Kirk's Ride...

[Kirk]

Just some pictures to show off the LED turn signal bulbs that are now making it onto the shelves of your local auto parts stores (AutoZone, Kragens, etc.). I bought a non-standard bulb, the 1156, with the incorrect prong spacing. It's just barely off though, so you can simply bend back the bulb socket to fit them in and then bend or clamp the socket back into place to hold the bulb tight. Here's a pic of what I bought for $17. They're red instead of yellow, but that's legal (in the back only) in California any way:



And here's a before and after comparison of the change, note how the yellow disappears around the standard filament turn signal bulb.

BEFORE


AFTER



Here's the LED version of the side marker light bulb. Again, available at a local auto parts store for $10. These glow amber and were a drop-in replacement in my Porsche OEM smoked/clear side marker housings. No fit or wiring issues, just simply swap out the bulbs.



Kirk

[Kirk]

Just sharing my latest father/son project. My 16 year old son is really into Need For Speed Underground, Midnight Club, and other games like that where you can really customize your car, including neon and wild graphics.

We did something a little more mild in the front trunk of the Boxster:

First a switch was installed to turn the trunk light on and off. This is nice since I often leave the front trunk open for extended periods when working on the car. I've just left the bulb out for months now. With this switch I can determine whether the trunk light will come on or not.



Next we replaced the trunk light bulb with a red one and installed some red LED lights under the front covers. The LED lights are also tied into the switch.



A closer look, along with my son's battery cover mod:



Total cost was $3 for the switch since I already had the LED bulbs (thanks Gary in BR) and I modified some old motorcycle auxiliary light internals to hold them. Well it may not be underbody neon, but my son still thinks it's kewl and he got to learn how to solder and apply shrink tubing as a part of this project.

Kirk

[Stunin_Stud]

I saw someone with your tail lights and they reded them out with red vinyl, it actualy looked cook with a silver car and gave the light a Carrera Gt look. 30 bucks for a roll if you want to experiment.

but Kirk
I wanted to ask you this earlier but I forgot. how did they match your paint? did you give them something or did you leave your car at the shop? I gave them my side vent and the paint matched but it was slighltly lighter than the actual car( no one notices it but me and it bugs me)

[Kirk]

Stud, thanks for the suggestion on the tail lights.

As for the paint... well I was going to do the bumper myself with a buddy's paint rig. I took the whole bumper to a shop to have the paint matched. They did a great job. But then when spraying the primer I found out that the paint equipment was not going to give me the quality of job that I wanted. So I broke down and took it to a body shop that used the same paint system as what I had purchased. They then used my materials to paint the car and to adjust the tone if necessary. They had the car on-hand for the match. They painted a part of the old front bumper and a section of the front fender to check the color match and then just cleaned the paint off when done. I'm not sure if they had to adjust the color or not, but the match came out pretty good. It's still not perfect and probably wouldn't be unless they blended it in with the surrounding panels. But it's good enough for me and I'm pretty discerning.

I think I'm mostly happy because I took the time to really discuss it with them ahead of time and make sure they understood fully what my standards were and what my expectations were. They then worked to do the job to those standards and I was happy. Whether with painting or managing people (I'm an engineering manager) I think that's half the battle towards getting good results - just making sure people understand what's expected of them when doing a job. Now that's not to say that they can't still screw it up, which may be what happened in your case. But if you've clearly spelled out your expectations ahead of time and they don't do it right, then that's when you say, "Nope, that's not good enough, do it again (at their cost of course)".

[Kirk]

I like shinny stuff. I think it comes from my days of owning a cruiser motorcycle and the chrome addiction that many cruiser riders fall into. So I've got some dabbles of chrome on my ride, like wheels with a polished lip, a chrome license plate surround, clear/chrome tail lights, and lots of chrome bolt covers inside the trunks.

So when I recently took the lower stress plate off my car to change the transmission oil I decided to clean it up a bit. Lots of bits and pieces of the suspension are aluminum which can polish up pretty nicely to a chrome-like shine. Well... here's what I ended up with. I know it will get dirty and won't last, but I don't care.... it's shinny.

Parts sitting in the sun:


Installed on the car:



Kirk

[blinkwatt]

Kirk what did you use to clean them? I have to install the Bristol bar and that stuff has to come off anyways,might as well clean them.

[Kirk]

Originally Posted by blinkwatt

Kirk what did you use to clean them? I have to install the Bristol bar and that stuff has to come off anyways,might as well clean them.

It looks like the underbody parts may have a waxy kind of undercoating. I thought it was totally unnecessary here in beautiful, sunny California. To get the majority off I used a razor blade and very carefully scrapped it off. Then I used some paint cleaner and a green scrubbie pad (for washing pots and pans) and scrubbed the rest of the stuff off. You have to be careful though as even the green pad can scratch the aluminum and fine scratches won't give you a good shine when you're done.

Kirk

[Franco]

Originally Posted by Kirk

I like shinny stuff. I think it comes from my days of owning a cruiser motorcycle and the chrome addiction that many cruiser riders fall into. So I've got some dabbles of chrome on my ride, like wheels with a polished lip, a chrome license plate surround, clear/chrome tail lights, and lots of chrome bolt covers inside the trunks.

So when I recently took the lower stress plate off my car to change the transmission oil I decided to clean it up a bit. Lots of bits and pieces of the suspension are aluminum which can polish up pretty nicely to a chrome-like shine. Well... here's what I ended up with. I know it will get dirty and won't last, but I don't care.... it's shinny.

Parts sitting in the sun:


Installed on the car:



Kirk

Hi Kirk, your car is starting to excite me more than your assistant
On a serious note did you think of clear coating those aluminum parts so they shine forever.
Love your ride

[Kirk]

Originally Posted by Franco

Hi Kirk, your car is starting to excite me more than your assistant
On a serious note did you think of clear coating those aluminum parts so they shine forever.
Love your ride

Thanks Franco! YES, I definitely thought about clear coating the aluminum parts. I'm going to see how long they last with just the waxy coating of Mother's Polish on them before I go that route. I garage my car and usually just drive it on Fridays and weekends. I also live in sunny California so the car never sees snow and seldom sees rain. So the parts may actually stay pretty nice for a long time without the clear coat. We'll see and if I need to paint them I will. That's an easy project. Thanks for the suggestion!

Kirk