headlight grills

Does anyone know where I can get headlight grills for my speedster?

Vintage speedsters...

Do you mean the straight up and down slot style or the wire mesh style??

Good question,

Which one is correct? Up and Down or Mesh? Ebay carries the mesh ones all the time but I can't bring myself to pay 200 dollars for something I suspect is not all that high quality. I would like to hear from some of our experts. :)

The cast vertical slotted grills were standard on most Speedsters exported to the USA; the mesh grills came later and were Euro items. The slotted grills replace the front glass in the rim while the mesh grills fit over the outer glass, and some of the mesh items require drilling/installing attachment fittings in the fender.

The cast vertical slotted grills were standard on most Speedsters exported to the USA; the mesh grills came later and were Euro items. The slotted grills replace the front glass in the rim while the mesh grills fit over the outer glass, and some of the mesh items require drilling/installing attachment fittings in the fender.

Thats it in a nutshell, if you like the mesh style they are correct for the 356, but technically not until later like George said. But be careful if you pick the mesh style, you get what you pay for, and the ones from NLA are 289 and are polished stainless steel and can be attached without drilling.

I like the mesh ones becuase I like leaving the glass on under the grill. If someone made a slotted style that went over the glass instead of replacing the glass I might go that way?

Steve,

Somewhere on one of the earlier 2004? threads George B. pointed out it could be done using spacers.

Dennis, I think what you are looking for can be found at Mid America for about $100. D-man

To late for me..I bought the NLA ones, but thanks for mentioning it for someone else who may read this thread.

Not to confuse the issue on with and without glass, but my Vintage has what george calls a 'slotted' stone guard AND it fits over the glass lense just fine... This suits me unless you are a concours fanatic as it is a little tricky getting a super clean on the glass, workin' my little fat fingers 'tween' the grille bars.
Go figure.

Oh and be caredful chasing down mesh style. Some are round not oval.

I fell for the mesh covers that fit to the body with tenax fasteners, as per the front of the tweeks catalogue a while ago.
Picked mine up on ebay, after buying a mesh set that fixed to the rim and deciding that they weren't exactly what I wanted.

Chrome is holding up well on this 'original' set

Simon

Note that the mesh grills that used the Tenax type of fastener were the original Porsche Euro optional units. The ones that snap on to the headlight rim are aftermarket items.

I bought the mesh headlight stone guards. The clips that fasten around the chrome headlight rim will fracture the fiberglass when you tighten the screws on the rim. So, to prevent this you must improvise an alternate fastening method. My mesh stoneguards are connected to the chrome headlight rim with Allen wrench bolts, and nuts behind the chrome besil.

The clips on my headlight screens work great and no problems with chips, cracks or whatever. My screens have clips that wrap around the edge of the chrome ring and the only thing to tighten is the screw beneath the head lamp. Maybe it is technique or quality of the clips or glass.

How difficult is it to remove the glass in order to install the slotted grills?

Edward,

You don't need to remove the glass, call Kirk at Vintage, he installed a set of vertical grilles on mine and has a way to do it without removing the glass.

Tony

Thanks Tony! I'll call Kirk on Monday.

Hi Edward! Glad you joined in. Join in the fun; why don't you share some pictures of your new car with us? It's just great sharing with fellow owners.

Hi Ricardo:

I'll take some pictures tomorrow and post them on the site!