Wanting to help boost the forum and potentially help others or at least entertain on a slow day, here is ANOTHER diary on one of my cars, a 2003 Boxster 2.7.
This car came about by chance, I am a sucker for a bargain and loaded with the ammo of "it can be your run around car” to my wife, I had the all clear, she thinks 7 cars is excessive...Pah!
A bit of history, I came across the car on one of these online boot sale apps, it was local, just down in Clapham, South London. Pretty brief advert with no mention of any issues. A few questions later, turns out the car had a bit of a bang which gave it a CAT D rating. I immediately dropped the idea of viewing the car and that was that. For some reason however, I kept thinking about it, I kept on reviewing the pictures and readings the advert which led me to arrange a viewing and see what deal could be done, IF the car was straight! The car was already cheap but with the hidden news of a cat D rating, I thought, maybe I could have this car dirt cheap in which case, who cares about a cat D rating provided the car is now ok.
So I went to view;
It's a facelift 2003 Boxster 2.7, 73,000 miles, 5 speed, 996 Turbo style wheels, Michelin PS2 tyres all round, new pads and discs all round, New O2 sensor, new battery, serviced annually, wingback seats, bodywork is straight, roof is good and the seller seems a genuine family guy, nice property blah blah. He was great and very honest with the car.
So with all the good, here’s the bad, it only has paperwork from the current owner for the past 4 years and is as stated, a cat D. The guy said he got it from a repair centre of whom repaired it. The damage was to the rear bumper, nothing else, it was reversed into something. The exhaust looks original but the tip has a dent so will replace, aside from that, all looks fine and original on the underside of the car, I can't even tell that the rear bumper was replaced. No signs on crumpling in the boot, 1 rear light has a chip out of it, perhaps a separate incident but really, it seems honest and genuine.
All of that being said, a deal was struck and drove the car home, it drives great, pretty slow but I'm going let my wife use it most of the time so it's fine for that.
The steering is dead straight and pointy, brakes work fine and everything is as you'd hope and expect.
I ordered a new exhaust mount as the existing one is broken, back box with twin pipes, colour crested centre caps, soft top cleaner and guard red paint for the calipers.
Looking for a new rear light to replace the cracked one and then I'll give it an oil change and look at the plugs/coils.
Pretty happy with it, can't knock it for the price, the bodywork is dead straight, not a single dent and the car has sat underground for the past 4 years which has helped keep it clean.
Original CDR23 - Would be nice to add bluetooth or at least an aux in?
Hate all the blanks, looks a bit pikey, will add a spoiler button at least here.
New N rated Michelins all round on unmarked wheels.
The only job I've done so far was to clean the scummy key
That's it for now.
Next up will be rear bumper removal as I want to take a look behind there, it'll help when fitting the new backbox.
Next batch of updates;
Spent the majority of a long weekend working on this.
I have to say, it's a great honest car and how it got CAT D status is beyond me. Before handing it over to the wife to use on sunny days, I wanted to get the car up to standard and give it a thorough check over to ensure it is safe and I was pretty much left with regret that I told my wife she can use it.
100% a steal and goes to show that Cat D's are not all bad. I'll let the pics do the talking now.
Here's the golden ticket
eBay twin tailpipe exhaust turnt up, many people warned that it is a bit loud but I thought for the money, I'd try it for myself.
I can't really see it here, now that I've resized the picture but, it looks like the Porsche P logo has been ground away from the windscreen. Not sure why but I noticed what looked like a smudge and upon closer inspection, you can make out that the Porsche P logo was there..
I was eager to get the rear bumper off to see if there was any evidence of a bad rear ender, I started with a proper look at the floor from inside the boot and certainly no evidence of a bump could be seen.
All sealent in good order and all looked original.
Bumper off and everything straight and proper, even has the original build sticker in place and dirt which looked untouched.. So now I'm just stumped as to how just damaging a rear bumper would cat d the car?! Must be one pricey bodyshop or these rear bumpers are expensive.
Eitherway, result for me!
I can now relax and carry on. I dropped the exhaust, had to cut the bolts off of the exhaust clamp, typical porsche crap, my 997 was the same at 28k miles.
The broken exhaust mount which knocked a nice amount off the price of the car.
It turns out the bit which was broken played no part in the exhausts position and I could have just left this in place.
The new bracket hasn't turned up so I gave the underside a clean and then moved on to the brakes.
Better!
Caliper time
Primer, I actually wanted to paint them silver like the 50th anni but the wife likes red calipers, so red it was..
Ta-tah!
For a lash up, they've come out perfect! Really happy with them, I would have normally removed and stripped them and had them done properly but this has worked out well and saved me a lot of effort.
