Now Available: Porsche 986/996 MK1 Headlight Conversion Covers

[JBauer]

They look great!

[Oldcarguy]

Originally Posted by JBauer

They look great!

Thanks JB! Looking forward to doing the clear coat and final mounting ASAP this week. I’ll take some closeups and different angles as soon as I’m done.

[BRAN]

They do look great, Fred! As expected.

[Oldcarguy]

Originally Posted by BRAN

They do look great, Fred! As expected.

Thanks Bran, just trying to uphold the high standards set by you and JB

[mipstien]

I love it. I think it gives the car a very classy vintage look. I've never been a fan of the covers but these have changed my mind about them.

[Oldcarguy]

Originally Posted by mipstien

I love it. I think it gives the car a very classy vintage look. I've never been a fan of the covers but these have changed my mind about them.

Thanks Mipstien, I did the 2k clear coat today. Probably will try a test mount with the 3M tape tomorrow or Thursday.

[Oldcarguy]

Clear coat cured, but no final cut and polish yet. Just stuck on with a loop of gorilla tape. Will probably try mounting with 3M transfer tape tomorrow. Color match is better than it looks here. The GT Silver Metallic changes with every angle nuance. Not for everyone for sure, but I really like them. May have final mount ‘glamour pics’ in a few days




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[Oldcarguy]

Done! Right (passenger side) overall is as good as I could do. I could have done a better job trimming the left side (driver) where I had the overlap problem (which was the same for both sides). Color match is as good as could be expected for 16 year old paint.

Before mounting the covers I applied a narrow strip of matte black 3M wrap to the inside edge of each headlight to kill the edge reflection.








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[BRAN]

Well done!
Your trimming turned out pretty perfect. Indeed the driver side and the right side need slightly different trimming.
I wonder, if I will get the washer jets to work properly with the covers.

[Dmitry at Pelican Parts]

Looks great!

[Oldcarguy]

Originally Posted by BRAN

Well done!
Your trimming turned out pretty perfect. Indeed the driver side and the right side need slightly different trimming.
I wonder, if I will get the washer jets to work properly with the covers.

Thanks Bran! The washer jets protrude from the lens ~1/2” even when retracted so you would need to cut the covers precisely to fit. The washers extend ~2” when in use. The problem is that the washer nozzle assembly is not very cosmetically appealing (at least to me). The next generation extension washers used the flush ‘button’ covers, but they might be too large in diameter. One of the later year models have the small nozzles that permanently mount ‘out’ but I’m not sure which year models it is.

[Oldcarguy]

Originally Posted by Dmitry at Pelican Parts

Looks great!

Thanks Dmitry, I’m very happy with the results.

[traveno]

Nice work Fred! I see these covers being a part of my future

[Oldcarguy]

Originally Posted by traveno

Nice work Fred! I see these covers being a part of my future

Thanks Traveno! They came out so well I wish I had spent more time on the prep!

[Oldcarguy]

Update - the 3M 950-300 transfer tape with adhesive promoter on the covers only started to fail under headlight / moderate sun heat. To be fair, this use of that particular xfer tape was at the limits of its specification. I’ve ordered some 3M F9469PC VHB xfer tape which uses the high performance 3M 100MP acrylic adhesive which has a much broader operating temperature range.

I’m going try the new adhesive without adhesive promoter on the lenses because I want to avoid permanent lens damage. It does not look as if I’m going to be able to remove the 300LSE adhesive from the covers. Hopefully it will bond to the 9469 ok. I’ll run some tests before I remount the covers.

I’ll post an update here as soon as I have additional info.

[BRAN]

Just brought mine to the paintshop and got the usual comments…

shop: "Oh, they are made out of rubber?
me: Not really, it is more like PU^^
shop: I got to ask my specialist…(after 5 mins) okay, we can do it, but without warranty...and treat them really, really carefully
me: Sure, sure will do

They will primer the whole covers, but will only paint the top, so I can attach them properly.
@Fred: Thanks, for pinpointing the washer movement! Btw did you paint them completely? How did you treat the bonding side?

