New member with a rebuilt 996

Hi everybody. I have been lurking here since 04 and I figured that it was about time for me to finally join in on the fun. I can't thank everyone enough for sharing your collective knowledge and experience. I could not have completed my project Porsche without all of the valuable information that I found on this site. I have been inspired by those of you who have modified your cars and made them unique. When I became overwelmed with the magnitude of my project, I relied on this site to lift my spirits. Thanks to all of the members with a sense of humor, you have kept me entertained. In May of 2004, I found a 1999 996 at my local salvage yard while buying parts for my wife's Rover. I couldn't believe what a bargain it appeared to be. It was mine for a mere $20,000. when the current book value was about $45,000. It had a salvage title due to a "minor" engine fire... How difficult would that be to fix? I had never owned a Porsche or any German car prior to this. As I began disassembling the Porsche, I was amazed by the quality of engineering and craftsmanship. I was also amazed by the cost of new parts! The shop manuals were over $2000. and the engine wiring harness was well over $1000. I spent hundreds of hours on e-bay searching for the parts that I needed. Thanks to this site, I was also bit by the modification bug before I ever got to drive the car...Evo cold air induction, Billy Boat mufflers & headers, and 18 inch polished wheels. My kids, my wife and I spent countless hours working on the car together. It was great family bonding time. A friend was kind enough to let us work on the car in his shop. He let me participate in the removal and later replacement of the engine. We all became attached to our purple (vesuvio) Porsche and I can't imagine that we will ever part with it. I sold my open track toy (1989 420hp Saleen Mustang) to a friend. I hope to turn the Porsche into it's replacement with the addition of a roll bar, suspension upgrades, and someday a Evo supercharger. I hate to admit this, but I even kind of like the tiptronic transmission...it does a far better job of shifting then I ever did with a stick. The $17 I spent to become a rennlist member is a bargain. Thanks to everyone for making this a great forum. I will attempt to attach some pictures showing my car from start to finish.

Keep in mind that cars with salvage titles have very little value, but if your intent was simply to keep it for many years, your time and money were well spent.

Mfletch - first of all, Welcome and Congrats! Second, all I can say is WOW, you've got more b@lls than I do to take on this project! THe end result looks awesome!

WOW! That's some DIY project. I'm glad it went well. Welcome to RL and thanks for becoming a member.

Wow - looks awesome, congrats.

Great project - looks fantastic. I recommend you print the photos and keep an album documenting the process. It could help a lot if you ever your change your mind about selling. Enjoy the ride - looks like you don't have to worry about speeding tix. CP

Welcome and wow! What was the extent of the motor work?

Good story and great pictures! Congrats on your "new" toy! Michael

wow, what a story! what a car! oh, where is bob?

Wow, that 996 came back from the dead!

There's a lot of love in that car!! Congrats!!

wow! I'm very impressed. I would love to take on a project like that, unfortunately I am severely technically challenged so it's really not going to happen - changing the side lights to clears and swapping wheels is pretty much it for me......

very nice. but 20 + 17? that sounds very expensive. for 37 you could have bought a descent 99. of course the bonding time was "priceless".

Glad to see that someone was able to revive a car that was destined for the grave! Congratulations on a job well done, and welcome!

hey, love the color. That was worth the effort, right?

Hey Einstein, the $17 was (is) the cost of becoming a Rennlist member..... $20,017 would be a bargain though, you have to admit.........

"Hey Einstein" was priceless .

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Very nice job, impressive!!!!

That is very very cool.

well done on getting her up and running again, you may have addressed this already, but a word of caution is to make sure that any structural parts such as cross members, or support beams that may have been exposed to heat in the fire are changed and reinforced...unless it's a forged part in which case you should just replace.....would hate for you to go through all that work only to have a part fail due to fatigue caused by the heat.....not to mention the possibility of a failure being dangerous...once again, sit back with a cold one and enjoy all that effort!

darn, reading comprehension owns me.

Wow, congratulations on this project! The result looks great! I once read that >60% of all ever built 911 are still running and I guess people like you contribute largely to this number. Welcome to the forum.

