Headlight modifications with blacked out internals

[Equinox]

Hi all,

 

Wanted to share my latest modification with the 987 community. Always liked the look of headlights with black out internals rather than two big chromey beacons being on the front of the car.

 

Did some research and found a company that produces replacement headlights that are aftermarket for about £1k from the US. Felt this was pretty steep so set about modifying my own lights and painting the insides black to achieve the same result. Found a forum thread on another Porsche owners club from someone who had taken on the challenge. And trust me when I say it was a challenge!!!

Porsche around the 987 model years changed the supplier of the sealant used to glue the lens and housing together on the lights. This stuff unlike most other headlights does absolutely nothing when exposed to heat. You would usually head the light in the oven which would break down the sealant enough to pry the two parts away from each other. However with this stuff the actually light will melt and burn before the sealant does anything. This set about its own set of challenges.

 

After making some custom tools at work and I set about getting the two bits apart. Won’t go into all the details but it was a pig of a job and took up a lot more time than I thought.

And here is the finished results. I personally love it and think it really makes the car look much more modern.

 

 

 

 

[UKtom]

Looks great! I am always really cautious of the lights steaming up after resealing them. I've done similar mods before on my other cars and no matter how good i've sealed them, they've always ended up misting up sooner or later

[Equinox]

1 hour ago, UKtom said:

Looks great! I am always really cautious of the lights steaming up after resealing them. I've done similar mods before on my other cars and no matter how good i've sealed them, they've always ended up misting up sooner or later

 

Yeh they have designed a nice deep groove on these lights to aid in sealing them. This however is one of the main issue getting them apart in the first place as digging and breaking this down this is a pain.

 

Will be seeing how these fair over the next few weeks and will be offering an exchange program for anyone who would like to swap their set of lights for a completed set that will be stocked.

 

There will be the option to buy a set outright or wait to have your set modified however these will come with added costs and time to complete because this is just something I will do in my spare time.

[Tom]

Look great! 

 

Have you looked into getting rid of the silver grey surround? 

[Bushman]

would this be an opportunity  to install some funky LED DRLs into the headlamp units or maybe cover that dated silver rim with some carbon tape before gluing the Perspex cover back on?

[Equinox]

13 hours ago, Bushman said:

would this be an opportunity  to install some funky LED DRLs into the headlamp units or maybe cover that dated silver rim with some carbon tape before gluing the Perspex cover back on?

 

Yep and Yep!! these will be options for the finished product. Standard black internals just like these will be one price and then there will be addons that people can choose to put in place like halo LED rings, carbon surrounds and different coloured internals / details etc... Will just add time to delivery as I can only do so much as this is classed as a hobby  and it would obviously increase the price slightly.

 

Will work out a formula and itemised addons and pricing strategies and post up here once I have finished. (With admin approval of course!) 

 

\Glad they seem to be going down well though!!  

[Andy]

Looks great that. 

I've done this on a few of my past cars, and really changes the front end, luckily the cars I've done it on were fairly old so the glue melted well in the oven, and I didn't have any issues with ingress afterwards as I applied plenty of new sealant. 

[Equinox]

Latest set of lights going out to a another Cayman owner.

 

[Equinox]

41 minutes ago, eponymoose said:

Hi there.

 

Interested in this but would like to try before I buy. I live on Bath, so was thinking - I might be able to swing past at some point and we could possibly pop my lights and whack in yours briefly so I could see exactly how it looks on my car. What do you think?

 

Also, if I bought a set of non-xenon lights for cheap, is it easy to swap my xenon hardware over to the non-xenon units?

 

Hello,

 

yes ofcourse this this would be fine. My family live in Bath and I'm over Trowbridge way so could arrange to meet at either location. 

 

'With regards to the xenon question I know porsche used the same housing for both types of lights so I could imagine it's a straight swap however can't guarantee this and know the levelling mechanism on the non-xenon is fairly complex so swapping this over might be a lot of hassle. Will post an image of the internals of the lights tomorrow so you can see what I mean.

[Equinox]

Buddy of mine let me test fit some modified lights to his Cayman this weekend so people can see the contrast against a black car.

