panel update

[Lloydpiestate]

hi triumph lovers,

just an update on the panels.

we are struggling to find pattern makers to do the tooling at the moment as jaguar landrover are hogging them all !!!!!!!!!!!

we will soldier on and get there in the end !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

lloyd

[Lloydpiestate]

all sorted,

onward and upward, woo hoo !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[andyborris]

Well done and thanks.

[Lloydpiestate]

hi trumbie lovers

i have had prices for hammer form tooling but decided to go with press form tooling as it will last forever, although costs alot more, alot more !!!!

with the hammer form, the jig only lasts for so many panels, ( sometimes only ten !!! ) then you need to make another one, plus then you also have the man hours to form the panel over the jig, normally about 2.5 hours @ £55 per hr for a wheel arch.
so that would add up to £140 labour, plus the jig cost ( 8-9 thousand pounds per jig) plus materials plus priming plus £10-15 per panel for me to try and claw back some money, meaning each arch would be in the region of £250-280 each !!!!

doing it the press form way, tooling will never need renewing or lose its edge like the hammer form, very few man hours are required, and i dont have to wait " in the queue " for the skilled hammer formers, but each arch sized piece of tooling will cost in the region of 25 thousand pounds, but with a few more orders, ball park cost for an arch should be around 150-180 pounds. as the tool lasts forever so i claw my money back over time, rather than have to before each hammer form jig wears out, if you understand what i mean.

i should really go public with this and advertise in the classics nationwide mags and papers, hopefully there will be a short passage or two in the classics monthlys mag next month, courtesy of ct member matt george, plus editors of both club mags a doing a small peice also on my behalf.

all the orders i have are via the forums only, and the forums only make up a small number of triumph owners, ive been a reg member for 23 years and only starting using the forums a year ago !! so im sure there are many more like me, plus loads of members that dont go online at all, plus owners that dont belong to the two clubs, so the market is there without a doubt.

i know it will take a few years to try and claw back my input of money, if at all, but im not in it for the money, its to keep our cars alive, hence the new thread " save our cars ", for that you must excuse me, i get a bit passionate about our great cars lol !!!!!!!!! but its a plan that could work if managed properly.

anyway guys and girls, just keeping you informed and should have the press form tooling price for the mk1 front arch by the end of next week and hopefully the mk2 front and mk1 rear arches in about three weeks, and dont forget guys. i have a list of diff panels as long as my arm that i will be doing also, any panel we need for our cars, i want to be producing within two years.

THE POSTING I MAKE, ARE ON HERE AND THE CLUB TRIUMPH FORUMS ONLY, BUT THEY APPLY TO ANY TRIUMPH CLUB OR TRIUMPH OWNER. THEY ARE THE ONLY CLUBS I AM A MEMBER OF, IF YOU ARE OR KNOW SOMEONE THAT ARE MEMBERS OF OTHER CLUBS, PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD FOR ME, MANY THANKS.

lloyd

[david_lall]

Hopefully my car won't need any panels but just for the record Lloyd, what a fantastic job you're doing - good luck!

[Alan Chatterton]

You are doing an excellent job here, but I am worried here.

£25k for tooling? The tooling already exists for mkii wings and arch sections, so why make another at this cost?

Surely we would be better off forming an order book with deposits to help the owner of the tooling secure the funds needed from the bank to finish building his press house?

Just don't see the point on reinventing the wheel here?

[Lloydpiestate]

are you kidding me alan !!!!!!!!

fund someone who has mk2 tooling for front wings, when that person knew how desperate we all were for panels and did nothing to help, he was even offered money to borrow said tooling, and still refused, he let us all down because he"s to busy making money selling his bits for other makes of cars.

all he had to do, was take our money to lend the tooling, money for nothing for him, but he chose not to !!!!!!!!

i have thought about ringing him to make him an offer for the tooling, but i couldnt bring myself to, as im so p****d at him for not making the tooling available to us !!!!!!!!!!!!

he can shove it.

my tooling will be far superior to his in panel quality anyway, as mine will be digitally scanned, and as so many people have said, his panels only fit where there touch, so who would want them anyway !!!

and as he let us all down so badly, even should he start manufacturing again, im sure most people wouldnt buy from him anyway.

i hope that clears that up !!!!!!!

[Lloydpiestate]

alan,

you have no idea how angry you have made me, posting what you did.

i am running aroung the country every weekend sorting this panel crisis, not to mention spending on average 50 hours a week online and making calls, and when it is sorted, the panels will be to the highest standard possible !!!!!

and all this i do, i do for the love of our cars, i ask no funding, yet you want to fund someone who had the chance to help us but didnt, are you off your rocker !!!! not to mention demeaning all my hard work and effort, and my missis, whom comes with me every weekend because she knows how important this is to me and the rest of us !!!!!!

[Alan Chatterton]

I am not demeaning your hard work at all, I have said before what a fantastic job you are doing.
I just wondered why you would consider stumping up £25k for a tool that already exists.
If you have spoken to him, then fine. I didn't know you had.
If you can make the sums work then that's great, I need a pair of half wings myself so ill be first in the queue with my chequebook. But if you can sell 25 pairs of wings that makes £1000 each just in tooling and I don't see that demand.
I know something needs to happen, I just wondered if there was a more cost effective way of doing this. That's all.

[Lloydpiestate]

there is no cost effective way, end of, im affraid to say.

just to make that set of rear mk1 arches i had done cost £600 !!!! they were made by simply overlaying them on the nos panel and took 12 man hours at £55 per hour.

the numbers of orders that i have alan, would shock you, it has me, so in the near years to come, i do hope to claw back my money, if i do, its a bonus, if i dont, then so be it, you cant take it with you as the saying goes, and at least i know i will of done my bit for the triumph world

lloyd