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My 996 turbo, the story so far.....

I imagine they'd work quite well on a dark green car like yours.

I know what you mean about the washer covers. I really wasn't sure what to do with them. I sometimes wonder if they'd look better in black or maybe even carbon fibre.
 
I never use the back seats and have always preferred the look of the GT3 without them. So I decided to remove the rear seats, seat belts and the sub. I was originally planning on just putting the various small plastic covers back on as when everything comes out your left with a lot of holes and gaps in the carpet. I was not really happy with the way it looked. It was looking too obvious that something was missing, so I took them back out and tried to come up with a way of covering the gaps that would look a bit more subtle.

Untitled by Dave W, on Flickr

I ended up buying a used carpet section from a 986 Boxster that had a black interior and thankfully the colour match was good and the carpet they used was the same. I cut small sections to size and filled in the gaps. It's not perfect as you can see in the, very poor quality, photos. It does look better than the plastic covers did in my opinion though.

Untitled by Dave W, on Flickr

I finished it off with a turbo badge to fill in the recess that was left behind the sub. My car wasn't fitted with one from the factory as far as I'm aware.
 
I'd changed my mind about keeping the spoiler in its carbon finish. I wanted to paint it body colour but couldn't bring myself to cover up the carbon completely. I'd seen another owner that had painted the majority of the spoiler but left a small section unpainted at the front. I really liked the way it looked and wanted to recreate it on my own car. I Got the paint shop to mask up the front edge then lacquer the whole spoiler so there was no lip between the two colours.

Untitled by Dave W, on Flickr

To match the newly painted spoiler I also decided to remove the carbon mirror covers. They came off fairly easily and any residue from the double sided tape that held them on was cleaned off.

Another change I made was to swap the grey front emblem for a silver and black one. A fairly subtle change but I think the grey emblem looked a bit lost. Now the bonnet emblem matched the centre caps on the wheels as well.

Untitled by Dave W, on Flickr
 
Looking good mate - I like the black and silver Porsche crest - might do the same myself.

Tequipment cage & harnesses next?

Would also highly recommend the centre console delete - makes a massive difference to the cabin and gives me leg room.

:thumb:
 
jamesyg - Thanks a lot mate, glad you like the front badge.

I don't think I'll go quite as far as the cage and harnesses. Mine's used as a road car rather than a track weapon like yours. Love the carbon buckets in yours though, they're next on my list. :thumb:

Thanks for the recommendation, I have considered the centre console delete. It does look a lot cleaner without it.
 
I'm also highly tempted with a mono wheel and eccentric spacer. Another member on here has fitted one... looks incredible. Just in 2 minds about losing the airbag
 

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I like it, looks very purposeful. I think it would suit the interior of your car nicely, with the harnesses and cage etc.

I know what you mean about losing the airbag though. It's a tough one.
 
I'm a fan of the smoked rear lights on cars like the Cayman GT4 or GTS. They're not so dark they look aftermarket but dark enough to look a bit different. I tinted the lower section of my rear lights and the 3rd brake light with the same Lamin-X tint film I'd used on the headlights. It's a fairly subtle change as you can see in the pictures below.

Untitled by Dave W, on Flickr

by Dave W, on Flickr
 
My next round of personalising took me back to the interior. I felt the interior now needed a bit more alcantara to balance out the few bits that I'd done previously. I had the same company, Tiggy Design, do the work as I was happy with their previous work and I was able to make sure the colours of the alcantara and stitching matched. I had the passenger airbag cover, glove box and the gauge cluster housing all retrimmed. While I was at it, I fitted a set of the silver gauge rings too. These aren't the best photos, but you get the idea.

Untitled by Dave W, on Flickr

Untitled by Dave W, on Flickr

Untitled by Dave W, on Flickr
 
Feeling the need to further decrease the investment potential of my car, I decided to do a modification I'm sure most people aren't a fan of......Led daytime running lights. I'd seen several aftermarket examples of these on various cars over the years and they always tend to look a bit too 'stuck on' for my taste. I spent a lot of time deciding how and more importantly, whether or not to do this. Then inspired by the grills on the Cayman GT4, the plan became to try and incorporate the lights with an aluminium mesh. The mesh might also offer some protection for the recently replaced radiators.

Untitled by Dave W, on Flickr

This was the starting point. I removed all the grills from the front bumper and took a deep breath before reaching for the Stanley knife.

Untitled by Dave W, on Flickr

This was how the side grills looked after the first round of plastic removal. I'd removed most of the plastic slats and sanded all the edges to get a smooth uniform finish around the outer edge. They still needed plenty of work to try and make the lights look like they were supposed to fit in the gap that was left though.

Untitled by Dave W, on Flickr

I'd now finished all the trimming around where the lights would fit. I'd also reshaped some of the slats that I'd removed to help build up the thickness of the two remaining slats to help fill in that section.

Untitled by Dave W, on Flickr

The central grill received similar treatment, with all the plastic slats removed and the edges sanded smooth. This was a lot more straightforward as there were no lights being fitted in the centre.

Untitled by Dave W, on Flickr

All bonded together and given a coat of satin black. Ready for the led lights to be fitted.
 
The lights I'd chosen were the Philips Daylightguide drls. They put out a solid strip of light rather than individual spots, so seemed closer to Porsche oem running lights than most aftermarket offerings. The black housing also matched my freshly painted black headlights.

Untitled by Dave W, on Flickr

I'd chosen an aluminium mesh powder coated in gloss black. After cutting it to shape it needed something to form a neat join across the top of the grills on either side. I managed to find a satin black end cap that I cut to length to hide what would otherwise be an exposed edge.

Untitled by Dave W, on Flickr

Here they are with the mesh all fitted and ready to go back on the car.

Untitled by Dave W, on Flickr
 
All fitted and wired up.

Untitled by Dave W, on Flickr

Took some close up shots and a couple from further away, but hadn't taken any with the lights on at this stage. I'd also moved house recently so now had a new garage.

Untitled by Dave W, on Flickr

I'm really happy with how they turned out.
 
The front grills took a while to finish and get back on the car, so I hadn't driven it for a while as the bumper was off the car. I'd also not taken any decent photos of the whole car for ages, so took a little drive back to my favourite road and took a few pics while I was there.

Untitled by Dave W, on Flickr

Untitled by Dave W, on Flickr

Untitled by Dave W, on Flickr

Untitled by Dave W, on Flickr

Untitled by Dave W, on Flickr

The running lights were on for these photos, but in the bright sunlight they looked really dim. I also noticed how bad the colour match on my rear bumper looked in these shots. Thankfully it doesn't look that bad in the metal.
 
:worship:

I am really liking what you have done, I didn't think I'd like those DRL's but they look OK to me :thumbs:

:thumb:
 
I applaud all your work DW ...... that car looks mean ........ very nice indeed ...... :)
 

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