Wanted +2 Sidelight photo's + Sketch if possible

[pmallinson]

Hi Everyone

Back overseas but have found a company in Asia who may be interested in the re-manufacture of the +2 indicator / side light frames including chroming them etc. ( Still plodding on with the UK foundries but God its hard work and slow with only needing say 50 - 100 pair)

So obviously I have no access to them in my garage so if someone could be kind enough to do me a sketch of one with some dimensions and then pictures from all angles so I can pass on and try to get a approx costing

Your help would be much appreciated to see if I can kick start this off again, send to my email as below or post on here either way is ok

Cheers

[pmallinson]

Hi Gents

ALL assistance is as normal greatly received, the guy in China has got back to me and asked if I could get an autocad drawing of the indicator unit for him to price their manufacture from ?

So the question IS are any of you draftsmen willing to undertake this task OR does anyone know a name / email of someone at Lotus or others that would have this already ?

Just trying to get them made again you know !! They will be at cost + shipping etc as normal.


Cheers

[mikealdren]

Peter,
A couple of pics as a starter, I can take more if you want. The overall size of the light is about 18.5cm long by 9.5 cm wide. Hope it helps.

I suspect that there are no Autocad drawings as the originals in the 1960s would have been on paper (drawing film).

regards
Mike

[bcmc33]

Peter,

To do want you need for manufacture will require a fully surfaced CAD model. This can be done in AutoCad but will need the right level of equipment to trace and copy all the details from an existing part.

If it were me, I would talk nicely to a local technical college that has such facilities, and persuade them to do the job as a student training exercise.

Brian Clarke
(1972 Sprint)

[pmallinson]

Brian

Many thanks for the advice, it does make sense and is logical, HOWEVER living in Ireland and working in Vietnam 'local Tech Col" is not something that's immediately available to me

As this is such a rare and needed item I'm hoping that trowing myself at the mercy of you elan.net members will produce a good result

Mike

Thanks a lot for the pictures, I'll send them on in the hope of getting a 'ball park' estimate of cost then at least I know if its going to be worthwhile.

Everyone

FOR EASE of manufacture and to hopefully keep the cost down my plan would be to drill out the rivet type things that secure the indicator bulb holder and reflector to remove that part and also remove the sidelight bulb holder so just get the frame / mounting cast and chromed.

This would obviously mean that what YOU the buyer would get as a replacement item would require you to strip your old ones and transfer bits to the new frame ! the bulb holders are no longer available but there are some that would do as replacements if yours were beyond use and I can get these but they are not cheap at about 7 GBP each for the sidelight and 10 GBP for the indicator all + shipping from the USA

Does anyone have a problem with this approach ? It seems logical to me but then I have the idea so it would do

Thoughts and offers of assistance always appreciated

[mikealdren]

Peter,
The LH and RH lights look very similar although they are marked LH and RH which makes me suspect that there is a subtle different in the profile to suit the shape of the bodywork.

My car is bare fibreglass at the moment and I have yet to refinish the area around the lights so I?m not in a real position to judge the shape.

Does anyone know whether the new Paul Matty lights are handed?

Best wishes
Mike

[frederick]

The chrome bit is NOT handed, the bowl that the indicator bulb lives within is handed. It can be drilled out (carefully) and pop rivetted back later. Bulb holders may no longer be in production, but I found several new ones at the Beaulieu autojumble so you can still rechrome and rebuild.

Don't know if Paul Matty's are handed, but they should be at that price!

Freddie Whitelaw

[mikealdren]

Freddie,
That all makes sense because the RH/LH stamp is on the bulb holder. I wonder why they bothered, I can't see that it affects the beam pattern!!!

Regards
Mike

[Tintin]

If it were me, I would talk nicely to a local technical college that has such facilities, and persuade them to do the job as a student training exercise.

Why have a student do the job if you have a fully trained motosports engineer willing to do the job...

As I mentioned some months ago I had the same idea and talked to the foundry institute at the uni where I studied. Obviously they have the equipment to do so but it would be a small scale job, maybe ten pair to be done in the evening after day's work.

However if someone else is in a much better position to take care of the manufacturing I'd be more then pleased to do the CAD work and I have access to all sorts of 3D scanners and V5 CAD workstations - in fact I'm going to push the mouse around on one tomorrow morning again.

As my +2 came as a bare body shell now sitting on a Zetec chassis it obviously came without the side lights so if somebody would send me one I'd take care of the CAD stuff. BTW, I'm located in Germany.

Regards,



Tim

[pmallinson]

Tim

I will certainly take you up on the offer (as per the PM already sent before I read this so sorry for any errors on assumptions etc )

As I'm away till 22nd Nov and then we have friends over in Ireland and then we go to Budapest for some well earned R&R so it may be early Dec before I can get a sidelight frame minus the lamp holders sent to you (as above it was always my thought to get just the frame manufactured)

So we are all systems go (in a while) then and hopefully this Asian company can do at a reasonable cost ?

Will Be back when I have any updates that's a promise !

Cheers

[Dave-M]

Peter, Have you considered modifying the unit you are having remade to incorporate led light units.
This could be done at the design stage and would be "future proof".
Maybe originality is more important, what do you think?
Regards
Dave

[pmallinson]

Hi Dave

NO did not consider this at all, preferred to stay with originality on something so prominent on the car.

BUT as always willing to listen to popular feeling on the subject, would we want to look like a Lexus or Toyota ??

Cheers

[Dave-M]

Peter, I think you may have missed the point.
The suggetion was that you design in an led light unit to replace the handed lucas bulb holder,but incorporated in the casting you are proposing the external appearance would be identical.
Definetly not lexus.
Regards
Dave

[Tintin]

Peter, I think you may have missed the point.
The suggetion was that you design in an led light unit to replace the handed lucas bulb holder,but incorporated in the casting you are proposing the external appearance would be identical.

What would be the point of that? AFAIK the bulb sits on an extra plate anyway so it would not be necessary to change the casting, it's just a question of changing some internals....and as there are replacement bulbs available featuring LEDs anyway that would be slightly more easy.

Definetly not lexus.
Regards
Dave

Please, guys, no jokes about Toyota as I work as an engineer for exatcly this company by coincidence...


Tim

[Dave-M]

The point would be that if the led option was incorporated in the basic casting you would not have to remove the old bulb holder from the old casting and fit it into the proposed new casting.
This way a complete new unit could be supplied and not just a base casting needing the addition of the old bulb holder. The extra cost at the point of manufacture would be minimal and a ready to go unit could be supplied.
Why remove the old dodgy bulb holder which is staked/riveted in place and try to fit back to the new casting by the same method when by a simple mod to the original design you can have led side and indicator lights ready to go?
I guess I have not been explaining this very well.
Regards
Dave