FIERO GT TAIL LIGHT LENSES (Page 1/8)
kgoodyear MAY 16, 03:59 PM
I am sure most everyone is aware of the problems with getting the lenses for our GT's.

Recently, I did a little research on what it would cost to tool up for making these and it is running from $30 to $40 thousand just for the tooling. I quoted 100 sets as a starting point. I know there have to be a lot of Fiero owners that would like to have the crappy lenses replaced on their cars. This would make each lens sell for $400 and that would not include materials, shipping and a fair profit. That just doesn't seem doable for many of us.

Does anyone have any ideas they could put forward on this issue?

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Goody

The beauty of a solution lies in its simplicity

IMSA GT MAY 16, 05:00 PM
Right now the only way a DIY person could produce the lenses or at least the covers without going broke would be with a crystal clear resin formula. You could make a silicone mold of the outside of the lens but for resin to be stable and resist cracking, it would have to be thick so you would have to create the inner mold smaller so the resin would have a thicker area to fill in. That would give you a 1/4" thick lens. However, this creates another issue as the inner colored lenses would not fit correctly so they would have to be trimmed down to fit in the factory housing as well as the thicker outer lens cover.
Dennis LaGrua MAY 16, 06:29 PM
There is a vendor that has the tooling to make these. The Fiero GT tailight lens covers were made and sold on eBay and on this forum by someone in Washington state but I haven't seen them offered in a while. Do a search and you may be able to locate the source.

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tshark MAY 16, 07:08 PM
By all means, do a thorough search, and read why they haven't been sold for a while.
kgoodyear MAY 16, 07:37 PM
I have contacted several plastics manufacturers and at this point have not been impressed with the number of responses. The most difficult question to answer is, "How many do you want?". I suspect the engineers are probably snickering at 100 sets. It would be interesting to try and get some idea of how many COULD be sold. I would think the few reputable vendors out there are, would be happy to buy some up at wholesale prices. I won't say the financing for the initial tooling is out of the question but I don't want to be stuck with $10000 worth of lenses and a die for 30 or 40 thousand collecting dust. I have GOT to at least get my costs back and make enough to offset the cost of pulling it out of an investment. I've got to wonder what I would pay. I noticed ebay has an OEM left lens new for close to $800! Would somebody really pay that for one lens?

I've looked at the fiberglass covers and i'm not really impressed with the look.

I've seen where these lenses can be cleaned but that doesn't eliminate the delaminating, the fracturing or the holes.

We need options or some innovative ideas to figure this out. Think about it ok!
Neils88 MAY 16, 08:21 PM

quote
Originally posted by kgoodyear:

I have contacted several plastics manufacturers and at this point have not been impressed with the number of responses. The most difficult question to answer is, "How many do you want?". I suspect the engineers are probably snickering at 100 sets. It would be interesting to try and get some idea of how many COULD be sold. I would think the few reputable vendors out there are, would be happy to buy some up at wholesale prices. I won't say the financing for the initial tooling is out of the question but I don't want to be stuck with $10000 worth of lenses and a die for 30 or 40 thousand collecting dust. I have GOT to at least get my costs back and make enough to offset the cost of pulling it out of an investment. I've got to wonder what I would pay. I noticed ebay has an OEM left lens new for close to $800! Would somebody really pay that for one lens?

I've looked at the fiberglass covers and i'm not really impressed with the look.

I've seen where these lenses can be cleaned but that doesn't eliminate the delaminating, the fracturing or the holes.

We need options or some innovative ideas to figure this out. Think about it ok!



Perhaps you should start with a search on PFF about GT tail lights. This has almost become a taboo topic. Even all the "experts" on tooling and part manufacturing run screaming when people with no experience start "thinking about it"... I don't want to say that you should steer clear of this, but you should take a loooong pause before continuing.

(...but good luck if you want to head down this rabbit hole....)

EDIT: ...would people pay $800 for a lens? I paid almost $1,000 per (used) tail light lens for my build. So there are silly people who are willing to pay high prices. Just depends on their motivation.

[This message has been edited by Neils88 (edited 05-16-2017).]

kgoodyear MAY 16, 09:47 PM
Gee, what a great reason to just give up!
TXGOOD MAY 16, 10:19 PM
I love when this comes up because it always steers to the thousands of dollars that it would take to produce them.
I find it hard to believe that simple plastic forming hasn`t moved ahead enough in 30 years to allow someone to make
these lenses cheaper. Obviously, the covers that were made not long ago were pretty decent and strong with a reasonable amount
of money to produce them but the shortcoming was the business side of it which took a dive.
Neils88 MAY 16, 10:37 PM

quote
Originally posted by kgoodyear:

Gee, what a great reason to just give up!



I never said give up. I said you need to think long and hard about whether or not this is a realistic venture. Don't forget...it's not a single die, but multiple dies, for both the left and right sides. Plus materials, tools, labour. And most people won't pay a high price unless the product meets DOT specs/approval...so add this into the cost. There are a number of threads that have gone into the details.

Personally, I'd love someone to jump in and start manufacturing these again....but it just isn't likely to happen. I think you should go a different direction, like looking for ways to custom fit the tail lights from another car...one that is still readily available.
Neils88 MAY 16, 10:52 PM
You could always design and build your own CNC mill and machine aluminum dies yourself.