CruxGNZ Posted June 7, 2003 Share Posted June 7, 2003 I was bored today and I had this idea for a new tail light in my head for some time now, so I figured since I have the stuff to do it, I would finally give it a shot. I have some trailer LED's that are oval in shape and about 2" wide by about 6" long. Here's a picture of what I'm going to do. The picture was done very nicely on Paint, but something happened and it turned out realy crappy, so I just drew over what was left of the picture... stupid computers . The fiberglass part I can do, mounting the LED's will be simple, the only thing I think there will be a problem with is forming the clear plastic piece. I have floral foam and plaster to make mold from. I'm not sure if the floral foam will take the temperature in the oven, so to be on the safe side, I was going to shape the foam then take a mold of it using plaster, then take a plaster mold of that to use for the plastic piece in the oven. After taking out the tail lights on my Z, I finally realized how complex the curves are on the plastic. Now I'm not to sure that this 1/8" plastic can be formed to the plastic mold in the oven. If you are wondering, you cut the plastic piece a bit bigger than the mold and lay it on top of the mold, then pop them into the oven and slowly melt the plastic to the mold. You can make your own headlight covers this way so I hear. Here's my question, does anyone know if this clear plastic can be shaped into the factory shape? Will this plastic yellow over time from UV rays? I found the stuff at my local hardware store, it's called OPTIX Acrylic Safety Glazing. Under the warning label, it says "Acrylic sheet is a combustable thermoplastic. Says it will only ignite from an open flame. Should I be worried? After the clear plastic is formed, I am going to spray it with some plastic tinting spray paint stuff. You can get it in craft stores. It will be lightly tinted kinda like the way the tinted headlight covers for the first gen Z look. This will be done for looks and to try and hide the rubber gromet that the LED's sit in. Once the LED's are installed and the clear plastic is formed and tinted, I will bond the two pices together. Then I will drill holes so I can mount this new unit in the same factory location. Your input? ...Just thought of something else I could try. I could make that plastic piece pretty shallow, still will have some curves to it, so it should still have some depth. Then I can bring the whole unit out so that the flat part of the plastic is almost flush with the metal tail light panel. I think that might be more feasible. Does anyone understand this? !M! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 240hybrid Posted June 8, 2003 Share Posted June 8, 2003 Working carpentry I helped a carpenter make a wooden template/mold that is used to make plastic signs store fronts. We used this plywood that is found at a wood speciality stores. It was a 1/2" flexible plywood that can be bent to make some very tight radius curves. Im thinking if you can get your hands on a 1/4" sheet of this stuff you might be able to make those tight curves then bake your plastic and it should bend right around the curves. Holding a hairdryer close and long enough might work too in getting the plastic to start bending. This way you can work it a bite with some gloves, or using a rolling pin maybe. I'll ask the guy I did this with what the plywoods specific name was, you wont find it at Lowes or Home Depot. Its a speciality item that depots dealing with exotic woods should have at a descent price per sheet. Also, with a few wood working tools you could sand and carve the template out of a 1x8 or something of that nature and you won't have to worry about baking temp., at least to a point before it goes up in flames. Just a couple ideas to the mold problem. Hope they help with the customization. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen Posted June 9, 2003 Share Posted June 9, 2003 Try a heat gun or something with the plastic and go slow, it shouldn't burst into flames (I don't think). Also, see if you can get some UV resistant stuff which they might not have a Home Depot etc. For a flush look, see Tim240Z's tail lites. http://tim240z.iwarp.com/index.html Owen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metallicar Posted June 9, 2003 Share Posted June 9, 2003 If you are going thru the trouble of making a mold, why not try fiberglass or even carbon fibre? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spotfitz Posted June 9, 2003 Share Posted June 9, 2003 The wood material 240hybrid is refering to is called "bender board" or bending luan". It comes in 1/4" and 3/8" in 4' x 8' or 8' x 4' sheets. It only bends one way. This stuff is quite flamable. Even a heat gun could set it off. I would think fiberglass would be easier for the housings. If you screwed up it wouldn't be nearly as hard to fix it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CruxGNZ Posted June 9, 2003 Author Share Posted June 9, 2003 I am a Carpenter and never even thought of using wood for the mold that the plastic will be shaped on , I guess it's just the way I think, heat and wood don't go well together... unless you're with a woman . I think I'll just shape some oak for the mold, I got more than enough scrap laying around. For the rear piece, I am using fiberglass. If the mold holds up, and the pieces turn out nice, I may use carbon fiber, but after I tint the clear plastic, you may not even see it. I appreciate you guys giving me idea's but I'm not sure what the luan can be used for. Unless you think I'm going to make the entire rear panel (the black piece that is riveted to the body) out of fiberglass. Sounds like a neat idea, and it would be pretty cool to make it out of carbon fiber. After taking it off to get at the tail lights, it really wouldn't be that hard to make at all, maybe sometime in the future, but for now I just painted the rear panel satin black. Just so I didn't confuse anyone by my first post, I'm making just the two tail lights. One tail light will consist of a front piece (plastic) and the rear piece (fiberglass) and bond them together to make a new tail light with the LED lights inside them. I like to be a little different than everyone else, and I have yet to see a new spin off of the old design. I could easily paint the fiberglass on the inside a shiney (sp?) chrome and use some red torpedo lenses on the inside and make my own Alteza's but what's original in that? I'm going to make the oak mold for the plastic tonight and see how it foms around it. I'll take pictures. If it works well, the rest is a piece of cake 8) . !M! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 240hybrid Posted June 11, 2003 Share Posted June 11, 2003 They baked the mold a while back and didnt say anything about it catching fire. Did darken up some though. Yeah I thought you were redoing the entire rear cover, my mistake, pic threw me off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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