Gen1 clear corners
- Thread starter Alax7
- Start date
G-RELL
FULLY DIPPED LS
any way you can tint the plastic (resin) as you mold it??? not that you should, just curious if possible...
Yeah. I just have black coloring. Maybe if I just add a very small amount it will just tint it without making it a solod black. I'll try it out maybe this weekend.
They're coming. I stopped working on them because of school but I might continue this weekend. I'm thinking of having all of them done for spring break, a week of no school, no hw, and lots free time.
Just so those who think I'm not making them can see that I am still going to make these, here are a few updated pics.
I made the mold for the side markers Friday and was able to cast a pair Sunday. I also made the mold for the rear part of the side marker but have not demolded the original part from it to cast.
The gen2 reflectors were done 3 or so weeks ago but I was not able to get a good cast until I had to stop because I had no time to continue. I kept getting air trapped in certain spots and I didn't make a big enough reserve on the top of the mold. When I pressure cast it, the air in the resin gets compressed so the volume of the resin also shrink and isn't enough resin to completely fill the mold, hence the gen2 marker on the left has 2 hole in it. Easy fix, just need to cut out some of the silicone from the top of the mold and hard backing to make a bigger reserve area, but I haven't had time. I order a vacuum pump so I can take as much air out of the resin before pouring it, then pressure casting it give me better results. I picked it up from FedEx today and was able to test it out when I casted the reflector with one drop of tint. It works great by the way.
G-rell asked if I could make them with tint, I quickly casted a reflector this weekend and yes it can be done. I used very little of the very highly concentrated coloring tint, this stuff is cool, very little spread like wild fire. I must have used 1/Th of a drop of coloring to make the one shown. I casted one 2 hours ago with one full drop of coloring to see how much that would tint it.
I was planning on doing the back part of gen1 side markers gray like stock but I can leave them white like the color of the resin, or black. If I do it black, the clear marker will probably look tinted due to the black backing or I can just tint the marker and do the back part in gray or just gray and clear, your choice.
The beginning of all of this clear parts project I did not think or want to spend that much money buy all these parts to make molds. I wasn't going to buy a pressure pot or a vacuum pot and pump. Now I have both and have spent 1k+ on this project. 1k in in silicone, casting resin, cups, spatulas, a scale, a lot of claps, pressure pot, vacuum pump,2 mini compressor to make a vacuum pump but that failed, plus other miscellaneous parts to add to the cost. I'm not going to spend 1k in materials to just forget about this so to those who think I'm ignoring you and I wont finish this, you're wrong
To get to where I am now I had to make maybe 5 different molds for the clear reflectors alone to get it right and fix all the errors. One of them I even threw away because I tried rushing when making the mold box and it started leaking, when I pick it up to move it to quickly fix the leak, it started leaking more very fast. I was pretty mad so i just threw it away, that was 100 dollars worth of silicone down the drain. I had to buy and try out different clear casting resins to get the one suited for this. I've put a lot time into this even if it doesn't show so be patient.When EVERYTHING is finished, you will use paypal to do the transaction, then I will ship it to you, thats how you can get one, when they are done, for sure for the week of spring break in the end of march. Come spring break I will be able to fix all the little problems I'm running in to and everything will be done and ready to be shipped. Well you made me write a freaken essay here, you know who you are, no hard feelings though.
Finally here are the pics. :runaway:
I made the mold for the side markers Friday and was able to cast a pair Sunday. I also made the mold for the rear part of the side marker but have not demolded the original part from it to cast.
The gen2 reflectors were done 3 or so weeks ago but I was not able to get a good cast until I had to stop because I had no time to continue. I kept getting air trapped in certain spots and I didn't make a big enough reserve on the top of the mold. When I pressure cast it, the air in the resin gets compressed so the volume of the resin also shrink and isn't enough resin to completely fill the mold, hence the gen2 marker on the left has 2 hole in it. Easy fix, just need to cut out some of the silicone from the top of the mold and hard backing to make a bigger reserve area, but I haven't had time. I order a vacuum pump so I can take as much air out of the resin before pouring it, then pressure casting it give me better results. I picked it up from FedEx today and was able to test it out when I casted the reflector with one drop of tint. It works great by the way.
G-rell asked if I could make them with tint, I quickly casted a reflector this weekend and yes it can be done. I used very little of the very highly concentrated coloring tint, this stuff is cool, very little spread like wild fire. I must have used 1/Th of a drop of coloring to make the one shown. I casted one 2 hours ago with one full drop of coloring to see how much that would tint it.
I was planning on doing the back part of gen1 side markers gray like stock but I can leave them white like the color of the resin, or black. If I do it black, the clear marker will probably look tinted due to the black backing or I can just tint the marker and do the back part in gray or just gray and clear, your choice.
