Porsche 996 Interior Upgrades

Over the years I've made a number of upgrades on my 2003 996.2 Targa that other owners might be interested in. These include: Stereo/GPS and amplifier Subwoofer Wood shift **** Short-shift-kit Wood-look center console and ashtray Leather-covered console lid Leather-covered hand brake Two-color leather steering wheel Plastic ignition-key surround White LEDs Here is the stock interior when I bought it. The leather was thin and shiny, there was a lot of plastic, and the aluminum-look shiny metal coating on the console looked chintzy to me. Stock interior Here's the upgraded interior. Upgraded interior Stereo/GPS and Amplifier I installed an Alpine INE-W927HD stereo/GPS head unit and Alpine PDX-V9 that I bought from Rod at Car Audio Innovations in California for $2536. I went with this based on Rod's recommendation and his years of experience in installing stereos into 996s and 997s. Rod and his team gave good support when I called a few times with questions. Overall I like this stereo. These modern electronic units are little computers that take half a minute to boot up, but this one is designed to start playing music within 5 seconds. The graphic equalizer is pretty good. I have it programmed to remove an annoying resonance in the the stock speakers at 3-3.1 kHz. The amplifier in the trunk outputs 100 watts per channel for four channels, and another 500 W for the subwoofer. It is Class D, so it's efficient and much smaller than older amplifiers with the same power output. It does output white noise that is noticeable with the engine off. The GPS display is not very good: It usually places the car icon at the edge of the screen to minimize the distance of road ahead, it displays distracting roads off the sides of the freeway that no one wants to see, and it rarely displays traffic ahead. The directions are good for getting me to the desired destination. I have the microphone for the cell phone (connected via Bluetooth) mounted on the steering-wheel column less than two feet from my mouth. Even so, the cell phone sound quality is terrible for people listening at the other end. Listening at my end from the left front speaker is a little better, but still not great. I keep a Bluetooth headset nearby to switch to if I need to talk. It took me 24+ hours over three weekends to install the system. Here are some photos. The old stereo head unit. The old 5-disk CD player (left) and power amplifier (center). The new amplifier will go where the CD player is. Old stereo and temperature control units removed. The temperature control will move down to where the CD storage was. The finished product in the dashboard And the amplifier in the trunk. I had to build a little frame using the old CD-player frame and some metal stock. I later put black electrical tape over the shiny metal so that it blends in better. Subwoofer Someone on one Porsche forum described Bose subwoofer as a "one-note fart box" and I have to agree. There was a serious resonance at 50-60 Hz and not as much output as other frequencies. The stock Bose subwoofer was on the left side of the passenger footwell. I bought a 10-inch, 150-W subwoofer and enclosure custom-made for the 996 form Sound In Motion in Massachusetts for $1800. The subwoofer and enclosure as received I had to removed the old Bose subwoofer enclosure, cut it in half, then reinstall it to hold the subwoofer in place. If I didn't put the original enclosure back, there would be exposed undercarpeting. With the Sound In Motion subwoofer (darker black carpeting), there is undercarpet exposed It looks fine with half of the Bose enclosure installed. The subwoofer sits at the passenger's feet. It was only supposed to take away 4.5 inches, but it feels like more, so taller passengers can't fully extend their legs. Wood Shift **** I got a Porsche brand dark maple root wood shift **** from MS Road and Race for $323. This looks much classier than the stock plastic, metal coating, and thin leather version. This was an easy installation. Porsche brand maple root wood shift **** Short Shift Kit Some people say that the stock shifter is sloppy. I felt that it shifted smoother, but I wanted a shorter throw. I went with the B&M short shifter from BumpPlugs for $251. It took me 4.5 hours to intall. Initially, I didn't like it, but I got used to it after few weeks. With the shorter lever arm, it is noticeably harder to shifter when it's cold. Wood-Look Center Console At this point the nice shift **** made the metal-look center console look even less classy. I was trying to figure out how to coat it with a wood vernier when I ran across the water-transfer coating process (WTP). There are a number of companies that can put hundreds of different patterns from different woods to desert camoflauge. I didn't know how it would turn out on my console, so I bought a used one and sent it to Classic Trim W.T.P. in Florida to have my selected wood-look coating applied for $266. It looked different in person, so I sent my original console in and had pattern WTP-355 applied for another $266 and 3 hours of installation work. This matches my shift **** much better, but it's still not perfect. Pattern WTP-355 applied to the console Console with pattern WTP-355 installed in my car. It's lighter than the shift ****. Console with pattern WTP-231 installed. This matches the shift **** better. Leather Console Lid and Hand Brake The stock console lid was thin, shiny leather that looked plasticy. I bought a padded console lid fromDonald at Dallas Custom Steering Wheel. The padding is nice. Now I can comfortably rest my arm on the console with my elbow against the lid. I custom-ordered it with grey stitching to match the stitching on the doors. I also got a leather-covered hand brake from DCSW with matching stitching. There is no longer exposed plastic. There was a problem with the first brake they sent me, but he rectified it right away. Two-Color Steering Wheel I had been looking at padded steering wheels with colored stitching from DCSW for a while. Their prices seem to have increased in the past year ($674 for the wheel without the airbag cover), so I tried a local company, DCS Motorsports in California. I went in, looked at samples, and decided to go with some red leather on the air-bag cover, red stitching where there was black leather, and black stitching where there was red leather. Some of the leather grip is perforated, which seems to be the current style. It was supposed to take three weeks to be made in Taiwan, but it ended up being three months, so they gave me a discount, bringing the cost down to $582. Installation took me two hours. Old vinyl and new red-and-black leather air-bag covers Old and new steering wheels Disassembly Getting the airbag out was the hard part The red on the steering wheel somewhat matches the needles on the gauges Igntion-Key Surround The stock ignition-key surround was covered in very thin leather, which did not hold up to repeated stabbing with the ignition key. I bought a textured plastic Porsche-brand replacement from Suncoast for a whopping $72. It does look nicer and should last longer. The original ignition-key surround had torn leather White LEDs The stock light bulbs in the courtesy (overhead) lights, the doors, and rear were all incandescent lamps that drew enough current to drain the original battery when a door was left ajar all night. They were also really hot to the touch. I replaced them all with LEDs from Super Bright LEDs, using different models as follows: Doors, rear hatch, and right courtesy light: WLED-NW6 Glove box: 3022-WWHP4. This is bring enough for the passenger to read with. Front trunk, center courtesy light: 4410-NW9 Left courtesy light: WLED_WHP Total cost was about $40. That's all for now.

