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YOUR RESEARCHAmberectomy
Leading reported evidence
Install new
Performed · outcome unconfirmed
No successful repair reported for this finding.
0
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0
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Leading evidence: 'Install new' (no explicit attributable resolution; this is a reported action or suggestion). Across 1 matching discussions, The most frequently discussed action is 'Fill inside of your headlamp' (1 discussions). For that action, 0 discussions report a resolution and 0 report an unsuccessful attempt. No action has an explicit, attributable resolution report under the current rules. These are forum reports and suggestions, not a confirmed diagnosis.
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Performed · outcome unconfirmed
I think he meant that he completely replaced the headlight assemblies when he changed out the front bumper cover.
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Performed · outcome unconfirmed · Original poster
I'm running by the body shop a little later to pick up the assemblies...
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Performed · outcome unconfirmed
- Purchased a set of used headlights from a 996 on e-bay
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Suggestion
a dremel might also work, but could fill the inside of your headlamp with abmer dust that will NEVER come out
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Thinking about my car while she's in the body shop and thought that NOW would be a good time to perform the amberectomy (the body shop guy already pulled the headlight assemblies out to fit the bumper cover... one less thing for me to screw up)... but before I do, I'd like to get the bulbs for the turn signals and the sidemarkers... I went to xenonmods.com as suggested, but couldn't quite find the appropriate bulbs. On the Sylvania site, they call out for the 7506 for the turn signals and 2825 for the sidemarkers... xenonmods.com has the 7507 (in amber, red or clear), but nothing remotely related to the number 2825 for the sidemarkers.
Sounds like there have been more than a few here that have successfully completed the surgery and replace the bulbs... where did you go and which bulbs did you order?
Thanks!
Rudy
---------------------------------
'01 Arctic Silver/Black C2 Cabriolet
'03 Silver F-150 Supercrew
Hey, this is an awesome mod...
What I did was email xenonmods because I got confused too..
e-mail:
[email removed]
and they had a "kit" for the
SILVER BULBS
which is what you want.. I got them for the 4 corners and the markers.. might have been about $30?? I forget.
Bulbs came in the mail and I have LOVED this mod ever since... in fact I regularly recommend it to anyone who still has those anoying things in!!
PM me if you get stuck, there are some tricks and general info that might help.. I have done 3 cars now and get better w/ practice
Ed,
Agree - I really like that look, particularly with the Arctic Silver car... I may take you up on the offer if I get stuck... Tim passed a link that details the procedure which included pictures.
Good tip to email... I tried to find reference information for the bulbs for awhile now, but not in earnest... this morning when I committed to doing it, I tried even harder to find the bulbs and failed... so I posted here.
Anyway I'll post pictures and the bulb numbers when I get them.
Thanks for the suggestion!
Rudy
-----------------------------
'01 Arctic Silver/Black C2 Cabriolet
'03 Silver F-150 Supercrew
yup... like you say, I too got lost trying to figure out the bulb numbers... they do it everyday, they know which ones, save the headache and just ask.
There have been a couple people say that xenonmods did not offer the best service and that they were slow and un-responsive... I did not find that to be the case, but just so you have a heads up, it has happened before ....
Place the light on a thick bed of soft towels so you dont scrath the lens as you work on it
Just 2 pointers... use about 3 layers of tin foil over the hole.. its easy to melt that and make the bulb seats deformed. second, start the "burn out" by using the soldering iron like a drill, and "drill" holes about 2/3 way up the lens as many places as you can... then "slice" the corners out (pushing away from the hole) next just slice the lower (farthest away sections) into small pieces and remove as you go... the upper 1/3 of the lens can be taken out in one (3 sided) piece after that... this takes about 1/2 as much time as cutting that up for removal.
Also dont be afraid to "poke" thru the amber lens, there is nothing behind it for a long ways (wasted a lot of time the first try on figuring that out)
(for reference lower means farthest away... the headlight will be upside down so lower is actually the upper part of the light when orientated on the car)
Next time I do one of these I think I will video it..... that would be cool ehhh
Nicolaas had a frontal lobotomy performed on himself to remind him not to buy a P-car with a Tip next time!
