A friend of mine asked me the other day if I could spin up some adaptors for his 58 Impala Tail lights, to fit the 59 Caddy lenses properly. They have been on the car for a few years already, but only fitted 'temporarily'. <TABLE style="MARGIN: 5px; WIDTH: 164px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 168px" border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=smallfont vAlign=center align=middle></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> <TABLE style="MARGIN: 5px; WIDTH: 164px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 168px" border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=smallfont vAlign=center align=middle></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> He wanted them to mounted on some sort of plastic or Nylon. I scratched my head for a while and thought about getting some round Nylon stock and using that. But this stuff is pretty damn expensive. A little more scratching of the folicley challenged skull later and I came up with a solution 'Chopping board'. A visit to the local hardware store was in order. I found a chopping board made from white Polyethylene. 1/2inch thick 16inches long and 10 inches wide.....perfect! Once home I set about drawing out what was required. This gave me some dimensions for where I could fasten 2 layers together with some screws. I needed to know where to put the screws so that they would not interfere with the machining. <TABLE cellPadding=6 width=750><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
I did not have a hole saw big enough to rough cut the plastic, so I simply cut the pieces out square and slightly oversize. Once cut I marked the diagonals to find the centres and mark out where the screws would go. I drilled a 1/4 inch hole in the centre of all the pieces to act as a locating point. I then predrilled the screw holes into the back of the larger piece. Inserting the end of the drill to locate accurately through both large and small pieces, I then screwed the two together. Once fastened together I drilled the centre hole out to 1/2inch for the bolt. The bolt is simply to give me something to hold the whole deal in the lathe, as I only wanted to use the 3 jaw chuck. <TABLE cellPadding=6 width=750><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> <TABLE cellPadding=6 width=750><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> <TABLE cellPadding=6 width=750><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> I also tried some glues that I had around, to see if I could glue the two halves together. But nothing was able to disolve the polyethylene. <TABLE cellPadding=6 width=750><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Now it was time to get started on the spinning part of the job. The first cut was on the smaller diameter. This had to be the same as the inside dia of the lense. <TABLE cellPadding=6 width=750><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> I tried the lense on for size, to make sure there is no pressure to crack them. <TABLE cellPadding=6 width=750><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> Then onto the large dia, this has to fit inside the bezel. Like this \/ \/ \/ <TABLE cellPadding=6 width=750><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> Notice the small notch in the adaptor here /\ this is to fit around part of the casting in the bezel.
I continued at this point to get all 6 of the adaptors to the same stage, stuff up one, stuff em all up I figure! <TABLE cellPadding=6 width=750><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Back into the lathe but being held on the outside this time, so I could bore out the centres. I set up the compound slide on an angle to cut away as much as possible and not restrict the light coming out. <TABLE cellPadding=6 width=750><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> I found that a single taper from the front was going to leave too much material on the back too close to the bulb. So I turned the adaptor around in the chuck and cut a taper again fom the back. This provided better clearance from the bulb without weakening the overall finished product. <TABLE cellPadding=6 width=750><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> Then it was time for a trial fit to see how things are going to fit. <TABLE cellPadding=6 width=750><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> Things were starting to look pretty good! At this stage I once again machined all 6 to the same stage. Looking very professional! <TABLE cellPadding=6 width=750><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
All finished in the lathe, it was back to the drillpress for a bit of milling work. The back side of the adaptor needed clearance for the mounting lugs inside the bezel. So I set up a wood boring cutter and set the depth stop on the feed for a consistant cut on all 6 pieces. <TABLE cellPadding=6 width=750><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> This was pretty much the end of the machining, so it was time to light it up and see how they looked. A nice surprise was that the plastic is slightly transleucent and when the bulb was powered up the adaptor ring glowed!! <TABLE cellPadding=6 width=750><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> I am pretty happy with the way these turned out, and I hope this is of some help to someone.
I got a call from my mate that I made these for yesterday, and he is real stoked about how they are looking! Another happy customer!
The Jalopy Journal
