My 2004 Porsche Boxster S 550 Spyder Restoration
The Prequel: How we met
Hi. I hope you have had a wonderful day so far. Back in the good old days of 2021, Summer was approaching and a new driver like me was looking at getting his first daily car to call his own. Up to this point, I had learned to drive in my parents’ Subaru and Tesla Model 3, but I had always wanted to drive a manual. Before even getting the car that this post was about, a 2005 Porsche Cayman happened to come across my Dad’s used car lot. He saw the car, told me about it, and next thing you know I’m learning to drive manual. It was a bumpy road at first with lots of stalling and parking lots. I eventually drove down the street in it and only stalled at two stop signs (GO ME). This was a wonderful car that I loved, but eventually, someone bought it, and back to the automatic transmission again I was.
A week or two later, an older and less taken care of Boxster S came across the lot. Once again my Dad told me about it, and the next thing you know I’m back to practicing manual again. It was going smoothly until one night my Dad and I were walking out of a Dicks into the parking lot when he says, “Ok. Drive me home.” This was both an exciting and a frightening one as well. I had never driven this far in a manual, or been close to so many hills. Well to start things off nicely, I stalled at the stop sign on the hill leading off the lot. Great start. What made it better was that cars were trying to turn behind me as well. I immediately started freaking out but made it to the light. After that was probably the scariest twenty minutes of my life. I stalled often, missed gears, grinded the gearbox, and was the lurch-iest driver on the road given moment. Truly a night to remember. That is without a doubt where my relationship with this car truly started.
Well, there is the story of where this all began. My love for driving manuals probably came from this. Yes, I was so scared that I didn’t drive this car for probably a week or two out of having post-traumatic stress, but hey all relationships have to start somewhere.
After a few more months of driving and finally getting my provisional license, the car was officially mine to have. At this point, I still drive the Model 3 as well and sometimes I just needed a practical car, but when I could the Boxster was always my first choice.
Restoration
Interior Cleaning
Now that the car was mine, it needed some nice cleaning and repairs. To start, I finally found out where the weird mothball smell came from. Turns out a nice little family of mice made their beautiful way underneath the hood of the car and made a home for themselves. This probably happened when the last owner put it in his garage for the winter but didn’t prep it. This would explain the low trade-in value. Anyway, the good news is that the car is Mid-Engine meaning that I wouldn’t have to worry about them getting into any important mechanical components. What they did get into was pretty much everything up front. The AC system, Air filter, front carpets (the car has a front trunk), the interior carpets, underneath all the shielding for the cooling systems and wipers, all that fun stuff.
The next week was spent ripping every carpet that the car had out in my driveway. I power-washed everything, cleaned it all by hand, and then cleaned it again. The car’s metal on the other hand took even more work. Since those fun little rodents got underneath it all as well I spent even more days washing every bit of that car by hand. It was both fun and exhausting brushing and wiping down every surface in that car. The amount of cleaning cloths I went through, buckets of soap water, and other products made my hands, knees, and backache for days. But it was worth it. Two weeks of cleaning that car later the result was night and day. It looked so much better and smelled a lot better too once I had that air filter replaced and the air lines cleaned.
Exterior Cleaning
Next up was the exterior. While I’ll admit this was a lot easier than the interior, it was still a pain. The first thing I dealt with the the twenty-year-old PPF (Paint Protection Film) around the front of the car. A lot of the film was covered in black marks from rocks hitting it and very yellowed. This actually is a good thing as it protected the paint, but it ruined the look. What I ended up doing was removing the film off of the main hood and side wheel humps but keeping it on the bumper, headlights, and mirrors. While they have yellowed a bit and clearly didn’t look the best, it was better than having no protection. Actually taking off the film by hand was not fun, but it was doable. That I did with my Dad as he knew how to deal with this stuff being in the business.
The wheels were next. They were very dark, almost black from the lack of care, and had a lot of scuffs. The scuffs I knew I could do nothing about at the moment, so I focused on cleaning. Each wheel had a center cap with a Porsche crest. I guess saying that they were supposed to have a Porsche crest is better. The glue had come off two of them, one was sun-damaged, and the last was actually somewhat ok. I took them off and cleaned each wheel first with a pressure washer, then by hand. The amount of brake dust and dirt was astounding. It looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in years. After many ruined rags and black buckets of water, they were finally clean. Who knew that the wheels were actually bright silver? I certainly didn’t. I also cleaned the wheel wells while I was already down there which was less exciting. I lastly cleaned the center caps, put them back on, and admired what twenty-year-old craftsmanship looked like. Turns out Porsche designers know how to make a great car look amazing, even two decades later.
Lastly was just cleaned the rest of the exterior, including all the paint, and inside the convertible top area where it is stored. This took a few hours of using a pressure washer, hand cleaning the tighter harder-to-reach spots under the grill, exhaust, and spoiler, and then finally finishing with the convertible pocket. This completely transformed the car. It was nearly as good as new (given the scuffs, missing emblems, blah blah blah). I was finally happy and blown away by how it looked. I will say I am skipping over some more boring details, but the cleaning was totally worth it.
Replacing Components
This last bit was dedicated to replacing broken, non-functioning, and components causing leakage. I also replaced some sun-damaged aesthetic/functional components as well. I will note that some of these parts I actually decided to finally fix a year or two later.
