Ger's 2003 Porsche Boxster S

[geraintthomas]

Finally bought some bi-xenon lenses for the headlight conversion:



The headlights are getting there, I haven't worked on them in ages.

For those who don't remember, I bought a set of old pre-facelift orange headlights to do a projector retrofit on. Reason why I bought the pre-facelift ones is because I can dremel the orange away so that they look like facelifts, then split them, install projectors, spray the inserts black and replace my current ones. I bought the pre-facelift ones because they were VERY cheap at £60 each, as opposed to £300 each for facelifts. The other benefit to buying the older ones is that, when it comes to opening them, the glue is older and they open easier. Plus, if I make a mistake, they were cheap.

I was going to give up on them as after dremeling the orange indicator away, it didn't really polish up to the smooth, clear look of the facelift lights, and it looked a bit crud. But as soon as I put a test coat of lacquer on it they looked perfect and shiny. So knowing they can look perfect, I just need to carry on filing the indicators flat to remove the dremeling marks, then do the other headlight, then I can open them up to install the projectors.

When it's all finished, it would have cost me £220. That's a bargain.

- £120 for second hand headlights
- £20 for projector lenses
- £40 for decent 5000k HID kit
- £12 for dremel
- £8 for matt black spray

...and they'll look something like this (someone else's car):



Going to be good I can then sell my current headlights to make a profit.

[oldskool73]

Nice, but why did you buy those cheap plastic ones instead of a set from board member Nine8Six (Fred) like on the car in your image?

https://www.gtcollection.com/products/porsche-headlight-conversion-kits.html
Porsche Headlight Retrofit [from CAD, prototyping to finish)

From what I've read you're going to have to be doing quite a bit of dremel work to get those generic ones to fit properly. Also you might want to use gloss instead of matt black spray, if you read through the thread above there's mention of matt getting too hot in summer... though you may be ok in the UK

Also, what kind of lacquer did you use to get them looking nice? I have a set of clears that I just can't get the fine buff marks out of after I restored them, was going to try some clear coat, apparently this stuff works ok and has UV protection...




Good luck with opening them up, the ovens in the UK and Aus aren't as big as the US ones obviously, no way the light would fit in my oven. I ended up using a heat gun and it worked in the end but took ages!

[particlewave]

Originally Posted by oldskool73

Nice, but why did you buy those cheap plastic ones instead of a set from board member Nine8Six (Fred) like on the car in your image?

https://www.gtcollection.com/products/porsche-headlight-conversion-kits.html
Porsche Headlight Retrofit [from CAD, prototyping to finish)

From what I've read you're going to have to be doing quite a bit of dremel work to get those generic ones to fit properly. Also you might want to use gloss instead of matt black spray, if you read through the thread above there's mention of matt getting too hot in summer... though you may be ok in the UK

Also, what kind of lacquer did you use to get them looking nice? I have a set of clears that I just can't get the fine buff marks out of after I restored them, was going to try some clear coat, apparently this stuff works ok and has UV protection...




Good luck with opening them up, the ovens in the UK and Aus aren't as big as the US ones obviously, no way the light would fit in my oven. I ended up using a heat gun and it worked in the end but took ages!

The Rustoleum is ok, but not great. It's difficult to get an even finish without crazing and it is quite soft when cured (chips and scratches very easily).
It will also be ruined if you need to heat and open your headlights again. Any temp above 175f will cause the clear to fog up and craze.

There's no substitute for professional clear coat.

[Nine8Six]

Nice car and hobby you got there. Please post more (subscribed)