How To: Ford CMP "Blitz" miscellany

[Jacques Reed]

Well, now that I am on my way to finishing off the chain boxes I will now have a place to mount the tail/stop lights.
I thought it would be a good time to revisit the red lenses for those lights.

I have some original ones which I think are made of celluloid but have substantially perished. I remember reading here on the forum that small AA Maglite red filters fit well and do the job. All well if you live in North America but in Aus they are not available individually and with a set of other bits that you must buy works out to over $80. No one seems to want to sell you four red filters and post them from the US unless you spend heaps also.

Back to drawing board, pardon the pun from this old draftsman.
I had tried red Perspex, but again, the Stymied Goddess was casting her spell. The thinnest Perspex available in Australia is 3mm which is bit thicker than original and is a lot lighter shade of red. It fits OK, though, as the internal retainer spring compensates for any thickness of the lens.
I called the Maglite distributor again and found I could buy the D and C size Maglite red filter individually so I bought a couple of them after confirming the diameter.

Using a "MacGyver" jig to hold the filter and a 1" hole saw (with the pilot drill removed!) I was able to get four tail/stop light lenses from the 7/8" diameter plug it creates as per attached photos.
Note the different shades of red: left lens- original, middle lens- Maglite, right lens- 3mm Perspex

Hope this is of some interest and I am sure there are many other ways to get the required red lenses but this may give others some ideas.

Cheers,