lunarkingdom

1 hour ago, Reza Taheri said:

So I can just bend these tabs and swing it out? That was my gut feeling, but the metal is thick and it made me pause. 

No, you need to pull it out to the right. See modified picture below

If it does not work out for FunElan I can come get it I live in Ventura, mine got a couple holes in it from the local kids and a BB gun before I bought it and it is the last thing I need to make the interior watertight.

Hey Mike if you dont get one sorted message me I have one in storage thats not the best but that could be used to take dimensions and stuff. I dont want to pull it out and ship it but I will if you hit a dead end I would probably charge you shipping to do so though and I won't be down there for at least 2 to 6 weeks. Just throwing it out there as a plan B. I dont need it I deleted my sunroof.

Cheers,

Rick.

Check your PM's I just messaged you about another part.

How much for the license plate light gaskets shipped to 93436? Whats your PayPal email address?

Thank you thats was easy and affordable just ordered one pair.

I have a stock tachometer that the tip of the needle broke off, can someone sell me a spare one? See picture below.

Thanks!

On 3/22/2024 at 9:56 AM, Mike Self said:

Is your current one completely broken or is there a problem with it either not canceling after turn completion, or not staying in the on position when you select a left or right turn.  If so, it may be repairable.  i did a column on repairing those things; PM me if you'd like a copy.

 

mike

Hey Mike can I get a copy of that as well? Mine is broken and looks fixable.

Email sent.

Well I am glad I put this out there, I got my answer loud and clear. Good to know before I spent too much money. 

On 10/23/2023 at 4:03 PM, OldRoller said:

The brushed aluminum rings are from Dido Tuning on Ebay. 

Thanks for the tip, just ordered me a set, yours are beautiful!

28 minutes ago, Dudeland said:

Who makes these? 

 

Ireland Engineering thus the IE in the post title 😉

Hey guys,

I talked to the casting company today and I was given some options but I need to see what everyone wants. I have a couple milestones I want to achieve first BUT I cant do them until I get the first castings as I only have one left and one right lens to make the molds from.

One kit = 2 Cast Euro lenses, 4 barrel rivets and 2 pieces of rivet tooling (for installing the rivets properly and a backup just in case)

My "to do" list after first run of casting but before I make any sales:

1) Figure out repeatable kit tooling for installing barrel rivets.
2) Figure out best bonding procedure for attaching lenses to your USA frames.
3) Figure out how to convert USA style turn signal light receptacle (inner piece) to convert so it fits under euro lens.
4) Show a couple of cheap ways to add 2 wire sequential/solid LED PCB's for the advanced DIY type consumer.
5) Compile and publish instructional documentation with pictures for 1-4 here on 2002FAQ message boards.

What I want to hear from you:

1) What do you want more? Amber, Clear or Smoked? Respond with first choice/second choice.
2) I have to pay a LOT for tooling, would you be willing to pay $80.00 USD for one of the first 100 kits (one kit contents described above) and $70.00 USD for the next batch of 100 kits IF demand is there for a second round? I have to commit to 100 pairs per order to get the price down, there is also no significant savings going higher than 100 pairs.
3) Will you be willing to send as friends and family ONLY on PayPal? I can not accept any payments for goods and services for these "hand made parts" as I am only going to be paid for my time doing this and at a lower rate then I do at my real job. I will have to refund every order with a PayPal payment that is "for goods and services".
4) Once I have 1-5 from my "to do" list done and posted on this forum AND I take delivery of the first 100 pairs of lenses that pass QA I will post a thread in the for sale section. Once I do they will be sold by PM only. You send me a PM of what you want, I approve that they are in stock ready to ship and you then pay as "friends and family" through PayPal and your order all ship out within 5 days of receiving your payment.  My original for sale post. will be updated once a day to reflect how many kits of each kind are left until they are gone. Does this sound acceptable to you?

Copy paste text below and change to what your answers are:

1) Amber/Clear/Smoked (pick 2, first choice first, second choice second)
2) Willing to pay $80.00 for first 100 pairs and $70.00 for second 100 pairs if market is still hungry for round 2?
3) Send payment "Friends and Family" only on PayPal? Yes/no
4) Approve of my selling format on 2002FAQ For Sale forums? Yes/No
5) Any other questions you might have place here please.

Thank you all for your input it is appreciated.

Some repeat pictures for you guys from my other thread of my first batch of lenses:

PM'ed you.

PM'ed you.

Nice price!

9 hours ago, visionaut said:

Unless folks also swap the internal frames ya can’t make a flat Euro lens fit a bulging USA signal light frame…  The USA bulging lenses have frames with bulb reflectors that protrude and will foul the fiat lens. See pic.

 

Cool for folks that already have Euro frames tho’.

 

I already bought a cheap pair of dual mode solid/sequential led turn signal lights that I have gutted and the PCB just barely fits inside, there are more I can buy and try and I am sure it is easy to remove the old fitting and put a new bulb socket in there without much effort. I even have a pair of stock bulbous ones laying around I bet you I can A pop out the plastic pillars that are melted into the two holes (guessing for now) B cut off the extra reflector ear and C push the socket in the 3/4 inches it needs to clear the lens.  I will post more as I figure it out.

46 minutes ago, Mike Self said:

If you haven't already discovered them, the ferrules used to cover the ends of rigid small diameter plastic tubing that's used to adapt the tubing to compression fittings.  Your hardware store should have 5/16 compression fitting kits for plastic tubing.  They have brass sleeves (meant to internally reinforce the plastic tubing) that work perfectly.  You should be able to buy those sleeves in bulk from a supplier like Grainger--and you'll also need the little steel spacers that keep the lenses from cracking when you tighten the screws.  I made new ones from small slices of ¼” OD, 3/16 ID copper tubing.

