Per another reply on topic, people are asking for help, not opinions, go and do that on Facebook.....!

 

^^ Machinate. lemme know exactly what you are doing (front/rear conversion?) and i will help you. no time for me to put a guide together for the next while!!! but lemme know what you have partswise/need and i will help and post here.

 

Wow! That looks really good.
Well worth the effort.

 

Hi all,
I've been following the rennlist for quite some time now but haven't posted anything yet. So this is going to be my first one
Let me start with a quick introduction, I'm Maciej, come from Poland and own 997.1 S convertible.

I've had the 997 for 1,5 years now and recently decided to upgrade it to 997.2 looks.
My car, when I got it came with rear leds that the previous owner got somewhere. I was planning on getting rid of it mainly because the dealer would not extend the warranty on the car because of those lights but since I was buying the car of that dealer they finally agreed to let it go.

Anyway I kind of started working on this upgrade not really checking how much it would all cost. First i got a second hand rear lights on ebay from the US but the lights were damaged (I guess during shipment) so I ended up struggling to get a refund and another 2-3 month went by...

I finally had it done at one Indy that has a long history with P cars and the result is great. I ended up paying approx $2,5k for both front and rear and it looks great. I know it is much cheaper that some of you guys paid but it look a while to get all parts. Of course it is all OEM parts as it was previously mentioned in this thread.
For me the 997.1 looks grear. I never really liked the mix of old bumper and led dectanes. I was lucky that the Indy took all my old parts towards the upgrade price so I was not left with it.
I guess what was surprising is how many parts you really need-getting a new bumper (that you can easily get for $200 here) is just a beginning.
I know there is like 50% of P owners that are against any modifications but I think it is really worth it and makes the car look newer.

 

^^ magiPOL any photos ? Also is that 2.5k usd or euro? Can't wait to see.

My TOTAL cost including

- oem parts (bumpers/LEDSs/random plastics/front wire harnness)
- install + paint
- 3M front bumper , 3m LED front and rear LED, 3M rear bumper wheel arches (material and install)
- module programming

Was a tad under 2800usd (after selling oem leftover parts). Oh and I did buy a headlight polishing kit for 13$ since passenger side front LED had scratches which drove me nuts.

Other then the oem led front cable looms, everything was used. Found all parts on Rennlist/eBay/Kijiji .... but you do have to be patient and wait till stuff comes up…. we can only drive our cars half a year where i live in canada so i didnt mind … that was until the very end where getting the taillights were a PITA…

'Twas a final fun creative project while I still try to hold on dearly to semi-youth lol.

re taillights always MAKE SURE that the seller takes full photos of the taillight packaging process with reinforcement of the corner pieces, so many break/chip in tranzit.

 

thanks EMC2. final few photos for good measure before new wheels.

and for those doing the front conversion, while getting everything painted get the front grills painted silver… looks very sharp imo.

 

Looks stock, great job on your install.

 

My car has actually been through some changes since the moment I got it.
This was the car when I picked it up at the dealer:



As you see it was no really the perfect color combination-gray with gray top



So with a bit o help of detailing company and Renovo product the car transformed into this:



I was really pleased with the effect but (there is always BUT). Anyway it felt like the LED tail lights did not belong to the car that had an old front, standard lights.

So this is how it looks now:






I needed those photos for insurance company so i was not even washed...I think it looks great.

 

Maybe it is a bit off topic-but what I believe is the biggest improvement on the car is the steering wheel. The previous owner had it replaced with a 997.2 type and not only it looks so much better but is almost plug and play swap.

Last year I fell in love with 991.50 anniversary and got the interior upgraded or updated-call it either way. It was all black-so to me it was kind of boring, it was OK. But OK is newer enough So I managed to get the same fabrics that they used on the seats of 50th anniversary 991 and this is what it looks like.




The good thing about all those changes is that if I sell the car and someone wants to have a stock 997.1 all those changes would be easily reversed.

 

For those of you planning on 997.1 LED upgrade I've attached the list of parts that were used on my car together with prices in Euro.




I managed to get some of those parts cheaper but this is approx the amount you should be looking at. Plus labour.

 

looking great magicPolak! if i could do it again i would have gotten the GTS front bumper. alas still very happy. beautiful interior btw

 

myw, thanks, yes am looking for the same result you have achieved, given there was very little that Porsche did externally, this is a terrific upgrade. Porsche has even said it to me that they weren't sure why the facelift wasn't applied to the 2008 model which I have. I wanted to know what parts I need for a C2 2008. My car has no bumperette's fortunately... And is perhaps more the EU version of vehicle.

