I Cut The Roof Off Of My Porsche 996 Turbo And I Might Throw Up A Little
Sometimes you just have to dive head-first into a project and hope that there isn’t a big pile of rocks waiting for you right under the surface. A few months back, I ordered a lightweight carbon fiber roof panel for my 2001 Porsche 911 Turbo and booked the car in for a winter of non-use as it prepares for its next phase of life. The whole idea of this car is effectively to put together a circa-2001 version of Porsche’s newest Sport Classic, while at the same time doing a more period-representative job of upping the 996 chassis than the factory did with the Club Classic Coupe. Ambitious, I know.
Andy Got a Brand-New Porsche 911 (Made of Legos)
Taylor at Two Brothers Auto Group in Canton, Ohio promised to help make my vision of the car’s future come to fruition, and almost immediately set to work making it happen. The first step was to give the carbon roof a perfect finish, and the second step was to cut the old metal out, including its heavy sunroof cassette. After removing all of the windows and roof channel trim and drilling out eleven thousand rivets (not really, but it felt like it) the roof panel could come out. We’re almost to the point where the new carbon roof can get bonded to the car, but it just needs a bit more prep.
It’s a little disconcerting seeing my little Porsche coupe sitting there without windows or a roof. Truth be told, if it wasn’t ten degrees on the Fahrenheit scale, I might have fired it up and took it for an al fresco spin. I think the summer tires might have had a thing or two to say about that, however.
Image: Bradley Brownell
In the next steps, Taylor is going to remove the doors, fenders, bumpers, and trim, and get to prepping the rest of the body for a new coat of gorgeous period-correct paint. The original Seal Grey color of the car was just too damn boring for me, so I went looking for an interesting color that was available from Porsche in-period that gives this car more of the main-character energy it deserves. After sleeping on it for several months, I decided on Ocean Jade Metallic. It’s a color that was available in the late 1990s through about 2001, though could be special ordered for years afterward.
While the exterior is getting taken care of, I spoke to the folks at Spotlight Customs in Akron, Ohio about getting the interior work done as well. This shop does some incredible work, but they have so much backlog that I can’t get a slot until next fall. All the better, as I’ll probably need to re-build my savings after the paint job is finished anyway. If the weather next fall is as mild as it was last fall, maybe I can even push my slot out to December and just keep driving.
Image: Bradley Brownell
I dropped my junkyard-find 991-generation GT3 hardback sport seats and Nephrite Green take-out interior to SLC, and we sat down with shop-owner Sean to discuss leather and cloth options for the re-color.
Image: Bradley Brownell
You’ll have to wait and see what fabric options I picked out, but this little project is coming together, and I’m so excited at the prospect of the completed look.
The final thing we accomplished in this in-between stage was getting the seats disassembled and sent over to Two Brothers to get color-matched to the exterior. The seat hardbacks, the center console, and the wheel centers will all be color-matched to the exterior. It’ll be like a teal bomb went off and the late 1990s vomited all over the car. I can’t wait to see it finished.
Image: Spotlight Customs
There is still much to be done on this car, but we’re making progress. And in the end, isn’t that all that matters? I definitely plan to run this car for another 300,000 miles in my lifetime, so I might as well take care of it and treat it right. Hopefully it’ll do the same for me.
