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Introduction:
Hey all--I've been lurking on RL for a number of years and only recently started posting. I've been a car nut for as long as I can remember and have been fortunate enough to own a few great cars over the years (M3s, S2000s and a Prelude, to name a few). I had been driving a 2015 991.1 C2S and while I loved just how well rounded that car was as a performance daily, I found myself starting to get a little bored of it and wanted to move to something a little more "special." I initially settled on a 718 Spyder and had my local dealer's last allocation locked up and a build submitted but while I waited for production to start I kept eyeing 997 GT3s as an alternative. I graduated high school in '06 and was just the right age to fall in love with the 997 GT3s when they were first released. Eventually, the more I kept looking at 997 GT3s the more I realized how it was a better fit for me than a Spyder. Those perfect proportions and looks, howling Mezger and more analog driving experience were exactly what I needed in my life and so on a whim I cancelled my Spyder preorder and began my hunt for a 997 GT3.
The Search:
I looked high and low for the right 997 GT3 for a couple of months. I was fairly agnostic on color other than black but wanted full leather and PCCBs and had a strong preference for buckets. I was also looking for a driver that had some miles on it and not a creampuff. There were a few potential options on the market at the time but I kept coming back to the .1 Arctic Silver that Florida Performance Cars had a couple of months ago (https://rennlist.com/forums/997-gt2-...l#post18557610). It was a very well specced car with full leather, PCCBs, bi-xenons, sound package plus and red belts and someone had added a set of folding buckets and a fairly rare Porsche Tequipment Panamericana roll bar. It also had a clean CarFax. The downside is that it also had some very questionable audio upgrades for a GT3, including a pair of 10" subs in the rear window, a Kenwood double din headunit, Rockford Fosgate speakers and a pair of amps in the frunk. While I generally don't feel intimidated by a little car audio DIY, I also had no idea what kind of shape the wiring was in and what was done to the car to integrate the audio system. Though that remained a big question mark until I later tore into the interior, the car was well specced and I felt priced fairly reasonably for what it was (likely depressed some by the audio work) so I decided to at least reach out to the guys at Florida Performance Cars and get some additional information. I was told the car was owned by a longtime client of theirs and had generally been maintained at Orbit Racing throughout its life, though we only had more recent maintenance records dating back 5 or so years. They knew it saw some track time which is probably to be expected with these cars, but their understanding is that it was minimal. We went back and forth with questions and pictures for about a week or so and we settled on a price that was a few grand under their asking price, conditional on a clean PPI.
Since the car was a lifetime Orbit car, I decided to have them take it to another respected local Porsche shop for the PPI just to get a fresh set of eyes on it. The car was there all day and I had them run the full cadre of tests, including compression and leakdown. Their conclusion was that the car was in excellent mechanical shape and was likely treated very well during the course of its prior ownership. The engine felt very strong with excellent results on compression and leakdown, the PCCBs were in excellent shape and we came to find out that Orbit had pinned the coolant lines. They did flag that the front PPF was starting to yellow and in need of replacement, the coolant expansion tank was starting to show signs of cracking, the passenger side cupholder wouldn't stay closed and being a lifelong Florida car had the all too common foam in the air vent. Happy with the results, I wrapped up the purchase and had the car shipped to my house. In spite of the clean PPI, I did take something of a risk not having driven the car (or any 997 GT3 for that matter) but was just coming back from vacation and catching up on work so I decided to take a gamble and not fly down to see the car in person.
Delivery:
A few days later, the delivery truck showed up at my doorstep and at long last I had my GT3. I couldn't help myself driving it right away and it's such a great driving experience. Before the car came, I kept reading about how temperamental the shifter could be and how heavy the clutch was and figured I was in for a car I had to really work to drive. While it's night and day more work than driving my 991, I was pleasantly surprised just how good the inputs felt right away. The clutch feel is perfect, the steering sublime and the shifter engagement is lovely once the car warms up a little. The car feels so alive compared to my 991, with personality and character in spades, and the howl of the Mezger with the GMG bypass is truly otherworldly. There's not a doubt in my mind that I made the right choice. With that being said, while the driving experience was beyond my expectations, cosmetically I had some work to do.
When you have a number of things to do in a project, I usually find there's no better way forward than to simply make a list and start checking things off one by one.