Sorry Nicolaas, I couldn't resist!
I think he meant that he completely replaced the headlight assemblies when he changed out the front bumper cover.
Ed,
Thanks for the tips... I'm running by the body shop a little later to pick up the assemblies... If anything, your tips offer a lot of encouragement, although it would have been nice to see a quick clip of the process...
I'll let you know how it goes... I did order the bulbs, but I got them from autolumination.com... four of the silver turn signal bulbs and four of the silver side marker bulbs. I got them for $2.99 each - with rush delivery it was under $30 for the eight bulbs... they were actually a link from xenonmods... and they had a conversion chart right on the home page (by the way the 7506 turn signal bulbs are #1156 and the 2825 side marker bulbs are #194).
Thanks again.
Rudy
---------------------------
'01 Arctic Silver/Black C2 Cabriolet
'04 Silver F-150 Supercrew
Opps, sorry I didn't mean to mislead. As far as I know the orginal type I had on my 986 (with the orange on the outside) can't be converted.
- I removed them.
- Purchased a set of used headlights from a 996 on e-bay
- Performed the amberectomy on the internal orange lenses on the units I purchased
- Installed the new
- Sold my old lights on e-bay
I see in your 1st "after" picture
you have done
the prescribed stereo mod (aka a boom box in the driveway pointed at the car)
Now that's a Porsche stereo to be proud of.... it stays home while you go drive and enjoy the sound of your car ! !
LOL
TIM SUCKS....and drives a freakin' Honda..... JUST KIDDING
To be honest I think I would buy a tip again.....call me lazy!
And yes I replaced front fenders, bumper and headlights....and yes it is a little more intrusive than taking the amber out of headlights.....but it is like you are driving a completely new P-car.
By the way TIM...no brain no pain and no need for a lobotomy.....
Well, he bought a Tip because his wife can't drive a stick. IIRC, she drove it a couple of times and did not like driving it. So he ended up with a Tip when he really wanted a 6-speed.
2 needle nose pliers are good too.. sometimes you can work one against the other and twist off the pieces to be removed.... but you have to slice and dice it up.. soldering iron works well for that... a dremel might also work, but could fill the inside of your headlamp with abmer dust that will NEVER come out
Yes Tim is telling the truth...ofcourse I wanted a stick originally...I am european and in europe only retired old people drive automatics.
BUT please Tim stop rubbbing it in an opening old wounds..I can't deal with it anymore, snif snif......
I think in California a tip would be a better choice if you have to drive in that traffic a lot. Nicholaas, have you driven the 2009 with PDK yet? From everything I have read, there is no comparison between the Tip and PDK. Many guys really like the PDK.
Tim do you think I am made of gold??? a2009 with pdk?!?!?? I am as close to buying a Honda as ever (okay almost...okay maybe not...but you never know in this economy) ..... the only reason I am keeping my P is because it is mine ( I mean paid for).
Okay - started the surgery... and I'm stuck. I managed to melt/carve a roundish hole through the amber lens and have cleared away that debris. I can tell that the amber lens is broken on the bottom (which would be the top if the assembly were installed on the car), but it's still one piece on the top (the edge closest to the hole.)
I feel like I'm walled in... if you look straight down the hole, there's a mirror on the floor (directly opposite of the hole I'm using), there's a wall in the back, opposite of where the amber lens was and there appear to be two mirror "walls" forming almost a cube between the back wall and where the lens was... do you burn through the "side" "walls"? or just burn the amber lens? How do you get at the part of the amber lens on the other side of the side "walls"?
Putting it away for now, pending good advice.
Rudy
--------------------------
'01 Arctic Silver/Black C2 Cabriolet
'03 Silver F-150 Supercrew
It's OK... the first one I did I tried to "scare" the lens out i looked at it soooo long.
