How would you spend 10K on a 996?

Well the insurance adj. called me back today, quote for repaint is ~10K, plus I am fighting for reduced value among other things and it dawns on me. If I repaint the car those little monsters who live behind me who key'd my car will just do it again. I will own this car for a long time so the paint damage really does not bug me that much. So I am going to take a cash payout on the car, what ever I receive above 10K is going to the make my wife happy fund and carpet the house the rest is going towards the car. I pretty much own the car outright at this point anyway and if I don't spend the money on the car I will do something stupid with it like invest it Right now the list stands at that. I am going to install most if not all of this myself. ROW M030 Kit, + GT3 sway bars. ~1200$ I think I need a end link kit for this ~300$ DasSport/Autopower rear cage 700$ in the finish that I want. (extra 400 for the factory GT3/2 cage) K&N Intake 300$ Used GT3 Seats with mounts 2300$ (Or Recaros or Sparco's which are must cheaper used, I have the seats tracked down at this point I believe) Powder coat my sport rims ~300$ Graphics and airbrush touchup to cover up the current marks on the car ~$500 Better Pad + GT3 front scoops for the brakes (Unknown cost) Rear seat delete carpet kit, (Anybody have a clue on the cost) Used exhaust system (like the techart on eBay) ~700$ maybe less. ONE really really loud alarm! This leaves me with ~4K left over. The car is mechanically perfect at this time, and I do have the aero kit which means I am pretty much not going to do any body modifications. I will then have the factory seats all four, the factory intake/exhaust to sell. Which might bring anther 1-2K along with some 356 parts that I have for sale. What else would out throw into the mix at this point, anything major that I am missing?

So, am i misunderstanding you? Your going to leave the car all keyed up?? Your going to "airbrush and touch it up" If they were willing to destroy it in your garage, what makes you think they wont just steal it next time or strip it? Id re-paint it and beef up security in your garage!~

Nice set of mods. Have you thought about camber plates? Evo MS make em or Agency control arms would help with camber also. Keying sucks, I got some rock damage, just chips etc and that peeves me off, can't imagine how I'd feel about a keying. Did they get one panel or all of them?

I am going to design a set of vinyl graphics that will wrap the car to cover up the current scratchs. Its not that difficult to do, I have done it in the past. Also the kids that did the damage in the first place could not get into the car and they could not get it out of the garage without the code so I really doubt that it is going to be stolen. If I decide to sell the car I will have it repainted, for the time being I want to have a little fun with the car and modify it a little bit. As or the camber plates i am not really sure that I need them as would be running OEM suspension. They Key'd just about every panel except for the rear bumper, also the body shop found that they had put some pressure on the wing and it has cracked ever so slightly so that will have to be fixed as well

Hmmm....I'd fix the car, but I am **** about my car...I would look into teh Bistein PSS9's instead of your M030's....The PSS9's are better handling, better riding, and you can adjust the height to how YOU like it.

FIX THE CAR!!! Decals? Air brushing? Please just fix the car you won't regret it. You can mod over time. It is also much more fun that way.

A messed up car is an eye sore. A hopped up car that was messed up is still an eye sore. If you park indoors, how does it get vandalized? If you park outdoors, put on a car cover and use a good alarm.

I say you use the extra money for track time and have fun. No matter how well you fix it, you have lost value and any dealer worth their fees will find a repaint no matter how well it's done. But now that the car has been damaged, you have very little to lose by balling it up. Get yourself some DE insurance and get out there. You won't regret it.

I would build a garage , so those kids wouldnt do it again, I wouldnt mod a car thats all keyed up.

^ Seconded. And if they some how managed to brake into your garage, put in two good video cameras so if they come back you can have some video evidence. Who are these people who keyed your car? Neighbors kids? Miscellenious punks? EDIT: I'd also get the biggest most badass gun you can (the gun toting soldiers of fortune in off-topic can advise you on this)..and an equally menacing sign on the garage. Something to the effect of: Trespassers can be shot, survivors will be shot again. Touch Porsche and Die. I'm watching you.... u kno something like that.

This whole scenario blows me away: 1) Found the perfect car, mint in every respect. 2) Bought the car, next day car gets vandalized in locked garage. 3) Deciding how to spend the insurance money on anything but repairs. They say "The truth is stranger than fiction" You seem to have rebounded nicely after having your car destroyed, I don't think I could take it so lightly. It's ALL GOOD...??? Is that appropriate here?

I agree with you original idea. Spend the $10K on performance mods. and wrap it up in vinyl. But I would add 2 more bullets to your list: Turn it into a track car Buy another 996 But that's just me, I'm a track junky. I believe every car should eventually end up on the track.

I'm with you, Nick. Having my car defaced like that would simply put me in the emotional dumps for weeks, if not months. My first priority would be to restore it to the way it should be, and not trying to mod it with such cosmetic damage. It would be my way of not succumbing to the vandalism; a form of therapy, if you will. Without fixing it, I would always know the damage is still there no matter how much I mod it and disguise it, and it would just peeve me more and more. Just my two cents. Good luck and have fun on your mods.

even the tow vehicle. <------ lobbying for NASA SUV American Iron series. Ford Bronco vs Chevy Blazer!!!!!