First Steps:
I quite like the checkered flag decals on the sills but the GT3 text on the rear quarters had to go. They bugged me enough that they were the very first thing I did. I grabbed a bucket of hot water, a plastic credit card and some goo gone and got to work. After about an hour or two, I had both sides done and was very happy with the results. With the decals gone, there's no noticeable evidence of paint fade or etching of the clear coat
Half-way through the process when my car functioned as a mobile advertisement for the third Terminator movie:
Next I set about fixing the broken passenger side cupholder assembly (one of the two cupholders wouldn't stay closed). I didn't take any pictures of this process but if you search Rennlist you should be able to find a number of DIYs. Ended up fixing it for about $5 in parts instead of paying hundreds for a new cupholder assembly.
Finally, I gave the interior a thorough detail to get a better idea of what was in good shape, what needed some more work and what I just needed to replace. Ultimately, I went through all plastics, leather and alcantara throughout the interior.
With that done, I opened up the wallet and placed a flurry of orders:
PCCM+
911R silver/black pepita bucket inserts along with new OEM foam from Classic F/X (if you're still on your original foam would definitely recommend a new set at some point as it was a noticeable improvement for me)
Bolster protectors from Ed Guard
Driver's side defroster trim (largely ruined by an adhesive GPS navigation antenna for the aftermarket headunit)
Coolant expansion tank and cap
New starter motor
New fuel filter
New inner door sills
New gas cap
New passenger side tail light
Audio Work:
With the big parts order in, it was time to tackle the 800 pound gorilla in the car--the aftermarket audio system. The car came with the original CDR24 and the ASK amp but not any of the original speakers (or so I thought). With the PCCM+ on the way, I went into the project with my ideal solution being gutting the subs, aftermarket amps and custom wiring and hooking the aftermarket speakers back up to the factory wiring, driven by the PCCM+ and ASK amp. Of course, whether or not that was readily doable depended on what was waiting for me behind the various interior panels. For this task it never hurts to have a second set of eyes and hands so I enlisted the help of a buddy. We decided to start with the back of the car and work our way forwards so we went after the subwoofers first.
Out comes the seats and cage. I pitched the harness since it expired in 2021 and I wasn't planning to track the car in any event.
When we finally got back to the subwoofer, we discovered it was held in place with a steel safety cable and two bungee cords that hooked to the body under the rear quarter panels. While it may not be the cleanest way to install a sub box, thankfully no drilling or cutting was done to the car and there's no visible signs that subwoofers were ever installed in the car.
Next came tackling the rear speakers and the accompanying removal of the B pillar trim and rear quarter trim. After pulling out the speakers (which were upsized to 6.5" on custom brackets), I was relieved to discover intact factory wiring and connectors:
The speakers were wired with what I'm pretty sure is the thickest speaker wire I've ever seen on a car install. This stuff was almost the size and about as flexible as a rubber garden hose and was a pain to feed back out of the car. I should have taken a picture of all of the wires we pulled out of the car--we recycled it but it probably would have filled more than half of a large curbside trash can.
No pictures of the work on the front doors, which we got through without incident. Again, we were happy to see that all of the factory wiring was still in place and we discovered that the installers put aftermarket tweeters in the spot where the mid-range would be in the doors. Since I was planning to use the factory speaker locations with the tweeters in the dash, I went ahead and ordered a set of matched mid-ranges to re-install in the door.
To my surprise, the factory tweeters and center channel were still hooked up in the dash (though obviously not hooked up to the amp/head unit). The original tweeters were still in good shape but the center channel was dry rotted to hell and the rubber baffle had holes in it, likely caused by the Florida sun over the past 16 or so years. I went ahead and ordered a new one, which was only about $50 or so.
Original center channel:
Next came the head unit, which required some finagling on our part to remove. Again, we were thrilled to find all of the original speaker, power and CAN Bus connections intact and electrical taped behind the aftermarket unit:
With final confirmation that all stock wiring was in place, we went ahead and pulled out the aftermarket amps in the frunk, the remaining aftermarket speaker wires and RCA cables as well as all of the additional power cables and grounding straps added by the stereo installers. We also hooked the original ASK amp back up in the frunk.
We then hooked up the PCCM+ and slid it back into its new home. Everything seemed to be working except for the the door woofers and center channel, which are the speakers driven by the ASK amp. After confirming we had power at the amp connection using a multimeter and confirming the door speakers were hooked up correctly with a 9V battery, we figured the amp had gone bad (as these tend to do). I reached out to the fabulous Tore at Bergvill F/X and sent him the amp for inspection and repair. He turned it around in less than 24 hours and I had the amp back from Norway in less than a week after I sent it off. Can't recommend him enough and he even provides a 5 year warranty on the amp. With the repaired amp now back in the car, all of the speakers and PCCM+ are working perfectly. I've heard countless stories about how bad the stock audio system is on these cars and I'm happy to report that with aftermarket speakers and a PCCM+ it sounds very good and has more than enough volume and sound to be usable over the Mezger soundtrack. It definitely sounds better than the Bose system I had in my 991.
