Help identifying Aerokit part: radiator blank

Hello everyone. I'm hoping the collective knowledge can help me track down a part which doesn't appear to be on any of the diagrams. But I swear it exists, because I have seen more than one of them. With my own eyes. The part in question is this (the black plastic blank in the hole where the centre radiator would be): A bit of backstory: I'm currently most of the way through a light front-end restoration of my car, which has I think a dealer-fit Aerokit. The car is a 98 build manual Carrera, and so originally had the centre radiator hole blanked off with a body-coloured part, like so: For various reasons, that bumper pictured is no longer usable. I spent a long time deliberating over which part number to order for the bumper, hoping I would get the exact same part. The internet was unfortunately not much help here, and as anyone who has had to order one of these before will know, the part numbers are a bit of a lottery. So the parts man and I made our best guess, I paid my money, and one turned up with a hole in it. I considered a number of options including fitting a centre radiator, hacking up the old bumper or filling it with something not made by Porsche; but ultimately they all felt to me incorrect and I was (am) concerned that anything other than the correct part will just make the car look like the Aerokit is a later addition. For a long time I had been led to believe that the black blank pictured above is actually the central third of the standard air inlet grille, and that people who retrofitted the Aerokit tended to cut that up and bodge it into the hole. I was actually pretty close to ordering this part up, until from looking closely at pictures (most clearly shown on the blue car above), the curvature is specific to this Aerokit part and the standard part is quite a different shape. My indy also vaguely remembers installing these in period. So, all things considered, I'm pretty sure Porsche once made that part. If they still make it, and if one of you can help me find a part number, I'd like to buy one. And you a beer. Many thanks.

Cut some adhesive black pvc and fitted to mine, if you do find them let me know.

This? 99650598002G2X

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Thanks, but that’s the bumper (or ‘apron’) itself. If memory serves, that one was more than twice the price of the one I ordered! In case it helps anyone in the future, the bumper with the hole is: 99650598003G2X I should add that I already have this bumper as the OPC were able to do me a good deal on it, and it’s painted. So there’s no going back now.

Ah, sorry! AFAIK you had to cut out the 'blank'. So the bumper came with it in place, if you had a 3rd radiator then you cut it out. If an aero, so no third/centre rad, then you kept it in.

There are 2 different aero bumpers. One with an insert around the holes (like the standard bumper) and one without an insert (like mine). As I see it, you have the bumper without the insert. Have you ever looked in the parts catalog? I actually only know the insert with and without the center cut-out and I suspect that someone has cut up the insert and tinkered behind it.

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No worries! I had heard that too, which was part of the reason we decided to just order the part, given that we couldn’t find a definitive answer anywhere else. To add to the confusion, my original one appears to have been stuck in from the back then presumably finished on the front before paint…

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Ah! Something might have just clicked... so you're saying that the white and blue bumpers I spotted in the wild may well be a different part entirely to yours and mine? Looking at them more closely, around the blade through the outer radiator hole, the profile just below the number plate does look different. So if that holds true, and from what you say, we think they never made a self-coloured (black) insert for just the central hole in the bumper you and I have? What they did make, and I kick myself for not noticing this before now, is whatever thing is glued into the hole in my old bumper. Which looks rather like it has its own part number. As for parts catalog, I have 2 PDFs that I think came from the official Porsche Classic website. One for the Carrera (which doesn't show the Aerokit) and one for the GT3 (which of course wouldn't have had the hole blanked). I spent a lot of time with the parts man at the OPC scouring their system, and we couldn't see anything resembling an insert on any of the drawings relevant to my chassis number. But of course, if they revised the bumper for the later gen 1 cars to add an insert, that wouldn't appear for my car. I will look up that other number on my old bumper and report back. Thank you for your help!

Bitte verwechseln Sie nicht einen GT3 Stoßfänger und einen AERO Stoßfänger. Sie sehen gleich aus und sind es auch, allerdings hat der GT3 Stoßfänger immer den Ausschnitt in der Mitte und den Aero Stoßfänger gibt es auch ohne diesen Ausschnitt.

Having checked with the OPC, 996 505 985 01 does not show up on their system. Apparently it's not a valid Porsche part number. Maybe I will have to cut that out of my old bumper and see if it can be salvaged.

996.505.983.00 aero kit bumper with no cut out

There is no insert as a separate part. The bumpers were produced by Zender for Porsche and either had the rear section of the central recess cut out for use on the GT3, or left in place for regular Aero equipped cars. Here is the rear of my very own bumper showing the back of the recess, part number and also the stepped line in the moulding half way through the depth of the recess indicating where to cut for the GT3.

Another option is to cut and open it up ala GT3 and add some black mesh from the back.

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Thank you for the picture and info, this is interesting. Your bumper and my original bumper pictured (on the black car) in post #1 and post #7 have the same part and revision number (996 505 983 01), yet yours has the blank moulded in and mine has the blank stuck in. If you zoom in on mine, it has its own part number (996 505 985 01) which unfortunately doesn’t show up on Porsche’s systems. So either it came from Zender like that, or somebody stuck the 985 part in the hole before it was painted and fitted to my car. Either way, I can’t buy that 985 part now. Just to confirm, this bumper is scrap and I have a new bumper (980 03) waiting to be fitted. The new bumper has a hole, which I am trying to blank. If what Teilegott says is true, and there are two styles of Aerokit/GT3 bumper (one without an insert as per his pictured in post #6 , yours and my old scrap one; and one with an insert as per the blue and white cars in post #1), perhaps we are to assume that the 983 part is the one without the insert and the 980 part is the one with the insert. The OPC checked the 983 01 number for me yesterday, and it is not on their system. 983 02 however supersedes to 983 03. This comes up as a GT3 bumper, with the following diagram, which would indicate that is has an insert (item 36) as per the white and blue cars above. Of course, with that being a GT3 diagram, if I order item 36 I will still be in possession of a hole. Just a slightly better trimmed one. I think I have 3 routes forward: Properly inspect my new bumper for part numbers and any signs that it would accept an insert, rather than speculating from my comfy office and assuming that the 980 part number on my invoice matches the physical object. Sit with the parts man and trawl the diagrams, to see if we can find an item 36 fit for a manual Aerokit Carrera. Cut the 985 part out of my old bumper and see if it will bodge into the hole in my new bumper. Thanks everyone for your contributions, I will report back.

The ‘blank’ in your car definitely looks like an ‘owner added’ element and not a production ‘fit’. The part number appears to be stamped on a separate lower horizontal element. Is this definitely part of the ‘blank’ element? If it wasn’t for the mysterious part number, I’d guess that your ‘blank’ is a cut off from someone else's bumper, grafted on. Either way, I’d be carefully removing it with a Dremel etc and grafting it on to your new bumper. I wonder if there’s a market for these, as it looks like a part I could easily replicate and mould from PU as I’m in that zone reproducing a front splitter. If you don’t use it, I’d be interested in having it, or the entire bumper before you scrap it as it would make a good bench jig for my spoiler project if you’ve seen that thread. Feel free to PM me? Cheers.