2003 Porsche Boxster S
Discussion
LanceRS said:
Looks great, I can't believe that something so simple has made the interior look that much better. I'm just off to see what I can do on mine
Hah, my thoughts exactly. It's like I said, I'm not changing the colour, I'm just changing the material. Black plastic is now black alcantara, so the interior is the same theme, it's just more premium now. It's bloody fantastic!Rainy day today.
By the way, the DSLR is kept in the car now so it's easier for me to whip the decent camera out to take snaps, so the rest of the photos should be a lot better rather than iPhone ones
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.
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.Tickle said:
Fantastic work OP, loving the attention to detail.
Thank you!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.WojaWabbit said:
That looks great OP! You should be selling these as a straight swap conversion!
I'd be too nervous to be honest to do it as a regular thing! I'd happily do it for someone who wanted to bring theirs over, it only took a few hours alec.e said:
Those headlights have taken about 5 years off the visual age off the car, very nice work!
My thoughts exactly 
many thanksFreegs said:
Was really impressed by your Celica and work on this looks brilliant too. Will continue to follow with interest. Let me know if you're planning on selling this!
Thank you I took a huge amount of care in the Celica, and I really miss it (even though my girlfriends Dad has it).I've had a few people asking me to sell the car to them after seeing it in the skin, it's surprising. I've said to all of them that I've bought the car to keep it, and the only reason I'd sell it would be to get the next boxster up, and decent ones start at £10,000 - so unless you'd want it for that price, it's staying with me for now
heheSo 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.
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.Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff