pongobaz

I already posted this a few days ago in the Canada forum, but I thought I should also share the knowledge with my 996 brethren.
Well I decided to spend a couple of hours dismantling the dash on my car to install the aluminum trim pieces. Man, Porsche uses a lot of torx screws!! You can see all the details of this install on Renntech
Got the oem strips from Eric at Bumperplugs; quick and painless shipping and substantially less expensive than the local dealers. Most posts (including Eric's instructions) recommend breaking the old strips out and glueing the new ones in, but I've never felt comfortable breaking anything on a $140K (in Canada) car so I decided to pretend I was one of those magical little elves that work in Stuttgart assembling these terrific cars.
Here are a few before, during and after pictures, enjoy:

Kolshak

That looks great - sets off the black/silver interior perfectly.
I ordered the same strips from Eric last year but with screw driver in hand couldn't get up the nerve/strenght to "snap" out the old ones.

michael.s.under

that looks great. Thanks for the info. gotta grab some!

exophthalmos

how much time did it take you? i was thinking to dismantle instead of breaking it apart. Is it worth the time and labor?
thx, john

juankimalo

Excellent handwork!
Congrats! You have a good skill

pongobaz

Definitely worth it since you get to tighten everything down and prevent inducing rattles into the dash. It took me about 2 hrs going slowly (local dealer charges 3+ hours to do it). Make sure you have the right tools: torx 10, 20, 30 screwdrivers and a small ratchet torx (with #10 and #20 bits) wrench (see photo). Follow the instructions for removing the instrument cluster and glovebox in the renntech post where I posted more pics of the install.

Zookie

dame phil, alllll that work for that much?

Yoops Racing

Thanks for sharing - my black interior needs these bad. I have been waiting for install tips.....

yizzung

Any thoughts on how hard this is for those of us without a glove box?

yizzung

BTW, Phil. I love how the new strips even make your pedals seem shiny and new! The pedals look so black and rubbery in the first pic.

pongobaz

Ha, ha! Good eye! The only "before" picture I had from the same angle was one I took last year before the pedal and motorola bluetooth (on batwing) install.

michael.s.under

How well does that motorola bluetooth work. I have an earpiece but it gets uncomfortable quick...

pongobaz

Quite well. Get the HF1000 kit which has better voice command/dialing than the the HF850 unit I have (I'm going to upgrade soon). Install is quite easy once you get the phone radio adapter cable ($17) from Becker so you can use the radio speaker and use the phone prep connector behind the center console for power, switched power, ground and radio mute. Tuck the microphone wire up the A-Pillar (no need to remove it, but remove the driver's vent assembly) and place the mic over your left shoulder. I think it took me less than an hour to do with no drilling or cutting required.

deckman

I just finished this mod today. It looks good, and now that I'm finished I'm happy I did it. But what a major PITA it was. Just about everything on the interior of this car snaps together but for some reason there are screws everywhere on these trim pieces. I have an 03 so the easiest was the long piece over the glove box. That one I did as per the instructions above. The two smaller pieces really suck though. I could only get the screws closest to the steering column on each piece. That gave me enough give that I just broke them off. It takes a little intestinal fortitude to do that because you really have to pull HARD. The one on the left side launched 20 feet when it gave way. No harm, no foul. I put the new ones on with a little silicone on the backs.

911Joel

looks good

Im looking for a few more pieces to finish off my alu interior, this looks subtle and good!