Approaches to upgrading Apache but not mod_perl

I've been using apache/mod_perl for some time now and have upgraded 
apache many times with mod_perl. In most cases I've only had to upgrade 
the web server only but since I use mod_perl I also compile mod_perl 
statically.  Now my question is: What's the correct or best approach of 
compiling mod_perl into Apache without acutally installing mod_perl, 
since it's already installed?

For example, when I want to upgrade to Apache 1.3.26/mod_perl-1.27 to 
1.3.27/mod_perl-1.27 I perform the following standard compliation steps:

 1. % tar xzvf apache_1.3.27.tar.gz
 2. % cd mod_perl-1.xx
 3. % perl Makefile.PL APACHE_SRC=../apache_1.3.27/src \
    DO_HTTPD=1 USE_APACI=1 EVERYTHING=1
 4. % make && make install
 5. % cd ../apache_1.3.xx
 6. % make && make install

Step 4. executes make install which copies mod_perl into the perl 
installation location, which seems harmless, but is thie ok? Or is there 
a way that I can somehow just copy the libperl.a into 
apache_1.3.27/src/modules/lib/perl ? Although, I've been following these 
steps for years and it works fine, I've got bitten by the curious bug 
and would like to know how other approach these types of upgrades.

Thanks,

-Carlos