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gt badge side indicators

Navara96

By Navara96,
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Navara96

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gt badge side indicators

Hi everyone,

If you are like me you will have always hated the ADR requirement of needing a side mounted indicator (it's up there with the 3rd brake light rule!), cutting holes in aluminium gtr guards to fit hideous generic indicators.... well I have hopefully came up with a solution! At the moment I have the design made and I'm working on actually creating the real deal of making a gt badge looking equivalent (as you see on every skyline) into a ADR approved side indicator. the part will be UV resistant acrylic resin to withstand the harsh sun and hopefully look similar enough to not even be noticed until it's flashing. I am hoping to sell these on if  all prototyping going well ( and may even do ones to suit specific other models) but at this stage it's just a bit of a test and I guess a gauge of interest.

the current design is based on a 32 gtr badge, same dimesions of the shield but it will stick out 14mm instead of roughly 10mm the stock badge does.

thanks for any input 

 

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Navara96 Collaborator

Navara96

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I had planned on originally 3d printing them but there are a few reasons i decided against it;

1. i want this factory sized, so I'm limited to what size/wattage globe a can use and really for it to be anything more than a dull glow in pitch black it needs to be crystal clear.

2. plastic that's UV stable isn't generally clear, and if it is it's not a standard 3D printed media.

3. 3D printing would mean either the gt coloured sections would need to be glued in separate pieces, or painted.... i don't have a steady enough hand to paint that.. so means paying someone else to.... for it to peel off after one summer worth of sun. the gt coloured parts are set inside the cast acrylic so colour shouldn't fade, glued parts can't fall out and it gives a nice smooth surface to polish :)

4. 3D printing isn't cost effective, along with it having to be a non standard media which means a specialist....who will charge like a specialist. I'm planning on selling these for <$100 a pair, the 3D printed parts will be near on that which will still need sanding (3D printers don't give a smooth surface) and painted..... more money and more time.

I'm not trying to shoot down your idea more just show I have thought about it already and I couldn't make it work haha.

thanks for your input :)

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Navara96 Collaborator

Navara96

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little bit of an update... most of the parts I need to get this underway have arrived,

the 'G' and 'T' acrylic inserts look to be the right size which is a good start - the letters aren't exactly the same size as factory but due to how the original badge is designed it looked uneven when both tiles are the same size.

my 3D printed pieces- which are going to be used to create the moulds and the tooling to hold the g/t tiles correctly while the resin sets. 

and finally the acrylic resin.

so hopefully this weekend ill get some time to sand, prime and paint the 3D printed pieces to give a nice smooth surface to make the moulds from, until then thanks for looking

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Navara96 Collaborator

Navara96

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didn't get much time over the weekend... and it's a real pain/slow to sand nylon (needed filler and 6 coats of primer to get a decent surface finish) but both parts are painted and should be able to clear coat tomorrow afternoon... then more sanding.... then hopefully making the mould! 

all going to plan I would like to do other models for stagea, s series and the different r series... but need these to work well before i get ahead of myself.

now back to making the design for the globe holder so it stays water tight and can actually light up

thanks for reading

Navara96 Collaborator

Navara96

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bit of an update.... though not a massively exciting one.

I had to redo all the painting and sanding again because nylon is a complete pain! because i'm only painting thin layers at a time it's rather hard not to sand through the paint and as soon as you touch the nylon it sort of threads ( for lack of a better term) which does not sand well and can be seen through layers of paint. But i have got there in the end with a surface finish that im happy with and currently have the main part in the solution creating a mould:3_grin:

here are a few photo's just of why i didn't 3D print the entire part and why I have wasted many hours sanding and painting a little plastic block, when you compare the surface finish straight front the printer simply isn't good enough.

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Navara96 Collaborator

Navara96

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update.....but not the good kind

the first piece out of the mould today.. and by out of the mould i mean it glued itself completely to it and i needed to cut the mould, freeze the tool and badge together and smash it with a hammer to get the tool back out. I did have photos but instead of sending them to mail I sent it to trash....not all that smart of me -__- 

It would seem though believe it or not that not everything on youtube is as easy as it seems! I know shocking. On the upside the piece that was welded to the tool actually did look pretty good, the GT pieces sat nicely and even after the hammering were still held solid inside the cast so i don't think durability will be an issue, also there were minimal air bubbles in the resin for a first attempt. So I'm not giving up, but it may be a while till the next update. I will have to find a better release agent, repair the tools and redo the mould.. so basically starting from scratch again :mage:

  • 1 month later...
Sub Boy32 Rising Star

Sub Boy32

Posted
Posted

Awesome idea!

could I make a suggestion? I've always hated the GT badges on my GTR......I think the guard badges need to be small GTR badges like they have on the R35, could you make it a scaled down version of the boot badge that the 'R' lights up?

PLYNX Mentor

PLYNX

Posted
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An excellent job so far and how much further have you gotten ?

Just a few suggestions;

Clear casting resin may well be your friend here as its used a lot in the boating and water sports industries and tinting it with a suitable transparent colorant is fairly simple.

Also a good molding silicon will allow you to cast multiple units after you have made a mold of the finished product 

  • 6 months later...
  • 1 month later...
Navara96 Collaborator

Navara96

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Sorry for the complete lack of updates on this.... it's been pushed to the back of the list for a while now. I have a few big projects happening currently... a build for racewars which is nothing but one off parts and a 1jz type x that a lot of attention (read a heap more custom parts) is going into to keep it race reliable. But I have looked into a few different options thanks to some of your suggestions and hopefully give it another shot sometime soon

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  • 2 months later...
Navara96 Collaborator

Navara96

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Hi Guys,

Bit of an update,

gave this another go... didn't work

changed some things.... didn't work

redesigned the entire thing with new tools and everything... and this is what i gotIMG_5757.JPG.ac06765f899062bd118e8923d89cb198.JPG

IMG_5760.JPG.10f86ae6f0f7dc89ce8fbe20d46a9943.JPG

Now i wouldn't get too excited but it is at least a workable piece. I have had issues the whole time with the tool not releasing after it's set no matter what i have used I just can't get it to release. So this design actually has a 3D printed transparent skeleton inside the part then the acrylic is set around that.... which of course needs elaborate brackets to keep everything in the right spot while setting inside the mould. A lot of work for something so small and unimportant!

While I am happy the part can actually be made and i can now make the bulb holder and call it 'completed' the issue still remains that the quality of the final product isn't up to scratch, around the tiles on the face there are still a lot of bubbles and because I haven't remade another mould it has deteriorated and the surface finish isn't perfect. I can fix the later easy enough make a new mould and/or sand back the surface, but the bubbles is a bit more difficult and unless i can find a practical solution that gives a better success rate i'm unlikely to make these for other people. I have enough resin to make probably another 30 of these which i will no doubt still try to do for my car but if I can't get at least 50% to set without bubbles on the front face I won't be ordering more (the resin is not cheap). 

IMG_5761.JPG.96ed3c703ccd3a0f7f9c68a6a3aaf2a7.JPG

 I will keep you updated with at least a working prototype soon and hopefully some better news on the castings

until then thanks for looking and let me know if you have any ideas!

IMG_5758.JPG

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