That's quite an extensive list of mods, appreciate all the details and pictures. Enjoy!

Nice write-up!

Great job! Two quick ?s, who made the bezel for the head unit and how hard was it to fit the heat/ac controls in the lower mount? Thanks!

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The bezel came with the Alpine kit. It's made to fit the standard double-DIN size of the opening in the dashboard. Moving heater/AC controls was easy. IIRC, I unclipped two wire connectors in the back and moved the wires down to the new location. After reconnecting the wires, the heater/AC control slid into place.

As long as you like it that's all that matters.

Nice, who did the steering wheel?

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DCS Motorsports in Santa Clara, California.

I'm not a fan of the center console in wood, I personally would have left it silver. It's just too much wood for the car. In my opinion the shifter and handbrake are just enough. The other mods work. Now that you added red, you'll need red seat belts, and red stitching on the floor mats. Nice Targa.

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Before too long I'll get new floor mats with PORSCHE in red stitching. The driver's side mat is almost worn through. Red seat belts would look nice.

Plastic wood? If that's what you like. Your car.

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It looks like polished burl wood to me, so I'm happy with it. In one sense it's better than real wood vernier because it won't shrink and crack like real wood. I've seen a lot of Porsche-brand wood-covered parts and even solid wood parts (shift ***** and steering wheels) for the 996 that have cracks in them.

