Question for ParticleWave and Nine8Six - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

I have two sets of headlights. The old halo's with amber (low miles took them off the car with less than 9k miles) and my current Litronics. I also had a third set of clear halo's but I sold those for $700 like a dummy a while back. On the Litronics, the passenger side had to be replaced after a small fender bender in a parking lot (other guys's fault). I made the mistake of not pushing his insurance to replace both sides so they would match. Well sure enough the driver's side has begun to quickly turn yellow/green along the eyelid area. The clear lens is cloudier too but I'm sure that part can be restored. I've been wanting to paint the inside of the lights black or anthracite since that mod was first posted. With that in mind should I: 1) Buy a new Litronic, or maybe Ebay (although these are never cheap either). attempt surgery to paint the inside of both. 2) Retrofit the old dormant halo's with amber. (have no idea what the cost will be) 3) attempt a lense swap on the problematic Litrnonic, paint the inside. 4) De-Litronic, buy this new Pelican kit, paint the inside. This seems like the only way I'm going to get Nine8Six's kit (best mod ever) into my headlights. Jealous:

Also made me jealous http://986forum.com/forums/general-discussions/37318-black-hids.html

I would retrofit the amber set and swap the clear lenses onto them. There may even be a market for Lits with amber lenses. Someone on rennlist mentioned wanting to make a set.

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Made you jealous?! Well You and I both lolll That my friend is the grand daddy of the GTProjectors. This is where the idea of getting a cool retrofit kit for my 986 all started in all honesty. I remember seeing this pic 3~4 years ago and went completely bunker about it. I am actually so grateful to this guy for the paint idea. Absolutely brilliant chap. I also remember having those eBay/Taiwan made LED headlights in my Wish List near-ready to pay for etc etc. Am I glad to not have got those after reading more about them over the years. Nonetheless they were pretty cool looking headlights - admit! Rewinding a few years (5+years ago?) I was the very first to crack open those 986 headlights (in fact Madmod was, not me lollll). Although a pretty similar dude if one can remember. I actually did that retrofit with eBay style 'plastic' bezels and not even 2 years later, the sun UV chewed those bezels down to the bare PE composite they were originally molded with. The chrome was flaking on the other and can't remember what else - they had to be pulled out after less than 24 months - how annoying. Heard of many others who had similar issues and still today, I keep seeing them in parking lots here in Shanghai on Jap cars looking sad and flaking their chrome coating/paint like crazy. ^ this not-so-intelligent idea + the grand daddy black interior SUPERCAR style painting idea, and bang, GTProjectors 'package' came to life. Had to come up with a durable bezel that wouldn't melt under the hot Shanghai sun. Can't say the GTP are the best in the world, you should see today's new automakers headlights, but in regard to lighting system performance, they unfortunately surpass those of the Litronic. It is pointless to carry out a lumen test... you can see the difference just by parking two Porsche cars side-by-side and lighting them up - can't count how many times this have happened here in Shanghai while outing with the other Pcar boyz. Also doing a lumen test could offend a few who've purchase those $2~3k lighting system so I've never had the balls to do it. Also the Litronics are single beam (low) and the lens is sort of frosty.... i.e primitive 1990 tech so it wouldn't be a fair compare to Porsche. Those GTP are bi-xenon also (both low & high in one projector) so this alone kills the Litties on that aspect by a few miles. Again, an unfair comparison to make :/ Modern-vs-1990 style. You also have the aesthetic side of the GTPs. Its not because they were made by myself that I say that but, please agree, they dramatically change the appearance of the 986 and 996s. Some likes them, others don't, but a solid 9 on 10 will say that it is a 'dramatic' improvement visually. They really shave out 10 years off the car. I can't count how many times someone pointed at my headlights and said "wah man this is sick". Whether these GTP are lit up, or simply dead on a parked Porsche car. You get the wow effect straight away. So with all that %^*&$ said. I recommend you to stay with the old style halogen PL Hope it helped you made up your decision brother (enjoy the weekend!)

I've recently mandate this AES optic company to manufacture 500 of those optics for us. They "work" loll Just to make sure at 100% that we are going to get those very same for the coming few years. Little extra note to give "credit" to the manufacturer of those "Ultimate" optic - as they call them. Couldn't agree more on that name loll All good fair trade to all

OK Fred, now I'm confused. Is this AES company going to be making your projectors that will be sold thru Pelican or is this some different entirely new venture?

AES Ultimate is the make/model of the optics used in Fred's kits (reflector, lens, cut offs).

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^ correct The optic that are hidden inside the GTP are not manufactured by myself. Made by a pretty switched on team here. Those optic is killer if you ask me, works just fine when compared to modern optics. We've tested 14 (fourteen) of those MH1 style optics at the time and the AES won by far - their optic is deeper back, gives a better focus just before hitting the clear glass lens. They also come with heat transfer extruded around it bowl... others were micro thin and simply (over)heating in comparison. Their only problem: they are not all that cheap :/ compared to the tons of other MH1 variations available anyway. But then, who bloody cares, it works is all what matters to me (other also I'm sure) I do however precision machine the bezels, the shrouds, the adapter kits, and offer life support on those Wish me a long life lolllll

That, the heart beat of those GTP things Brutally bright(er) than most other we've tried There, some trade secrets for y'all. Lookup for knockoff soon lolllll ps. The Luminoso bezel have already been copied for info (yup, that fast). An exact same copy of those I've designed. Mate Andy found them here on the Chinese ebay site a month ago. Made of plastic tho, same gunmetal style color ($12) lollllll

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Fred, all I can say is Wow! I can't believe that happened this quickly. PS: I'll be showing off your work to 90 other Porsche owners at the Blue Ridge Boxster Summit starting Wed. in North Carolina

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Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, one said lollllll Yea my Chinese friends here are fast for stuff like that :/ We actually spoke to the seller pretending to be a customer and wanted to buy a set. He quickly figured out we were not 'Chinese' and got scared for some reason (that's unusual!). I am a fluent Chinese speaker, but locals can detect that I am not all that of a native speaker loll So that didn't work. He told me he'd call back and pulled off the advert on his estore minutes after. We can't find them atm but surely you'll see those appearing on eBay along all the other crappy "plastic" bezels very soon! My advantage: I manufacture those myself, I own the machines. Anyone wanting to machine (copy) the same kit will cost him about $90 worth of CNC "per bezel" (4 operations each). At that price those are not anodized and laser'ed yet - add another $40. So for one pair of those super slick precision machined aluminum bezels, you are looking at avg $180 (manufacturer price). Add the shroud, the adapter kits, also precision machined, and the kit goes up in flame at about $300 " manufacturer price " lolllll So whoever wants to copy the GTProjectors, either is crazy, or owns some pretty advanced industrial CNC mills and Lathes himself. And who ever owns that kind of expansive automation machinery are busy already - I'm just lucky to have the extra time to do those kits for you guys Really fun to do why am I saying all that s**t... going back to work here, sorry guys. Just bragging again. Don - thanks for showing them off mate. You know I'd appreciate that very much