pmcrespo

Scheduled for the November issue hitting the mailboxes a month or so earlier....

Cloud9...68

Cool - I'll be looking for it. My 2+ year project is finally done, and I plan to get it out on the track in a few weeks. Hopefully your wheels will bring me luck!

odurandina

thanks for posting these.

pmcrespo

Congrats!!!! The car is going to be just awesome.

Of course my wheels will bring you luck and tons of speed, but only because of the thousands of hours you have put into building it to perfection and considering every detail!

Cheers to that and keep us posted! Send me some Pics!

333pg333

Nice pics Pablo!! Do you have any from the rear?

pmcrespo

There may be a few in the FaceBook album... I'll email them to you if you can't see them... Click on the "Pictures" link below in the signature and go to the 2013 UTCC album. You dont need to be a "Friend" to see them. They are public...

155

You're doing a really great thing for the 968 community - continually evolving and improving your track package so we can benefit from what's been learned

So.... I'm sure you get this question from time to time. Can you share what you did for that beautiful headlight/projector setup? How much weight do you reckon you saved?

pmcrespo

Thanks for the compliment on the headlights. My conversion was inspired by Eric Krause's. Credit to him for sharing some thought on it with me....

I used a Hella Halogen unit (really wanted bi-halogen hi/lo but where back ordered for months). AJ Hartman Racing did the fab work to install it with stiff brackets and install the surrounding casings. He then vaccuum formed the lenses after shaping the "mold".

I do not have hard numbers, but i would say weight savings are probably in the 25 pound range. Other than a few cracked lenses after girls sitting on them for "race car" pictures, the setup has been problem-free!

Cloud9...68

...And the fixed headlight conversion I performed on my car was heavily influenced by Pablo's. After removing the stock headlights, I attached Hella bi-halogen lights to the bulk head. I then fabricated curved buckets to fill the holes in the fenders using aluminum flashing, and finally created my own curved lexan covers.

But I have to caution, this was a HUGE amount of work, which took me well over a month of nights and weekends. I first had to figure out how to attach the new lights to the bulk head, via a mounting bracket that would allow the lights to be aimed. Then I had to create templates of the buckets using construction paper, transfer them to the flashing, and make very odd-shaped brackets to attach the buckets to the fenders. The buckets are actually two pieces - a curved piece that fills in the bottom part of the hole in the fender, and a flat back piece that essentially surrounds the head light. Finally, figuring out how the curve the lexan to just the right radius of curvature was a major undertaking, including construction an "endpoint detector" to tell me when the pull the piece out of the oven when it reached the degree of curvature I wanted, and finally, fabricating brackets to attach the lenses to the fenders in a way that didn't look too "home-made."

I can upload some pictures of what I did when I get to my home computer. It turend out very well in the end, I think. And I ended up selling my stock headlights and all their hardware, and the box I shipped it in weighed a whopping 32 pounds, so to me, it was worth it in the end.

155

Gentlemen, your feedback is appreciated!

Me personally I will go Pablo's route and have a shop fabricate it for me but it really does help getting an idea of what's involved. Eric's car is definitely a source of inspiration for me!

Cloud968 - you lost me on "endpoint detector" LOL. Kidding. Based on your description it sounds like it was a pretty tedious job. The upside is that you're one of very few with a cool projector setup. So i have to ask, is this a street or track car? What motivated you to make the change? looks? improved lighting? weight reduction?

I'd LOVE to see pics!

Cloud9...68

My car is a dual purpose track/street car, so I did the conversion strictly for the weight reduction. Also, by removing all the mounting hardware and motors, I have a lot more room for things like brake cooling ducts. I'm pleased with the way it turned out, but to tell you the truth, from a purely aesthetic standpoint, the stock lights look better than any "light-in-a-hole" approach such as the one I followed.

This is embarrassing, but what exactly do you mean by mine being a "cool projector setup"? My lights are Hella Bi-Halogens, and I only bought them because Pablo recommended them, and I like the fact that they have high and low beams. Plus, they were cheap - only about $230 for the pair. But beyond that, I know ZERO about headlights, and don't even know what a projector is in this context, so please "enlighten" (sorry, I couldn't resist ) me. Thanks.

And I'll post pictures asap, but i need to snap some of the finished product, which I haven't done yet.

Cloud9...68

Sorry it's taken me so long to gets pics of my headlight conversion, but I've been very busy chasing down problems with my 968 which are turning out to be figments of my apparently over-active imagination. Here are the pics and descriptions (may have to break this up into several posts):

Attachment 751531
Hella Bi-halogen light

Attachment 751532
Hella light on its mount to allow adjustment

Attachment 751533
Bulkhead mounting brackets (home-made from scrap aluminum pieces from work)

Attachment 751534
Headlight mounted to brackets

Attachment 751535
Brackets that attach lower bucket to fender

Cloud9...68

Attachment 751542
More lower bucket brackets

Attachment 751543
Template I made out of construction paper of the lower bracket

Attachment 751544
Test fit of lower bucket (made of aluminum roof flashing from Lowes)

Attachment 751546
Rear bucket piece which surrounds the light

Attachment 751547
View #1 of finished product, with curved lexan cover attached

Cloud9...68

Attachment 751548
Front view of car with fixed headlights, tow hook, brake duct scoops, hood louvers, and splitter. You can also see my dual oil coolers' shrouds (which I also fabricated out of aluminum flashing, and took me almost as long as the headlights!) at the corners of the lower grill (which I also fabricated out of flat steel mesh)

Attachment 751549
Different view of finished left headlight

Attachment 751550
Finished right headlight

Overall, I'm pleased with the way the headlights (and the whole car, for that matter) turned out. I hope to have it out at the track on August 21 - hopefully all the work will be worth it!

odurandina

hella yeah !