I would fix the paint. Couldn't imagine driving around a Porsche with decals and scratches all over it. It would be acceptable as a track car to have the cosmetic flaws, but not for the street IMO. I would try repainting the car myself before putting decals on it. Your resell value will also be significantly impacted by this. If I ever looked at a car in that shape I would just assume that the only maintenance ever done to it was just enough to keep it running, no matter what type of maintenance records were produced. Good luck, that really sucks what happened to your car.

By the way, I know an AMAZING shop in LA that does Pcars and MB and BMW....They would probably paint the whole car for like 5k.....Then you could mod with the rest of the cash....Maybe you should look at that option...10k seems steep to me....

Its life, strange stuff happens. Its only a car, I mean I am not that attached to it yet. Now if they key'd my 356 we would be having a entirely different conversation. I will be bringing the car to a few porsche shows in the future so if anybody wants to see the car after its put back together just say hi. Its going to be hard to miss the car when I am done. Actually I would like to go to a meet sooner then later so I can get a few more idea's for modifications. So I went to mind over motorsports today and got a little carried away. The list as it stands is PSS9's, GT3 bars, Full balance. DasSport Rear cage powdercoated/painted in ocean blue. GT3 seats in Tan Used set of GT3 rims that I found. K&N intake. Retrofit GT3 takeoff exhaust to the car if we can get it to fit. Better pads GT3 front brake scoops. GT2 rear scoops. Rear seat deleate carpet Fire supression for the motor. (300$ or so cheap in my book) Waiting for parts costs at this point. The other side of the coin is that I ditch the PSS9's and just go with the ROW sport kit, (Its a bunch cheaper) Or buy a Euro GT3 factory cage so that everything is as close to factory parts as I can make it. I am going to have them touchup the paint, still deciding on the graphics, if they can touch up the scratches then I will not wrap the car. If not then its going to look real wild when I get done.

how would I spend 10k? 1 word - SUPERCHARGER.

buy a gun and a pit bull with AIDS

If you are going to make it track car, just vinyl the whole thing with a bunch of graphics and the scratches dissaper for $500-1000. Hard to comment on parts without a plan. What do you plan to do with the car? Street drive, track sometimes, track mostly?

Honestly at this point I think its going to be 60% street 40% track, which is why I am leaning towards the PSS9's and the full rear cage instead of the GT3 one. It will mainly be used for training the monkey inside to drive a little bit better then anything else, which I enjoy. I don't have the skills or the loose change at this point to really do much more then that.

I would go for the X74 suspension instead of mix and match. The suspension is factory tuned and works amazingly well. The only way to get more performance than it is to go to a high quality fully adjustable setup (Moton/Penske/Sachs) and spend a lot of time and money getting it dialed in. IMO, it will out perform a PSS9 setup any day of the week. TRG monoball top plates and TRG carbon fiber front strut brace Spend the extra money and go for the Porsche cage unless you plan to run with EMRA/NASA then you need the door bars. Stick with the GT3 seats as they end up being cheaper after you figure in the mounts you need for the Recaros Schroth 6 point harnesses properly installed Pagid RS14 Black pads on all 4 corners. Also get the GT3 front air scoops Cat bypass pipes and fabspeed mufflers will give the most power and a reasonable sound level. A lightweight set of wheels for the track with MPSCs in 235/295 Brey Krause deep sump oil pan ( the Porsche Motorsports oil mod is preferred, but expensive) B&M Short shifter kit Lightweight flywheel GT3 front adjustable lower control arms to you can increase the camber A good alignment with lots of negative camber The factory parts are worth less than it would cost to ship them somewhere so don't expect much back.

1)make the garage inpenitrable 2)get a survallance camera (cheap now and wi-fi'able) 3)invest in a gun jbd

Fix it or take the $$ and add a bit more to get another car (either a 996 or 997). And for god sakes find a safe garage for your car or it will just happen again. Good luck! Phil

How would you spend 10K on a 996? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For your info Wearymicrobe, I have everything you need, my car will be returning to the leasor and this stuff is for sale. Is presently installed on my 2001 C2 996 ROW 030 GT3 sways with links Headers Exhaut COld air induction box 3 rd radiator OZ supper legerra 18 wheels and new Michelin sport cups GT3 Seats with all the required sub and belts 6 point all original POrsche Original light weight POrsche Roll bar with cross emeber for belt attachement In car video braket All it was missing was a chip. If you are interested PM me here are some photos. Best regards Pierre

FYI when you ship larger items like seats or roll bars use greyhound I sent a bumber cover to the west coast for $50 and a roll bar for $75. Eric

I forgot the special aluminum mount for the extinguisher and the extinguisher itself. Pierre