Receiver

Welcome. Drive the crap out of it. It will thank you. If I don't drive mine for 2 weeks it starts leaking oil. Only made that mistake once.

I also am rather newish having bought it a year ago. I've done some obvious things but have decided to live with it as is for now. My first major undertaking may be to freshen the paint. It's a desert car and the front hood looks like it's been sandblasted. Can't decide whether to respray the front, repaint the whole car, repaint in a different colour or leave it as is and enjoy yhe patina. I'll probably throw this decision on as a new thread when I get serious about it.

In the meantime, you're gonna love it and this is a great place.

Turbodan

Reciever: Just do a front respray. as a matter of fact do it now and let the paint cure over winter! the midnight blue is a great colour so don't change it and the cost/amount of work to respray is just not worth it unless the paint is that bad...maybe wetsand or just really good detail should fix it up. Save the money for bigger turbos
If you do any paintwork be sure to take lots of pictures before and even during to show what was being fixed (and not from an accident).

CincyScott

Receiver:
I do a lot of body work on cars that I restore, so I hope to be able to help you when the time comes too!

If you can find a good shop, they would talk you out of respraying the whole car anyway...they can blend it in good as new with today's paints. In fact, Glasurit (who is probably the paint mfr on our cars anyway) makes a great new reducer that will make it blend right in.

My 996TT was Midnight Blue / Natural Grey and was Sweet!

Receiver

Thanks guys. My greater concern is that I'm having a lot of trouble loving the blue interior on the midnight blue. Unfortunately, it's the interior that I don't really like but that it is much too hard and expensive to change. An alternative would be to switch cars but I'm really happy with the mechanics of this car and don't want to change. Hence my dilemma. I'm not a fan of painting cars a different colour both for resale value and also because of the cost to do it right. i.e. engine out, glass out etc. Ultimately, I probably will just do a front respray in midnight and will probably be thrilled with the exterior. I'll get used to the interior I suppose. It's not like I didn't notice that it was blue before I bought the car.

goatfarmer1970

I hear you on the interior. Maybe you could switch out the carpet to black (which is not too expensive). Then, if you are still not happy, add a black 996 3-spoke wheel and maybe a shifter and brake. Finally, if you still aren't feeling it, splurge for some blue 993 sport seats (which they have at Pelican or DC -- can't remember). I think I need to try the same program to rekindle the love with my Classic Grey interior.

Turbodan

there is a guy who has been advertising black 993tt interior for about 3 years asking around $5k in panorama. maybe he is flexible on price. Just changing the seats to black could change the look a lot. the blue dashboard I am not crazy about that would be first thing to change. how about adding carbon fiber? I am going to add my 996 3 spoke shortly. some shops can dye the leather maybe that is an option.

Receiver

My real problem is the interior cause I really like midnight blue. If I get imaginative, I might be able to fix it. However, I'm not sure what colour would look good with midnight blue in any case. How does grey look for those who have it? I'm not sure black would be any better than blue.

The neat thing is there is never any shortage of things about the car to think about. Eventually I'll probably change out the suspension etc etc etc etc.

Turbodan

IMO tan looks best with midnight blue although more common is grey

KeninBlaine

$10k seems like a lot, but owners of 996 or 997 TTs lose that much in depreciation in a year. So you're still further ahead financially, and getting more benefits from your $10k.