Careful all, don't fall out of your armchairs with shock, I'M BACK. Been a while since I posted but been busy, busy, busy doing lots of little bits, altering other parts, making a trailer plus other non tractor boring jobs.
Now where to start since I stopped. ? More little additions first. The easiest were the lights on the fenders. 2 clear and 2 red were obtained from China, where else, for £6 including post. Hunted everywhere but these were the nearest to the size I wanted. 12/24 volt LED although non working for now. Maybe later. A printed label can be seen though the clear lens which spoils the appearance slightly. Not so obvious through the red. Back and front bonded together so not easy to remove without damage.
The front lights were worked on over approx one year, on and off. Couldn't find anything suitable on the internet. Lots of flat lenses of the right diameter but nothing convex unless I wanted to pay lots of £££'s, which I didn't. Looked at torches, cycle lights etc but again nothing suitable. Tried various ways of moulding them but not happy with the results. Then tried casting in resin using a small quantity which my son had left over from one of his projects.
What to use for a mould. First thought was to make one but looking around my garage the very thing, lots of them, were just sitting there looking at me. Sort of. Spray paint cans. The concave base was almost the correct size. A plastic ring, part of an old magnifier, fitted perfectly into the base of the can and reduced the internal diameter to the required size. The resin was mixed with it's hardener, poured, and left to set. As expected quite a few bubbles were trapped, most close to the outer curved face. These were sanded out with very fine wet and dry paper. Took a long time and finished up with an opaque surface. My son used to buff his castings up with polishing compound but while washing off the sanding sludge I noticed the lens was fairly clear while wet. Opaque again when dry. A coat of clear varnish resulted in a clear lens. Getting somewhere at last. Not perfectly perfect but after all this time, they will do.
The rims were made up from plastic sheet wrapped around a jar lid after increasing the diameter to the required size. Made oversize first then trimmed down. The inside of the outer edge was built up to form a seat for the lens. Still with me ?. The rims on the full size D-series were rubber ? speaker surrounds, probably obtained as the nearest ready made unit. Inspection of these at a show last year showed the word Speaker moulded on the outer surface. This was drawn to my attention by someone on Redsquare who was answering another members query.
Reflectors. Flat plastic discs were tried painted with silver paint. Not bad but wanted something better. More hunting on the internet using all sorts of search words, plus a few of the swearing variety, then up popped these torch reflectors. £2 the pair including post, again from, you guessed it, China. Most small items from China usually take about 14 days to the UK. The larger than required opening at the rear was altered using two plastic discs. One with a tapered edge fitted into the tapered inner edge with the other on the outer face. All bonded together using liquid plastic cement. A 12 volt car bulb fitted a hole drilled through the center. Could be made to work if needed.
The second photo shows the original flat painted reflector disc. The last is of the two discs at the rear clamped together with a nut and bolt while the cement dries. More on these lights next posting.