PCCM+ installed and interior buttoned back up. During the reassembly process we were careful to install everything the correct way and after chasing a few random noises, the car is nearly rattle free at this point. Such a nice improvement over the aftermarket setup the car had previously:
Final bits:
Around the time I wrapped up the audio work, the bucket inserts, bolster guards and other part orders I had placed had all arrived. Not going to bore you guys with installation details of those since they're fairly straightforward but did want to share pics of the final product:
Closing Thoughts:
I'm over the moon with how everything turned out. I still have some minor interior work planned but otherwise my next additions will be a DSC controller and GT2 rear sway bar. I'm likely going to leave the half cage out and may list it for sale here in the near future. One bonus is that I listed the audio gear that I pulled out of the car for sale on Facebook Marketplace and recouped enough funds to nearly pay for the PCCM+, and ended up with an improved audio system from factory and a wealth of knowledge of how the car fits together. Sometimes things just have a way of working out for the best.
When you have a number of things to do in a project, I usually find there's no better way forward than to simply make a list and start checking things off one by one.
First Steps:
I quite like the checkered flag decals on the sills but the GT3 text on the rear quarters had to go. They bugged me enough that they were the very first thing I did. I grabbed a bucket of hot water, a plastic credit card and some goo gone and got to work. After about an hour or two, I had both sides done and was very happy with the results. With the decals gone, there's no noticeable evidence of paint fade or etching of the clear coat
Half-way through the process when my car functioned as a mobile advertisement for the third Terminator movie:
Next I set about fixing the broken passenger side cupholder assembly (one of the two cupholders wouldn't stay closed). I didn't take any pictures of this process but if you search Rennlist you should be able to find a number of DIYs. Ended up fixing it for about $5 in parts instead of paying hundreds for a new cupholder assembly.
Finally, I gave the interior a thorough detail to get a better idea of what was in good shape, what needed some more work and what I just needed to replace. Ultimately, I went through all plastics, leather and alcantara throughout the interior.
With that done, I opened up the wallet and placed a flurry of orders:
PCCM+
911R silver/black pepita bucket inserts along with new OEM foam from Classic F/X (if you're still on your original foam would definitely recommend a new set at some point as it was a noticeable improvement for me)
Bolster protectors from Ed Guard
Driver's side defroster trim (largely ruined by an adhesive GPS navigation antenna for the aftermarket headunit)
Coolant expansion tank and cap
New starter motor
New fuel filter
New inner door sills
New gas cap
New passenger side tail light
Audio Work:
With the big parts order in, it was time to tackle the 800 pound gorilla in the car--the aftermarket audio system. The car came with the original CDR24 and the ASK amp but not any of the original speakers (or so I thought). With the PCCM+ on the way, I went into the project with my ideal solution being gutting the subs, aftermarket amps and custom wiring and hooking the aftermarket speakers back up to the factory wiring, driven by the PCCM+ and ASK amp. Of course, whether or not that was readily doable depended on what was waiting for me behind the various interior panels. For this task it never hurts to have a second set of eyes and hands so I enlisted the help of a buddy. We decided to start with the back of the car and work our way forwards so we went after the subwoofers first.
Out comes the seats and cage. I pitched the harness since it expired in 2021 and I wasn't planning to track the car in any event.
When we finally got back to the subwoofer, we discovered it was held in place with a steel safety cable and two bungee cords that hooked to the body under the rear quarter panels. While it may not be the cleanest way to install a sub box, thankfully no drilling or cutting was done to the car and there's no visible signs that subwoofers were ever installed in the car.
Next came tackling the rear speakers and the accompanying removal of the B pillar trim and rear quarter trim. After pulling out the speakers (which were upsized to 6.5" on custom brackets), I was relieved to discover intact factory wiring and connectors:
The speakers were wired with what I'm pretty sure is the thickest speaker wire I've ever seen on a car install. This stuff was almost the size and about as flexible as a rubber garden hose and was a pain to feed back out of the car. I should have taken a picture of all of the wires we pulled out of the car--we recycled it but it probably would have filled more than half of a large curbside trash can.
