Ger's 2003 Porsche Boxster S

[geraintthomas]

These wheels are so much better

[BRAN]

Originally Posted by geraintthomas

And on the car:





So much better. Also bought these:



Comparing it to the old ones:



And on the car:



Freshened it up!

These also came in the post.

Cree number plate bulbs:



Left one is the old LED, the right is the new Cree LED:



And both in:



Some Cree LED indicator bulbs also came (4 in total):



And a relay to make them work:



I tried the bulbs. They're outstanding, but unfortunately the relay didn't work so I've bought resistors to place onto each bulbs wiring to make them work.

That's it for now!

You should try a CF14JL02 resistor, worked for me.

[geraintthomas]

It's okay, since then I've wired in resistors to the wiring and that did the trick

My local exhaust garage have quoted me £130 to do the exhaust bypass, but said they couldn't fit electronic valves cheaply to it because of the space they'd be working with, so I was quoted a four figure price with electronic valves which is ridiculous. Thinking of possibly giving them two ball valves that I could just open and close by hand? Would that work?

[Maydose]

Where did you source the roof dash control Geraint?
Is it a tricky fit or regular DIY?

[geraintthomas]

I've only altered the relay to open the roof on the move with no handbrake required. Is that what you mean?

[geraintthomas]

Ordered all the parts to wire up the DIY Arduino one-touch modification cheaper and a bit more fun than my relay option. I'll be using my relay circuit idea for the spoiler to make that one touch though - I just need to find a cheap enough 996 spoiler switch.

I'll pay £27 at Porsche if I have to for the switch but I'd rather not

[geraintthomas]

First photo of the wheels on the car when it's clean. First chance I've had to wash it in weeks!



So much better!

Exhaust

I'm getting the bypass pipes fitted to the exhaust on Saturday. £130 plus VAT from a well known local garage. I was following a new Boxster Spyder the other day and the sound was outrageous. Not overly loud, but gorgeous and full of presence. Sounded exactly like the videos I've seen of 986's with bypass pipes, so the moment I got out of the car, I called the garage and booked it in.

Projector Headlights

The next project after that will be the headlights. I've really, really wanted the litronic headlights when looking to buy the Porsche, but this example was in such perfect mechanical and cosmetic condition that I had to buy it even though it was a basic spec. The plan was to add the optional extras back onto the car myself. Including litronic-type headlights.

The plan was to open my headlights, buy projectors, fit them to the headlights, re-assemble the headlights and use HID 5000k bulbs (currently being used anyway). This would give the much better projector light output that's on the litronics, but wouldn't have self-levelling and washers. Still, couldn't really care for those. It's the light output that I'm interested in.

The trouble is, my facelift clear lights are around £200 a pop, and I don't fancy trying it on those in case I break them. Pre-facelift headlights are easier to open due to their silicone being drier over the years, and you can pick them up for around £50 each online, which is a great price to practice on. The obvious trouble there is that pre-facelift lights have the orange plastic.

BUT, after reading a thread online about actually being able to de-amber pre-facelift lights easily, it's what I'm going to do. It works by sanding down the orange until you reach the clear plastic underneath (about 1.3mm of orange plastic to sand through), and then polishing it back up. The result is headlights that look identical to facelift headlights. So I can now buy cheaper pre-facelift headlights to open up, and if I manage to open them without a problem and install the projectors, I can de-amber them and fit them to the car. They'll transform to old pre-facelift reflector lamps to facelift clear projector lenses. The whole job, including the projectors and pre-facelift lamps, will be around £130. Compared to the £800 price tag of litronics, that's outstanding.

That's one modification that I'm really looking forward to.

[Nine8Six]

Originally Posted by geraintthomas

Projector Headlights

The whole job, including the projectors and pre-facelift lamps, will be around £130. Compared to the £800 price tag of litronics, that's outstanding.

£130??
Assuming you are using the plastic kit at that price, still a tad too much dosh, no? If these plastic setup are your porsche thing (nice Boxster btw!), we get those kits here for about 90% cheaper ($20-30 and you get the best). They last quite a while before fading/flaking under uv, deforming or melting but you can always replace them for the same eventually anyway. Stylish stuff for porsche cars I tell ya!

Let me know if you need a hand

ps: was sure those were illegal in the UK. You were mentioning not long ago in the projector retrofit thread. Not that there anything wrong to feeling outlaw suddenly

[geraintthomas]

That's £130, including the pre-facelift lamps AND the projectors. Projectors are around £25 I know they're not the best build but I'll start cheap and, if the project works, I'll invest in better ones.

Meh, it's a grey area. If you have headlights which have no glare, a good colour (4000k to 5000k), and have a correct beam pattern, no one cares. No one's going to pull you over to check if your home made perfectly OEM looking projector lenses are E-marked. As long as they're a good light, beam pattern and colour, then they're fine. Maybe not perfectly legal in technical terms, but absolutely fine to use on the road.

[Nine8Six]

Originally Posted by geraintthomas

Compared to the £800 price tag of litronics, that's outstanding.

