A "How To" section will soon follow. This will include disassembly, packing and shipping, and other questions asked.
Lens repair is becoming a viable option. Certain cracks can be fixed currently by me. Working on solutions for cracks in the lens portion. clarity is the issue.
New price is $250 to paint and polish a set of disassembled GT lenses only. An assembled set shipped will add $100 for dis assembly, cleaning, sealing and reassembly.
Customer will pay shipping and any insurances for shipping both ways.
Customer will use either Post Office, FedEx, or UPS. All local, and close for me.
Pack them like it was the last lenses in the world. I have used up several of my spare lenses due to improper packing. I also lost one to the shipper mangling the box. I just do not have enough lenses to replace all scenarios. I will pack into shipped box accordingly. Actually, I will provide all the care available, but additional packing materials may be needed, and will be added to the cost of the lenses if deemed excessive. Full details with pictures will always be made available if/when a shipping problem occurs.
Figure two weeks to a full month from the time I receive the lenses, to shipment back to the customer.
I cannot repair cracks, large chips, or damaged lenses. These are OLD. Be careful.
Take pics of your lenses before shipping. I will take pics upon receiving.
Notchie Lense Owners
I have been asked many times about refinishing sets for this crowd. I can and will polish lenses. I am not sure about pricing, but figure for a general polishing under $100. Not a set price, so shout at me what you feel is correct. Perhaps in the $150 range for a respray and polish. Shoot out some numbers, and I will work with the Notchie crowd. I have many sets of Notchie lenses, and will be working on some cleaning up, polishing, and probably creating a few custom sets for sale.
Tony
......................................................................................................... Hi all,
I have a proposition for many of you. I have recently redone a set of GT tails, and also did mine several years back following IMSA GT's thread... https://www.fiero.nl/forum/F...1/HTML/074495-2.html . An excellent writeup. Well, it seems that I know what I am doing, so I would like to offer to refinish your GT taillight lenses. I redid my own lenses several years back, and cannot be any happier with the outcome. They still are holding up quite well, and I get many comments on how good the lenses still look.
I can get started immediately. What I am thinking, is that you pay for shipping to me, and back to you. Your chioce on shipping methods. Once the lenses are in my hands, it will take several days to clean, prep, paint, and polish, and ship back. A process needs to be done in a specific order to achieve the quality that I feel comfortable sending out to you. I do not want to hack anyone's pride and joy. I am meticulous in my ways, and the final product shows this.
Pics...
Basically, I am able to turn this...
Into this...
Just this weekend, I refinished a set for a local fellow. The quality is spot on, and I feel confident about offering this to the community. Obviously, I cannot get out very dep scratches/cracks, but I can greatly improve the look of the GT lenses. Delamination is a thing of the past with this method. No longer will you or others need to look at ugly, faded, delamed lenses.
Let me know what you think. I do have one reserve set that I will be refinishing in the next week. This set will be insurance against any unforseen problems. I feel confident that you will recieve a show worthy product. If not, I would not be posting this to you. Quality is a major concern with me, and that quality will reflect back every time that you get a compliment on the lenses.
Tony
[This message has been edited by Tony Kania (edited 11-23-2015).]
How much did you charge the local fellow? BTW they really look good. I would like to have a set done depending on price. I have a extra lens PON side that has been lightly sanded and in good shape
To be honest, $250. But, he needed more than just the lense.
I am considering the $150 to $200 range for the work done. You will have to figure in the price of shipping/insurance. This does rid delamination forever. With the time, and materials involved, this seems like a fair price for basically a new and improved set of taillights. I do not want to cheat anyone, so if this does not sound fair, let me know.
With the extra set of lenses that I have, I am guaranteeing that you will be happy. I want to keep the extra set in case of any unforseen accidents. So, by sending me your units, I will be able to bring back anyones Gt taillights from near death. That, and the extra set will give you and I peace of mind knowing that you will get what you paid for.
