After much deliberation, I decided to blackout the headlights on my 957 CTTS. Even though I liked the stock chrome lights, I started to have a nagging suspicion that blacked out headlights would look much more aggressive. Since I chose the 957 over the 958 for it more aggressive styling, I wanted to play this angle to the fullest. For those of you who are unaware, the 957 blackout headlights were a "Porsche exclusive" factory option in 2009. So since many people did not order them, they would cost over $2300 to buy them at the Porsche parts dealer today - which is obviously absurdly priced for "black paint".

So with a few headlight retrofits/mods under my belt, I decided to take a risk of ruining $1600 of perfectly good headlights for vanity-sake

Special shout out to "Cole" who already did this on his 955 Valeo headlights and his helpful iPad diagram on this thread. The 955 hedlights are made by Valeo, where the 957 headlights are made by Hella (same as new Panamera). So I was not sure how similar the dis-assembly would be - turns out it is almost the same.

However, I took it one step further and decided to do a clear lens swap on the stock projector lens. Most people are not aware, but you can now swap out the optics on many projectors to give better light intensity, color characteristics, and clarity. If you are more interested, you can read up in more detail here. The stock hella projector lens is cloudy/translucent- if I had to guess, it would be about 85-90% clear. On the other hand, the Valeo predecessors were both translucent AND a fresnel lens - so a double whammy. You can view the optical difference between stock Hella lens and the replacement 100% clear lens in these pics:


***Jump to final color / light output images in this post***

Stock Hella lens (cloudy/translucent)




Stock lens vs Clear Replacement lens







Closeup Inspection

After the lens were swapped and the chrome bezels were spray painted with a satin black base and a black metallic topcoat (for a nice iridescent sheen), they were reassembled and ready for their 15 minutes of fame.










BEFORE SHOT (stock chrome lights)




FINAL SHOT (blackout headlights)

It sure does look angrier

 

Nice upgrade for a person with experience and knowledge in the headlight disassembly field. This job would cost an arm and leg if taken to a shop.

 

Thanks for the educated vote of support! It was a real PITA job, so I can only imagine what a retrofit shop would ask to do the job properly without cutting corners. The funny part is that is only cost me about $80 in materials to do both lights. The labor however is another story all together

 

Very nice man..awesome mod.

 

Love it. Nice job!

 

What is your address? Don't be surprised if you have a set of MY08 headlights appearing in your mailbox

Excellent job as usual!!

 

Time for some TECHART DRLs!

 

Looks fantastic!

Looks like you swapped in the 3" STi lense then?

How does the light output compare to stock?

 

Nice write up! those blacked out lights look 10x better than the chrome on your car. Love the interior color too, is that Terracotta I see?

We need output shots from the clear lens upgrade to demo their improved performance. Nice work!

By the way, your headlights are Valeo right? not Hella based

 

Thanks! I was somewhat skeptical of it would be worth my time. I was genuinely impressed with the final product. I am not exaggerating when I say that the chrome shrouds now look like "jewels" - eye catching, for sure.

Cool - thanks!

Hahaha... thanks. The entrepreneur in me says that I might be able to be persuaded



Yeah.. if I thought $2K was too expensive for the primary headlights, then I certainly think ~$2K is too expensive for turn signals.

Besides that, the 957 came from the factory with LED-like (more like CCFL) DRL turn signals that look pretty good to me.

EDIT: If you plan on following suit, I believe the right lens is the ZKW-R, which is the 22mm focus height. Not the STi-R, which is the 27mm focus height. I will post up pics soon.

Yeah, I forgot the exact name of the two tone, but my wife and I loved it. It was a "must" in our 957 shopping list. Here is a more detailed pic:



Thanks - just waiting on my Osram Cool Blue Intense 5000K bulbs to come in. It should be the same amount of lumens of the stock 4300K bulbs, but a whiter light with a better color spectrum. After I get in the new bulbs, then I will be ready for a light show!

Nope, definately Hella - not Valeo. I looked all over the headlight and it said "Hella" in about 4 different places. http://www.ebay.com/itm/230850256479?ru=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fsch%2Fi.html%3F_sacat%3D0%26_from%3DR40%26_nkw%3D230850256479%26_rdc%3D1 (look at the label that says "Hella").

 

Can't believe the contrast from the original 3" lens to the STi clear 3" lens.

This may be my next mod!

 

Yet another thing in common and no sarcasm on my part!
Check your email I got a surprise for you!

 

Ah ha hella huh? Valeo made the lights for the Cayenne before the facelift body style you have. I'm a bit weary now though because typically Hella made bixenon lights use our ZKW-r lenses not the STI-r. Is the cutoff sharp?

Nice choice on the interior too! same color as my 997tt (which happens to have STI-r lenses and the Osram CBI bulbs too, ironically)

 

Thanks for the post. I put on the STI-r lens because of the 100% optical clarity and the fact that they are used on some Porsche's. Didn't realize that the ZKW-r was even an option for me. However, after looking doing a little more research, I think you are right that more Hella projector owners are going with the ZKW-r due to the 22mm focus height vs the STi-R 27mm focus height. Neither one of course specifically listed my application (or close), so I guess this is the cost of trailblazing - the first one to make a mistake. Even though I think the cutoff looks good (especially with high beams on), I will be ordering the ZKW-r lenses and swapping them out in the next couple of weeks (prior posts edited). It should go much quicker the second time around.

After I get in the replacement bulbs, I will post up pics. Any other suggestions? I saw that some people were "bending" the internal cutoff reflector to change the focus, however, with "bi-xenon" and the flap that opens on high, I do not want to break the projector mechanics.

I guess it could have been worse. Like making this "mistake" :

 

Where can I find some more information on the lenses? And where can I but them? Doing a custom headlight project myself, Matte black and gloss, with BI-XENON cornering lights and BI-XENON highbeams. And suggestion as to which Xenon bulb I should replace the factory ones with? They are not BI-XENON on the 955, Just standard XENON.