Porsche Headlight Retrofit [from CAD, prototyping to finish)

[alanqning]

Nine8Six, how many do you have for sale?

[Nine8Six]

If anyone is interested to know about pricing, availability or customization, please PM me anytime!

All the best wishes from this side of the world and Merry Xmas to all

[rfuerst911sc]

I've read all 10 pages and must say I am impressed by your excellent execution of this conversion. However I did pick up that when painting the light housings black you can't/shouldn't park in the sun ? I'm in the deep South and we get sun in the summer that will melt your face . So if your car is a daily driver and it sits in the exposed parking lot at your employer all day what's going to happen ? Will the housings get damaged from heat ? Will the lense be damaged ? I am interested in your kit but the exposure to sun may be a deal breaker for me Anyone have any " sun " experience with these ? And if the black is a no go what about staying with the OEM silver/chrome finish ? I assume that is OK just like the original bulbs ?

[Nine8Six]

Thanks for reading and for the compliment!

If you are likely to park your Boxster facing South-West on a daily basis then the trick is to use "Satin Black" instead of a pure flat black paint. The satin black will reflect 50% of the light. Use a quality high temp paint and your headlights will be just fine. VHT does a very nice satin black, looks very modern e.g. 90% black, 10% grayish.

This is a subject that was discussed here on the Chinese retrofitting forum here and everyone told me I was full of BS for saying that flat black wouldn't work under the hot sun (they are maybe right, what do I know!). Hundreds have done it on their other cars and never got a hot spot/burn years after their retrofit. Like you guys we also do get these (hell-like) burning sun days here in Shanghai.

Their reasoning is; if you use the VHT(-like) quality high temp paint e.g. the same they paint headers with, then all should be well protected under there.

Hope this helps a bit mate

[alanqning]

Nine8Six,

I have sent you a PM.

Thanks,
Alan

[Nine8Six]

Originally Posted by alanqning

Nine8Six,

I have sent you a PM.

Thanks,
Alan

PM replied Alan. Apologies for the late one mate

All the best wishes to you and EVERYONE on 986forum for year 2014!!!!!

[Leebherron]

Finished, looks quite hot (red) !
Thanks Fred

[Nine8Six]

Very aggressive looking, bad boy stuff Fantastic work on the install Lee and tons of thanks for sharing pics!!!

I kinda like your idea of blackening the edge on the top of the lens. Have you use plasti-dip or simply painted them? Does look quite nice, especially on the guards red

Ps. Particleware will be very jealous of your built-in DRL set-up
Pps. I need to see your front bumper (link?). Never seen before, looks nice man

[Brad Roberts]

Great job!!

I have seen a lot SH_T for these cars over the last 14 years I have dealt with them, this is one of the best engineered *kits* to come out for the 986/996 that I have ever seen.

"Paypal" I've had a business Paypal account since 99!! I lived in Mountain View when the company had 20-30 employees LOL

"Mike" from Solidworks, don't be surprised at who you run across I received a phone call in the past from *the* Porsche family doctor asking me if I was interested in owning a very rare Porsche that had been gifted to him by the Porsche family back in the early 70's. Story checked out.. easily actually

Again Great job. Very rare to see this quality in aftermarket parts.

PM sent.

[alanqning]

I like those lower lights. Gotta find me a kit for that too.

[Nine8Six]

Originally Posted by Brad Roberts

Great job!!

I have seen a lot SH_T for these cars over the last 14 years I have dealt with them, this is one of the best engineered *kits* to come out for the 986/996 that I have ever seen.

"Paypal" I've had a business Paypal account since 99!! I lived in Mountain View when the company had 20-30 employees LOL

"Mike" from Solidworks, don't be surprised at who you run across I received a phone call in the past from *the* Porsche family doctor asking me if I was interested in owning a very rare Porsche that had been gifted to him by the Porsche family back in the early 70's. Story checked out.. easily actually

Again Great job. Very rare to see this quality in aftermarket parts.

PM sent.

Brad, too kind, thanks a lot mate. I'm so glad someone like yourself can appreciate what went into this kit

[Nine8Six]

Originally Posted by alanqning

I like those lower lights. Gotta find me a kit for that too.

You and I both. I also love those lower led style but a lot of it is also coming from the front bumper Lee has I think. Never seen this bumper/grill before now in all honesty. Not bad at all

[Nine8Six]

Just sharing here what I found on another forum. Simple retrofit from a poor halogen to a sharp HID night set-up. No black paint!

