Cally Rear Plate Surround

[fraggie]

This is my project from last year and is copied straight from another forum but i thought id share it with you all Please therefore forgive any parts that dont fully make sense

Well the background is that i wanted an irmscher rear plate surround but couldn't find one for a sane price so me and my dad decided to make one

Here goes

Well as some of you saw me and me dad had popped down to the local scrappy to get some parts to try and make our own irmscher style plate surround with a twist!

Here are the bits again


Added to that now is a small plate holder and a piece of perspex.



Todays work...

Firstly the perspex has been cut to measure to fit in the hole. The holes have also been drilled and all the measurements marked on with a marker. This is to serve as the backplate for the whole surround and to be built on.


Now we have all the measurements we have seperated all of the lights from the backs to just get the lenses alone. The mazda wasn't too bad as it just seemed to be held with some non setting mastick but the cally lights were heat welded together



Now dads been hard at work all afternoon (ive been sitting watching getting sunburnt ) and with the dremmel we now have the lenses away from the backs and ready for cutting to shape.

Also we are still looking to fit the LED strip in somewhere and hopefully the plate lights in the sides of the surround.



To bend the plastic we have a strip heater specially for plastic bending which you can just see on the right of that picture.

Thats where we have finished today so more to come soon

[fraggie]

UPDATE:

Small update for the time being, more work is going to be done tomorrow hopefully!

For now the lenses have been roughly cut and the top and bottom bits have been bent.

The different colour in the picture of the lenses are due to bits of wood behind them.

This is the general look so far...




The LED brakelight should be sunk into the bottom set of lenses when finished.

More pics tomorrow

[fraggie]

UPDATE:

Right today we have done a bit more (slowly slowly ) and we have bent the side lenses to the shape of the perspex in the middle. This is where the numberplate lights are also going to go.

There has also been some fine tuning of certain sizes of things and some sanding and generally just making sure everything will be ok.

The top and bottom battons for the middle still havent been cut to size lengthways but are the correct depth now.

Here are some more mock up pictures.






Its coming along slowly but surely, were just hoping to get everything right first time .

Hopefully some more work will be done tomorrow and more pics as usual

[fraggie]

UPDATE:

Right well todays been a good day in the progress of the project

This morning before the sun got to full strength we nipped off to maplins and got the strip led and 14 single led's.

Fuelled by trigs suggestion to make the surround light up we have the led strip for the top bar of the surround, and have also made 2 clusters of leds to go in both sides of the surround at the bottom where the brake lights are. This should give the effect of an extended brakelight hopefully

Heres the strip and led clusters (which are mounted in perspex)...




The clusters will be soldered tomorrow so there is only one wire in and out of the cluster to save room.

Also today we have pretty much finished the side sections of the surround underneath, and all they need now is a trim to the right horizontal size.

This photo shows the hole for the numberplate lights (to go in the side) and also the perspex strenghtening it and keeping it the correct level.



The middle section (darkened glass) is actually a different colour to the lights on the car so we have made some aluminium inserts to keep the light from the led clusters and the platelights coming out of the darkened section. These have been painted the same colour as the backing plastic of the normal lights so make it the same colour too
An Insert


Heres a pic of it with the platelight in the side, it wont look exactly like this but its a rough guide



Its coming along slowly but surely! hopefully it will all be done for billing for all you loverly people to see

[fraggie]

UPDATE:
Todays been a long hard slog at it and finally were getting to sticking the lenses onto the backing!

First off though the led clusters were stuck to the backing where the lenses would cover when glued.



Both side lenses were all wired up to get the wire for the top led bar, the clusters and the plate lights and then were stuck on one by one



These still arent horizontally trimmed as that will be done when its just about ready to stick on the car so we make sure they're both the right sizes

Finally today we've stuck the led bar on the top for the top brake light and we've trimmed the top bar to the proper sizes and stuck one of them on.



Tomorrow the other half will go on and the bottom bar should be done

What yall thinking so far then? This is more work than me or my dad ever envisaged but we'll be done for billing (famous last words lol)

[fraggie]

UPDATE:
Right today we've basically done as i said yesterday and all of the lenses are now glued on!

Firstly we finished gluing the second half of the top bar to complete the top row



Then we did the bottom bar fully. This included a lot of fiddling and fine filing to make the joints perfect.






Its really hard to see the joins in the middle but will be harder when its been wet and dried and polished. The epoxy is a bit thick in places so will be wet & dried down to a nice finish

Tomorrow the wiring car side will be done ready for the sticking on and the actual plate holder itself will be filed to go into the middle bit.

At the moment you can see the wires but when it goes onto the car they should disappear and the colour should change as the background will be black

Getting close now

[fraggie]

UPDATE

GUESS WHAT











Its not done yet lol! Will be done tomorrow though The weather has halted us a little bit so we havent been able to get it looking tip top!

First off today the joins were filed and all of the front has had at least 1000 grit on it rubbing it down. The rubbing down isn't totally done yet as it just needs 1200 grit and then some autosol to polish it to a nice finish

Heres dad hard at work



Heres how it looks after 1000 grit. Its really dull at the moment but the 1200 grit and the autosol will polish it up nicely!



Next the side lights were put in and plugged into the wires... see if you can spot them :P






It was then offered up to the car and the final side lines have been cut to get the horizontal size correct and the angle right too. Also the sides have been chamfered to a nice rounded finish.
Heres how it looks at the moment ready for tomorrow finishing session.



Its almost like that except now its masked off and has some grey paint on the rear of the perspex to get the top as close to the colour as possible of the lights.

Its not going to match 100% but its damned close

The car is also now wired up and the current plate light holes will be filled with some bespoke plate light holders matching the car colour and allowing the wires for the lights to pass up out of sight

Tomorrow it just needs some mastic to finish off the waterproofing, finishing the polishing and fitting to the car

Not long now!

[fraggie]

UPDATE:

DONE!!!

Now for the scrutineering / excuses / "you could have done that better"'s

Right well first heres a picture of the plate lights that go in the current plate light places and allow the wires to go down through the current plate holes to the necessary places.




We then set off polishing like we've never polished before! This was the result



Heres the pictures of it on the car... are you ready?

All lights off..






Both plate and brake...




Plate back in place



I think it looks great Its not perfect (the led clusters arent too bright in the day but hopefully will be better at night pictures to come at night hopefully) and there are a few small cracks and scratches, and the wires are quite visible at the bottom but apart from that) but its looking great

What yall think then?

[fraggie]

UPDATE (again lol):
Now the side bulbs have been replaced and the bottom wires have been hidden with some metal strip so they are like relectors too

Now they are festoon bulbs @ 21W so about blind ya





Like i said before, they aint perfect but im happy with it

(For you guys here the 12v LED clusters blew up so replaced them with 21w festoons lol)

And heres a pic of it in action at a meet in january



Unfortunately now the lower half of the two sides (the bits in front of the festoon bulbs) are starting to melt slightly through me sitting with my foot on the brake at a petrol station a while back :s, its a bit discoloured and bubbled but it still looks great from a distance lol i think for the shows the lower halves may have to be dremmeled off and replaced with new bits (and some heat protection!).


Sorry for the long read folks Hope you all like

[Steve!]

I can see an order now from CHAVTASTIC

[fraggie]

lol i aint doing it again, took a couple of weeks straight in good weather! working 6 hours a day!

[Steve!]

I bet you would for the right price!

[fraggie]

for the price i would quote you may aswell buy one

[fraggie]

any more for any more :P