Btw Litronic headlights are still great headlights. 800 is not all that expansive for the whole package in fact (assy, lenses, ballasts projectors, etc). Second best option to halogen for sure. And legal in the UK

[geraintthomas]

No doubt in them being great, I'm sure they're incredible. But £130 for home made, or £800 just to have self-levelling and washers. I'll stick to £130! Obviously the light output would be better in litronics but... £800 or £130? That's still the game changer.

[geraintthomas]

Plus look at this. Someone compared the cheap Ebay projector kit with a Morimoto kit that's about 5x more expensive. They look almost identical:

Ebay dipped:


Ebay full:


Morimoto dipped:


Morimoto full:


Ebay is £25, Morimoto is about £125. Morimoto's are a little sharper, but compare the ebay ones with the standard 986 halogen beam pattern - it's a world of difference. Not a massive difference in performance between these two kits, but a huge difference in price. Build quality would be the other thing, but time would only tell.

I appreciate the offer in giving me a hand too

[Nine8Six]

Originally Posted by geraintthomas

Meh, it's a grey area.

Nah man, I'm in Milton-Keynes and other place of the uk bi-annually, there are no grey area there lolll. The coppers are very well aware and know about those cheap Chinese plastic knockoffs, and they don't go easy (I've heard a few times). Surely a no-go with mot. I'd say keep a set of unmodified headlights ready to swap just in case, my advice.

You need those anodized aluminum kits, those goes un-noticed in the uk Clean set-up. Mot are also fans (works, chk with your mates at boxa who did those)

[Nine8Six]

Originally Posted by geraintthomas

Plus look at this. Someone compared the cheap.......

I appreciate the offer in giving me a hand too

Sorry man, this is non-sense and pure ignorance. If you categorically refuse to install those that we put in porsche cars here (for some weird reason?!?), at least do yourself a favour and install the morrimoto. Minimum.

You'd also like the Ultimate ver from aes. Equivalent quality as the morrimoto but I like to think that they surpass them

The ebay kit illuminate the same (yes), however after a just a few hours of use the optic's reflecting coating burns out and off they go dark (48 hrs). All of them, ask me how I know. Finding optics that are properly coated and actually works took a long time here.

You've been warned. If you want my help well there it is.

[TrumpyAl]

It's so much work to retrofit, I'll only go with the best components that I can get now.

Those pics demonstrate a few points where the Morimitos are much better. Those eBay units certainly are wiiiiide though!

Litronic is good because with acceleration and braking the cutoff will remain below the eye level of incoming traffic. But I've always thought this pales into insignificance compared to how long oncoming traffic have to deal with HID brightness due to undulations in the road so I'm with you Ger...not fussed.

Have you considered the Panamera LED w DRL's? I'm not sure but I suspect they'd do very nicely?


Oh, and remember that your deambered sections will be a couple of mm lower than the adjacent quadrant and headlight lenses. Probably no big deal (I've never seen them in the flesh).

Whatever you do, can't wait to see them!

[Nine8Six]

Originally Posted by TrumpyAl

It's so much work to retrofit, I'll only go with the best components that I can get now.

Still plastic looking, makes them too obvious being a cheap retrofit on a porsche car :/ Again, get the metal-ized kit (anodized, laser scripts). High class stuff mate

Or min. 2nd hand litronics. Plenty around

[TrumpyAl]

For me, with the litronics option you miss out on the opportunity to be creative.

The GT projectors are awesome quality and very unique, but I find the look not quite right for my tastes. A pair of staggered alloy shrouds stacked one on the other would be my ideal - but I doubt there's room?

edit: painted plastic shrouds might be the sweet spot for affordability without looking too thrown together from eBay?

[geraintthomas]

The reason why I didn't want to go for the GT projectors was because of the price. I'm sure they're worth it, but I don't know if I'm even going to be able to pull this off. I don't want to spend hundreds on something that I won't be able to do.

I thought you were in America? Didn't realise you were in Milton Keynes. Do you do fitting services any chance?

[Nine8Six]

Originally Posted by TrumpyAl

For me, with the litronics option you miss out on the opportunity to be creative.

The GT projectors are awesome quality and very unique, but I find the look not quite right for my tastes. A pair of staggered alloy shrouds stacked one on the other would be my ideal - but I doubt there's room?

edit: painted plastic shrouds might be the sweet spot for affordability without looking too thrown together from eBay?

I do/did all kind of bezels and custom work but in most case the price nearly double. Some painted to car-matching but most are properly anodized (life warranty on those ano bezels). Pro-shops and very special cars regularly get in touch for those to be made. Case by case, if you own that supercar-like with special lighting needs, do get in touch!

RE paint: no-go, we tried. The non-avoidable deformation of the plastic bezel will rip off your paint eventually, if not after only a few heat cycles. You need to use a 'rubbery' paint composition but none have been yet tested on composites (that deforms) and heats/cold cycles as much as an headlight. Luck on that :/

[geraintthomas]

I'm so confused. I didn't mention anything on painting?

EDIT: OH the other guy, my bad.