Kudos to making it your own, I like the simple black everything but thats me. Also I didnt know the iginition surround came in leather all the ones i've seen have been rubber. I like a well kept interior

A few small things that we did to our 996... We install these nifty ash tray delete trays from Porsche in our 996. We were tired of our shop dog stepping on the ash tray and opening the ashtray door :P https://rennpart.com/product/non-smo...shtray-delete/ Also can never have enough cubbies: https://rennpart.com/product/console...e-shelf-upper/

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Just a heads up, that console will fit boxsters (97-04) and Carreras (99-04) but the textures changed to soft touch coating for both in 02+. That page doesn't specify (although I guess you could figure it out from the part number).

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Thanks Dan, if anyone would like to order we can check your VIN to ensure you get you the right color.

Dude you rock! Why not pull out all the stops and pimp it up brotha!? Like add some red **** carpet and those cool dingle berries. Ah yea! And don't forget the dice!

At least you like what you have done

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Second here regarding the "wood"...

the wood is fine in my opinion. the red steering wheel is just awkward, especially when combined with the wood. That I don't care for.

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i have to agree, the steering wheel looks very nicely done but it clashes with the wood. if the console was red instead of wood it would look far better

Sell your Porsche and buy a jag if you like the wood look, personally I don't think it goes in a Porsche but if you like it then who am I to tell you different!

I am in the process of refreshing my interior as well. Replacing an aftermarket radio with a double din nav unit, I am going with the stock look, painting all the scratched plastic including console, right side sill bin, left side frunk, hood and memory switch housing in black to match the original look. It is amazing that such expensive cars have painted interior surfaces that just do not hold up. I admire you seeking your vision, don't let the naysayers get you down. It's your car, enjoy.

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Oh, look. Atrox posted the puking R2-D2 (again). He's so original. You are in desperate need of some new material. Yeah, but you also think the Boxster concept car looks good, so you clearly have zero aesthetic taste. Wood in a Porsche is tacky, but like others said, it's all about what you like.

Interesting, but if I where you, I would save that center console and air bag if you want to sell it to buyers like me.

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The boxster concept car looks better than the soft *** **** they ended up with. No wonder its a chick car. look at that, wood on a 64 911. Must have been tacky then too. Its a grand touring car, there is nothing wrong with some wood.

Not my taste but job well done and excellent writeup.

Wood it up baby!!!

^Jerry Garcia's car right?^

Nice write up if I could ask this thread where is the best site to buy new stitched black matts with the red porsche

Thanks for taking the time to write up your changes. It's pretty amazing what can be done with the Water Transfer Process (I've seen WTP carbon fiber that looks amazing). A lot of people have been critical of the look of the console and I have to admit that it's not to my taste either. Obviously, the only thing that matters is that you like it. I would like to offer a (hopefully) constructive suggestion. I think that the issue (if there is one) with the console is not that it's wood or that it's a faux finish, but just that the color is so light and bright that the console now dominates the interior -- it's hard to see anything else because the console stands out so much. The factory wood interiors were very dark burled wood. I think that if you were to have the WTP guys put a tint over the wood to darken it, then it would have a totally different look that compliments the rest of the interior rather than distracts from it. If it was at least as dark as the shift **** wood, it would probably work a lot better against the gray/black interior. I've repeated 2 of your photos below. The first one shows the difference between the shift **** wood and the console. I think if the console was at least as dark, or darker than the shift ****, it would blend in a lot better. This top down photo below seems to be very close to the shift **** color -- I guess it's just the photo lighting because the console looks much brighter and lighter colored in the car -- but I think the color as it looks in this photo (or even darker) would blend a lot better. It seems like the WTP guys didn't do a good job matching the shift ****, and you had them do two consoles, so you could probably talk them into darkening it for free if you were inclined to do that. They certainly own you a better match, and I would go even darker. I hope none of what I've written is offensive, just trying to offer a constructive suggestion.

