arjay

Hi - have a 3.6 turbo that I have not been able to drive for a while because of surgery etc etc.

Now i have noticed that the front grill seems to be distorting its shape over time. I cannot get the car out of the garage to photograph the latest situation as the wheels are in the UK being rebuilt, courtesy of Adrian Rowlands, the UK guru (for me any way) on Porsche rims.

So here are a couple of photos of what the front end looked like a couple of years ago and what it looked like last time I had it out.

My question - is there some sort of bar or whatever that should keep it spread at the front end or is there some other reason?

TIA

Richard

ralt

The dreaded 'smile' can be fixed as follows.. )remove the two plastic corner black under trays at the front of car (lots of screws) after removing the cross bracket (narrow metal strip that holds the two together) this wiil reveal a narrow metal lip on the chassis that has been bent upwards by the car being bottomed (pretty hard from the distortion) . You need to bend that strip downwards. Cant tell you how much but it doesnt take a big move to straighten the smile. Large vice grips work for me. Make sure the screw plates are back in place on th strip so you can reattach the narrow metal strip. The plastic center strip attaches to the plastic grill work inside the nose . The Porsche parts catalog on line shows the how the parts fit. Email me if you have questions. Good colour

Doc V.

http://web.archive.org/web/201005251...smily_grin.htm

arjay

Many thanks to both of you. I was imagining all sorts of nightmares - perhaps pre-purchase accident damage coming home to haunt me blah blah. Unfortunately just had an operation and in no fit state to be clambering around under a car - but a few weeks should see me fit again and boy I'll be following up on your advice. I'll also post a before and after photo

What a great forum this is - thanks again

BTW - glad you like the colour. I wasn't sure about it and I know that some, like the mint green divide opinions. However, there aren't that many out there to choose from I'd rather have this make and model in any colour than be without one at all!

RJ

Metal Guru

I held the wide end of a pry bar on the lip while an assistant carefully hit the bar with a small sledge hammer.

MeanMachine

beautiful colour

arjay

Well - it took me longer than I expected to fix my awful Porsche smile. However, when I could finally get the car out of the garage and over my inspection pit, I found what you good folks had predicted: a horribly bent bracket.

Well a bit of trial and error and a few good knocks later, the smile was going. Took a few weeks to all but disappear - see photo afterwards.

Don you just love a happy ending :-) thanks to those who advised the problem and solution.

Metal Guru

Congratulations, it looks 100% better.

emilios

Beautiful in speed yellow!