So stay away from the silver miror on the floor, and the back black wall... the amber lens is 3 sided... you will have to burn more holes in it than one (I think I burn 3 on the left, 3 on the right and about 6 on the front. Then put the soldering iron ito one hole and slowly drag it (cutting) to the next hole over... repeat many times.
Then drag or slice slide... what ever you call it.. towards the mirrow (try not to hit the mirror surface) this is the point when pieces start to come off and can be removed....
I saved the pieces from my last job.. here they are. Note that the 3 sides piece is the part closest to the hole... you have to burn all that other stuff away. As you can see I was able to section it into fairly large pieces and that saves time over tiny pieces....
Hope these help
Ed,
Based on your description I went back out and started pushing on the edge of the hole... figuring that because the bottom was broken, that if I push on it hard enough, maybe the top would snap and give me a hint... I did... and it did... now I understand that those "walls" were part of the amber lens... so now the lens is broken in two large pieces and loose... tomorrow I'll go in and start chopping it up into pieces that will fit through the hole so I can remove them. Then work on the second one... Looks just like it's supposed to.
Thanks again for the hints and tips, they were much appreciated!
Rudy
-----------------------------
'01 Arctic Silver/Black C2 Cabriolet
'03 Silver F-150 Supercrew
more pics....
last step is pull out pieces as you go, then remove the skinny 3 sided part, last pic is just so you can see what the pieces might look like as they come out
Ed,
These pics are great... you'd be doing others a huge favor if you can find a place to stash them for posterity. My first one was not near as elegant as what you showed... I basically started burning holes randomly in the middle of the amber lens that eventually grew, finally breaking the bottom (actually top) edge of the lens... that's where I got stuck - I didn't recognize that the sides were actually part of the lens itself until I pushed them, then the whole lens snapped and you could see that the walls were more or less "easels" for the lens to get it to stand up.
I'll see if I can do that with the second one... I should be able to since I was overly careful with the sides, not realizing they were part of the amber.
Thanks again!
Rudy
-------------------------------
'01 Arctic Silver/Black C2 Cabriolet
'03 Silver F-150 Supercrew
Trust me, I ended up with some amber flakes inside the headlamps and they vacuumed out. I may have attached some flexible rubber tubing to the end of the vacuum cleaner.
Ta Da!!!
Done - Mission Accomplished (shame that phrase doesn't carry the same weight it used to...) Performed a successful amberectomy, the whole procedure took me (including a frustration timeout) about 2 hours... the first one took about an hour forty five minutes... the second took probably 15 minutes... the patient is resting comfortably waiting for the rest of the host to be released from the body shop...
Thanks Ed and Tim for your help, tips and encouragement. Pictures to follow (gotta upload them as soon as I find the darn camera cable...)
Rudy
------------------------------
'01 Arctic Silver/Black C2 Cabriolet
'03 Silver F-150 Supercrew
Let's see - seemed that you had quite a list when I first got here... but let me list what I've done, what's pending and what's planned:
Clear side markers, turbo-look front bumper, aero-look side rockers, de-ambered headlights... getting ready to run down and pick up the matching turbo-look rear bumper cover... 15 mm spacers all-around, and a Pioneer 900BT in-dash navi unit (with new speakers)... That's the list this year, although I think I can sneak a CAI by my wife this year without her noticing...
The only thing on the list next year so far is swapping out the rag top with plastic window for one with a glass window...
So... whatcha got?
Rudy
-------------------------------
'01 Arctic Silver/Black C2 Cabriolet
'03 Silver F-150 Supercrew
Ed, maybe you could:
attach the GT2 muffler to your B-B-Q grill and make a smoke chamber out of it!
or just let the "exhaust" from the grill exit out through the muffler
or cut the back end off and make a planter box for flowers. The inlet pipes could be the legs.
or stand it on its legs and put the GT2 wing on top of it and make a bench. This would kill 2 birds with one stone.
I wish I had something you don't need so I could sell it to you!