 

Lenses look very good, BTW--a little fine rubbing compound or the mild abrasive that comes in those headlight lens polishing kits and the outer side of the lens will look perfect.

 

Keep us posted on the project's progress.

 

mike

 

PS--you do know that the round tail lights are made from a half dozen separate plastic pieces...a much more complicated process to reproduce.

The ones I bought are for making Kydex holsters and are black oxide coated brass (pictures below) and are 3/16 OD, I am going to see if I can get some O rings (to test I won't know if they work until I try it) to put on the side with the flange on it behind the lens to act as a stand off for the light frame while the now crimped rivet will then act as the spacer for the screw when screwed in (again if it works). Two of the 6 pieces I have now are blemished and I will use them for the preliminary testing and tooling. If not I will buy or make some spacers although those spacers can be salvaged when you disassemble your turn signals too.

The reason I suggested doing round taillights whole is for that very reason. They also have that little chrome piece around the center light which I will probably not have on the final product if I ever get that far as to mess with them, I happen to have 3 sets of lenses for my car as I came upon some great deals I could not pass up (thanks guys) so I have 2 extra sets to play with. Might not be possible. I might opt to leave out the inner diffusers and just add some diffusion material and maybe make a PCB for an LED array or something fun lol.

Thanks for the tips, it is good to hear my 10 dollar calipers gave me the same measurement you got on the first try. I appreciate your insight, thank you!

1 hour ago, kbmb02 said:

They’d certainly work for my race cars (‘turn signals’ take a beating) - I’d take a few sets, even samples. -KB

This is why I am doing them, I am hoping they are cheap enough that if one of them falls off for whatever reason you can slap another one on when you get home type of thing. These will need to be glued in, I have to research what kind of glue to use it has to be clear so it will not make a colored ring on the back of the light. Silicone would probably work but I want to find something more permeant probably from the marine world (I live on my boat) so it will be a stronger bond. 

3 hours ago, stephers said:

Very nice, I would be up for a couple of sets          How hard to put in the barrel rivets?

 

Thanks, Rick

TBD I have some barrel rivets in hand that I ordered that need to be tested, they are flared/crimped on one side and just need the other side flared so I need to go to my local fasteners shop and get a few different sized flathead screws with washers and nuts to test it out. The flathead screw is flat on top and tapered from the top to the threads and they sell a couple different angles. If it turns out like I think it will you will need an Allen wrench and a small nut driver or socket to crimp the flanges in. When taking the old lenses off of the USA style bulbous turn signals you have to drill the old rivets out so you can remove the inner light mount and gain access to cut the old lens out around the rivet holes so you don't damage the housing when removing it. I will figure this out later though I need to focus on working out the cost and lead time for the lenses. Honestly you don't have to rivet the inner light frame back in, the screws and spacers will hold it together but I thought it would be a nice touch to be able to put them back in.

Just now, popovm said:

Love this. I love any solution that refurbs original parts. Any idea if they can do multiple colors in the same lens, i.e. the Italian 2002 turn signals that are part orange, part clear? 

I will inquire but I kind of doubt it. They made everything by hand for the first run. When I asked about volume the answers they gave me kind of made me think they would continue to make everything by hand and just throw away any ones that did not turn out ok. I really want to stick to yellow, clear and maybe smoked but I still have to find out what they are willing to do. 

Just now, HobieDog said:

Whoa!  
 

Awesome and a really smart idea!  You’re going to kill the used market value on these 😂.  I have a set of pretty tired euro lenses and would love to get replacements.  Great work!

I doubt I will kill the market these are not perfect BUT they are good enough and hopefully cheap enough for hobbyists to fix and swap out their own for very decent looking ones on a budget. Thats the goal anyways, thanks for the kind words! I was originally going to just do this for mine but I found a local shop that seems reasonable and they did an awesome job so far, crossing my fingers.

Hey,

I bought some euro turn signals a while ago and the chrome parts were trashed. I had a set of USA style bubble turn signals with nice quality chrome so I decided to try and do a swap. About 15 minutes into this I realized the lenses were cast over the chrome part of the turn signal so given that my chrome pieces were trash I decided to spend a few hours with a dremal, some files, sand paper and some careful work and I extracted my lenses by cutting the frame into pieces while also slowly removing the inner lip of the cast in lenses. The result was I got a set of lenses I could take to a shop to have them cast. This is the first run and while they are not perfect in any way I am pleased with how they came out. The original lenses were brittle and died during extraction from the molds but the purpose was to make decent ones to re-cast for a larger run which I think these will work well for. I have to talk to them about quantity/new mold/cost per pair as well as what colors I can have made but check it out below and tell me what you think. I forgot what material he used but it is UV resistant like regular taillights. Please do not ask about price I have no idea yet but my goal was to make an easy to use kit to turn your USA bubble turn signals into Euro ones. I also want clear lenses made. I am toying with having the round taillights made in clear and possibly some other colors but that's a whole other ball of wax and would only be if these work out. I have worked out a way to put in new barrel rivets but I still have to test the tooling for the kits to make sure it works good and easy enough for anyone to do it.

How do they look?

😉

Make sure you drill out those 2 welded up holes on the lower frame rail they are to mount the bumper brackets on 73 and below bumpers. When they put those two boat anchors on top they welded up the holes for the previous bumpers.

Just ordered 2 sets from link provided for 50 bucks with shipping, what a steal!