2003 Porsche Boxster S
Discussion
M77MWW said:
Absolutely stunning cat and a real tribute to yourself buddy love it! Huge fan of the oem+ look and I'll be ordering some of that alcantara for my Megane rs haha
Thanks very much 
really appreciate the comments, makes me carry on with what I'm doing with a means to do it when other people appreciate it. The alcantara really makes the interior into something else. I'm going to re-do some of it tomorrow - turns out spray mount isn't the strongest when in the sun after a while, but some people have said even wood glue would do it when painted on with a brush. Should be back to normal tomorrow afternoon.I was going to pop to the garage to get the lights done, but they weren't open. Instead I did it myself, and they've turned out great
Used a box with lines on, to get the initial rotation right and height comparison with the two
Here's the beam pattern. If you're wondering if £18 ebay projectors are any good, here's your proof:
The cut off is stunning. Lovely small blue fringe to the tips, no curve (although that's fixable by bending the shield as ParticleWave mentioned), the bi-xenon part of it where it flicks the light upwards works fantastic too. The only thing I have to worry about now is if they last. If they do, they'd be bargain of the century.
Performance and visual upgrade in one
shalmaneser said:
Do you have a link to the projector modules you fitted?
I'm having a play around with some e36 projector headlights and am tempted to attempt a similar swap to you - your results look excellent!
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/152028284543?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AITI'm having a play around with some e36 projector headlights and am tempted to attempt a similar swap to you - your results look excellent!
There you go mate. £18! Best £18 I've spent on the car.
I bought my HID's from HID-Direct, but to be honest I'd never recommend these. I've had about 7 replacement ballasts in the past few years, and last night had to replace another with a spare. It's ridiculous. Their service is great, but the products are poorly made. I'm tempted to fork out on a more expensive set, or even LED with ballasts as they don't have any warm up time.
lewisf182 said:
Your boxster looks absolutely stunning IMHO, such great attention to detail and I love the OEM+ look so much, wish I had a bit more know how to do the stuff you do! If I ever get a 996 I'll be returning to this thread
Thanks for the kind words I've just taught and done everything myself to be honest bud. YouTube and forums are pretty much how I've done anything on the car.I was tempted to get a 996 but, for the money it's not a big enough upgrade over the 986 S. Yeah it's got rear seats, but it hasn't got a rear boot. Yeah it's got a 3.4 in there, but the Boxster is mid-engined (far superior handling and balance). And yeah it's got a higher top speed but, honestly, when am I ever going to do 180+mph. The 0-60 time is only about 0.3 seconds quicker, and considering all those facts, the 996 is literally double the price of a Boxster 986 S. I bought mine for £7,500, and a 996 is around £14,000 for a semi-decent one. So for £7,000 more you get an engine in a different location and rear seats (but no rear boot).
Don't get me wrong, if someone handed me a Boxster or a 911 for free and asked me to pick, I'd pick the 911 any day. It's just purely the fact that because I already have a 986 S, compared to my car, it's definitely not worth twice the amount of money for the upgrade.
Edited by geraintthomas on Wednesday 16th November 12:39
geraintthomas said:
shalmaneser said:
Do you have a link to the projector modules you fitted?
I'm having a play around with some e36 projector headlights and am tempted to attempt a similar swap to you - your results look excellent!
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/152028284543?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AITI'm having a play around with some e36 projector headlights and am tempted to attempt a similar swap to you - your results look excellent!
There you go mate. £18! Best £18 I've spent on the car.
I bought my HID's from HID-Direct, but to be honest I'd never recommend these. I've had about 7 replacement ballasts in the past few years, and last night had to replace another with a spare. It's ridiculous. Their service is great, but the products are poorly made. I'm tempted to fork out on a more expensive set, or even LED with ballasts as they don't have any warm up time.
lewisf182 said:
Your boxster looks absolutely stunning IMHO, such great attention to detail and I love the OEM+ look so much, wish I had a bit more know how to do the stuff you do! If I ever get a 996 I'll be returning to this thread
Thanks for the kind words I've just taught and done everything myself to be honest bud. YouTube and forums are pretty much how I've done anything on the car.I was tempted to get a 996 but, for the money it's not a big enough upgrade over the 986 S. Yeah it's got rear seats, but it hasn't got a rear boot. Yeah it's got a 3.4 in there, but the Boxster is mid-engined (far superior handling and balance). And yeah it's got a higher top speed but, honestly, when am I ever going to do 180+mph. The 0-60 time is only about 0.3 seconds quicker, and considering all those facts, the 996 is literally double the price of a Boxster 986 S. I bought mine for £7,500, and a 996 is around £14,000 for a semi-decent one. So for £7,000 more you get an engine in a different location and rear seats (but no rear boot).
Don't get me wrong, if someone handed me a Boxster or a 911 for free and asked me to pick, I'd pick the 911 any day. It's just purely the fact that because I already have a 986 S, compared to my car, it's definitely not worth twice the amount of money for the upgrade.
Edited by geraintthomas on Wednesday 16th November 12:39
Your alcantara looks great, trying to think where I could use this in my 130 to freshen it up a bit.
