<VV> RE: Instrument Panel Lens

JVHRoberts@aol.com JVHRoberts@aol.com
Mon, 22 Nov 2004 19:45:32 EST


The best way is to make a mold. Find a shop that does contract injection 
molding, and have them shoot a whole bunch. Aluminum would be fine, since we're 
not talking hundreds of thousands of lenses. You'd be surprised how cheap it 
would be, if you were intent on making a few hundred. 


In a message dated 11/22/2004 6:01:53 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
ncwitte@wittelaw.com writes:
On the question of how to make a replacement lens:  you would probably have
to sacrifice having the nice pointy lens like the factory has, but you could
make a new lens out of flat plexiglas, using the original part as a
template.  Then I would do the math to convert from English to metric for
the speedo, create a computer template for the hash marks and numbers, pick
up a copy of Scale Auto Enthusiast and find a place to either have decals
made or get decal stock to attach my numbers.  Get the decal made, clean the
plexi carefully, use some solvaset and super sol or whatever the two little
bottle are for setting decals (car modelers know about this stuff), and put
my numbering on with decals.  Not sure how well this would work at night,
though.  Another option from the model car world would be to have the
numbers photoetched and attach them in the appropriate places with RC glue,
but you would have to have a really steady hand and good eye to make that
come out right.

Or you could CNC mill them out of a block of acrylic.  gggg

Norm Witte