They said it couldn't be done, so I did it...

Did a quick little experiment tonight and made a set of letters out of lexan... came out pretty nice. I'd like for them to be a little more rigid so I'm going to try to bond 2 layers together.

 

Join RnagerForum.com Today!

Also...
I had to go out of town to run some errands & I got a lot of looks in the parking lots.... one woman just about tripped over her own feet as she kept looking back at my grille.
I don't think her boyfriend/whoever the guy with her was all that thrilled with her interest though unsure:

 

A CHICK magnet, now the Grille will cost double… lol.
Funny she was looking, not that chicks can’t know about trucks but to know about the Raptor and the… wait a minute, maybe she was thinking this was an indicator of something else… what size boot do you wear ??? LOL - the price goes up all the time.

Back to reality !
The layering thing, IMHO, will not work for the long haul.
Heat/Cold, temp shifts will raise hell with almost any adhesive you use, unless it is a chemical that actually melts the plastic together that might work out.
Just thinking out loud.

What thickness Lexan did you use ?

What about my stand-by metal Aluminum ?
I can see these letters polished to a great aluminum luster and there is the option of milling out the center of each leter for a color match to the truck.

I’m done !

 

LoL!
The price did just double
She wasn't even looking at my size 11 boots.

I used 1/4" thick lexan. There's a little flex to them but once they're attached to the grille they will stiffen up. I'd still like to bond 2 layers together, I've got some lexan solvent on order to see how it works.

I like the polished aluminum idea but I'll have to find a way to machine it or locate a shop where I can have them made.

The lexan should be good for painting with a silver/chrome paint to give a similar effect.

 

Grille

Would like to see of pic of the whole truck with that grille!

 

CLICKY CLICKY CLICKY

 

I’ll try to get the measurements on my 03 Honeycomb and the 04 STX today sometime, as usual busy day and I sort lag on projects.

 

add some led's now Terry

 

A little something I experimented with...

 

that grille is f****** awesome!!!!!!

 

Wow, that's a BEAUTIFUL grille!!! Well done!!! <drool>

 

that worked out amazing terry! hell, i like it better than the actual raptor grille, lol.

 

How much to make one for me?

 

Honestly, I have no idea right now...
I've got a couple guys working deals for some spare grilles, once I have at least one grille from each style I'll be able to mod one up & make a plan of attack on them :thumbsup:
Also trying a few new ideas on building the letters to hopefully cut down on the time needed to make them.

Once I have some measurements for each style grille, I'm going to scale letters to each style & possibly do a DIY kit for guys with honeycomb or billet grilles where they just need to mount the letters.

 

TEASER ALERT!

Well, I managed to work up a prototype set of led's today.

No pics as I was too tired to go back out when it got dark. :cry:

I had to use yellow/amber led's since I've been trying to get orange led's for more than 6 months now without any luck.
Good news is that they're a close match to my amber parking/turn signal bulbs (yes bulbs... I haven't got around to making myself any led's or modding my turn signals) So, I might just leave them as is for now.

 

Wow that looks amazing I'd even say it looks better then the raptor grill

 

The color is off in the pics, but in person they're almost identical to my turn signals

 

Will they match an ’03 Parkers and side lights… I will take a set… lol.

What color are they, amber ?

What lights did you get, size; if you want to share or will they be part of a lettering kit ?

Great job as always.

 

Not sure on matching the 03 lights... my corners are clear with amber bulbs (yes bulbs, I haven't had time to make any cool led mods for my turns yet).
The led color is a very close match to these bulbs They're a yellow/amber color.

They can be added to the Rapt-anger grille mod or I can make up some for you guys who just want to add 'em to your grilles too.

They're a modified strip led where each piece will need to be mounted separately with foam tape or cable ties. I attached mine to the overhanging mesh using some small black cable ties.
I already had the wiring from my old led grille oval ring so I just made a few mods to it to work with the new marker leds.

I have one extra set of the led's (actually 3 led's per light) made up now, but I need to make up some power supply/voltage regulator circuits for them.

I'm still waiting on orange led's for another version I have in mind too.

 

MORe pICS!!

Had a nice day today & moved my Hella's down onto the bumper. Not sure how I'm going to like them, but at least my grille is more visible.