(CANCELED) Replacement clear or colored headlight Lens (CANCELED)
appreciate your efforts! best of luck on the road ahead 
05-07-09, 07:04 AM
#557
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schwarz, I wasn't calling it lexan was I? If I was it was a accident. I keep thinking that lexan and cast acrylic is the same thing, it's plexiglass and cast acrylic that are the same thing. We tried making them out of cast acrylic. We ordered quite a bit of it, far from a pallet (i'd have no where to put it!) the lenses that were made were cast acrylic. We never had any lexan. I use the plexi we have for my car, other peoples cars, I use the old headlight lenses that were deformed as fiberglass resin trays. I was going to do the whole roof of my car in it like a maybach roof but decided against it cause I had a better idea for the headliner.
The resin wasn't used to make the headlights it was used to make the molds. You had to: Lay a thicker layer of resin down, let it dry, sand it down, make a test lens, cut it out, sand it down, note the area’s that needed to be raised, then start all over again. See why it took so @!#%ing long now??
This should explain everything:
The cracks happened when after hours of trying to figure out what the hell was wrong we got the molds waaay too hot and stuck them outside to let them cool down and we called it a night. I gave brian a ride home and when I got back I freakin forgot to bring them back in and in the morning.. there it was.. the plexi was wrapped around the molds and when I pulled them off the resin underneath was cracked, the other mold (the one not pictured cause it got trashed) had the top peel off like a scab. We hit it with more resin which worked for a little bit but on one of the pulls it popped like a hotdog in the microwave, which was followed by the loudest I have ever yelled ‘****’. We tried to fix that but there was no hope.
Keep in mind the ENTIRE TIME this is going on we CAN NOT FIGURE OUT how to the get little bubbles out. We were so sure it was from dust collecting we went through all these measures to keep it dust free but it kept showing up. The thing that killed it was when we had 5-6 sets with the tiny bubbles we were going to send out so people could tell us what they thought. We got this headlight reconditioning kit (which I ultimately would go on to use later at dealerships to repay the club lexus and the headlight preorders... crazy huh) so we were like “lets use it on those and see how it works”. The problem, which I will go into great detail in my book, was that after 6-8 hours days 7 days a week on an idea that isn’t working, we had consumed at least 3-4 beers each. That, combined with the frustration of the constant problems, and the immense time wasted trying to correct them, lead to a couple of very poor decisions. Forgetting them outside was 1 and the other was trying to clean them all at once instead of doing a test lens. I think the rationale behind that was everything was going wrong so could the headlight kit really make it worse?
The answer, was yes. Those got junked and the rest is history. When the condo got foreclosed we made the 1 rule of the condo “repo” which made it REALLY easy to work. We turned the whole place into production center. Vacuum forming machine/the oven instead of a couch. Band saw instead of a TV. Hell I got to paint my interior pieces with our fancy pro paintbooth. Ah the memories...
What's interesting is because we could trash the place I basically taught myself 'advanced interior fabrication techniques' (we'll call it till I can show pics) which i'm now trying to use at the dealerships to build interiors for cars on their showroom to get some cash coming in.
scshinobi, thanks man. The support from all your SC guys really says something about this community. I owe you guys one whatever it ends up being I promise it’ll be as dope as I can make it.
PS - I am for real about the book thing i’ve been thinking about it ever since you guys said suggested it. This whole thing is super tame compared to the other ****. [william shatner voice]oprah.. is.. not going to let me on her show.[/william shatner voice]
That's all I got for now.
- Sam
The resin wasn't used to make the headlights it was used to make the molds. You had to: Lay a thicker layer of resin down, let it dry, sand it down, make a test lens, cut it out, sand it down, note the area’s that needed to be raised, then start all over again. See why it took so @!#%ing long now??
This should explain everything:
The cracks happened when after hours of trying to figure out what the hell was wrong we got the molds waaay too hot and stuck them outside to let them cool down and we called it a night. I gave brian a ride home and when I got back I freakin forgot to bring them back in and in the morning.. there it was.. the plexi was wrapped around the molds and when I pulled them off the resin underneath was cracked, the other mold (the one not pictured cause it got trashed) had the top peel off like a scab. We hit it with more resin which worked for a little bit but on one of the pulls it popped like a hotdog in the microwave, which was followed by the loudest I have ever yelled ‘****’. We tried to fix that but there was no hope.
