Posted May 1, 2019 by kingroon1 Comment Cosmetics

Clear

They may have not been good for Mogwai, but when it comes to safety on the roads, Bright Lights are definitely best, and one of the failings of Old Cars is the Lighting. Headlights and Sidelights tend to be of old Filament / Incandescent based technology; modern LED lighting has significantly advanced illumination.

Upgrading the lighting might not be on the List of Things To Do for those wishing to keep their Cars original, but as you can probably tell by this Blog, originality is not the Name of the Game here..

Headlight Collars definitely out Moding the Sidelight Cuffs..

HID

A previous owner of my 993 upgraded the Headlights to HID units, which are significantly brighter, and produce more visible light than standard incandescent lamps. The problem is, as can be seen by the photo above, that the Sidelights kinda let the Side down when it came to consistency of light and look in the Dark.

Enter the LED Sidelight Bulb.

LED

For the princely sum of £16, you can pick up a set of LED Bulbs dedicated to the Sidelight cause of a 993; the only issue is installing them into rather fatigued Side & Fog Light units. Inspecting my Sidelight lenses pretty much determined their replacement; 25 years of Bug Killing had left its impression. This would be a comprehensive refurbishment.

Removing the Units is straight forward: remove the Indicator Units [single Screw fixing, then slide forwards], then unscrew the single screw holding the Sidelight Unit in place and prize diagonally from the Bumper. Before walking away from the Car with the Unit in your hand, don’t forget to unfasten the Sidelight Bulb with a half turn, and unclip the Fog Lamp connector.

Removing the Fog Lamp bulb requires unscrewing the retaining bolt until the whole unit comes free from the housing.

Once you have removed the Lens from the Unit [see video at bottom of this Blog Post], you need to remove the old stale glue / adhesive that held the lens in place. I used an Acetone based Glue Remover, be careful you don’t get High as a Kite whilst using this stuff. You definitely need to be outdoors, I wouldn’t even recommend using it Indoors with a Window open, you really need a through flow of air.

Next, I chose to spray the inside of the Unit the same Polar Silver as my Bodywork. I thought this would bring the Sidelights bang up to date, would mirror the Brake Duct look that some 993 go for, and also would add extra to that Be Seen factor.

Mask off the channel that the lens sits in, as you will be applying adhesive here; you need to ensure that the lens glue gets a good and direct purchase to the plastic housing.