lever, we weren't sure if it was screwed on, glued on or if the aluminium script part was pressed on to the lever.
After a long time messing on we eventually got his apart, turns out the aluminium is just glued on. So, with this in mind I tried something different. I clamped the base part of lever in a vice and heated up the aluminium piece with a heat gun. Within a minute or two I pulled and twisted the whole handle (in a rag obviously as it was bloody hot) and could feel it starting to come loose so with a swift tug, it came off. Job one complete.









Next was the easy part of separating the old grey leather from the plastic sleeve, it came off pretty easy and in one piece.


Job two was to send the sleeve off to the place that retrimmed Marks seats etc as they done an excellent job on everything, including Marks lever.
I had leather left from retrimming the dashboard so I sent him some of that so it all matched.


While that was away I needed to get the aluminium part refreshed. It was covered in little scratches and a few little dints. Unsure what I was going to do with this I got in touch with a friend to ask his opinion, to which he replied I'll pop round later that evening to have a look.





I showed him what one looked like on the good old tinterweb, he said no problem and off he went. The following day I got a WhatsApp message and this is what it was. It looks pretty good if you ask me.





Now I know its polished and not painted, he thought he'd show me this first as it can always be painted after if I wasn't happy with it. After trial fitting it to the car it actually didn't look out of place. So, for now I'm more than happy to leave it how it is and if in time it bothers me I'll just change it at a later date.


Got the retrimmed cover back,











Before and after Pictures



















Next job was a camber issue. I previously bought some Elephant Racing bottom arms back in 2015 as I couldn't get -1.5 degrees which I was told was a good road setting, but after fitting these it left me too far the other way.

I couldn't get any less camber than -2.33 degrees. Although this didn't look too bad when looking at the car, I wasn't totally happy. However, I thought I'd live with it and revisit it after more important things had been addressed.


I started looking into this at the start of last year as I was going to Centre Gravity and wanted to dial out some camber. That's when I came across some Eibach adjustable bottom arms from RPM Technic. I rang up to get some information and they seemed to be just what I was after. Only issue was they were on back order and would be six weeks. Which wasn't an issue as I'd not booked in with Centre Gravity yet.





They eventually arrived so I set about fitting them after work one evening. Easy job as everything has been off the car quite recently when fitting the Ohlins.
















For the time being I set the Eibach arms the same as the Elephant ones by eye so that the camber would be pretty much even both sides until I could get it set properly. Now with the Eibach ones being adjusted the same as the Elephant ones, which were already set as low as they'd possibly go, the Eibach ones still had about 20/25mm left to dial out so I was confident that I'd get the adjustment needed come setup time.


With this being complete, I booked the car in at Centre Gravity for the end of August 2017 and I had no doubt it would be fully sorted after that.


So that's pretty much that. Nothing too major done last year, I just need to get out and use the damm thing.


As you'll have most likely seen on Marks thread, we've been full steam ahead on his getting it ready for last summer. These things take time though and we only wanted to do it once to this scale so everything had to be right building it back up, so we didn't rush and the results speak for themselves. Although we may have not got to use them that much in 2018, come the sunny weather 2019 we'll be out whenever we feel like it as they'll both be ready to go.



Take it easy


Craig
 
Here's another little update, and a rare one without any serious issues !!!


First thing was an issue I had when doing the NC500 in 2017. Whilst at the first stop I had the front boot open getting a few supplies out, but when it came to closing it, the boot wouldn't latch closed. After numerous attempts Jamie stepped in.


He bent up the little metal flap, then using a straw dropped in a couple drops of vegetable oil he had for his morning bacon sarnies, and hey presto..... the boot locked straight away.


He said that it just needed to be greased when I got home, but once I know something is faulty, I'll be wanting a new one. but seeing as mine was working for now, I was happy to leave it until a new one came up.


Then one did, Brand new. And for a mere £24.98 delivered. Happy days. Second hand ones were up for sale for more !!!





When I removed the old one I found out that the metal flap was actually a plate separate to the catch. So, with a little persuasion it went back into shape pretty well.









All fitted to the car, was also good to get rid of the faded 'pink" tip and have it lovely and red again





This change came about because of Mark.

He'd bought the Momo Cup steering wheel and boss kit. When he first got it and showed me I wasn't totally 'wowed" by it. Don't get me wrong, it looked really nice but after hearing about 'Dammit's" hassle with his horn issues, I thought it wasn't worth the hassle. What with my steering wheel having already been retrimmed, I thought it wouldn't look any better. But as I'm sure mark will tell you, I'm wrong nearly all of the time, because after fitting the whole thing to his car and seeing it, I loved it. Needless to say, I ordered all the parts straight away.


Just a quick run through with pics as Mark done a pretty good 'how to" on his thread.....


Two parts needed from Mr Porsche







Then start to finish....























At this point my Porsche horn push hadn't arrived so just used the supplied momo one to keep the wires from touching, and fitted the 'Porsche" decal.







Next was something that I thought would be a hell of a lot more complicated than it actually turned out to be.


Whilst Mark and I were doing my rads etc, we were refitting the headlights and the passenger side one took a few attempts to get fitted, when we eventually got it in right, the light wouldn't work on that side. We tried a few more times but couldn't get it working. So, we pulled back the arch liner and saw that the blue plug wasn't seated right. We then removed the headlight again to see what the issue was. I thought the yellow clip at the back the holds the plug was the issue, turned out it was the actual blue headlamp plug, the corner had snapped off, therefore it would just push back when any force was put onto it.





I could only see two ways to go. One, replace the N/S wiring loom, which looked a nightmare, or just cut and solder in the plug part. Again, knowing this and having it working for the time being, I started looking around for the best way to sort it.