Keep in mind the ENTIRE TIME this is going on we CAN NOT FIGURE OUT how to the get little bubbles out. We were so sure it was from dust collecting we went through all these measures to keep it dust free but it kept showing up. The thing that killed it was when we had 5-6 sets with the tiny bubbles we were going to send out so people could tell us what they thought. We got this headlight reconditioning kit (which I ultimately would go on to use later at dealerships to repay the club lexus and the headlight preorders... crazy huh) so we were like “lets use it on those and see how it works”. The problem, which I will go into great detail in my book, was that after 6-8 hours days 7 days a week on an idea that isn’t working, we had consumed at least 3-4 beers each. That, combined with the frustration of the constant problems, and the immense time wasted trying to correct them, lead to a couple of very poor decisions. Forgetting them outside was 1 and the other was trying to clean them all at once instead of doing a test lens. I think the rationale behind that was everything was going wrong so could the headlight kit really make it worse?
The answer, was yes. Those got junked and the rest is history. When the condo got foreclosed we made the 1 rule of the condo “repo” which made it REALLY easy to work. We turned the whole place into production center. Vacuum forming machine/the oven instead of a couch. Band saw instead of a TV. Hell I got to paint my interior pieces with our fancy pro paintbooth. Ah the memories...
What's interesting is because we could trash the place I basically taught myself 'advanced interior fabrication techniques' (we'll call it till I can show pics) which i'm now trying to use at the dealerships to build interiors for cars on their showroom to get some cash coming in.
scshinobi, thanks man. The support from all your SC guys really says something about this community. I owe you guys one whatever it ends up being I promise it’ll be as dope as I can make it.
PS - I am for real about the book thing i’ve been thinking about it ever since you guys said suggested it. This whole thing is super tame compared to the other ****. [william shatner voice]oprah.. is.. not going to let me on her show.[/william shatner voice]
That's all I got for now.
- Sam
05-11-09, 01:07 PM
#560
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^ No thats just some normal high metallic flake gunmetal paint I used to paint my trim pieces after I sanded all the texture off of them. When I get everybody paid back i'm going to pick up some of the chrome paint to do the inside of my headlights. I am very curious as to the quality and 'chromeyness' of it. I'll post something up when I do.
05-14-09, 03:49 PM
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First set did ok it was mostly odds and ends got some refunds out of the way, the rest end in 3 days and 5 days. There's a new 12" sub, new amp, wiring kits, couple of custom airsoft guns, then I got a eastwood fender roller going up tonight along with a ton of old paintball gear. Depending on how they end up it should be enough to cover everybody. If not I have a few more items I will put up on 3 day auctions I just don't want to yet because I would really, really, prefer not to sell my grill unless I absolutely have to. The airsoft guns are custom so I don't know if i'll get high or low for them but if it's on the higher end then I won't need to sell my grill, so i'm holding out to see what they end at.
05-14-09, 04:05 PM
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05-14-09, 04:17 PM
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^ Second one.
Haha nah 3rd choice: Car grill.
My teeth are blingless and the only cooking grill I have is a little george foreman
If it cleaned itself I would use it sooo much more frequently then I do. The people i'm living with right now have the big foreman and they only clean it before they are about to use it so it stays nasty for daaaays at a time. I have watched food turn 7 different colors and textures over the course of a week its like real-time time-lapse photography. Spaghetti sauce goes starts off tasty looking, then turns dark red, then the outside/top portions begin to dry and turn super dark red, then the sauce that makes up the bottom of the pan turns this crazy deep red and shinks/cracks like a dried up desert riverbed. I'm pretty much the expert on this seeing as how I observe this happening in the time between weekly pasta nights. Pretty gross fellas i'm not going to sugar coat it. Group buy??
Haha nah 3rd choice: Car grill.
My teeth are blingless and the only cooking grill I have is a little george foreman
If it cleaned itself I would use it sooo much more frequently then I do. The people i'm living with right now have the big foreman and they only clean it before they are about to use it so it stays nasty for daaaays at a time. I have watched food turn 7 different colors and textures over the course of a week its like real-time time-lapse photography. Spaghetti sauce goes starts off tasty looking, then turns dark red, then the outside/top portions begin to dry and turn super dark red, then the sauce that makes up the bottom of the pan turns this crazy deep red and shinks/cracks like a dried up desert riverbed. I'm pretty much the expert on this seeing as how I observe this happening in the time between weekly pasta nights. Pretty gross fellas i'm not going to sugar coat it. Group buy??
05-15-09, 02:04 AM
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^ Yup! The link to our (I guess its just mine now) ebay store was posted back in the sherlock group buy when we used to sell the wheels on ebay too.
http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/topshe...Q_fromZQQ_mdoZ
I know there's somebody on here who wants that burlwood FAL, 1 of a kind ;P
http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/topshe...Q_fromZQQ_mdoZ
I know there's somebody on here who wants that burlwood FAL, 1 of a kind ;P