turbocad's custom fx
- Thread starter turbocad6
- Start date
I've tried that plastic styrene for the corners but I'm not thrilled with it, it does the job but looks kinda cheap to me, been playing withy a few alternatives, in the end those just look like something made from home depot, not 100% thrilled with that but it does the job & don't look too bad really 
bert, what's up? you want a set I may wind up with a few sets to sell eventually, I do love playing with this stuff but I got so many headlights & tailights that I gotta do something to try & recoupe some of my costs eventually. to build & sell the real deal motorized dual bi-zenons wouldn't be too practical or cost effective, but these wouldn't be priced too outrageous, a nice alternative to angel eyes I think don't know if you'll ever see them out west...
bert, what's up? you want a set
I may wind up with a few sets to sell eventually, I do love playing with this stuff but I got so many headlights & tailights that I gotta do something to try & recoupe some of my costs eventually. to build & sell the real deal motorized dual bi-zenons wouldn't be too practical or cost effective, but these wouldn't be priced too outrageous, a nice alternative to angel eyes I think don't know if you'll ever see them out west...
++++1
thanks bro, I love working on my fx
speaking of which, I decided I'm going to build a simpler blacked out set of taillights for now, till I wind up building a full custom set. eventually I want to build a set of custom lights that are similar to the SLR taillights, but that will probably take me a while to get too so I want taillights that are at least a little custom for now....
these are simple in that they take no fabrication, but they are a lot of work & a major pain in the ass because the seem that you have to cut to open these is visible, so after it's cut it takes a lot of work to get all the chopped edge to look perfect again on both the light and the lens before they can be sealed back up together, even that's an issue because the sealer will be visible too, tedious to get right... I'm practicing a few different techniques with a few sets of lights, different ways of cutting them open, from a dremel to a soldering iron..., trying to come up with the best way to do these & make them look perfect.
those inners started out as red inners, so even after removing all the red & blacking it out, the lens itself turns out that it still has a very slight rose tint to it. I wanted to start out with these red ones for testing cause there cheap & plentiful, but the clear sport inners are what will actually be used for the final set to be a perfect match though.
one thing is this slight rose tint looks pretty sweet. it makes the black look even richer, it does not look anything like normal red taillights at all cause it's just a very slight tint, they still look black but the slight rose tint give them a very rich & finished look. think I'm going to try a full set of outers like this blacked out with clear lenses with a slight rose tint...
speaking of which, I decided I'm going to build a simpler blacked out set of taillights for now, till I wind up building a full custom set. eventually I want to build a set of custom lights that are similar to the SLR taillights, but that will probably take me a while to get too so I want taillights that are at least a little custom for now....
these are simple in that they take no fabrication, but they are a lot of work & a major pain in the ass because the seem that you have to cut to open these is visible, so after it's cut it takes a lot of work to get all the chopped edge to look perfect again on both the light and the lens before they can be sealed back up together, even that's an issue because the sealer will be visible too, tedious to get right... I'm practicing a few different techniques with a few sets of lights, different ways of cutting them open, from a dremel to a soldering iron..., trying to come up with the best way to do these & make them look perfect.
those inners started out as red inners, so even after removing all the red & blacking it out, the lens itself turns out that it still has a very slight rose tint to it. I wanted to start out with these red ones for testing cause there cheap & plentiful, but the clear sport inners are what will actually be used for the final set to be a perfect match though.
one thing is this slight rose tint looks pretty sweet. it makes the black look even richer, it does not look anything like normal red taillights at all cause it's just a very slight tint, they still look black but the slight rose tint give them a very rich & finished look. think I'm going to try a full set of outers like this blacked out with clear lenses with a slight rose tint...
the beedy eye reverse is to match with chrome rings around the headlights I guess... figured it'll match. this chrome is a bitch to work with, it has no adheision at all to the lights, just taping them up, when the tape is removed it lifts spots of the chrome right off... all of my chrome tape ups so far have had at least minimal chrome loosing spots... gotta come up with a better way of taping to get this chrome ring stuff perfect, got a few things in mind & I'm sure I can eventually get it perfect...
I wanted to do chrome rings on my lights so I figured chrome rings out back too but now I'm second guessing too, might look better just all blacked out, either way there is chrome all the way to the inside bulb shield hole, I think that should at least be left chrome to reflect more light but it might look better even all blacked out completely to the inside too...
I wanted to do chrome rings on my lights so I figured chrome rings out back too but now I'm second guessing too, might look better just all blacked out, either way there is chrome all the way to the inside bulb shield hole, I think that should at least be left chrome to reflect more light but it might look better even all blacked out completely to the inside too...
Dunno . . I never liked that circular area masked out. Looks a bit rice to me.
While the side LEDs are a swwet design, I really dislike the reverse cross eyed rounds. That's why I bat'd them out first chance I could. Now they're painted, . . but you already knew that. What I really like what you have going is that you retained the Terminator LED holes by not painting or tinting the covers. Sooo sweet.
I would for sure go gloss black on that & not the satin finish that it appears to be here in these photos.
While the side LEDs are a swwet design, I really dislike the reverse cross eyed rounds. That's why I bat'd them out first chance I could. Now they're painted, . . but you already knew that. What I really like what you have going is that you retained the Terminator LED holes by not painting or tinting the covers. Sooo sweet.
I would for sure go gloss black on that & not the satin finish that it appears to be here in these photos.
I have another set that I did in gloss, I'll show you that when I get a pic of it. funny thing is the tails look better in gloss but the headlights look better in matte or semi gloss... I think the tails look like they need a slight tint to me, they look a little naked, maybe they'll look better with the white reflector tinted a little ...
that slight rose tint looks really good to me. it makes the black look better I think, maybe a bit hard to see in shots, but the inners with the slight tint look so much better than the outers, the outers almost look naked in comparison, it gives it a look almost like it's a polarized lens or something... kinda like the Gage cluster on the Porsche Cayenne turbo... it has a slight rose tint to the glass over it & it looks wild, you don't really see a rose color to it, but you do see the rose tint slightly on the glare spots or highlights, hard to explain... I'm going to start playing with color tinting & see what I can do, but I think I'll do mine with that rose tint..., then It'll be looking at the world through rose colored glasses
that slight rose tint looks really good to me. it makes the black look better I think, maybe a bit hard to see in shots, but the inners with the slight tint look so much better than the outers, the outers almost look naked in comparison, it gives it a look almost like it's a polarized lens or something... kinda like the Gage cluster on the Porsche Cayenne turbo... it has a slight rose tint to the glass over it & it looks wild, you don't really see a rose color to it, but you do see the rose tint slightly on the glare spots or highlights, hard to explain... I'm going to start playing with color tinting & see what I can do, but I think I'll do mine with that rose tint..., then It'll be looking at the world through rose colored glasses
shralp, I'm sorry, but I really wouldn't want to sell it, I need to keep it to validate the actual miles on this fx if I ever go to sell it, which is one reason I hesitate to butcher it to take out the radar sensor display, but the earlier clusters do pop up on ebay from time to time at around $75-$125 or so... I'll keep an eye out for you. I've also got ideas of later on adding an lcd to the cluster taking the place of the tach & speedo, so I may wind up having to do that with my original too...
on the earlier clusters, there are bulbs that are easily accessed from behind, if your only problem is the lighting couldn't you just wire up your own circuit for leds? if your display has the radar cruise & you do find a replacement, I'd be interested in buying your damaged one
oh, also, I just realized that I never put the pdf up here for the templates for the mirror cuts, I'll get a seperate thread up with those details soon
Turbo
How much for this mod? Thanks
I think I would have to find some extra covers.