ERIC6913
Member
Hello fellow enthusiasts!
This time I have something exciting to share with you! This project has been in the works for over one year now. How many times have you tried to find a Visi-bar that is in mint condition and come to find out when you receive it, it has minor dings in the stainless cover?! For a perfectionist like me that just isn't good enough! On the other hand, when are you gonna find a NOS Visi-bar (I have a couple NOS ones)??? Either way it's difficult to find one that is near perfect without ANY dings, dents or extra holes!
So, to solve this problem I took upon the challenge to make my own reproductions. After all, these things aren't rocket science, just a aluminum bar with stainless cover, LOL! Now, to get this cleared up from the beginning, I am not trying to reproduce the "model 11" Visi-bar. Federal offered the Visibar model "VB-1", which was just the bar itself. This way it was up to the end user to mount whatever he/she needed. Federal had a wide selection of brackets for their lights and sirens to fit the VB-1.
I started out at a metal shop that specialized in forming/bending stainless steel sheet metal. I had them make the covers out of a slightly thicker gauge metal than the original Federal ones because I wanted to get them mirror polished. In my previous experience polishing Federal Visi-bars, I noticed it was hard to keep the sheet metal from becoming "wavy". This happens because of the high heat produced during polishing. Thin metal and high heat don't mix well.
Next, I bought some square aluminum tubing at the local metal supply and took them to the machine shop. There I had the bars machined with the required holes and slots. Then I took both the bars and covers to the polisher to be mirror polished. The cover was completely polished. I only had the bottom side (exposed side where the slots are) of the bar polished.
Here are pictures of the finished products. The covers are still wrapped in the white protective plastic. Not all covers and bars are drilled yet, as the projects are still undecided. I do have two complete though, one of which is the polished one in the pictures. You will soon see this bar in one of my projects! Let me know what you think!
Thanks for looking and as always, stay tuned........!
This time I have something exciting to share with you! This project has been in the works for over one year now. How many times have you tried to find a Visi-bar that is in mint condition and come to find out when you receive it, it has minor dings in the stainless cover?! For a perfectionist like me that just isn't good enough! On the other hand, when are you gonna find a NOS Visi-bar (I have a couple NOS ones)??? Either way it's difficult to find one that is near perfect without ANY dings, dents or extra holes!
So, to solve this problem I took upon the challenge to make my own reproductions. After all, these things aren't rocket science, just a aluminum bar with stainless cover, LOL! Now, to get this cleared up from the beginning, I am not trying to reproduce the "model 11" Visi-bar. Federal offered the Visibar model "VB-1", which was just the bar itself. This way it was up to the end user to mount whatever he/she needed. Federal had a wide selection of brackets for their lights and sirens to fit the VB-1.
I started out at a metal shop that specialized in forming/bending stainless steel sheet metal. I had them make the covers out of a slightly thicker gauge metal than the original Federal ones because I wanted to get them mirror polished. In my previous experience polishing Federal Visi-bars, I noticed it was hard to keep the sheet metal from becoming "wavy". This happens because of the high heat produced during polishing. Thin metal and high heat don't mix well.
Next, I bought some square aluminum tubing at the local metal supply and took them to the machine shop. There I had the bars machined with the required holes and slots. Then I took both the bars and covers to the polisher to be mirror polished. The cover was completely polished. I only had the bottom side (exposed side where the slots are) of the bar polished.
Here are pictures of the finished products. The covers are still wrapped in the white protective plastic. Not all covers and bars are drilled yet, as the projects are still undecided. I do have two complete though, one of which is the polished one in the pictures. You will soon see this bar in one of my projects! Let me know what you think!
Thanks for looking and as always, stay tuned........!
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