Club Parts effort?

[john]

Thanks everyone.
Marcus, I'll certainly have a read through that guide.
What kind of volume of material were you able to process in your "free" vacuum pump system?
Looks like medical and dental pumps might be readily available .

[Stableblock]

....might be able to investment cast off a suitable plastic dummy to make light backs?

[Stratie.fr]

I have some pumps in my medical office but too small (10 - 50 milliliter) for making large parts like lights !
Much easy to treat patients with them than to repair cars!

[john]

Just had a close look at the rear light lenses.
I'd assumed they were moulded in two pieces but they are not.
I don't think you could pour two colours of resin into one mould and get it to go in the right place! Lol.
I have two new lamp units and one old intact one so some to experiment with.
What's investment casting?

[Marcolino]

Hi John,

i have got a 4 liter container but i do not put parts in it. I am using the pump for extracting the air out of the resin (in the container) and to press the resin with the fibre into the mould (vaccum with the blue perforated foil, have a look at the handbook). The biggest parts i made this way had a length of 120cm (rc model boat) with one part moulds.
I made some smaller (lets say 3D) parts with two part moulds, the biggest ones were 15cm x 10cm x 5cm. I used highly fluid expoxid resin (HT2) and powdered carbon fibre. Worked ok for my application, wall thinkness was big enough to stabilize.

[john]

Hi again all,
I'm taking this a little further by starting off with the side repeater indicator's.
While buying some resin materials the other day I got speaking to the proprietor of the business and showed him a good side indicator.
His opinion is that such a small part would not require degassing of the resin or any fancy materials.
We have come up with a way of making the lens and lamp base in resin as one piece, and the unit would be completed with the addition of a flat metal or plastic plate incorporating a bulb holder and a couple of fixing screws. The two parts would then be joined using a waterproof adhesive sealer. Of course you could still change the bulb as on the original units.
I'm also making a mould for the gaskets which the lamp unit's sit on.
Is everybody using the "flat" gasket? The new lamps that I have came with both a flat gasket and a gasket with a thicker leading edge presumable for fitting to bodywork with more of a curve on it.
Most of the photos I've checked out show a flat gasket of uniform thickness between lamp and body, but just thought I'd ask for more confirmation.

[john]

Here is the first side repeater lens out of the new mould.
This has been made in UV stabilised Epoxy resin and pigmented.
A bit too Orange? What do you think?
In lieu of the metal rim I thickened out the lens at that point before taking the mould and I figured that portion could just be painted silver.
Now I just need a metal mounting plate with a bulb holder in it, and a mould for the black mounting 'gaskets' and I'll be in production!

[ChrisCar6]

Depends how faded the original was!
Silver paint would do it to finish.
Any idea of cost?