Ready Fire Aim!

[cicsprog]

I thought a thread on the dumbest thing/repair job you ever did to you P-Car that went south might be fun. Below is why my favorite saying is "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished"!

My third brake light was cracking paint and showing its wear. So for Christmas, I asked Santa (Sister-In-law) to bring me one. Was backordered at Porsche dealership (Chicago) and did not arrive until January. I bought one from Performance (sorry Pelican didn't know about you then) the week before the Dealership one arrived – it was the black version. So I called Dealership and asked if they could cancel. Said NO, they had sent it out for painting. So I said fine, send it to me and I will return the black one to Performance. Thought to myself, a white one will look better than a black one on my car. It never occurred to me to ask Santa if they asked the color of my car when Santa ordered it. Sent back the black one and got the new UNPAINTED one – DOUGH a week later. Damn Porsche Dealership liars.

So now the fun begins. After surveying the change out, I determined that the engine compartment lid needed to be removed so I could get to the light and switch to the new one. Removed the engine compartment lid and that took about 4 attempts before getting the new one and the wires in the right place (2 hours). Reattached engine compartment lid and shut the thing. Noticed that the engine compartment lid was not aligned quite right. So I go to open it at the door and it WON"T OPEN – DOUGH!

I tried everything, couldn't get it open. Swallowed my pride and drove down to my Porsche Dealership (Tampa) and asked the guys – GET IT OPEN! Well the only thing they could think of was to drill from the bottom and try and pull the latch. This sounded expensive and I didn't really want the hole (not standard on a Porsche I think). So I drove home and spent the next 4 hours trying everything I could think of to pop the lid - to no avail.

I finally decided to take a hacksaw blade and insert it between the lid and PORSCHE rear reflector and cut through the nipple on the latch to pop it open. This took another 2 hours. It finally opened revealing some upper engine lid saw marks and a sawed thru nipple.

Drove down to the Porsche Dealership and got a new nipple ($75.00 as I remember), aligned the lid, shut the engine compartment, and had 5 large GIN cocktails. For got to paint the light – DOUGH! Fortunately, it was a primer type white which was close enough until I got brave again!

A year latter, I sprayed painted the light by masking off and covering my P-car. Turned out GREAT! Notice I didn't consider removing the lid before painting the third brake light.

Let be careful out there!

Jason
88 911 Cab (with nice third brake light)