All had IMS issues, but mainly ones that were garage queens and weren't used properly. Rubbers don't get used, they seize up and leak. An oil change can tell if it's good or bad as you'd see metal flakes. Mine has 90,000 on it and it's perfect. There's also a guy on the forums that has one with 350,000 on it and didn't know what an IMS bearing was.
The chances are very, VERY low of it happening!
The chances are very, VERY low of it happening!
To recap, my main beams don't come on when I flash people with the dipped beams off in the day time, as the main beams are linked to the bi-xenon Projectors, so when I pull on the stick to flash people, there's no light to flick up due to the dipped beams being off. So for a work around, I needed a relay to switch circuits when needed.
Created the main beam changeover relay today.
Ready to make it:
Done:
Installed:
Works perfectly! If the xenons aren't on, pulling on the main beam will flash the old separate main beam bulb (perfect for day time flashing). The bulb is now a Cree LED a bulb with a forward facing projector on it, so that it's bright. When the xenons are on though, it'll use the bi-xenon solenoid to flick the projector light upwards and the main beam bulb won't be used.
Perfect.
Created the main beam changeover relay today.
Ready to make it:
Done:
Installed:
Works perfectly! If the xenons aren't on, pulling on the main beam will flash the old separate main beam bulb (perfect for day time flashing). The bulb is now a Cree LED a bulb with a forward facing projector on it, so that it's bright. When the xenons are on though, it'll use the bi-xenon solenoid to flick the projector light upwards and the main beam bulb won't be used.
Perfect.
One of the things I've been meaning to do is to lower and space it. Lower it with the H&R 10mm springs, and space it using hubcentric spacers - most likely 12mm front, 18mm rear (or something similar).
Using an old photo, I've done a rough photoshop of the drop and space.
Before:
After:
Love the look. Considering it's only around £250 for springs and spacers, and as I'd do the work myself, it'll be well worth it.
Using an old photo, I've done a rough photoshop of the drop and space.
Before:
After:
Love the look. Considering it's only around £250 for springs and spacers, and as I'd do the work myself, it'll be well worth it.
Alcantara wasn't working on the ash tray - got dirty too quickly with bits and the door kept rubbing.
Decided to spray it metallic silver instead to match the gearknob and door handles.
Turned out great - sorry for the bad photos, it's dark and raining here so will take a better photograph in the morning.
Decided to spray it metallic silver instead to match the gearknob and door handles.
Turned out great - sorry for the bad photos, it's dark and raining here so will take a better photograph in the morning.
alec.e said:
Got a link to the Alcantara for sale? Is it true black, I got some black faux stuff that had an annoying blueish tint to it... Thanks!
It's black with an ever slight blue shade to it in certain light. It's hard to find alcantara that's not! The link is a few pages back somewhere, haven't got it on my Ebay anymore.Gave it a thorough clean today, along with sealant and wax for the winter.
First proper photo with those headlights too. Ignore the condensation, that appeared after fiddling with the HID's with no back cover on. Will have to hair dryer it off!
Worked on the front DRL's today. I wired them up to the sidelights as the projectors are covering the old sidelight bulbs (as explained before), so these will be the new sidelights. The kit comes with a relay with three wires (ground, 12v, and headlight), and if you plug the extra headlight wire into the headlights, it'll turn them off when the headlights are turned on. Haven't used that for now, but I may wire it in at a later date.
I'm a bit picky with colours of lights, don't want them to clash if there's a drastic difference in kelvin temperature between the DRL's and the headlights. If it is, I'll just have them turn off when I turn the headlights on.
I was going to drill two holes in the fins or up under the bumper in the grill, but I used very small but strong cable ties instead to attach the fixture on which the DRL's attach to, so it's very secure without it permanently altering the car. The wires are fed along the bumper, and if you pop the headlight out you can see the grills, so they go up through there and into the headlight through a hole in the back of the headlight cover (already existing for HID ballasts). They then plug into the sidelight bulb socket instead of an actual bulb. The beauty of this is that I don't need to take the front bumper off to do it.
Started work on it:
And voila!
And off.
They look great I'll get proper DSLR photos soon.
I'm a bit picky with colours of lights, don't want them to clash if there's a drastic difference in kelvin temperature between the DRL's and the headlights. If it is, I'll just have them turn off when I turn the headlights on.
I was going to drill two holes in the fins or up under the bumper in the grill, but I used very small but strong cable ties instead to attach the fixture on which the DRL's attach to, so it's very secure without it permanently altering the car. The wires are fed along the bumper, and if you pop the headlight out you can see the grills, so they go up through there and into the headlight through a hole in the back of the headlight cover (already existing for HID ballasts). They then plug into the sidelight bulb socket instead of an actual bulb. The beauty of this is that I don't need to take the front bumper off to do it.
Started work on it:
And voila!
And off.
They look great
I'll get proper DSLR photos soon.I've been following this thread with interest, as I fancy scratching the Boxster itch at some point. Really like your attention to detail. There seems to be a lot of hate on here for aftermarket DRL's, but those look like a really neat fit and could almost have been fitted from the factory, good work!
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