Minnesota Focus Owners Club

Okay so I have been trying to get my side markers colormatched to blend into the Red on my car. I have found both Translucent and Transparent Reds the translucent I can get to match fairly close as long as I spray light coats and monitor the depth of color. The transparent is too pink on the application. Trouble is the Green LED's and the Green incandesant bulbs are way too weak to push enough light through the translucent paint. So I am trying a different method. I removed the paint from the lens, then using a thin abrasive cut off wheel I parted the lens and rear housing of the markers. The rear housing is chromed so I used steel wool to remove the chrome and scuff the underlying plastic. The rear housing has a well that the bulb sits in and I left the chrome in there and around the rim of the well so the bulb can reflect off of it. I have painted the rest of the rear housing with standard opaque duplicolor paint and will epoxy the lens back on after which I will need to polish the lenses to remove the 600 grit scratches that I made on the outside of the lens. This is my trial set, and I learned one thing that may be an issue which is to cut not at the original glue line but below it the reason I say this is because I think that having cut at the glue line the outer perimeter of the lenses are going to show a washed color and the rough underlying surface due to the surface damage done by heat while parting. The only other way I think we could get around that is to find a powdered colorant to add to the epoxy that would match the Red of the paint. When I get these together I'll take some pictures and se what you think.

Brian

i'll bet a handfull of these bad boys could power through red paint:

http://cgi.ebay.com/New-50X-Superflux-G ... dZViewItem

spots25 wrote:i'll bet a handfull of these bad boys could power through red paint:

http://cgi.ebay.com/New-50X-Superflux-G ... dZViewItem

Those are almost double, I purchased some with 10,350 mcd.

B

Pics off the car, I'll install them tomorrow and take some more pics. I can definitely see the scuff marks from the abrasive wheel but overall isn't as bad as I thought they would be. I also rubbed some paint off on the inside during reassembly, too much of a hurry to let the paint cure properly. It will be interesting to see how much the center section that is still chrome sticks out and how it will look on the car. I could paint it also if it looks off also I didn't clear coat the red either this time but I will definitely do it on the next set as one is a bit more matte internally and one is semi-gloss, clearing will make them consistent and I think look overall more professional. If you look on the perimeter of the lens you can see the scratch marks left by the abrasive wheel.

Here they are RH, LH, and pair...







Comments so far?

B

eh, I dunno about those. I don't like em. a solid red would look good though.

So you sprayed the lense?

What kind of paint are you using?

I did my chinese tails on Chromie, and you can't tell they did'nt come that way. They blend right in with the rest of the red on the taillight. I think this would be pretty easy to do on a clear set of markers. And use Green LEDs or something like. You may even have to make up a circuit board of LEd's instead of one bright bulb in the middle.

o2designs wrote:So you sprayed the lense?

What kind of paint are you using?

I did my chinese tails on Chromie, and you can't tell they did'nt come that way. They blend right in with the rest of the red on the taillight. I think this would be pretty easy to do on a clear set of markers. And use Green LEDs or something like. You may even have to make up a circuit board of LEd's instead of one bright bulb in the middle.

Originally I painted the lens and used green LEDs but couldn't get enough light output, also tried green incandesant bulbs with no luck even worse output then the LEDs. Just not enough light. The paint used was Tamiya Translucent Red made specifically for direct application to plastic and also used a Transparent Candy Apple Red by Testors after removing the Translucent paint.

After having no success I tried the above in the photos.

B

I wish I had a spare set of clear ones. I'd do a set of red ones for you...This is alot easier then some think...

Looks pretty cool. I'm interested in seeing what they look like on the car.

its probably gonna look like a smooth red face with one acne dot haha..It will look fine I'm pretty sure.

I think that it will look steller!

hey thats a cool idea, post pics when you're done

The results of the Beta test.
In the shade:
lights off

lights on


In the sun:







The next set(s) will be much more consistent and not have the marking around the perimeter.

Whats the verdict?

B

Looks good. Can you get a full side pic from a distance?

Yeah, get a good 1/4 pic of the whole car. Actually, it don't look bad. I'd still rather see the whole thing red.

If you get another set, let me borrow these from you, I'll shoot them with my red I used on my tails for free for you, and see if you like it. If you don't, it will always come off.