2nd Generation Specific 1986-1992 Discussion

Replace the FTP's or not?

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Old May 18, 2010 | 01:44 PM
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The old FTP lenses on my S5 FC are beat to hell. I'm in the process of doing the body and paint on the car and I'm trying to determine the value in spending $150+ for replacement lens or whether I should just leave them off the car.



Any thoughts/recommendations?
Old May 18, 2010 | 01:54 PM
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Originally Posted by Nemesis
The old FTP lenses on my S5 FC are beat to hell. I'm in the process of doing the body and paint on the car and I'm trying to determine the value in spending $150+ for replacement lens or whether I should just leave them off the car.



Any thoughts/recommendations?
Get some JDM units. They actually have bulbs in them.



If you leave them out it looks incomplete. To the casual observer it looks like a pair of lamps are missing.
Old May 18, 2010 | 02:54 PM
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Originally Posted by Nemesis
The old FTP lenses on my S5 FC are beat to hell. I'm in the process of doing the body and paint on the car and I'm trying to determine the value in spending $150+ for replacement lens or whether I should just leave them off the car.



Any thoughts/recommendations?


You can always sand down the lens and polish and/or clearcoat it.



Personally, I think it would be cool to hack up a stock set and rig it up with LED's.
Old May 19, 2010 | 07:48 AM
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Do you think a replacement (with LEDs of course) could be made with a piece of lexan? It'd be a shame to cut up good stock ones when they're so hard to find.
Old May 19, 2010 | 11:33 AM
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Originally Posted by Baldy
Do you think a replacement (with LEDs of course) could be made with a piece of lexan? It'd be a shame to cut up good stock ones when they're so hard to find.


Certainly. Think theres a market?
Old May 19, 2010 | 11:35 AM
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Originally Posted by mazdaspeed7
Certainly. Think theres a market?


I'd be a guinea pig.
Old May 20, 2010 | 08:57 AM
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A market for an FC part? Guffaw!! But for someone who knows what they're doing, I can't imagine it would be that difficult to make a few to order. But I'm naive like that.
Old May 20, 2010 | 12:27 PM
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I think for now we are going to try sanding/buffing/polishing the current ones and we'll see how they turn out. I'll post some before and after pictures when we get to it.



If you decide to do a test run of LED FTP lights, let me know.
Old May 21, 2010 | 03:32 AM
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Actually, I'm working on some LED driving lights right now. I just got a bunch of .5W 10mm white LEDs off Ebay, drilled mounting holes into the back of the FTP, and wired them all in parallel. For the pics they're running off of a DC power supply until I make a current limiting supply to run them off the car.



I had to sand down these FTPs a lot to get the rock chips out of them. My advice: wet sand with 400 grit to get all of the chips out, then clean up with 800 and 1500 grit wet. Finish up with a good clear plastic polish.
Old May 21, 2010 | 07:54 AM
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That's neat!



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