I wanted a darker wood finish on the console to match the shift ****. The console color came out lighter than the pattern what I had selected online.

When you upgraded your stereo, did you upgrade the speakers also? I'm researching to determine what I will use in my upgrade. Thanks 911STYL

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I replaced the crummy Bose subwoofer with a 10-inch, 150-W subwoofer and enclosure custom-made for the 996 form Sound In Motion in Massachusetts for $1800. I did lose a few inches of passenger legroom, as the subwoofer is now under the floormat where your feet go. On my list is replacing the rest of the speakers with a Focal set from Car Audio Innovations for $1200. That''s where I got the new stereo and amplifier. They install these in 996s and 997s and have figured out exactly what works.

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I'm good on the sub - doing the same as you. I want Focals as well but don't know which models yet. Million dollar question - do u remember which Focals you got for the front and rear?

Not my cup of tea but as long as you like it. I got myself a water transfer kit at home, can't wait to try it out.

Wow, nice work. Thanks for all the details as I learned more than a few things about mine... Ralph

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I still have the stock Bose speakers; I haven't replaced them with the Focals yet. Whichever sets cost $1200 is what I'll get.

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Please post if you make any upgrades!

Nice photo's !! Thanks for sharing..

My driver's side floor mat was worn through, so I used the opportunity to get new mats with a little color. The original mats were black carpet with black PORSCHE stitching. I ordered a pair of Ultimat model front mats from Lloyd Mats through Pelican Parts. With custom red PORSCHE and targa logs, they came out to $144.90. The Lloyd mats come with plastic clips that attach to the seat rails. I didn't want to fiddle with these and liked the original Velcro on the bottom just fine. I cut Lloyd's clips off, cut the old loop side of the Velcro off of the stock mats (see photo below), and used contact cement to glue the Velcro loops to the new Lloyd mat. Transferring the Velcro from the old to the new mats. The cat did not help. The new mats match the steering wheel and interior well enough. Driver's side floor mat

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See the above post.

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I also got matching black and red Fratelli Orsini driving gloves and watchband.

Ok you're just f...ing around right..............

The red leather and the wood grain just don�t work together. I think you have to pick one or the other.

Forget the interior for a second and lets all acknowledge 160k miles on this bad boy!

What Color options did you go with on your LED's? I am not a big fan of the 'in your face' white light of LED's, but have heard the warm white from superbrightled's is a nice tone. eg - with the warm white in the glove box is it still bright enough for someone to read a book with it open?

Necro-thread� just sayin�

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I think the intent was for it be an ongoing discussiion, kind of like the "What did you do to your 996 today?" thread. That's what I thought anyway when it was first started. The subject never really gets old if new interior upgrades pop up.

Nothin for nothin, but with the advancements in LED bulbs and the ability for retrofitting, error free, into our older cars, this could be a very valuable thread if it is regularly updated. Error free, tested bulb choices, including any bulb numbers and links, would be great. Just sayin.

My best non-cosmetic interior upgrade so far has been Yaz's hazard switch mounting point. https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...ghlight=hazard

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These are all cold white LEDs with a high color temperature. You can search for the part numbers on my earlier post and see whether warm white LEDs with a lower color temperature are available from SuperBrightLEDs.

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See my post here for data and part numbers on internal LED replacements https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...ed-lights.html

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Call me a noob or uneducated on RL do's and don'ts, I just got my 04 C4S and search the threads pretty regularly to try and save everyone the hassle of responding to something that's already been addressed by someone else.

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It's the catch-22 of all forums. If you search and revive an old thread, you messed up for reviving a Necro thread. If you start a new thread to ask a repeated question, then you messed up for not searching first. Don't worry, you can't win.

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This is an ongoing thread for people to post their successful interior upgrades. Nothing wrong with the LED question and the answer was very helpful and appropriate for this thread (better than searching through all the LED bulb thread).