A few weeks later I decided that soldering in a piece was a total bodge, and definitely not the way to go, so I was on the lookout for a replacement harness.


I was about to buy a harness when up pops the very thing I needed. Little did I know, but you can buy the Blue Headlamp Plug on its own. I never even thought this would be available to buy separate. So, having the part number, I rang Mr Porsche and it was actually cheaper to buy direct from them, £9.19 all in.





I then went on the search for the way to remove the small spade clips. I found one website in America that sold the pin removers but wanted $55 for them plus postage and import tax etc. I tried eBay and came across a set of eleven for a mere £2.50 delivered.





After a bit of fiddling I found that (this might not actually be true, it's just how I did it and worked) click the two red clips out-over (top and bottom) before trying to pull the wires out the back.
Hold the plug vertically, then slide in the right size pin key horizontally to plug and then just pull the wire out the back. Obviously, the easiest way is to do one wire at a time so you don't get them the wrong way around. Then click the red clips back.







That's that, what I thought would be a bit of a nightmare, ended up being relatively easy, and a lot cheaper and easier than doing the whole harness.


The adjustable drop links were next, but I've covered those on another thread.

Basically, I was sold utter trash that didn't fit the car, total nightmare with the seller that left me out of pocket. Don't use TFS Motorsport !!!!



Craig
 
Hey Craig, I didn't read it right to the end, but those therapy sessions seem to be working for you. You didn't mention those droplinks once.



<goes back and scans last bit>


Ohhh, riiiigghhtt.

:D
 
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.


:thumb:
 
coullstar said:
Some nice touches. Interesting in the Mk2 gt3 wheels, I see what your saying, I still think they are nice. I don't quite get the price the command though.

Still have the twin intake?


They're lovely wheels, gutted they didn't suit the car... I think the MK2 wheels are rarer than the MK1's I got mine for £1600 newly refurbed so not too bad.


Yeah, still got the Twin intake... its a louder roar than the Evoms intake, might refit the Evoms at some point, just for a change :thumbs:
 
Fake carbon fibre?? The shame, the shame. :grin:
In fact, a 1997 issue of Max Power just called. It wants its mod back. :D

Just kidding they do look good in the flesh. 8)

Ah yes, you were meant to remind me about that bracket. 2023 is definitely the year for it. I'll get it done.
To be fair I was too busy machining parts for Hamilton and Vettel's cars last year. :wink:

The car is looking really good now and there is very little left you can fettle. I'll give you £15k for it. :bandit:
 
Hahaha !!! It wasn't that long ago a certain person was offering to buy my 1997 Max Power modded rear wing :hand:

Ahhhh, You were machining parts for Lewis and Seb ??? that'll be why they done so badly last year then :drive: :D


Hmmmm.... That's obviously £15k plus yours, right ??? :thumbs:
 
Great to see another update & nice work with the leather re-trimming. I'll have to go back through the thread to look for your work on the dash. I don't recall reading about that, but perhaps it was a long time back.

As I was reading I wasn't sure about the hydro dipped mirrors, but having seen the pics now, they look good.

I'm surprised the GT3 996.2 wheels didn't work out. Perhaps they need the .2 aero, or a darker coloured car? FWIW I think you made the right choice with selling them on. I'm normally not a fan of black wheels, but they provide a nice contrast against the silver paint on your car.
 
Hi Sp1ke,

I won't lie, I had no idea what the dashboard was going to look like when complete... It was the only thing I could think of doing as the car was in bits at work and I needed out of there before my boss threw a hissy fit. Sending it away would have took another few weeks.

Luckily it turned out good and if I'm honest, it wasn't that hard to do... Guess it's just having the balls to try.

The dashboard escapade starts on page 3 about 2/3 of the way down.


The rear wing is actually dipped. It's Carbon fibre but it kept needing buffed up every couple of years, so I just had it dipped and still looks perfect now. (Apart from a tiny stone chip :x )


The Mk2 wings are flared compared to the MK1's, it's the only difference that I can see so it can only be that ??? I've got the MK1 front bumper but got the MK2 skirts and deck lid. Maybe its the front bumper too ???

Who knows.... take it easy mate, thanks :thumbs:
 
cobrars said:
Hi stemilion,

Sorry, I thought i'd replied to your comment already.... My bad :frustrated:


Any petrol head will put time and effort into their car, fortunately for me, i'm quite good with my hands and was working as a mechanic for a few years which gave me the confidence to do most of the jobs.


Having Mark help is excellent, someone elses hands and eyes can help a lot !! There's been a few times where one of us has forgot how something went and the other has remembered, the company is also good too :thumb:


These cars do get under your skin, when i bought mine it was already immaculate, i could have just maintained it and used it and saved myself a load of money. But the more i used it the more i wanted to make it better. I ended up replacing nearly everything on the car even though it was all in excellent working condition.


As for selling it, if they ever go up in value to the point where I can break even then I might let it go and start again. But I think it will be a long time before their worth £35k.... ha.



Thanks for reading mate, good luck with your car !!! This forum is full of descent people who are happy to help, so any questions or problems you may have whilst doing your car just post it on here and someone will be along to help in no time :thumbs:


Take it easy

Craig :grin: :grin:[/quote
Wow! re reading this last night and came across this, and its now my bad as I never saw your response to my post :eek: Good to see you are still getting a buzz out of it, what else would we spend our money on ? Not sure SWMBA would agree but what can you do. Dashboard with all the accents look great, I remember your trials with the 'expert' who did it before, how did you keep your cool with him? Is it worth 35k yet? :?: must be getting there. Threads like yours, Marks, Dammits etc, are , to me, like looking at a high end garage and drooling over the salesman. :) Keep up the good work and thanks for the entertaining, enlightening read. Bob
 

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