I've actually got alot of experience with seperating lenses from housings. I find that the most common mistake people make is they don't remember to preheat their oven first. The just throw the taillight into the oven, and then turn the oven on which kicks the heating elements into high to get the oven up to temp. This melts the lenses. I know soo many people who have done this.

Thanks alot for the link to that removal post HotWhip. That is some great infortmation right there. It makes this project a go in my opinion. Know that the lenses are not chemically fused to the housings, and that people can reuse their existing housings will keep this affordable.

Thanks again folks. All the response here is leading me to believe this just might pan out.

 

Awesome. So you do have a set coming to you then? Sounds great. I'll be the first order whenever this gets rolling. I really appreciate you stepping up here and doing this for us. It's awesome to see a project come together that the community really wants.

 

I'm in for OCD when done! I would buy some if it turns pit

 

I'd like to see this too, might buy it if it looks good.

 

Just a freindly reminder to everyone here, please keep this 'theoretical' and talking about the actual process so we avoid the thread lockdown / deletion due to sponsoship issues.

Please, no discussion of pricing, or costs or GP's until Klearz decides when and if to become a sponsor.

 

I would definitly be in for at least 1 set if its clear honeycomb style

 

I hope a clear set of Camaro len's are in my future....

That would keep costs down for him to only provide the clear assembly and we simply apply it to our backside. Is that what I'm understanding so far?

 

Camaros are a lot harder to separate the lens from as they are plastic bonded. I'm trying to separate my old tail light for an experiment and it's a pain. A lens swap would not be at all simple.

 

Too bad we can't get a nice clear mold :/
and then have a plotted vinyl honeycomb on it

 

Guitar - Yes, we have a set on the way. Really appreciate the person stepping up ( not sure if they want to be mentioned or not )

TapProject - Maybe I'm just getting old,.. but not sure what OCD and pit are lol?

XBrandonX - Not to be cocky, but if I do it,... it will look good. It will all depend on what people want. In terms of the actual casting,.. it will be clear "everywhere". From there people will be able to paint ( or have someone ) paint the parts inside they want black, such as the area around the reverse lights and the actual honeycomb. I have a spray booth and could also do this as well ( or in any desired color ) as negotiated. With my process, the options can be endless depending on bank.

The Alchemist - Very good point, and I very much appreciate the lee-way I am allready being given here. I've susbcribed as a vendor on several forums in the past only to have it be a major bust. It certainly doesn't seem that way here if I provide a quality product. Should the project move forward and things move along,... sponsorship - vendor status is certainly in the cards. I recently did this same process with the MKII Supra forum and once the project was a success I stepped up with sponsorship.

Darrell & Sparky - Again, if those goes well with the Firebird/TA's,.. Camaro could be in the future. Housing seperation could be an issue as there aren't a ton of people who actually will want to try this mod themselves. I know from experience that chemically bonded ( or melted ) assemblies pretty much have to be cut apart. On the end user side of things, it really isn't a HUGE deal if you don't mind trashing your OEM tails. I know it seems wrong, but the smash and sand method works well. You literally take a hammer to the lenses,.. then brake as much as you can away from the housings. Then you carefully sand away any remaining chunks of lens on the housings. From there, you just use a good adhesive such as Fusor 141 to epoxy the new clear lenses in place.

Blasko - Sorry, but at least for the time being a transparent clear lens isn't going to be an option. It would make for an insane amount of work to create the prototype and then with my process... the molds will only do crystal clear transparent castings for about 20 sets before they need wet sanded and buffed inside and out. (the castings). It really just doesn't work financially unless you have money to burn.

 

probably be best if you would paint the thin black border around the entire perimeter, and reverse light section. without those areas painted black, you'll be able to see all of the mounting places between the lens and the housing, and all of the glue in those areas, which will be very unsightly.

photo auto-correct fail?

 

I kind of thought it might be like that. I figured I'd leave it open as some people may want to match body color etc. Again,.. I work with one customer at a time, one set at a time so I can tailor each set to how they want it.

 

Them clear lights are tight!
If the repo's look as good as the picture (and just like the clear lens with honeycomb picture),you can count me in for a set!L

 

In for updates and pictures

 

I just boxed up an old lense today to ship to u. I guess u dont need it?

I dont remember how I searched clear lenses and found u but im glad u took me seriously and checked out this thread.

Im a little confused now. Will they be all clear? Or will they look like the email I sent u from this thread with black honeycomb?

 

I figured given your GTO, you probably had a set of my clear front side markers on it and thats how you found me.

The lenses themselves will be cast in clear ( or smoke, or smoked red, whatever each individual wants ). From there if the customer wants the honeycomb and surrounging areas black ( or body color ), that can be done by them if they want so save a few bucks or we can do it as well. The lenses are cast from a urethane resin which is very similar in chemical composition to urethane paint systems so the adhesion and durability is great.

Again, I don't want to go into pricing or sales too much at this point as the project isn't underway yet, and again I'm not a supporting vendor yet. I'll be keeping more of the updates and sensitive info on the company facebook page until I'm actually ready to make sales here on the forum and a paying vendor.

https://www.facebook.com/#!/klearzmanufacturing

 

Nah, my son totaled my GTO last month. Got a 2002 WS6 now. I just ran across this thread somehow and googled clear lenses and bam there you were. I gotta have this.

 

Yes, the honeycomb has to be there. That is what makes the design, and it is an iconic TA symbol in my eyes.

 

The honeycomb pattern is simple to get, I know the vinyl decals are available on ebay.

What sucks, is that this doesn't seem like it'll be a good look on red cars I can definitely see it looking pretty good on any of the dark colors, or neutral/light colors, pewter/ white/ silver. But seems like it'll look bad on the bright colored cars like red/ yellow/ orange, etc

 

I PS'd those tails on the back of my car to get an idea...