I know that many of us need this service. Perhaps I can fill a nitch in the Fiero world?
Tony
Edit: Thanks for the compliments.
[This message has been edited by Tony Kania (edited 07-04-2012).]
Tony, Those sure look good man. If I had my 86GT still I would probably be willing to spend $150.00 to get them to look brand new like that. Now I own a nice 85GT notchback and I just got some nice tail lights in a trade deal so I cannot use your services. From the looks of the others stuff you have done to your car I would suspect these will come out nice for your customers. Good luck with this project and peace
I think $150 is a good price and I may do this if / when I have delamination starting on my GT. I would for sure be interested if you could do this to notch back lights. I want to add the "PONTIAC" lights to my cars.
I've got a set that need done for my upcoming Formula to GT conversion on my daily driver - PM me with your shipping address and price and I'll get em ready to send out. Thanks!
To be honest, I have never worked on a set of Notchie lenses. Hmmm? I could definately come up with something that looks cool. If you are interested Marine1981, send ma a PM, and we can work something out a deal that would benefit us both.
I am just going to commit here, and say that I will do these for $150. You MUST pay for the shipping to me, and return shipping back to you. Yes, I will make some money off of my work, but for what is involved, I feel strongly that I am not making a killing off of anyone.
Tony, do you restore the black area on the inside or on the outside of the lens? I'm guessing it's on the inside, but I can't really tell in your pic if the black is on the outside or not.
Tony, do you restore the black area on the inside or on the outside of the lens? I'm guessing it's on the inside, but I can't really tell in your pic if the black is on the outside or not.
The outside of the lense is painted black to match the OG lines. This alleviates any chance of future delamination. The way that I do it, the lines are crisp, and clean. There are no runs, sags, or blemishes after I am done.
The outside of the lense is painted black to match the OG lines. This alleviates any chance of future delamination. The way that I do it, the lines are crisp, and clean. There are no runs, sags, or blemishes after I am done.
Tony
If the black is on the outside , could you use body color paint in place of the black paint?
I really would like to get started on this. I feel that this is something that I can contribute to the longevity of our little mid engined wonders, and I know that many of us need this.
I am currently looking into grabbing a set of Notchie tails. I am not 100% sure what I can do with those, but expect something cool. Pricing will be worked out after I can complete a set.
I am interested in doing some custom work/lettering, and we will see where this takes me. Quality is my number one factor, and I will not let garbage leave my garage. I am a bit OCD.
Originally posted by Austrian Import: Can you mask them off, so it says something other than Pontiac?
I'm not too familiar with Fastbacks, but always thought personalized tail lamps to be a great gift idea.
It would be a bit difficult for him to do that. The 'PONTIAC' wording is on the inside of the tail lamps and is poured into the lenses. To remove it, you have to gently pry it out. Obviously prying on plastic that is twenty-five years old will have a high likelihood of leading to some sort of damage.
This process of restoration involves spraying the OUTSIDE of the lights, to cover the layer on the inside.
What you are talking about could be done, but if I were restoring these lights for people there is no way I would personally do it in fear of damaging someone's lenses.
I took mine out of storage and just need to get them packed and sent out via UPS or some other competant shipper. They actually look better than I remember.
I have been wrapped up in life as of late, but I am fully back on track. I have several PMs that I will be replying to later today, and look forward to making folks happy again.
Hopefully he is still offering these. I really enjoyed doing these for the forum members and posting the How-To, but my work was killing me and I had no more free time to take these on. I hope Tony wants to keep doing these because when they are done right, they look identical to new lenses.
I have a set or two that need this work. But at one time last year or so that he was not doing this any more. Maybe Tony can respond I know that the repaint fix is a lot of work.
He still actively posts in Totally O/T it seems. I don't know if he is offering his services to delaminate the tail lights though. You could probably PM him and ask. Or just do the work yourself following the details of IMSA's thread linked in the first post.