Page 42 - KCRPCA July Aug 2020

myself $100 by not replacing the rear pads as they were practically new, but since I did not see them when they were replaced previously, I can’t say this was a waste of money. I made a note in my maintenance book that I probably don’t need to replace them the next time I do brakes. I also put in a reminder to re-place my rotors the next time I do pads. Then it was time for the REAL adventure – taking off the front bumper to clean the detritus from it and the radiators. T, being much more prepared than I, had viewed a YouTube video of someone removing the nose from a 986. The first thing we noticed was that somewhere along the way, Porsche decided to switch things out and very little from that video applied to the situation at hand. So, we, mostly T and Nick, started removing torx screws from the underside and the plastic near the trunk latch up top. For what it’s worth, having a lift makes this job infinitely easier. I can just picture me trying to find and remove the various fasteners lying flat on my back on the floor of my garage. Not a pretty sight. Things moved quickly until we tried to remove the ribbed plastic fastener underneath the side marker light. I’ve had experiences with these things in the past, none of which worked out well for me or the car and I was ready to throw in the towel. Fortunately, Fabio had run into a similar prob-lem earlier and had the solution. It turns out that all you need to do is rotate the fastener until it comes out freely. Or, you can just yank it, destroying it in the process, leaving your bumper not quite as stable as Porsche intended. (Guess which option I had taken earlier.) 42 “I HAD TOO BIG OF BREAKFAST...” Der Sportwagen