Home made red lenses

I have had the idea of building a model police car using odds and ends to make some of the components. The car is yet to be decided, but here is a preview of some of the red lights I'll be using. The chrome bezels are random unused custom parts from various kits. The smaller ones will be used as spot lights, and the larger ones for roof or fender-top mounted lights seen on vintage police cars. The push rod in the vice has a nice concave shape. I just take a piece of red clear parts tree plastic and hold it over a candle to soften it, then mash it into the push rod pocket. The results are below. Less pressure makes a smaller lens. The lens is easily cut off with a side cutter, and some sanding may be required to flatten the back and round out the circumference. If the plastic catches fire, the lens will have the black carbon burned into it like the one on the far right. This one could be used on a weathered car, I suppose. Just an idea, but it worked for me!

-NOW ALL I need to do is find a spare "push rod" to make the tool with!

67 Power Wagon said:

-NOW ALL I need to do is find a spare "push rod" to make the tool with!

Click to expand...

I suppose you could use something else, but the push rod was handy, so I used it. You could probably carve shapes into a piece of hard wood to make custom tail light lenses too. This would work well for the clear stuff too. I always keep the empty parts trees for misc. projects. Happy building!

Very cool by thinking outside the box.