how would you make a mold of headlight lense?

[thebox]

i need an idea here: i'm going to make a mold and fiberglass a piece that is the same size/shape as the lense of a stock headlight. what i have found on the internet so far is helpful, but i have yet to find something that sounds like it would work for this particular job. how would the people skilled in fiberglassing, etc. do this? i have several ideas but i don't think they are good.

[fry_81]

what do you have planned? are you doing a headlight conversion of some kind?

[Sam Baker]

well.. i've only started to play around with molds, but i know u can use this rubber-like stuff (that you cover the piece in and pop off) or you could make one out of clay, which is harder. you'd probably have to make 2 sides (for inside and outside) and put them together. would be cool i guess, but why make the housing out of fiberglass? planning on making it custom-shaped?

[MX3-Freak]

I thought about doing this...Was gonne go for the acura look, and just cut holes in the fiberglass mold. What I always did when trying to copy something in fiberglass (that I wanted to keep) was just cover the surface lightly with vasaline. Then *lighlty* tap the mat to the surface, and paint the outside of suface. Once dried, I just poped it off, cleaned the inside with a solvent (to remove all petroleom) and put a coat os two on that side.
It may not be the "correct" way, but it has always worked for me...

[mx-3xplosiv31]

another way is to get plaster of paris, mix some up in a tub (something you don't want to keep clean), then push the lense down into it, far enough to get the entire piece, but not too far or the lense will be stuck to it. Be sure to use some sort of release compound on the lense, or it won't come out of the plaster. Once the plaster dries, pull out the lense, and you have a durable mold that you can lay fiberglass into, that will be smooth on the outside, so you don't have to do a lot of finish sanding on it.

Aaron

[thebox]

Originally posted by aaron bales:
another way is to get plaster of paris, mix some up in a tub (something you don't want to keep clean), then push the lense down into it, far enough to get the entire piece, but not too far or the lense will be stuck to it. Be sure to use some sort of release compound on the lense, or it won't come out of the plaster. Once the plaster dries, pull out the lense, and you have a durable mold that you can lay fiberglass into, that will be smooth on the outside, so you don't have to do a lot of finish sanding on it.

Aaron

that is exactly what i was thinking of doing, it sounds like an easy way to make a good mold... i just wasn't sure about it. the plan is to build exactly what was said above, acura integra (1994+) style headlights using hella 90mm units that i already have. it is going to be awesome.

[thebox]

Originally posted by Sam Baker:
well.. i've only started to play around with molds, but i know u can use this rubber-like stuff (that you cover the piece in and pop off) or you could make one out of clay, which is harder. you'd probably have to make 2 sides (for inside and outside) and put them together. would be cool i guess, but why make the housing out of fiberglass? planning on making it custom-shaped?

i only need to copy the outside of the lense, making it the same external shape is the only thing i need to do the entire housing won't be fiberglass, only the "face" of it.

[Sam Baker]

hehe nvm.. read u wrong. making a lense would be an awesome project, because theres a lotta need for this and integ projectors WOO sounds good

[pyromaniac511]

CRAP!!! another of my mods being done by others. Howerver im putting integra lights in the car, I think halo h.i.d. Car goes in friday, ill get some befor pics up on my string.

[MX-3 Caper]

Just to understand this correctly, are you using the fiberglass for the whole lens? Or is it a cover over the original lens??

[pyromaniac511]

the integra headlight is 2 seperate lenses, im going to mold them into the car, when they get underway i'll post pics

[MX3-Freak]

[quote]Originally posted by MX-3 Caper:
Just to understand this correctly, are you using the fiberglass for the whole lens? Or is it a cover over the original lens?? ).

[mx-3xplosiv31]

I was thinking of molding in these headlights
<img src="http://www.rksport.com/image?product_id ... 3&size=mid" alt=" - " />
but I don't know. I can get them for free, a friend of mine is doing a conversion on his 03 cavy to the 02 front end, and then just putting the hella 90mm units in the housings.

[MX3-Freak]

Would be a lot easier to just put hellas in the mx housing...

[thebox]

[quote]Originally posted by MX3-Freak:
[quote]Originally posted by MX-3 Caper:
Just to understand this correctly, are you using the fiberglass for the whole lens? Or is it a cover over the original lens?? i also plan to add a D2S conversion to the mix when the money is right