The beginning of all of this clear parts project I did not think or want to spend that much money buy all these parts to make molds. I wasn't going to buy a pressure pot or a vacuum pot and pump. Now I have both and have spent 1k+ on this project. 1k in in silicone, casting resin, cups, spatulas, a scale, a lot of claps, pressure pot, vacuum pump,2 mini compressor to make a vacuum pump but that failed, plus other miscellaneous parts to add to the cost. I'm not going to spend 1k in materials to just forget about this so to those who think I'm ignoring you and I wont finish this, you're wrong
To get to where I am now I had to make maybe 5 different molds for the clear reflectors alone to get it right and fix all the errors. One of them I even threw away because I tried rushing when making the mold box and it started leaking, when I pick it up to move it to quickly fix the leak, it started leaking more very fast. I was pretty mad so i just threw it away, that was 100 dollars worth of silicone down the drain. I had to buy and try out different clear casting resins to get the one suited for this. I've put a lot time into this even if it doesn't show so be patient.When EVERYTHING is finished, you will use paypal to do the transaction, then I will ship it to you, thats how you can get one, when they are done, for sure for the week of spring break in the end of march. Come spring break I will be able to fix all the little problems I'm running in to and everything will be done and ready to be shipped. Well you made me write a freaken essay here, you know who you are, no hard feelings though.
Finally here are the pics. :runaway:
JoshMcMadMac
Dedicated LVC Member
Good stuff, man. Sign me up for a set of the tinted gen 2 lenses when the time comes.
kaball
Well-Known LVC Member
Sign me up for some smoked gen 1 corners and lenses when the time comes. It would be perfect for my light project! Damn good job.
Shredicus
Dedicated LVC Member
x2 awesome work alax
ATrom
Dedicated LVC Member
Nice work they look good! Now the question for me is do I want the 2nd gen reflectors tinted or clear 
I'll have the answer for you when you start taking orders
I'll have the answer for you when you start taking ordersCool to see you guys interested in this and thanks for the compliments.
A few more pics.
From left to right: clear ( no black coloring at all), light tint ( about 1/30 of a drop), dark tint ( 1/4 of a drop ), super dark tint ( 1 full drop).
I can for sure do a level of tint in between light and dark, maybe 2. Its concetrated coloring, I just stuck a small flat head screw driver over the drop to just collect a little bit of coloring. I was planing on having a little system to get similar amount of coloring, maybe tooth picks or allen keys. It would be like, " I want 2 tooth picks of tint" More on that later.
Also, I would not suggest going with one drop of tint, too dark and it seems like its just too much coloring to get a clean shiny surface. If you really want that much tint, I'll give it another try and see if I can get better results.
More pics at different angles to see the tint. The top of the 2 darker reflectors still have part of the funnel, since they were just for tint testing, I didn't bother to really clean that part up.
Here is a failed mold of the gen1 reflectors. I didnt make the mold under pressure so if I were to not cast under pressure it would be ok. Since I need a bubble free part with the clear, I need to cast under pressure. The bubbles that were left in the mold once it dried, when placed under pressure, got compressed and left all these holes after the mold came out of the pressure pot. I was pissed, 100 dollars down the drain right there.Good thing I didnt throw it away though because I found a way to use these as fillers to save on silicone for each mold. I recently started making the molds under pressure, compressing the bubbles while it dries so when it goes back under pressure once dried, the bubbles are already compressed and it wont alter the mold. Now that I bought the vacuum pump, I can take most of the air out and I will have less bubbles to deal with so everything will be easier and better.
Also, when casting, I also place the resin under vacuum to remove as much air as possible before casting under pressure. With this, I have noticed the the level/volume of the resin does not drop nearly as much under pressure since there is very little air left to be compressed. This will make casting easier as well.
For andrizzle- Here is a pic of my mold making supplies box.
The molds at the top are failed attemps. The thin, dark pink mold is the mold for the gen2 reflector, the one behind that is one for the gen1 reflector, the gen1 side marker front was in the pressure pot, and I still haven't demolded the gen1 side marker backing. I will probably do molds for all of them again for the final products now that I am well equiped for replicating parts. I now have a vacuum, pressure/vacuum pot, and oven for post curing.
Pressure pot, it's actually a paint pressure pot from harbor freight tools. I was not going to buy a casting pressure pot for about 300 bucks when this pot holds pressure also and is only 100 bucks. I found other mold making guys using this one so i went with it too. The vacuum pump, I also got from harbor freight tool, 130, pulls more than enough vacuum to degas silicone and resin. There was a pressure/vacuum pot with compressor/vacuum combo all in one from this one company, 795 + shipping, no way! I just bought myself a toater oven today for post curing, 35 bucks. I definitely have more than 1k already invested in this and will go spend a few more bucks tomorrow for more silicone and clear resin.
I doubt I will even get close to breaking even, but I do not regret doing this for me and for you guys, it was a great learning experience. Doing non clear parts is a lot simpler than clear parts, so now that I am confident I can do good quality clear parts, I'm sure I can and will do more parts in the future either for my own cars or as a hobby/summer "job".
Gen1 backing mold
All the clamps I also had to buy
A few more pics.
