In my intro thread I talked a little bit about what my plans were for my 996. I always enjoyed making a car "mine" by doing a few modifications, although I personally think I keep it all in good taste. While I have been busy in my garage from time to time taking care of preventative maintenence, I want to get the ball rolling on some minor "visual" modifications to the car through the next few months.

The car is currently completely stock, Speed Yellow, with a less than pristine gray interior. I have always HATED gray interiors with a passion, for some reason to me, it makes the interior look much cheaper, espescially on a car with a questionably "cheap" looking interior from the factory. All 996's I've seen with black interiors, look by far much better to me. So the plan is to Re-do the entire interior with black. While replacing some parts, I plan to do a few upgrades. I have a few yards of genuine Alcantara left over from when I swapped the entire interior on my M3 from gray to black, and covered some parts. So, I plan on using some alcantara in the 996.

Covered in Alcantara: Side Airbag covers, the Arm Rest cover, as well as my E-brake handle.
Shift ****: Replaced with factory GT3 Alcantara shift ****/ boot, will match e-brake and the rest of the alcantara in the car. Unfortunately I cannot find these with yellow stitching, So I plan on going with red (also red stitching on e-brake handle) and keeping up with red accents on the rest of the car to match. (You'll see what I mean if you keep reading)

The Steering Wheel will be replaced with a T96 steering wheel with red stitching as well:


So, overall the interior will be swapped to black, with subtle Alcantara and Red stitching.

So now for the exterior...

I might have mentioned in my intro thread that at some point in my cars life the rear bumper was re-painted, and unfortunately it doesn't match the other panels 100%. In certain light you can see a tiny bit of difference. A few people I've shown can't see it, but it bugs me and I plan on getting it painted to match perfectly. (No damage was found anywhere else, car was likely in a small fender bender at some point)

Since I'm getting it painted to match, I plan on having the rear bump stops Painted to Match as well (As they are on the MKII's) to update the rear end a little.

I also, just recently started toying with the idea of going for a "carrera" vinyl negative script on the sides. I always liked the look on the classic 911's, and the GT3 RS. I did some paint workshop work on some of my ideas for it. I know it's one of those "Love/ Hate it" sort of things, but hey... the entire car is already a Love/ Hate it sort of color so I think this might compliment the loud color a little.

The Wheels: They are currently a Charcoal type color, and I do like them. But looking closely whoever had them painted or powder-coated, did not do that great of a job. In a few spots you can see little drips/ runs although it's barely noticeable. I normally like a lot of contrast, so a bright (painted) Silver, or all Satin Black (no silver lips) both look great on the Speed Yellow in my opinion. The Silver has more of a Classy look, the Black more of an aggressive track rat look. So I'll be getting them powder coated by a highly reccomended local shop, either of the two colors.

Brake Calipers: Since I plan on having a tiny bit of red stitching in the interior, I think it'd be weird not having any other red on the car. So I think re-painting the calipers red would bring it all together nicely. The calipers are currently black.

Here is my Paint Workshop masterpiece:
My favorite is the Black wheels with the black script, with a close second silver wheels with black script. I don't see myself doing the red script, as it's a little too much in my opinion (but it's there just for fun).



Posted all this information here, because I'm sure many of you will have some great ideas, or comments on what you would do, or how awful my idea is

 

THere was a great Yellow 911 with black wheels in Excellence Magazine about 2 months ago. It had black rims with a yellow stripe on the rims.
Did you notice that your steering wheel is on the wrong side?

 

^ Must have flipped the negative.

 

what does it say?

TART?

IDK

the best way to make your car "feel" fast is a smaller diam steering wheel, and that is a nice looking one - the script looks goofy only because I dont know what it says/means

lemme look around - I might have a wing you could put on that bad boy

(someone will remember THAT!)

 

Who has a negative these days???

 

me thinks he meant this

 

I like choice #1 with black on black. The red on the calipers and the inside trim should be sufficient as your accent color.

 

i also went with alcantara add ons ,steering wheel with extra padding, storage lids ,doors and center console, e-brake and gear shift and some other trim.and then because you then start to go crazy,i added porsche tequipment upgrades like leather dash vents with alumilook slats,and assorted alumilook accents,door sills, gauge cluster surround,and then of course oem gt3 black sport seats with matching exterior color hard shell backs,i changed the rear seats out as well (black),the combo of black,silver and graphite grey contrast well,also black lloyds mats and a center console and horse shoe painted by eric at bumperplugs doesnt hurt either.alcantara work done by dallas custom steering wheel located in texas,don lee is the owner and craftsman,a real nice guy,more than willing to talk and discuss price over the phone.have i spent lots of money....yes no doubt,but the interior needed a little help and im out of my mine with porsche fever...lol any way good luck and keep it classy and tasteful.

 

Sorry the script says "text" it'll say "Carrera" when I have it done (if I have it done).

Randy, great job on your interior. I know it'll be a lot of work and a decent amount of $, but I'll be much happier with the car with the interior re-modeled.

 

Exactly Ed.

 

You asked so here it goes...

I think very limited use of alcantara in interior. I like the sample interior PIC you post, I do not like some of the reply samples. (Sorry, guys, personal taste. No offense intended). Also, how does this material wear? It would seem to me that it would gather oil and dirt from your hands and end up looking burnished, like an inside hat band or something.

I'd do your sample PIC of the black rims and red calipers... Brembo or "Porsche" ones. (The same, aren't they)? And I'd leave off the script decals. Speed Yellow screams enough as it is and I think the scheme I'm describing means "... no funny business" and straight up.

I've got an '03 and my opinion is that the "... older" and "... grubbier" they look, the better. If that makes any sense. Mine is black with black Innsbruck rims, black calipers and clear turn lenses. In some ways, it looks like a Hot Wheels car, but in others, it looks totally cool and understated. If I had Speed Yellow, I'd try for the same thing and not worry about looking like a bumble bee.

Neat car and keep posting PICs. They are fun to look at and talk about.

JKC

PS Steering wheel on wrong side too. Heads up on that.

 

go with Red... black makes me sing the bumblebee tuna song