WesM951

Ok, Before I begin I want to say a few things. I know this has been tried before and failed multiple times. I know there is an easier way of doing it. But.. this is my car and this is what i'm doing.

Now that I got that out of the way.

I always liked the looks of the fixed headlights but wasn't about to spend $500 and lots of time to get them to fit right from Gt-Racing. I figured if i was going to have to do some work to get them to fit right mise well do it myself.

I pondered the ideal with a good buddy of mine who is a engineering student at the local community college, his advice was... "lets just do it." Then again this is coming from a kid who has just on his own designed his own intake manifold for his Datsun 280ZXT and is about to finish it.

Day 1: Tonight we took the header panel off my car to get a better ideal of what we have to work with. Took some measurements and then did a rough sketch within SoildWorks. I don't remember the demnsions off-hand but i'll be sure to post them when I get them.

(My friend Pat (mike) taking some diminsions


I'm still trying to decide if I want to go projectors or single headlight (not sure what this is called, like the GT-Racing kit). We played with some staggered ideals and straight mounted ideals. Of course our plan is to have a lexan cover like other kits.

We plan on making this out of aluminium, if we do the projectors we'll have to fab some stuff up but all in all, we have access to anything metal related. CNC, Lathe, Mill, benders, brakes ect.

Here are some ideals we are playing with. (just quick sketches, but diminsions are close)





I'm going to update this when I work on it, if you have any advice, tips or help feel free to post.

Flamers need not apply.

Zporsche944

sweet good luck. Personally I like the flip up head lights but each to his own.

sharky47

I am a CNC machinist and my buddy owns his own shop, he specializes in short-run jobs. Let me know if I can help..............

Giantviper

Good luck. Cool project, those sketches look cool.

WesM951

Cool!! Thanks bud i'll keep you in-mind when we get something set in stone.

User 41221

The minute someone produces a real fixed headlight set up, I am buying one. My preference would be to have a headlight cover for daylight running, to prolong the life of the lexan cover and keep the stock look when not using the lights, but I imagine I won't have the luxury of being that fussy.

Regards,

Epic2112

Just an idea, but what about cutting the little tabs off of the header panel- the ones that stick out in front of the headlights. Since you'll be fabbing up your own stuff you don't have to worry about working with what's already availible, and this will give you some more room to work with. You also will have less of a problem with the actual headlights sitting below the lip from those tabs.

Also, I think you could actually do this without ruining the lines of the car. Snip a bit off of the fenders too and you can just extend the lines from the edge of the hood and the bumps that start behind the headlights all the way to the front bumper.

Just an idea, but hey, if you're gonna do this may as well go all out, no?

BigRed

I like the idea and I'll be monitoring this thread a lot. If someone ever does a good looking, affordable set of fixed headlights, they will sell like hotcakes. Do hotcakes still sell good?

Good luck...

WesM951

Kevin,
Its a good ideal, however thats where most of the mounting to the body is. I suppose we can look into it and see if ti will cause any problems or not.

sh944,
The daylight cover is a good ideal! I'll have to see if I can find some smoked lexan. I have a sheet of smoked acrylic but i've read that acrylic won't hold up.

Jon Moeller

Why run Lexan covers? That's something that I keep wondering when these threads come up. Can't the projector headlights run on their own? If so, why not just create pockets for them to sit in like the Strosek kits for the 911's? The aerodynamic argument is pretty moot, as 160 mph can only be reached with a bumped rev limiter, and you're more likely to run out of gear than to run out of hp in a modded car.

Good luck and keep us posted.
-J

Porsche-O-Phile

I don't intend this to be a flame directed at you personally so please don't take it that way, but why on earth would you want fixed headlights? They look like crap. If you want styling that incorporates fixed lights, get a Supra. I don't think they belong on a 944 or any Porsche for that matter (ok race models like the 924GT excepted). Your car, but I think even a good job will look bad.

Jon Moeller

There's a number of good reasons to run fixed headlights. The main one for me is to be able to run an effective hood vent behind the intercooler without having to mess with the arm that connects the two headlights. After that, fixed lights will free up room for a relocated power steering reservoir, a better intake system, and a relocated oil filter. The amount of underhood space that the stock units require is incredible. I have much better things to do with that space.

If the right kit comes out, I'll be in line to buy it.
-J

BigRed

Your opinion. I hate pop up headlights. I think they look like crap...so to each his own.

tifosiman

(no offense intended to anyone)

I really don't understand all of these threads about this. Why re-invent the wheel?



It's already been done by the factory. Yes the GT kit requires some work, but doesn't any worthwhile mod on these cars? Granted, the light output is not optimal due to position of the light relative to the bumper and road (plus defraction due to the cover), but to me that would be a fair trade-off, especially on my car that rarely is ever driven at nite (honestly there is not a lot of weight to be saved there, though).

I think that any headlight kit that incorporates more modern-looking round small projector lights on our cars just looks out of place. And I don't know how much more you would gain (in lighting quality) over the square lights unless you purchase some of the super expensive little ones out there (I seem to recall someone on the 951 bbs did this and mentioned the cost, waaaaay more than $500).

Just my opinion. I don't think that the pop-up lights look bad, especially at nite because the round lights look very 911/Porsche-like. For someone that is doing an all out race car and/or needs the room afforded by the lack of the mechanical bits, I could see where it is worthwhile, though.

Again, no offense meant. It's your car and you should do what you want with it. Lord knows I have done some stuff to my car that others may think weird!

WesM951

ugh.. I understand where you guys are coming from but this is not how I wanted the thread to go.

The projectors should emit much more light than a regular bulb does. More so because i'm going to be using HID Xeons from a BMW Z4. My other choice was Hella 90mm Xeons which are like tifo was saying expensive ($289 bright/ $289 low).

I don't mind the pop-ups but my car has issues and my pop-ups don't work. This gives me a reason to change to the fixed headlights.