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I will be writing a brief how to on this. Until then, here's the installed, finished product driver side. I think it looks pretty damn cool. Don't mind the Boxster fan noise in the back ground
Lighted door sills for the GTS- if anyone wants to write this up better, by all means. Basically apply the EL tape to the back of the lettering, run the wires, splice into the footwell lamp harness, and voila- lighted sils. This was really really inexpensive and looks amazing. The EL tape I bought is not very bright in light, but is fine as an accent piece at night for sure!
Porsche designed these sills so strangely- the aluminum veneer has the script CNCed out.. then the script is filled in with some clear plastic blocks, that have a mirror film on the back- giving the appearance of "chrome". The back of the plastic appears to be hand routed out to allow for the filmed plastic to be in the sill. Fortunately, the film is translucent from the back, and allows the EL tape to shine through. BE SUPER CAREFUL WITH THE MIRROR BACKED PLASTIC BITS AS THEY ARE FRAGILE AND CAN BREAK!
What you need-
-12"x1.25" EL Tape/EL Panel/EL Back Light 12V With Inverter in a color of your choice. I went with red as red is the fastest color. I imagine you could get white or blue or whatever. Maybe even wire two colors together. The opportunities are limitless. I paid less than $20 from ebay for this.
-Wire strippers/cutters
-Quality electrical tape
-Some splice joints or other ways of connecting 12v wires
-These pics
-Some time
-A 957 Cayenne GTS that you are annoyed that you can't just buy lighted script sills that are GTS specific for the 957s.
Carefully pop the trim up with a plastic trim removal piece and take somewhere comfortable
Pry up each of these little tabbies- be careful as its just aluminum and bends easy, and you don't want to mess up the face of the trim by bending them too far. I got them to a lil less than 90 degrees
Gently separate the black plastic backing from the aluminum veneer- do not pry any where near the lettering. Do not pry anywhere near the lettering. Do not pry anywhere near the lettering. You could also use your plastic pry tool or fingers
behold the hidden treasure- place the tape over the film here, with the wire running out the end towards the "GTS" which is the smaller of those two mirror film blocks of thin fragile plastic
This is a 12" by 1.5" section of 12v EL tape I got from ebay. Apply this to the back of the lettering, trying to cover the bottom of the Y the best you can. I taped the edges to keep it down and secure.
Came with the 12v transformer with the worst chinesium wires ever.
Need to trim a small bit for the wire to be able to leave- don't trim the whole bit out, just enough for two wires- you want the metal tab to be able to secure to the plastic.
What it looks like - tada! Close up I was able to push the wire through this- I trimmed this plastic a bit and pushed it through. I elected to use the double sided tape on the transformer to hide behind the passenger kick plate instead of the sill area, as the Cayenne is a complete waterproof vehicle and never leaks water into weird places. Or I guess you could put it in the sill area and have an early warning system of water intrusion. Wire going through piece- professionally trimmed of course. You have to remove the two torx bolts holding this plastic trim piece down to lift it ever so slightly. Wire goes under the trim to here. Make sure you "roll" the weather stripping back over the trim piece I hid the transformer box behind this panel, and wired it in
That looks absolutely beautiful. I recall I had a set of illuminated Door sills on my previous '06 CS. When one side went bad, I was stunned at the replacement cost. Luckily it was under warranty at the time and the dealer took care of it. I have to admit, you're looks better than factory.
I love all the work that goes into "comfort & appearance" mods!
Thanks! Honestly this was one of the easier things I have done to the car, for some of the most impact! Its like the jimi-fix of interior mods
Originally Posted by jtakhtalian
That looks absolutely beautiful. I recall I had a set of illuminated Door sills on my previous '06 CS. When one side went bad, I was stunned at the replacement cost. Luckily it was under warranty at the time and the dealer took care of it. I have to admit, you're looks better than factory.
Thank you very much! I completely credit this idea to @MarkGolf who was repairing his sills with the same method!
Just for reference to all, mine were a factory option and came white/red. You can pretty much make them any colour you want depending on tint film/EL colour.
This is a great thread guys; however, I'm after a little further help if possible. I've got my EL tape done and the sills back in place, but I'm clueless as to what to do or how to go about wiring them into the courtesy lighting circuit. Does anyone have any instructions for this or photos that may help?
07-19-2019, 11:21 PM
Lighted 957 GTS Door Sill Project
