All posts categorized Project Cars

Fixing Dents on the Porsche Boxster S

The Porsche Boxster S I purchased had a salvage title because it had a massive dent in the left rear quarterpanel, as shown in Figure 1, and a broken tail light. Fixing dents on a car requires real talent and experience, neither of which I had. Nevertheless, I gave it a try in late 2019 by buying a hammer and dolly, and a stud welder set. However, I failed to achieve a good result so ended up giving up after some effort. About 14 months later, in 2021, I decided to hire a cheap body shop guy off CraigsList to get it fixed up so I could make the Boxster my daily driver going forward. I had sold my actual daily driver, a 6-speed manual transmission 2017 VW GTI S, since I was not driving it due to the pandemic.

To make the Boxster my daily driver and to get the salvage title converted to rebuilt title in NJ, I needed the dent fixed. Below is my experience trying to fix the dent myself and then hiring a profesional.

Oil Change on the Porsche Boxster S

The Porsche Boxster S had not really had a full oil change since I procured it. After having driven it about a few hundred miles over the last year, I finally found time and decided to change the oil and the oil filter. ECSTuning.com was running a sale on the LiquiMoly 0W-40 oil change kit along with the OEM Hengst Oil Filter for under $100 with free shipping, so I purchased the kit. This post is to show how to do the oil change. It is quite simple.

Changing Brake Pads on the Porsche Boxster S

The Porsche Boxster S came with brakes that squealed when you drove it to a stop, so it was in desperate need of change of pads. Finally, I spent the ~$400 and purchased original Porsche brake pads from Pelican Parts. Turns out compared to changing the brake pads on the Miata it is much easier to change it on the Porsche Boxster S.

Buying New Jack Stands

Harbor Freight had all their jack stands recalled. I returned all the jack stands I had and took store credit. So I was in the market for new jack stands and wanted something more sturdy that would not have the problems that the Harbor Freight jack stands were recalled for.

So I went with Pro-Lift T-6906D 6-ton jack stands with double locking pins as that would be much safer to use on my cars. This would also enable me to change wheels or brake pads on my parent’s vehicles which are the compact crossover SUVs. This post describes the unboxing of the jack stands that I purchased for a total of $92 on Amazon.

Changing the Front Brake Pads

The Miata had gone two years without any brake changes by me, and having never done it before I thought it would be a good idea to learn how to change brake pads. This would be a skill very useful before going on the track or for an autocross event. In this post, I demonstrate how to change the front brake pads.