Etching a logo onto rear screen glass - any advice?

Hi

Being a big stickler for originality I'd like to etch a logo onto a replacement 512TR rear screen as per the original design. OEM parts have long since gone and, of course, modern parts don't have any Ferrari markings. I've looked at glass etching kits but the problem is in getting a small enough logo template made (12mm x 21mm) - and in the rectangular design and not the shield shape.

Here in the UK this is proving an impossible task. I'd just take a template and then try the etching myself if I could.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks Mel, that will be my last option but event a printed "sticker" is difficult to have made.

 

Thanks Tim, yes I can read the gif file OK, many thanks for this. So far no printer wants to do it saying it's too small (whatever that means?). I'll keep at it for a while longer before giving up. I'd really like to do it before fitting as afterwards there'd be a high probability of messing up the interior.

Cheers

 

Got it sorted in the end chaps...

Purchased two rear screens (one as a spare as order times are are long). Got both etched (wil only work on the largest flat bed laser etchers - found two in the UK. Local Ferrari specialist fitted one and it split - didn't warn me first or offer to replace and returned car is a state. Needless to say, me (plus a couple of others) no longer customers!

Took the second one the Maranellos - perfect fitting first time (although £5K seemed a lot for a tiny rear screen

Video here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/xjxax16ba985cd3/IMG_5251.MOV?dl=0

 

Apologies, try this then:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/h8rpezytd8aibml/Ferrari%20Glass%20Etch%20IMG_5251.MOV?dl=0

 

Read my update/review video Joe. All done and no fussing around with sandbalsters,etc.

 

Understand reticence to click on links from unknows but the below is Dropbox so should be pretty safe. For ease, have now uploaded to YouTube: https://youtu.be/4gtU1dv_djM

Re table size: yes, this is the isssue. Most laser tables are too small as not made for auto glass (especially one with highly curved and pointy ends!). This one mostly used for paper/card/plastic brochure cut-outs. They were very interested when I turned up with a piece of curvy glass and delighted to take on the challenge. Took some fiddling to get it sitting right plus took 5 passes to get letters clear, being so small. I was holding my breath all the way through and very pleased with result.

 

Hi Ross, the alternatives are a label or home etching (or blank). I've done the next best thing to factory OE. In the end it comes down to how much you consider originality in a classic Ferrari. There's no way you could tell the glass didn't come out of Maranello which was my goal.

Each to their own and all that!

Cheers

 

Thanks guys.

Now that jack would work for the TR. Never seen one in the UK though (and not sure I could be bothered to create a cross-beam).

As has been noted jacking such a wide chassis on one corner only can seem to cause glass cracking (this was how I suspected the OE part to have gone in the first place). Obviously you can't be there when in a shop for servicing so I'm planning on leaving a large font notice on the top of the dash ("PLEASE DON'T JACK UP ONE CORNER ONLY - AVOIDS GLASS CRACKING!"). Call me anal - but call me!

 

Hi Mel

I took the car plus a brand new Maranello supplied etched rear screen to a respected (until then, that is) local indy. I presented the car detailed (I always like to take a car in clean and fresh - shows care). They fitted the screen then said they came in the next morning and it was cracked. Apparenly they should have warned me that customer supplied glass has no warranty - but they didn't (bet they do now).

Anyway the owner wouldn't talk to me on collection and the interior was a mess. Wouldn't refund me the cost of the glass (but waived the labour charge for this job plus looking at the alarm (which they didn't fix - I did) - said it was something like 25 hours (someone whispered in my ear that it was a lot less). Guy started saying things like well, the glass was etched which could have caused damage - yeah, right! At that stage no point in chatting further. OK, he did write off the labour cost so could have been worse.

Then I did what I should have in the first place. Took it to Maranellos. Fitted in a couple of days by an external glass expert (more like a glass techologist having met him!). Glass was from the same batch as the first I got and guess what - hasn't cracked in a year.

I told some pals and to my knowledge the guy's lost at least two Ferrari owning customers who spent their cash elsewhere (he'll probably never know). Maxim for any repair shop of course is to treat customers fairly at all times and give them the benfit of the doubt as they're your bread and butter - and they talk to each other. If he'd have done this I'd still gladly be his customer. Lesson learned.