Flush mounted lenses

[ezboy121]

Hi I was wondering if anybody knows what material they used to make flush mounted led lights. I know you can buy kits, but I was wondering what the actual lenses are that you have to Sand down to shape are and where can you buy them any help would be appreciated. I did not want to have to buy the whole kits because I can fab my own brackets and lights.

 

[Jim C]

i assume your talking about the ones that are painted over? if so you never want to buy a kit. with a kit they give you the lens in the size of the light and your supposed to just make a cutout in your material for it the same size and glue it in with epoxy or something like that. if you do that you are guaranteed to have them crack along the seam. as with anything in autobody nothing should be just butted up to something else. everything needs to be feathered way out. basically your lens should be 1" bigger all the way around and your bond seam should be "V" shaped, glued and filled. you can use acrylic or polycarbonate. once sanded smooth be careful with solvents on it since almost anything with leave micro stress cracks in it. i have been doing these light for 10 years now and can say i really quit doing them or atleast do everything i can to talk my customers out of it. in the end its just not worth the time and aggravation.

 

[Bob Hollinshead]

I've put two kits in and so far so good, there's no cracks but there is a faint line around the lens but to most it's unnoticeable. Both times the fit was a PITA and required filing slowly to make the opening the proper size.

 

[Jim C]

did you install plastic lenses in a metal panel or was it a plastic/fiberglass panel?

 

[Senile Old Fart]

Don't know what you have in mind, a flat shape or a curved shape.
Flat shapes can be made from 1/4" red translucent acrylic with or without 1/8" acrylic prismatic sheet glued to the back side of the red.

If you want a compound shape check out this website for some ideas :http://www.alumilite.com/howtos/TailLightCastingNoEquipment.cfm

 

[ezboy121]

Thanks everyone for the advice might just stick with the stock lights for now and practice on trying to put the lights in some old panels first and see how they come out

 

[shine]

after about 4 sets of these things i swore i would never touch them again. leave them in the 80's where they belong .

 

[Bob Hollinshead]

did you install plastic lenses in a metal panel or was it a plastic/fiberglass panel?

metal cars and the lens was plastic, these are like a mailslot size- 1/4" wide by approx 6" long for a third brake.

 

[Jim C]

usually with metal the problem is that the plastic and metal expand and contract at different rates so the more time the car or the panel sits in the sun to heat up then cools down the more chance its gonna crack.