Well as I was very very carefully removing the sail panels from my Argenta....starting to prep her for paint...I was pleasantly surprised to see that these are factory or the best reproductions i have ever seen.
So here starts my questions...Found two stickers on the back that both looked like this:
So are these factory and Lexa Mar Corp was the sub-contractor that made these for GM (Pontiac Division)?
Lexamar Corporation 100 Lexamar Drive Boyne City, MI 49712 (231) 582-3163 Plastic Fabrication Company
havent heard anyone mention this before.. i do know ive seen a few people say they could never track down the original molds etc. id be interested in a pair if they did make them and could get a run done on them (aslong as it wasnt like 500 a set.. ~300 would be my limit i guess)
Responding to fkossegi's link above and Matt's reply quoting LexMar, The reason the ink isn't available any more is because in the 80's, we used solvent based ink for printing Lexan and acrylic. UV curable inks were available at that time and we used them for some purposes. Eventually solvent based screen printing inks were phased out. There may be a few still out there. I don't know because I've been out of the business since 2000.
The UV curable inks generally tend to have a very slick finish and can cause some problems with things sticking to it, like the double side tape used for the quarter windows. Regarding Matt's comment about finding a screen printer with a vacuum forming machine, it's not necessary to have both. The two tasks can be accomplished by different vendors.
I originally became involved with vacuum formed acrylics when doing contract printing for Crystalite Embedments in Smithfield, RI. We printed and they vacu-formed the pieces. I also printed sport shoe logos like Nike, Adidas and Reebok on flat plexi and another company formed them to fit into the Slatz-Wall displays in sport shoe stores. So, it can be done and it can be done in small quantities and at a reasonable cost. Remember that when the OEM were available, even though they were produced by the thousands, they sold for an average of $215 each.
Screen printing requires that the sheets be flat and larger than the finished product when the color extends to the finished edge, as with our windows. So, screen printing would require a milling process to bring the pieces down to correct size. The milling process causes the edges to appear fogged when looking at the cross section view of the sheet, so you would need to add a polishing step to make the edges look clear. If this is done after printing, it would need to be a buffing process. If done before printing, it can be done with a flame polishing process.
So, let's bring in some new technology. Pad printing and CNC milling. The sheeting could be cut to finished size by a CNC milling machine then edge buffed or flame polished. Flame polishing is preferable because it leaves no residue like buffing. Pad printing can print all the way to the edge and can also print on curved surfaces, but may have some problems with the front curve of the fastback quarter windows. Printing then forming would be ideal. Vaccu-forming doesn't affect the printing.
Instead of casting the acrylic to size, purchase it in rectangular sheets, slightly larger than the longest and widest dimensions of the window. Step 1 would be stripping the protective liner from the side to be printed. Step 2 would be milling the piece to shape with a cupped tool that would form a rounded edge. A mirror image program would facilitate the opposite side. Step 3 would be polishing the edge. Step 4, 5, and 6 would be the printing of the Orange/Red, Silver, and Black. Different pads must be used for the black backgroud and different setups must be used for all three colors of the two sides. The piece must go through the dryer for each of these steps. Step 7 would be to vacuum form the piece. A different fixture would be needed for each side.
A run of 2000 sets, sold at $400 per window would give a gross sales return of $1,600,000. At $250 per window would return a gross sales of $1,000,000. If the windows were sold at $300 per set, would only return $600,000.
This won't work. You are proposing 3D milling of a surface using a ballnose cutter, which would require hundreds of passes and leave cusps that need to be polished out. Also, the thickness of material needed to create the correct curvature would likely require a solid piece of Lexan close to 20 mm thick- very expensive, and time consuming to machine.
I am afraid the only way to make these puppies is the old method. With that said.... I think this is an awesome alternative- after all, these windows don't do anything anyway
No, I'm not proposing milling sheet down to shape and thickness. I'm talking about the old fashioned method of buying sheets of Rohm and Haas material at or near thickness and living with that thickness. Then print the surface. The old fashioned way like I did it from 1969 til 1996. Either via screen printing or pad printing.