 

 

 

[crafty1]

Hi 

 

Have you tried doing this with Gen.2 lights or would you be willing ? I'd quite like mine done at some point. 

[Equinox]

20 hours ago, crafty1 said:

Hi 

 

Have you tried doing this with Gen.2 lights or would you be willing ? I'd quite like mine done at some point. 

Hi,

 

Haven't had a chance to pick up a set of Gen2 lights to break apart yet. And don't want to run the risk first time doing it, on someone else's lights because of the high risk of cracking them. They are probably no different from the Gen1, just requiring a different approach to working round the seal to break it apart. At some point I will pick up a set of used lights off eBay to work on and once I have a routine in place to get them apart effectively I will post up here about it.

 

Latest on the lights is I have been toying with a new design. Calling it the Half moon lights but they end up looking much like the Cayman R style of lights on the Gen2. Picture shows both my full blacked out lights next to the latest 'Half Moon' design.

 

 

 

Edited November 14, 2017 by Equinox
edit

[graham.reeds]

Does this affect the brightness of the resulting light?  I might be tempted for my white gen 2.

 

Problem is my car is my daily driver so I can't exactly run without lights (though some people in London...)

[Beanoir™]

These do look really great, nice work.  

 

How tricky would it be to lose the outer silver rim, like the CR lights? That would be the icing on the cake for me, on either style you’ve produced so far.  

[crafty1]

 

16 hours ago, Beanoir said:

These do look really great, nice work.  

 

How tricky would it be to lose the outer silver rim, like the CR lights? That would be the icing on the cake for me, on either style you’ve produced so far.  

 +1 

[Equinox]

On 21/11/2017 at 11:06, graham.reeds said:

Does this affect the brightness of the resulting light?  I might be tempted for my white gen 2.

 

Problem is my car is my daily driver so I can't exactly run without lights (though some people in London...)

Can't say I have noticed a difference. The main reflector is still chrome on rear part of the light and the upper lens doesn't 'use' any of the surrounding chrome to reflect as the lens is what draws the beam angle in and that is left unchanged. 

[Equinox]

On 21/11/2017 at 19:02, Beanoir said:

These do look really great, nice work.  

 

How tricky would it be to lose the outer silver rim, like the CR lights? That would be the icing on the cake for me, on either style you’ve produced so far.  

The outer silver rim is a textured print from what I can tell. Easy to scratch but not something that peels off or anything unfortunately. Only thing I have seen done is headlight edge covers in FRP or Carbon or someone does a vinyl sticker that does the same job. Currently have a spare set so maybe I will give it a go and see what happens scraping it all off. 

 

 

[PMGPete]

Have you tried this on any of the xenon equipped cars yet, would love the half moons on mine

[Equinox]

On 27/11/2017 at 14:14, eponymoose said:

Shout if / when you have a pair of the new design done, would love to pop over and have a look!

 

How long is the turn around to get a pair done, may I also ask?

 

19 hours ago, PMGPete said:

Have you tried this on any of the xenon equipped cars yet, would love the half moons on mine

 

 

Usually I can turn around a set in a week so long as no other commitments crop up as i'm sure you can understand I do this as a hobby more than anything to help people out who feel uncomfortable trying to do it themselves.

 

I have been getting a problem with the 'half moon' design however. Where I attach the detailing tape to mask off certain areas of the light. Upon removal I have been finding it is pulling up the matt silver section of the lights to expose the plastic bellow. The actual surface of that bit is rough, almost like felt. So I think its clinging to these pockets and causing bits to come off when removing the tape. I'm going to try and find a replacement paint that will match this section or another way to mask the sections off but I have since repainted these to the normal black housing I do but gloss black instead of satin too see what they look like.

 

When I get round to trying out the 'half moon' design again and finding a way round the issue, I'm more than happy for people to come round to try them out and I can supply a 'spare' set while they are being completed so people are not without their car.

 

I'm yet to do an Xenon equipped car however the procedure will be the same as they share the same housings etc... Will just have to test a set to make sure the differences in thermals doesn't cause an issue.

 

[Nate]

Hi, 

 

Are you still doing this? I'm interested.