Round two - FULL set of headlights from scratch Reply #15 – October 16, 2007, 12:02:31 AM I REALLY like the first photoshop. I does look like its missing something though. mabey its just the fact that i'm used to seeing these cars with inner-markers. VERY nice though. If they could be mounted in one straight line (taking the curves out from around and underneath the projectors0 i think it would be better. black top, and bottom, with chrome on that back piece. That would be more for looks, not actual functionality. TC: YES! those look great! and I think in black they would fit with the photoshop pic. But what about vac forming that lense also? to get that perfectly clear look to it, and then using sonething like a combo of the LED's you are using and the circular marker from that lexus photo. Use the circle in front, and the LED's for the side. I think that would be cool.Seek: Would it be possible to have all three lenses (inners, headlight and outers) formed in clear plastic like your headlight lenses are? Seperate? I ahve an Idea for them. Do you make them, or did you adapt something existing/ Ive been looking for sonethign like that for a long time! Quote Selected
Round two - FULL set of headlights from scratch Reply #16 – October 16, 2007, 12:38:04 AM Im really not digging that 1 post headlight set up... I mean the projector light seems to be the thing but that set up looks to .. um out there... Quote Selected
Round two - FULL set of headlights from scratch Reply #17 – October 16, 2007, 12:50:20 AM My original lenses I had someone make as I didn't think I'd be dealing with plastic any time after that (hah, yeah right...). He only used a shop vac for vacuum and electric oven elements for heat. Less than 6IN HG of vacuum but it did the job "pretty well". The bottom part of the headlight wasn't pulled in as tight as I would have liked, but I worked around it by extending the headlight down further.I'm likely going to make my own vacuum chamber as it isn't too hard and is pretty cheap but go a bit more overboard with a stronger pump with seperate tank. Making a 2 piece vs a 1 piece assembly would require the chamber to be much larger for the single piece and it'd take a lot of custom work but if I used more than one mold, one to distribute vacuum, I think it could be done.The trick to vacuum is to seal the vacuum side off from the rest of the chamber so the dividing material (the polycarb) gets pulled down or inward. If I can keep this seal solid as the polycarb wraps around the mold, it'll pull in tight and have to be cut off (as it'll need to be done anyways to get rid of all the excess plastic). Instead of just throwing a large piece of plastic over something and having it get sucked down over a male mold to the bottom floor of a vacuum chamber, it would instead need to have vacuum applied at a raised mold with the outer edges of the chamber designed to support the shapeshifting polycarb without allowing a hole to punch through any wrinkles or folds that happen when the plastic is molding itself. I think with enough time and cheap/thin plastics for testing, a perfect setup could be made to make s certain type of lens. It'd all have to be pulled out and replaced with something else to make a different product though. I'm thinking having it setup so that the base, mold, etc are all molded into one and set into the chamber with perimeter gasketing to seal it from letting the vacuum pull from anywhere but the mold.Anyways, I'm not doing a good job of describing it. Cost would be probably $150 for the vacuum chamber, $100 for a decent/low volume vacuum pump, small/used tank for vacuum and $50 for misc materials such as piping, fiberglass, etc. Then lots of s plastic for testing 500x before getting something perfect (and selling non-perfection to keep the project going )As for 6 piece clear lights, the front ones are SIMPLE, but the side will still give a little trouble to make without the above setup. Instead of pulling at 90 degree bends all around (the headlights curve more on the bottom, but less at the top so they can be setup to still give perfect "pull down" all around), the front would require 90 degrees but the wraparound piece would need to suck it in ANOTHER 90 degrees from the front of the lens (or the other way around depending on which way you want to be the "top"). It'd be much cheaper to make multiple copies/test of this small piece though until one is correct. Then there's always the overhang of the marker lights to cover the huge gap between them and the headlights. This part is impossible to reproduce I believe. They would have to be made wider at the mounting points and the housings would have to be modified inward a bit. Quote Selected
Round two - FULL set of headlights from scratch Reply #18 – October 16, 2007, 12:50:30 AM Mabey using a stepped/style projector and marker setup like this:mabey without the haloshttp://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/99-04-VW-JETTA-DUAL-HALO-PROJECTOR-HEADLIGHTS-BLACK_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ33710QQihZ004QQitemZ140167451124QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVWI think that would be small enough to adapt to the inside of our lense. That with the clear inners and outers (vac formed lexan) i think it would be sweet. Quote Selected
Round two - FULL set of headlights from scratch Reply #19 – October 16, 2007, 12:52:48 AM Quote from: Crusher;182738Im really not digging that 1 post headlight set up... I mean the projector light seems to be the thing but that set up looks to .. um out there...I would be thinking more along the lines of using TSX projectors in the middle. They are 2.5" projectors instead of 3" like the TL's. The projector in the middle would be a little smaller which may go along with the false impression that the inside light is smaller than the outer lights (it doesn't really taper down until the last second, not as bad as the non-TC nose though). Quote Selected
Round two - FULL set of headlights from scratch Reply #20 – October 16, 2007, 12:53:19 AM BTW, he does have them up on his site everyone, for referance (the guy who made them for Seek)http://www.izntrbl.com/thunderbird-clear-headlight-lenses-p-259.html?cPath=7_101 Quote Selected