Dead Porsche: $20k New engine and parts:$?? Resurrecting a 911: Priceless Congratulations... good luck with your new baby.

I bet you gained more experience on this car than a lot of others on this board, probably 80% of the technical stuff is back there. Hats off.

but he did a new engine 10k....body work 5k?wiring and manuals, 3k...we are at 18....noy mentioning anythine else...conservatively he spent 40k.....but like he said it was a bonding process and since he doesnt plan on selling it, it doesnt matter what its worth to someone else....I think he probably didnt realize it was gonna cost what it did....but he finished and had fun doing it...congrats and enjoy.

you are a trooper...... i would never do it simply because i'm a chicken..... but CONGRATS....! and welcome.....

Thanks to all for the warm welcome and the kind words regarding my 911. It really didn't take any b@lls to jump into this project...it was a serious lack of brain cells. The car only had 42,000 miles on it when I rescued it. The fire damage was limited to the top of the engine. I was betting that underneath all of the melted plastic & rubber, the engine was fine. I got lucky. I had to replace all of the external components on the engine; however, the longblock was fine. I used a fiberoptic scope from work and I was able to inspect the cylinders via the sparkplug holes. The engine turned freely and the cylinders were clean. I was able to buy almost all of the parts that I needed either on e-bay or from Silver Star Recycling, where I bought the car. I would have gone broke if I had to buy all of the parts that I needed new. If I remember correctly, I bought a new engine wiring harness off e-bay for $100. the new cost was about $1,400. most of the other parts I got similar deals on. I'm sure that I bought some of the parts from members of this site...Thanks! Niello Porsche was absolutely fantastic about helping me with this project. Since I couldn't afford to buy the shop manuals, they were kind enough to copy the sections that I needed like the engine area wiring diagram. I spent hours on the phone asking questions of their mechanics. They were always happy to help me. I found a local shop, Fulmer's Auto Body in Placerville, to do the paint work. I did all the disassembly and assembly work. I had seen one of their paint jobs on a car that won a local car show. The paint & body work cost $3,500. I am very pleased with the quality of work they did for the price. Gary Cook at GT Auto in Rancho Cordova is the president of the local Shelby club. He helped me reassemble the engine and put it back in the car. He was very generous in allowing my wife and I to spend an entire Saturday using his shop & tools. We must have soldered & shrink wrapped over 150 connections to splice the wires that come off the main rear wiring harness before the connection for the engine wiring harness. I believe I was able to put the car together for about $30,000. total, not including the modifications. It was by no means a bargain, but it was a great learning experience. It also introduced me to the joys of Porsche ownership. My wife was such a trooper that I bought her the car that she always dreamed of owning, a 1999 mercedes SL600. Would you believe that it too is a salvage...I fear that my parents must have dropped me on my head as a child. Thanks again to all of you who have welcomed me to this site.

Nice job Mfletch. Way to take on a project and actually finish it. Welcome to the club.

Very nice job! The amount of blood, sweat, tears and patience is beyond my capabilities. It's always a pleeasure to see someone with such talent rescue such a beautiful car.... ...now get some clear side markers!

Oreganet, thanks. I'll only get the clear markers if you can convince me that they will make my car go faster...Otherwise, I'm saving my pennies to buy a supercharger. My kids don't really need braces or college...do they?

No, your car won't go faster, but for $30 will look nicer. Saving for a supercharger is an admirable goal.

Clear side markers = 8 to 10 additional HP!

I do not think there are enough BOW/HAIL emoticons to fully capture my admiration and respect (envy) for what you have accomplished. Time spent with wife and kids on a family project is priceless as pointed out earlier. I think you're wife had it all planned since the get go: help and support hubby with car project to make you feel "obligated" to buy her dream car. Everyone's a winner.

8-10 more HP for only $30? I thought I had to add a couple of zeros to get that much more power. Ok, to be perfectly honest, I had to buy headlights, side markers, and taillights to go with the new paint job. I screwed up big time! I should have spent the extra money to upgrade to clear lights all around. I dream of installing clear lights and a GT3 bodykit on my car. On the other hand, it might be kind of fun to have a supercharger with stock appearance. I don't think I'll ever run out of ways to spend money on my toy. Does this sound familiar?

