GT2 Front Conversion
 

http://www.mashaw.com/Graphics/GT-2frontbumper.jpg

I was looking through the archives and saw this image. What is involved with it, is it bumper, hood, lights, and fenders?

How I can go about getting this type of conversion? Can I get all the parts from Porsche, or do I have to get aftermarket? I wrecked my front so insurance is covering most of what I get so I'd prefer to go with Porsche factory stuff if possible.

I believe it is just the bumper and lights. The hood stays the same.

I believe you have to change the fenders also because of the shape of the headlights.

I looked into this mod.

It needs new headlights, bumper, and fenders. It was more than I wanted to spend....

You can always do what I did. Keep your Boxster headlights and buy the GT-2 front end only that does not require the new fenders, headlights and hood. 3 web sites sell them.
http://www.nrauto.com/sub_index.asp?makeid=Porsche&spage=Parts
Look at the front bumper of my car. It's the same. I got mine from here:
http://www.precisionporsche.com/boxkit.html
One of our old sponsors sells them too, Fiberworks.
http://www.fiberwerks.com/986_996.htm

One of the reasons I want to do this is because I was involved in a wreck and my bumper broke off and both headlights shattered, so I need new headlights anyway.

Will a Porsche dealership be able to put 997 headlights, bumper, and fenders on my Boxster?

They should, as long as the kit you buy works with the existing mounting brackets and points. You will also need the inside fender well mud guards and all that other hidden stuff underneath you normally don't think about = more money. ;)

Just to clarify, what you're looking at is not a 997 front end; it's a later model 996 front end. I'm not sure if I've seen the 997 front on a 986 attempted yet, but I'm pretty sure that would go beyond bolt-ons and OEM parts if it were possible.

That being said, if you mean the late 996 front end on a 986, then yes, it's possible and since you're needing new headlights and front bumper, you're probably halfway there. I think there are also a few other parts including the fenders and the headlight mounting locations that may or may not be damaged in your accident that will be needed. If you search, a couple guys on this board have done the conversion, and I think one posted a parts list. If I remember right it was NOT cheap, so you may be better off going with early model litronics and the GT2 front end that porsche986spyder has.

Aftermarket polyurethane bumpers are available in the gt3, gt2, and 911 turbo styles. They don't require any headlight or other changes and are supposedly bolt on. Cost is $800-$1200 from what I have seen. I would expect they may need a bit more prep work than factory porsche covers?

This one is on ebay right now along with several others, I am considering putting this one on in Spring.

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r...er1/b07f_1.jpg

I like this new 997 front bumper. It's made out of Polyurethane too.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y15...eFlash/375.jpg

Anyone want to buy my GT-2 front end so I can get this new 997 front bumper?

Mine is fiberglass with nothing wrong with it. Just needs to be re-painted unless you have seal gray already.

Nice! PP or PU is the only way to go...

Wow! I contacted LA Porsche Dismantlers and they said the cost for the conversion is $7000 in parts, plus an additional $4000 in labor. They're the only people I've seen that do a conversion that includes the headlights though.

Yeah, I love that bumper too! It's a 997 GT3 bumper modified to fit the 996/986. I think it looks better with the blanked off turn signal openings though rather than this smoothed over look. Where did you want to get this bumper from? I've seen it on eBay for like $1090 plus shipping. Have you found a better deal than that?

My two cents though - your GT2 bumper looks awesome already, so why change? The GT3 look is cool, but is it really that much better to justify changing?

LA Dismantlers has got to be kidding. Their parts are used and they want that much?

All your questions can be answered here.

- Official 986 to 996 Front-end Conversion Thread

Related Items
- The (996) Wheels are in Motion
- Name that Bumper

Thanks for that link Jeph, I'd been looking for that one.

BTW, Porsche Dismantlers told me that the parts would be $7000 because they all would have to be new, since they don't have any salvaged parts in stock right now for the conversion.

So in looking at your link your parts came out to $6000 and that's because you went deal hunting. So if LA Dismantlers is paying the regular dealer price, then that probably comes out right. What I find outrageous is the $4000 in labor they're asking for.

Those parts prices are what my body shop came up with. I did the same thing you did (check out those related posts) by taking advantage of an accident I had. My out of pocket expense was about $2k. You could cut your out of pocket even more if you didn't require Litronics. They do make a halogen version of those headlights.

Do you have pix of your wrecked car? What color is it?

I had Litronics before, so I'd like to keep them. Anyway here's a pic of my car:


http://aycu06.webshots.com/image/393...0031888_rs.jpg


Jephs, why was your out of pocket expense 2K, was your wreck not that bad? My bumper and both of my headlights are definitely gone, and my hood might be.

The way I see it, I'll likely have to spring for the fenders myself, but the rest should be covered. I had an AeroKit bumper anyway, so it's not like a GT2 bumper would be more expensive than the one I already had.

What about something like this....


http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Porsche-986-Boxster-996-to-997-GT3-conversion-New_W0QQitemZ180195607392QQihZ008QQcategoryZ36475Q QssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

From the looks of that picture, they might have to replace the passenger side fender. If it took the headlight clear off like that, there is obviously some bent metal, and you are probably going to have trouble getting the new headlight to fit with it having been yanked out. I am not sure, but that is what I think, based on that picture.

Wow, that looks worse than my accident. I bet your insurance company will try to repair your fenders instead of replace them.

Your parts list may differ from mine slightly because your Boxster is an S.

I love auctions that try to sell about 9 different products.

A couple of those looked interesting. (Nothing good for the 986 though.)
http://i20.ebayimg.com/01/i/000/aa/ef/a6f3_12.JPG
If Dracula drove a Porsche...
http://i8.ebayimg.com/01/i/000/aa/ef/b60e_12.JPG

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?