Unbreakable Temp/Vent/Choke Lever Bezels at Last!!!!

The 1st dozen lever bezels are about half-machined. The shop promises I can pick them up ready for plating on May 9th. I'll be contacting some chrome plating companies next week to see how quickly they'll be able to turn them around.

I'm hoping to get fast plating turnaround on a small quantity like this so I can ship the 1st orders by the end of the week. Otherwise, it'll be about 3 weeks later as I'm going to be out of town for the following 2 weeks. If you want black, I should be able to powdercoat them & ship that week.

BTW, the 1st 6 are already spoken for, so if you want some from this batch, you should get your order in before they're gone.

Price is $90 USD/each +$6.85 USPS Priority Mail shipping, tracking & Insurance. If you buy 4, I'll eat the shipping cost. To order send eMAIL:

SUBJ: Unbreakable Lever Bezels, Qty: n
TO: [email protected]

Indicate if you want Chrome or black.

I'm waiting to see how quickly the rest of the run sells before ordering more. If he initial run sells out, then I think the next run would be available mid-late summer.

LEVER DISC KNOBS:
I've got the metal to make the mold on order. I think I may have initial production knobs in July, but this is a SWAG as I've never made an injection mold before & I've been told there's quite a learning curve.

Finally had time today to power up my injection molding machine & put it thru it's paces. Other than an obviously ageing inlet airline bursting at a kink, it went well. I didn't have a mold, nor did I know what kind of plastic was in the melt chamber. So I brought the temp up in 10 degree F increments until plastic started dripping out. I proceeded to extrude about 4 or 5 ounces of what I think was polyethylene based on appearande & melting point.

The plastic came out with flecks of some dark plastic in it, so I'm going to have to do a partial tear-down to hone the melt cylinder to get all of that old plastic residue out. Luckily I've got a flex shaft brake hone.

Would have finished it today, but turns out I don't have a 1-1/8" deep socket. A trip to Sears next week will take care of that.

I'm a lot more comfortable about putting 30 - 40 hours into making the mold now that I know the machine is sound!!!

 

Peter,
I haven't forgotten. Please wait until I start a thread saying that the 'new disc temp/vent/choke/switch lever knobs are available. Then eMAIL me (see my profile) & we'll make arrangements for me to borrow some of your knobs & see what it would take to make a mold.

 

Wow!
Have orders for 11 of the initial 12 piece production run!

There's 1 left, going, going.....

I've been talking with a local plating shop & they've said they can give 2 day turn-around, so I should ship these units out on or before Friday, 12 May.

A preliminary quote from the plating shop based on a verbal descripton of the part came in about where I was estimating. Not cheap, but not prohibitive either. I sent them a drawing & pic for a formal price quote for the initial 12, and also for larger quantities. They are also one of the larger plating shops in the area. They were hoping for a 500-1,000 piece order, but were very nice about the small quantity. Looks like I shouldn't expect there to be much economies of scale until I can find someone who wants to buy 500 or so!

Talked with a couple of other shops in MA & their prices were about the same. So given the price of gas, I think I'm going to go with the closest one. It's only about 30 min. drive from my place. The others are 45 min to an hour away.

 

Just got final pricing & schedule from the plating shop. We had a bit of a miss-communication, they thought I was wanting 'hard chrome' which is quick turn-around.

Took them a week to get back to me on 'show chrome' pricing & turn-around.

Turn-around is ~ 2 weeks, so your parts should ship around 24 or 25 May.

Pricing, even in volumes of 50 & 100 pieces, is about 2x what I've been estimating, so expect a price increase after this initial run.

Btw, 'show chrome' on Al is essentially the same as doing it over plastic. It's a complex process: polish Al, electroless zinc plate, heavy copper plate, polish Cu to a mirror finish, nickle plate, polish nickle to a mirror finish, then chrome plate.

Show chrome over white metal or steel is pretty much the same w/o the electoless zinc.

 

My machinist just delivered 14 lever bezels, instead of the 12 I ordered. He made a couple of extras in case he damaged one along the line.

So I've got 3 unsold out of this initial batch if anyone wants to get in on this run.

Will polish them tonight, then drop them off at the plating company tomorrow AM.

 

Hello Artvonne,
For this initial batch's price & ordering info, see post #28 of this thread.

I haven't finalized the production unit pricing. It looks like the final price is going to be somewhere around $120/bezel, unless I can get the numbers way up, find a lower cost plating shop, and/or find a way to significantly lower the machining cost.

 

Was up to 1:00am last night polishing these in order to have them ready for my 8:00 appointment at the plating company. I couldn't believe how long it took to put a mirror finish on 15 pieces!!! Had to use a mini DA sander & sand with 1000,1200,1500,& 2000 grit, then polish with jewler's rouge, then degrease them to get the rouge residue off. They looked great when I finally stumbled off to bed tho. Sorry, but I'll have to figure the polishing cost into the next batch, so my earlier swag for final pricing may be low.

They'll be show chrome plated in 2 weeks or less. Now I've got to remember to order the cap screws & washers that go with them, so it'll be here when they're plated.

You'll see 17 pieces in the picture. My machinist dropped off one final part late yesterday, It wasnt ready when he packed up the others to meet our agreed upon deadline.
Artvonne, let me know if you want it.

The other 2 are the original prototypes, I'm having them plated so I can show what final plated parts look like.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

The first production batch is sold out, last one was taken today!

 

DinoDriver,
To the best of my knowledge they're the same. I don't have access to a 308 GT4, but know that the entire 400 series V12s used the same ones as the newer 308s. I have no reason to believe that Ferrari changed the bezel shapes.

Which color (chrome or black) do you need?

BTW, got eMAIL from the plating company last week saying the initial run was ready for pickup, and that it cost even more than they estimated(sigh). Will post pix & ship them late this week.

 

The plated bezels are now in my bsmt, can't believe how bright the chrome is!

just need to kit them up with cap screws & washers, package & ship.

Have the next 3 evenings booked solid with customer & family activities I can't get out of(sigh). Expect to kit & pack Friday PM. So they'll go in the mail Saturday AM.

Will take a couple of pix while packageing them up & post them this weekend.

 

Ended up kitting,packing,etc. this AM, but cut it too close & missed the post office by 5 minuites. Will drop them off on my way to work Monday AM fer sure.

Am still waiting on a re-quote from the plating shop before I can set the final price.

 

They're coming USPS priority mail, Should arrive Friday, Sat. at the latest.

They're insured, so you'll have to sign for them.