New Bellows, Seals and License Plate Lights

When I took the tail light lenses off to install the new LED exterior bulbs, I noticed that the rubber seals to keep water out was falling apart. I guess none of the previous owners in the past 37 years thought it might be a good idea to replace the rubber. I also noticed that in the passenger side tail light housing, the rubber drain tube was completely missing. I picked up some new seals to replace both sides as well as a new rubber drain tube and put them in.

Old word out tail light seals - 9-13-2020

Old seals removed

New drain tube

New tail light seal installed

While I was doing this, SJF was replacing all the bellows all around. There was nothing wrong with them cosmetically from the outside but at least two bellows had nuts that were seized so they couldn't be removed without destroying them to some extent. It took me almost 2 months to get replacements and I didn't want the body shop to have to struggle with this so I wanted to get this done ahead of time. I also wanted to ensure that the new bellows fit the way I wanted since I opted to get good quality reproduction ones rather than the original Porsche parts. Fitment was about 9.5/10 but good enough and for something that's just basically rubber non-structural pieces, it didn't make sense to go spend money extra on the originals.

Front bellow removed

New front bellow installed

When we replaced the rear bellows, I also bought better condition used bumper side panels. The original ones on the car looked pretty beat up and I wanted the body shop to start with a better panel when it goes in for repaint.

Rear side panel and bellow removed

New bellow and cleaner rear side panel trimmed for exhaust
clearance and installed

Right rear side panel and bellow installed

Finally, I needed a way to illuminate the rear license plate after removing the bumperettes. I bought two potential options. The first was a pair of black Hella license plate lights that would sit on either side of the plate. The second was an LED illuminated license plate frame. I opted to not use the Hella lights because they stuck out a bit too far. Since the car is driven day time 95% of the time, it didn't make much sense to have ugly black bumps stick out from the now clean bumper even when they weren't in use. The Radiantz LED license plate frame I got is nice and stealthy. When not in use it looks just like any normal black license plate frame but when I turn on my lights, it illuminates the plate from the top with just the right amount of light.

Radiantz LED license plate frame

Waterproof LEDs lining the top part of the frame

To install it, a small hole had to be drilled just behind the plate to allow the wiring to get through. Due to the placement of the wire, a notch in the license plate was also needed. The next part was to avoid getting the wire too hot from being in proximity to the muffler. SJF wrapped the wires in heat reflective tape and ran it above the bumper on the inside with metal zip ties.

New hole in the bumper to pass the wire through.

Wires wrapped in heat reflective tape and routed above the bumper
and connected to factory license plate light wiring.

License plate lights turned on. The color is white even though it
looks blue in the photo.