I am in the middle of putting a 997 gt3 front end on to my 99 996 gt3 factory aero using all genuine porsche panels....no fibreglass!

When researching if this could be done I came across many people who asked (including myself) : "can you bolt 997 fenders or wings as we call them here in the UK straight onto a 997 as the inner tub is meant to be the same?"

well the answer to the question is a big fat no and i will show you exactly why.

Once you have removed the fenders and you try to mount the 997 fender you soon come to the realisation that it won't even nearly fit and the fender sits way to high......the reason for this is because of the raised section of the inner wing shown in the first pic (the inner fender top panel on a 997 is basically flat!)........you need to drill out the spot wealds shown in pic and get your grinder out, be brave and chop that sucker off!

Once you have removed the inner fender top panel the inner fender top panel will look like the pic shown.......you then need to fabricate a sheet metal panel to fill the gap so the 997 fender can lay flat on the inner fender panel...pic shows first draft of panel.......this part was then trimmed and professionally wealded so the bonnet/hood hinge could be bolted on and also trimmed so once it is finished it looks as it would from the factory with brushed on seem sealer and a base coat of silver etc.

Now once you have done this you can get the 997 fender to sit correctly on the car.....you have to replace the 996 fender mounts with the 997 mounts which bolts straight on by the way.........the top line of the fender where it meets with the hood lines up ok but as you can see in the pic the door line and lower sill line is a country mile off!!!!

Well I hope this finally answers the million dollar question: "can you bolt a 997 fender straight onto a 996?"

To get the door line to fit requires you to get creative but I will cover this next time ;-)

 

thanks for the info!!

 

Wow! That's a lot of work! Not sure if it's worth it.

 

I'm really curious about the fender/door gap. Whats the plan?

 

Yes you are right it is a lot of work.......but it can be done a lot quicker than you might imagine!

I am not a mechanic.......yet anyone with moderate spanner wielding skills could get the car stripped down and those fender inner top panels ready with in one day not a problem.....a flull long full day but one day none the least.

It took a bodyshop guy one day to get the bonnet hood mounted and the fenders sorted out so the door gaps are spot on.......which involves cutting and wealding......and the gt3 bumper mounted so all the gaps are perfect.
He is took the fenders/hood and bumper away with him so he could grind down the wealds on the fenders, do some metal re-profiling and prep all the panels ready for painting.

This job from start to finish could be done in a single week if you so wished and know how to do this conversion as there is a trick to getting the door gap spot on.

Parts are a lot cheaper than you might think........for some reason 997 parts are a lot cheaper than 996 parts......no idea how Porsche work that out but there you go!

When the car is finished I willl put up a full post with pics on how to do this conversion and how much it costs etc.

 

I wish I could get my car to your shop!

 

yes......you have to drill new holes for the 997 hood as the hinges are different......but other than wealding a panel in the fender inner top panel as was shown in the pics.....the fender is the biggest problem once you have purchased all the necessary porsche 997 parts.

I know it seems a lot of work and very daunting........but it is a lot easier than it perhaps looks!

 

for all that time and money you put in it is cheaper to just buy a 997?

 

no not at all......the conversion including all genuine parts.....plus labour and paint (note i stripped the car down myself to save on some labour costs) ....total conversion costs......under £3,500!!!

You can get a nice 996 gt3 aero for £17,000 plus conversion equals £20,500.
An early 997 is £30,000 plus....more like £35,000 for a good one!

 

just out of curiousity, would a 997-application aftermarket hood fit on a 996/996tt?

 

nice job, good to see people going against conventional wisdom....