Ger's 2003 Porsche Boxster S

[Anker]

Gorgeous!

Anker

[geraintthomas]

Originally Posted by grc0456

Ger, you no doubt have one fine looking 986. It really probably didn't even NEED that polish, but - like me - that didn't stop you.


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Haha true. But at least I know that the paintwork is immaculate now, so that if I wash it with the 3 bucket method and keep it waxed, I shouldn't have to do this for many years to come

Originally Posted by Anker

Gorgeous!

Anker

Cheers!

Here's a mate of mine checking it out lol

[MARTHA]

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MaN oh Man, I wish I had just half of your energy, or better yet I wish you lived next door to me so you could spiffy up my Boxster.

.

[geraintthomas]

Originally Posted by MARTHA

.

MaN oh Man, I wish I had just half of your energy, or better yet I wish you lived next door to me so you could spiffy up my Boxster.

.

Appreciate it matey

Put my detailing business as a decal under the vents

[TrumpyAl]

That decal looks awesome Ger, very nicely done.

A nightmare to google though! hehe

[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
http://986forum.com/forums/diy-project-guides/48169-porsche-headlight-retrofit-%5B-cad-prototyping-finish.html

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!

[TrumpyAl]

Psssst! Got a link to some pics of yours OldSkool?

[oldskool73]

@TrumpyAl : you mean the lights? Nah, only ordered mine from Fred a few days ago, my lights currently look like this...



..hoping Fred reappears soon and ships them before my GF flips out about the mess and kills me

[geraintthomas]

Reason why is that I want to see how good they'll turn out. If I put them back together and I'm happy with the result, I'll invest in the more expensive ones, but for now it's a good way of seeing how it'll look. The Matt paint will be fine, I've used the same in engine bays without a problem, and the lacquer was just ordinary lacquer from a car shop

I've got a heat gun to do the lights, but like I said they're the older lights so they won't need much heating up.

[fanguy]

Amazing, where do I sign up

[particlewave]

The "cheap" projectors are just fine. I have about a dozen sets out there with the oldest being 3.5 years. No complaints.

In addition to widening the bulb socket slightly to accommodate the projectors mount post, you will need to remove some material on the shelf between the high/low sections of the OEM reflector.

Ger: test them before install to ensure the cutoff is nice and straight. If it is arced or curved, this is easy to fix before installing them. The cutoff shield is curved to follow the curve of the light and if it's curved too much or too little, the cutoff will appear arced upward or downward.

[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
http://986forum.com/forums/diy-project-guides/48169-porsche-headlight-retrofit-%5B-cad-prototyping-finish.html

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.

[geraintthomas]

Projector Headlights

Update on the headlights. They're finished!

I dremelled both of the pre-facelift indicators to clear, but they just didn't get to a standard that I was happy with. Build quality is a major part of this car, and I didn't want any part of it to look 'bodged'. Unfortunately I've had to just keep them for parts and have thrown the fronts out as they're no good now. So I just bit the bullet and opened my actual facelift headlights.

They opened brilliantly!

So I've done the following:

- Opened the headlights with a heat gun, kept the edges at 90 degrees C for about 5 minutes.
- Took the orange indicator interior cover and replaced it with the clear version out of the spare pre-facelift lights
- Dremelled the H7 attachment area completely flat, and widened the bulb hole a little
- Sprayed the inner reflectors and inner trim matt black
- Installed the projector lens
- Installed the HID bulb
- Sealed the headlight

Opened up, ad doing a test fit of the projector before they're sprayed




Sprayed matt black


Testing and levelling


Sealed


Finished


Before


After


Muchos better I can't comment on the light output until tomorrow as I'm using a H7 bulb that's fitted badly (they're supposed to fit H1's), so the light isn't great due to the loose bulbs. The H1's are coming tomorrow, so I'll report back then.

The bi-xenon projectors work great when activating the high beam too, as the shields flick down to throw the light upwards. Trouble is, they use the dipped beams, so when they're not on and you flash someone, no light comes out as they need to be on. I'm currently trying to work out how to wire it up to enable the dipped beams when the high beams are engaged. Failing that, I'll just use the original high beam bulb.

But yeah, they're fantastic very happy with then.

[BruceH]

Nicely done, they look fantastic

[geraintthomas]

Thanks very much

[TrumpyAl]

They look fantastic Ger, and buying the pre-facelift headlights has worked out brilliantly I think as it's a huuuuuge gain to get rid of that orange internal lens....

[geraintthomas]

Originally Posted by TrumpyAl

They look fantastic Ger, and buying the pre-facelift headlights has worked out brilliantly I think as it's a huuuuuge gain to get rid of that orange internal lens....

True that.

They did actually come in handy in the end. My right facelift headlight had a snapped adjuster, and the left prefacelift had a snapped adjuster too. Once the fronts are off, I mixed and matched them so that I have two perfect headlight bases, then I put the facelift fronts on them. So they technically helped repair my headlights as well as made good practice on opening them.

[geraintthomas]

Just a small update, I've fitted the new H1 bulbs today and they are FANTASTIC!! They're about 1000x brighter, now that they're installed properly.

Can't wait to drive home from work later at 6pm and find what they're really like.

[geraintthomas]

So I drove home with the new bulbs in. WOW these headlights are amazing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Yl_fGrzfaE

The beam cut off is perfect too, and so is bi-xenon full beam functionality as shown in the video.

The only thing I need to do is level the headlights as they're not as high as they should be, and straighten the lenses a little as they're ever so slightly on an angle. I can do it from the inside thankfully as I used silicon washers, so even though they're very tight, they can be rotated with some force.

Extremely happy though they've really transformed night driving, and the look of the car.