Round two - FULL set of headlights from scratch Reply #21 – October 16, 2007, 12:54:04 AM Quote from: Birdman;182742Mabey using a stepped/style projector and marker setup like this:mabey without the haloshttp://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/99-04-VW-JETTA-DUAL-HALO-PROJECTOR-HEADLIGHTS-BLACK_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ33710QQihZ004QQitemZ140167451124QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVWI think that would be small enough to adapt to the inside of our lense. That with the clear inners and outers (vac formed lexan) i think it would be sweet.Throw that into paint or photoshop. I don't think it'll end up looking as good as you think. Our front light assembly is VERY wide. Quote Selected
Round two - FULL set of headlights from scratch Reply #22 – October 16, 2007, 01:00:48 AM Quote from: Birdman;182744BTW, he does have them up on his site everyone, for referance (the guy who made them for Seek)http://www.izntrbl.com/thunderbird-clear-headlight-lenses-p-259.html?cPath=7_101I emailed him about the Saturn thing many times. He just copied an existing page and stuck new pictures on there. Either way, I never got around to even opening the box up that he sent me with my lenses in it as I WAS going to perfect them a bit more and send them back. I'd have to do that and send them back if he ever gets an order for the lenses. Either way, last I knew, he's still using the same setup and I don't think the bottom lip would be much better the next time. I'd rather attempt to do this myself and offer them for less than $110 (his price). Once right (which for those lenses, isn't hard to perfect), its literally like $5 in materials for a pair, some time cutting them out, boxing them up and shipping them. I still think I could do a great job if I had different static setups for each type of lens. Pull one out of the chamber, throw another in, place a sheet of polycarb on the "shelf"/holder it'd sit in, lower it into place and let the heat/vacuum do its thing. Quote Selected
Round two - FULL set of headlights from scratch Reply #23 – October 16, 2007, 01:05:06 AM Carm: Nice! Those are really good!Seek: Would an old sandblasting cabinet make a good vacuum chamber? It even has a motor...Birdman: . $110 for those. You can still get NOS headlights for $175-$200/pair shipped from evilbay. That's a lot of dough for plastic.I think Matt is on the right path. Seeing as how no company is willing to make lights in batches of 100, doing 1-off custom stuff like this is how to get these jobs done. All of the ideas in this thread are just awesome! Quote Selected
Round two - FULL set of headlights from scratch Reply #24 – October 16, 2007, 01:47:29 AM I agree: 110 is too much LOL I think seek is right, building a vac table setup is about the cheapest way to do it. I'm going to try something this week with my old nasty spare headlight I have. I'll get back to you guys on that.Whats the easiest way to separate the lense from the shroud/assy? heat? I tried the dremel, but i just chopped it up good :Hick: I dont want to tear up or cut either piece. Quote Selected
Round two - FULL set of headlights from scratch Reply #25 – October 16, 2007, 02:50:58 AM http://www.cardomain.com/ride/321255/8Take a look at what this guy did. He used Chrome plating/tape of some sort to fill in all the spots on the reflector. I need some of that for my project.And thats a bad ass mini-van LOL! Quote Selected
Round two - FULL set of headlights from scratch Reply #26 – October 16, 2007, 05:24:09 PM Quote from: HAVI;182552Wow, I see you're a few steps ahead of me. I was thinking of adapting the newer 2000-ish Impala light assemblies with some custom fender tpuppies and grille shell fitting via sheetmetal repro.I like it.It's been in the works for awhile since I haven't had much time to work on it, but this is exactly what I'm doing. I have the lights, done some measuring, and have started cutting the header panel, but haven't gotten any further yet.:D Quote Selected
Round two - FULL set of headlights from scratch Reply #27 – October 16, 2007, 07:47:07 PM I'll be interesting in seeing it if its ever completed. Its much easier to start a project than complete. You run into SO many roadblocks along the way and any one of them could make you change your mind on it being worth the trouble. How are the measurements for the high beam? It looks like it'd be tight at the mounting bolts if it'd even fit at all.I'm still sticking with the assumption that it won't be possible to throw any other car's headlights into ours without having either mounting issues with the middle mounting bolts or it'll just look plain stupid with our wide and still somewhat boxy front ends (compared to say the Lexus earlier in this thread that has much more curve). The closest thing we have is other ford headlights of similar year models. Quote Selected
Round two - FULL set of headlights from scratch Reply #28 – October 16, 2007, 08:21:25 PM I just don't see them working as shown below. Even then, I apparently made the lights wider than they actually are a little bit which would help them clear the mounting bolts slightly better. Original car in comparison to show the difference in headlight widths, different curves, etc. I left the taper towards the center in there as that will also need to be taken into account when modifying the header panel. Fiberglass nightmare in my opinion but I'm not a big bodywork guy. Quote Selected
Round two - FULL set of headlights from scratch Reply #29 – October 16, 2007, 08:46:38 PM I don't see a pic. ?? In my preliminary figurings, I'd be bending sheetmetal to hammerform the header panel and headlight brackets. I'm in no hurry, as I know it'll be a long and difficult road. The scary part is, going through all that work, only to have someone back into ya in the parking lot. Or even worse, do it and then say it doesn't look good. Quote Selected
Topic: Round two - FULL set of headlights from scratch (Read 10929 times)
previous topic - next topic
Topic: Round two - FULL set of headlights from scratch (Read 10929 times)
previous topic - next topic