Goggle help

[Duscus]

I'm in the process of blueprinting out my first pair of goggles!
I've been looking at a lot of different kinds around here and Etsy/google/etc... and I've come up with a couple ideas. However, I do have a couple questions as to how to do certain things and any help would certainly be appreciated.
First, I plan on buying some vintage Wilson Safety goggles (as Stanch had directed me towards) unless anyone else has any advice that might detour me from them. Though I do enjoy the way these goggles look, I also wish to put leather on the sides, as seen in most examples I look at. My question is, do I have to buy a pair of goggles/lenses that are specifically made for this kind of wrap, or is there a way an every day average joe like myself could do it on my own?

[JingleJoe]

You could allways just buy some lenses or cut some from plastic (assuming the average joe doesnt have glass cutting tools) but leathering the sides of wilson goggles seems like the nest way to go really or you'll need to construct the whole frame which is slightly daunting even for an abnormal Joe like me

[Mr. Hatchett]

Sounds pretty easy to me!  You should be able to do it without having to buy any leatherworking tools either, if I'm remembering the way the Wilsons are built correctly.

The side shields are bolted on at the top and bottom of the lens frames, aren't they?  If so, there are a few ways you could go about doing it, some of which might even be reversible.  You could unbolt the mesh shields from the sides, lay a scrap of paper or masking tape flat inside them, trace the edges on the tape, remove the tape and cut along the lines to make a pattern.  Then you could buy some 3-4 oz. tooling leather (your local big chain craft store might have pieces big enough in a kid's craft project package, or sell scraps that big).  Lay the patterns you made on the rough sides of your scraps of leather, and then carefully cut them with a good pair of scissors.  You might even want to add a little to them here or there to improve the fit.

Once your bits are cut, get a clean wet sponge or towel, and get them good and wet.  Let them sit until they're back to their original color, but cool to the touch.  Then get a bit of PVC pipe or the edge of a ball point pen or something else that's nonmetallic, rigid and has a curved, smooth cross section and briskly rub down the edges of the leather until they've got a nice round bevel.  There are tools that are specifically designed to do this, but if you don't do any leatherwork after this there's no point buying one.

Then get an ice pick or an awl (or if you're desperate and have neither of those things, a nail might suffice) and push holes where you want the leather to screw onto your frame.  If the leather is still a little damp, that's great, but if not, wet it again, wiping up the excess water.  Wait till it's cool, but in its original color again, and then gently bend it into the shape of the curve of the lenses.  If you've got a piece of pipe or a dowel of the same diameter, you can very loosely tie the leather down to it (or if you've got some wire, very tightly to incise a nice groove in the leather).  Let it dry for a day or two.

That's about all there is to it, really.  Once the leather's dry they're ready to bolt onto the frames in the place of the old mesh shields, or if you want to fancy them up you can dye or edge stitch them.  Remember that the leather is easy to shape and stamp while it's damp.  Avoid using water that's hotter than you can comfortably handle and don't heat dry the leather, unless you want it to get hard and brittle.  Good luck!

[Duscus]

Haha, this is all some very excellent information! I don't think I could have asked for better advice.
If I do come up with any more questions, I will post them here, as well as pictures of my goggles while in progress (hopefully) and of course the completed product.

[steampunk22]

Just a helpful little hint, there are techically two 'L's in Willson so when you look online make sure you use both spellings as you will get different results. This is a surprisingly effective little trick.

Also you will want to check Bausch & Lomb, and American Optical (Sometimes abbreviated in listings as AO). Seriously, this is valuable info. Especially on eBay and other online auctions sites.