Complete! Now just multiply this by 4
Bolts got some love, I had also bought some original locking bolts as the car didn't have any.
Wheels got cleaned.
I have ordered some colour crested centre caps, someone had fitted some horrible black ones on this but upon closer inspection, I noticed that they were gel stickers!
New mount turned up
Exhaust got fitted!
The exhaust sounds great!! I was expecting a loud noise when first starting but it just purred, nothing offensive by any means! It sounds much better than my 997. It is louder than original but it's fine, probably on the limit of being classed as loud. On full chat, it sings and pops and burbles. Really happy with it, the car had no noise before, definetly sounds faster than it is but for how it will be used its good, round town, it's fine. Full chat, it screams.
Small detail, going to replace the plates for plain ones but until then
Spoiler wasn't going all the way up, removed the unit and couldn't see anything wrong, bolted it back and everything was fine. NICE
Cupholder was getting stuck so removed stuff to get to it, had a poke around and lubed it up.
Worked
I always always always thoroughly clean a car interior, people are dirt bags so I like to make sure I clean everything and give the car a nice new smell.
Water turned black instantly
Leather was cleaned and conditioned all over
Gearknob got a polish, easier to do that rather than paint, just for it to chip off.
Will do for now, doesn't match the hand brake now so may polish that too.
Removing the engine cover carpets for cleaning led me to inspecting and cleaning the engine.
k&n filter
Applied gtechniq permanent trim restorer to the plastics
Discovered that the full toolkit and jack were still there!
I have bought a pair of rear lights for the sake of getting a replacement drivers side one, util they arrive, I made a little bodge to disguise the broken area. :bandit:
And there we have it for now.
After getting up close and personal with the car, everything checks out and is great. New brakes, all bushes look good and healthy, no rust, everything has been very well maintained and it looks like the car has been dry stored and looked after by it's owners, minus the bang.
Probably bits I didn't photo but all areas have been cleaned, cleaned off the roof which needs some renovo and the car was ready for a day out to a country pub sunday and let the wife try it out, she loved it and I was impressed with it.
Just before tucking it away, took some pics.
Next up, Renovo the roof, new light, spoiler button and a service!
I'd like to replace the rear decklid due to the dent, there is one in this colour for sale on eBay but it's up in Doncaster and he won't post!
A method of getting bluetooth or an Aux in would be nice too.. ?
This car came about by chance, I am a sucker for a bargain and loaded with the ammo of "it can be your run around car” to my wife, I had the all clear, she thinks 7 cars is excessive...Pah!
A bit of history, I came across the car on one of these online boot sale apps, it was local, just down in Clapham, South London. Pretty brief advert with no mention of any issues. A few questions later, turns out the car had a bit of a bang which gave it a CAT D rating. I immediately dropped the idea of viewing the car and that was that. For some reason however, I kept thinking about it, I kept on reviewing the pictures and readings the advert which led me to arrange a viewing and see what deal could be done, IF the car was straight! The car was already cheap but with the hidden news of a cat D rating, I thought, maybe I could have this car dirt cheap in which case, who cares about a cat D rating provided the car is now ok.
So I went to view;
It's a facelift 2003 Boxster 2.7, 73,000 miles, 5 speed, 996 Turbo style wheels, Michelin PS2 tyres all round, new pads and discs all round, New O2 sensor, new battery, serviced annually, wingback seats, bodywork is straight, roof is good and the seller seems a genuine family guy, nice property blah blah. He was great and very honest with the car.
So with all the good, here’s the bad, it only has paperwork from the current owner for the past 4 years and is as stated, a cat D. The guy said he got it from a repair centre of whom repaired it. The damage was to the rear bumper, nothing else, it was reversed into something. The exhaust looks original but the tip has a dent so will replace, aside from that, all looks fine and original on the underside of the car, I can't even tell that the rear bumper was replaced. No signs on crumpling in the boot, 1 rear light has a chip out of it, perhaps a separate incident but really, it seems honest and genuine.
All of that being said, a deal was struck and drove the car home, it drives great, pretty slow but I'm going let my wife use it most of the time so it's fine for that.
The steering is dead straight and pointy, brakes work fine and everything is as you'd hope and expect.
I ordered a new exhaust mount as the existing one is broken, back box with twin pipes, colour crested centre caps, soft top cleaner and guard red paint for the calipers.
Looking for a new rear light to replace the cracked one and then I'll give it an oil change and look at the plugs/coils.
Pretty happy with it, can't knock it for the price, the bodywork is dead straight, not a single dent and the car has sat underground for the past 4 years which has helped keep it clean.
