FLYVMO

Some small progress made this week, my 3D printed prototype adapter for the H3 fog and auxiliary high beams arrived and was test fitted. I earlier upgraded the front H3 bulbs to Oracle Lighting's H3 Plasma LED bulbs. These are very bright, but the body is a bit longer than a standard H3 bulb. This makes it protrude further forward and not sit at an ideal location in the reflector.

Since I am obviously like to tinker, I thought, why not design an adapter and have it 3D printed? So I thinker for an hour or so with 123Design, and sent out the file for printing. Today I test fitted it, and the fit is very good. As it is a test part I had it printed in plastic which of course won't be conductive but it allows me to test it very inexpensively. Some pictures below of the H3 bulb before and after the adapter install. Now the Plasma LED sits much further back, as it is supposed to do. I could probably add another 2mm to the adapter to make it perfect, so the design will be updated and sent for a full set printed.

I also finished the pod harness for the pod switches, including the internal LED lighting. I finally got the red illumination and brightness I was looking for, so I'll call that done The harness is integrated into the pod, and will have an external connector so there will be no need to remove the pod switches in order to remove the instrument pod. Why didn't Porsche do that?

Cheers!
Carl

FLYVMO

Another week of small victories and progress. I found a replacement for the (in my opinion) really ugly dome and door card lights. It is an Audi A4/A6 dome light, which sits much more flush and is slimmer looking than the stock. Manufactured by the same company (Sibla) that made the lights for the 928. Some were made by Hella, some by Sibla. The main difference, apart from size, is that these lights do not have the on/off switch of the stock door lights, or the rotation of the overhead lights. None of which I have ever used so it is not something I will miss. These lights will be triggered by either door switches, or center console switch for interior lights.

As far as fit goes, the stock opening will need to be enlarged 1.5mm on each end (to keep it centered) so the modification is tiny. But it is not a straight drop-in replacement. They sell used on Ebay for around $14.00.

I also disassembled the headliner vanity mirror, and noticed that the mirror glass is pretty far gone, some oxidation that has damaged the metal backing. As I doubt these are available new these days, at least not at a reasonable cost, I will take it to a mirror/glass shop and see if they can make new mirror glass. If anyone has 2 in perfect shape I would be interested

I also started the foam removal of the rear hatch headliner. This part has a LOT of foam, thin in some places, and very thick in other places. It makes it very heavy, and just like the main headliner, will be covered in 1/8" Volara and then black Alcantara.

Hopefully I will have a flush center console insert in my hands next week, and will post some picture when it gets here.

Cheers!
Carl

FLYVMO

Picked up the finished center console insert, made of fiberglass (solid) and 5mm thick on the mounting surface. Overbuilt on purpose so it will last through probable alterations, and to provide rigidity to the center console. Designed in a slight "slope" inwards to give a little more distance between shifter **** and HVAC controls. Once all the openings are finalized, it will be covered in a wood veneer.

Also received the ABS computer mounting tray. Stock computers (RDK/ABS) are mounted on a special bracket / metal heatsink, but as my car did not have one and I am not using the RDK computer, so I designed one in 123Design and had one 3D printed to hold the ABS computer and added a provision for a 12V cooling fan (80mm), which is basically a computer cooling fan. Made some minor mistakes and omissions on this one, but it is a great tool to have, makes prototyping much easier, and the "parts" are forever stored in digital format.

Cheers!
Carl

Tom in Austin

Lookin good! Keep it coming!

BC

Who do you have printing the designs?

FLYVMO

Thanks Tom!

Slow but steady progress


BC,

I have used Shapeways and Sculpteo so far. They are fairly close in terms of pricing and available materials, which are somewhat limited. Surface finish is very good on these laser sintered plastic powders. QuickParts (3D Systems) has the best selection of materials, but they are twice as expensive when it comes to a one part prototype. So unfortunately I have not been able to try them out.

Ideally these things will be printed at home, but my 3D printer won't be delivered until this fall.

Cheers!
Carl

BC

Great info as usual Carl. So many possibilities. I will check out those companies.

slate blue

Hi Carl,

I thought you and others might be interested in this mirror option. It is from the 991 and there is two versions, the standard and the electric tinting version. Both are the same price just under $100 each. The great thing about them is that they are actually shaped to suit the 928! What do I mean by that? Well the mirror when positioned actually just looks out the rear hatch and doesn't view any of the other parts of the interior like the original and conventionally shaped mirrors. This is far less distracting as you know everything in the mirror is behind the car and not the interior and you wont get any internal reflections in the mirror.




Now as I have two 928s, one with the sports mirrors and the other that is going to have the current GT3 tinting mirrors, I thought I would buy one of each type to keep it hopefully simple as possible.

So I have a small favour to ask, hopefully it is a small favour but let me know if it is not that easy. You can see the size of the ball on the 991 mirror is 22 mm. When I was looking at your Audi mirror for which I really like the base, I thought that they may well be made by the same company. If so they may both use the same sized ball.

If this is the case I would plan to buy a used Audi mirror, discard the mirror and use the base as that would suit the application on the windscreen as you have previously detailed. What are your thoughts?

FLYVMO

No problem, I'll go out tomorrow and see if I can measure it.

Cheers!
Carl

FLYVMO

Slate Blue,

I went out to try and measure the mirror ball, but I am having a hard time getting it to pop out of the socket. Using the eyeball Mk2 I would say it is in the 20-ish mm range. I did not want to pry any harder in fear of cracking or breaking something. The mirror I believe is made by Gentex and they make OEM versions for many car makers. Sorry I couldn't be of more help, but you may be able to find an inexpensive used Audi unit on Ebay to try it out. Who makes the Porsche mirror? If it is the same company then the odds are very good the ball is the same size.

Cheers!
Carl

slate blue

Fair enough Carl, I don't know what brand my mirror is as yet, it is 1.30 am here so I will check that lead out in the morning. I did have to flick off a metal ring that acts as a keeper. It doesn't supply much tension but you need to remove it on my mirror to pull out the ball.

I will probably post some more later in one of my threads but the interesting thing I found was that it is an easy conversion to use the standard 991 mirror in the 928. You must reuse the windscreen fitting but effectively all you need to engineer is the larger ball. The ball screws off the old 928 fitting and I think the best way to convert the 991 mirror is to cut out the 991 piece and adapt it onto the 928 fitting where the smaller ball was. It is a reasonablely easy job, I suspect to customise this piece it is ten minutes in the lathe tops.

It will be interesting when it is finished to see if it is any easier to see out of the car and maybe it is a problem with my car but the vibration effects the internal mirror quite a lot, enough to get me to use the side mirrors, you can imagine how bad that is at night. I will check out my mounting when I do fit the 991.

Regardless thanks for your information and this thread is great!

slate blue

Hi Carl,

I couldn't see any branding on my mirror except maybe for this oval looking symbol, it is not the best photo but if it is on yours also I will go for it.

Thanks in advance

Greg

77tony

Carl, Herman and Tony want to know if you're at the halfway point ? H&T

Bruno DeSousa

thats gona be an awesome car!.. good job!

FLYVMO

Hey Tony!

Yup, well past the halfway point I would say. The devil is in the details. Found some minor wiring issues while testing connections, so I have to go back and trace where the issue might be located.

Cheers!
Carl