Map light lenses and assemblies

quapman · Post by **quapman** » Fri Sep 03, 2010 10:03 pm

Does your molder give you any other material options? As I recall, ABS is prone to warpage, especially with heat applied (I.E.: incandescant bulb). Polycarbonate or PVC may be better alternatives.

I'll see if anyone at work has any info to lend. (We make molds, but do not mold actual parts.)

jsbrown · Post by **jsbrown** » Fri Sep 03, 2010 10:36 pm

Any info you can get would be appreciated. I'm not sure what my options are... I'll inquire about that. Any idea what the original part would've been made from and how it compares to materials today?

Thanks!
Jeff

SureGrip · Post by **SureGrip** » Tue Sep 14, 2010 5:12 pm

Wow! That is a really great looking part.

Would be a great upgrade for many people. The LED (if it looks okay) is also a great idea for eliminating the heat issue.

72V21V25 · Post by **72V21V25** » Wed Sep 15, 2010 11:10 am

I have an NOS map light if it can be used by you in any way!!

jsbrown · Post by **jsbrown** » Wed Sep 15, 2010 12:42 pm

Thank you!!! I appreciate the offer! I'll let you know if there's some aspect of the samples that I've sent that's causing the manufacturer problems or not showing detail good enough.

On the plastic types we were talking about before, it sounds like the original blank panel was ABS. The original map light assy base was PP. I'm told that the ABS is harder/stiffer and will have better resistance to heat than the original PP, so we're moving in the right direction!

jsbrown · Post by **jsbrown** » Sat Dec 18, 2010 8:24 pm

Getting closer! Got another round of protos the other day. The texturing is going thru another round to roughen it up some more, but the wiring, switch, lens, etc are there now and looking good! Should have an updated texture in about a month. You can park the switch on these in the middle just like the original ones if you want to have it off all the time too.

jsbrown · Post by **jsbrown** » Sat Dec 18, 2010 8:25 pm

Backside pic...

quapman · Post by **quapman** » Sat Dec 18, 2010 9:52 pm

Sweet!

Sorry I didn't post this earlier, but nobody at work had any more insight concerning plastic types. I should not have been surprised.

SureGrip · Post by **SureGrip** » Sat Dec 25, 2010 11:59 am

I was just going thru my pile of parts last night and just noticed that I do have one of these panels with the light...the panel itself looks straight, but as usual, the lense is all brown and fubar'd. Any chance that you would offer the parts (lense, switch, wiring) seperately? Looks great as of now!

jsbrown · Post by **jsbrown** » Sun Dec 26, 2010 8:54 pm

Just looking at doing the full assemblies at this point. Sorry.

jsbrown · Post by **jsbrown** » Thu Jan 20, 2011 12:20 am

Well, I'm not sure the extra texturing was a step in the right direction or not. I think the tough part about this piece is that even when they're "nice", they really don't LOOK nice. Almost like they were run past a beadblaster to roughen them up a bit and knock off the glossy look that the backside shows. Here's a couple pictures showing the first proto and second proto (rougher) next to a couple originals. What do folks think of this? The "sheen" seems better on the second one, but it seems too rough now. I think the texture of the first proto was technically closer to the original, but it just seems too shiny to me. Opinions?

1971SSP · Post by **1971SSP** » Fri Jan 21, 2011 4:34 am

Jeff, hats off to you!! WOW, those things look amazing! I hope you are able to make a few bucks, you deserve it. Thanks

...and I agree with you, the first one looks much closer.

72 U Boat · Post by **72 U Boat** » Sun Apr 03, 2011 3:57 pm

Jeff, Havn't heard any thing in a while, any updates on the repo map light lenses and assemblies?

jsbrown · Post by **jsbrown** » Sun Apr 03, 2011 4:18 pm

Hi,

Still chugging along, but we've ran into a snag in that there was an irreversible tooling change done when increasing the texture. The basic approach used to get the texture correct wasn't right. We're awaiting the cost of fixing this. Hopefully in the next month or two we'll have another set of samples to review. In the meantime, I've got the first (smooth) proto in my GTX with an LED array bulb and WOW does that work nice! It's actually useful to use at night with that bulb setup

Jeff

rr6pak · Post by **rr6pak** » Tue Apr 05, 2011 10:36 am

Jeff

How did you mount and what kind of LED did you install? Heck, I'll be interested in getting one from ya and get rid of the others I have stashed.

Road Runner Nest

Map light lenses and assemblies

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