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Hi Rennlist, happy to say I've bought my first Porsche after years of desire, saving, and shopping. I'd like to introduce my 2012 997 GTS that I purchased on Pcarmarket from forum member and pal @ltcjmramos. This car is on its third life with a healthy mileage just over 97,000. It has not missed a single service and it runs like a top. I'll to use this thread to document my ownership experience, mods, and fun times with the local community. Will update periodically as parts arrive and things happen. Off to Shell for some V-Power as the first order of business. Delivery day, January 3 2024. The previous owner Joe graciously included some swag in the purchase. This hangs in the garage next to the car. This vintage machine was on the truck ahead of my 911. Discovery of the @Wayne Smith Wire System behind my side marker. There's a thread on here with a how-to. This is connected to the frunk hinge in the event of a dead battery. Useful as I left the car keyed on overnight by accident. A-Pillar removal to tuck dashcam wire. To give the car a more classic look, I had the wheels refinished in OE silver. Here she stood after the first mod. One of my first specialty tool purchases was the popular Precision Instruments torque wrench for the centerlocks. I decided I had to have silver locknuts to make the car look more cohesive. Found these 997 Turbo takeoffs on ebay. Thanks to good buddy and RLister @Bmuldoon for the assist during install. Out to brunch after the wheels were dialed in. Plate frame courtesy of my good friend Alex at Champion Porsche. Vanity tag arrived after a 2-month wait. Many local Porsches have been serviced here at Sketchy Tire. First drive with the boys in Valley Forge National Park. I wanted to make the car feel like an GT3/RS/Touring inside with a mix of leather and alcantara, inspired by childhood friend @Captain racing's former 991 GT3. Started with an RS-like wheel. As you can see the interior is extended leather. I wanted to make it feel more balanced with the wheel, hence the next mod. Wife unpleased with car parts on the dining table. Ebay alcantara/leather door cards. These look like they've been disassembled and reupholstered based on the washers and screws in place of plastic rivets. Cool with me, like how they look. Install entailed migrating the old wiring harnesses, speakers, and drilling out the window switch bezels. First one on. Second one on. Quite practical! Next order of business. I have an OE console, shifter, and ebrake in alcantara on order from Belgium. Looking for 997 folding buckets! Please give me a shout if you'd like to sell.
Last edited by tdemarco27; 03-23-2024 at 08:53 PM.
Today was paint correction day with good buddy Greg. You can see some swirling above the GTS badge that was quickly (slowly) dispatched. Good as new. We stopped by a scenic spot after 7 hours of work. Greg's 991! Vorsteiner wheels, ducktail, carbon aero, and half cage. Yachting blue interior.
Out and about with my new buddy Mike and his 997.1 GT3. Mileage last week, over 98k now. 100k will happen this year. New door sills! I'm waging a war on plastic. These will go in soon, I have a surprise arriving in a week or two. Turn signal service on my friend's 996 GT2. The contacts were gummed up with epoxy which we scraped off. Good as new!
Surprise! The operation begins. These are RoW 991 buckets with heat. I intend to transplant the occupancy sensor from my passenger seat over to the new bucket. Confident I can make this work without coding off my airbags. I was antsy to get the seats in the car, so I sacrificed my passenger seat for the cause. Removed the 4 weight sensors, occupancy module, and harness. I haven't seen a guide for this online yet, may make a more in-depth one if people are interested. Thankfully the weight sensors fit the new rails nicely. Bucket wiring connector on driver side. Note pins 18 and 19 are blanks. These are for the seatbelt receiver. Sacrificed a stock wired receiver to swap into this connector. Driver seat was later installed, no airbag lights. Stock seat connector. Note pins 18 and 19 populated by the wired seatbelt receiver. This pops out easily with two tabs on the left side. Aforementioned stock receptacle. Close up of 1/4 weight sensors tied into the stock seat base. I had a hard time finding these online. May be included as part of a seat base assembly - haven't confirmed through dealer, but did see a listing for a seat bottom with these still attached if you don't want to sacrifice stock seats. Leather door sills in now! Glamour shot of the completed project. After assembled, scanned with Foxwell NT530 and got code 8057, requiring AWS (weight sensor) calibration. Foxwell didn't support this function, but I could disable the weight sensors and have passenger side hot at all times. Will soon try Durametric Pro, and as a last resort PIWIS to finish the job correctly. Spur of the moment photoshoot with Richardfromtoronto on Instagram. He's done an east coast road trip photographing Porsches for charity. Perhaps a look ahead at the next mod. Time will tell.
03-23-2024, 08:37 PM
2012 GTS Long Term Build Thread
