The Jupiter Factory Lite

After wearing many styles of Oakley shades over the years, I consider the Jupiter Factory Lite to be arguably one of the best pairs of sunglasses ever made. Unfortunately, Oakley offered only a handful of frame and lens color choices during its production. Over the last 10 years I have customized countless pairs through chemical stripping, polishing, etching and more.

How many frogs do you see on this page?

4 Styles Unlimited Possibility’s

Oakley C-Six

Links

oakleyforum.com

o-review.com

Oakley & The JFL

Aluminum orbitals, titanium hinges, carbon-fiber arms, rubber contact points, the JFL was ahead of its time. Crafted in a classic Wayfarer design, combined with unearthly materials, Oakley was fallowing the recipe that made them industry leaders with these sunglasses.

Introduced as a high end option for the Jupiter Squared in 2012, the retail price for a non-polarized pair cost a whopping 280$. With only four color choices, consumers like me showed interest, but the design was changed relatively quickly into the Jupiter Carbon. The only differences in the design was a downgrade of the orbitals to plastic and the size of the frame was increased by a hair. Oakley then turned around and asked the same price for the Jupiter Carbons making it clear that the demise of the JFL was the production cost regarding a machined aluminum frame. That, and the fact more color options were available with the all plastic Jupiter Squared.

JFL in Full Metal Jacket

Simple tools and basic supplies are really all it takes to customize these sunglasses. One of my favorite things to do with the matte aluminum frames is polish them to a high mirror shine. This is a process I have never seen anyone do before so I really rolled the dice the first time I tried it. It takes some serous nerve rubbing steel wool on a already beautiful aluminum frame. The hardest part is really the amount of time it takes to remove the lines left by the machining process which are much deeper than they appear. After multiple grits, buffing wheels and final polish of the frame and icons, I add a set of hand cut Oakley Chrome Iridium lenses. The final process yields a Full Metal Jacket in a Jupiter Factory Lite. Not bad considering Oakley would then turn around and manufacture a small number or sunglasses called the C-Six. Slightly more flashy than the Jupiter Factory Lite but still the same principled design and considering the cost of over $1500 I’ll just stick to modifying my JLF’s

More Modifications & Customization

I offer these services in my spare time. Please understand if my response is delayed.

  • Oakley lens cutting
  • Icon refinishing
  • Frame stripping, polishing, etching

Content is being updated – Thank for your patience.

The answer is 6