I don't recall if you have done any of these mods or not, so here is "Page 1"
PSE MK II mod with 3.6L mufflers
Short shifter
Install Upper shelf in center console
Key Plug/bimper plugs
Aluminum gauge rings
Aluminum Pedals
Garage Door Opener mod
Spoiler Switch mod
Paint Top Hats
Paint calipers
WOW - you have been busy and stimulating the economy too !!
IMO - CAI is tricky mod... be careful on this one. There is a "free" version called "Gillette" that some have run. I bought a CAI from K&N but never did the install because that one is not a good choice...
Okay - let's see... No PSE MK II... (what is that and why do I want to do it?)
No Short shifter (it's a tip)
Upper shelf is on the way (pulling the cup holders for the nav unit and getting rid of that goofy cd holder...)
Aluminum Guage Rings (maybe, I'm holding out for real carbon fiber stuff [not the peel-off stuff], how would that look with CF dash trim?
Garage Door Opener Mod? (garage door opener is a key fob right now)
Spoiler Switch mod (I read about that one - sounds kind of cool.. but there's a chance I may go the wing route if the car looks unbalanced with the bumper set.)
Paint top hats and calipers (Both good and added to the list - and can't cost that much)
What's on page 2 (just how many pages are there???)
Thanks!
Rudy
------------------------
'01 Arctic Silver/Black C2 Cabriolet
'03 Silver F-150 Supercrew
There are 14 pages...... just kidding!
These are really visual, non performance mods, but I think they really add a lot to the look and are very inexpensive.
PSE MK II mod mimics the sound of PSE mufflers for about 10% of the cost. You add a pipe to the stock mufflers. However, you need to get a set of 3.6L ('02 - '04) mufflers for the best sound. I have done this same mod to both 3.4L and 3.6L mufflers and doing it to 3.4L mufflers is not worth the effort. Pic #1 shows actual PSE mufflers and pic #2 shows the MK II mod. In pic #2 the "can" on the left is 3.4L muffler with the MK II not done to it and the can on the right is a stock 3.6L muffler. The MK II mod improves the sound dramatically.
The aluminum gauge rings would still look good even it you added the CF trim strip. The rings set off the gauges a little more.
Garage door opener - Check out this link.
Garage Door Opener
There are other posts on this yo can find if you search on Garage or Illuminated.
Painted Calipers and Top Hats cost less than $20. Search on Calipers and or top hats will get you to some threads.
Hope this helps.
I just did the amberectomy in just over 1 and a half hours. I was scared as hell. In the end I got some ***** and just went for it. Thanks to everyone for their tips. the car looks fantastic. Will post some pics when I can.
been a long time but I performed an Amberectomy this evening at home -
took about 1/2 hour plus set up of maybe the same, so an hour total time
The cool part is on the second one I pulled the lens out in one piece...never done that before!!
I sliced it in 1/2 all the way around and pulled out one edge, the top 3 sides came out and the bottom were attached and I just kept rotating and twisting...and WHAM - one piece !!
@Rudy - Don't know if the '01 Cab lets you raise/lower the top while moving, but my '00 didn't. There is a simple mod that allows that. Didn't think I needed it until I was stuck in slow-moving traffic in a construction zone with no shoulder and it started to rain.
Maybe we can do that exhaust install
I've done the cans several times, its like a 15 minute job, but the cats and headers...idk, might take some learning, but could be fun if we take our time....just a thought
Ed came over to show me how to do this. He instructed me on the first light and showed how to extract the amber plastic once it has all been melted. Should have taken a picture of the before and after. I then did the second one alone and did it in 15 minutes. Ed, you are a great teacher. THanks for showing me how to do one of the best mods for the buck. I always hated amber even in the clear lights so I am super happy. Now I need to find the silverized amber bulbs
I have read all of this thread, and want to get those amber lenses out of my 986. Yes it has the Litronics with clear fronts...
And see read that there is the hard way, and the easy way.
But you guys didn't explain the difference.
"maybe" someone could do a video (as I can't find one...) or even instructional steps and steps...?
Thank you,
Paul
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