After having attached lots of plastic covers, trims and pieces over the time, I like to use thin 3M VHB 4941. It always came off the lenses and stayed on the rims/covers. Will do a test when the covers come back next weekend.
Btw, I heavily moddified and trimmed them and I totally understand your thoughts on prepping them. I hope, primer and paint will cover my flwas...lol

[Oldcarguy]

Originally Posted by BRAN

Just brought mine to the paintshop and got the usual comments…

shop: "Oh, they are made out of rubber?
me: Not really, it is more like PU^^
shop: I got to ask my specialist…(after 5 mins) okay, we can do it, but without warranty...and treat them really, really carefully
me: Sure, sure will do

They will primer the whole covers, but will only paint the top, so I can attach them properly.
@Fred: Thanks, for pinpointing the washer movement! Btw did you paint them completely? How did you treat the bonding side?

After having attached lots of plastic covers, trims and pieces over the time, I like to use thin 3M VHB 4941. It always came off the lenses and stayed on the rims/covers. Will do a test when the covers come back next weekend.
Btw, I heavily moddified and trimmed them and I totally understand your thoughts on prepping them. I hope, primer and paint will cover my flwas...lol

Hi Bran, you’re welcome. I had similar comments from the paint shop regarding my sport seat backs. I finally got fed up and did them myself.

Here’s the steps I used to prep, paint and mount the adhesive strips to the covers:

1) washed both sides with Dawn and a soft brush, rinsed well and dried
2) cleaned both sides with SEM poly paint prep
3) spayed top side and edges with two light coats of plastic adhesion promoter
4) primed top side and around edges with a urethane primer
5) let primer cure overnight
6) sanded primer with 400/600 wet
7) taped rest of cover and sprayed ’headlight ring’ with a urethane color called ‘hyper silver’
8) taped ‘headlight ring’ and sprayed rest of cover with urethane car base coat color
9) sprayed entire cover (top side and edges only) with SprayMax 2K ‘Glamour’ clear coat
10) carefully cleaned overspray from undersides with acetone
11) applied 3M adhesion promoter to undersides (single use packets with foam applicator)
12) cleaned headlight lenses with Dawn
13) applied 3M 950-300 xfer tape adhesive to underside of covers, leaving backing paper in place
14) practiced positioning the covers about a million times (you only get one chance with xfer tape adhesive)
15) peeled off the backing paper and mounted the covers

Thanks for the tip regarding the 4941. I really like VHB 4941 also. I actually have some but in this case I wanted the absolutely thinnest mounting possible to avoid as much as possible having the covers stand proud of the surrounding body work (4941 is 1.1mm thick vs 0.13mm for the F9469 because the 9469 does not have a carrier medium).

Looking forward to seeing your custom results! Hopefully I’ll have mine back on the car in the next couple of days

[Oldcarguy]

Originally Posted by Oldcarguy

Update - the 3M 950-300 transfer tape with adhesive promoter on the covers only started to fail under headlight / moderate sun heat. To be fair, this use of that particular xfer tape was at the limits of its specification. I’ve ordered some 3M F9469PC VHB xfer tape which uses the high performance 3M 100MP acrylic adhesive which has a much broader operating temperature range.

I’m going try the new adhesive without adhesive promoter on the lenses because I want to avoid permanent lens damage. It does not look as if I’m going to be able to remove the 300LSE adhesive from the covers. Hopefully it will bond to the 9469 ok. I’ll run some tests before I remount the covers.

I’ll post an update here as soon as I have additional info.

Ok, I didn’t like the adhesion characteristics of the 9469 so I decided to quit shooting in the dark and downloaded the 3M Industrial Adhesives and Tape Guide. I settled on 9485PC 5 mil (.13mm, .005in) thick transfer tape for its high temperature and high adhesion ratings for both LSE and HSE plastics / polys. Mounted using 3M adhesion promoter on the lens edges and around the oblong headlight edge (carefully applied, this stuff can distort some materials). Don’t get it on paint or any lens surface that will remain exposed!

So far, so good. I don’t think I could remove the covers without damaging them (at least in the NE moderate summer climate, YMMV), so this is a ‘be sure you really want to before you do it’ kind of thing. Also, this stuff is high tack so no repositioning - practice placement a lot before you commit.

[Oldcarguy]

One additional point. Even though my covers extended exactly to the edge of the lenses, I wanted to kill the reflection from the lenses’ sides. I applied strips of 3m 1080 flat black wrap along the lenses frunk edges before mounting the covers.




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[BRAN]

The matte black 1080 wrap foil is absolutely the way to go. I like those pressure sensitive 3M adhesive tapes, so you can apply them first and fixate them with pressure fixate later. But you got me going now...have to check their website again. My covers are still in the paintshop...