From left to right: clear ( no black coloring at all), light tint ( about 1/30 of a drop), dark tint ( 1/4 of a drop ), super dark tint ( 1 full drop).
I can for sure do a level of tint in between light and dark, maybe 2. Its concetrated coloring, I just stuck a small flat head screw driver over the drop to just collect a little bit of coloring. I was planing on having a little system to get similar amount of coloring, maybe tooth picks or allen keys. It would be like, " I want 2 tooth picks of tint"
More on that later.Also, I would not suggest going with one drop of tint, too dark and it seems like its just too much coloring to get a clean shiny surface. If you really want that much tint, I'll give it another try and see if I can get better results.
More pics at different angles to see the tint. The top of the 2 darker reflectors still have part of the funnel, since they were just for tint testing, I didn't bother to really clean that part up.
Here is a failed mold of the gen1 reflectors. I didnt make the mold under pressure so if I were to not cast under pressure it would be ok. Since I need a bubble free part with the clear, I need to cast under pressure. The bubbles that were left in the mold once it dried, when placed under pressure, got compressed and left all these holes after the mold came out of the pressure pot. I was pissed, 100 dollars down the drain right there.Good thing I didnt throw it away though because I found a way to use these as fillers to save on silicone for each mold. I recently started making the molds under pressure, compressing the bubbles while it dries so when it goes back under pressure once dried, the bubbles are already compressed and it wont alter the mold. Now that I bought the vacuum pump, I can take most of the air out and I will have less bubbles to deal with so everything will be easier and better.
Also, when casting, I also place the resin under vacuum to remove as much air as possible before casting under pressure. With this, I have noticed the the level/volume of the resin does not drop nearly as much under pressure since there is very little air left to be compressed. This will make casting easier as well.
For andrizzle- Here is a pic of my mold making supplies box.
The molds at the top are failed attemps. The thin, dark pink mold is the mold for the gen2 reflector, the one behind that is one for the gen1 reflector, the gen1 side marker front was in the pressure pot, and I still haven't demolded the gen1 side marker backing. I will probably do molds for all of them again for the final products now that I am well equiped for replicating parts. I now have a vacuum, pressure/vacuum pot, and oven for post curing.
Pressure pot, it's actually a paint pressure pot from harbor freight tools. I was not going to buy a casting pressure pot for about 300 bucks when this pot holds pressure also and is only 100 bucks. I found other mold making guys using this one so i went with it too. The vacuum pump, I also got from harbor freight tool, 130, pulls more than enough vacuum to degas silicone and resin. There was a pressure/vacuum pot with compressor/vacuum combo all in one from this one company, 795 + shipping, no way! I just bought myself a toater oven today for post curing, 35 bucks. I definitely have more than 1k already invested in this and will go spend a few more bucks tomorrow for more silicone and clear resin.
I doubt I will even get close to breaking even, but I do not regret doing this for me and for you guys, it was a great learning experience. Doing non clear parts is a lot simpler than clear parts, so now that I am confident I can do good quality clear parts, I'm sure I can and will do more parts in the future either for my own cars or as a hobby/summer "job".
Gen1 backing mold
All the clamps I also had to buy
msgtusmc
Dedicated LVC Member
Nice work. I would like a set of both lens for my Gen 1 2000 LS base. Sides & bumper.
PM when available with shipping & handling! Thanks.
2000 LS V6 Base, Auto, 83k, Wife's toy.
PM when available with shipping & handling! Thanks.
2000 LS V6 Base, Auto, 83k, Wife's toy.
jolinc01
Dedicated LVC Member
Great work Alax. I'll probably be interested in a set for the gen 1 when the time comes.
Wilfred
LVC Member
Nice work, how did you learn how to do all of this? I had no idea it was possible to mold plastic parts in a small-scale garage setting, assumed it took zillion dollar equipment.
Is the darkness of this tint good for most? Does anybody want darker?
It takes zillions of dollars to mass produce parts. I'm just making a few and it will take a day to have one complete, most of it is waiting but its still a day. I have lse side skirts that were missing a oart from the fron of it, I asked a member to let me borrow his and I made a mold for it to make myself one. That was my first mold, it was fun, so I kept doing it. That was a few months back. I also made a gear for this gear box that had one with the teeth grinded down, worked like a charm
It takes zillions of dollars to mass produce parts. I'm just making a few and it will take a day to have one complete, most of it is waiting but its still a day. I have lse side skirts that were missing a oart from the fron of it, I asked a member to let me borrow his and I made a mold for it to make myself one. That was my first mold, it was fun, so I kept doing it. That was a few months back. I also made a gear for this gear box that had one with the teeth grinded down, worked like a charm
Shredicus
Dedicated LVC Member
The range of darkness looks quite good to me
ATrom
Dedicated LVC Member
Yeah those look great. I'd like my set in that tint
Cool
This was 4 tooth picks, I think going by 2's will change the tint in a small noticeable amount. Price isn't set yet either, will probably set it and start shipping in a few weeks.Sweet.