First Times

Firsts?

The first time doing something can be a nerve-wracking, scary, anxiety-inducing, whole-body stress-filling-nervousness moment, this I know.

First time wet sanding your new car's clearcoat? Nerve-wracking.

First time navigating a mountain pass at speed with sheer drop offs in that new car? Scary.

First time driving up an uneven dirt road in that BRAND-NEW, extremely low-slung sportscar? Anxiety-inducing.

First time taking her on the 'Ring. Next-level nervousness.

All successfully conquered, giving you the satisfaction of having done something for the first time, and having it work out well.

So, a new nervous first: a couple of weeks ago I plugged a puncture in a tire for the first time. I know, hard to believe in 41 years of driving, I'd never plugged a tire. But as far as I can recall, I've only ever had three flat tires and all were in the sidewalls of the tires and unrepairable. The most bitter of those was one in a brand new rear tire on the S2000, that necessitated getting a brand new tire because of where the damage was. Painful. Why never on an old worn out front that was just about to be replaced? I ask. Why?

I've never had the pleasure (nor first-time newbie stress) of plugging a punctured tire before. And yes, it's a bit stressful. Other friends have done it, some many times!

For me, this would be the first.

Now of course this first was a direct result of another first: namely, a puncture caused by what looked like a roofing nail, smack dab in the meaty part of the brand-new left rear Michelin on the Boxster. Not more than 150 kms on the grippy new rubber. Luckily I had discovered it while the car was up on the hoist having the front tires replaced. Yes, worn out front tires that could've easily accepted a nail and not bothered me one bit. But no! Those nail-free tires were less worn than the rears that I had swapped out a few weeks ago, but I hadn't got the time back then to do all four. Fast-forward a few weeks, and a few hundred kilometres later, and I got the chance to do the fronts.

Anyway...

Anytime the car is up on a hoist, I take advantage of the opportunity to take a good look underneath, and I get wistful at the thought of having my own hoist so that I could be under the car and have the wheels off to do some proper cleaning and detailing on those much neglected areas! Maybe someday.

Examining the tires carefully, sure enough I spotted the worn down smooth shiny head of this infiltrator. I grabbed some needle-nose pliers and with a great deal of wrestling, managed to extract the little bugger. Such a tiny thing...but sure enough, it had gone all the way through. It was in there so tight that I had experienced no loss of pressure, and before I removed it, I rechecked the tire pressure manually to be sure. The TPMS sensors were doing the trick as they were accurately reporting the tire still properly inflated.

Enlisting the help of a body double was next, dialling up my GT Silver Cayman S buddy (who is an old hand at this) to basically be my guide and reassurance as I attempted to use the plug kit that I had bought for just such an occasion.

The mild stress encountered was all around preparing the hole for the plug. You really have to ream out the hole, roughing it up for the plug to properly grab hold, and I can confirm it's rather unnerving given just how much force you have to apply to get through the tire, in and out. Certainly the nail being through the absolute thickest part of the tire didn't make it any easier but I was surprised at just how much effort it took.

The first time ever doing was very alien, especially to an expensive brand new boot, and the feeling of doing real damage was palpable.

However, as reassured by my compatriot, this first for me turned out to be a non-event. The plug went in, the tool came out, the tire was pumped up and has held pressure now for the last two weeks of normal driving no problem. And of course normal means taking some good ramps at decent speed and G's.

That was a bit of a relief, not having to buy another brand new rear tire to replace an already brand new rear tire. So the first time I had to do that (on the S2000) remains that first.

And this first home puncture repair turned out perfectly. Despite the apprehension, sometimes the first time trying something isn't that bad...actually, most times!!

There's a lesson in there I guess...

~ Luke