Roger W article on remanufactured tail lamp lens
“I’d really like a rear light”
The guy who does these may be known to some members but does his work as a hobby and prefers for his name not to be disclosed.
“One of the problems with one of my projects, a late 1960s Suzuki AS100, was that it had been missing its taillight lens since I got it.
After months of fruitless searching on ebay, I finally got a photo of the particular sort I was looking for and posted a wanted ad on a couple of vintage bike groups, including the VJMC, on facebook.It seems someone can help on this
What happened next was unlike anything I’ve come across before – ever! – and was almost beyond belief. I got a private message from a bloke to say he could make me one.
I was a bit hesitant at first because, well, if the Chinese can put all their resources into making reproduction parts, and still churn out some stuff which is barely presentable… what’s the best you can possibly expect from some bloke in a shed !!!???
The thing was, he came over as being well above-amateur (he explained how he’d made his own moulds from a good condition original) so I figured – at the price he was asking – it was probably worth a punt; in fact, I asked him to make me two.
They took a while, but he sent me progress photos to show how the job was going. This one was after the red and clear bits, which were moulded separately, had been bonded and were setting on part of the mould. They looked pretty promising.When they arrived I’d have to say I was absolutely gobsmacked!!! They were bloody perfect, indistinguishable from an original.
And then came the next bit to get me questioning reality.
I’d already got some stainless screws but they were pan-head and it was soon apparent they weren’t a good fit and that I should actually have got countersunk ones.
Hmmm, shall I just chuck those in the spares box and order some of the right ones? It’d only be another couple of quid. Hellz no… why not just see if you can countersink the ones you’ve got.
Sheesh… what sort of person (OCD sufferer or just plain tight-fisted?) does it take to spend over an hour thinking of a way to put a taper on the back of a screw head… and then another hour actually trying to do it? To which the answer would appear to be someone with time on their hands, like me.(And, with both drills counter-rotating at the same time… it actually worked)
I now have a rear light and am very happy 🙂
