I just wanted to share how this is done in case any of you want to get rid of the “fried egg” headlamp look. I have seen, purchased then sent back those so-called “covers”. What a pile of crap those are… if any of you have ever bought them, you know what I mean. They are about ¼ inch thick, and supposed to stay on the car with double stick tape at 160; right.

Long story short, I returned them, and decided to paint my headlamps. If you look close at your headlamp assy’s, you can see the fine line etched into the plastic that makes the perfect template for you to mask with.

You might have to buy your favorite body shop guy a case of beer to even consider removing your headlamps, and painting them… it might be a bit stressful for him, because of course if he gets the DA or the sandpaper too close, he just bought a headlamp assy.

It works best use the etched circles on the plastic as a guide to lay the fine line tape in, and then completely cover the circles. There seems to be two layers to the plastic; a topcoat as it were to protect the plastic, then the second layer just below the surface. They MUST sand the second layer completely, if someone just sands the top layer of plastic without going through the first layer, the paint will crack, not stick, etc… it will look “antiqued”. I know this because of course this is what happened to me first, (got it right on the second try)

I did this myself with Glassruit two stage paint. I could imagine a body shop might charge about $300 to paint them, it seems once you have it down it goes pretty fast.

I painted mine a couple of years ago, not a single problem, just as the factory paint.

All in all, just wanted to share this to let you know you don’t always have to do a complete “facelift” kit to the front of the car to make it look better.

It’s not for everyone, just thought I would share a simple technique

 

Looking mean!

 

Great job, love that RUF look...

 

that actually looks really good.

 

Damn! That looks good! What a great idea for a fast facelift (I wondered if the tape sucked - I couldn't imagine it didn't).

 

Paint over the fogs and blinkers; then retro them onto the bumper ala 997!

 

Great job and looks like fun mod. Is your car have the RUF Side skirts and rear wing also? I would like to see other pics if you have or other pics of your car.

 

I did install the RUF side skirts as well, but for the rear wing, I went with the "mild" carrera... here's a couple of shots, not the best

 

Thanks for the writeup! The Ruf set looks nice too. I used to own a carbrio with the same Ruf front and sides, without a rear spoiler. Your headlight mod adds a unique look to it all. Never seen a combo like this.

John

 

looks real nice.

I have Strosek covers on mine......they haven't come off although I have yet to reach 160mph or did you mean 160kph?

This look seems to look better in the darker colored cars.....white/silver etc would not look good IMHO. I have a 99 Ocean Blue metallic that looks great.

 

Ya ya, like this!! ftp://128.252.251.25:40/45934335.jpg

 

We sand/paint headlights often.

 

Anyone do this with the clear headlights?

 

two years ago i saw this 996 at a big porsche meeting here in switzerland. i liked the result a lot.

 

I've been looking into a simple face lift for a 997 look for the 996. I had been thinking if you were to paint out the fried eggs following the light assembly's pattern and put on the new 997 bumper now available for the 996 you would have a pretty close look to the 997's.