Maintenance makes the car happy...Question about GT3 seats in an '87

[preston_brown]

My '87 911 has morphed into a weekend play-toy more or less over the last year. Sometimes my wife still drives it around and I take the kids for rides, but I drive it to work very infrequently. I just started going to the track this spring, and see more of it in my future.

As an aside, guess what my 9 year old daughter said she loves the most about the 911? "It's the smell, daddy!" I'm pretty sure she means the smell of raw gasoline mixed with 25 year old interior. Can't say I don't love my kids...

This weekend I did a bunch of maintenance tasks I've been meaning to do:

1. Changed the front strut inserts. They were original, 175k mile Boges. Now I've got Bilstein HDs in there. I put Bilstein HD shocks on the rear when I reinstalled my motor after rebuilding it (30k miles ago).

2. New front brake pads and rotors.

3. New rear brake pads and rotors. Full system bleed with ATE Super Blue.

4. New Driver's side axle. I had a torn outer CV boot, and I'm not sure how long it was torn. Quite a long time I suspect. Wasn't making noise yet but... I know you can rebuild even the outer CV on an '87 with a G50, but it is kind of a pain in the ass as you have to remove the inner CV joint etc. after removing the axle, and then re-pack from the inside, and slide on a new boot. I saved myself a bunch of time and mess and spent some extra $$$ to avoid this hassle. While the car was in the air, noticed the other side has started to split too. These axles have been on the car for about 90k miles, so...I guess that's OK. Awesome opportunity to use my 5 foot long 3/4" torque wrench for the rear axle nut...only other time I've used it is on 356 crank flywheel bolts. The kids were impressed

5. Even though my engine is *almost* leak-free, it still weeps tiny bit. Probably from the rocker shafts. I degreased the little bit of dirt/oil crud on the bottom of the motor. Haven't done that since the motor was reinstalled and it was quick and easy.

6. Charged AC system with a can of R134A. It leaks down slowly, I do this once a season (I'm late this year) to keep the car semi-friendly down here in NC. Plus my wife likes it when it blows cold. I've thought about ripping out all the AC stuff and may still do it some day, but...not yet.

Meanwhile, I got a close eye on a pair of late-model GT3 seats at our local garage yesterday. I'm pretty into them...my current factory seats are worn and really need to be recovered. I could probably pick up the pair of GT3 seats for the same price as recovering, and save my OEM seats. Can they be made to mount to the seat rails without much trouble?

I'm in that tough place where I kind of like letting my kids still ride in the car, and wanting to turn it into a more track-day tool. My suspension is still stock. These threads are usually useless because everyone has different opinions and they are all valid given different preferences and circumstances. Just looking for some input here before I do something I'll regret...or really like.

[ShakinJoe]

Holy crap!! You had a very busy weekend!!

I ran into the same situation and my car turned into a track car. Once you cannot access the rear seats, you will want to save the weight and take them out. Next is the carpeting and then the insulation and so on. You will find at that point that the AC and heat never get used and just take up weight and you start looking at headers to get rid of the factory HEAVY units. Now the car starts to get quicker as your driving skills progress and you start looking at better brakes.

You have a 997 so I would go for it.

If you pass on the GT3 sets shoot me a PM!