1966 Monaco Tail Lens Casting

[Jack-Stand]

Hello All, I've used this forum a lot, but it's taken me a while to finally join. I recently decided I'd go after one of the cheaper items on my Mopar (or so I thought), and I decided that I'd give casting my tail lenses a try. I don't have many pictures of the process as a whole, but I'll try to upload more pictures tonight and/or tomorrow.

The first lens I tried to cast was the driver side inner lens. Unfortunately my lens was damaged pretty bad, so I had to use cardboard and hot glue to effectively create the bulk material that I'll later shave down. From there, I clayed the light in, and built my mold dam around the outside. Then I was ready for my first silicone rubber pour. After that, I removed the clay from the bottom of the mold, and I got ready to pour the other half of my 2 piece mold. (One thing to note here, because I seriously screwed it up, the mold release I bought through alumilite didn't have enough separation for the rubber I was using. That being said, the sorry thing fused together, and I got to cut my first mold open.) I'm now using petroleum jelly along with the mold release for my other molds and I'm getting much better success.

The outer lens attached to this thread is the driver's side outer lens, and basically what happened is that a bubble got caught in the mold and couldn't escape. I drilled some air vent holes into the mold, and I finally got a good cast part.

I've now successfully cast both of my inner lenses, and my driver's side outer lens. The picture of the inner lens attached to this thread was my most recent success, which was my passenger side inner lens. There were a couple of minor blemish bubbles in the finish, and I still need to cut off the flashing and polish the lens, but overall I'm pretty pleased with the end result.

 

[jason99]

That's pretty darn cool. What are all the supplies you used to do this?

 

[Jack-Stand]

Basically everything came from Alumilite. I used their "Water Clear" casting resin, their High Strength 1 mold rubber, their mold clay and a few other odds and ends. One thing that was kind of rough was that I grossly underestimated how much mold rubber I was going to need. I originally ordered 10 lb, but ended up ordering another 60 just to make sure I'm covered. I'm planning on doing some other odds and ends casting types of things too. The one that comes to mind right now is taking my "500" badges off the front quarter panels of my car and turn them into interior lights. I don't know why, but I thought that'd be really cool.

 

[GJS]

The gent at the helm of this thread has a knack with this sorta thing:
My lens making thread.
Congratulations with the job there, man. I'd love to be able to do my 67 Monaco lenses one day

 

[Jack-Stand]

I actually read that thread when I was considering my options! That thread was what ultimately led me to choose alumilite vs some of the competition.

Thanks much for the props. The thing I'm most worried about with these is that the cast acrylic material yellows in UV light. I thought about clear coat, but even that may not protect them.

 

[GJS]

I actually read that thread when I was considering my options! That thread was what ultimately led me to choose alumilite vs some of the competition.

Thanks much for the props. The thing I'm most worried about with these is that the cast acrylic material yellows in UV light. I thought about clear coat, but even that may not protect them.

I filed that lens making thread under "one day when my wallet and b***s grow at least two fold" so I can't really help you with the UV issue. I'm sure @Zymurgy will pipe up at some point.

 

[Jack-Stand]

Thank you much, any and all help is welcome. If the boss (wife) says I'm OK to cast my last outer lens this evening, I'll try to get pictures from complete start to finish. I've got a friend with a big-tired Nova who's wanting to see if I can cast him a custom shifter top, so if I do that, I may add that to this.

 

[desotogeorge]

I feel sure I have NOS of these lenses but I never seriously considered reproducing them because I figured there would be no demand. Is there a demand?

 

[Zymurgy]

I actually read that thread when I was considering my options! That thread was what ultimately led me to choose alumilite vs some of the competition.

Thanks much for the props. The thing I'm most worried about with these is that the cast acrylic material yellows in UV light. I thought about clear coat, but even that may not protect them.

Yes UV yellowing will be a problem if you don't use a resin with UV protection. The good thing is it is just the end product so you an use one which has the protection. Good luck with your lens, they definitely take a lot of material for the molds

 

[Jack-Stand]

I feel sure I have NOS of these lenses but I never seriously considered reproducing them because I figured there would be no demand. Is there a demand?

Absolutely, if I had been able to track down NOS lenses, I may not have reproduced them. I remember finding (on this forum actually) someone up in Canada that was reproducing Monaco lenses. I was in college at the time, and couldn't afford $800 for a set of plastics, so I book marked the site. A few years later, and they're no longer available.

Yes UV yellowing will be a problem if you don't use a resin with UV protection. The good thing is it is just the end product so you an use one which has the protection. Good luck with your lens, they definitely take a lot of material for the molds

Do you have any suggestions as to where to find a UV stable resin? The only thing I found from Alumilite specifically is resin that's cured by UV light, not UV stable necessarily. A friend suggested clear coating them, and/or using some UV stable tint spray. Since my car is a restomod, the tint spray may be my best option since it'd hide any yellowing.

 

[Jack-Stand]

Alright, here goes nothing.

