Window Scraper Removal

On Ella's driver side door, there was a bit of tape curving out from underneath the window scraper.  Being detail oriented, this deviation from the beautiful lines of the car really bothered me.

I was prepared for this to be a big task, and figured I would do it while replacing the door handle seals.  I removed the inner door panel and door handle, but I still could not see how to remove it.  There is a little black plastic piece at the front end of the window scraper, so I thought "if I remove that, maybe something will be more obvious".  Pull...snap/crack...expletive...retreat...search for answer on web and fail...ask for help on rennlist (thank you rennlisters)...success!

In case anyone else is retracing my steps, it is unbelievably easy to remove this window scraper.  Pull up on it starting at the rear of the door and it will pop out quite easily.

I plan to do this every time I wax the car to prevent wax build-up along this joint.

That little broken piece (993-531-429-02) from the front of the window scraper is turning out to be a little difficult to find in stock.  Either lots of people break theirs...or no one does :-).

Porsche Perception

I have found driving Ella alters the way I look at driving in unexpected ways.

When starting the car, I turn off the radio to enjoy the song from the engine rather than turn it on to mask the rattles.

When planning a route, I maximize the number of curves rather than minimize the time required.

When the light ahead turns red, I smile at the opportunity to row through the gears again rather than groan at the delay.

These aren't things I do conciously, but instead self-observations made after it's already happened.

A "Cheap" Suspension Fix

As long as I've owned the car, there's been a metal-on-metal banging sound that sounded as though it was coming from the passenger-side rear suspension.  At first it seemed random, but I eventually discovered that anytime I unloaded the right side suspension, you would hear it.

I checked under the car and the engine bay and couldn't find anything loose or any sign of metal-on-metal contact.  We pulled most of the rear suspension while changing the springs and again, no sign of anything amiss.  But the noise persisted, so I resigned myself to having the mechanic find it.

And he did...buried beneath the passenger seat and wedged under the carpet, he found this.

I am trying to view the $55 it cost me to find it (I believe it really did take the mechanics $55 worth of time) as an inexpensive suspension repair rather than a very expensive piece of trash.

New Shoes for a New Stance

Four weekends later, Ella has her new stance and some new shoes to match!  I am thrilled with the look, a little bummed at the condition of the rear wheels (bought used on eBay), and disappointed (but not surprised) that the clunking/clanking in the passenger side rear suspension is still there.

Here she is trying on her new shoes.

And on the ground for the first time.  That nasty wheel gap is gone...but have I gone too far?

She's off for her alignment and a professional diagnosis of the rear suspension clunking noise tomorrow.  Once that's done, I will get some better "glamour" shots to post.

Ella's Red Under Where?

Ever since I've learned about powder coating metal, I've been keen to give it a try.  While working on my lowering spring install, I noticed that a metal panel under the car had a few rust spots.  Actually, Porsche spot-welded some washers onto the panel, which were rusting; the main panel was fine.  


I took the panels over to my new friends at Ace Powder Coating, and they offered me a nice price on powder coating the metal panels as well as the top and bottom hats of the of the front strut.  I figured these were great places to try out powder coating since no one would ever see it.  


 Here are the parts back from the powder coating.  I should have taken a before shot, but they were just black painted metal.  

And a shot of the metal trays installed.  Ella's now got a little surprise waiting underneath.  ;-)

"I could hide out under there...

I just made you say "underwear."

from Pinch Me by the Barenaked Ladies

I've loved that lyric for years!

Bilstein HD + H&R Spring Install

More than a year after completing the install, I have revisited the result.  Suffice it to say, I'm not very happy with my first attempt at suspension modifications and will try again.  Read more about it here.  (13-April-2014).
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As usual, I'm behind on the blog.  My "Porsche" time has been entirely consumed in my next project -- replacing the stock springs with a set of H&R Sport Springs.  Ella's been up on jack stands the last three weeks.  I think she looks kind of funny "floating" in the garage.  With just a bit of Photoshop magic to remove the jack stands...

There is a lot of information already available on the web for this install (search rennlist.com and visit http://p-car.com/diy/sus/), so I won't repeat it here.  I do have a few additional thoughts though:

7/8" Oxygen Sensor Socket as a 22mm Strut Nut Socket

1. The nut on top of the front struts was 22mm, not 21mm, for me.  I've read a few other places where people encountered this.  A very helpful employee at Pep Boys suggested that a 7/8" oxygen sensor socket should work just like the spark plug socket, and she was right. 
2. Rear lower control arm boots were cracked. I have dedicated a separate post to the specific topic. Visit it here:  http://twofourthsfull.blogspot.com/2013/03/rear-control-arm-rubber-bootgasket.html

Porsche 993 Motor Mount Replacement

Worn Porsche 993 C2 Motor Mount

Having read that motor mounts often wear out on the 993's, I decided to check into mine.  Here's the before photo. I think this shows the mounts clearly sagging, although I'm not sure because I've never seen a set of new 993 motor mounts.

The 993 C2 motor mounts were rather expensive, so I decided to go with the C4 mounts that were quite reasonably priced from Pelican.  For the removal, I followed the excellent write-up at pcarworkshop.com.

Some people have reported big improvements from this replacement, but to be honest I did not noticed much of a difference.  Maybe mine weren't really in bad shape or maybe I'm just not that aware.

Finally, I would like to give a big thanks to a couple friends who helped out with this little project.  It was a lot of fun!  Crazy to think we had the engine disconnected from the car...