It's going to be a fifth season for my Boxster! Being a first car sold in US, I didn't know how bad is the paint quality on 981, so didn't install any film. Now my bumper is completely shot, so I start thinking about the idea I have for a while... Swapping bumper with Cayman, with some slight modifications. Full radiator protection included
This is what I want it to look like, more or less. With DRL LEDs hiding behind the grill, so when the car is stationary - you don't see them
Thanks to a few GT4 swaps going on - I was offered Cayman bumper at the price I couldn't resist, so I bought it. Now there is no way back
From the top "mesh #2" or 1/4" squares is very close if not the same as the Zunsport Grille mesh size. Personally LG prefers the on angle 45 degrees mesh #1 (1/2 sqs) or #2 (1/4" sqs).
Can not wait to see the final and most unique product.
So, if by "open area" you are concerned about the air-flow, it looks like in 1 square inch of #4 material you have about 75% open. That seems OK, especially if you loose the Cayman lights and open the top of the grill as you show in the first picture (you have closed off about 25% of the air flow, but made the hole 25% bigger). From a "look" standpoint, I prefer the "old school" look (1/4 " squares), but then it also depends on color -- will you leave it black, paint it? etc. (knowing your batmobile, I suspect you want black-on-black - that being the case, #4 looks like the obvious choice).
Can you get some samples to actually examine them?
Yes, it's all going to be black.
By #4 you mean second from the bottom, right? That one is pretty open yes, but at the same time it makes it very weak as it's made of aluminum. We are talking about pretty big area on sides. One medium sized stone - and I'll dent the aluminum, and I'll have to redo everything. First two are stainless and will take the hit, I think. Third one - honeycomb - is plastic. I also imagine it'll be pretty tough, but it looks too... mustangy... for me.
I had to google that, and still not sure I googled the right thing
I do consider the possibility of running LED strip inside the grill, same location as Boxster DRLs now. I used some LED strip on my coffee machine project recently and it was very nice and bright, and 12v. Just checked and it's actually was for cars! It's pretty close color to stock Porsche led strip
... and we will send out a free sample (roughly 3"x4") of:
(1) Sample of Small Diamond Mesh
(1) Sample of Large Flat Diamond Mesh
Please purchase our Big Sample Pack if you are interested in seeing the full selection of meshes available.
You're welcome to ask for a specific sample other than couple listed above, and if we have some extra samples of the material we'll do our best to include those for you. All samples are subject to availability
Turns out those guys are in my city!!! I went to contact page to ask for samples in bigger sizes, and realized they are few miles from me. Talk about destiny.
the bumper arrived. In a box size of a small house, and you can tell that box traveled far. What's Skoda? Actualy I know, I've been riding in one in my younger years over the pond.
First and foremost - quick mock up to verify concept. Yep. It looks good. If one can think abstract
Just to munch on something for the next few days I extracted and disassembled the scoop plastic piece. It very much looks like all the insides can be trimmed/cut out, and then the grill attached. That would be ideal - then it can be worked on independent of bumper, and bumper can be easily painted
Oh, and I stopped by, and bought that 1/4" mesh from custom grilles guy. Looks like quality product, same as those zunsport grilles. Guy runs small business, which is not that small, out of his basement just like me
Spend some time trimming the plastic opening. After developing some technique, it's not that bad, just have to go slow. One side is 3/4 done. Unfortunately, there is protruding pieces that will be pita to make disappear. Will have to experiment with plastic epoxy and bondo. Not thrilled, but there is no way around it.
This is how much I'm cutting out, so the mesh can be screwed to the parts "frame" in the back
I've used it in some automotive applications (fixed some nose bits on a grill that got bashed in). Does a great job, but you need to sand it when it's about half set, otherwise it's a bitch to work with. Sets as hard as stone. It's good for small areas, like potentially fillering in the nubs once you get them off.
No updates. I run out of time with vacation and other more important and exciting projects, like memory module for 718/991.2 where Auto start/stop defaults to on on restarts... hope to get back to this in a week or two