No pictures of the work on the front doors, which we got through without incident. Again, we were happy to see that all of the factory wiring was still in place and we discovered that the installers put aftermarket tweeters in the spot where the mid-range would be in the doors. Since I was planning to use the factory speaker locations with the tweeters in the dash, I went ahead and ordered a set of matched mid-ranges to re-install in the door.
To my surprise, the factory tweeters and center channel were still hooked up in the dash (though obviously not hooked up to the amp/head unit). The original tweeters were still in good shape but the center channel was dry rotted to hell and the rubber baffle had holes in it, likely caused by the Florida sun over the past 16 or so years. I went ahead and ordered a new one, which was only about $50 or so.
Original center channel:
Next came the head unit, which required some finagling on our part to remove. Again, we were thrilled to find all of the original speaker, power and CAN Bus connections intact and electrical taped behind the aftermarket unit:
With final confirmation that all stock wiring was in place, we went ahead and pulled out the aftermarket amps in the frunk, the remaining aftermarket speaker wires and RCA cables as well as all of the additional power cables and grounding straps added by the stereo installers. We also hooked the original ASK amp back up in the frunk.
We then hooked up the PCCM+ and slid it back into its new home. Everything seemed to be working except for the the door woofers and center channel, which are the speakers driven by the ASK amp. After confirming we had power at the amp connection using a multimeter and confirming the door speakers were hooked up correctly with a 9V battery, we figured the amp had gone bad (as these tend to do). I reached out to the fabulous Tore at Bergvill F/X and sent him the amp for inspection and repair. He turned it around in less than 24 hours and I had the amp back from Norway in less than a week after I sent it off. Can't recommend him enough and he even provides a 5 year warranty on the amp. With the repaired amp now back in the car, all of the speakers and PCCM+ are working perfectly. I've heard countless stories about how bad the stock audio system is on these cars and I'm happy to report that with aftermarket speakers and a PCCM+ it sounds very good and has more than enough volume and sound to be usable over the Mezger soundtrack. It definitely sounds better than the Bose system I had in my 991.
PCCM+ installed and interior buttoned back up. During the reassembly process we were careful to install everything the correct way and after chasing a few random noises, the car is nearly rattle free at this point. Such a nice improvement over the aftermarket setup the car had previously:
Final bits:
Around the time I wrapped up the audio work, the bucket inserts, bolster guards and other part orders I had placed had all arrived. Not going to bore you guys with installation details of those since they're fairly straightforward but did want to share pics of the final product:
Closing Thoughts:
I'm over the moon with how everything turned out. I still have some minor interior work planned but otherwise my next additions will be a DSC controller and GT2 rear sway bar. I'm likely going to leave the half cage out and may list it for sale here in the near future. One bonus is that I listed the audio gear that I pulled out of the car for sale on Facebook Marketplace and recouped enough funds to nearly pay for the PCCM+, and ended up with an improved audio system from factory and a wealth of knowledge of how the car fits together. Sometimes things just have a way of working out for the best.
Car looks excellent! Congrats! You really made the car into such an excellent OEM+ example. I have a PCCM+ sitting in my basement, will install it soon as I make the time.
So interesting how you started out looking at a 718 Spyder and then moved into the 997 GT3 and ended up buying one. When I was buying my 997 GT3, I was considering a 981 GT4 at the time (this was 2019) along with the 997 GT3. One drive in the 997 GT3 and I knew it was the car for me. However, you can still find me looking at 718 Spyders and GT4's from time to time (not anymore that allocations are gone). Only because it's brand new, 0 miles, perfect condition. That's where the 718 wins for me, because I can point out the common wear items on every 997 GT3, even ones with super low miles. But, the 997 GT3 gives me the exact driving experience I'm looking for. It's such an incredible car and I've had mine now for four years.
From a fellow new owner - huge congrats on a beautiful car! The decals are quite a fetching look against the silver. Really nice work on the refreshening to boot. I find those little details do so much to make the car feels “yours” and even new in its own way.
Curious how you chased down the rattles that you found, and what you did to fix?
Congrats! Nice work on the 997 so far. I've never been a fan of script on the hips. But recently I've been having some second thoughts lol.......
The interior transformation is awesome. I'd put a vote in for yellow belts.
Car looks excellent! Congrats! You really made the car into such an excellent OEM+ example. I have a PCCM+ sitting in my basement, will install it soon as I make the time.