Aestetic
The first round of replacing components was mainly just for aesthetic reasons. Since two of the wheel center caps were missing the Porsche crest, I bought 2 new ones. Removing the center caps was more difficult than expected due to my Dad and I not having the correct tool to remove them. After about thirty minutes we managed to find a way to get them off. I decided to put the two new ones on the driver’s side of the vehicle and the two older ones on the passenger side. I thought I would enjoy seeing new clean emblems more than the passenger.
The radio knobs were up next. Over time these knobs were known to degrade and become sticky. This was an easy fix as it was just pulling the old ones off and pushing the new ones on.
Functional
These next three components were to fix actual problems with the vehicle, mainly pertaining to water leakage. First was the front window cowl. This part was almost gray when it was supposed to be black and was letting water leak through the car where the passenger’s foot well was. Turns out there was nearly two inches depth of damp carpet here. This took a lot more effort to fix. I had to remove the wipers (they have to come off under the hood on a weird angle), remove the windshield washer components, clean where the original rubber water sealer was including the tape temporarily sealing it, and put it all back together with the new cowl. Getting it back together and installing the new cowl and rubber lining was a pain. Ended up losing a screw or two (whoops). Now it looks amazing though.
Next was fixing the headlight washers. The driver-side headlight washer never really worked correctly and the passenger-side washer would just shoot water upward. To fix these, you must first remove the headlights as they were all under one headlight panel. Removing the headlights was easy enough. You just have to remove the carpet from the front trunk sides and stick a special tool into holes right next to the headlights. The headlights would just slot out of the car in one unit. Because I had the upgraded XEON headlights there was an extra wire to unplug, but normally the whole unit would just slot out. With the headlights out, the washer unit was exposed. The washers were very tall units with a hose attached to them. I had to unscrew the washers, disconnect the hose (this was very difficult as the hose was twenty years old and dried solid) and slot them out. Getting it back in was the same process in reverse. I did hit a snag when the passenger-side hose was refusing the disconnect. I ended up having to cut it and use a new hose clamp to replace the Porsche one. What I didn’t realize would be difficult was aligning the new washer unit correctly in the headlight housing. I had to realign and remove the headlights probably close to eight to twelve times. Hopefully, others had better luck. I also happened to snap the clips holding the washer housing to the headlight on the driver’s side, but that’s nothing some Gorilla Glue can’t fix!
The last part here was replacing the soft top. The original soft top was old and needed to be replaced. This was a job I had a certified shop do as I wanted to make sure the fitment was perfect. My parents sourced the soft top for me as a gift and I thank them for it. While it may have been the wrong color for the 550 Spyder variant of the car, it was nice. Funny enough this didn’t fix the air seal issue and made the water leakage worse, and now the top’s glue is coming undone, but on the outside, it looks a lot better. Also, the interior moisture problem was not as bad as before. To whoever sold this new soft top, please do better and control your quality. Even though I tried to get my parents to tell me where they bought it from so I could get my money back or warranty, I never found out and it has been a year. But hey it does look amazing on the outside!
Mechanical Components
Luckily when I got this car, it was pretty much mechanically sound. It had an extensive service history and was very detailed. There was a five-year gap between the previous owner to me, which would explain the mice and another issue, but overall the other four owners did a great job. Mechanically, the oil, transmission fluid, hydraulic fluid, and tires were the only things that needed to be replaced. The tires on the car were nine years old and cracking. If anything I waited too long to get them replaced. I ended up choosing Michelin Pilot Sport 4 All-Season tires as I have always been a fan of them. I would have gone with the Pilot Sport 4S tires but I wanted some rain and light snow safety. I have never actually changed tires myself before on a car, but it was a fun experience, and was helped by one of our GMC/Buick technicians. Overall I have been very happy with them. I also got an alignment as well to fix some of the steering being off-center.
Final Thoughts
After these four years of owning this car, it has probably changed my perspective on how amazing cars can be. It has set my standard of what makes a great convertible sports car. Because of the dealership, I have been able to drive most sports cars on the market and yet I always find myself coming back to this car. I have driven faster, more comfortable, more technologically advanced cars, and yet I love this Boxster more than any of them. This car as a complete package is just perfect. My wish is one day to drive one of the newer versions of this vehicle to see where all of the new engineering advances have come to.
What I Want To Add/Change
Not every car is perfect. While this car overall is amazing, it could use some modernization. The suspension on the car is old and could use a refresh. The sport suspension is great, but I can tell that it just doesn’t take bumps and cracks in the road like it used to.
The radio is also something I would like to change. I love how analog this car is. If anything it is one of the reasons I love it so much. The problem is that this radio has no way to input sound into it. There is no Bluetooth, AUX, or other method. There are AUX and Bluetooth modules you can buy, but normally they remove stereo audio or have other drawbacks. Getting a new radio with at least Bluetooth would be great. The great news is that the modern radio market has advanced so much. CarPlay is such a nice feature. Luckily, Porsche actually makes a radio called the Porsche Classic Communication Module Plus (PCCM+). You can order a version for your car’s model year that actually is designed to integrate perfectly into the car and make it look like it was there from the factory. While this is amazing, it will cost anywhere from $1200 - $2500. It isn’t cheap, and there are cheaper options, but I want this so bad. It would also increase the sound quality as well which is a nice bonus.
The last thing I would want to change for now is the exhaust. The exhaust on this car is very tame. Even with the sport exhaust, there is a lot to be desired. I would want something with more of a low-end rumble that would enhance the 5000 RPM whale that this engine gives off. Removing the droning around 3000 RPM would also be a must if I were to get a new exhaust. If possible, an electronically controlled valved exhaust would be perfect. That pretty much wraps this up.
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