Original CDR23 - Would be nice to add bluetooth or at least an aux in?
Hate all the blanks, looks a bit pikey, will add a spoiler button at least here.
New N rated Michelins all round on unmarked wheels.
The only job I've done so far was to clean the scummy key
That's it for now.
Next up will be rear bumper removal as I want to take a look behind there, it'll help when fitting the new backbox.
Next batch of updates;
Spent the majority of a long weekend working on this.
I have to say, it's a great honest car and how it got CAT D status is beyond me. Before handing it over to the wife to use on sunny days, I wanted to get the car up to standard and give it a thorough check over to ensure it is safe and I was pretty much left with regret that I told my wife she can use it.
100% a steal and goes to show that Cat D's are not all bad. I'll let the pics do the talking now.
Here's the golden ticket
eBay twin tailpipe exhaust turnt up, many people warned that it is a bit loud but I thought for the money, I'd try it for myself.
I can't really see it here, now that I've resized the picture but, it looks like the Porsche P logo has been ground away from the windscreen. Not sure why but I noticed what looked like a smudge and upon closer inspection, you can make out that the Porsche P logo was there..
I was eager to get the rear bumper off to see if there was any evidence of a bad rear ender, I started with a proper look at the floor from inside the boot and certainly no evidence of a bump could be seen.
All sealent in good order and all looked original.
Bumper off and everything straight and proper, even has the original build sticker in place and dirt which looked untouched.. So now I'm just stumped as to how just damaging a rear bumper would cat d the car?! Must be one pricey bodyshop or these rear bumpers are expensive.
Eitherway, result for me!
I can now relax and carry on. I dropped the exhaust, had to cut the bolts off of the exhaust clamp, typical porsche crap, my 997 was the same at 28k miles.
The broken exhaust mount which knocked a nice amount off the price of the car.
It turns out the bit which was broken played no part in the exhausts position and I could have just left this in place.
The new bracket hasn't turned up so I gave the underside a clean and then moved on to the brakes.
Better!
Caliper time
Primer, I actually wanted to paint them silver like the 50th anni but the wife likes red calipers, so red it was..
Ta-tah!
For a lash up, they've come out perfect! Really happy with them, I would have normally removed and stripped them and had them done properly but this has worked out well and saved me a lot of effort.
Complete! Now just multiply this by 4
Bolts got some love, I had also bought some original locking bolts as the car didn't have any.
Wheels got cleaned.
I have ordered some colour crested centre caps, someone had fitted some horrible black ones on this but upon closer inspection, I noticed that they were gel stickers!
New mount turned up
Exhaust got fitted!
The exhaust sounds great!! I was expecting a loud noise when first starting but it just purred, nothing offensive by any means! It sounds much better than my 997. It is louder than original but it's fine, probably on the limit of being classed as loud. On full chat, it sings and pops and burbles. Really happy with it, the car had no noise before, definetly sounds faster than it is but for how it will be used its good, round town, it's fine. Full chat, it screams.
Small detail, going to replace the plates for plain ones but until then
Spoiler wasn't going all the way up, removed the unit and couldn't see anything wrong, bolted it back and everything was fine. NICE
Cupholder was getting stuck so removed stuff to get to it, had a poke around and lubed it up.
Worked
I always always always thoroughly clean a car interior, people are dirt bags so I like to make sure I clean everything and give the car a nice new smell.
Water turned black instantly
Leather was cleaned and conditioned all over
Gearknob got a polish, easier to do that rather than paint, just for it to chip off.
Will do for now, doesn't match the hand brake now so may polish that too.
Removing the engine cover carpets for cleaning led me to inspecting and cleaning the engine.
k&n filter
Applied gtechniq permanent trim restorer to the plastics
Discovered that the full toolkit and jack were still there!
I have bought a pair of rear lights for the sake of getting a replacement drivers side one, util they arrive, I made a little bodge to disguise the broken area. :bandit:
And there we have it for now.
After getting up close and personal with the car, everything checks out and is great. New brakes, all bushes look good and healthy, no rust, everything has been very well maintained and it looks like the car has been dry stored and looked after by it's owners, minus the bang.
Probably bits I didn't photo but all areas have been cleaned, cleaned off the roof which needs some renovo and the car was ready for a day out to a country pub sunday and let the wife try it out, she loved it and I was impressed with it.
Just before tucking it away, took some pics.
Next up, Renovo the roof, new light, spoiler button and a service!
I'd like to replace the rear decklid due to the dent, there is one in this colour for sale on eBay but it's up in Doncaster and he won't post!
A method of getting bluetooth or an Aux in would be nice too.. ?
