Kaiser Frazer Owners Club Forum
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: mbflemingkf on April 10, 2011, 10:13:41 AM
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Well, I walked for 8 hours yesterday at the HUGE 4 day Charlotte AutoFair Car Show. Was about to leave and decided to go up "one more row" of vendors. Saw a banner advertising Steering Wheel Refurbishing business. Upon closer look, found they also reproduce plastic lenses. What did I see on the table but a reproduction set of 51 F tail light lenses!!! This is the guy who reproduced 3 sets for Ben Halco before he died!!! And...he lives here about 50 miles from me here in NC!!! Small World! I asked him if he had been contacted by anyone in the KF club to which he responded "only the son of Ben Halco who wanted to know what his Dad had spent so much money on", and "some guy representing the club who tried to get a reduced price for multiple sets for a club parts fund." The lenses are being popped from a prototype mold and each one must be hand finished, therefore no multiple discounts unless a permanent mold is made.
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Wow, That is good news. It seems that this guy might be capable of reproducing several sets. How much does he get for his lens's?
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That's the biggie...what would a set cost today and do they need to be DOT approved?
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He gets $150 each. DOT approved? I would recommend the buyer check on that.
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If the lenses are top quality and don't fade the first time they are hit by the sun, then $150 seems to be a fair price to me. As far as DOT approval I don't think these cars are going to be used to run to the corner grocery.
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Mike, this is the same guy that I had been working with. He cannot do the quantity or the price that we need to make the project viable. As for DOT approval, there is no such thing for a 50+ year old lens...and would not be for these repops.
Unfortunately, the only way to get lenses made at a price that is palatable is to go offshore. At that point, however, quality issues arise...
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Jim, I certainly don't disagree with what you are saying...insofar as the Manufacturing Fund goes at present. What I said in my earlier post was that this was currently ONLY a prototype mold and that he could repop "X" sets before the mold wears out ("X" is unknown), hand finishing each one for $150 each. They looked nice to me, in fact, if I had a 51 Frazer, I'd own the set I had in my hands on Friday. That being said, I have no idea how they will do over time, fade, etc., only what he told me. He did say if he could get a perfect NOS lens, then he could make a permanent mold (no idea what the cost would be) and that the individual cost of the lens could come down. Of course, no one has a perfect NOS lens to sacrifice, so that ends that story.
When I get home tonight, I'll post the name, phone number, and web site so anyone interested can contact him directly. I have no personal interest, directly or indirectly, to get in between a club member and this item.
I know from personal experience in trying to find NOS 51F lenses, plus all of the "chat" around their difficulty in locating, someone may benefit from knowing these are out there.
Everyone please understand I am not endorsing these, only letting the chat room know they are available. As with everying else (except what you read on the internet of course) caveat emptor!
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Here's the web site with the phone number and pertinent infomation:
danddautomobilia.com (no WWW)
Don & Donna Eash
don@danddautomobilia.com
IF ANYONE GETS A SET, LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK. :)
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I had a perfect NOS lens for quite awhile. We found it in the trunk of a car my dad had for a while. When I asked parts vendors in the club what it was worth, I was told "around $200" yet when I pulled it out of my stash and showed them I really had one, none came up with the $$. Rudy fondled it for a good long time at Flagstaff in '05 but we didn't strike a deal. Another guy told me he'd take it when I mentioned I had it. I told him the price and he backed down so I put it on ebay. One day later I was made an ridiculous offer I couldn't refuse for 3 times the figure I was asking. It went to Sweden so it's not available for use as a pattern now. Kinda makes me wish I'd hung onto it but I have to admit I have some nice chrome on my car now due to selling it.
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A permanent mold will run you about $5K to get it done right. Amortized over the cost of 100 lenses adds $50 to each lens. Sort of puts them out of reach for most folks. That's why the project has stalled.
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Has anyone checked these?
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Note the comment from Ben Halco's son.
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Don't know why this post from April 2011 appeared, but remember Nell & I had these '51 lenses reproduced and announced it back on July 16, 2011 (http://kfclub.com/forum/index.php/topic,3222.msg13384.html#msg13384)
After a successful initial production run of 20, we had a second run and just sold the last set late last year. At the time we had four '51 Frazers but now have just the sedan having sold the two hard tops and the convertible.