A lot of good work this weekend! Radar Eye Assembly 100% Complete!

I was able to send a good few hours working in the garage today, The Radar Eye is totally complete, painted, and ready for installation!

The gameplan for today was to cut the Radar Eye Lens to fit inside the mount correctly, prep and paint both the lens and the mount, and install the lens into the mount. Easier said than done!

So Step 1 was to cut the lens, since it was too large to fit flush inside the mount. I needed to make sure the lens was completely recessed in the mount, because if not, there would be interference issue when installing the mount to the dome.

I fit up the lens into the mount, and traced out a line marking where the extra material would need to be removed. Then mounted it up in my vice and prepared to cut off the material.

There is a small tab on the edge of the bulb that I used to clamp in the vice.

I soon found out that cutting tool I was using was generating so much heat, it was actually melting the plastic at the same time it was cutting! This didn't exactly create a problem, but I had to change my approach with how I was using the cutting tool.

About 10 minutes later, I had completed the cut. I did a first rough cut, to remove most of the extra material, then did another couple passes to cut at the marked line as accurate as possible.

All in all, the part turned out near perfect. After a quick fit up in the mount, it was now time to paint the lens. The weather was finally a bit warmer today which provided a great environment for painting.

After about 3 coats, I had the consistency I was looking for in the lens. Not solid black, more of a smokey effect. One thing to note is that I painted the inside of the lens, and not the outside. By doing this, I was able to maintain the natural gloss finish of the plastic, but achieve the coloring affect I was looking for.

You can see the difference with the left image showing the inside painted surface, and the final affect for the outside.

Now that the lens is complete, I moved on to prepping the mount for painting. Because the part was 3D printed, the surface isn't really all that smooth. It's more like a "stepped" surface, so that means I needed to sand it to smooth it out.

This was definitely the most time consuming task of the day. And messy. I didn't quite get it completely smooth, but it I later found out that it was good enough. And even left a more textured look to the part that I wasn't expecting. I like it!

The paint I choose is a bit darker than the original color of the printed parts. And also has a nice sating finish.

I stepped out of the garage for a bit to spend some time with my daughter and parents, which let the paint on the mount dry. I came back a few hours later and was ready to install the lens to mount.

Just to make sure, I checked the clearances again. I must've gotten lucky, because the lens fit perfectly in the mount. I was even able to press it down into the mount to give about 1/4" of extra clearance, which would provide enough space for the glue I used to bond them together. 

Next, add in a $2 glue gun and a steady hand to put the final touch. I'm pretty sure the preload from pressing the lens into the mold (force fit) would have been enough to keep it in place, but I wanted to add the glue as a secondary method.

The glue drys pretty quickly, so it was done just as quick as I applied it. I then just had to clean up some of the extra glue, and BOOM! Finished product!

Starting to look familiar, eh???

Complete and ready for installation on the Dome. 

.... and **SPOILER ALERT**... my Dome is ordered and will be here in just a few days!