MOD-A-HOLICS anonymous!!

Kromdom, my wife got a laugh out of your's. I think you were right.

Geez....and I did one little DIY and was patting myself on the back....till I read this thread....holy smokes..great job, more self confidence than I would have had in tackling a project such as this. The part I really liked was where you talked about the whole family getting together and periodically working on it. That makes it really special. Congratulations on a job well done. I'm with you on the supercharger part. I'm seriously thinking of that myself. Maybe we can do a two-fer. Since we live in the same area, maybe we can do it together....we need to talk though about that nebulous little agency called DMV....

when I changed my exhausts myself for sport exhaustsa...I thought I was "THE MAN"...I even converted the front to a +02 (but not really myself...I only collected the parts) and I thought "YES >>I AM THE MAN" NOW I feel like NOT THE MAN........what an undertaking!!! Must have been so much fun!! Goodluck...and yes spend the 30 bucks for the clear side markers...because your 0-60 will be 0.5 secs faster!!!!

Chuck & Nicolass, You guys are great. Thanks. Chuck, You and I have the same worry. I talked to EVO a couple months ago and they assured me that CARB exemption was in the works...The checks in the mail...Or I won't cu...never mind.

I have a friend who buy and sells the older Ford Broncos....he's had a few that had the high performance Ford 351 engines in them fuel injected....These are beautifully put together machines...and they pass the emissions part much cleaner than the factory ones....BUT...DMV has a two part inspection....one is the emissions part, and the other is the VISUAL part. A car can pass the emissions part cleaner than a whistle...but if there's anything in there that the manual says doesn't belong, or isn't there...then the "NO FAIRZEES" paragraph kicks in and you flunk the SMOG test. Doesn't that seem totally inane? The issue is the emissions and keeping the air clean....not how the damn thing looks. So much for poorly thought out and legislated/enforced laws. If, as Mfletch says...that EVO is working on a California SMOG exemption...more power to them, but I know that trying to get anything thru Calif. DMV is like having a root canal...very painful and slow. I sure as hell wish they'd hurry up. Are you reading this Todd???? You'd sell a whole lot of superchargers here in California if you could get the dogone exemption. I wanna be first in line...guaranteed sale!!

send a message to http://www.excellence-mag.com/E-editor.html they sure will be interested in you story. good luck! hope see your story in details in the excellence magzine.

You have been much more intimate with your car than I have with mine- I better go out to the garage and give her some "love"

Chuck, Maybe Sharkwerks has some ideas regarding the DMV problem. pl, I sent them a message, Thanks. I love that magazine. I'll be shocked if I hear back. lanny, careful about giving her too much love or you'll end up with the dreaded "milky substance" in your oil fill tube.

i recall a article "Eleven Grand: A 986 on the Cheap" in #150 Oct 2006, tkaing about how a college got a totaled boxster and did the body work hisself to bring it back to life. that boxster only had some body damage on the passage door and door panel. nothing compare to what u 've done. if you do make it on the magzine, please insert a line for i need my own 5 seconds fame

Mfletch, Glad you are enjoying (my old) wheels. They look great on your car. Cheers,

Way to bring her back! Nice story as well. Enjoy her. I guess we who our next tech. man will be....?

Jugger911, thanks for the compliment. Joe, I thought you might be a member here. I thuroughly enjoyed meeting you. I wished I could have stayed longer. The wheels are great. I didn't really get to look at them till I put them on the car at home. They are like brand new! I could not have been happier with them. I put wider tires on the back like you had on yours. You have a great looking 993. I dream of my garage being as clean as yours. Thanks for saying "hi", stay in touch. Sincerely, Mark.

Adrian, I hope this is helpful to you.

Mark, When you send me the originals it will be of immense help. Saves me having to do to my 996 what I did to my 964 when I wrote the 964 book Ciao, Adrian.

def. a interesting pic and story for you new 996 book