Before gluing the parts of the face plate together, I
had to cut out the area where the visor support would go, making sure to leave
enough of a gap for the visor itself. The visor support is made of ¾ inch MDF
while the visor is made of 1/8th inch plexi glass. Here you can see
the plexi visor which I bent on a strip heater. It’s a good idea to score the
plexi with a carbide tip to help the plexi bend where you want it to. I also
drilled holes for the screws using a drill press and filled and sanded any
imperfections.
The bump in the middle was made by pouring some plastic
casting material into a mold I made of a ½ of a small rubber ball. I only
filled the mold about 1/3rd, then cut of one edge and sanded it to
fit. A drop of ZAP holds it in place.
The ribs are all cut from 2mm styrene and are wedge
shaped from about 3mm down to 1.5mm, but this varies. I used my reference
images to locate the location and length of each rib (approximately).
The ribs on the bottom side were the hardest to do as 6
of them had to be scribed to fit the bulb shapes, I did these first. The rest
of them were pretty easy. Before gluing them down I made sure the bottom of
each rib was flat and the top edge was slightly rounded.
The ribs are all cut from 2mm styrene and are wedge
shaped from about 3mm down to 1.5mm, but this varies. I used my reference
images to locate the location and length of each rib (approximately).
The ribs on the bottom side were the hardest to do as 6
of them had to be scribed to fit the bulb shapes, I did these first. The rest
of them were pretty easy. Before gluing them down I made sure the bottom of
each rib was flat and the top edge was slightly rounded.
Some scraping was necessary after they were installed
to get them to look just right.
I built this part by
stacking up layers of styrene discs, a cone from a model rocket, styrene strips
and a wood screw. The black ring was cut on my lathe from the ABS plumbing
union used for the lens. The originals were made from a few parts taken from a
model V8 engine kit. The local hobby shop had the kit, but for $80 I chose to
make my own.
MDF is very easy to carve,
so cutting out the square indents on the face plate was pretty easy. I cut it
about an 1/8th of an inch deep then cut a piece of styrene to place
in the hole.
I found these rubber
bumpers to use for the buttons.
The parts here make up the
eye pieces, a union coupling from an irrigation supply store was shortened and
a short section of thin walled irrigation pipe was cut to fit inside the union.
A styrene disc and the turned part were then placed on top of the short piece
of pipe.
Here is the adjustment
knob (or whatever it’s supposed to be). I scratch built it from styrene.
And all the parts
together.
