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Thread: Club Parts effort?

  1. #1
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    Club Parts effort?

    Prompted by a few cracked lenses on Frederic's car, over the last few days I've been reading a few online articles about manufacturing parts in resin.
    I started off by looking at making replacement lamp lenses in amber and red tinted resin as I'm sure there would be a demand for these given that the side repeaters and rear light units are now so expensive, and the reversing light and fog light hard to come by.
    The process seems relatively easy. You make a two piece mould in silicone RTV type material using a good component.
    The material is not cheap but the most expensive aspect of the job is buying a vacuum pump and chamber to degas both the silicone for mould making and the resin for casting and also a pressure pot to ensure resin travels fully into the mould and ensure there are no cavities.
    A trawl through ebay suggest's you could easily spend £500 before you make your first part.
    I think it might be possible to make other components too like door spoons, handles, and the light units themselves.
    There is no point in gearing up to do this if anyone in the club already knows a facility somewhere that might do this for us for mates rates.
    Failing that might we "club" together and have a co-operative to manufacture and supply? i.e share the set up costs!

  2. #2
    SEC Member Marcolino's Avatar
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    Re: Club Parts effort?

    Hi John,

    i can chip in some information ... I did some parts for radio controlled models and for my business. I am using an old medical suction pump (about 40 litres per minute and -90kPa). Works fine for getting the air out of the resin and the vaccum for the mould ... and i got it for free!

    There is a very good "How to" handbook from a german resin distributor, the website and the handbook is also available in english.

    http://www.r-g.de/en/home.html

    and the handbook ...

    http://ezentrumbilder3.de/rg/pdf/Handbuch_englisch.pdf

    Think this will be a good start ... and the materials will also be available in the uk.
    The company is located only 100km away from my home ... if anything special is needed give me a mail!

  3. #3
    SEC Member Guy Mayers's Avatar
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    Re: Club Parts effort?

    Might be a good idea to speak to Gerry before taking things too far. I know he has a source for the door handles and spoons and I also know that he was taking to Steve at SVA about remaking the Fiat Dino front indicators. Lenses aren't the problem though, it's the body/reflector unit on that part. I don't think he had any plans for other light units though I may be wrong about that.
    Guy

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    SEC Member Stratie.fr's Avatar
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    Re: Club Parts effort?

    Maybe this component for sale on ebay can be used



    Lens Brake Tail Indicator fix for LANCIA MONTECARLO STRATOS

  5. #5
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    Re: Club Parts effort?

    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 .

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    Re: Club Parts effort?

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

  7. #7
    SEC Member Stratie.fr's Avatar
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    Re: Club Parts effort?

    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!

  8. #8
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    Re: Club Parts effort?

    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?

  9. #9
    SEC Member Marcolino's Avatar
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    Re: Club Parts effort?

    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.

  10. #10
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    Re: Club Parts effort?

    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.

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