So to start off with, I heated my mold halves to 170 deg F for 30 minutes. Alumilite suggests 140-150F, but our oven only goes to 170. I would strongly suggest buying a really cheap cookie sheet from the thrift store for this project, so that you avoid ticking off the boss... (ask me how I know).

After my molds were done with their preheat, I started after my resin. One thing I learned fairly early on with this process is that I needed to premeasure my dye so that I optimized my resin pouring time (the stuff I'm using has a 15 minute open window). For my particular molds, I found that roughly 250 grams of resin (125 of A and 125 of B) was just about right to cast my molds. As far as dye goes, I found that roughly 1.5 mL to my 250g of resin got my color where I wanted it. I mixed my parts A and B, plus my dye, and I stirred the mixture, making sure to scrape the sides of the cup with the tongue depressor so that all product was thoroughly mixed.

From there, I placed my mixed resin into a vacuum chamber, and I held the resin at -30 inHg until the bubbles stopped (probably about 2 minutes or so). The vacuum chamber I'm using was a 3 gallon chamber and vacuum pump that I bought on ebay. It's cheap, but it works great for these purposes.

I then very slowly poured the resin into the awaiting preheated mold.

 

[LocuMob]

I feel sure I have NOS of these lenses but I never seriously considered reproducing them because I figured there would be no demand. Is there a demand?

For at least three of us, me, Jack-stand, and a member I can't remember their name here. I just grabbed some outers from a junkyard for the lenses, but still need outers. I was going to follow @Zymurgy's lead and mold them myself, but mine have BB holes in them.

 

[Jack-Stand]

I forgot to add that I cured the newly poured part and mold into the oven for an additional 2 hrs at 170F after I poured it. It just helps to solidify the part better.

One thing about the mold pictured, the half joint (where the mold splits) was way below the bottom of the piece I was trying to make. Soooo the resin started running out of the split and was literally flowing everywhere. At first I was not too pleased, but then I made it work for the most part. Unfortunately there was a bubble on the outer side of this lens, so it's not useable. I think I'm going to modify my mold and try again. Pictures of the part in the mold, and the part separate from the mold are attached.

 

[Jack-Stand]

For at least three of us, me, Jack-stand, and a member I can't remember their name here. I just grabbed some outers from a junkyard for the lenses, but still need outers. I was going to follow @Zymurgy's lead and mold them myself, but mine have BB holes in them.

Mine were basically jigsaw puzzles when I went to cast them, so I'm going to have to sand and polish them a bunch. If yours aren't too bad, and you're wanting to go the route like I did, I'd just fill the holes with hot glue, then sand the finished casting down to the original profile. That's how I'm doing mine. Here's a couple of pictures of the sanding process that I started on the other lenses. They'll definitely need polished and such, and they have microbubbles in them, but for my build they're perfect.

 

[LocuMob]

I haven't taken apart a light yet, but don't the rssied edges hold the chrome trim? I've only looked at the lens for a few minutes, didn't try to remove anything yet.

My inners could be made to work, if I had to. I'm still hoping to find a set of originals in very good shape. I'm prepared to shell out some.coin, as these are the cars unobtainium pieces. I have a junkyard near me I have to check, I know he has some old Mopars in there.

 

[Jack-Stand]

I haven't taken apart a light yet, but don't the rssied edges hold the chrome trim? I've only looked at the lens for a few minutes, didn't try to remove anything yet.

My inners could be made to work, if I had to. I'm still hoping to find a set of originals in very good shape. I'm prepared to shell out some.coin, as these are the cars unobtainium pieces. I have a junkyard near me I have to check, I know he has some old Mopars in there.

You mean the raised edges that are in the middle of the lense? When the originals were cast/made, the inner silver piece was riveted through the light, and it's solid chrome plated pot metal. I'm planning on deleting the chrome on the lights themselves and only keeping the exterior trims (although they'll be painted). The only reason my cast parts had raised ridges was because I didn't bother to pull the chrome things off before I poured the mold rubber. My lenses were too brittle to try to remove them. If you or anyone else wants the inner chrome pieces from mine, send me a PM and we can chat.

I'm right there with you, that's why I finally went this route. I was ready to spend the $800 on the plastics, but then I couldn't find the sorry things anymore. There's a ton of stuff on these cars that just plain aren't available, so that's why I'm going the resto-mod route. It wasn't numbers matching before, so now it's just going to be a really cool street machine.

 

[LocuMob]

@rd92west this might interest you.

 

[66dartsguy]

For anyone's information, Layson's Restoration offers 66 Monaco repro tail light lenses, for number of years now. Does not have the chrome pieces on them, have to re-use one's old ones.Excellent work on your cast process, however! I have a couple of 66 Monacos myself.

 

[Zymurgy]

The Smooth on products have a Crystal Clear product that has UV protection. It will have tiny bubbles if you don't put it in a pressure pot. Crystal Clear™ 200 Product Information

If you are just doing it for yourself it would be cheaper to have a back up set and switch them out when they fade and or become brittle.

 

[67polara]

great thread. following.