I guess, now that I think about it, my wreck was WORSE than yours in order to cost less.

Almost every part of what I needed for this conversion was damaged in the accident. So my insurance covered the cost of what it would replace all those parts, Boxster style, and I only had to pay the difference. For example, insurance would cover something like $800 for the bumper, and the Carrera bumper cost $900. My cost, $100. Fenders were identical in price, so no charge for me there. The Litronics were the greatest price difference (maybe $400 each?). Then there were parts that the Boxster didn't have that the Carrera did, and a few parts that were different, but not damaged. Those added up, but weren't over the top or anything (fender lining, headlight brackets, headlight wiring harness).

Too bad about your fenders not being damaged. That could have really helped you out, cuz those are kinda expensive. The hoods are the same on the 2 cars, so that's not a factor in your price difference.

Find a good body shop that will work with you. I interviewed a couple before deciding (interviewed, visited, whatever). One shop seemed good, but their quote immediately was too close to my price point threshold. So if some unexpected costs showed up, I'd be over budget. The next shop I found was really interested in helping me out by getting the car how I wanted it, as well as finding good deals on parts and thus saving me money.

Now that I think about it, my out of pocket may have included my deductible too. Hmm. Not sure, this was about a year ago that I did my car.

I think if I do this I would have to go with LA Dismantlers. I know they're overpriced but at least if I go with them I'm ensured they've done this conversion before. Bolt-on body kits often have fitment problems on their own, so I could imagine all the problems a shop would be running into if they were doing the entire conversion on their own for the first time.

I'm just hoping I can talk them down from their $4000 in labor costs.

hi guys!!!

warm season greetings to all!!! :)

i'm new to this site... discovered it when i was looking to mod up my car.

am currently driving a 04 BoxsterS... now looking ard to improve n upgrade the looks.

after many complains abt lousy workmanship n quality abt bodykits made in taiwan... was thinking tat only european made stuffs are the way to go until i discovered this thread.

was seriously thinking abt the GT2 similar look from Caractere or from Techart... but they cost easily 2x more than the ones i see made here in the USA.

so are the ones from USA actually made in Taiwan... n if not... are the qualities just as good as the ones made in Europe?

thanks very much for any input given...

cheers!! :cheers:


ps: good luck to ur repairs (MJstallion) - always go to a reputed body workshop specialist cos u wont want the headache of all the hassle of wasting ur time again n again if its not done up well.

like the thing u did with ur wheels... flushing it with the colour of ur car... might do it with mine once i complete n finalise my bodykit!

This isn't a bolt on body kit. These are Porsche parts for Porsche cars.

There's no cutting or fabrication that needs to be done with the exception of the headlight wiring harness. In fact, I think LA Dismantlers can make/sell you one. I have no idea how they are as a body shop, but any good body shop will line up parts properly and get the fitments right. This was the first time that the body shop I used did this particular conversion. It took a couple tries to get one of the headlights lined up, but other then that the process wasn't all that tricky.

My theory: I believe Porsche changed up the front end of the '02-'04 to look less like the Boxster due to complaints from Carrera owners, whose cars cost almost twice as much as the Boxster but were visually indiscernible from the front. Instead of doing an (expensive) entire front end redesign, a thorough freshening would be the ideal solution. So they changed lights and fenders. The change was relatively dramatic enough to distinguish the two cars now. Carrera owners are happy because it looks different now, Porsche is happy because the fix wasn't overly costly.

pg7170, welcome to the board. Post some pix of your car! We'd love to see it. But you have got to use complete words here. There are too many of us old school folks, like myself, that don't know or want to take the time to figure out the abbreviations. Also, mjstallion has a 550 Edition Boxster which means his rims came from the factory that color. Sweet, huh? I don't have any answers to your USA vs. Taiwan body kits. Try starting a new thread with that to see if you'll get more replies...

My conversion with labor was $5K. I bought the headlights used for $650 pair but, they're halogens, the fenders were bought new and I believe they were $350 each, the bumper was free and already speed yellow so that saved me a couple thousand. You may have a hard time justifying it when the bill arrives but, I absolutely love the look of my car now and it sets it apart. There's not a single one in town with the conversion and the closest person to me that I know of would be Jeph and he's a state away. ;)

Even so, yellowboxster01 has the Turbo bumper, I have the Carrera bumper, and mjstallion could complete the tri-fecta* with th GT2 bumper.

What do you say mjstallion, what are your plans?
[commence peer pressure]

*I really don't know what a tri-fecta is.

I think I'm gonna go for that 997 GT3 look, that was posted earlier in this thread. So I'd like it to look something like this, although the headlights would be different:

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/uploads/new/23822.jpg

My insurance adjustor is gonna come look at my car on Monday, so we'll see what he offers me. The bumper I had previously was the one that came with limited edition Spyders, so I'd imagine that the value of that would be comparable to the value of the new bumper I'd like.

Either way, I'm planning on completing that trifecta. I'll keep you guys posted with the progress.

Sweet, I'm going with the 997GT3 style bumper retrofit for the 986/996 myself. Picking it up in January. Looking forward to seeing your updates.

imo the gt2 front end just doesn't look right.

Just an update on my GT3 conversion..


It's being done by Wicked Motorsports and I went there to take a look at how it's going, and I saw that it's missing the front grill. If you notice in the image I posted a few posts up, there is a black grill in between the end of the hood and the front bumper. Mine is missing that, and the front of the hood just goes straight to the bumper.

When I asked the owner of Wicked about this, he told me that only the 997 GT3 RS comes with front grills, and that a regular 997 GT3 comes without them. But in looking through images online, I haven't seen a single 997 GT3 without grills.

And I know that the GT3 bumper he's giving me is OEM, because he got its from Porsche Dismantlers and I can also tell because of its flexibility.

Anyone have thoughts on this?

Hey bud, yeah the 997GT3 comes with the grille/vent. What they probably gave you is the 997 Aero Kit bumper, which looks just like the GT3 bumper, minus the vent/grille near the hood.

chaudanova you're right.

After looking at a few images of it, it's starting to grow on me and I'm thinking of just leaving it as is with the 997 aerokit. If I decide to change to the GT3 front end, I need to do that soon.

Any opinions on this?

Yep, what he said. That's how my new 997 GT-3 bumper will look too. No vent/grill ontop of the front bumper. I got mine on ebay for $750.00 plus shipping. I could not pass it up, to good of a price. It's being painted and I hope to put it on this weekend. Not sure why you would want the grill in there anyway since there really is no use for it on our cars. It looks better filled in all nice and solid. Just like that picture I posted earlier. The extra grill inserts just take away from a nice round, curved front end. My current GT-2 front end has these inserts, but they really serve no function whatsoever. I will be glad to see them go bye-bye. :cheers:

post some pics when done

I think 986spyder has the urethane 997 "style" front end adapted for the 986 headlights. Mjstallion, are you doing the OEM 997 front end conversion with the 997 round headlights, and oem porsche 997 bumper? If so, since you got the bumper from the dismantler, it is probably an oem porsche bumper, though there are some aftermarket 997 fronts now in poly...

porsche986spyder

are you planning on painting the bottom spoiler grey or black?