Esthetically I think the results are equally great. The owner of this P car left the inside of the headlight factory-color, install projectors and tinted the amber flashers with 3M's 35% window paper. Simple but very nice.









^ Sharp beam, clean, stylish, what else... forgot

[ohhh my]

Can someone post up a picture of the HID's on at night against a wall? I feel as though the way the curvature of our headlights is shaped, takes away some of the sharpness of these projectors versus a headlight housing on a bmw where it's lens which is nearly parallel to the front of the projector. Our lens have a sharp angle and the light has to shine through an angled lens. which is close to 45 degrees.

[Nine8Six]

Originally Posted by ohhh my

Can someone post up a picture of the HID's on at night against a wall? I feel as though the way the curvature of our headlights is shaped, takes away some of the sharpness of these projectors versus a headlight housing on a bmw where it's lens which is nearly parallel to the front of the projector. Our lens have a sharp angle and the light has to shine through an angled lens. which is close to 45 degrees.

Mate, you do realize that our Porsche car headlight's lenses are made of some of the best polycarbonate you can find/make today right? They wouldn't last more than a decade on public roads if they were made of substandard poly resin. The elliptical phases aren't affected by the material Porsche uses I reassure you. You can quickly do a test at home if you want; e.g. just aim a hand-held laser beam through the lens. The laser beam will remain straight and the diameter of that laser beam will remain the same (in & out).

Regardless, you are lucky it is our monthly Porsche out day tomorrow for us here in Shanghai. I'll see if I can find you a wall somewhere.

[EDIT: irrelevant details removed]

[ohhh my]

I don't disagree/question you at all with regards to the material of the lens. Just a personal curiosity about the effects of the angled lens. Yes pointing a laser through the lens perfectly perpendicular should provide nearly a perfect beam on the other side. But what if you shined the laser at a 45 or less degree angle, is the beam the still the same? Just a question of optics.

The reason why I asked for pictures is because I'm a light enthusiast and I like good optics, I follow HIDplanet and that's one of the picture that's always included, a picture against the wall. Yes, your craftman is great and I can appreciate how it looks, but I also want to see how badass and great these perform too.

[Nine8Six]

Originally Posted by ohhh my

I don't disagree/question you at all with regards to the material of the lens. Just a personal curiosity about the effects of the angled lens. Yes pointing a laser through the lens perfectly perpendicular should provide nearly a perfect beam on the other side. But what if you shined the laser at a 45 or less degree angle, is the beam the still the same? Just a question of optics.

The reason why I asked for pictures is because I'm a light enthusiast and I like good optics, I follow HIDplanet and that's one of the picture that's always included, a picture against the wall. Yes, your craftman is great and I can appreciate how it looks, but I also want to see how badass and great these perform too.

RE light enthusiast, I see. HIDplanet have been a tremendous resource for my research, there are 2-3 guys (regulars) on that forum that knows their stuff quite impressively well. I am actually very grateful to one of them for having shared so much and helped me out in my quest of the unknown (in my case, as a new light enthusiast!).

My secret, Ohhh my:

Although those MH1 projectors are fine, they are not a "precision manufactured" item. The cheap injection molded plastic part used to support the lens often is OFF by millimeters (mind you, most is caused by sloppy assembly as well). Tabs holding the lens securely also tend to be left with flash around them shifting the angle on the lens in some case. It still makes it a "so-so" and affordable product and still working fine you'll say. However the cutoff line you will be getting is all based on luck... you may have a left side sharper than a right side, a shift of optics on the other, stuff like that. Read correct: you move the lens in-or-out by as small as 0.5mm and you screw up the focal point completely. And that is just NOT what real Porsche enthusiasts wants!

The CNC precision equipment I use here allows me to machine the parts to very high tolerance. So I can take this package, break it out, I can very accurately 'position' the lens relative to the elliptical bowl to 0.02mm tolerance. In fact the elliptical is absolutely great on this new 2014 projector model (brutal and sharp beam). In other words, I have the freedom and ability to "dial-in" a very precise optical and "find that exact focal sharpness" for each and single projector that I make.