If you could share your experiences that would be most appreciated. For example, my car has rear park sensors which I hope to retain, and is there a control module and wiring harness adapters to plug and play, I think I have also read that the car needs to be programmed by Porsche? What will this be for? Thanks in advance.

 

hi machinate

rear control module - 997 618 260 08. there is a chance you have this current module already since your car is a 2008.

take your car to your independent mechanic who has durmaetric pro/piwis II/autologic setup and get the part number of your REAR MODULE…. OR you can remove your driver seat (for EU car you would remove your passenger seat). it is 4 torx screws, and you have to have to remove the plastic assembly that houses your module. you will see the module number is printed outside. I would do this right away since it should cost you nothing and you get started on the project. if you have the older 997 618 260 06 module then you will need to get the newer one.

other then the rear module, ALL i bought was
- rear bumper , MAKE SURE you get a NARROW body bumper. i have seen a wide body GTS bumper on a narrow body conversion and it looks a tad off to me. i don't know the part number for this since the numbers are different between USA and EU bumpers (bumperettes). if you find a 997.2 bumper and you are not sure if it is wide or narrow body PM me the images of it and i can tell you right away.
- exhuast shrouds (black plastic pieces that go around the exhaust tips on the bumper) 997 505 651 01, 997 505 652 01
- LED tail lights (i think you need to get the EU ones - diff lighting colours then north america).
- ugly bumperettes (you won't need in EU).

there are no other parts that i needed for the rear.
- you can use your existing 997.1 rear bumper mounting bracket (just have 2 new holes drilled where the 997.2 bumper holes are required, no need to buy 997.2 one)
- you can use your existing 997.2 tail light connector; your pin locations are the same and the connector for the MOST PART is the same… with that said for the 997.1 connector to fit my 997.2 taillight properly but i had to have my body shop shave a few MM off the taillight connector housing off the taillight itself. my friends with EU cars did not have this conversion problem so maybe you will get lucky!

HOWEVER if you plug in your taillight connector to the new taillight and the taillight doesnt work there is a huge chance that the taillight connectors from the car to the taillight aren't making contact. i don't know how i figured this one out when i was at the body shop , but i did after comparing 997.1 997.2 taillight connectors… so just have your body shop do some grinding on the taillight connector housings after inspecting the problem.

ONCE everything is installed you need to plug in a durmaetric pro/autologic/piwis II (dealer system) and change LAST setting in the REAR control module; so that taillights are set to 'LED' (no longer 'INCANDESCENT').

PARKING SENSORS - you WILL need to have your body shop use a heat gun to REMOVE the existing parking sensor brackets off the back of your 997.1 rear bumper and have them re-glued/epoxied onto your 997.2 rear bumper. this way you can continue to use your 997.1 parking sensors. the 997.1 parking sensors will not fit in the 997.2 parking sensor brackets.

i am sure you will find 997.2 rear bumpers with/without the rear parking sensor holes; if you end up buying a bumper without the parking sensor holes your body shop should be able to drill in new ones, but i would recommend you buy a bumper with the oem parking sensor holes so that your sensors remain in the oem positions.

my 997.2 rear bumper came with the parking sensors holes (so i figure why not add parking sensors) so i just bought an aftermarket parking sensor set from the UK and had my body shop wire it into the reverse light. very simple and works great. the 997.1/997.2 rear parking sensor system is different so you cannot use 997.2 parking sensors.

imo a (USED parts) rear conversion parts wise is VERY simple and easy compared to the front (so little parts involved), but is a little more costly then the front since the rear tails are on the expensive side (even if used). i know some people have used the FVD converters for the rears instead of buying and programming a rear module but since i know people still have dash light warnings even with the rear fvd converter i would stick with the oem rear module. finding a used one won't cost you too much (i hope) and getting it installed and programmed is much easier then you think.

thats it! hope this helps and let me know if you need front end conversion notes as well.

 

I was wondering why you dont get rid of those bumperettsif you dont like it so much? The cars that come from US to Europe people just take those off and it really looks better. Or you could get a european rear bumper but I guess it would not be worth it. I suppose the only difference is the location of licence plate light, which is above the plate in EU cars (2 separate lights).

BTW I love that color-don't remember seeing it on the street but it really looks great.

 

they're ugly but it doesnt bother me too much.. all oem 997 have them anyways in north america so no huge deal. with that said had i known that my body guys could have likely filled in the bumperette portion beforehand i may have considered that!.