So interesting how you started out looking at a 718 Spyder and then moved into the 997 GT3 and ended up buying one. When I was buying my 997 GT3, I was considering a 981 GT4 at the time (this was 2019) along with the 997 GT3. One drive in the 997 GT3 and I knew it was the car for me. However, you can still find me looking at 718 Spyders and GT4's from time to time (not anymore that allocations are gone). Only because it's brand new, 0 miles, perfect condition. That's where the 718 wins for me, because I can point out the common wear items on every 997 GT3, even ones with super low miles. But, the 997 GT3 gives me the exact driving experience I'm looking for. It's such an incredible car and I've had mine now for four years.
Thank you! The warranty and the fact that I'd be the first owner were without a doubt the biggest selling points of the 718. I'm sure I would have been happy with either and perhaps if I lived somewhere where I could enjoy the Spyder experience year round that may have swayed me towards keeping the Spyder allocation. When I was younger I did the whole fairly raw convertible in the winter thing (S2000) and while I'm sure I could do it again, that was certainly another factor in my decision tree. At some point I may end up adding a Spyder to the GT3 but if I have to have just one and it's not a daily then I would have made the exact same choice all over again.
Originally Posted by sirringo
From a fellow new owner - huge congrats on a beautiful car! The decals are quite a fetching look against the silver. Really nice work on the refreshening to boot. I find those little details do so much to make the car feels “yours” and even new in its own way.
Curious how you chased down the rattles that you found, and what you did to fix?
Thank you! Most of the rattles were fairly easy to find on my own based on where they were coming from in the car. For example, I had an annoying sunroof rattle that was fairly easy to pinpoint and same with a rattle in my driver's side B pillar. The sunroof I fixed by pushing up on the rear bar that spans the roof to pop it back into tension and the B pillar I had to take apart to find a small metal clip that had fallen out of place and behind the trim. Popped the clip back in and rattle resolved. If you can figure out the general area where a rattle is coming from you can usually run your hand across the trim piece and you will likely be able to feel some vibration/buzzing in the rattle spot. A few of the more challenging ones may require a passenger's help. For example, I had a rustling noise coming from the rear of the car that I couldn't pinpoint better for the life of me after multiple attempts. Ended up having to put my fiancee in the back and went for a careful drive until she was able to track it down. It ended up being a part number tag belonging to the rear quarter panel sound deadening material that had lost its adhesiveness and was rustling around in the quarter panel. With my audio installation adventure (which really took place over multiple days and required a number of disassemblies/reassemblies), one benefit to the 997 platform is that I really feel as though the interior was designed to come apart fairly easily. I don't feel that same way about the newer platforms.
Originally Posted by Elliotw44
Congrats! Nice work on the 997 so far. I've never been a fan of script on the hips. But recently I've been having some second thoughts lol.......
The interior transformation is awesome. I'd put a vote in for yellow belts.
Thanks man! Totally hear you on the script. I think if it came with the car like a .2 RS I'd be much more inclined to keep it. I also think that particular decal looks better when it spells out GT3RS vs GT3, something about the script and how it's spaced out. With that being said, decal delete 3RSs look fantastic so you can't really go wrong either way.
Yellow belts are definitely tempting and they'd look awesome with PCCBs. Biggest downside is that I've heard they can be a pain to keep clean.
Nice pick up. I love gt3s in silver. No better feeling than removing nonsense a previous owner installed! Personal opinion would be to ditch the flags (and the tint) but it looks great either way.
Really nice work so far, and huge congratulations to you for picking a 997.1 GT3 as the right car for you...certainly a decision that you will never regret. I hope you enjoy ever mile with a big smile!
Congrats. When i started my search, it was between a GT4 and a 991T. GT3 wasn't even on the radar. Then my car popped up and everything fell into place. Now, my feeling is that the 997 GT3 is GOAT 911. The only 911 that could be more for me would be a Singer and that's not happening anytime soon. Love what you've done with the car. I agree with the above: take off tint and stickers. Absolutely love the new seat inserts. May do the same myself. Agree with either yellow or, my first choice, silver belts.
Thanks all for the comments and suggestions. Tint removal is definitely on the list, will mull over the remaining graphics.
Still need to decide if I want to keep the black mirrors and wing top. Not sure what to do with the wheels but I think I’d like to go back to oem silver. Not sure if I should try to trade wheels with someone or if they can easily be stripped and repainted.
04-15-2023, 06:36 PM
Vocan's New .1 Toy