The other secret is, I am able to reproduce nearly identical parts (again +/- 0.02mm tolerance). Making not only one of the best cutoff sharpness out there, but both Left & Right are identical. That is what I call Quality and the reason behind why I am not particularly shy to call this kit a "High Performance Bi-Xenon Projector retrofit kit for Porsche car".

Ohhh my, it's laser scanner effect-like when you (bumpy) drive this thing in the dark, actually very addictive... feels clean and precise! Nothing to compare with litronic or those frosted bimmer hids [no additional comments here].

Not bad for a noob light enthusiast huh?

[ohhh my]

Originally Posted by Nine8Six

RE light enthusiast, I see. HIDplanet have been a tremendous resource for my research, there are 2-3 guys (regulars) on that forum that knows their stuff quite impressively well. I am actually very grateful to one of them for having shared so much and helped me out in my quest of the unknown (in my case, as a new light enthusiast!).

My secret, Ohhh my:

Although those MH1 projectors are fine, they are not a "precision manufactured" item. The cheap injection molded plastic part used to support the lens often is OFF by millimeters (mind you, most is caused by sloppy assembly as well). Tabs holding the lens securely also tend to be left with flash around them shifting the angle on the lens in some case. It still makes it a "so-so" and affordable product and still working fine you'll say. However the cutoff line you will be getting is all based on luck... you may have a left side sharper than a right side, a shift of optics on the other, stuff like that. Read correct: you move the lens in-or-out by as small as 0.5mm and you screw up the focal point completely. And that is just NOT what real Porsche enthusiasts wants!

The CNC precision equipment I use here allows me to machine the parts to very high tolerance. So I can take this package, break it out, I can very accurately 'position' the lens relative to the elliptical bowl to 0.02mm tolerance. In fact the elliptical is absolutely great on this new 2014 projector model (brutal and sharp beam). In other words, I have the freedom and ability to "dial-in" a very precise optical and "find that exact focal sharpness" for each and single projector that I make.

The other secret is, I am able to reproduce nearly identical parts (again +/- 0.02mm tolerance). Making not only one of the best cutoff sharpness out there, but both Left & Right are identical. That is what I call Quality and the reason behind why I am not particularly shy to call this kit a "High Performance Bi-Xenon Projector retrofit kit for Porsche car".

Ohhh my, it's laser scanner effect-like when you (bumpy) drive this thing in the dark, actually very addictive... feels clean and precise! Nothing to compare with litronic or those frosted bimmer hids [no additional comments here].

Not bad for a noob light enthusiast huh?

I believe you misunderstood my previous comment... But in reply to your post anyways.. As you may know, i'm soon going to be ordering a kit from you. I've been following this thread since the beginning and one of the main reasons why i'm selling my factory installed litronics is because of your detail to precision.

My comment above is referring to the angle of the HID light and shining through the polycarbonate headlight lens at an angle. In your example of shining laser through the polycarbonate lens, i'm assuming you used a laser that was shined perpendicular to the lens creating a clean beam on the other side. I asked if holding the laser beam at an angle less than 45 degree would still produce as sharp of a laser point on the other side.

[Nine8Six]

Originally Posted by ohhh my

I believe you misunderstood my previous comment... But in reply to your post anyways.. As you may know, i'm soon going to be ordering a kit from you. I've been following this thread since the beginning and one of the main reasons why i'm selling my factory installed litronics is because of your detail to precision.

My comment above is referring to the angle of the HID light and shining through the polycarbonate headlight lens at an angle. In your example of shining laser through the polycarbonate lens, i'm assuming you used a laser that was shined perpendicular to the lens creating a clean beam on the other side. I asked if holding the laser beam at an angle less than 45 degree would still produce as sharp of a laser point on the other side.

Nah, even if you shine it at 89 degree angle to the lens it will go straight in. The poly is amazingly well vacuum i.e. no (read ZERO) microscopic air bubbles.... unlike in cheap Made in Asia polycarbonates.

Seems to be the real deal. I bet the team at Porsche have already considered this optical angle when selecting/manufacturing their headlight material (all porsche cars have inclined lenses). actually, all other sport & super car manufacturers as well.

No sweat there! It shines nicely

[Nine8Six]

Originally Posted by ohhh my

I believe you misunderstood my previous comment...

No I didn't. You want to know how bad ass they perform, well you'd possibly be more convinced by knowing exactly How and Why they are made as such instead of me throwing out some boring (night quality) cutoff pictures mate.

I'm very good at Photoshop btw