OK so it's a silly title but after this ordeal, I've spent a pretty penny and just figured I'd share with you guys what went down and pass it on to you folks...

First of all, if you're going to do a GT2 bumper swap to a TT as Ken once said there are two ways to achieve this (actually even more depending on how authentic you want to get).

The first:
1) Just remove the TT bumper and slap on a GT2 one. Yes it does fit. However is it wise? Er.. no. The way the air flow is designed to work on the front mounted radiator for a TT goes a like this. The radiator is tilted slightly forward with a downward facing air shroud and under piece. The air come in the front passes the radiator and flows back down UNDER the car. When you put a GT2 bumper on, first of all none of the rubber interiors air ducts/shrouds line up correctly for the right air flow but worse still because you can't use the rear shroud anymore the air has nowhere to pass/vent to and is blocked off. Basically your front radiator won't be doing its job. This kind of scares me and I've seen too many TTs with GT2 bumpers that do this... Shrug. The vent at the top ends up being fo' show and nothing else. You can't fit the rear shroud in to direct air...
2)The other way is the right way but boy oh boy is it a pain in the **** and expensive. First of all you need a but load of parts that there usually aren't any diagrams or listings for and some have to come from Germany. Groovy. I ended up paying almost 3k for GT2-spec parts for the bumper. Having done this one could indeed shed some of that and simply reuse similar or identical TT parts. The key parts however are the radiator side mount frames (thanks Ken!!!) which enable you to actually tilt the radiator enough so you can fit in the air dam behind. Sounds easy but it's not. Once you have the parts and have spent hours and hours removing bits and pieces you then need to try and make the radiator actually fit in its intended position and connect the two hoses. This is impossible in its stock form because with the change of angle necessary, the connecter then gets pinched and/or doesn't even fit into the radiator clamp itself. Even if it did you need longer hoses because everything sort of moves forwards too. At this point Bob came up with a cool idea to actually saw off the radiator connectors (not for the feint hearted lol) and he left enough of a sleeve and lip (which you can see from the pics) that when we connected our own made hose (both sides have different diameters to make it more interesting) he managed to clamp it down nice and snug with the lip behind it to stop any movement during pressure. This way it won't leak or pop a hose- yay. So with the radiator in position and all the right parts and some perseverance the air now flows through the front radiator and out the top of the vents. Yay.

Finally some 6months on and about 8K later (remember I had to deal with all of that BS with buying the GT2 bumper from “that” former 6speed member) and about 2k of unwanted parts lol, I have my new front end to match the GT2 tail and no more warts.

PS I do NOT recommend ANYONE do this. It was a ROYAL PIA. Thanks ever so much Bob for keeping patient with it and for coming up with that ViperBob GT2 radiator. Also Ken (KPV), thanks for giving us your experiences with the whole thing. You told us what we were missing. Let me know if you want me to explain that radiator thing more to you because by the sounds of it you're almost there but just needing a little more security in terms of the clamping....

So here are some work-in-progress pix...

See how the radiator is now in GT2 mode facing forward? The whole front end has to be moved forward a good few inches....

Here's the radiator part that should interest Ken. See the lip that Bob left/carved and sanded...


And here it is on (sorry about the cam, the wife had the good one today):



About to get rejex'd a la Kirby-style.

Hmm not sure what happened here but it looks goofy...


A la Shank...

 

Alex;

Well done. It looks awesome... and functional.. Hey the garage is re-arranged!

 

Very nice car indeed, the Kinesis K18R's look amazing on black. Props to the install of the GT2 bumper, I just went through it myself and I know the intense labor involved in it. Are you going to paint the hood or keep it carbon fiber? Looks good on black, but a little ricey for me on a Porsche, in my opinion. Nevertheless doesn't take away from your amazing vehicle.

 

Nice Job Sharkey. Too much work for me, TA GTS sounds easy.

 

Thanks Kevin. By the sounds of what Stephen was saying/complaining about the fiberglass you were right all along about sticking to genuine porsche plastic...

The garage is getting there. We have a lot of storage up top now so a bunch of crap is out of there now and we have a lot more room. Gotta do the floor and move a few more things and then it's ready for some more Kevin-action lol

 

Thanks, I like them too and they were one of only two wheels that would fit over the brakes and keep things to 18 inches. It is such a PIA, I'd never do it again....

I've gone back and forth in terms of painting it. Sometimes I like it (it's really subtle in most lighting situations) but then somedays in the sun it screams "boy racer" and I'm not liking that either...

 

The TA one IS easy. Thanks pal

 

Beautiful job, but 1 question: Why not just buy a reproduction GT2 bumper from a place like Anzianos? I understand that they are designed to retrofit over the TT directly and not require all the special parts, etc...

I know that some people just have to have OEM parts, but it seems like you could have saved upwards of 60-70% using a bolt on reproduction piece.

 

Hi Ryan,

That's a good point. Firstly, Kevin told me that Fiber glass bumpers just aren't up to snuff.. The second reason was that I _thought_ I had a decent deal on a factory one and really had no idea of what I was getting myself into. I got some more parts and then more parts etc.. and it just started escalating to the point where I couldn't turn back and figured I'd try to get it done right. A couple of times, I did consider trying the MA-Shaw one etc... or slapping on the bumper I had saying "screw the front radiator" but Bob made me come to my senses about that last part. I did want the front radiator to work

You are so right. It would have saved me a lot of money had I done it the other way.

 

I definitely understand your position.

Just as an FYI to all those interested, Anzianos body parts are Polyurethane, not fiberglass. They are also very heavyweight material so they don't sag in the heat.

Anzianos stuff certainly won't shave pounds off your car, but it should also last for many years. (no, I don't work for them, although it sounds like I should get a commission )

 

Ah now that I didn't know. I assumed it'd be fiberglass etc... Hey if it works and looks good then folks can go that way for MUCH less.

PS I didn't even make it out of Bob's driveway without scraping lol..

 

So the pix I took earlier of the GT2 nose were with the crappy cam... so here are some better ones from today. That rejex stuff is really good- thanks Kirby.







Hmm...

A pal of mine trying to emulate Fred I think?

 

Gorgeous car

 

Is the supra still faster then the 996?

 

Thanks Mike